Gadgets Future

I visited NYC for the first time last November, and let’s face it - that city has everything. Well, almost everything. While New York state can lay claim to some stunning water scenery, the water in Manhattan has always been a little… flat. I mean, it just kind of lies there.

So why not bring waterfalls to New York? That’s what New York’s Public Art Fund thought, and that’s what they are about to do.

From July to October this year, you’ll be able to see man-made cascading water features in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and on the north shore of Governors Island. The specially-commissioned installations will be 90 to 120-feet tall, operate from 7 AM to 10 PM, seven days a week, and will be lit after sunset for an even more impressive effect. What’s more, the waterfalls have been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life and could apparently bring an extra $55 million into New York’s tourism economy (they certainly make me think about a return trip…)

Here’s what the waterfalls will look like when they are up and running:

Via Pretty In the City and NYC Waterfalls.

In our last episode, you may recall, I was hunting around for an ipod Touch substitute that would be cheaper - and perhaps even better, in some ways, at playing videos and Web surfing. And I thought I might have found it: the Archos 605 WiFi, which the CNET reviewer liked a lot.

But even at $200 less than the Touch, that’s still serious bucks to nag my loving family into spending on my birthday. So more research was indicated. Which gave me a reason to try out a new search engine, name of Retrevo.

Oh no, not another search engine! Oh ho, yes indeedy. But Retrevo is not just another search engine. It’s a search engine designed for one of Popgadget’s deepest avocations: Shopping. Shopping for electronic items, to be precise.

Precise is just the word for Retrevo, in fact. Plug the eProduct (or iProduct) of your dreams into Retrevo and up come reviews, blog posts, manufacturer info, and buying sites, all neatly organized and categorized for your researching pleasure. It will also search for solutions to problems you’re having with a technotoy, and it finds manuals for you, too. No more excuses for not being able to RTFM!

Competing with the milipede with the most number of shoes worn at one time, the walking bike is a novel, intriguing, and funny bicycle design.

Designed by Max Knight, this one of a kind bicycle replaces its tyres with eight trainers per. Of course, I very much doubt this’ll ever be produced in mass, but the walking bike actually (kind of) works! You can see the video below. The rides a bit bumpy, but with the bike running on shoes, I reckon most of us would be quite forgiving. Now if only we can see a walking car, I’ll be one of the most amused people on earth.

via

It looks like the modest pc mouse has finally decided to join the “rat” race. Well, what else could it be, especially when continued “innovation” in the pc peripheral market has produced a mouse with – hold your breath – 11 buttons!

With the 11-button optical mouse, most of your frequent operations can be accomplished with a single click. Volume up/down, page forward/backward, play/pause, 4-levels of speed adjustment, launching your browser, plus the normal right/left click functions have been integrated into this unique fella. The greatest achievement of the mouse is perhaps that it manages to retain a sleek look while sporting all this added fuctionality, with buttons placed quite cleverly. However, for simpleton users like me (who cannot use one extra button even on the keyboard), the buttons only make it bottom heavy. Taking the risk of sounding conservative, I must say that I can find better use for $15.

Via The Red Ferret Journal.

Overview

If you want to experience the legendary sword used by Japan’s Samurai, then go for SANYO Katana Cell Phone that has been designed keeping in mind to evoke the same passion for craftsmanship. Sporting an ultra-sleek design, SANYO Katana Cell Phone comes with a 2.2-inch QVGA TFT LCD Main Display and 1.0-inch TFT LCD External Display. You can choose SANYO Katana cell phone from any of its four exciting colors, Blue Sapphire, Mystic Black, Cherry Blossom Pink and Polar White.

Features

• digital camera.
• Supports Bluetooth, HSP, HFP, DUN and OPP.
• Superior Battery Performance.
• Caller ID capability.
• External side Volume Controls.
• Sprint PCS Vision capable downloading games and browsing the web.

With SANYO Katana Cell Phone you get up to 3.6 hours of talk time. Its phone book can store up to 700 phone numbers and 1000 Email and 500 Web Addresses. Apart from the advanced features like Dual band/ Tri mode, T9 Text Input and Call Screening, SANYO Katana Cell Phone also supports functions like calculator, alarm clock, vibrating alert and stopwatch.

Box content

The box comprises of SANYO Katana Cell Phone, Headset Adapter, Travel Charger and Standard SANYO Battery.

Price

SANYO Katana Cell Phone is available at a price of $ 129.99.

Source: Sanyo

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It seems Motorola believes it still had some house cleaning to do after announcing plans to split into two separate companies with one company being a mobile handset business. The news of the split up came after it was announced that Carl Icahn was suing Motorola to release documents. Icahn was also threatening a proxy fight to put some of his own representation on the company’s Board of Directors.

It seems that Motorola and Icahn have now come to an agreement which will put their fight at rest. Motorola will be nominating two new directors to their board under the agreement. The directors include William R. Hambrecht, founder, chairman and CEO of WR Hambrecht & Co. and co-founder of Hambrecht & Quist. The second director will be Keith Meister, a managing director of Icahn investment funds and principal chief officer of Icahn Enterprises. In addition to being nominated for election to the Board during the 2008 Annual Shareholder Meeting, Meister will also be appointed to serve on the Board immediately.

As a result of the agreement, pending litigation between Icahn and Motorola will be dismissed. Motorola also agreed to get input from Icahn in reference to the spin-off of the Mobile Devices business and the search for a new CEO to head it. The Icahn Group owns 6.4% of Motorola’s outstanding shares.

Read more from the Motorola press release.

Brian’s Opinion

Motorola was really in no position to deal with litigation from Icahn let alone a proxy fight over candidates to the company’s Board of Directors. Icahn is no stranger to driving change at companies. Therefore, he knows how to fight and I don’t think Motorola wanted to put up the money nor the resources to do that.

Ultimately, Icahn got what he wanted. He got directors he approved of to be nominated to the Board. He got the Mobile Devices Business spun-off. He also got input into the selection of a new CEO for the stand alone company.

Once all of this mess is behind it I believe Motorola will be well positioned to take back some of the market share it has lost to other competitors. I believe Icahn was just making sure that this opportunity isn’t squandered. The company really has an opportunity to rise from the ashes.

Overview

Looking for a machine that will give you the pleasure of a gym at home? Then you need to buy the all in-one NordicTrack E500 Strength System. Its dip station, knee raise station and pull-up station will help you in body building, while other workout stations help you indulge in a workout that your whole body seeks for fitness. NordicTrack E500 Strength System comes with many advanced and powerful features that will end up giving you the desired results like the one you get in a gym paying heavy fee.

Features

• Electronic Personal Training Tracker.
• Provides Total Body Workout.
• One-Touch Resistance Control.
• Provides full range of motion.
• Nine Workout Stations.

Feel free to workout on any of its 9 workout stations like pull-up station, dip station, squat station, lat tower station, preacher station, vertical knee raise station, mid pulley station, leg station and low pulley station. The wide range of motion provided by E500 lets you switch from one exercise to the next without breaking the stride and changing the position.

Box content

The box comprises of NordicTrack E500 Strength System and user’s manual.

Price

NordicTrack E500 Strength System is available at a price of $ 1,599.00.

Source: Nordtitrack

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Posted Apr 7th 2008 3:51AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: cellphones, HandheldsThough not quite as impressive as the idea of toppling Intel and AMD within the next ten years, Hynix Semiconductor still has a decent reason to brag today. The South Korean chip producer has announced that it has just started mailing out the “fastest data transferring advanced dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip for mobile devices.” Said chip is the one-gigabit LPDDR2 (low-power double-data-rate 2), which was crafted using 66-nanometer technology and features an 800-megabits per second operating speed at 1.2-volts. No word on exactly what devices will see the super-speedy chip packed within, but a company spokesperson did note that it plans on ramping up production during Q4 to meet “growing demand for flat-panel television sets and high-end handheld devices.”

[Via Physorg]

Looks like the Sidekick iD is no longer available through T-Mobile. If you want one, you may want to head over to eBay where they’re going for super cheap! Could this be because there may be a new Sidekick iD on the way?

Everex just launched its new mini desktop PC, the MyMiniPC which is exclusively created for the +100,000,000 MySpace users of the world

MyMiniPC computer runs an operating system called gOS, a version of Ubuntu Linux with glossy styling and interface elements similar to Apple’s OS X.

The limited edition gPC mini provides MySpace users with a customized platform to easily collaborate, modify and update webpages on the world’s most popular social networking site. 

With enhanced graphics, animations and a new icon dock, which aggregates the latest MySpace and Web 2.0 entertainment media sites, users can surf, email, blog, IM, Skype, rip and compute, all with the power of an Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor and the gOS Space 2.9 operating system.

The MyMiniPC Space dock is stacked with the most popular websites for MySpace, News, Photos, Videos, Music, TV and more!  Enjoy Pandora for music, Hulu for TV and movies and many others too.

Hardware Specifications
1.86GHz Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2130 (1MB L2 Cache, 1.86GHz, 533MHz), 120GB Hard Disk Drive, 512MB DDR2 667 SDRAM, DVD+/-RW, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator GMA950, Realtek ALC268 High-Definition Audio, (1) 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port, (1) DVI-I Port, (1) S-Video Port, (1) IEEE 1394 Port, (4) USB 2.0 Ports, (1) 2-in1 Media Card Reader, (1) Headphone/Line-Out Port, (2) Microphone/Line-In Port.

The MyMiniPC will cost you just under $500