Gadgets Future

Apple on Monday released its second incremental upgrade to the iPhone 2.0 operating system, bringing the version number to 2.0.2. As usual, all the company mentioned was that the update includes "Bug fixes."

Wired.com is currently running the 242MB update and will begin testing it as soon as it’s done. We’ll provide updates throughout the day on our findings.

Meanwhile, those of you Gadget Lab readers who have run the update are free to comment with your observations.

Apple release iPhone 2.0.2 just two weeks after iPhone 2.0.1, which for the most part addressed lag issues.

Gadget Lab’s observations:

• The update seems to have fixed lag issues in the Address Book.
• Text messaging is snappier than before.
• Backup has sped up: After adding one application, backup took 1 minute and 40 seconds running iPhone 2.0.2; it took 3 minutes on iphone 2.0.1. On iPhone 2.0, this took 6 minutes.
• NetShare still works (whew)

Users have reported:

• The update does not improve 3G reception (not that anyone expected it to…)

Pioneer’s flagship N5 from the N Series aims to bring the best in portable navigation to the masses, although the price point of $1,500 makes it rather hard to cough up for most people. I suppose you’ll purchase this only to show off to your friends and whoever else who steps in your ride, since it comes with a motorized mechanism that reveals the hidden 7″ display at 480 x 234 resolution. The N5 reads data off a DVD, which is rather mind boggling since optical drives tend to be pretty noisy when data is accessed. The maps courtesy of TeleAtlas are fit into a couple of DVDs, covering the entire US, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii. It is able to track up to 8 receivers simultaneously, and comes with Bluetooth connectivity. In addition, it can be hooked up to an ipod, XM and Sirius devices albeit with an additional adapter that’s sold separately.

Any musician will tell you that divine inspiration can come at any moment. The Gods of Rock are fickle like that. It’s a good idea, then, to carry around a handheld gadget that records at such a high quality that a user is able to distinguish between sorrowful guitar string plucks and brassy jazz tunes.

Tascam promises this level of fidelity in their new GT-R1 portable recorder, joining other high-end portables such as the M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96. 

The upcoming GT-R1 comes with direct guitar inputs, a 128 x 64 LCD with a backlight (not the visual improvement we’ve been expecting), looping features, and 55 pre-set rhythm patterns. In addition, it can record in 48/44.1 kHz 24-bit uncompressed sound, and comes with a guitar/bass trainer.

Like a few other high-end recorders (and Tascam’s previous models), the GT-R1 allows a rocker to plug in to the device, tune the strings, and change the pitch of her favorite song on playback (with a DSP), so she can learn the details of a track and play with it at the same time.

While the vocals are usually pretty great in these players and can be used for regular voice recording, the price will probably be too high for that type of solitary function set up.

See also:

• Review: M-Audio MicroTrack 24/96— It’s What’s Inside that Counts

There’s no doubt about it. Carpooling with co-workers and friends is an efficient way of saving on fuel prices, while at the same time reducing the emissions level of an additional car on the road. But how about carpooling without the use of a car at all?

The Dogsled is a four-seater pedal vehicle which allows for you and three of your friends to travel together without the need for gas, electricity, or any other power source other than your own two legs (or eight legs in this case). This human-powered quadcycle is totally reliant on pedal power, so you probably won’t be travelling cross-country on this vehicle unless you’re looking for a hardy workout.

Carpooling is good for both the environment and your wallet. Carpooling without a car is even better for both. Using the Dogsled adds an element of exercise which you could only usually accomplish while riding a bike or in a gym.

So let’s put the pedal to the metal and make this planet a greener place to live, not to mention toning our flabby calf muscles in the process. This is truly a great contraption for traveling short distances with your buddies.

Source via Coolbuzz

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

Ever wondered why you failed to land that last job despite out-qualifying every other applicant? Perhaps it could’ve boiled down to your bad posture - and that could have been avoided if you had the assistance of the iPosture posture improvement device in the first place. This unisex gizmo is worn as a pendany and can be clipped to clothing or adhered directly to the skin.

The iPosture immediately begins improving a user’s posture by vibrating intermittently when the user slouches and continuing to vibrate until posture is corrected. The iPosture is designed to be worn for approximately four hours per day for the first two to four weeks in order to improve posture by ingraining good behaviors in the user. Once a user learns to correct him- or herself, he or she will continue to do so even when not wearing the device. However, the user should continue to use the device two to three times per week thereafter to maintain posture improvement. The iPosture monitor was developed to be the smallest, most user-friendly posture improvement device on the market. Just 1 inch in diameter, the iPosture is designed with intuitive technology that senses when the body slouches, and it alerts the user with a brief vibration to correct it.

The iPosture posture improvement device will retail for $99.95. [Press Release]

Hmm, is ipod etching such a big business? Guess so, since the Street Fighter iPods are now available hot off the heels of the X-Files iPods. Capcom will be offering this etching service for iPods, letting you have mugshots of Ryu, Sagat and even the pretty Chun Li who has endless miles of legs. You also have the choice of throwing in additional details such as a name or personal message, and this service is meant for the well-heeled only as it will cost around $549 for a 32GB Chun Li iPod touch. Ah well, nobody said living an outstanding life would come cheap, eh?

Australian PC Authority does a first look review of the Palm Centro and writes, “Centro is the first Palm smartphone since the 680 to run Palm OS (OS v5.4.9 Garnet) rather than Windows Mobile, and it features the 680’s 312 MHz Intel processor. It offers consumer-friendly features such as threaded SMS, PocketTunes, a 1.3 megapixel camera, video capture and Google Maps integration with the address book…Palm’s new Centro is a stripped-down smartphone with a tiny QWERTY keyboard and a tiny price tag. It’s a pre-paid phone only available from Telstra, which makes sense because it’s not 3G so you’ll get the best data speeds from Telstra’s EDGE network. It features Bluetooth 1.2 and IR but no wifi, which the target market probably doesn’t want anyway.”

Read more about the Palm Centro.

If you do not yet have a memory card reader (unthinkable for this day and age), then why not get cute with the USB Koala Card Reader? This model supports only the SD family (SD, SDHC, MMC, miniSD, microSD - the latter two will require an SD adapter), so if you’re rocking to any other memory card formats, you’re out of luck. What looks like an ordinary koala toy that is placed on your computer monitor can be decapitated, revealing a USB connector at the neck area while you push in your SD memory card right into the top of its head. Connect it to a PC and you’re good to go. This cute little piece of tech can be yours for $12.

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

Earlier this week we reported on how ISPs in Italy had been told to start blocking access to the bittorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay (TPB). They did as they were told, but TPB fought back, creating a new domain and working hard to make blocking the service very difficult for the ISPs.

One thing the people/organizations involved in pushing for the block probably didn’t expect though, was that the popularity of TPB would actually increase once the block was imposed. That’s exactly what has happened with the site gaining 10 places on web traffic monitoring site Alexa and TPB reporting a 5% traffic increase from Italy.

As if to add to the torment of the people trying to block them; TPB co-founder Peter Sunder commented on his blog that, “the funny part is that TPB has never been particularily big in Italy.“.

Read more TorrentFreak.com

Matthew’s Opinion
You only have to look at the title of Sunder’s blog post to see what he thinks of the whole blocking attempt, it reads, “Fascists 0, internets 1“.

As I said in the original post about the block, if you want to take TPB down you need a bulletproof case against them. All I can see is the site gaining in popularity because of the continued action against them and they also seem to be getting stronger.

I’m sure the movie and music industry will start throwing more and more barriers up, but unlike what happened to other services such as TorrentSpy, I really can’t see TPB disappearing. Even if they do, they are going to put up one hell of a fight before it’s over.

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 18th 2008 at 5:53AM
As your never-ending quest to find peripherals specifically made to match beautifully with your PowerMac G5 / Mac Pro continues, we’ve one that’ll surely shoot right to the top of your must-have list. Nervian’s CardReader Pro slips just under the front handle of your tower, providing (almost) integrated card reader functionality without putting a damper on your rig’s style. Better still, the USB 2.0 unit supports 52 different flavors of flash memory, ensuring that just about every card you toss in there will mount in short order. There’s no word on how costly this will be when it ships in October, but those definitely interested can nab 15% off by signing up for details at the outfit’s website.

[Thanks, choco]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 6 Comments

Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals, Storage