Gadget Access

No, these striking images weren’t made using Photoshop trickery. They were actually taken using a unique process which involves placing photographic paper onto an object, placing them both on a high-voltage plate, then cranking up the juice.

Referred to as Kirlian photography, the technique dates back to a 1939 discovery (by a man named Kirlian, of course) that when an object is placed on an electrified plate, tiny coronas around the item can cause photo paper to expose in unusual and beautiful ways. Over the years, the effect has been co-opted by various new-age charlatans and snake oil salesmen with claims that the images were indications of some sort of paranormal “aura”. What a bunch of hokum.

Up until now, there wasn’t a good way to produce your own Kirlian images without building your own homebrew high-voltage rig, risking life and limb in the process. The $250 Kirlian Photography Device lets you to make your own electrified images without having to hack together your own. The metal imaging plate can be used with any 4X5 color or black & white sheet film and paper or even Polaroid film. Different film types and frequency adjustments create a virtually limitless array of image effects. You’ll need a 4×5 camera to use this out-of-the-box, or you can spend an additional $99 on a transparent plate which lets you capture the images with a standard 35mm or digital camera.

Now keep in mind that this thing isn’t a kid’s toy. It’s a serious electrical device, and you actually have to sign off on a disclaimer form before you can buy one. For some reason, I doubt these things are UL-approved.

read more about:

arc, electricity, image, kirlian, photo, voltage

Posted Jan 25th 2008 11:58PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Cellphones
What would you do if the US patent office gave you the go-ahead on a far-reaching, non-specific application filed for a “mobile entertainment and communication device”? If your answer was that you would immediately draw up lawsuits against almost every major electronics manufacturer that even looked at a smartphone funny, you get a cookie. Yes folks, as impossible as it is to believe, the holders of the aforementioned patent have just sued Apple, Nokia, RIM, Sprint, AT&T, HP, Motorola, Helio, HTC, Sony Ericsson, UTStarcomm, and Samsung… amongst others. So eager was this company to sue, in fact, that legal papers were filed a day before the patent was granted, and subsequently had to re-submitted. The real sucker-punch here is that the patent simply combines a list of prior technologies jumbled into one product, a practice which has recently been ruled against by the Supreme Court. Still, we doubt it will stop the holders from trying to nab a few dollars in settlements, staying the work of real innovators, and generally making a mockery of our patent system. Bravo!

[Via Slashdot]

Posted Jan 25th 2008 10:23PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
We thought the SmartQ T5 was a solid little player with decent codec support when we first spotted it back in August, but SmartQ’s gone and updated it to the T5-II Deluxe Edition, featuring a new video chip that supports TV-out, AV-in, and the RMVB codec, which supports 1024×576 video. Unfortunately, the screen resolution remains at QVGA, but the actual panel’s also been bumped up to display 16.7 million colors. Too bad we probably won’t ever see this bad boy in the States — why is it we only get the crap?

[Via thegadgetsite]

Posted Jan 26th 2008 2:02AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Cellphones
If our solemn word wasn’t enough to convince you of trouble in retail-ville for Palm, take this news as empirical. According to the smartphone-maker, it is officially shuttering all of its retail locations but one over the next five weeks. Originally, we thought that the airport locations would steer clear of the axe, but news today is that 34 stores total — 26 airport-based and eight branded stores — will be saying adios before long. Sure, this news doesn’t sound real hot, but Palm claims they want to cut costs and focus on its next-gen phones, which is what we’ve been asking them to do all along… so maybe this is a blessing in disguise?

If you’re gonna have a robot, why not have one that can play sports? This low-cost robot is designed specifically for playing robotic football tournaments.

The RFL (Robotic Football League) Robot was created for playing football in tournaments with other robot enhusiasts. These robots feature a set of four independent high-torque motors which let them really play aggressively, and include special gripping arms which are designed to throw the ball with plenty of momentum.

click to view this video clip

They can block, tackle, throw and receive a little Velcro football, and even can talk trash to each other when they detect a nearby aggressor. Each one runs on an included wireless RF controller, and sports a powerful 9.6V rechargeable battery pack.

The RFL Robot is available now from Spark Fun Electronics for $139.95.

read more about:

football, game, joystick, robot, sport, wireless

Posted Jan 25th 2008 9:08PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Transportation It’s shots like these of the Tesla Roadster getting pwned passing those federal safety tests that make vast government bureaucracy worth it, don’t you think? A full gallery over at AutoBlog.

Apparently the CEA are estimating that the Super Bowl will push purchases of roughly 2.4 million HDTV sets, and other surveys expect as much as 3.9 million. CEA’s “Sports & Technology” survey was conducted in conjunction with the Sports Video Group.

Everyone wants to watch the Super Bowl in the very best way that they can, and that means on a HDTV! Many people are expected to rush out and buy a HDTV for this viewing experience.

Before you go and spend your money on a new HDTV, we would like to offer you some information which might help you decide.

There are two main HD formats, 720p (1080i) and 1080p, where higher is better, but it can be typically understood that 1080p only makes and positive difference in sets over 32-inches. Also worth noting, Super Bowl XLII is only going to be broadcast in 720p. So the extra pixels from the a 1080p set won’t help all that much.

For watching sport, look for a HDTV with a fast response time, the fast the better, which will mean less motion blur, anything under 8ms-10ms should be okay. Many new HDTVs have image processing enhancements, such as Sony’s Bravia Engine, or Samsungs’s Pixel Plus (and many others) these help to enhance the image quality, colors and contrast for the best viewing.

Finally, some new HDTVs, now feature a 120Hz high frame rate technology, which adds in extra frames, between the normal frames to reduce motion blur even further, and eliminate any judder effect on image pans and fast moving action.

Over all:

• For HDTVs over 32-37 inch, a “Full HD” 1080p set can help image quality.
• Look for a fast response time.
• Image enhancing engines.
• 120Hz, can help quality.

The above are not necessary, as any HDTV will be way better than a standard TV, but if you want the best, these can help.
Press post

HP iPAQ hx2700 Pocket PC series comes loaded with various upgraded features which ensure ultimate configurations of performance, connectivity, expandability and security. It comes in the market with operating system of Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 5.0 for Pocket PC (Premium Edition), which obviously is another crowd-ulling attribute of this pocket PC.

Technical Specification

HP iPAQ hx2700 Pocket PC series is obtainable in the market with the technical specification of:

• Marvell PXA270 processor
• Integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b)
• Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology

This product is further capturing the market with its attractive dimension of 3.01 x 0.65 x 4.71 in (76.6 x 16.3 x 119.4 mm) and weight of 5.8 oz (164.4 g). This touch screen miracle is available in the market with 1 year of warranty and market price of $499.

Via: HP

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Samsung YP-K3QB MP3 Player is undoubtedly the solution for any music demand. It comes equipped with several upgraded features like touchscreen, FM Radio, Full Color OLED Display etc. Its Li Poly Battery gives a back up of 25 hours Battery Playback Time for audio.

Technical features

It is obtainable in the market with the technical specifications like:

• Windows 2000/XP/Vista
• UMS USB Connection
• USB 2.0/USB 1.1 connectivity
• 20mW Output power (@16 Ohm Earphones)
• 2GB (+33 hours) Music Storage Capacity (@128kbps MP3)

Color

It is up in the market with colors of:

• Black
• Red
• Green

Moreover, Samsung YP-K3QB MP3 Player is rocking the market for its features like File Navigation, PC Playlist (SPL) and SMS PC Application etc. With the package weight of 220.00g and package dimension of 132.0 x 132.0 x 33.6mm, it is catching the eyes of the viewers due to its 160 x 128 pixels display resolution and 1.8 display screen.

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