Gadget Access

Posted Mar 14th 2008 12:56AM by Sean Cooper
Filed under: Handhelds
Remember the rumor we saw floating about a few weeks ago about a Nokia N810 refresh? Well, the lads at The Boy Genius Report are reporting — on a rumor mind you — that Nokia is set to launch its N810 refresh with WiMAX at CTIA in April this year. Interestingly, the name will remain the same, and not be labeled the Nokia N830 as we’d first thought. Yeah, it’s only a rumor at this point, but we’re thinking that giving this radio-less internet appliance a bit more reach is nothing but a good thing.

Posted Mar 13th 2008 5:34PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: cellphonesYou know, we’ll actually be a little sad when the endless legal battle between Nokia and Qualcomm actually comes to an end — but until then, we’re going to revel in all the dirt that comes out of having over a dozen simultaneous lawsuits going worldwide. Nokia now says that it owes Qualcomm nothing for its “early” CDMA patents, because it’s dropped a cool billion dollars into license payments for them over the past 15 years and those deals have expired, so it’s in the clear now. As you might expect, Qualcomm disagrees, and says that if Nokia wants to keep using its tech, it’s got to pay up — that’s on top of the estimated $500 million a year Nokia’s already paying Qualcomm for other patents. Guys, guys, why fight like this? What’s a couple billion a year between friends? Video summary of the entire dispute after the break.

[Via MocoNews]

Posted Mar 13th 2008 7:32PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: cellphones
It’s just what you’ve been waiting for — a Nokia N95 running Windows Mobile. It looks like the rumors were true after all! What’s that? This is not a real phone? It’s just an FM radio with a sticker on the screen? Oh bother. Yes folks, thanks to eagle-eyed tipster Eric, you’re looking at the next evolution in gadgetry — the Asaki N95 FM radio. We’re not sure what the going price for this is, but we’d imagine slightly less than $779, though the real N95 doesn’t come with those totally pimped-out headphones, does it?

Ever heard of the Flock web browser? I’m sure you have, assuming by looking at the statistic where there’s an increase of 135% of internet users downloaded Flock. For those who have no idea what flock is, it’s a web browser with the fundamental system of the Mozilla Firefox. But with additional applications to extend the browsers social uses where you may come across as information-gathering, sharing, communication, self-expression and interaction. Flock has released its latest version 1.1 which includes some new features.

The applications new features include Friend Activity, where Flock gives feedbacks to users if their friends have changed anything on their profiles or their online status. The other amazing features are Picasa Integration which allows users to easily upload photos to be shared and webmail integration for Gmail and Yahoo, which offer a mail icon light to alert users of new messages.

Product [Flock] Read [Business Wire]

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Posted Mar 13th 2008 8:31PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Storage Apparently catering to the few folks out there that feel they have too few USB flash drives, Ultra Products recently let loose this so-called SpaceStation 6, which comes with no less than six tiny thumb drives that can be neatly concealed and used as the mood strikes. Of course, there’s no hub action going on here — which would be convenient — and the slots likely won’t play nice with your current stash of flash drives. If you’re still interested, however, you can grab either a 12GB version (consisting of six 2GB drives) or a 6GB version (with six 1GB drives) right now for $90 or $60, respectively.

[Via Coolest gadgets]

Sometimes, I feel like introducing order to my dirty desktop. Unfortunately, I’ve never found the right way to do so. But the gods are good, and I have newfound hope with the Ultra Space Station 6 USB flash drive. Now I can’t wait to think of all the six endless possibilities! Using alien technology from a planet in a parallel universe, Ultra has managed to pack six (count ‘em, six) USB ports on a 0.03-pound sliver of plastic that seems as small as your average credit card. Each USB port supports flash memory storage devices up to 2GB in size, so after doing the math you’ll find that you can have a total of 12GB flash storage in the palm of your hand (or inside your wallet, if that’s your thing).

What’s really cool about this new USB flash drive is that you can add labels to each individual USB port to denote what kind of data goes there. Perhaps the only letdown is that it can only support up to 2GB per port, which would limit, for example, the amount of music that you can squeeze in it. Still, this will be a very helpful product for wannabe neat freaks like me who can’t seem to find the time to organize their stuff.

Aside from the 12GB model, a 6GB variant of the Ultra Space Station 6 USB Flash Drive is also available via Ultra’s web site. Pricing starts at $59.99.

Product [Ultra Space Station 6] Via [OhGizmo!]

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In what seems like yet another low-cost ultra-mobile PC, Norhtec has introduced the Gecko. Similar to the Cloudbook and Eee PC, the Gecko also has a 7-inch display. In addition the Gecko is also expected to feature a 1.0 GHz VIA C7-M processor, 40GB hard drive and support up to 1GB of RAM, although there was no mention of how much RAM will come standard.

The Gecko is not yet in production, but is being worked on by Quanta. It is also expected to run, you guess it, a modified version of Linux. The Gecko will use Linpus Lite which is said to be similar to the easy (standard) mode of the Eee PC.

Similar to the XO laptop from OLPC, this will be headed for the developing markets of the world and likely not be hitting the US or Europe anytime soon.

Via [Ultra Mobile Life]

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If it’s true that a forced smile on your face will eventually penetrate into your soul, then this new cosmetic device may work miracles for that person in your life who is always unhappy. And how about those people who are happy on the inside but have faces that don’t know how to smile properly and could benefit from a little smile training?

While this looks like a little dental torture device, the “Yumi,” is a mechanical gadget that you insert into your mouth to “train” your facial muscles to smile (a nice, upward smile, not a downturned smile which may confuse people). According to Tokyo Mango (and I’ll have to take their word for it, as I can’t read the product maker’s website), it comes in three colors and three strengths, normal for men, soft for women (why?), and rehabilitative for “seniors and children” (which would mean even softer?).

So what if the smile trainer makes you look like a monkey 4 times a day for 3 minutes? It’s non-invasive and cheap - just $50 at this website. Those of us in the U.S. may have to wait until it comes to Amazon.

Via Tokyo Mango.

Posted Mar 13th 2008 10:10AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
It’s all a silly misunderstanding, we tell you. Microsoft has been holding fast to its “three years” development time frame for Windows 7 since forever, the problem is that it’s never been clear when that three year period started. Well wonder no longer, Microsoft has finally officially confirmed that the three years started at Windows Vista’s general availability release, which was January 30th, 2007. Obviously that doesn’t mean will have Windows 7 on midnight of January 30th, 2010, but it does mean we can look forward to sometime within that year for a release. Microsoft plans to give an exact release date only once Windows 7 “meets its quality bar for release.” Sounds like a good metric to go by, if you ask us.

[Thanks, Isaac]

Posted Mar 13th 2008 9:50AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: cellphones, Peripherals
You know what’s wrong with phone conversations? All that dang talking you have to do. Luckily for us, some scientists at Ambient Corporation are bent on fixing that with their “Audeo” wireless neckband which taps into nerve signals being sent to the vocal chords and vocalizes those “thoughts” for you — without all that pesky implant nonsense. Users have to specifically think about voicing words for them to be picked up by the band, but it saves them from saying potentially sensitive things while on a cellphone in public. The device is also being aimed at those who have lost the ability to speak due to diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Currently the device can only recognize roughly 150 words and phrases, and has a decent delay between “speaking” with your mind and the computer vocalizing the words for you, but the upcoming version will be phenome-based and therefore allow you to speak anything — though it will come at the cost of even slower recognition. Video is after the break.