Gadget Access

Posted Mar 18th 2008 9:46AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Although we’ve got a special place in our hearts for Cisco’s 1080p-lovin’ TelePresence Meeting system, HP’s own Halo Collaboration Center ain’t too shabby. Announced today as the newest member of its expanding Halo platform, the aforementioned center comes in two- and four-seat iterations and prides itself on being simple to install in a plethora of locations. Additionally, each unit is designed to “operate seamlessly with existing Halo products,” and just in case you were hoping to have work follow you all the way back to the hotel, HP also announced that it’s teaming up with Marriott International to install Halo Meeting Rooms in select facilities. Now, figure out how to actually get a Halo 3 deathmatch going on these things and their value increases astronomically.

Read - HP Introduces New Halo Telepresence Product, Marquee Customer Wins
Read - HP and Marriott International Form Alliance to Open “Public Access” Halo Telepresence Rooms

Nothing says “I love you” more than the USB engagement ring. Actually, nothing says “I’m too cheap to afford a real diamond ring, but I put a creative twist on this tradition” more than the USB engagement ring.

I always did find it odd that tradition that girls wear an engagement ring that may or may not have this really expensive rock that the groom has to take out a muy expensivo loan for. Why not invest a small amount of money in something a lot more practical?

With a USB engagement ring, you can download some cool stuff onto the drive. I suppose you can download a picture of the groom on one knee proposing, and then show it to anyone with a laptop. Personally, I think there is a lot of reasons to store valuable data on your ring. After all, I won’t easily lose my wedding ring, as I would a thumb drive.

Unfortunately, the USB engagement ring is not available now, and exists as concept only. I have heard that part of the concept is to convert the ring into a necklace after it is done. I’m even told there is one for the males that can be joined together, making the union official. Man, that is just geeky.

Source

Eight is the new five. In terms of megapixels, that is. As you are well aware, Samsung holds the record for the world’s thinnest cellphones, be it in the clamshell, slider, or candy bar form factor category. How do they do it? Why, by packing the world’s thinnest cellphone parts in their phones, of course. The latest announcement from Samsung brings yet another record-breaking (or is it record setting?) item, an 8.5mm CMOS digital camera module that they will use for their next-generation mobile phones. This will upgrade their current generation 5-megapixel phones to 8-megapixel ones, and as if that wasn’t enough, the camera module also features anti-shake, 1-cm macro mode, face-tracking technology and a smile shutter feature. Expect cellphones to be released with this camera module during the second half of 2008.

Read [Samsung Korea] Via [Engadget]

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Genius has just released their new 3D surround sound quality headphones, the GHP-05 Live. The GHP-05 Live features enhanced true bass levels that contribute to producing that 3D surround sound quality. The GHP-05 headphones also offer a wide acoustic range which should offer good quality with a variety of audio from classical to vocal music.

Genius has built the GHP-05 Live’s true 3D sound quality using precise echo phase control that creates clear and natural sound. This is the same technology that enables engineers to power amplifiers and speakers to make the sound moves around in a super low-bass, upper high-treble and pure vocals. Giving credit to the headphone’s soft velvet padded ear they should offer comfort for extended wear.

With a price tag of $59, the GHP-05 Live headphones come with an extension cable, a 3.5mm-RCA converter and a 6.3mm gold plated adapter that can be connected to any audio devices. The GHP-05 Live looks cool and sporty although some may get turned off by its bulky design, especially now that there are smaller and slimmer headphones available in the market today. But for loyal users of Genius products, the GHP-05 Live would be a good addition to other their other Genius speakers.

Product [Genius] Via [Business Wire]

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I’m surprised that no one on this site has covered this yet. After all, NASA’s repair robot Dextre has got to be one of the coolest gadgets ever made.

The Dextre robot is designed to repair the International Space Station with a lot less risks to the astronauts. Instead of an astronaut going out in space in a suit and oxygen, they just send out the robot. Kind of like R2D2 during his introduction in The Phantom Menace.

You can’t really tell how big it looks from the picture, but Dextre is actually about twelve feet long with eleven foot arms. Even with all of its…bigness, Dextre can still manipulate objects smaller than half a fraction of an inch.

Astronaut Richard M. Linnehan compares the Dextre with a Star Wars prop, but I have to admit that the Dextre is better than anything George Lucas imagined for Episodes I, II, or III. It’s nice to know that science has finally built something that is cooler than science fiction.

Normally, I end my articles with a price and availability date. Even though I can think of several uses for Dextre in my own house, I don’t think NASA will mass-produce them. I also don’t think I can shell out $219 million for one, which is the approximate cost for this one.

Source

I don’t live in a very large city, so I’m not worried about getting mugged on the street for my ipod or anything. That’s just not something you hear about where I come from. Big cities, however, tend to be a different story, which causes some people to carry stun guns for protection. If you’re looking for something small to carry around, you might be interested in The Runt.

While it is as small as the name implies, this little stun gun packs quite a punch. It’s roughly the size of a pager (do people still use those?) and has either 350k, 650k or 950k volts. What’s nice is that these little guys won’t break the bank. You’ll pay $40, $50 or $60 respectively.

Source: UberGizmo

Posted Mar 17th 2008 8:11PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds Considering the plethora of facilities that have opened just in the past few years to deal solely with individuals that have become undoubtedly addicted to video games, the internet and all things Hello Kitty (we jest, we jest), we’re not surprised one iota to hear that uncontrollably texting / e-mailing could soon become “classified as an official brain illness.” According to a writeup in the latest American Journal of Psychiatry, internet addiction is a common ailment “that should be added to psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders.” More specifically, Dr. Jerald Block, a psychiatrist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, even goes so far as to argue that said phenomenon (neglecting basic drives to spend more time online) be “included in the [next edition of] Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, psychiatry’s official dictionary of mental illnesses.” Until then, we wish you the best of luck convincing that creature living in your basement with a dedicated T1 line that he / she isn’t alright.

[Via textually]

You have to admit that this is kind of cute in a middle school “do you like me? check yes or no” sort of way. It’s a heart-shaped mp3 player broken in two so you can wear one around your neck and your sweetie can wear the other around his/her neck. And everyone at recess will be, like, so jealous that each half features touch controls and can hold 1GB of music that says everything you ever thought and felt about each other.

Posted Mar 17th 2008 5:56PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Handhelds
Sure, it might not be as filling as the Skoda cakemobile, or as family oriented as Martha Stewart’s Wii cake, but do those contain the thrilling tale of The Light Beam Rider? Yeah, we thought not.

Paul: “Unfortunately the screen refresh times of ‘30-35 minutes at 350 degrees’ is just plain unacceptable.”
Chris: “Moments later, a naked Jeff Bezos burst out, ready to greet everyone at the shareholders’ meeting.”
Richard: “Philippe Starck calls the Kindle ‘a little delicious.’ “
Sean: “No friends, that’s not the iCing phone, tis the Kindle Cake and it serves 12.”
Don: “You can never be too careful buying gadgets on eBay.”
Josh: “The Light-Beam Rider was surprisingly short.”
Ross: “The book is a lie.”

[Via The Raw Feed]

Posted Mar 18th 2008 1:50AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Laptops, Storage Bad news for those banking on SSD as the savior of all things laptop. While the drives have been proven to improve battery life and speed start times, other drawbacks have buyers thinking second thoughts about the major premium for laptops like the macbook air and Lenovo X300 with SSD — about $1000 in the case of those two. A new study shows that flash-based laptops are being returned at a rate of 10 to 20 percent for technical failure, compared to the 1 to 2 percent of regular laptop returns due to HDD issues. Perhaps it should be expected from an emerging tech like SSD, but consumers certainly aren’t expected to enjoy it. Other consumers are sending ‘em back just due to lackluster performance — particular applications like streaming video and, strangely, Microsoft Outlook, see a performance hit from SSD. Hopefully speedier drives will address this latter problem, but how about everybody cuts their prices in half and we just forget the whole thing, eh?