Gadget Access

Hello Kitty has always been a lot of things to a lot of people: casually cute, adorably addictive, freakishly frightening, you name it. Sure, she’s clawed her way past countless characters backed by Sanrio and somehow managed to get her mouthless mug stamped onto every product imaginable, but the demure feline is nothing if she’s not environmentally responsible. Yes, friends, Ms. Kitty has officially achieved superstar status. She’s finally met and teamed up with the hottest powerhouse known by everyone in the world: the sun.

The result of the dynamic duo’s new partnership is this Hello Kitty solar charger ($160). The built-in 1200mAh lithium battery receives a full charge through six hours of sunlight (ah, teamwork) or an hour of outlet time (so much for loyalty) and can charge a variety of small electronics via USB. Cool, I mean, hot!

Via Crave.

To erase data is human. And to want it restored is even more human. The SIM Recovery Pro apparently understands this “more human” need and helps you get back all those phone numbers or text messages that you deleted.

This SIM card reader can retrieve lost SMSes and phonebook entries in “minutes”. It can also be used to program your SIM to allow fixed calls, to backup/edit the phonebook, and to print out SIM card information. All this without any effort being needed on that common headache called installation procedure, or so the product specs claim. Pretty useful if you habitually delete cellphone data. Only, look forward to possible surprises with this device as the specifications are vague and mention no specific figures in terms of performance. And to part with $110 if you must.

Via The Red Ferret Journal.

PC Advisor reviews the T-Mobile MDA Touch Plus and writes, “The T-Mobile MDA Touch Plus is a solid and attractive smartphone that belies it PDA design roots, but in a positive fashion, bringing contact management and business productivity tools to a handset with excellent connectivity credentials, a large, clear screen and a far improved usability thanks to the keypad that works as an adjunct to the touchscreen.”

Read more about the T-Mobile MDA Touch Plus.

In what is a great first, Rock Port, Missouri became the first US town to be completely powered by wind energy. They now have 4 wind turbines generating 16 Gigawatts of power annually (they require about 13). Granted that Rock Port is a relatively small town with a population of under 1400, this move demonstrates that alternative energies are not just talk and dreams.

via Slashdot

Posted in Miscellaneous

I don’t know about you, but I just can’t tolerate hot and humid days. I wish I can say I can afford centralised air conditioning, but I really can’t, so something like the Nike PreCool Vest would really help me out.

Nike’s PreCool Vest was made specifically for participants in the Beijing Olympics. The vests are to be worn an hour before their events so they’ll last around 21% longer than they can. The packets you see on the vest which look like triangular bubbles are actually filled with frozen water which provides the desired temperature. A couple of materials makes the vest work its magic–one to keep the body cool, and the other to prevent the cold from escaping. When the two work together, you’d get the perfect cooling vest. I’d sure love to have one.

via

Yesterday, the mighty (or once mighty) Jerry Yang, CEO of Yahoo! wrote a blog post entitled, “Ok, so now what?”.  The post was what you would think a CEO might write about his actions under the Microsoft microscope and hopes for a bright future.  One of the fun thing about blogging is the response it invites.  The response Mr. Yang got is rather interesting:

No wonder Yahoo has crumbled as much and as fast as it has.

You’ve all been “Yanged.”

Yahoo is now a case study Internet misleadership.

Jerry Yang is out of touch with the real world

You should have sold. You still don’t have a solid plan for competing with Google

Millions of shareholders and their investment have been destroyed by your incompetent choices and greed.

This is an amazing blunder

While I would agree that Microsoft might have mishandled the things that make Yahoo! cool, I am not sure Yahoo! has more to get really, really excited about.  I recall last year when Yahoo! was announced in a partnership with the iphone; I thought, Yahoo!?  really.  Maybe they are on to something exciting.  End result?  I spend lots more time on Google products than Yahoo! real estate on my 4.5×2.4 inch Safari screen.

And Yahoo! stock, as of 20 minutes ago, is down 14.56%.  Ouch.

Many of the commenters suggest Yahoo!’s primary focus should be on competing in search and that means focusing on out googling Google.  What is your take, did Mr. Yang blow this or are their bright days ahead for Yahoo!?

Read [Yahoo! corporate blog]

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Another recent FCC discovery is showing off a new mobile handset coming from HTC, dubbed the Census. The FCC document, unfortunately did not reveal many details about the Census, and we can mostly just make assumptions about its features based on what we see from the accompanying picture. Based on the image, the Census appears to have a fingerprint reader and bears a logo for the wireless technology company Harris. Likewise, the handset seems to have a touch-sensitive display as no keyboard can be seen, and the keypad is also not a standard numeric style.

The FCC docs also revealed that the HTC Census will be using a Qualcomm MSM6500 chipset and and have a microSD card slot. Taking a closer look at the front view of the HTC Census, the fingerprint reader seems very similar to the HTC Shift UMPC’s fingerprint technology. Likewise, no camera is noticeable, so we could again assume that the Census would be released as a basic mobile phone, perhaps aimed at the business market.

Other than these fairly noticeable features, there’s nothing much that the FCC docs offered that would give us any other details of the Census. Hopefully, HTC will release more information about the Census as it gets FCC approval.

Via [Register Hardware]

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Poor little Winter got her tail caught in a crab trap which got her dolphin tail cut off, leaving Winter swimming around with a stump for a rear.

While many would think it’s nothing (after all, the dolphin CAN still swim and humans can stay alive without a lim or two), vets fear that Winter might damage her spinal cord with the way she’s able to develop her own swimming style which doesn’t involve a tail. So, they called in Kevin Carroll, a prosthetics designer which has done bionic limbs for other animals. It took him one a half year to come up with the perfect tail, but now Winter is swimming just like any other dolphin. You can see the 30-inch silicon prosthetic below. If you want to see Winter, by the bye, she’s currently at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida.

via

So, what do we have here? An “exclusive screenshot” of the rumored new Sidekick Aspen/Gekko mobile device courtesy of Hiptop3. But don’t get too excited folks, we have yet to hear an official word on the accuracy, which means we may be looking at a real screenshot or just a product of some imaginative minds with excellent photo editing skills. But it’s nice to speculate and to get excited over something as good looking as this screenshot of the Sidekick Gekko/Aspen.

Hiptop3 says that the device is a follow up to the Sidekick iD since the Sidekick Gekko/Aspen’s codename happens to be Style 2 while the Sidekick iD’s codename was Style. Feature wise, the Sidekick Gekko/Aspen will be similar to another Sidekick model, the LX. Whether that’s good news or bad news depends on how much you like the Sidekick LX. But one thing is for sure, you’ll love the price tag of the Gekko/Aspen which is expected to be lower than that of the expensive Sidekick LX. And one more thing, Hiptop3 also says that the device will have interchangeable side plates, so you won’t get stuck with the yellow one as seen in the screenshot.

Alright folks, time to drool over the screenshot, study it, examine its authenticity, and tell us if it is really a spanking new Sidekick Gekko/Aspen or a retouched Sidekick LX.

Via [Hiptop3]

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