Gadget Access

by Darren Murph, posted May 25th 2008 at 10:41AM
Sure, you’ve seen a plethora of R500 shots already, but this ultrathin Portégé has somehow managed to keep its clothes on — until now. One curious owner just couldn’t resist the urge to operate, and after careful dissection, we’re left with a handful of snaps showing off the unit’s internals. Don’t be shy, check out the whole lot in the gallery below.

[Thanks, Jai]

Gallery: Toshiba’s Portege R500 gets cautiously torn apart

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Vudu, while maybe not attracting quite as much attention as originally hoped, are proving they are still alive in the small but welcomed movie set-top-box market. The Vudu box was originally launched back in the Fall of 2007, but sales may have been slow because of the limited availability, up till now it could only be found directly with Vudu or with Amazon.com.

However customers can now purchase the Vudu box in one of 24 Best Buy outlets in California, which should help overall sales and awareness of the product. While the management from Vudu would not comment on the strategy behind the limited availability of Best Buy locations, its safe to assume that they are most likely looking to see just how well they will sell.

According to Patrick Cosson, VP of marketing at Vudu;

“Brand awareness is growing very quickly, as our Web site traffic is growing very quickly,” said Cosson. “And it’s growing all across the country—in all kinds of markets.”

Hopefully they move well and eventually move on to stores in other states as well. Currently Vudu offers around 5,500 movies, about 1,000 TV episodes and only 150 HD movie titles. The Vudu currently retails for $295.

Via [Video Business]

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by Darren Murph, posted May 25th 2008 at 1:30PMYou never really know what all will emerge from a simple interview, and thanks to a recent sit-down with Canonical chief executive Mark Shuttleworth, we now know that a build of Ubuntu tailored for ultraportables (or subnotes, as it were) is just around the bend. According to Mr. Shuttleworth, the aforesaid software will be announced “in the first week of June,” and it’ll be called the Netbook Remix. He also noted that the outfit is currently “working with Intel, which produces chips custom-made for this sector.” Sadly, it seems we’ll have to wait a week or so before finding out more, but those interested in reading the interview in full can certainly give the read link a visit.

[Image courtesy of TurboGadgets, thanks KC Kim]

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Filed under: Laptops

We have recently seen the images and those gave a nice look at what appears to be a cross between a slightly more grown up Treo and a Centro. Those images did also give us a nice side shot that showed what appeared to be an on/off switch for the Wi-Fi and these recently leaked specs are indeed highlighting Wi-Fi as a feature, something that has been long lacking with the Treo lineup. Of course as with any leaked specs, these are highly unconfirmed and come courtesy of a “good friend.”

With that said, the details are set to include the previously mentioned Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g along with GSM, EDGE and UMTS HSDPA 3.6 support, a 2-megapixel camera, assisted-GPS, a microSD card slot which sadly is located under the 1500 mAh battery, a micro-USB connector for both power and sync, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR + A2DP, 256MB NAND-Flash with about 175MB available for the user, 32MB SDRAM, a 320 x 320 touchscreen display and running Windows Mobile Professional 6.1.

The new Treo, which is the 850 is also codenamed the Skywriter. With a solid set of specs, this should make anyone looking for a new Treo happy, but aside from the addition of Wi-Fi it just may not be enough to convince current Treo users they need to upgrade. Still waiting on any information regarding pricing and availability.

Via [TamsPPC] Via [gadgets On The Go] Image [BGR]

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It could be the first 21st century plague. Or a class action lawsuit waiting to happen. In any event, a Santa Fe, New Mexico man is leading the charge to get wireless hotspots banned from public buildings in his city, claiming he and others are ultra-sensitive to Wi-Fi radio frequencies.

No medical or scientific groups have come out yet to substantiate claims like these, which have been making the media rounds for the last couple of years; a British woman who is trying to raise awareness about what some are calling electro-sensitivity received some press last year. Her story (and even the photo of her in protective headgear, which looks like a beekeeper’s helmet) may remind you of a Todd Haynes film from 1995, “Safe,” starring Julianne Moore as a woman who was having unhealthy reactions to toxins in air, water and food - “environmental pollution.” Are we now on the cusp of spectrum sickness?

I’m ultra-sensitive to screenplay opportunities and I smell a Charlie Kaufman film in this. That is, if Judd Apatow passes.

For the record, the World Health Organization has weighed in, saying there are no direct links yet between the symptoms and Wi-Fi. ES sufferers say Wi-Fi makes them dizzy, gives them headaches and indigestion. Of course the same thing can happen to those who watch too much political coverage on television, but no one’s asking the FCC to ban cable news. Yet.

Read [KOB.com] Read [Daily Mail] Read [World Health Organization]

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Solar power looks like it is here to stay, and we have so far seen solar powered cars being the Holy Grail in the fight to be independent of black gold, or rather, oil. Hybrid cars aren’t exactly catching on as fast as environmentalists prefer, and solar powered cars have not made the impact they were supposed to mainly because the technology is not yet there for a powerful, conventionally shaped vehicle that runs entirely off the sun’s rays. Never mind modes of transportation on land - here we have a solar powered speedboat that will slice through water pretty much in the same way an ordinary speedboat does, save for the fact that this one relies on the sun to power its electric engine instead.

Dubbed the Czeers MK1 prototype solar speedboat, this is the first of its kind in the world, and is capable of hitting speeds of 30 knots in full stride. It will come in shades of carbon fiber, solar cell and lush orange leather that makes it look truly out of this world. I wonder whether there will be wind-assisted versions in the future, but who knows? The Czeers MK1 is but a prototype at point of publishing, and was developed by the Dutch-based Delft Technical University Solarboat Team. Its original platform was an entry in the 2006 Nuon Frisian Solar challenge, picking up first prize whilst attracting some serious investment power from Rabobank so that a full scale test boat could be constructed.

Constructed entirely from 100% carbon fiber inlaid with leather trim, the Czeers MK1 features photovoltaic cells on almost all horizontal surfaces and an LCD touch-screen control system that will definitely drive any geek wild. It measures 10 meters in length, cramming in 14 square meters of solar panels and an 80kw electric motor. Not a single drop of oil is used, making this penguin friendly. Since it relies on an electric motor, you can bet your bottom dollar that no fumes nor engine noise will be produced, making this one quiet puppy. The current build rate stands at 4 to 8 boats a year, so these ought to cost more than your firstborn.

Source: Gizmag

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 25th 2008 at 1:31AM
There are all sorts of creative uses for GPS, but here’s a fellow who says he sent a self-designed GPS “device” in a briefcase to DHL with express travel instructions. He plotted the shipment’s movement and ended up with the drawing you see above. We’re a bit confused. First, he says he developed a GPS device with extended tracklog and battery time. Okay, but… using what, exactly? Also, we’ve received some things from DHL, and we have a hard enough time just getting them to deliver stuff to the right address, let alone make circles in the Caribbean in the name of art. To be fair, his documentation looks complete, so serious kudos to him if this is all for real. Peep the travel instructions document that he says he gave to DHL along with shipping receipts and video after the break.

[Via Hackaday]

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Filed under: GPS

by Darren Murph, posted May 25th 2008 at 4:52AMThis just in: don’t believe anything you hear regarding an official 3G rollout date in China. After quite a bit of rigmarole, the Chinese government has finally announced that it will issue a trio of 3G licenses. Notably, the announcement comes with a bit of baggage — it’s also calling for a merger between China Unicom and Netcom, two of its four biggest telecommunications providers. Furthermore, it stated that it would call on China Telecom, the nation’s largest fixed-line carrier, to “purchase Unicom’s CDMA network.” Unfortunately (though not unexpectedly), there’s no time frame given for implementation, but some analysts are asserting that “a full launch of 3G services is [still] years away.” Baby steps are better than no steps, we reckon.

[Thanks, James]

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Filed under: cellphones

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 25th 2008 at 7:10AMWhat we have been calling the Asus Eee Box looks to finally have an official name. Based on unnamed sources, the Inquirer is reporting that the desktop PC will be called the Asus EBOX. As already speculated, they are saying it will be revealed on June 3 at Computex. Specs also look to be what we’ve been told already: 160GB HDD, 2GB RAM, and a Linux OS. Nothing much more to see here, but we’re hoping Asus will give this thing a competitive price for those looking to tinker with a slick open-source box.

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Filed under: Desktops

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 24th 2008 at 9:27PM
Heads up, spec hounds. PC Microworks’ Edge with Centrino 2 (aka Montevina) is a powerhouse that cannot be denied. This speedster sports a 15.4-inch WUXGA screen, packs a Montevina Quad Core Centrino 2 CPU, 2gb of DDR3 at 1333MHz, nVIDIA Gefore 9800M GTX, HSPDA, and up to 4TB of 7200RPM drives. Don’t go running to the credit card gods just yet, though, as the Core 2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300 (2.53GHz/1066MHz/12MB) version won’t be available until the end of July. What’s more, this baby all decked-out will run you a cool $8,265.

[Thanks, Matthew]

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Filed under: Laptops