Gadget Access

by Paul Miller, posted May 27th 2008 at 11:23AM
Whatever you do, don’t push the red button. MSI has pimped out its new GeForce 9600 GT Diamond graphics card with dual DVI, dual HDMI, optical audio and a shiny red button. The button bumps the clock speed of the graphics core and the memory, as well as increasing voltage to world-destroying levels. Unfortunately you’ll have to reach around the back of your dusty machine to click it, but we’re sure 30 minutes and a soldering iron can re-route the button to this little doomsday-inspired puppy.

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Gamertell’s Pulkit Chandna is reporting that Alienware has again pushed the envelope, producing one of the most powerful notebooks known to us Homo sapiens. The Area 51 m17x notebook is Alienware’s newest addition to its lineup and it surely will make its owner the subject of very pleasant geeky envy.

At its heart is an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor with a 4 MB L2 cache. Combine this with the 800 MHz front side bus and 4GB ofDDR2 RAM and one can already sense a winner.

Read [Gamertell]

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Borders’ seven-year online marriage to Amazon is back in the trial separation phase. For the first time since 2001, you can actually order books, DVD’s and music from the company itself on your computer, even as Borders admits it is pursuing a possible sale of the company. Its CEO tells the Associated Press that a sale won’t matter; a web presence will be necessary for the bookseller’s business model no matter who owns Borders.

Most analysts say Borders still has a fight on its hands with Amazon for the hearts and minds of booklovers everywhere. Jeff Bezos’ company remains the 800-pound gorilla in cyberspace and with new ventures like the Kindle e-reader and Amazon Web Services for developers, it’s aiming at new levels of influence within the overall technology industry.

Borders’ new, easy-to-navigate website with a “magic shelf” for staff-chosen recommendations is a good first step, but if the company hopes to make an online strategy succeed - while hanging on to most bricks-and-mortar locations - it will have to get its software engineers working on innovative mobile applications. Borders’ existing incentive programs, like rewards and coupons, need to find a destination on cell phones and other handheld devices and the company should find a way to allow immediate redemption as consumers check their email via phone as they walk by a store. The company wouldn’t even have to use Bluetooth for redemption; clerks could just record the redemption code off the consumers’ cell phone screen. We know that new wireless and software technologies will soon allow retailers to beam coupons directly to cell phones when they get within range of a store. All this will obviously require more money and R&D investment, perhaps provided by deep-pocketed new owners, whoever they may be.

Read [Associated Press] Visit [Borders.com]

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Laptops aren’t generally known for having the largest hard drives out there. If you pick up a cheap one, you might not have more than 80GB of space, which some people can easily fill up. If you’re looking for an easy way to add more space without cracking the case or carrying around an external drive, you might look into one of these new ExpressCard drives from A-Data.

Many newer laptops feature ExpressCard slots, which aren’t always used, so why not fill yours with 16GB or 32GB of storage? What’s really cool is that if you want to access the files from another computer, you can simply plug in a USB cord and treat it just like an external drive. You can pick one of these up for $65.99 or $129.99 depending on the size you choose.

Source: EverythingUSB

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OK, so we realize that Steampunk gadgetry might be so last month, but we couldn’t resist sharing this excellent USB flash drive. The second our gaze met the vision of this Russian-made peripheral, we knew that many other cheap USB thingamabobs just wouldn’t measure up any longer.

We haven’t quite gotten past our Steampunk phase. So sue us (please don’t.) There’s something about the metallic hand-polished brass and copper that makes us feel like we’re living in a cyber punk sci-fi novel, and what geek hasn’t wished for that once or thrice.

To check out some close-ups of the gorgeous flash drive, hop over to the Modding.ru forum (which we have lovingly linked below, fully translated in English), as well as a chance to witness the creation of a wooden case for the device which truly adds a Steam piece of flair.

Of course, the Steampunk USB drive, much like all Steampunk products, would look even cooler when partnered up with other Steampunk gadgets, such as the Steampunk Webcam and Steampunk Laptop.

Forum Page via Pocket-Lint

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Instead of whipping out your notebook and booting it up just to find an available WiFi signal, why not take the easier route of using your iphone or other WiFi-capable portable device? Well there is an even easier way now with the WiFi Signal Finder Pen. All you need to do is press the switch and let the LED light flash, where it will then pick up any WiFi signal in the vicinity. There is a working range of up to 50m outdoors and 30m indoors. Too bad it doesn’t pick up draft-N networks, nor is it capable of letting you know whether there is WEP encryption or not. The WiFi Signal Finder Pen will retail for $19.90 a pop. Well, at least you can use it to put down your John Hancock. Check out other WiFi signal finders we have covered in the past here.

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Nokia, acting a little ahead of the planned schedule for “early June” and released the latest update for the North American N95, bring the firmware to version 20.02.011. Along with the new firmware comes a few welcome changes that include a faster boot time that was cut from 30 seconds down to 19 seconds and a camera start-up time of just 2 seconds. The N95 also sees the addition of Flash Lite 3 support, demand paging, Web Run Time and Idle Screen Nokia search. Nokia also added a few N-Gage demos in for good measure. The update, which is currently available for all Nokia N95 NAM users can be found on the Nokia Software Updater.

Via [IntoMobile]

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Get to enjoy a mind-blowing blend of style and performance in the form of Onkyo CBX-300 Mini System. Incorporating advanced features like Onkyo’s own OMF (Onkyo Micro Fiber) diaphragms and Aero Acoustic Drive, Onkyo CBX-300 Mini System is a system worth buying for a rich music experience. It allows the users to have direct iPod integration. Onkyo CBX-300 Mini System provides you a superb music performance with MP3, WMA, iPod and Radio.

Features

• 4-Mode Preset EQ Function.
• Enables Playback for iPod Audio Through Built-in Dock.
• Active Bass Control Circuit to Improve Audio Performance.
• Slot-in CD Loading Mechanism.
• Disc Navigator for Selecting MP3/WMA-Encoaded CDs.

Onkyo CBX-300 Mini System incorporates features like Random Play Mode and Repeat Mode for CD. Moreover, it allows you to enjoy 25-Track Memory Playback. It comes with magnetically shielded speaker that are separated by speaker enclosures. Onkyo CBX-300 Mini System is highly compatible with iPod models like 5^th generation iPod with Video, 4^th generation iPod with Click Wheel, 3^rd, 2^nd and 1^st generation iPods, iPod mini, iPod Photo and ipod nano.

Price

Onkyo CBX-300 Mini System is available at a price of $ 219.95.

Source: Onkyo

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by Darren Murph, posted May 27th 2008 at 5:24AMJust in case you felt there wasn’t quite enough screen real estate on the ultra-sleek V8, RAmos is giving the display even more attention on the Blue Magic T8. The player features a 4.3-inch display, 10-millimeter thick enclosure, built-in FM radio tuner and the potential to play nice with a not-yet-developed dock that would enable video output. Beyond that, details are freakishly scarce, so it looks like you’ll have to put away your excitement for the time being.

[Via PMPToday]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Thomas Ricker, posted May 27th 2008 at 3:25AM var Ok ok, we hear you tipsters, iphone now official for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia “later this year” thanks to a deal between Apple and TeliaSonera. At this point, only The Netherlands seems to be out of the loop in Europe.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones