Gadget Access

We’ve talked a lot on Popgadget about desirable laptop bags (I even bought one based on a colleague’s recommendation, and I couldn’t love it more - Lexie Barnes, if you’re interested).

But you don’t hear us talking much about camera bags, mainly because there don’t seem to be that many that deviate from the standard plain black canvas design (blah).

So this retro, bowling bag-style camera bag from Acme Made caught my eye at once. It’s designed for digital SLR users (although old-school non-digital SLRs will fit in just fine), and features a quilted satin lining and pockets for memory cards or other accessories. It’s made from high-quality polyurethane and the red version shown above will be available in November, with navy and black bags out by Christmas. They’re expected to cost just $40 each.

Via Boing Boing gadgets.

Image: Acme Made

Sarah Palin had at least 10 other secret email accounts aside from the one that was hacked into last month, according to an ITS technician who worked with a Palin aide to set them up.  The McCain campaign admits this but, of course, put their own interesting spin on it.

“As a champion of government accountability and transparency, Governor Palin was exercising an abundance of caution to ensure that all state and personal business matters were being kept separate,” said spokesperson Meghan Stapleton. “Governor Palin is committed to serving with the highest regard toward ethics”

Keeping state and personal business separate?  Then why did the hacked account contain family photos, personal correspondence and official state correspondence regarding pending legislation?  That’s the complete opposite of separation.

Interestingly enough, the accounts were set up at the height of “Troopergate,” the name given to the scandal involving allegations that Palin tried to pressure officials into firing a state trooper who just happened to be divorcing her sister.  One can assume they were meant to be used to hide potentially incriminating information from investigators.

The McCain camp ordered the accounts closed once the news of the hacked account broke.  However, Ryan Gattis, the ITS tech, says the accounts were archived which means they can still be accessed.

Read[ZDNet]

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If you’ve been feeling like your computer setup isn’t nearly intimidating enough, a hand grenade would probably be more than enough to make it seem more intense.  After all that online gaming, you need to feel all powerful behind your computer.  A wicked looking case and a glowing keyboard aren’t always enough.  Although, gaming mouses do have all those fancy extra buttons, they just aren’t nearly cool enough.  No, the world needs hand grenade mouses for all.

There aren’t a ton of details on the mouse itself, but it was a mod job which was posted online here by the modders.  The mouse is actually made out of an old grenade casing, so it gives a slightly more authentic feel.  However, being made out of the real stuff it’s not exactly made to be ergonomic at all.  It’s just meant to look cool.  The modders actually went through the trouble of wiring up the trigger to function as the left mouse button.  So overall it’s a cool mod, I just hope if you give it a try you don’t use your computer too much or your wrist will soon grow to hate you.

Source: Technabob

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A New York District judge has dismissed EMI’s copyright infringement lawsuit against MP3Tunes CEO Michael Robertson.  In November, 2007 14 record labels affiliated with the EMI filed the suit, claiming MP3Tunes’s internet locker service encourages copyright infringement.  The service, which has 150,000 customers, provides personal, password protected accounts known as lockers that allow all music stored in them to be shared between PCs, game consoles, DVRs and cell phones.

The judge has allowed the suit against the company itself to proceed.  It will eventually determine if it is permissible for music to be stored in cloud services the way documents and photos are.  Interestingly enough, EMI has not sued the similar services offered by Microsoft, AOL or BT.  Robertson believes that the reason behind that is that EMI decided it would be easier to make an example out of his small company.

“Suing CEOs personally is a nasty tactic media companies are engaging in to intimidate individuals, forcing them to either enter into a settlement or face the possibility of losing their homes, cars, and all their personal belongings,” said MP3tunes CEO, Michael Robertson. “I chose to fight instead of run, because I believe consumers should be able to listen to their music everywhere. We look forward to explaining to the court what we do, and how we do it in a responsible and legal manner.”

One thing is for sure, the results of this case will have a definite affect on the blossoming new Web 2.0 field of cloud services. The ongoing war against DRM will also be affected. Digital music lovers are making themselves heard and won’t be silenced anytime soon.

Read[PRNewsWire]

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Visionman Computers is a name more often associated with servers, but it does have a say in gaming systems and notebooks as well for a small number of users. This time round, Visionman Computers have released a line new water-cooled gaming systems known as the Widow gaming PC. I suppose Widow here has something to do with the Black Widow spider that is deadly and poisonous, although too much gaming could introduce some poison into your relationship with your spouse, leaving wives to be gaming widows (an upgrade from golf widows, perhaps?). Bad jokes aside, read on after the jump for more skinny on the Widow gaming PC.

The $999 Widow Gaming “Red Blizzard” gaming rig features a cool, quiet 2.5 GHz Intel Dual Core E5200 CPU, two gigabytes of memory from Silicon Mountain and a spacious 500GB Western Digital Hard Drive. Instead of the typical noisy, less efficient heatsink-fan combination common to gaming systems, cooling duties are handled by a silent liquid CPU cooler, a must-have requirement for overclocking enthusiasts. The sub-$1000 “Red Blizzard” model is housed in a newly-designed Widow gaming case, sporting a brushed aluminum Widow logo and red lighting accents on the front bezel, combined with red LED fans and a glowing red cold cathode tube on the inside for a dramatic, powerful look. The on-screen graphics are equally appealing thanks to the new nVidia GeForce 9600GT video card featuring the PhysX advanced physics engine for speedy, realistic rendering of complex in-game images.

Most people associate water-cooling as a high-priced feature that dwells within the bowels of boutique gaming shops, but with the Widow Red Blizzard gaming rig, that conception is set to change as it offers a decent gaming experience without breaking the bank. If you’re looking into a PC upgrade to brace yourself for the upcoming holiday game releases, it is worth considering what Visionman has on offer.

Press Release

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Finally, LG has officially announced its 8MP camera phone, the KC-910 which from now on will also go by the name LG Renoir.  Like we told you before, the LG Renoir is a slim and feature-rich multimedia phone with a touchscreen interface, Dolby Mobile sound technology, Wi-Fi connectivity and, of course, a full-function camera which according to LG can even surpass the capability of some regular digital camera models.

The LG Renoir has Schneider-Kreuznach optics, Xenon Flash, auto and manual focus ISO sensitivity up to 1600 and a feature which is quite popular lately - geotagging. But the most interesting camera feature of the LG Renoir has something to do with its touch-screen interface. 

Touch Shot

One of this features is what LG calls Touch Shot.  This feature allows users to focus on a particular subject by touching it on the screen.  When the user removes his finger from the screen, the camera phone automatically takes a picture.  This reduces camera shake and also eliminates the need for users to search the the shutter release button when taking shots. 

Want some more exciting features of the LG Renoir?  Well, it also has Wi-Fi connectivity features which practically allows users to share photos on the Internet anywhere there is a Wi-Fi Hotspot.  And of course, users can also geotag photos they’ve taken and are about to share to their friends.  It also helps them remember the exact location where the photos were taken.

The Spec Rundown

But of course, the LG Renoir also has some other features.  It is after all a mobile phone and not a digital camera, right? Here’s a quick rundown of the phone’s other features if you are interested to know:

HSDPA connectivity
• Bluetooth 2.0
• Wi-Fi
• 70MB internal memory
• microSD support (up to 8GB)
• 3-inch WQVGA TFT Touch Screen
• 8MP Camera
• Slow-Motion Video Recording at 120fps
• Fast-Motion Video Recording at 5fps
• DivX/ Xvid video playback
• FM Radio
• Music Player (MP3/AAC/AAC+/AAC++/WMA)
• A-GPS
• Virtual Motion Sensor Games

Availability

The LG Renoir will be initially available in Europe anytime this month, followed by Asia, Latin America and CIS by November and the Middle East and Africa in December. It will be available in the Chinese market come January 2009.

Read [LG Press Release]

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by Nilay Patel, posted Oct 2nd 2008 at 3:02AM
We’ve got airbags in the front, airbags to the side, even airbags on the hip — and now Toyota’s installing the first rear-collision airbags into its Japan-only iQ minicar. The bags are designed to protect rear seat passengers, and inflate from above the rear window to blanket your noggin and reduce impact force to the head by half. The new system will be installed in iQ’s by the end of the year, no word on whether it’ll come to the States anytime soon.

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Filed under: Transportation

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 2nd 2008 at 4:11AM
We deeply apologize to all the vegetarians in the crowd, but this was just too grotesque to overlook. We’re not exactly sure of the whos, whats, whys, and whens behind all this, but apparently some butcher-to-be found enough spare time (and enough fresh meat) to create a wallet, a set of keys, a 3G-capable cellphone and a 4TB flash drive from raw, tender meat. We don’t know what’s sadder — the fact that this isn’t the first of its kind, or that there ever was a first of its kind.

[Via textually]

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Filed under: cellphones, Misc. gadgets

We have known Panasonic as a brand for a very long time.  However, Panasonic was just that, a brand of Matsushita Electric.  Now, Matsushita Electric has changed its name to “Panasonic Corporation.”

The company has had “Matsushita” in its name since 1918.  In Japan, the brand was known as “National.” This really signals Panasonic’s understanding that consumer electronics is a global endeavor and there needs to be consistency in its brand around the world. 

The transition in Japan will be complete by March 2010.  To prove they are serious about this change, they even changed their stock symbol on the NYSE form MC to PC. 

Source [Panasonic]

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Maybe you are in a state that has banned the use of cell phones while driving unless you use a hands-free solution.  You can use a lot of devices for handsfree yapping, but there’s only one named the EGO CUP FM by Funkwerk Americas.

The EGO CUP FM is a Bluetooth speakerphone that fits into the cupholder of your car, costs $159, and is shipping now.  You can even pair it up to 8 Bluetooth devices.  Most importantly, this thing is called the EGO CUP by Funkwerk.  What’s in a name?  Just say it out loud.  Really, try it.

We have not tested this product out, but it might be worth getting just to say to people, “Yeah, that’s my Funkwerk EGO CUP.  Don’t you have a Funkwerk?” With a multitude of products trying to solve the same problem, an interesting name might get people’s attention (like mine). 

Personally, I quite like not having a hands-free solution.  It gives me an excuse not to call people back on the phone. 

Product: [EGO CUP]

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