Gadgets Blog News

This strange looking helicopter-insect hybrid known as the Insecta is yet another remote controlled toy to keep the kid within you entertained. With its big glowing eyes, bug-ish legs, LED strobe light, colorful camouflaged body and membranous X-rotors, the rechargeable Insecta looks as if it’s just flown out of a sci-fi movie or the twisted mind of a comic book creator. Indeed you might feel like wearing your pants outside your tights every time you take to the skies. Or not. Also available in blue or green! With the Insecta, you don’t have to worry about the weather outside as this little critter is very much capable of indoor flight, albeit it will be rather cramped (while risking the missus’ wrath). (Read the full post about ‘Insecta takes flight’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 2:04PM by Steven KimFiled under: Displays, Home Entertainment If you thought that only digital cameras were getting treated to biggie-size rollouts in the leadup to PMA next week, check out the announcement of 17(!) new AQUOS LCDs from Sharp. First up, there are 13 new models in the D series. You guessed it, folks: customers get to mix and match a rainbow of colors across the 20, 26 and 32-inch sizes. Other than the sheer number of choices available, nothing really catches our eye in these units: 1366×768-pixels and 1500:1 contrast; the 26V and 32V models get the addiiton of AQUOS Familink (CEC). If you need a little bigger display, move on down the cereal LCD aisle and check out the four new E series AQUOS models. (Read the full post about ‘Sharp announces 17 new AQUOS models, stockers groan’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 1:31PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: TransportationWe’ve seen quite a few jetpacks come and go, but Thunderbolt Aerosystem’s has managed to set its ThunderPack apart with marketing materials that promise to make you a “ThunderMan”… for 37 seconds and $100,000. Creator Carmelo “Nino” Amarena says his pack is an update of the hydrogen peroxide-powered packs of the 1950s, but that it’s been updated to use two fuels and special catalysts and promoters — which have led to bench test firing times of up to a whopping 75 seconds. We’re not sure how that’s going to be useful in military, disaster relief, or border patrol efforts like Amarena imagines, but we can sort of see how it might make a corporate event more interesting. (Read the full post about ‘The ThunderPack jetpack promises to make you a ThunderMan… for 37 seconds’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 2:08PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Laptops, Wireless Ouch, we just tested and confirmed that one of the smallest (and thus likeliest to fit) USB EV-DO modems around, the Sprint / Novatel U727, won’t even come close to fitting in the cramped, foldaway USB port on the MacBook Air. (Read the full post about ‘Adding insult to injury: USB 3G modems won’t fit in the MacBook Air’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 7:56AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: LaptopsWhoa Dell, what’s this? An exclusive, XPS M1330 in Germany sporting an Ubuntu 7.10 pre-load with full DVD and webcam support? Where’s the Stateside love, yo?[Thanks, Roland K.]Tags: computers, mobile phone, equipment, games (Read the full post about ‘Dell’s XPS M1330 with Ubuntu pre-load in Germany, only’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 10:35AM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Cellphones For the handful of you left still getting stoked on Palm news, here’s some interesting tidbits for you. The folks over at Treonauts have gotten some “possible” specifications of the Sprint-bound Treo 800w (or as we like to call it, the Gatesnote Palm) and are sharing them with the world. According to the sources, the new Windows Mobile 6-based Palm phone will be Centro-thin, trade the old proprietary HotSync connector for a mini-USB jack, has a dedicated hardware switch for turning WiFi on and off, will sport EV-DO Rev. A, Bluetooth 2.0, as well as 802.11g, and utilizes microSD cards in addition to its 256MB of memory. (Read the full post about ‘More Palm 800w specs leak out, no change in ugliness’…)

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Business executives who can’t seem to wean themselves off e-mail, even in a short flight will be pleased to know that American Airlines could be bringing WiFi service to some of their flights in the near future as the airline company will soon roll out WiFi service tests on selected Boeing 767-200s. American Airlines will use Aircell’s Internet broadband connectivity gear in these jets, with the ultimate aim of equipping all 15 of their 767-200s with broadband service before the year is over. While this development isn’t exactly new (in-flight broadband has been making its rounds for some time already, with Boeing’s Connexion launched at the turn of this century only to shut down a couple of years back due to low uptake. (Read the full post about ‘WiFi coming to American Airlines flights’…)

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YouTube is preparing to make some more changes, and possibly to the dislike of certain mobile providers have announced plans to offer a full service on many more cellphones in the near future. YouTube mobile will be available in 19 countries, 11 languages and have support for phones from Motorola, LG, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Currently Helio and Apple iPhone users are the only ones enjoying the full mobile YouTube experience. Verizon customers also have access however its limited to a striped down version and sadly they will not initially be supporting the service on “most of their phones.” Now even more, up to an estimated 100 million mobile phone users worldwide will be able to watch people do stupid things wherever they may be. (Read the full post about ‘YouTube coming to a mobile phone near you’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 7:31AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs He we go again. Like an evil pope preparing to capture the Holy Land, Jeff Jones, Microsoft’s self-proclaimed “Security Guy” (and Microsoft Director) just published the Vista One Year Vulnerability Report. As you can see from the graph above, JJ’s methodology concludes that Microsoft’s Vista easily bests the first year vulnerabilities found in XP, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, and Apple’s own OS X. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft: Vista has fewer first-year vulnerabilities than any modern OS’…)

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Posted Jan 24th 2008 4:51AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Displays, HDTV In an odd yet titillating contest to offer the world’s thinnest TV, Sharp just took gold. Their 34.4-mm (1.35-inch) thin LCDs comes in 46-, 42-, and 37-inch models. These lookers aren’t just skinny though, they’re dense as a product waif too. Each comes stuffed with a 120MHz panel offering a 15,000:1 dynamic contrast, 450 cd/m2 brightness, and 12-bit BDE color value rendering for smooth image quality. Add to it a 1-bit digital amplifier, 3-way 8-speaker system, and a vast suite of jacks including 3x 1080p HDMI 1.3a inputs, DVI for your PC, Ethernet, and Firewire and you’ll seriously consider setting aside the dough for a new set when these hit Japan in March. (Read the full post about ‘Sharp’s 46/42/37-inch AQUOS X series grabs world’s thinnest title’…)

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