Gadgets Blog News

Posted Mar 1st 2008 3:41PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: GPSReuters is reporting that the European Commission, apparently having completed is inquiry into the $4.2b acquisition offer TomTom made Tele Atlas last year, is apparently issuing a “statement of objections.” Apparently it’s not a flat-out rejection / do not pass go / do not collect $200, but now TomTom has until May 5th to work on resolving the issues the EU’s presented before it can get the thumbs up to make its big buy.Tags: DVD, dap, AAC, cameras (Read the full post about ‘EU now formally opposed to TomTom / Tele Atlas deal’…)

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Posted Mar 1st 2008 2:23PM by Chris ZieglerFiled under: cellphones, Handhelds We’ve caught wind from a number of employees — or ex-employees, as the case may be — that i-mate’s US division in Redmond, Washington has all but disintegrated after a Friday bloodbath that saw the entire engineering, QA, and tech writing departments laid off, among others. Several honchos who weren’t cut left anyway, perhaps unwilling to work in a ghost town or as a show of solidarity to their fallen brethren; notably, the Chief Software Officer and VP of Sales and Marketing are both gone, leaving a sales director to be promoted to the lofty title of GM of what seems to be all US operations. (Read the full post about ‘i-mate’s US outpost implodes, most laid off’…)

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While Netflix has already announced they will be stopping the rentals of HD DVD titles, they have also announced some good news, but also hinted at some possible bad news as well. With hd dvd now leaving, Netflix is confident enough to announce they will soon be offering four times as many titles on Blu-ray. This will bring the total of available Blu-ray titles from 400 to around 1,500. Then in the little hint of posible bad news, “It seems apparent that content will cost us more,” McCarthy said. “Whether we raise prices will be entirely a function of churn, subscriber acquisition costs and gross margins.” Hopefully any increase in price will be done in a fair way, possibly splitting into more plans with a distinction between standard DVD and Blu-ray DVD’s. (Read the full post about ‘Netflix to offer more Blu-ray titles, possible price increases’…)

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Posted Mar 1st 2008 1:04PM by Darren MurphFiled under: Transportation There’s a decent chance your average hybrid owner wouldn’t know the difference between a lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride battery if their life depended on it, but we know you — dear reader — are not one of those “average” joes / janes. That being the case, you may be interested to know that the 2009-bound S400 BlueHybrid is in prime position to be the world’s first production Li-ion hybrid, which will offer up “compact dimensions and far superior performance” compared to existing rivals. (Read the full post about ‘Mercedes S400 BlueHybrid aims to be first to use Li-ion battery’…)

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Posted Mar 1st 2008 11:26AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Laptops You’d have to turn your brain all the way back to September to spot the first time we got wind of Acer’s Ferrari 1100 laptop, but the folks over at PC Mag have finally received one in and took the time to spill the beans on how it fared. Right out of the box, it was criticized for being entirely too hefty for a 12.1-incher, but then again, it does have an integrated DVD burner. Still, the lack of a LED-backlit display along with the totally underwhelming performance when benchmarked was hard to overlook. ‘Course, it wasn’t exactly a slouch, but it certainly didn’t live up to expectations. Unfortunately for folks hoping for the best on this rig, it looks as if your $1,8 (Read the full post about ‘Acer’s Ferrari 1100 ultraportable gets reviewed’…)

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The TandemZ-1 Micro Chopper is not meant for novices as getting the hang of it comes with a rather steep learning curve to it. For starters the Tandem utilises 3 channels (for up, down, forward and backward movement) and a dual trim system (for pitch and yaw), so novice pilots need not apply. It also boasts a sophisticated gyroscopic mechanism plus unique tilting rotors for additional control. Piloting this baby makes patting your head and rubbing your tummy whilst playing the xylophone with your feet seem about as difficult as pulling down your pants. And that’s what makes it so addictive. The Tandem might come with a pair of powerful rotors, but they ought to be able to fly for approximately 10 minutes from a normal charge of up to 25 minutes. (Read the full post about ‘TandemZ-1 Micro Chopper’…)

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Posted Mar 1st 2008 5:41AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Networking So IBM is apparently working like crazy on some next-gen communications technology that — ready to have your mind blown? — “uses light instead of wires to send information.” We know, this is some crazy future crap up in here, but check it out. Apparently this so-called light-based communications system is supposed to be ten times more power efficient than others in its class, and can transfer data at speeds far greater than our current 4Mbps token-ring networks and even the next-gen 10BASE2 Ethernet (as if!); if optical data communications are actually real, well, it’s just in time because we’ve been seriously maxing out our Tandy 1000 playing MUDs. (Read the full post about ‘IBM’s “green optical link” promises one second movie downloads’…)

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In a move that can only be described as shocking, Microsoft has announced price cuts on Windows Vista. The price cuts affect the higher versions and will lower price for the full version of Vista Ultimate from $399 to $319, with the upgrade price dropping from $259 to $219. Vista Home Premium will drop from $159 down to $129. In addition to those lower prices, Microsoft will also remove the difference between the full and upgrade version on Home Basic and Home Premium, which will put the full version at the previous upgrade prices. The real question here is whether or not this will convince more people to upgrade to Vista. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft lowers Vista pricing’…)

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If you think motion sickness is the worst thing in the world, try being pregnant, or perhaps go through chemotherapy. The nauseating feeling one gets during pregnancy or after chemotherapy could be so severe that nothing can compare to it. One way to try and curb this sickness is through the use of ReliefBand. According to the company which manufactures ReliefBand, nausea comes from the nerves in your wrist. By dabbing a bit of conductivity gel on your wrist and putting this wristwatch-like device on, your nausea will be cured within minutes. The science behind that is that the device releases electrical impulses which curbs the symptoms of nausea. You can buy one for around 65 here. (Read the full post about ‘ReliefBand: Making Sure You Don’t Need a Barf Bag’…)

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Another day marks the release of another wireless media streamer. Today, I present to you the Mvix MX-780HD wireless streamer, which promises to transform any home into an HD media database. The box supports file types such as DivX, XviD, AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, AAC, OGG, AC3, MP3, WMA and JPEG, not to mention all the others. In terms of operation, the MX-780 takes your hard-drive, and connects via ethernet or Wi-Fi 802.11g/b/n. It wires up to your TV with its 1080p HDMI sockets or coaxial if you are not using an HD screen. The LCD screen on the front is a nice touch, and its use as a control panel should make like a little easier. Its price-tag of $299 means it’s perfect for people on a budget. (Read the full post about ‘Mvix’s new wireless HD streamer’…)

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