Gadgets Blog News

Posted Mar 9th 2008 7:28PM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Laptops In a recent interview, Asus CEO Jerry Shen talked up the company’s newest edition to the Eee family, and also dropped a few more details on the forthcoming laptop. Apparently, the new set of miniature PCs will carry SSDs as opposed to the flash memory we saw in previous iterations, with sizes ranging from 8GB in the XP-equipped model, up to 12GB or 20GB in the Linux versions — though it’s hard to say why the smaller-footprint Linux would need more drive space. Shen also revealed that there are tentative plans to release WiMAX and HSDPA-enabled models sometime in Q3 of 2008, and he confirmed that come May the company will trade up from VIA CPUs to Intel’s Diamondville (er, Atom) chips. (Read the full post about ‘Asus spills more details on the 9-inch Eee’…)

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Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:59PM by Chris ZieglerFiled under: cellphonesWhat the heck is going on here? Despite the overwhelming popularity of gizmo-heavy mobile devices in Japan, working with megacarrier NTT DoCoMo must be a losing proposition for many of its manufacturing partners, because just days after Mitsubishi’s announcement of its withdrawal, a fresh Nikkei report indicates that Sony Ericsson is raising the white flag as well to divert attention and resources to less saturated and more profitable markets. Apparently, DoCoMo will bear the brunt of the downsizing, while Sony Ericsson’s partnership with KDDI — a CDMA carrier — will continue. (Read the full post about ‘Sony Ericsson withdrawing from NTT DoCoMo, sort of’…)

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The social networking sites numbers for the US are in and the year to year comparisons are pretty telling.  MySpace is down 1% while FaceBook is up 77%.  The biggest movement is by some new comers, namely Fubar.com who grew by, get this, 3272217%.  Fubar is billed as “the first online bar and happy hour,” with free well drinks all night long.  OK, I made up that last bit. All but two on this top 20 list had positive year over year gains confirming the general feeling that social networking is far from done.  Newcomers like myyearbook and linkdin saw triple digit growth proving these smaller, segmented markets have lots of growth potential. (Read the full post about ‘MySpace loses ground, Fubar.com gets hot?’…)

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Maybe you were just surfing around for your next career or were up to something more sinful, when your boss decides to show up behind your back, literally. Instead of painstakingly trying to revive a decent screen on your PC, and in the process look like a silly baboon, you can now make a swift and smart move using the USB Smart Privacy Mouse and convince him that you were really being a sincere employee. The USB Smart Privacy Mouse, as you must have already guessed, is for the wily amongst us. It has a “secret” button that can be configured to conceal any (and all) programs that you would consider private and instead bring up “decent” programs in times of need. (Read the full post about ‘Protect your surfing secrets with the USB Smart Privacy Mouse’…)

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Back when I used a media PC in my living room, the most frustrating thing that I found was that I had both a keyboard and mouse sitting on my coffee table. Granted, most of the time I simply used my remote, but there were times where I would use my TV as a giant monitor for surfing the net and such, which meant I had a few choices. One, I could use a regular keyboard and mouse, which wasn’t fun. Another was to get an in-air mouse with a smaller keyboard (was a combo) which was better, but still not perfect. I never got around to trying option number three which I think would have been the best, a keyboard with a built-in trackpad.

This little number from Brando is a simple combo device that would likely be welcome in any HTPC environment.

(Read the full post about ‘Wireless keyboard features built-in trackpad’…)

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Posted Mar 9th 2008 2:08PM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Gaming Remember that Xbox 360 price cut we mentioned a few days ago? Well it appears that the Financial Times Germany is reporting that this Monday, Microsoft will trim the fat from the Arcade and Pro consoles, shaving €80 and €50 off the price tag, respectively. Of course, right now this is still unconfirmed by the boys in Redmond (or in any other official location), though the buzz in the community does seem to suggest that these cuts are coming. Hopefully if these become a reality, the company will break something off for folks on these shores as well — we need all the help we can get right now.Update: See that photo above? (Read the full post about ‘Euro Xbox 360 price cuts landing Monday says paper’…)

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Posted Mar 9th 2008 1:37PM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: Portable AudioWord on the street (and by street, we mean mostly British tabloids) is that Paul McCartney’s deal to sell the Beatles back-catalog is done, and the Greatest Works of Musical Art Ever Recorded will be appearing on the iTunes store “within months.” Of course, we’ve been hearing whispers about this for what seems like a million years, and since both Apple Corps and Apple are delivering “no comment” and “rumor and speculation” responses on the topic, we won’t get too excited. Still, there does seem to be some serious movement on this front, with everyone and their mother saying the lot is to be sold any day now for around $400 million — which is no small sum. (Read the full post about ‘Beatles’ catalog coming online at long last?’…)

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Posted Mar 9th 2008 3:35PM by Joshua TopolskyFiled under: cellphones Finally, iphone owners no longer have to mope around with a feeling of shame and embarrassment in their hearts: AT&T has blessed them with an “unlimited” calling plan. That’s right, if you so desire (and you do so desire, don’t you?), you can latch a $119.99 all-you-can-eat plan onto your super-device. Sure, it looks peachy, until you notice that despite your “unlimited” status, you still only get a measly 200 text messages, which is like a three-course steak dinner with no dessert. At least you’ll never again have to end a conversation with Mom because you’re worried about overages — though you’ll want to keep a close watch on those S (Read the full post about ‘AT&T iPhones get an “unlimited” calling plan’…)

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Posted Mar 9th 2008 11:38AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Misc. gadgets Keeping with the Tangent tradition, the Quattro Mk 2 looks an awful lot like most every other tabletop radio the outfit cranks out. Nevertheless, this particular iteration pays no mind to DAB and focuses its attention on providing access to a smorgasbord of internet radio stations. Aside from featuring both integrated WiFi and an Ethernet port, you’ll also get WPA2 security support, FM tuning capabilities, a backlit LCD, a headphone jack and a auxiliary port for connecting DAPs / PMPs. (Read the full post about ‘Tangent intros Quattro Mk 2 tabletop internet radio’…)

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My wife has a MacBook that I borrow from time to time. Now and then when I’m using it while plugged into the wall I’ll accidentally unplug the MagSafe power adapter. It’s really not a big deal, as it pops back into place rather easily. My wife, however, hates it when she knocks it out. I don’t really understand this obsession with having the plug stay in at all times, but at least I’ve found a simple gadget that will prevent it from happening in the future. This is one of those things that you know the company that designed it will make a small fortune. It’s a simple piece of plastic that probably costs peanuts to make, yet provides a function that tons of people are going to want. (Read the full post about ‘Keep your MagSafe adapter in place with MagStay’…)

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