Gadgets Blog News

In the hopes of catching up with its rival social networking site in terms of localizing strategy, Facebook has launched a French language version of its site. The launch followed the successful launch of its German and Spanish language versions a couple of months ago. The French language version of Facebook was made possible by its French speaking members who helped out in translating the site. Translating Facebook into French was only logical since France is the sixth most active country on Facebook, with the U.S. in the number 1 spot in terms of user base activities. French speaking Facebook users will now have the option to change the language version of the Facebook site they visit. (Read the full post about ‘Facebook launches user-translated French site’…)

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Posted Mar 10th 2008 12:42PM by Donald MelansonFiled under: WirelessWhile it hardly comes as much of a surprise, Ericsson Chief Marketing Officer Johan Bergendahl is now predicting nothing short of the demise of WiFi hotspots, and he’s saying that that they’ll be replaced by — you guessed it — mobile broadband. Speaking at a conference in Stockholm, Bergendahl said that “hot spots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era,” and that “in a few years, [HSPA] will be as common as Wi-Fi is today.” Leading to that widespread use, he says, is ever-decreasing prices for mobile broadband subscriptions, and the fact that HSPA is being built into more and more laptops. (Read the full post about ‘Ericsson exec sees WiFi hotspots becoming the new telephone booths’…)

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The Asus M571 USB flash drive might look like a standard USB flash drive at first glance, but upon closer inspection, you will realize that it is actually a USB flash drive that doubles up as a wireless mouse as well. Unfortunately, I don’t think the form factor of this mouse is easy on your hands - just take a look at the awful, thin design! It will definitely introduce RSI to you faster than expected if this is a long term navigation solution. I guess this mouse will come in handy only during emergencies when your notebook’s touchpad has lost its…well, touch. Other features include a scroll wheel and a magnetic locking mechanism that connects the transmitter for charging purposes. (Read the full post about ‘Asus M571 USB flash drive’…)

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As part of our long-standing tradition of bringing you the best in toilet technology, we’d like to present the Breeza deodorizing toilet seat. The Breeza has a 4-part deodorizing system which starts when the sensors detect a “deodorizing opportunity” as someone sits down. At this point, the fan kicks in, which sucks up the odors. Then, the carbon filter absorbs the odors. As a final step, the Breeza’s fragrance vents deliver a subtle (so they say) waft of natural extracts to give the air a sweet scent. The Breeza Warm adds a seat-warming feature with an adjustable temperature setting. Most of the world hasn’t caught up with the super-toilets of Japan, but the Breeza can bring you a step closer for just $129 from Amazon. (Read the full post about ‘Breeza deodorizing toilet seat’…)

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After what has amassed to literally years of Beatles and iTunes speculation and rumors ranging from everything to having the music added to a Yellow Submarine branded ipod. Well, and I say this as a huge Beatles fan, I am glad to say its not the Yellow Submarine iPod that has come true, but instead it’s much more exciting news as the complete Beatles catalog will soon be hitting iTunes. Thanks to a reported $400 million deal, signed by Sir Paul McCartney, himself and Ringo Starr as well as the families of both John Lennon and George Harrison will also benefit. We also cannot forget the record labels, EMI, Sony and Michael Jackson who all own at least partial shares of the collection as well. (Read the full post about ‘Its Official: The Beatles catalog is coming to iTunes’…)

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Posted Mar 10th 2008 12:11PM by Paul MillerFiled under: Misc. gadgets Face it, nobody has time these days to learn a real instrument with “strings” and “sevenths” and these “quarternotes” we hear tell of. That’s why all music recorded from 2002 on has been 100% sampled: it’s just better that way. The next step in this natural evolution, of course, is instrument-less instruments. Silverlit provides just such a future with the VBeat Air Guitar and Air Drums. Building upon Tomy’s groundbreaking Air Guitar Pro, the VBeat instruments include “free style” and “easy go” modes, the latter of which allows for playing you fakestrument to pre-programmed rhythms — a synergy of layered samples and a metronome, simply stunning. (Read the full post about ‘Silverlit VBeat Air Guitar and Air Drums are better than the real thing’…)

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AT&T has just announced two newly colored and very pastel handsets, the Nokia 6085 in pink and the MOTORAZR V3xx in lavender. Both clamshell styled phones had been previously carried by AT&T these are simply some new (and bright) color additions. The Nokia 6085 will be a free phone after rebates and the MOTORAZR will set you back $129.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate, both phones do require a two-year agreement to get that pricing. While pink and purple (lavender) certainly would not be my first choice, its nice to see such a wide variety of phones becoming available in so many color choices. My question is; are there any people buying their phone based more on the available colors as opposed to the model? (Read the full post about ‘AT&T intro’s the pink Nokia 6085, lavender MOTORAZR V3xx’…)

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A couple of years ago (it doesn’t seem that long ago…) I waxed lyrical about the advantages of using a modded Xbox with XBMC as a living room media adapter.

Unfortunately technology moves on and my trusty Xbox just didn’t have the horsepower to play back high definition content. The next gen consoles can do it but they still aren’t as flexible as I’d like (although kudos to Microsoft for finally enabling DivX playback on the 360).

So what do to? The mac mini stepped in to fill the gap nicely; the new core duo models are fairly powerful, it’s tiny and it’s almost silent running.

(Read the full post about ‘Mac Mini + XBMC = The ultimate media center?’…)

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Posted Mar 10th 2008 6:31AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Misc. gadgetsWe’ve heard nothing since January when the first rumors broke of a Logitech buyout by Microsoft. In fact, the rumor mill has been so quiet that we nearly forgot about the prospect. Now Logitech CEO, Guerrino De Luca, told an Italian newspaper over the weekend that a Microsoft takeover would be “an operation without sense.” Kind of like a MicroHoo after all the engineers quit to join Google, eh Geurrino? He says that, “without competition Logitech would lose the great pressure to innovate. (Read the full post about ‘Logitech CEO shrugs off Microsoft takeover rumors, causing more rumors’…)

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It looks like we don’t have to wait long before Nokia’s next flagship phone hits the shelves, at least in the UK that is. According to Carphone Warehouse, the Nokia N96 is scheduled to be released in August, barely six months after we first got the whiff of such a device and five months after the dual slider was officially announced at the MWC 2008. On the list accompanying the N96 are also the Sony Ericsson G900 and the Samsung G810 with release dates of April and July 2008 respectively. Announced as a follow up to the successful N95, the Nokia N96 has features that could put the iphone to shame. This quad-band GSM and dual-band HSDPA phone runs on Symbian S60v3 FP2 and has a 2.8-inch QVGA display with 16 million colors. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia’s N96 headed for an August release in UK’…)

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