Gadgets Blog News

I do a lot of my computer work on the road from my laptop. When I need to print a document, I have to go through this frustrating process of saving the document on a thumb drive, and then transfer it to a desktop with a printer. Wouldn’t it be easier to have a portable printer that could give me hard copies on the go? This is precisely why the Canon Pixma iP100 portable printer was invented. The Canon Pixma iP100 can print up to 20 pages per minute on normal 8.5 x 11 inch paper. It’s hard to believe that something this small can print in color, but the Pixma iP100 can even do color at a high resolution of 9600 x 2400 dots per inch. The iP100 also uses two black inks. (Read the full post about ‘Canon Pixma iP100 Portable Printer’…)

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If you want to teach your kids about saving money, there are a variety of ways to do that. While I won’t pretend to know a lot about banking and investments, but why not get them their own hi-tech safe to get them started? This safe looks realistic enough that your kids will feel like they own a bank. They will be able to program in their own secret code which will open the door. It has a separate compartment which will catch change as it is inserted into the safe, while a larger compartment can store other valuables. Sure, it probably won’t teach them the fundamentals of saving money, however, it’s better than a piggy bank. This safe will set you back $39. (Read the full post about ‘Hi-tech safe for kids’…)

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I have seen the future of television, and it is VideoClix. If you haven’t tried the wonder that is Clickable Video yet, just go over to the VideoClix site and watch the first few minutes of an episode of HBO’s Entourage. VideoClix technology allows the user to watch a video and click on certain images for more information. For example, I clicked on one of the actors, and an information window gave me a description of his character. I clicked on the bowling shirt the actor was wearing, and I found out where I could buy it from. I clicked on the car the actor was in, and I saw the make and model. I clicked on the scenery the car was parked in front of, and I got information about the Grand Canyon! (Read the full post about ‘VideoClix and Revision3 Team Up to Change Internet TV as we know it’…)

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More and more, it seems that what comes up at the top in browser search results is determined by factors having little to do with what I’m really looking for. Google search results may be comprehensive, but what I’m looking for may be buried so deep that I’ll never find the one thing I’m looking for. I might accidentally come across just the right keyword to bring up some relevant results, but it’s often hit or miss. Human-powered search engines such as Mahalo and iRazoo aim to create and “curate” search results to get around this diving-in-a-garbage-can feel of the big search engines. (Read the full post about ‘Surf Canyon pulls up relevant results deep in your search’…)

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How many devices in your home take AA or AAA batteries? I shudder at the thought of actually counting up the number in my house, but I can tell you it’s a lot. Most of the power-hungry gadgets have rechargeable batteries in them, while things like TV and DVD remotes have the less expensive throwaway kind. With this many batteries, I have three different chargers throughout the house. One thing I haven’t considered is keeping a battery charger in my laptop case. I do carry a wireless mouse that uses AA batteries, so it would make sense to carry a charger. However, I really don’t like putting anything more in my bag than is absolutely necessary. (Read the full post about ‘Tiny USB Battery charger is perfect for travel’…)

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Memory card readers come in all shapes and sizes these days, but few rely on a rechargeable lithium battery to power their . . . built-in cash note verifiers. Yes, this innocent-looking ladybug 3-in-1 reader ($16) is absolutely unforgiving against counterfeit currency. Don’t ask me how it works (I couldn’t tell you if you did), but the 2.2″ x 1.4″ x 1.0″ ladybug is packing a black light (?) somewhere under those wings that “illuminates” the security strip embedded into U.S. dollars. If you’ve never questioned the legitimacy of the cash in your wallet, you can still make use of the ladybug’s integrated USB charging cable and ability to read T-Flash, microSD, and microSDHC cards. Via GeekAlerts. (Read the full post about ‘Ladybug reads memory cards and U.S. dollars’…)

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Filed in archive Tip by jim on April 14, 2008 "Contrast" is the difference in color and light between parts of an image. If all parts of a photograph, be it color or B&W, were completely and equally illuminated, or at the same "brightness" level, nothing would stand out in the image. There would be no point of interest, no "pop" to the subject, it would appear "flat", which describes a lack of contrast in a picture. I happen to be a fan of higher contrast photography; but many people prefer less "edge" and a softer effect. The picture above, depending on how it appears on your computer monitor, is an example of how I like a picture to look, in terms of contrast. (Read the full post about ‘Controlling Contrast On Digital Pictures’…)

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Toshiba has added a new notebook to its product catalog, the Portege R500-12Q. The new Toshiba notebook is being touted by the company as the world’s lightest notebook weighing just a mere 2.15-pounds (by standard notebook weight, which pretty much is light indeed). Toshiba is also brandishing the Portege R500-12Q as the only notebook with the slimmest optical drive at 7mm, the world’s first notebook with the transflective LED 12.1-inch widescreen display and one of the world’s thinnest notebooks at 0.76/1.0-inches in height. Aside from being the first in so many notebook aspects, it will be important to note the Portege R500-12Q is packed with a whooping 128GB SSD. (Read the full post about ‘Toshiba unveils 128GB SSD Portege R500-12Q notebook’…)

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NVIDIA is at the top of its game, and looks set to remain so in the meantime as they prepare to saturate the market with even more graphics cards for gamers of every strata and level of society. The new products will be from the GeForce and nForce lines, including the new GeForce 9800 GX2, GeForce 9800 GTX, GeForce 9600 GT GPUs, along with the nForce 790i Ultra SLI media and communications processor (MCP). All these claim to push your computer’s performance to its maximum, regardless of whether you indulge in the latest operating systems, photo applications, mapping software, games, and HD movies. (Read the full post about ‘NVIDIA takes off with more video cards’…)

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LG and Verizon try to show us that there’s more than one way to make a product portable, and they’re doing so with the new VX8610. What with a very compact sliding form factor, and its very own Bluetooth headset built-in to the body, users will have a very hard time losing another accessory. Though there’s no way to confirm just how well the combination of a handset and headset would work, I gather that LG would at least prepare an effort for this, because after all, this would be the first of its kind. The integrated headset is said to be rechargeable via a dock when not in use, which is pretty neat, and another portability feature because it eliminates the need for a separate headset charger. (Read the full post about ‘LG VX8610 in the wild’…)

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