Gadgets Blog News

The Verizon Decoy launched this week ($179 on a two-year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate) with the much-lauded built-in Bluetooth headset, as well as the usual specs, including a 2 megapixel camera, a 2.2-inch “mirror-like” 240 x 320 display, a micro SD card slot, V CAST music and video support. Likes: Headset, tools, navigation, 5–way directional joystick, screen & camera resolution (though they could have bumped up to 3.0 megapixels), and sliding ability. My favorite feature? The Bluetooth headset which has superior sound qualit; and I love that I can put it back in the phone when I’m finished using it. (Still, Verizon provides headset insurance, just in case.) One quibble: when the headset is out, the indentation worries my thumb, as if the cover is off. (Read the full post about ‘Verizon LG Decoy Phone’…)

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This odd little light is created to look like an industrial pipe. To many it might just be a lighted pipe, but being a big Ninja Turtles geek, it has me wishing that I had the dough to snag one myself. The industrial pipe, to me, gives the look of toxic goo flowing down a sewer pipe. Although it might not blend well in many homes, it’d look great in any geeky office. Especially if it were decked out in Mario Bros decals. Sewer pipes have all kinds of geek appeal and would look great in a child’s room as well. You could even throw these in with the Luna Blocks (lego furniture) for an especially odd décor. The pipes even have nice detailing to make them look a bit more realistic. (Read the full post about ‘Lightpipe looks like it is glowing with radioactive goo’…)

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There’s just something about unconventional clock design that lures us geeks in like nothing else. Perhaps it has to do with the allure of physics and the constant progression of time. Or maybe it’s just because there are a ton of really cool clock designs. Whatever the reason, cool clocks never cease to impress us.

The Lexon Around Clock is no exception. Resembling something like an egg-timer flipped on its side and smashed flat into a circular dial, the Around Clock is an analogue time piece which displays the time with cylinder rotation. Basically, the middle portion revolves as the time progresses.

(Read the full post about ‘Lexon Around Clock Sets Time To Run Full Circle’…)

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Sony has introduced its latest offering in the high definition camcorder market with the HDR-CX12. What’s so special about this new camcorder according to Sony is its Smile Shutter technology which according to Sony is unique to this product. This technology allows users to capture smiling photos and record video at the same time. That means that when you are capturing videos, the camcorder can detect when your subject is smiling and before you know it, you have already taken a photo of the subject without even switching to photo mode or pressing the photo shutter button. Sony also said that this camcorder can also detect and capture smiling subjects even when in standby mode. (Read the full post about ‘Sony intros the HDR-CX12 HD camcorder with smile detection technology’…)

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Toshiba has recently expanded its Qosmio laptop series with three new models all sporting Quad Core HD processor, gaming grade graphics and GPS chipset - the X305, G55 and F55. The G55 is a powerful multimedia machine geared for users who are into multimedia processing. According to Toshiba, this laptop is the world’s first laptop to incorporate a parallel media co-processor based Cell processor technology co-developed by Toshiba with Sony and IBM. It is widely used in Sony playstation 3 machines, this technology allows fast and efficient processing power to the G55 which is perfect for editing movie projects. This laptop also features a 500GB HD, an 18.4 inch diagonal widescreen with 16:9 aspect ratio that makes it a perfect laptop for filmmakers. (Read the full post about ‘Toshiba updates its Qosmio family with the X305, G55, F55 laptops’…)

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As if the $199.99 price tag on the Samsung Instinct was not enough to put up a good fight against Apple’s iPhone 3G, Sprint decided to lower down the phone’s price tag to $129.99. Unfortunately, that cheap price tag comes with several packages which would explain why can afford to offer the Instinct at such a lower price. So starting June 20, Sprint users can have their own Samsung Instinct just by paying $129.99 and signing a two-year service agreement with Sprint. To avail of this offer, Sprint customers will have to have their Samsung Instinct activated on an unlimited data pricing plan. Customers would have the option to get Sprint’s Everything plan for individual by agreeing to pay $69.99 monthly. (Read the full post about ‘Sprint reduces the Samsung Instinct’s price further; now at $129.99′…)

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Plants are more versatile than we give them credit for, you can make clothes with them, build with them, use them as ornaments and if your really radical you can eat them. However up until know you would have even thought of making phones with them, and its all thanks to Samsung who have unveiled their new “initiative to be more nature friendly” which means they will making some of their new handsets (the W510 is the first) out of corn. Admittedly it is not just corn as that would be incredibly impractical, rather it is a corn based plastic that makes the casing. This technology is not new, it has been used in things like plastic bags on-and-off since the mid 1990s, but it is not till now that it has been used in such a high profile and relatively high cost product. (Read the full post about ‘Where’s the butter?  New Samsung Corn phone’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 19th 2008 at 8:01AM Apparently we aren’t the only ones miffed by the WiFi-enabled ESPN Ultimate Remote. After peeling this thing out of its dumbbell-esque packaging, critics over at PC Magazine were simply unimpressed from the get-go. For starters, this thing actually belts out the network’s theme song when you turn it on. If that’s not reason enough to hold tight to your three Benjamins, you should also know that it “didn’t execute any of its fancy web tricks gracefully,” and setup was anything but simple. It gets worse. Reviewers stated that it was uncomfortable to hold, the buttons were too tightly packed and you’re not able to send / receive emails from just any email address. (Read the full post about ‘ESPN Ultimate Remote gets reviewed, panned’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 19th 2008 at 11:22AM It only makes sense that VIA’s contribution to the quickly growing netbook world — the OpenBook — get ripped wide open, wouldn’t you agree? Better still, this isn’t your typical dissection, as the invasive Tim Brown tears apart his own product on video. (Read the full post about ‘VIA’s OpenBook gets fittingly ripped open’…)

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Yesterday I paid more than $50 for a tank of gas for the first time. I had been feeling cocky and virtuous - virtuous by U.S. standards at least. I got through our unlikely June spate of high 90s temps without turning the car air conditioning on, except for one trip home from the grocery store. (Just conserving the milk and yogurt, friends.) With prices predicted to hit $5/gallon by fall, more strenuous measures are required. Going without A/C was easy. I don’t commute, and I give thanks daily for my good fortune. My driving consists mostly of running local errands a couple of times a week. I have always ganged them together to save time; saving gas too, along with the planet, is a bonus I began to appreciate only a few years ago. (Read the full post about ‘Green Tech: How to spend less on gas by embracing hypermiling’…)

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