Gadgets Blog News

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 5:46PM If you’ve managed to blink over the past few weeks, you may have missed it. Missed what, you ask? The war between no name HDD racks, that’s what. After numerous evolutions of the HDD Stage Rack managed to capture the hearts of at least a few storage junkies out there, we’ve seen a barrage of competitors surface over at Brando. The latest is Unitek’s SATA HDD Multi-Function Dock with One Touch Backup, which — to be totally frank — does a phenomenal job of explaining itself. For those a touch slow on the uptake, this unit enables any internal 2.5- / 3.5-inch SATA drive to be accessed externally, and furthermore, it packs a couple of USB 2.0 ports and supports a whole slew of memory cards. (Read the full post about ‘Unitek’s SATA HDD Dock throws in multicard reader, one-touch backup’…)

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Until recently, my thinking about USB flash drives went something like this: Why buy a dozen small capacity flash drives, when you can buy one really rugged 16GB or even 32GB flash drive that you can use for everything? Until . . . one day . . . I go to insert my super duper, rugged, weather-proof flash drive into my laptop . . . and it breaks into two pieces - just at that point where the rugged part ends and the USB connection (which of course is exposed when you’re using it) begins. Betrayal! (Never mind that I may have been a bit heavy-handed and impateitn with it - the point is, it was supposed to be tough.) So, now I buy throw-away flash drives and treat them like large capacity floppy disks. (Read the full post about ‘JT Baby USB flash drives - carry them around like coins’…)

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 9:48AM We may be a little overexcited about Mio’s Knight Rider GPS unit, but we’re not about to apologize for that. This is one beautiful union of KITT and navigation that was meant to happen since the day LCDs and GPS chips first hung out. With that out of the way, we have some hands-on impressions.The unit feels solid and small enough to be portable while the screen remains just big enough to be of use. A nice anti-glare coating looks to keep things visible during daylight hours. Yes, standard fare.Peep the gallery below and don’t miss the video after the break.Gallery: Mio’s Knight Rider GPS hands-onBut wait! Startup. Oh, startup. (Read the full post about ‘Getting dirty with Mio’s Knight Rider GPS’…)

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by Richard Lawler, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 10:51AM Look no further for the follow-up to last year’s multi-region Blu-ray players, with Bluraymods.com advertising a completely region free Panasonic DMP-BD30, available in either pre-modified or DIY kit formats. That’s all 6 DVD regions and three Blu-ray regions for those keeping count, and it claims to still work with any firmware updates. The good news for import lovers is a price of €499, considerably less than previous hardware, or €69 for a mod kit. (Read the full post about ‘First region free Blu-ray players available’…)

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Nokia has just released an updated version of OS2008, the operating system for both the N800 and N810 Internet tablets. Going by the codename of “Diablo” it consists of a few small bug fixes, some small updates and also a few new features. The updated version is free for all current N800, N810 owners, however this update still requires users to “reflash the device in order to install this release.” One of the nice features is that this update brings the promise of future updates to come over-the-air, which means this should be the last reflash. Moving forward any OS updates, or applications updates will be offered via a notification on the home screen. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia releases updated OS2008 for N800, N810′…)

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Last night in NYC, Gadgetell was on hand for the Digital Experience, a tech press event where companies show off their latest and greatest.  Think of it as a condensed mid-year CES event.  The question everyone asked me was, “what is hot here?”.  For me, the answer was pretty easy: FindWhere. You might remember us getting excited about adding GPS and reporting capabilities to your car we found at CES.  That is all well and fine, but this company has done it for your GPS smartphone.  As more and more phones toss in GPS, unique software solutions abound to help us take advantage out of it.  The company aims their product at two groups: families and enterprise. (Read the full post about ‘Digital Experience Gadgetell’s “Best of Show”: FindWhere’…)

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Last night in NYC, Gadgetell was on hand for the Digital Experience, a tech press event where companies show off their latest and greatest.  Think of it as a condensed mid-year CES event.  The question everyone asked me was, “what is hot here?”.  For me, the answer was pretty easy: FindWhere. You might remember us getting excited about adding GPS and reporting capabilities to your car we found at CES.  That is all well and fine, but this company has done it for your GPS smartphone.  As more and more phones toss in GPS, unique software solutions abound to help us take advantage out of it.  The company aims their product at two groups: families and enterprise. (Read the full post about ‘Digital Experience Gadgetell’s “Best of Show”: FindWhere’…)

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As expected T-Mobile has officially unveiled the Motorola ROKR E8, which will be available beginning July 7. The ROKR E8 will feature a touchscreen keyboard with a vibration feedback that will change and offer different keys depending on the feature you are currently using. Otherwise the E8 will be a candybar style handset with a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio, 2GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot that will allow for 8GB more and is myFaves compatible. The ROKR E8 will set you back $199, which comes along with a two-year agreement. Overall a decent little handset, but for $199 one has to wonder why, compared to some other more full featured models that are currently available it sounds a little pricey. (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile intro’s the Motorola ROKR E8′…)

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As expected T-Mobile has officially unveiled the Motorola ROKR E8, which will be available beginning July 7. The ROKR E8 will feature a touchscreen keyboard with a vibration feedback that will change and offer different keys depending on the feature you are currently using. Otherwise the E8 will be a candybar style handset with a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, 3.5mm headphone jack, FM radio, 2GB of internal memory with a microSD card slot that will allow for 8GB more and is myFaves compatible. The ROKR E8 will set you back $199, which comes along with a two-year agreement. Overall a decent little handset, but for $199 one has to wonder why, compared to some other more full featured models that are currently available it sounds a little pricey. (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile intro’s the Motorola ROKR E8′…)

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You may not get excited by mice, but I have quite a collection of the cute critters. There’s the Logitech multi-media zoomer, my pink Kensington travel model, the Wow-Pen ergonomic version, not to mention the drawer full of reject mice that weren’t up to my exacting standards. The SlimBlade Presented Mouse by Kensington is my newest pet. It combines a full-function laser mouse and presenter in one sleek device, and is still small enough to fit in your pocket. Bluetooth connection; switch to go to presentation mode; goes to sleep when your notebook does; ultra-thin design for traveling - what’s not to love? $59.99 at Kensington. Tags: gear, computers, robots, high definition TV (Read the full post about ‘Kensington’s SlimBlade mobile Bluetooth presenter mouse’…)

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