The Gadgets Guide

The WaveCase is perfect for all manner of watersports, from the surfing/diving/swimming kind to the kind that costs $200 a throw Las Vegas. Rated at 20 meters, the WaveCase envelops your valuable cellie in a plastic bubble, allowing you to make calls (?) and take pictures in the briny deep.

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The King of the Flash is in the house! The T-8 turned some heads at CeBIT and then disappeared, only to reappear with a scrappy little product page and a charming misuse of the definite article.

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Matt Maier's review of the Yahoo Music Unlimited download service, specifically used in conjunction with the Audiovox 5600 Windows Mobile smartphone, seems to have stumbled on the missing element with all these new iPod- and iTunes-fighting services.

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The wee 5-GB Zen Neeon is finally available will full product page and press info. The Neeon was kind of buried last week but it's interesting to see the aesthetic has slightly changed from the previous Zen versions. There is also a patented Stik-On technology that allows you to put stickers on your media player. Now we won't have to steal address labels from the post office.

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Welcome, friends, to the decade of the living room PC. Devices like the PLIX EMC 3200HD are finally going to start hitting the wall unit and pounding out tunes and media. I do not, however, believe Microsoft has a lock on the media center world, as evidenced by Sonos and a few other players.

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Burn! SEA head Ken Kutagari drops the geek bomb on the XBox 1.5 nee 360 saying that it's the PS3 that is going to rock the world of living room media and not the pretender to the throne, the 360 with special built-in Media Center love.

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Tom's Hardware pulls together an odd sort of review where they discuss the potential features of a potential device. They say that the wireless PS3 controllers may be able to hold a charge for 24 hours and that there could be a hard drive in there, as well.

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The good things: it's small, and that silvery white ridge is actually an integrated (but removable) case. The bad things: no Bluetooth keyboard support as of yet, which sort of kills any desire I have to get one.

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CNET Asia tries out the Creative Zen Neeeeeeon, the 5GB hard disk-based player probably most notable for its Stik-On customization bits.

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There's nothing like the smell of fresh grass clippings misted with the blood and brain matter of the neighbor's cat. These lawn mowing robots, which do not know the difference between a stick and a wee kitty sunning herself near the rose bush, are entirely autonomous and cost about $1500US.

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These custom minis, sold by New York based J&R Computers, add a bit of color to our favorite aluminum MP3 players. J&R offers cease and desist friendly Ferrari Red and Lamborghini Yellow as well as gloss white and gloss black.

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Unmediated found a personal homescreen from the XBox 360 which appears to allow for rankings and other personalized content within the milieu of the XBox platform.

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Sharp has been making quite a few nice little Linux-based PDAs while fighting the good fight against the great Palm/MS juggernaut.Looking like an old-time Sony Clie, the Zaurus only lacks Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to make it just about the perfect wee PDA.

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Water- and shock-proof, the G'zOne is a hiker's dream. This phone includes an electronic compass, clock, stop watch, and an external screen. Available in three delightful colors, the G'zOne isn't available here and never will be.

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We're on a home kick today. These Alfa door handles connect to a power outlet and flash red or green depending on the state of the door lock. Therefore, your sig. other won't keep walking in on you when you're otherwise occupied with the latest issue of Show Dogs.

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Let's see—they're both skinny, white, and bafflingly popular. Therefore, it is imperative that you dress your Shuffle in a material reminiscent of some dress that Paris once wore—or, more correctly, took off and which was later found twisted into a sweaty lump underneath the seat of a Maybach.

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The rumors were true, iRobot is launching a companion bot for the Roomba, called the 'Scooba.' Unlike the Roomba, which sweeps, the new Scooba will wash and dry floors "in a single pass," using a special Clorox cleaning solution that will likely have to be bought again and again. Do I want it? Yes, a lot.

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Intel Corp. has a prototype computer that lets back-seat passengers watch DVDs, play video games, listen to digital music and in some places wirelessly surf the Internet.

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Friday was the big Xbox night, and wow. Here are some scans from a Euro gaming magazine, showing off the machine, the new controllers and screen shots from the new Ghost Recon game.

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Xbox 360 is exposed, and unwanted step-blogger Kotaku has all the details. All of them. There is nothing in the entirety of Xbox 360 Kotaku does not have.

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We first broke news about the Creative Zen Neeon and it looks like our initial image was rather spot-on, if just a titch blurry. The Neeon will come in 10 different colors and lets you choose one of seven screen colors. While color-changing is always a neat parlor trick, Creative's prepping their Zen Micro Photo which features a full color OLED screen, so waiting might be prudent. Better still than color tweaking is the myriad selection of Creative-sanctioned Stik-On stickers, to customize your Neeon. No matter your fancy, from tigers to jelly beans, there appears to be a Stik-On for you. It also features a 5GB drive and the ability to charge over USB 2.0. No word on pricing or availability, yet.

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With the flood of Xbox 360 information coming out today, here are a few of the rumored technical features it does not have:

• HD DVD support - It looks DVD is going to have to hold you.
• iPod-like MP3 hard drive - The unit can be removed to take with you, but does not function as a standalone MP3 player
  
• Media Center PC functions - While it will serve as a Media Center extender out of the box, it will not record shows or have a TV tuner.
  
• DVD Burner - This seemed like a long-shot, but some people were convinced.
  
• Wireless-only controllers - The default mode of operation is wireless (and that's good), the controllers can be plugged in to USB slots to deal with charging and low-power.
  
• A proper logo font - In fact, the typeface being used for the logo looks awful, especially embossed on the tray door.
  
• Backwards compatibility - It is possible that the Xbox 360 can play regular Xbox games, but nothing has been said for sure.

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Leather gadget case folks Noreve are showing off their 'PSP Ambition' case, which looks quite a bit like the Logitech PSP case, except it has space for MemorySticks and a couple of UMD discs (and also doesn't flip up as a stand, I don't think).

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MobileTechReview tries out the Fujitsu LifeBook T4010, a convertible, but still sort-of-lightweight Tablet PC with healthy Centrino innards. Not only is it light enough (4.6 lbs) to be hauled around in a sack, but it has a built-in optical drive, something often lacking in notebooks of this size (rarely missed by me, but good for DVD-watching business travelers and people who actually buy and install software).

# posted by GWHSE : 9:43 AM  0 Comments

Sony has released a new model in its Linux-based XYZ series, the sleek, touchscreen units that can display most of the streets of Tokyo is real-time 3D. The NVXYZ777 can also be mated to an optional 'EX' box that fits in the in-dash DIN slot, storing a 30GB hard drive that can hold map data, as well as music (and I'm pretty sure video, since it is MPEG1/2 compatible).

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iRiver has launched the T10 flash player in Korea, a 'sporty' model that comes in three bright colors, depending on size (up to 1GB). The stand-out feature is a robust metal clip designed to be strapped to x-treme gear, but it also has a nice 1.1-inch color LCD, a lengthy 53-hour playback time, and support for the Mountain Dew of audio formats, OGG Vorbis.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:39 AM  0 Comments

So look at the feature list for this prototype device from Macrocomm: Touch screen, VoIP, HDTV, dual-booting Linux and Windows, 5.1 sound, and... a corded phone handset. They're building the device to go into hotels and hospitals and dorms—anyplace people need a do-all machine in a small space.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:37 AM  0 Comments

Microsoft has officially unveiled Windows Mobile 5.0, formerly known as Windows Mobile 2005, or 'Magneto.' The impact of the operating system upgrade will become more known with time, as all the Windows Mobile folks get a chance to really probe into its abilities, but the new features sound nice all the same, including upgraded network support in preparation of 3G smartphones, a more streamlined one-handed operation, persistent memory storage as well as an upgraded Mobile Office suite.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:15 AM  0 Comments

So this is pretty major: Yahoo! has announced their new music rental service, called Yahoo Music Unlimited, that will allow unlimited downloads (using Windows Media Player 10 DRM) for $7 a month, or just $60 a year. Comparable services, from the likes of Napster and Real, cost in the $15 a month range, so we're talking half-price here.

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MoSys, the same memory supplier who provided chips for the GameCube (and maybe even the Nintendo 64, if memory serves), has perhaps inadvertently let slip that we should expect Nintendo's next-generation console, the 'Revolution,' [seen here in unlikely speculative mockup] to ship in "mid-2006." That should put it right on schedule to match the Playstation 3, which is also expected to launch in that time frame.

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Teen heart-throb MobileTracker reports a couple of interesting, if unsurprising approvals from the FCC: the Nokia N90 cameraphone, and the Sony Ericsson K750i.Both phones share two-megapixel cameras, although the N90 is certainly more oriented towards imaging, with its flippy screen and multiple configurations, while the K750i is more of an all-around solid, Sony-style phone (which is to say, about as much of a 'smartphone' as Nokia's units usually are).

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PalmOne has finally acknowledged the LifeDrive, calling it the first in a series of 'Mobile Manager' devices that will sit alongside the Zire, Tungsten, and Treo units. The Register quotes a PalmOne spokesperson describing the Mobile Manager series as something "designed for customers who are eager to take full advantage of the trend toward 'digital everything' - from documents and email to music, images and video, as standalone files or in organised folders."

# posted by GWHSE : 9:11 AM  0 Comments

Looks like the Xbox 360 specs are roaming wild on the web, should you choose to believe them. It's not messing around, either, with "all games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-alias[ed]," wireless controllers, 3 CPU cores running at 3.2GHz each, an astounding half-a-gig of RAM, and "Wi-Fi ready" networking.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:11 AM  0 Comments

This thing is just about the greatest thing ever. It has everything—it's a mixture of irony, goofiness, stupidity, and an incorrigible waste of good engineering skills. The Phobile Handset is an exact replica of an old-time rotary dial handset and connects with just about every possible phone manufacturer including Nokia and Motorola.We especially like the high-tech "curly wurly" cable.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:11 AM  0 Comments

Can’t tell you how we got our hands on this image, but what you’re looking at is a real live shot of the Xbox 360 that someone sneakily snapped with their cameraphone at Microsoft’s Xbox360 Revealed launch party in Los Angeles last night. Also note the presence of a hard drive attachment up top, the white controller, the Xbox Live headset, and what looks like that EyeToy-like camera peripheral we’ve been hearing about.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:11 AM  0 Comments

Researchers have mainstreamed a Sony Qrio robot in a California nursery school. The robot, which is assisted at all times by an assistant, dances with the children but rarely drinks juice or has to go to the potty.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:11 AM  0 Comments

Sony's decision to only support the crack-tastic WEP protocol instead of the slightly better WPA is raise a lot of hackles in the on-line world. This, in the long run, doesn't really matter. But security is security and Sony should have at least some support for higher grade chiphering.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:11 AM  0 Comments

HP has just announced a set of televisions including Pavilion branded plasmas and LCDs.The new HP z555 and z557 High-definition Digital Entertainment Center series include three tuners: One ATSC OTA high-definition TV tuner for the ability to pause, play and record HD over-the-air programming and two NTSC tuners for recording two standard definition shows simultaneously.

# posted by GWHSE : 9:10 AM  0 Comments

Bill Gates took to showing off the ultra-portable concept tablet PC at WinHEC 2005 yesterday. Roughly the same size of a Creative Zen PMC, the concept calls for a tablet running Windows XP Tablet Edition, some form of wireless and greater battery life.

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