Gadgets Blog

Asus has two reasons to be proud. First of all, they intend to put out their keyboard-in-a PC concept that we reported about earlier, and the second is a new concept that involves dual touchscreens.

The Eee PC Keyboard is backed with a 1.6 GHz Atom Processor, 1GB of RAM, and 16 or 32 GB SSD for internal storage. Of course, what you really want is the 5-inch touchscreen, allowing you to access files without a monitor. You can also hook it up with a television set and watch a movie through a USB, VGA, or HDMI port.

As for the dual-touchscreen concept, it really is obvious, really. I mean, instead of a keyboard, it has a touchscreen that works just as well. Sure, there may not be any tactile feedback, and it may take some getting used to, but I like how you can open it up and use both screens together for one big screen.

The Eee PC Keyboard is planned to be released around May or June. The wired one will be about $400, and the wireless with Bluetooth will be for $600.

As for the dual touchscreen concept, I would love to see it out now. It reminds me of the mini-tablet concept I saw out a while ago.

Looks like Asus is shaping up for another great year. Just what is this company planning for 2010?

Source1 and Source2

Penguins are all the time getting depicted as weak little fat guys.  Which is entirely unfair, a lot of times they even show them off wearing scarves.  Well in reality penguins are entirely too tough for that nonsense.  They don’t take any scuff from anyone and that’s exactly what you can tell the world when you carry around one of these USB drives.  No one will think any longer that penguins are stuffy little guys, in need of a scarf.

These come in the two forms shown here and are made of a durable solid rubber casting.  So not only do these penguins look tough, they can stand up to a decent beating.  Since this is such a fun USB drive, it’d be more than a little disappointing to manage to lose the cap to the drive.  Of course they aren’t sporting a ton of storage, just 2GB, but that’s not horrible either.  You can pick it up for $15 a piece from GizGeek.

Source: GeekyGadgets

Remember back in the early nineties, after The Lawnmower Man movie was released, when we all thought that Virtual Reality was going to be the wave of the future? I mean, we truly believed that we would just put on a special helmet and goggles, and we would have a virtual experience with all our five senses.

I suppose that it is better late than never, as a group of scientists from the Universities of York and Warwick have invented the Virtual Cocoon. This virtual helmet has a high-definition screen, and internal speakers for surround sound.

What makes this helmet truly virtual is that it has tubes that can spray scents, so you can smell your virtual experience. These tubes can also spray in your mouth, so you can taste your virtual food.

Also included in the helmet are temperature control functions such as a small fan and heating unit to give the illusion of humidity. As far as I know, it does not have a Freon tube like a refrigerator to simulate cold.

Yes, that is quite strange, and who knows if it will really work? The creators of this device want to sell it for about 1,500 pounds ($2,675), and plan for it to hit the market in about five years.

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Now this is the way to make tea.  When I cam across this my literal exact phrase was “duuuuude”.  Not kidding, pretty sure there were witnesses that looked at me like I was a crazy person.  Especially the ones that found out all that was over a tea strainer.  This brilliant tea strainer ranks up there with The Ex Voodoo Knife Set (which I own in black).  I’m not sure why I enjoy eccentric kitchen accessories, but I do know from the looks of Perpetual Kid that I’m not the only one.

Of course there was an audible grumble of disappointment when I saw that this was a concept design.  I’d already run through my finances for the week and started crossing my fingers that it wouldn’t cost much.  Tragically, we’ll have to wait and see if this ever makes it to something more than a concept.  For those that are unfamiliar with using tea strainers, these are meant for loose tea.   The T-man Tea Strainer was designed by Jeewon Jung.

Source:  GeekyGadgets

I’ve recently acquired MTV Games and Harmonix’s Rock Band 2. Honestly, I can’t think of a better way that a group of people can play a video game than this, unless it is on a zombie party raid in Left4Dead.

Rock Band 2 has upped its game as they are releasing a version dedicated to the Beatles. Don’t ask me how they got permission from Apple Corps, Inc., the Beatles music company, to do this. I heard that getting permission to use a Beatles’ song is as difficult as getting permission to use a Led Zeppelin song.

The game is planned to be released in a package like their AC/DC version. I heard that their full package (the one with instruments) will have Paul’s bass, George’s guitar, and John’s Rickenbacker. I wonder if they’ll have Ringo’s drum set, and if anyone cares.

I’ve got a great idea: make the virtual stage like that on the Ed Sullivan show, and put it in black and white. In fact, the whole gameplay should follow the Beatles rise and fall. I’m not looking forward to the Yoko level.

As you can see from this provided photo, you will have to wait until 09.09.09 before you can visit Abbey Road studios. The software for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii will be $59.99. The Standalone Guitars will be for $99.99, and the whole Beatles bundle will be $249.99.

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I am one of the many living on a budget that adores Ikea.  Sadly for me, the closest store is in the next state over and they don’t usually offer many of their products online.  Well now Ikea has a new line for the green loving gadget crowd.  They are offering up solar powered lighting, they’re going to start releasing several different lights, most are meant for outside, but not all.  Plus, being Ikea, they’re keeping it cheap, not a single one of them goes over $19.99.  Which is especially thankful since some of them are probably better to purchase in clumps to make a pathway of lights.

There are nine different lights as of now, only one of them is for indoor usage.  The indoor light is just a small work lamp that will cost you $19.99 and comes in a a variety of colors.  There are a few sets of five that will be smaller lights, but are a string of them in a row.  Then the rest are to be purchased individually.  It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re thinking ahead as to how you want your garden set up this summer.  They range from $6.99 to $19.99.

Source: Inhabitat

Are we all feeling a little bit extra beefy these days? What’s with the cow gizmos of late - perhaps this is due to the fact that we are now in the Year of the Cow where the Chinese Lunar calendar is concerned. Today we’ll look at another animal that shares a common ancestor with the cow - a buffalo. What this buffalo does is, it bellows out whatever audio is coming out from your PC, working with virtually any yoke - I mean, device that uses a 3.5mm audio output jack. The built-in lithium ion battery ought to let it run for some hours before it requires a recharge. Would you fork out $13 for this? It definitely won’t be able to bring down the house, that’s for sure.

Usual rules, vote for what you think is the coolest gadget and leave a comment for a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher.

Case Folding Coffee Table - Coffee Table To Go

Portability in coffee tables has not existed until now - we give you the Case Folding Coffee Table. The table folds itself into a case when not in use and is made of easy open/close birch wood pieces each spring loaded with locking hinges. It can take loads of up to 100 lbs, and is handmade in California. A big thanks to Beth for sending this in.

The full post can be found on Single Serve Coffee.

Salt it like a Polaroid Picture

They shake themselves! It’s now fun and simple to add some panache to your fine dining. Just pull the cord, invert, hold - MOVERS AND SHAKERS do all the work! Traditional “diner” styling, packed 2 pcs in a frosted box. Perfect house warming gift.

The full post can be found on RGS.

Shoe phone

A phone in a shoe - you’ll never forget it or lose it and when used with a Bluetooth headset, it’s a pretty cool place to hide a phone from pickpockets. But best of all is how this phone can be used to help the elderly. It will monitor shocks and orientation changes when someone falls. The shoe will then automatically call emergency services and put the whole conversation on speakerphone so that the patient can communicate when they’re in trouble. A cool gadget that will actually do some good.

The full post can be found on Decide What to Buy.

World’s First PC Free Videophone

The Asus Ai Guru SV1 lays claim to the title of the first Skype videophone that doesn’t need to be connected to a personal computer for it to function. This self contained unit only requires an internet connection and an account on the Skype network for the operator to be able to make video conference calls. Doing away with the computer requirement makes this gadget portable and easily accessible for the masses.

The full post can be found on Coated.

Wearable Social Networking Fabric May Be Good for Spying

You would no longer have to login to a boring account but you could just wear it on your clothes and the device or wearable social networking gadget will let you know if one of your friends passes by.

The full post can be found on EliteChoice.

On Time Headset System Is a Multi Functional Bracelet

On Time Headset System is an interesting gadget that functions as a bracelet, and even handles all your incoming and outgoing calls. It tells you what time it is and also alerts you when your phone rings.

The full post can be found on Trends Updates.

The $16,000 Water Cooled PC

This has to be the craziest PC we have seen here at geeky gadgets, built by the guys at Puget Systems in cost a massive $16,000 to build.

So what exactly does spending $16,000 on a custom PC get you? This crazy PC features four quad core Opteron processors, 32GB of RAM and eight hard drives in various RAID configurations.

The full post can be found on Geeky Gadgets.

Thanks again to all the sites for their submissions now over to you guys for voting (don’t forget to leave a comment with your reason for a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher).

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A-DATA Technology Co., Ltd. has just rolled out the highest capacity SSD in the industry at CeBIT 2009 - in the form of the 512GB XPG 2.5” SSD. This monster SSD was specially designed to cater for notebook and PC enthusiasts who want the best of both worlds - superior data transfer rate as well as a large amount of space to store their media. The 512GB XPG 2.5” SSD is no slouch when it comes to data transfer, capable of delivering up to 230MB/s and 160MB/s read and write speeds, although all these are in theory at the moment and hopefully real world figures will remain close to the advertised ones. These fast speeds are made possible thanks to a high speed SATA II interface. No idea on how much this will cost though, but you can do the math by taking current 128GB SSD prices and multiplying it a couple times.

Press Release

Most small devices can be pretty fragile, and more often than not, these tend to break down after a while. Seriously, if you’ve got an iPod Shuffle and treat it non-chalantly, sooner or later something is going to break. A larger device might not necessarily be stronger in any way, but we guess psychologically speaking, one would think so for most cases. Today we’ll look at what General Micro Systems has to offer - they are a noted designer and manufacturer of embedded computing products for defense, aerospace and compute-intensive applications, and just rolled out its Raider, also known as the S705, a new rugged, tiny Core 2 Duo powered system which is capable of delivering the highest processing power per cubic inch, per watt in the world.

Inside the “Raider”, the Core 2 Duo processor offers up to 2.16 GHz of power and 4MB of L2 cache. Amazingly enough, it is able to support up to 2GB of 667 MHz DDR-2SDRAM as well. Underneath the chassis, you will find the S705 to be extremely flexible as it will come in a variety of configurations that are completely upgradeable and compatible along the Intel migration path. This mini computing device is capable of supporting up to five different expansion buses, a range of I/O, and numerous video/audio options. It sips just 15 watts of juice and comes in an extremely tiny form factor - measuring 4.6″ x 4.6″ x 1.6″ and tipping the scales at just 2 lbs.

“Raider” is able to work with up to half a dozen wireless radios on four to six antennae feeds. This integrated functionality allows for simultaneous monitoring and tracking of phone, wireless, CDMA, TDMA, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth or others. In addition, you will also benefit from Dual GigE with TCP/IP offloading engine, high-performance video, Dual Com ports with 232/422, four USB ports, full audio for VOIP applications, full BIT and EBIT testing, and thermal management for safe thermal operation. “Raider” is tougher than you think, capable of working in tough environments (-40 C to +85 C, MIL-STD 810F) with the ability to fix or remove a couple of optional 256 GB SSDs. Don’t think this will go commercial for the man on the street though.

Press Release

Talk about a truly multi-purpose device to hit the streets of UK - the O2 Joggler. While the name itself might not be too endearing, the Joggler is jam packed with features for home use, and is touted to be a first-of-its-kind device that we don’t really have a description for it. Is it a really large PDA? Or is it a mini text messaging device with the ability to support Internet connectivity? Or could it be a digital photo frame on steroids? How does one classify a device that is all of the above, anyways? To know more about the O2 Joggler, head on right after the jump for the nitty gritty.

The O2 Joggler places a heavy emphasis on how families manage their busy lives, and each family ought to find themselves to be more organized once this is placed in a common area at home - such as being stuck to the fridge door, where mom will see it daily when cooking, dad needs it for his beer and the kids open it throughout the day to grab some milk or soda. The built-in calendar allows the entire family to manage appointments, birthdays, school runs and work deadlines among others, sending text message reminders to the specific family member to be where by when. This is pretty neat device to have, but not for those who have a PDA phone.

Manipulating the calendar on the O2 Joggler is simple thanks to the sleek 7” touchscreen capability that keeps the entire family connected. It can stay connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable, and since there is no integrated SIM card, you won’t have to worry about burdening your monthly budget with another data subscription. Other features on the O2 Joggler include getting updates from Sky News Weather, where you will benefit from a four-day forecast from 60 UK towns as well as most other cities across the world, updates from Trafficmaster, read the latest headlines from Sky News and Sky Sports, display up to 200 photos with its 1GB internal memory, playback audio and video thanks to the USB port, and even send up to 50 text messages each month to any cell phone in the UK for free. The O2 Joggler will be out from early April onwards, retailing for £149.99 a pop. Alternatively, you can get it for free if taken instead of a handset at upgrade.

Press Release