Gadgets Blog

Wi-Fi connectivity can be found in a myriad of devices these days, so it is no surprise to stay connected no matter where you are as Wi-Fi hotspots themselves are dime a dozen. Unfortunately, consumers are still unable to connect to a true broadband network without first looking out for a Wi-Fi hotspot, and Clearwire Corporation hopes to change this by offering the CLEAR Spot Personal Hotspot device which allows standard Wi-Fi products to connect to the Internet not at 3G but broadband speeds, courtesy of the company’s CLEAR mobile WiMAX service.

What does the CLEAR Spot do? For starters, it will create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot which travels with you wherever you go, and as long as you remain within the CLEAR service area, you’re able to surf without suffering from dropped connections or anything of that ilk. This portable battery-powered router is able to connect up to eight Wi-Fi devices simultaneously to the Internet through the CLEAR mobile WiMAX network, and you have very little work on your part as all you need to do is insert the CLEAR USB Modem into the router and voila - an instant Wi-Fi hotspot is conjured out of nowhere, letting up to eight other people in the vicinity share this mobile WiMAX network and get started with their online life there and then. The CLEAR USB modem can be purchased individually for $49 though, so do be prepared to add that into the final costing.

CLEAR’s mobile WiMAX service uses an all-IP network designed specifically for data, and is able to deliver (theoretical) download speeds up to 4Mbps. You don’t have to tie yourself down to long term service contracts with CLEAR’s mobile Internet plans, as they can be purchased for as little as $10 for per day use or by the month, with prices starting from $30 upwards.

Press Release

Nokia is on a mission here - they want to prove to the world that there is no such thing as being too thin, as with the case of the Nokia E71x, taking over the mantle of the E71 as the thinnest QWERTY smartphone in the world. This model was announced at CTIA Wireless 2009, and will be delivered to folks living across the US who will subscribe to AT&T in the coming weeks. Similar in design and feel to the highly touted E71, the E71x is set to bring the brand to greater heights, and if this model could also weed out whatever niggling weaknesses the already strong E71 has, we could have a very strong contender for smartphone of the year despite it being only April, and that too, will depend on how well the Palm Pre does when it rolls out sometime in the middle of this year alongside the rumored whisperings of an updated iPhone.

According to Mark Louison, President, Nokia Inc., “The E71x is a lean, mean multimedia machine for busy people who want Internet-on-the-go capabilities in the palm of their hands. Together with our carrier and industry partners in North America, Nokia continues to enhance the consumer mobile experience through a growing range of QWERTY music, messaging and feature rich devices.”

Available in a black steel color, the Nokia E71x will be an exclusive to AT&T and houses a wide range of multimedia and messaging capabilities that will certainly get smartphone fans drooling. You will be able to enjoy a large, high-resolution display with a full QWERTY keyboard to handle all your communications and emails in a jiffy. Not only that, you can also use Mail for Exchange and keep in touch with friends and family in real time, thanks to push email capabilities. In addition, the E71x will also play nice with thousands of Internet service providers such as Gmail, Yahoo! mail and Hotmail. Other features include high-speed 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, a built-in MP3 player and a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera. No idea on how much this will cost when it arrives though.

Press Release

If you want something really redundant or love living in the past with failures of other people surrounding you, then chances are you will find the Betamax to HD-DVD Converter to be your cup of tea. Seriously, is there any need to explain further?

Betamax and HD-DVD are like a match literally made in heaven (you know, that place you go when you die?), and now you can get a slice for yourself. Featuring simple one-touch record between either format, your media has never felt less obsolete.

of course, by the time you’re done reading, you’ll realize that a device such as this will be an epic fail - even more so than the two formats combined, so before you leave a comment about how outdated we are, here’s a very happy April Fool’s day!

Chinavasion has made several devices for gamers, such as the Seven-inch Nintendo Wii LCD Monitor. Now the company has come out with the Multi Platform Portable Gaming Entertainment Station.

This is Portable Gaming Station can support ROMs from NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, Neo-Geo and even selected Capcom arcade systems.

This just in! I have just been told that ROMs are illegal if they are downloaded from the Net. Okay, you probably already knew that. I’m sure there is a legitimate way to obtain your old-school video games, so use it. This blog doesn’t support illicitly obtained ROMs any more than we support illegal MP3 files downloads. By the way, this device also supports other multimedia formats such as WMVs, AVIs, MPEGs, and MP3s. More details on this product after the jump.

This Multi Platform Station has 4GB of internal memory, and there is a miniSD memory card for even more storage. It also has a 2.8 inch LCD screen with a 320 x 240 resolution screen. You can also hook up the device to an AV-out that supports NTSC or PAL in 16:9 or 4:3.

If you want in on this action, feel free to lay down about $87 at the Chinavasion Web Site.

Source

The winner of last week’s coolest gadget competition is the World’s Fastest Hard Drive.

The Fusion ioDrive Duo is according to the manufacturer, the fastest SSD solution available today, and from the looks of the specification they might be right.
The ioDrive duo comes with 160GB of storage, for the basic model, with up to 1.28TB for the top model, it has read speeds of 1.5GB per second and write speeds of 1.4GB per second.

Congrats again to Geeky Gadgets.

In second place we have the Scan Toaster: Wear your heart on your toast.

This nifty Scan Toaster will transform your plain piece of bread into an art canvass, and the best thing is, you can still eat it. Once hooked up to your PC via USB, the Scan Toaster will download the design for your piece of toast. It has the ability to download everything from the weather to the latest news headlines. What better way to catch up on the news than by biting into it as you go?

Finally in third place comes the ThumbTack - The iPod Microphone.

ThumbTack is a microphone for the Nano 4G and Touch 2G. Shaped like an ordinary thumbtack, this device plugs into the 3.5mm headphone jack and can be used as a voice recorder. Small and unintrusive, this may go well with the anticipated iPhone OS 3.0 mic applications.

Thank you to everybody who voted, submitted, commented or told a friend. The randomly drawn winner of the $50 Amazon vouchers is:

Thyago (Thyago@…), congratulations.

Thanks again everybody and good luck with the next CGOTW contest on Friday.

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If you write for a gadget themed blog and wish to be included in next week’s contest check out the CGOTW instructions page.

There’s never a shortage of people preferring their gadgets complicated and with lots of built-in features.  After all, it does make things more convenient, since that’s one less thing you’ll have to deal with.  However, sometimes it’s nice to keep things simple, instead of overloading your gadgets with things that you often never use.  In some cases the added extras aren’t quite as well done when they’re combined with another gadget.  This fan from Elecom is anything but complicated.

Just plug it into your USB port and it’s all powered up.  Of course, that means one more gadget clogging up your USB ports, so you might need to start utilizing a hub if you want to keep this plugged in.  The speed of the fan can be adjusted to what is comfortable for you.  Although you might not get much use out of a fan right now since it’s only early spring.  Soon the days will be getting hotter.  You can pick this up for Â¥1,200 or about $12.

Source: Akihabara