Gadgets Blog

Outdoor speakers are great if you hold many social functions in your backyard, but it would be better if these speakers were wireless as you will run less risk of anyone tipsy tripping over and breaking a bone (or neck) in the process. The AQ Wireless Outdoor Speakers hope to fulfil this specific need without looking out of place in most gardens.

These speakers truly do deliver with their pounding bass, sweet treble and a design that makes them look like some sort of futuristic office block - they’re shaped this way to keep the speakers water resistant in case the weather decides to spoil your mosh pit in the garden - it doesn’t do the bass any harm either, the shapes perfect for driving those deep sounds into the ground, giving you that warm earthy feeling that can only be experienced while listening to phat bass.

You can connect just about any device with a headphone or jack output to the AQ Wireless Outdoor Speaker’s transmitter, where it has a radius of 100 meters. You can pick up the AQ Wireless Outdoor Speakers for £89.99 a pair.

We love our pillows as there’s nothing quite like resting our heads on something soft and fluffy after a long hard day at the office, and the Relational Pillow concept takes things one step further as it will feature light and touch sensors fitted within. Just when you thought it could not get any more high-tech than that, you’ll be pleased to know that the Relational Pillow features Wi-Fi connectivity, allowing you to send emoticons to another Relational Pillow as long as they’re online. Sounds like the perfect gift for couples who are having a long distance relationship to bridge the physical gap with an emotional solution. We would very much like to see this concept come to life, that’s for sure.

Source: Talk2MyShirt

Netgear is a household name when it comes to networking solutions, and they at the top of their game yet again with the announcement of a new Digital Entertainer Elite that goes by the model number EVA9150. This powerful and flexible digital media player will go down well with folks who have a streamlined mode of entertainment at home, where one is able to seamlessly stream digital content over their home networks to their respective high-definition home entertainment systems. Netgear ensures that the Digital Entertainer Elite will merge the most up-to-date video, audio and wireless technologies for home users to enjoy an unparalleled living room experience.

Features include a built-in 500GB hard drive which we believe that this 500GB will run out of space pretty soon judging by the amount of media that we love to hoard these days, but good thing it can be upgraded easily to larger capacity drives as your budget permits. Theoretically, this would make it the world’s largest capacity home video jukebox on the market - although you’ll need to perform the upgrading work yourself. The Digital Entertainer Elite is fast enough to play Blu-ray quality digital video up to 1080p, high-resolution digital photos, MP3s and recorded TV shows off from their computers or storage devices on the network without suffering from jarring images or dropped frames. In addition, the Digital Entertainer Elite also plays nice with other media-heavy Internet content including YouTube, Internet radio, Flickr, RSS feeds and videos from popular websites.

What’s more, the Digital Entertainer Elite is highly flexible as it plays nice with most major computing systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux platforms in addition to other Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. Other features include a couple of USB 2.0 ports, direct searching and indexing on the device itself, the ability to navigate through a bunch of content across multiple PCs and devices simultaneously and an easy accessible library among others. You can have the Digital Entertainer Elite perched in your living room for $399 a pop.

Press Release

Twitter is one Web-based service that has taken the world by storm, and it was evident from the latest Ashton vs CNN Twitter shootout, where the former had more star power and eventually beat out James Earl Jones’ favorite news channel in garnering the number of followers within the shortest time possible. Twitter has grown to become an indispensable tool when it comes to updating people wherever you are and vice versa, that it has even made the jump across to mobile devices like various cell phone applications. What happens when some smart aleck decided to further enhance Twitter by using sheer telepathic power to type down a message? Sounds far fetched, but it is actually now possible thanks to Adam Wilson, a University of Wisconsin biomedical engineer who sent the first message using nothing but his brain alone, with “USING EEG TO SEND TWEET” being the first brain-powered Tweet in the world.

This could potentially become as famous as Alexander Graham Bell’s “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” Brain-computer interfaces are no longer limited to the world of science fiction or comics, but is pretty much a viable platform for researchers who are interested in immediate real-world applications, specially targeting folks who are still fully in charge of their mental faculties despite being otherwise where their limbs are concerned. Justin Williams, head of the University of Wisconsin’s Neural Interfaces lab, “We’re more interested in the applications. How do we actually make these technologies useful for people with disabilities?”

Sending tweets was made possible using the BCI2000, a software tool that is able to translate thought-induced changes in a scalp’s electrical fields in order to manipulate an on-screen cursor. Unfortunately, this technology is still in its infancy, so don’t expect to tweet at unprecedented speeds. It will take around 10 seconds to choose the right character for a trained mind, so imagine just how long it will take for the layman to come up with a 140-character tweet, not to mention looking like a total dork while you’re at it

Source: Wired

Sigma is on a roll in the digital slr world. Seems like after 20 plus years of languishing as a third tier lens manufacturer, the value base glass maker has come across a series of designs that has even Photography magazine buzzing almost every issue. So when they recently came out with a 200-500mm f2.8 lens, the reaction should have been a predictable one. Until the size became apparent. It’s HUGE.

Weighing in at nearly fifty pounds, this Sigma lens is not for anyone with a steady hand and a regular gym membership. In addition to covering the popular 200-500mm range at f2.8, it can double the focal length and still clock in at f5.6 â€" which isn’t too bad if one has a beefy tripod to hold it still. This Big Bertha like lens would be very popular for astrophotography, sports and wildlife shots thanks to its low dispersion glass elements for image correction. The multi-layer coating reduces glare and ghosting, and it’s specially designed lens hood blocks out annoying ambient light. There is also a built in LCD panel for live view when not looking into the camera’s SLR viewfinder or LCD. The lens is powered by a single dedicated lithium ion battery (BP_21) for auto focusing and zooming operations which would make holding this mammoth a heck of a lot easier.

But the cost is equally heavy at a hefty $28,000.

Hat Tip â€" The Giz