Gadgets Blog

Guess today’s focus will be on a couple of Western Digital products, as the world leader in external storage solutions has just lifted the veil on its new My Passport Essential SE Portable USB Drives, offering 750GB and 1TB capacities that come encased in a titanium silver finish, giving you unprecedented amounts of storage capacity right smack in the palm of your hand. Guess with more and more people archiving their collection of photos and videos on hard drives, it makes perfect sense to have a decent storage solution that won’t just konk out within months, being more durable than optical discs at the same time.

The new 1 TB and 750 GB capacity My Passport Essential SE drives won’t be a burden on your shoulders whenever you go traveling with them since they are light and compact to tote around. In addition, by virtue of being USB powered means there is no need to lug around yet another power adapter which could prove to be rather heavy (it all adds up, you know). Each purchase of the new My Passport Essential SE drives will come equipped with sync and encryption software, but these will work only in the Windows environment - sorry, Mac users. In addition, it enables consumers to carry desktop content with them wherever they go, thanks to the synchronization of essential personal files and Microsoft Outlook data on a PC. Just in case you happen to be one clumsy person and misplace your drive, rest assured whoever finds it will have a tough time recovering the information inside thanks to 128-bit encryption technology.

According to Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group, “The enormous capacity of these new My Passport Essential SE drives makes them the perfect travel-friendly storage device to hold all the rich media content generated by higher resolution photos and HD videos and music. Carrying digital files close at hand continues to be a growing consumer interest and this new drive offers a sleek and stylish solution with plenty of storage capacity for people on the move.”

You can pick up the 750GB and 1TB My Passport Essential SE for $199.99 and $299.99, respectively.

Press Release

By now just about every single mini van has a small portable DVD player.  The ones that don’t are getting fewer and fewer.  Except there are still several holding out, because it just seems like a ridiculous expense to some of us.  After all, most households own at least one laptop, so why spend the money for something that is only useful within your car?  The down side with the laptop is that it’s difficult to set it up in a vehicle at an angle that makes everyone happy.  Well with this CradleVue, it would hold your laptop up high and you won’t have to spend money on a portable DVD player.

The CradleVue can be adjusted to hold onto any size laptop.  It also can adjust to accommodate more than just mini vans, it’ll also work for cars, SUVs and trucks as well.  It has a specific type of cord that is used to absorb all of the usual shock from riding around in the car.  The biggest risk factor with this is wondering whether or not it would somehow wear out the hinges between the keyboard and laptop.  You can try it out though for only $19.99, although it’s normally priced at $24.99.

Source: Crunchgear

For those of you that ride a Harley, here’s a Harley Davidson Stereo Speaker System with a dock for your iPhone or iPod.  Of course, those that don’t even ride one have been known to enjoy the occasional Harley themed product.  This will not only charge up your iPod or iPhone, but it also has the ability to wake you up every morning and in a true Harley Davidson fashion.

Instead of hearing a high pitched beep, you can set it to wake you up to truly authentic Harley Davidson motorcycle sounds.  I am not even a major Harley Davidson fanatic and I’d still choose that sound over all of that obnoxious beeping.  You can also set it up so that a song from your iPod or iPhone wakes you up instead.  There is also a handy daylight savings time switch, that purely by flipping it will either add or subtract an hour.  To keep it powered up you can use the AC power adapter and then if the power goes out it can run off of the 2 AA batteries.  You can purchase it for $129.99 from iHome.

Source: ChipChick

It’s not often that I get to review binoculars, and I’ve heard that Bushnell makes some of the best. I was pleased to try out a pair of the Spectator Sport Series 8 x 25 (Magnification and Objective Lens).

Fortunately, I had a chance to compare it with a pair of binoculars that I own, and the Bushnell did a much better job. I looked across a lake with a pair of Tasco binoculars, and, with a little bit of focusing, I could see on the other side. With the Bushnell Spectator binoculars, I saw the other side without focusing, and it was much clearer.

I suppose they call these Spectator Sport Series binoculars because they are perfect for watching sporting events in giant stadiums. You can turn those nosebleed seats into front row center. And since they require no focus, it is easy to track that fly ball at a baseball game or long bomb at a football game. This is why the trademarked slogan for this product is “Upgrade your seat”.

Well, for those who are interested in this type of product, feel free to head over to the Bushnell site and lay down $54 for it. They come with many accessories including a carrying case and neckstrap.

There is never a shortage of portable speakers and they come in just about every shape and size you could possibly imagine.  A lot of them aren’t exactly designed to be stashed in your pocket though.  They’re more worried about having some cute shape or creating a speaker that can dangle from a keychain.  Which is perfectly fine, unless you really do want something to just carry in your pocket.  If that’s the case, then you’ll probably like these new speakers from ABC Corp Japan.

Since they’re called Pocket Speakers, you can guess where they were designed to be carried.  The company has taken an eco-friendly stance and are recommending the use of Sanyo’s eco-friendly Enelopp batteries.  Specifically, you’ll need one AA battery to keep it charged.  It comes in a variety of colors and has an amplifier that delivers an output of 0.5W x 2ch.  You can purchase it for 1980 Yen, which translates into about $22.

Source: Newlaunches

Sure, we all wish that we could climb walls like Tobey Maguire in Spider-man, but Jem Stansfield actually did it. Jem didn’t have little razor things come out of his hands, either, but used vacuum gloves.

As you can see from the attached video (after the jump), Jem’s vacuum gloves really sucked. That is, he was able to attach them to a sheer surface. The particular building that he was climbing was smooth enough to allow him to work.

Of course, you may notice the high amount of safety lifelines around him. The man has more wires on him than a marionette. I certainly don’t think that Mr. Stansfield was being over-cautious. He’s got quite a get-up on, and I don’t really want to see him fall.

Too bad he didn’t have any vacuum boots for his feet. I’m guessing he had to use all of his arm-strength to accomplish this climb, and I am sure that was quite difficult.

This demonstration of the vacuum gloves was performed for a new BBC science show called Bang Goes the Theory. I suppose that Mr. Stansfield was attempting to show that man could climb walls like a spider after all.

Perhaps someone could make a smaller version of these vacuum gloves, and then mass-market them. If so, be prepared for a whole new definition of traffic as New York City becomes filled with many spider-men who literally climb walls to get to work.

Source

I don’t think that I could have sung higher praises of the Digital Foci Photo Book on my hands-on review, but that was before I saw that the Hama Photo Album is about to be released.

I suddenly had a flashback to CES last January, when I stumbled across the booth with this fine product. The only reason why I remember it is because of its Braille dot logo on the word “Album” and its simpler three-button interface. (Simpler when compared to the Photo Book, which is still pretty simple, really.)

The Digital Photo Album comes with a 7” inch screen that displays JPEGs in 800 x 480 pixel resolution. These images can be transferred directly to the device via USB port with USB OTG. There is about 4 GB worth of memory on the Album for the user’s photos, and it can also read SD, SDHC, and MM cards.

As far as I can tell, the Hama Digital Photo Album is almost identical to the aforementioned Photo Book from Digital Foci. Digital Foci’s got an extra inch worth of frame on its diagonal, but lasts the same amount of time after recharge: 2.5 hours.

The problem is, my source doesn’t say when the Hama Digital Photo Album will be released, nor a price. It would appear that little has changed since I saw Hama at CES, but I’m sure they are making progress, and I look forward to seeing the Digital Photo Album when it is finally released.

Source

Always wanted to make a drama involving the future, coupled with robots and yet do not want to ripoff the bunch of robotic sounds that we’ve all come to know and love from space operas like Star Wars and Star Trek? Well, there is hope for those who want something original - the Bleep Labs Robo Audio Synths from ThinkGeek. Whenever you feel like composing your own robotic masterpiece, you can always take advantage of the Bleep Labs Robo Audio Synths’ Thingamagoop. Thinga-what?

The Thingamagoop is an awesome, little, light-controlled, analog synthesizer. Much like Raymond Scott’s Circle Machine (and if you don’t know who Raymond Scott is, shame on you), the Thingamagoop uses its LEDacle (an LED-tipped tentacle) to flash light (at different speeds) into its photocell. The photocell talks to the main oscillator and (with a little more technical stuff that we just won’t get into here), you get bilps and bleeps of pure electronic wonderment. And hey, if you’re more the Maker, get a Thingamakit instead and build your own! You’ll be rewarded with the knowledge that you built it yourself, as well as an extra LEDacle, wave form, and photocell (for even more sound control, variation, etc.). What are you waiting for? You might be the next great composer of Droid Opera! But you’ll need a Thingamagoop or Thingamakit to know for sure.

Depending on your Thingamagoop of choice, it will cost you anywhere from $69.99 to $119.99. Sounds like you’ll have a fair bit of fun with this before you grow tired of it, where you can then hand it down to some kid who’ll probably find much more fun with this than you.

Don’t have green fingers as every single plant that has gone through your hands inexplicably dies off sometime down the road regardless of how much love, care and attention you shower upon it? Things might take a turn for the better with the Power Plant Growing Machine.

A result of pioneering NASA technology this mains-powered box of magic lets you grow plants, all season, without soil. A nifty internal microjet system constantly sprays roots with super-oxygenated, nutrient rich water so crops grow bigger and stronger. All you do is add water to a special nutrient mix (included) and pour it over the spongy strip that sits below the brim of the Power Plant. Next, sow your seeds on the sponge, replace the lid, stick the whole shebang on the window sill, sit back and dream of Alan Titchmarsh. Once the shoots appear, maintenance is minimal. You can even use the Power Plant to grow flowers.

This green growing machine can be used over and over again, making the £34.95 asking price pretty much a bargain considering the virtually unlimited use down the road. Perfect for folks who’ve always wanted a budding garden but never quite had the talent to match their ambition.

I’ve always enjoyed the idea of having a weather station in my house.  It’s just one of those devices I haven’t gotten around to picking up just yet.  I do always check them out whenever I go to any electronics store though.  Out of all the ones I’ve seen, I don’t think I’ve seen any quite like this.  It allows for a little customization and does that while still looking extremely chic.  It would easily blend in with your stainless steel appliances within your kitchen, if you own any.

Each section has to be purchased separately, which has both ups and downs to it.  The down being that you’re going to end up paying more.  The up side is that you get exactly the portions you want and nothing more.  There are three different portions available, the Jensen Rain Gauge, the extra sensor and then the Jensen Barometer.  With all of that you could keep track of all the weather information you need, while also throwing in an alarm clock.  It can be mounted on the wall or just set out on the table.  The pieces will cost you anywhere from $49.99 on up to $99.99.

Source: ChipChick

Here’s an odd concept design for those of you that can’t stand to carry around a normal watch.  It may look like an extremely modern watch, but it takes a design cue from much older technology.  It’s meant to resemble the very old sun dials.  Something that most people couldn’t read now to save their life, even if some do use them for decorative purposes out in the garden.  For those of you that can’t read a sun dial, you might want to start practicing before you seek something like this out.

The watch was designed by Hay Heun, who apparently enjoys making people’s heads ache every time they are itching to discover the time.  Actually, after glancing at the examples of the face of the watch and the times listed underneath them, it wasn’t that difficult to understand how it works.  It just might take you a couple of extra minutes when you glance at it to figure things out.  It’s no worse than a watch that conveniently leaves out any numbers.

Source: TechChee

For those of you that are just dying to capture those ultimate moments when you’re out on your bike or any other situation where you’re doing stunts, there is this USB Action Camera.  It can be strapped inside a car, onto a bike or even to the top of your helmet (which hopefully you’re wearing).  Then you can show off both your awesome and not so awesome moves.  You could even use it to capture moments when your friends are doing something particularly stupid.

The small camera has 640 x 480 VGA at 30 frames per second.  It has a built-in SD card slot and is expandable up to 2GB.  It weighs a total of 80g and is of course a hands-free camera.  It will work just fine with most video editing software and will function with both Macs and PCs.  You can purchase it for ¥ 9,800.00 or about $103 from Geek Stuff 4 U.

Source: TechFresh

Sony is looking far into the future to further consolidate their position as one of the better home entertainment system manufacturers for the average consumer electronics market by rolling out a whole new bunch of devices, where these will include the new BDP-CX960 and the “Elevated Standard” (ES) BDP-CX7000ES 400-disc Blu-ray Disc MegaChangers. In addition, the BDP-S1000ES single disc ES player has also been announced, bringing Sony’s Blu-ray Disc line to 13 models. Just in case you were wondering how “mega” is a MegaChanger, the Blu-ray Disc MegaChanger models are able to store and play a whopping 400 Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs, letting you relocate your entire disc library to a convenient, easy-to-access location - sure as heck frees up more space on those shelves of yours to hold even more discs, if you’re so inclined.

Not only are they a one-stop home entertainment point, this line also boasts the ability to download information from Gracenote’s MusicID and VideoID products in order to better organize your collection of movies and music. Whenever a disc is inserted into the device, Gracenote technology will automatically get to work by downloading information across an existing Internet broadband service, helping you catalog your collection by saving title, director, some cast information, release year, and genre information for most titles. This will help ease the process of navigating through the library intuitively via the player’s Xross media bar menu system.

The BDP-CX7000ES will hit the market later this August for approximately $1,900, while the BDP-CX960 is arriving sometime this fall for about $800. As for the single-disc BDP-S1000ES that boasts integrated Wi-Fi connectivity for seamless BD-Live access, it is tipped to arrive in the market later this August for around $700. Looks like folks who want to spruce up their entertainment options at home this fall will definitely be spoilt for choice with these new offerings from Sony.

Press Release

Beethoven might have his 9th Symphony, but Olive has come up with Opus No. 4 for the masses instead. Just in case you haven’t quite heard of Olive, their latest masterpiece, the Opus No. 4, was specially made to deliver a new standard in high quality digital music experiences, offering an unprecedented 2TB capacity in the flagship model from their stable. For those who want something different instead of relying on the usual stuff from other manufacturers such as Sony, Toshiba and Panasonic, the Olive Opus No. 4 enables consumers to experience their music in true hi-fi audio quality, boasting similar in sound clarity as your CDs sans the hassle and clutter. The 2TB of storage space enables one to store thousands of CDs worth of music in original quality, and can be hooked up to traditional stereo systems while enabling playback through an intuitive touchscreen menu.

Some of the features of the Opus No. 4 include :-

• Music is stored using lossless compression (FLAC) for the best possible reproduction of the original recording, including every tone in the artists voices and individual instruments in vivid clarity
• Sound quality is further enhanced by a high resolution digital-to-analog converter (DAC), optimized circuit design and precision power supply
• Holds almost 6000 CDs so even the largest music collection is all instantly accessible
• Navigation is fast and intuitive through a color-coded touchscreen menu or familiar CD player buttons
• Digitizing music in high fidelity is incredibly easy - either insert CDs into the built-in CD drive and the music is imported and automatically categorized…or allow Olive to do the work for you with its CD digitizing service
• Playback can be expanded throughout the home using the Melody Hi-Fi Multi-Room Player, which connects to the Opus through a wireless or wired network and allows music to be played in up to 10 rooms simultaneously
• Thoughtful design, craftsmanship and high-quality materials - fine grade aluminum exterior etched with distinctive musical genre pattern is stylish, functional (cooling without a noisy fan) and recyclable
• Maestro browser-based software makes music management easy to do - drag & drop playlist creation, metadata personalization and album artwork customization
• Thousands of pre-set internet radio stations are available and adding other personal favorites is easy
• Metadata library is extensive and regularly bolstered by proprietary additions, e.g. only Olive includes such detailed genre-specific information for Classical as Composer, Work, Orchestra, Conductor, Instrument/Voice, Choir, Soloist and for Jazz as Artist, Album, Sidemen, Release Date, Music Label, Instrument/Voice, Original Recording Date
• Opus is not a computer peripheral, so it frees the music experience from PCs or network storage devices and related security/virus concerns
• Set-up is simple, no home installers are required

Depending on your budget, the Opus No. 4 will come in 2TB, 1TB and 500GB capacities that retail for $1,599, $1,599 and $1,799, respectively, when August rolls around.

Press Release

For many of us who grew up on a steady diet of Mario and the NES, it can be pretty hard to let go of such gaming icons and move on to other less established franchises on other consoles. Good thing Nintendo have done well to maintain their goodwill with fans by offering memorable titles over the years regardless of the advancement in console technology, and this time round they’ve outdone themselves by merging two classics - old Game & Watch characters alongside the faithful Game Boy in the form of the Nintendo Mini Classics.

Containing (very) pared down versions of arcade classics, these LCD rectangles were to the Eighties what the DS is to the Noughties, and no self-respecting gamer would dream of hitting the playground without one sandwiched between his conkers. As you’ve probably guessed, all this reminiscing is merely an appetiser to whet your nostalgic cravings, because some of the greatest Game & Watch titles are back, shoehorned into these fantastic keychain-friendly gizmos. Fully licensed, they even feature the same strangely incongruous watches and alarms. High score! Styled to resemble titchy Game Boys, Nintendo Mini Classics are just as thumb-blisteringly addictive as you (probably don’t) remember. We’re talking minutes of fun! Thing is, those minutes soon turn into hours as you attempt new high scores and search for new cheats.

You can choose from Donkey Kong Jr, Mario’s Cement Factory and Super Mario Bros. for £9.99 a pop - get one and be prepared to see your productivity plummet!