Gadgetstronics

Iomega has a brand new DVR Expander Drive for the masses, and this time round they have increased the capacity to 500GB which bodes well for folks who are way too busy in their daily schedules to catch up on all the shows that they want to watch - the only drawback that I can think of is the fact that with so much storage space, one will most probably end up with a backlog of shows to catch up with and won’t even have the time to finish up a mountain of recorded movies. Well, that’s another problem to solve, but we won’t be looking at that today. In a nutshell, the new Iomega DVR Expander Drive, offers enough space to store up to 300 hours of stand definition TV or 60 hours of high definition TV. More details are available after the jump.

The new Iomega DVR Expander Drive adds storage capacity for eSATA-enabled Scientific Atlanta DVRs, allowing cable TV customers to record and enjoy more of their favorite cable TV and movie broadcasts. Cable service providers that market the Scientific Atlanta eSATA-enabled DVRs include COX, Time Warner, Cablevision, Comcast, and Rogers (US and Canada), among others. The new Iomega DVR Expander Drive connects to the eSATA port on the back panel of an eSATA-enabled Scientific Atlanta DVR. After an initial setup the DVR automatically streams new recordings to either its internal hard drive or the external SATA drive, whichever has more space available. For example, an Iomega DVR Expander Drive connected to a Scientific Atlanta DVR 8300HD model (a 160GB model) expands the original storage capacity for this particular model by more than three times, allowing users to keep considerably more of their favorite shows and movies on their DVR without running out of space for new recordings.

You can pick up the Iomega DVR Expander Drive, eSATA 500GB, for $199.95 when it hits online and retail stores in the US later this month.

Press Release

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 10th 2008 at 2:42PM
So much for Ballmer’s vision of a paperless world — that is, if the mighty nanofiber paper has anything to do with it. This new paper is made out of the same cellulose your regulation legal pad, but scientists at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden were able to get the fiber so small and defect-free in this version — about 1,000 times smaller — that it’s more than seven times as strong. By breaking down wood pulp with enzymes and beating it mechanically and then treating the tiny fibers with carboxymethanol, they were able to get the new paper to a tensile strength of 214 megapascals (MPa) compared with the normal 30 MPa. So, why should you care? It’s entirely possible that this stuff could replace plastic bags at stores without all the petroleum waste.

[Via OhGizmo]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

AverMedia is working on TV tuners as well as the corresponding software which will target Mac users, as the company takes the first step towards moving away from a Windows-only approach. This USB tuner will supposedly pick up analog as well as over-the-air digital broadcasts, not leaving out Europe’s DVB-T. Other Mac-specific features that can be expected include Apple Remote support and a viewing application that is not too far away in style compared to Apple’s pro software. There is no official naming convention to date, but this summer ought to shed more details.

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 10th 2008 at 10:48AM
Packard Bell unleashed a big ol’ set of machines in Italy today. Among the new laptops, the EasyNote RS65 13.3-incher cued some unusual design elements like red and chrome highlights and circular touchpad. It packs an Intel Centrino 2 and dedicated video card with DVI and HDMI. Other machines include the multimedia-friend ML (15.4-inch) and SL (17-inch) based on the Puma platform. Also of note are the MT (15.4-inch) and ST (17-inch) laptops, which include a “Battery Boost” button that allows you to switch between dedicated video and integrated Intel GMA chipsets in order to conserve unwired time. Finally, the TN line (pictured above) is set to appeal to a younger audience with low prices and multimedia features. In the desktop category, Packard Bell intro’d new i-Media, family-Extreme, and i-Max machines that run the gamut from diminutive budget boxes to gamer-friendly powerhouses. Peep the read link (in Italian) to get a deeper scoop.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Good to see Belkin stay on top of the game by offering 3G iPhone cases despite the handset not being released just yet. There is a whole bunch to choose from, and what you see on the right is the Formed Leather case that will retail for $29.99. All of the following cases will launch in US this July (presumably the same time as the 3G iphone, with Europe, Asia and Australia to follow shortly after.

Need to vent some anger but have absolutely no idea on how to go about it? Artist Yarisa Kublitz has the perfect solution with the Passive Aggressive Vending Machine that comes filled with fine China. Should you feel like you need to let go your anger or blow your top, just drop a coin, select the desired object you want to break and the piece will harness the power of gravity, falling to the bottom and breaking so badly that putting Humpty Dumpty back together again would look like a piece of cake. Man, it’s gonna be a pain refilling and clearing out such vending machines every single day. What happens if the machine itself swallows the coin in front of an already upset customer?

Guess the fast and easy way to get blinged up these days are through the use of crystals - Swarovski crystals, to be exact. LG’s Canvas Crystal X LCD TV doesn’t escape such treatment either, with the 47″ living room tech artwork being adorned with a base clad in 1,000 of such luxurious crystals, nudging the price upwards to approximately $3,194 in Korea. No idea if this new line will ship outside of Korea, but can always buy your own Swarovski crystals and paste them to the base if you want to. Other features of this full HD TV include a contrast ratio of 50,000 to 1 and EyeQ that boasts automatic brightness, contrast and color balance adjustment.

Who do you think has the fastest computer in the world? Bill Gates? A university? That one guy from the LAN party you were at 5 years ago? Wrong. The answer is obvious, the federal government.

Engineers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory and IBM unveiled the machine today and it’s quite a whopper. They’re calling it the Roadrunner, and for good reason. Consisting of 6,948 dual-core AMD Opteron processors, 12,960 Cell processors and 80 terabytes of memory, the machine can be used to do just about anything. But its main purpose will be to do some pretty heavy processing for the National Nuclear Security Administration.

It took a team of engineers over six years to put together the 57 miles of fiber optics and 500,000 pounds of equipment that span over 6,000 square feet. What’s really remarkable about the Roadrunner is its computing capacity. Considering it shares the same heart as a playstation 3 x 12,960, in both tests and real-world applications the system was able to achieve a petaflop of speed therefore dwarfing all other supercomputers. CNN does a good job of putting this into perspective:

If every one of the 6 billion people on earth used a hand-held computer and worked 24 hours a day it would take them 46 years to do what the Roadrunner computer can do in a single day.

The machine is being moved to Los Alamos soon, and will begin work performing unclassified duties for a few months while it gets put through its paces. Eventually, it will be used to perform some classified duties such as maintaining U.S. weapons stockpiles. Other big problems will also get some time with it; specifically, it may actually be used to help find a cure for HIV or to “understand the origins of the universe“.

Read more at CNN and the U.S. Department of Energy

Just how many versions of the HTC Touch do we have? Well, we’ve seen the standard Touch, the Touch Dual, the Touch Cruise, and the Touch Diamond - now we have the Touch Victor. What can you expect from this high end handset?

• 2.8″ touch screen display
• TouchFLO 3D user interface
• HSDPA connectivity
• 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus
• 4GB of internal memory
• Integrated GPS

I wonder how much this puppy will cost, and will it make its way to Europe and the US?

eBay, the number one online auction destination, has been found liable for 3 counterfeit items sold on its site by a court in France.

The lawsuit was brought by The Hermes Group, who sell luxury goods including fashion, jewellery, leather, silk and fragrances. The items in question were 3 Hermes bags selling for a total of US$4,692. The ruling stated:

By selling Hermes bags and branded accessories on the eBay.fr site, and by failing to act within their powers to prevent reprehensible use of the site,” the user and eBay “committed acts of counterfeiting and imitation of French brand names … to the detriment of Hermes international.

Emmanuel Colomes, the lawyer for Hermes, argued that eBay did not just host the auctions, but promoted, aided and took revenue from the sales. He said:

eBay is an active player in the transaction because not only does it offer a number of services to improve the sale, but when it does not work well enough or fast enough, they intervene with the client … They are perfectly informed of the transactions since they take a percentage cut.

Upon losing the case eBay were fined US$30,000 to be paid in conjunction with the lady who sold the bags, and they must also display the ruling on eBay.fr for 3 months. This ruling against eBay is minimal when viewed alone, but raises concern that other court cases will follow. Louis Vuitton, Dior Couture and L’Oreal have already launched lawsuits in France with damage claims in the millions of dollars.

eBay has yet to comment on the outcome of the case.

Read more at Vnunet.com and AFP

Matthew’s Opinion
This lawsuit defeat could mean drastic action on eBay’s part in the way it manages the auctions it hosts through its site. If you are facing an increasing number of lawsuits, each wanting millions in damages, you have to sit up and take notice.

So what is a solution to the counterfeit problem? They can’t have people sitting there checking every single auction as there are just too many of them being started around the world. Possibly a best-case solution is a system similar to that used by Google to highlight copyright infringing videos on YouTube. At least then it could argue that action is being taken to find these items.

Another option is to get the companies complaining involved. Why aren’t they checking the auctions for counterfeit products? It is in their interests to find them and therefore they should be proactive instead of just complaining and suing eBay.