Gadgetstronics

Glittery. Strange. Futuristic. No, we’re not talking about some of the options you’ll find at the iphone’s upcoming SDK App store. We’re talking about some of the crazy items that were displayed at this year’s Computex Trade show, in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Computex event is not only one of the world’s largest technology conferences in the world (alongside CeBit and CES), but we think it’s slightly ahead of the others in terms of randomness and scope. After all, where else can you find a dust-filled, fanless industrial computer box shaking maddeningly right next to a bunch of panda-shaped USB devices, all with a too-satisfied expression on their face? Nowhere else. Outside of the Wired offices, that is.

PC World has a gallery up of some of the craziest stuff at this year’s event, including a notebook with a swivel neck that drops down into your lap, and a little USB-ported alien doll that hits itself on the head with a hammer whenever someone sends you an IM.

And you thought the big news coming out of this event this year was the new line of Asus Eee PCs. What were you thinking?

Link: PC World

HP boasts of putting our digital life at our fingertips through their latest offering – the TouchSmart PC.

Media manipulation on PC’s isn’t anything new – uploading home videos, editing photos and listening to music have been staples of most home PC’s for several years. Touchscreen technology has also enjoyed considerable interest, in light of Apple’s iphone. Mix them together and package them as a “total home PC” and you’ve got yourself a winner.

HP’s TouchSmart PCs come with a 22-inch diagonal hi-def widescreen display powered with a “software designed specifically for touch.” A tap or sweep at the sleek piano-black finished screen gives ready access to hands-on digital entertainment.

With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor powering the device’s single integrated design, the TouchSmart PC is an ideal, unobtrusive apparatus perfect for the living room as a media center, a digital hobby nexus in the den, a workstation in the home office and even a personal portal in the bedroom. 

With a one-cord set up, wireless keyboard, and integrated WLAN, it just reinforces a hassle-free computing experience. HP’s Ambient Light technology also allows users to see the keyboard in the dark.

The TouchSmart PC comes with an integrated DVD burner, optional TV tuner, 4GB of memory and a built-in media card reader. The base model HP TouchSmart IQ504 PC is expected to tap a $1,299 price tag while those who want the TV-tuner equipped IQ506 PC need to shell out an additional $200.

Via [CrunchGear]

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 12th 2008 at 3:18PM
Robots do all sorts of things, but climbing walls seems to be a goal engineers can’t live without. Meet the Waalbot which is fitted with gecko-like micro fiber feet that can sick to vertical and even ceiling surfaces. In addition, the legs are wheeled with three feet that can rotate and cruise over surface curvature and even grab onto other walls at right angles. Unlike other wall-climbing robots, this one is small and light, and given its diminutive size, capacity varies depending on the surface type and size of feet. Using a PIC microcontroller and wireless controls along with batteries, Waalbot is designed to be completely autonomous and untethered.

[Via Engineering TV]

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Filed under: Robots

You know how those gossiping sessions at the office often revolve around a water cooler? Well, why not bring the action to your desk with the Mini Water Cooler instead? It measures $12.99 and stands at 14″ tall. Of course, you won’t be able to store much water at that size, but it will make for a cute conversation starter especially when you want to get to know that new hottie at the office. If you’re so hard up for gossip, why not bug the pantry or water cooler instead? That way, you’ll be able to find out whether your colleagues really like you…or not.

I’ve written before about both my love of good (preferably large) watches and my nostalgia for cassette tapes, and here’s a design that brings them both together with a dash of style.

It’s available for £35.00 (around $69) from Asos, who for some strange reason have it in the men’s section of their website… Hey Asos, girls can be geeks too, y’know!

[Via Shiny Shiny].

Product: Flamingo Music Headphones
Price and Availability: Currently available and retailing for $49.99
Rating: 8/10
Pros: Stayed in ear well, offered good sound quality, comfortable even with extended wear.
Cons: Nylon cord.
Overall: Would not hesitate to recommend.

The Flamingo Music headphones feature a 24K gold-plated 3.5mm jack (that works with the recessed iphone jack), a 12-guage shielded cable, weigh just about 0.78 ounces, have a frequency response of 12Hz - 22kHz and a 9mm neodynmium rare earth magnet driver.

They retail for $49.99 and are available in chrome, black, white or blistered red. They ship with a very nice fabric carrying case for when they are not in your ears and seven sets of pads for their EarClick system, which should allow just about any ear size to get a comfortable fit.

But enough with the boring specs, lets get on with how I felt about them after some use.

When I first opened up the package that came in the mail, I must say I was a little taken back by the large size of the headphones and when I first took them out of the box they initially felt heavy (at least as compared to other earbud style headphones).

It did take a few tries to get the correct fit with the EarClick pads, they seem a lot smaller than they feel when you try them on, and trust me the headphones are not comfortable with the incorrect size. However after finding a good fit I was pleasantly surprised with just how nice they felt, even with that initial heavy feel in my hand they felt very lightweight when in my ear. I was anxious to try these out for an extended music listening session to see how they held up, both sound and comfort wise.

They are made to “listen to music in traffic safety.” To me that means they let in a lot of outside noise, which can be good and bad. Overall the sound quality was very nice, however when more cars were around I found myself reaching for the volume to be able to hear a little better. But all things considered when you are in an area with a lot of traffic then hearing outside noise really is actually a good thing.

After some use and some thought I do have mixed feelings with these particular headphones, I would not hesitate to recommend them because overall they were comfortable and provided a good sound quality. I am however sort of conflicted on my pro’s and con. A primary source of headphone use for me is while running, so with that I am pleased to say that they stayed in my ear very well and felt good, even during longer runs. However, they have a nylon cord made of a “sports-grade finish” which makes me a little nervous as to long term use. Not to get gross, but when you run you tend to sweat and I have some concerns that the cord will get a little ‘dirty’ after a while, which is something you would not have to worry about with a standard wire covering.

Overall these are a very nice set of headphones, ones that I was, and continue to be very happy with.

Keep reading for a few more “real-world” pics of the Flamingo Music headphones…

Product [Flamingo Music]

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Product: Boosted Grande headphones
Price and Availability: Currently available and retailing for $70.00
Rating: 6/10
Pros: Soft, comfortable headpiece and ear cups, nice long cord.
Cons: Personally, a little big for my taste.
Overall: Would recommend.

The Boosted Grande headphones feature a 50mm driver diameter, have a 20-20KHz frequency response and a sensitivity (S.P.L.) of 106~3dB(at 1KHz). They also include a standard 3.5mm adapter, iphone compatible 3.5mm adapter and a 1.4-inch adapter.

These headphones retail for $70 and are available in Grande (black) as well as Sherbert and Sashimi which are both bright and multi-colored. Now onto the review…

These headphones were a little strange to review, considering the fact that I am not in anyway a DJ, however I was able to put them to good use and I think I was able to offer some pretty accurate “testing.”

See, I work from home and often work when others are around, sometimes my young daughters, sometimes my wife, sometimes everyone. Given the fact that I always like to listen to music I tend to wear headphone quite often as to not affect (or offend) anyone with my music of choice.

While these are “DJ-style” headphones they are made to offer an “optimum sound from your cell phone without compromise to any other devices.” Meaning they have big, soft earpieces that swivel around and move with ease, however they also feature an inline microphone for when you are using them with your cell phone. I take that to mean they are good at multi-tasking.

These headphones allowed me to comfortably listen to music and still be able to manipulate the headphones and not have to remove them completely and still chat at a normal speaking level when people were around me. While they seemed to work well with my iPhone, the inline mic was acceptable to people on the receiving end, I avoided walking around my neighborhood with them as to not draw any added attention to myself. Personally I felt they were a little big for outside wear, but to each their own.

Although I would suggest that if you are like myself and used to wearing earbuds and not a big set of headphones, then jump in with caution as they take a little time to get used to, however the padded top of the headphones along with the padded ear cups did wonders to help the comfort level.

Overall these headphones offered a decent sound quality, they also offered a long cord, which came in handy when moving around my desk without having to worry as much about running out of cord. While I would recommend them, both comfort and sound wise, I would also not use them personally. Mainly they are just a little to big and bulky for my personal taste.

Keep reading for a few more “real-world” pics of the Boosted Grande headphones…

Product [Boosted]

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I’ll admit it: every Christmas will probably be a Disney Christmas in my house for the next few years, thanks to a four-year-old daughter who knows why Ariel has daddy issues and a two-year-old son who wants to be Lightning McQueen when he grows up.

As an unrepentant tech enthusiast who also wants to keep his kids happy ever after, you can imagine my curiosity about the announcement from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment about the company’s plans to maximize Blu-ray technology for its DVD releases, beginning with “Sleeping Beauty” in October. Disney is promising live chat rooms as the story of Princess Aurora unfolds on your flat-screen HDTV. Division president Bob Chapek pictures grandparents in one part of the country chatting with grandkids in another part as they all watch the movie together. He also previewed video messaging and an onscreen DVD menu reflecting the weather conditions where you are, all thanks to Blu-ray’s Internet capabilities:

Chapek said Disney’s goal is to “reinvent the experience of watching movies in the home … by laying in a level of interactivity and connectivity that has never before been attempted in any format. This interactive connectivity will help us to connect families all across the country and help make the family room relevant again.”

There is a coolness quotient to all this that, combined with the powerful Disney brand and a vast library of classic films (including those from Disney/Pixar), carries the possibility of helping sales of BD players and playstation 3’s. Other star attractions in the Disney corporate stable - “High School Musical,” “Lost,” “Hannah Montana” - await DVD exploitation in what’s being called the Disney BD Live Network.

At the risk of sounding like Cruella DeVil, Disney needs BD player prices to continue to come down and advances in technology to cut down on disc loading times. The company valued for quality family entertainment needs to ensure safe, secure chatting. And what about those of us who already own the first generation of those classic films on standard DVD? Pricing and piling on those extra features will be key, or else Disney’s desire to cash in on Blu-ray will be wishing upon a…well, you get the high-def picture.

Read [Hollywood Reporter]

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Fluorescent bulbs although they are much more environmentally friendly and save on your energy bill, they take forever to reach their brightest. I hate how dim they make a room seem, of course they eventually brighten up. That small set back isn’t enough to sway me from them, it is just a bit of a nuisance. Well these new Panasonic bulbs still feature an energy efficient design, but they reach instant brightness. The other nice feature is that they appear like the old incandescent bulbs, which look better in decorative lighting. I don’t know if it’s just me or not, but the new bulbs just looked a bit odd sticking out of the lights on ceiling fans.

These new Panasonic bulbs feature a compact quick lamp which is located in the center of the fluorescent tube. That allows the bulb to reach 60% of its full brightness within a single second of being flipped on. Basically the quick lamp turns on and once the spiral arc has reached enough of its own brightness it will shut off all on its own. The bulb is the equivalent of a regular 54-watt bulb, while actually using only 10 watts, it also will last 13,000 hours before burning out. It will be released in July of this year for Japan but no word on if or when it will reach the US.

[via ohgizmo]

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Perhaps the ultimate in father/daughter bonding, we see here a little kid blowing the bejeesus out of a moving automobile at the Oklahoma Full Auto Shoot, using nothing but a fully automatic, tripod mounted gun.

Keep watching. At around 2:20 you’ll see young Alyssa hanging off the back of a firearm that’s bigger than the girl herself. Anybody know what kind of gun that is? I want one.

Oklahoma Full Auto Shoot [Google Video via Kottke]