Gadgetstronics

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 8:18PM
Nintendo talks a big talk, but has never invested heavily in actually protecting its systems from those nefarious homebrew junkies. While the Wii Menu 3.3 did slightly break the Twilight Hack, it didn’t even bust up folks who already had the hombrew channel installed, and its protections against further hacks were minimal. Now the HackMii folks are back with Twilight Hack v0.1beta1, which bests Wii Menu 3.3, along with some other improvements for homebrew usage. We can’t tell if this is incompetence or benevolence on Nintendo’s part, or perhaps these hackers are just that good, but either way we’re lovin’ it JT-style.

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Filed under: Gaming

Joining Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines, Delta has become the latest to announce plans to begin accepting a cell phone or PDA as a boarding pass. This new boarding pass policy is currently only available for passengers at LaGuardia International Airport in New York.

In addition this option is currently only available for those who are domestic passengers, and once at the airport they can check their bags at the curbside check-in and skip the regular check-in and proceed directly to the screening area. Once at the screening area, the TSA representative will scan the electronic pass and check your ID. Travelers using this method will also be asked to show the phone with the electronic pass at the gate just prior to boarding.

Via [treo central]

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Firstly, a promotional product is an item bearing a company’s name, logo, address or even some advertising message. The promotional products are generally sold by promotional product distributors and these products are great for marketing purpose as you can easily spread the word about your company or your program.

Gadgets and accessories are a part of day-to-day life and we use a number of gadgets, accessories, products in a single day. Let’s take cell phone as an example. Cell phone is the most popular gadget as almost everyone carries a cell phone so as to communicate with others and there are a number of cell phone items available in the market to enhance the functionality. Multi-Card reader, cell phone holder, LED light are some of the cell phone items that are considered as cell phone accessories. A number of people buy these cell phone accessories to either improve the functionality or to protect their phone.

If you’re a marketer then you can effectively use these cellphone items or any other popular item to spread the word about your product or company. You can place your company’s logo on these products so that you get exposure. The best part is that it’s not very expensive to get your logo imprinted on a product. There are a number of promotional product distributors that offer this service at an affordable price. So, you should carefully checkout different distributors so as to make sure that you get the best deal.

Empirepromos is one such site which allows you to get your text, logo, address imprinted on a product at a nominal price. Empirepromos has a wide range of products and you’re likely to find a promotional product that suits your program. You should carefully choose a product and getting maximum exposure should be the target while selecting a promotional product. Carefully think about your program, your targeted audience and then browse through the relevant category to look for a suitable product.

Sometimes, special discounts are also offered at these sites so as to boost up the sale. Keep an eye on these discounts so as to make sure you get the best deal.

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 6:46PM
A few dubious screens from Apple’s upcoming OS X mini-update “Snow Leopard” popped up the other week, but now we’re staring at a full-on collection of shots from the folks at German site Apfeltalk. They seem legit enough, but given the fact that Snow Leopard’s improvements primary are under the hood, there’s not a ton to see. Most interesting is a new Safari feature to “Save as Web Application,” which creates a Safari-lite, double-clickable application out of any webpage. Google Docs, anyone? Other features shown off in the screenshots include Exchange integration and Javascript benchmarks, but it’s clear to see that Apple has perhaps a tiny bit more in store for Snow Leopard than what it’s letting on.

[Thanks, John]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

While the original XO Laptop in green is nice enough looking, there is always something that makes it sound special when its labeled as a limited edition. In this case the latest limited edition is a red model of the XO Laptop. There are reported to only be 100 of these special models made and they are all slated for the developers that are working on the dual boot Windows XP and Sugar Linux systems.

Aside from the red coloring, the models also offer 2GB of flash memory, which is the minimum required for Windows XP to run. No plans have been announced for a future release of this coloring, so chances are you will never see one in the wild, that is unless a developer goes against the path and decides to drop theirs on eBay, but I would not count on that happening.

Via [Gizmodo]

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While the original XO Laptop in green is nice enough looking, there is always something that makes it sound special when its labeled as a limited edition. In this case the latest limited edition is a red model of the XO Laptop. There are reported to only be 100 of these special models made and they are all slated for the developers that are working on the dual boot Windows XP and Sugar Linux systems.

Aside from the red coloring, the models also offer 2GB of flash memory, which is the minimum required for Windows XP to run. No plans have been announced for a future release of this coloring, so chances are you will never see one in the wild, that is unless a developer goes against the path and decides to drop theirs on eBay, but I would not count on that happening.

Via [Gizmodo]

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by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 2:30PM
Brain-computer interfaces have been popping up left and right lately, but the latest system from Germany’s Technical University of Braunschweig, might be the silliest one we’ve seen so far. While the system doesn’t involve the careful placement of electrodes, it does require you to don a large metal helmet fitted with sensors, which can even detect brain activity through hair — and makes you look like Magneto on a bad day. The system is solid enough to allow test subjects to control an RC car and researchers say the tech is similarly applicable to wheelchairs and prosthetics. Yeah, that’s great — we’ll stick with the dangerous neurosurgery implantation over this contraption, guys. Video after the break.

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 3:50PM
iriver’s Lplayer, which we just got done handling ourselves, made it over to the review crew at PC Magazine. As expected, both design and interface were smiled upon, and critics also felt the price was fair. Upon using the admittedly wee device, they seemed to have problems getting the click buttons to respond like they wanted, but aside from that, hardly anything negative was said. The broad codec support was praised, the built-in equalizer worked as advertised and the FM tuner / voice recorder were welcome extras. All in all, it was seen as a worthy rival to the ipod nano, and if you’re the type that prefers something different in the pocket, this puppy just might be the ticket.

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Filed under: Podcasts, Portable Video

by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 8:52AMWe’ve seen a couple handheld 3D devices, but Infosys just announced that developed a chipset capable of capturing and projecting 3D holograms from ordinary cellphones, and that it hopes to take the tech mainstream by 2010. The system captures a series of 2D images from normal cameras and uses them to develop 3D holograms, projecting received images using a laser projector and micro optical elements. Infosys also had a patent granted on the system required to transmit 3D data over normal telecom networks without clogging them up — the data is transmitted unprocessed, and the chipsets at either end do the heavy lifting. There’s no word on what devices this stuff might appear in, but we’re wondering what that laser system is supposed to project onto — or if we’ll have to take up smoking to get our 3D on.

[Thanks, Bucky]

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Filed under: cellphones, Digital Cameras, Displays

More news for the June bride–June 2011, that is. Get married in space. Well, some 62 miles up there, to be precise, on the Rocketplane XP suborbital spaceplane.

The one-hour flight-plus-ceremony will cost $2.2 million, but it’s actually a bargain because the price includes the wedding dress. The price also includes a telecast for guests, but it appears that reception food and drink is still on you.