We here in the Gadget Lab are pleased as punch that the Webby Awards have bestowed upon us the title of "Honoree" for the 2008 Webbies. Awesome! Our fellow Wired blog Epicenter is also a Webby Honoree for business blogs. Not only that, but three other Wired blogs have scooped up nominations. Compiler is a Webby Award nominee, which means it’s in the running for the big prize — that cool spiral sculpture thingy. Danger Room and Game|Life are also in the running. Compiler editor Michael Calore is already trying to figure out what his five-word speech will be if he wins, so help him out: Vote for Compiler in the People’s Voice Webby Awards. (Read the full post about ‘Gadget Lab Snags a Webby Honor’…)
Speedy is a UK company that pimps wheelchairs. Its range of add-ons will turn the chair into a handbike, a comfy tricycle or a full-on electric chair (no, not that kind). You might be thinking, along with Oh Gizmo’s Luke Anderson, that a pedal powered wheelchair is something of an oxymoron. The Pedalofit is in fact a rehabilitation device rather than a means of propulsion, but Speedy’s other kits, all of which clamp onto your own wheelchair, can be used to ease getting around. The best, to our mind, is the Tandem, seen at right. Sit back, relax and let some other sap do all the work. (Read the full post about ‘Kit Turns Wheelchairs into Custom Choppers’…)
The recently announced and highly praised HP Mini-Note UMPC is now available for pre-order. With pricing beginning on the low-end at $499 for a 1.0 GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB SSD, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and running Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and topping out at $849 for a 1.2 GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor, 1GB of RAM, 160GB 5,400 rpm hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth and running Windows Vista Home Basic. Personally I would think the less expensive model that features a 1.6 GHz VIA C7-M ULV processor, 2GB of RAM, 120GB 7,200 rpm hard drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth with Windows Vista Business for $749 seems to be the better value. Either way, pre-order away. (Read the full post about ‘HP 2133 Mini-Note now available for pre-order’…)
No one in the media has touched the actual device yet, but an image was shown during a recent developer presentation held in Redwood City (Silicon Valley). Of course, everyone will point out that it does look like the iPhone (well, anything that has only a display would more or less look like it). It is Nokia’s first Touch-only device, and the company is confident that it will be able to compete with Apple’s iPhone. It might run the Symbian OS, which was ironically designed for touch devices… RelatedFuture of Nokia Smartphones, Will the iphone Continue to Dominate? (Read the full post about ‘Nokia Tube, the Anti-iPhone’…)
If you think that the Microsoft-Yahoo merger issue is already dead, think again as here comes Yahoo issuing yet again another statement saying that they are not opposed to Microsoft’s buyout offer. But they will definitely not accept Microsoft’s proposed $31 per-share offer. Yahoo issued the statement as a reaction to the recently published letter from Microsoft which gave Yahoo an April 26 deadline to accept their final offer. In the said letter, Microsoft threatened to resort to hostile takeover should Yahoo continue to refuse the $31 per-share price. And while this seems to be a back-and-forth game that is being played, Yahoo is expected to send a return letter that denies Microsoft’s claims that Yahoo’s business is falling apart. (Read the full post about ‘Yahoo not opposing Microsoft’s offer, but $31 a share is unacceptable’…)
It looks like Apple might have made a mistake with its recent update to the Airport Extreme. We reported that the software update had fixed a long standing annoyance, which stopped people using Time Machine to back up to a USB hard drive over the air. The problem? Apple is treating this new feature as “unsupported”, which likely means that it was accidentally included in the updated software. Glenn Fleishmann, a writer for Macworld, details the glitches on the Tidbits blog, and speculates that it was in fact a “debugging feature […] that wasn’t properly turned off before the updates shipped”. So, while everything might be going smoothly for you, Gadget Lab reader, remember that the one thing you don’t want to mess around with is backups. (Read the full post about ‘Airport Time Machine Support is Probably Accidental’…)
Word to the wise: if a mechanical engineer challenges you to a game of oneupsmanship, just fold. Otherwise, you may find yourself going up against the likes of Kettering University student Will Foster. After visiting a local paintball field and seeing players scooting around in their "tanks" — which were little more than dressed up golf carts — Foster got an idea.
(Read the full post about ‘Student Builds Miniature Tank for Paintball’…)
Do you have a predilection for both digital and analog watches but don’t have the money for both? The E-Ink Display watch is something you might want to take a look at. Using e-paper technology rather than the usual LCD screen, you can view the time on this watch at any angle. What’s more, it’s equipped with a variety of different displays, ranging from analog to digital screen, and black to white color background. Taking all the options into account, there are 16 possible displays to choose from. E-Ink Display Watch is now available in ThinkGeek for ₤125. (Read the full post about ‘E-Ink Display Watch’…)
HTC Shift Ultra-mobile PCs are the awkward middle children of gadgets. They’re constantly trying to assume the notable attributes of their older and younger siblings, but almost always come up short. On one hand, these little dudes aspire to have a laptop’s computational power and ease of use, yet they also endeavor to be diminutive and highly portable, like a smartphone. Unfortunately, the end result is more often than not some ungodly mishmash of half-measures and workarounds, none of which comes close to matching the experience on either end of the spectrum. And, yes, like middle children, they also tend to get ignored and neglected. HTC’s latest UMPC, the Shift, is no exception. (Read the full post about ‘Review: HTC Shift UMPC Is Barely Mobile, Hardly Useful’…)
Iogear has gotten itself into the portable media player game with its very own 120GB device that functions like a video library in a box, holding up to 50 hours worth of DVD-quality video in a portable package. Also known by its unpronounceable model name, GMD2025U120, this PMP strangely lacks a color or external display as it is meant to be connected to a TV set whenever you want to play digital media files. It also boasts upscaling capability up to 720p resolution, but it remains to be seen whether the upconversion yields a decent quality image or not. Supported formats include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX and Xvid.
