by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 24th 2008 at 8:00PM You know, when you’re the editor-in-chief of a site like Engadget, you tend to accumulate a lot of stuff. Companies send you all kinds of interesting promotional materials, gadgets, swag, etc. It’s great. Sometimes, though, you just let it pile up in your living room for years and years, then, when a new editor-in-chief takes over, you send all that stuff to him in about ten huge boxes. Luckily, we’ve got a way of dealing with this other than just throwing it in storage — we’re giving a ton of it away. That’s right, you could be one of the lucky readers to win a massive stash of gear recently jettisoned toward New York by Mr. Ryan Block. (Read the full post about ‘The editor-in-chief giveaway: Win Ryan Block’s swag’…)
Add some spice into your kid’s bedroom with the Glowpets Nightlights from Prezzybox. After all, they’ll definitely bring some comfort to little ones who are afraid of the dark. Glowpets night lights are soft, luminous animal night-lights that reassure young children with their comforting glow. These soft animals slowly change colour through pinks and greens, oranges and reds! Glowing gently they take the black out of the night and make a rainbow of the evening. They are made specifically for young children in mind with low-consuming LED’s so the Glowpets don’t get hot. Your little treasures can carry Glowpet with them wherever they choose. (Read the full post about ‘Glowpets Nightlights’…)
Some further information about the rumored upcoming Amazon Kindle student edition is now claiming that Amazon has confirmed the device is in the works. According to a recent report from the Seattle PI, Amazon has confirmed that “they are planning to target colleges and universities with a new version of the Kindle.” Based on the information available to date, the student edition Kindle will offer a larger screen, which I think makes sense when reading textbooks. Of course, we can only hope that text book pricing will be relatively inexpensive for the digital versions, because this could essentially kill, or seriously slow the used book market, which means no more quick cash at the end of the semester. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon confirms new Kindle student edition’…)
Some further information about the rumored upcoming Amazon Kindle student edition is now claiming that Amazon has confirmed the device is in the works. According to a recent report from the Seattle PI, Amazon has confirmed that “they are planning to target colleges and universities with a new version of the Kindle.” Based on the information available to date, the student edition Kindle will offer a larger screen, which I think makes sense when reading textbooks. Of course, we can only hope that text book pricing will be relatively inexpensive for the digital versions, because this could essentially kill, or seriously slow the used book market, which means no more quick cash at the end of the semester. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon confirms new Kindle student edition’…)
Next in the series of new notebooks that Asus has recently announced is the B50 notebook which is geared for the business professionals. According to Asustek, it is the ultimate notebook computer for the business environment. Featuring the latest Express Gate technology, the Asus B50 boasts of an 8-second boot-up time for fast access to various desktop applications and online connection. This powerhouse machine also boasts of Asustek’s exclusive Power4 Gear Extreme for efficient power management which extends usage beyond 5 hours. Another notable feature of the Asus B50 is its spill resistant keyboard which can pretty much assure the users that their notebooks will not be damaged even if some liquid gets spilled into it. (Read the full post about ‘Asus offers up the business-oriented B50A notebook’…)
Think your government is technologically inept? If you happen to live in England, you’d probably be more correct than the rest of us. Sometime last week it seems the British government has lost a flash drive containing data on all 84,000 prisoners in England and Wales and “30,000 people with six or more criminal convictions in the past year.” Theoretically this wouldn’t be such a horrible thing, you’d think a government would have several layers of security on a flash drive in just such a case. Apparently, this flash drive had none, it was completely unencrypted. (Read the full post about ‘British government loses sensitive data’…)
by Steven Kim, posted Aug 24th 2008 at 8:06AM With apologies to Shakespeare, something is brewing at VUDU. With CEDIA just around the corner, the company has laid off some of its staff, most notably some of its marketing higher-ups. Additionally, rumors are swirling regarding just about every aspect of the upstart company’s future. CEPro got some talk-time with the VUDU’s national dealer channel manager, and a theme of decreased emphasis on the retail channel seems to run throughout the conversation, punctuated by a end-of-life status on the VUDU X100. Meanwhile, the company is making some CEDIA promises for its custom-install-targeted VUDU XL: more HD content (1,000 titles), more connectivity (HD over component) and lifetime warranties on purchased titles. (Read the full post about ‘Double toil and trouble, VUDU rumor pot bubbles over’…)
by Steven Kim, posted Aug 24th 2008 at 8:06AM With apologies to Shakespeare, something is brewing at VUDU. With CEDIA just around the corner, the company has laid off some of its staff, most notably some of its marketing higher-ups. Additionally, rumors are swirling regarding just about every aspect of the upstart company’s future. CEPro got some talk-time with the VUDU’s national dealer channel manager, and a theme of decreased emphasis on the retail channel seems to run throughout the conversation, punctuated by a end-of-life status on the VUDU X100. Meanwhile, the company is making some CEDIA promises for its custom-install-targeted VUDU XL: more HD content (1,000 titles), more connectivity (HD over component) and lifetime warranties on purchased titles. (Read the full post about ‘Double toil and trouble, VUDU rumor pot bubbles over’…)
by Paul Miller, posted Aug 24th 2008 at 4:05AM Today’s generations of gee-whiz graphics and analog controls have brought with them one unfortunate addition: beefy, expensive wireless controllers that we’re loathe to dash against the floor or to bash against an adjacent sibling. The creatively-termed “USB Metal Game Pad” from Dream Cheeky is just what it says on the box, doing your basic assortment of SNES-era joypad work with some USB pluggability and Mac / PC compatibility, but being conveniently built out of metal. Sure, it looks shoddy and uninspired, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. (Read the full post about ‘Dream Cheeky’s metal joypad makes the best of projectiles’…)
by Darren Murph, posted Aug 23rd 2008 at 8:29PMFor years, Diebold has embarrassed itself by claiming that obvious faults were actually not faults at all, and during the past decade or so, it mastered the act of pointing the finger. Now that it has ironically renamed itself Premier Election Solutions, it’s finally coming clean. According to spokesman Chris Riggall, a “critical programming error that can cause votes to be dropped while being electronically transferred from memory cards to a central tallying point” has been part of the software for ten years. The flaw is on both optical scan and touchscreen machines, and while Mr. (Read the full post about ‘Diebold comes clean, admits that its e-voting machines are faulty’…)
