Sony will soon be releasing a feature-rich and yet affordable point-and-shoot joining its Cybershot series - the DSC-T500 digital camera. Featuring a 10-megapixel sensor, this compact digital camera can record wide and full-screen 720p video at up to 30fps in its fine, standard and VGA video recording modes. By standard this is high-enough considering that the DSC-T500 is a digital camera. The DSC-T500’s movie function is based on the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 codec which produces high-quality video without eating up too much space of the memory card. This movie mode comes even better with a zoom function that works even when the camera is in recording mode. (Read the full post about ‘Sony’s Cybershot DSC-T500 lets you capture high-definition video’…)
Robotic vacuum cleaner Roomba and floor washer Scooba are Gadget Lab favorites. We also heart the woman behind them, Helen Greiner, chairman and one of the co-founders of iRobot. In an interview with Reader’s Digest, Greiner isn’t ready to call herself a geek. But she has some powerhouse credentials. Greiner has a degree in mechanical engineering and computer science from MIT. She says she fell in love with Robots when she was 11 and saw Star Wars and R2D2. Her personal Roomba is called "Arnie, after the Terminator." Greiner says robots can help take care of "dull, dirty, dangerous jobs." Among the ideas for new robots is the Warrior that can carry 150 pounds, climb stairs and do a four-minute mile. (Read the full post about ‘iRobot Co-founder Helen Greiner Talks Robots’…)
In their ongoing battle against illegal file-sharing, the RIAA hasn’t been extremely successful. Most of their cases end up being thrown out, due to a lack of evidence or shotty police work. Today, though, they have something to smile about… and it’s also a lesson to anybody out there that’s trying to share illegal files without being caught.
Atlantic v. Howell was just one of hundreds of cases that the RIAA had brought against people that they suspected of file-sharing music that was held in their property until something happened.
(Read the full post about ‘If the RIAA is after you, don’t wipe your hard drive’…)
A lot of business people carry two mobile phones at all times. The reason? To keep business and personal separate. While there are a number of ways that you can do that on one mobile device, it’s still too easy to get sucked back into work mode when you’re on your personal time. Enter the E71. The Nokia E71 is a smartphone that lets you perform just about any task you can think of but all from your mobile device. In addition, it offers a unique dual home screen which lets you leave the office in peace by customizing what you want to see in each of your home screens. For example, in my tests I had one home screen pulling my e-mail from Exchange while on the other home screen I had my Gmail account. (Read the full post about ‘Review: Nokia E71′…)
Comcast has been accused of capping their internet service for a while now. There are people that claim that they’ve even received letters from the company saying that they’re nearing their limit and they’d better stop downloading now. The truth in these matters is often hard to really gather, but it’s completely possible. The company does, in fact, have a shady history of throttling BitTorrent users; so there’s reason to believe that they also have an un-official cap on the amount that one user can download or upload per month.
Now, it seems like they might be making the cap official. According to sources at Broadband Reports, a 250GB limit will come on October 1st.
(Read the full post about ‘250GB download cap coming to Comcast October 1st?’…)
Arkon will be making available premium upgrade aftermarket car mount bundles for both the Mio Moov and Navman S-Series GPS, and each of these mount bundles comprise of a custom cradle adapter as well as a location specific pedestal that is meant for use in the vehicle itself only. Users can choose from a variety of different mounts that attach to the windshield, dash, cup holder opening, lighter socket, sun visor, and air vent locations. Arkon offers the most extensive lineup of car mounting solutions for use with Mio, Garmin, Magellan, TomTom, and other leading GPS makers. If you’ve grown extremely attached to your GPS navigation system and can’t live (drive) without one, then I would suggest investing a small sum of money (anywhere from $17.95 to $29.95) on one of these puppies. (Read the full post about ‘Arkon offers car mount bundles for Mio Moov and Navman S-Series GPS units’…)
The Hidden Radio was not named that way because it came with some sort of invisibility cloak, but due to the fact that there is nary a button in sight. Yes sir, the Hidden Radio is completely button-less, requiring you to twist, lift or push it instead to manipulate the volume. Designed by Australian John Van Den Nieuwenhuizen, this concept model is meant to go against the grain where most devices these days come with more buttons than a nuclear arsenal control panel. Turning the Hidden Radio will help you tune in to the station you desire, where the LED light in front will glow brightly/dimmer depending on the current signal strength. (Read the full post about ‘Hidden Radio Has No Buttons’…)
Swiss manufacturer TAG Heuer’s Meridiist cell phone is now on sale at London store Selfridges. This medium-sized phone is meticulously built by hand, and will be made available in 15 other countries throughout the world before the year is over. The Meridiist will feature an external steel case complete with a leather trim back cover, a 1.9″ QVGA display, a 2 megapixel camera, a Media Interface and Bluetooth connectivity. You’ll need to have deep pockets with this though, as it retails for approximately 3,300 Euros. Tags: pvp, players, gizmos, tech (Read the full post about ‘Meridiist Handset Now On Sale’…)
No, this isn’t some new fancy device that’s going to kill the Sidekick. It’s a corrupted 3gp video file that has the potential to hard reset a Sidekick with very little user interaction that’s out in the wild. That’s right, hard reset, as in wipe out all of your data and force you to redownload it from Danger’s servers. Luckily with the way the Sidekick is designed you won’t lose anything, but it’s still an annoyance to have to wait for all your email, settings, etc to download. It’s also a really nasty trick to play on someone you don’t like. This was first posted in the PBD forums under a thread titled “Virus In Email?! (Read the full post about ‘Evil Video Crashes the Sidekick’…)
Just as small, fast-moving mammals replaced lumbering dinosaurs, pocketable gadgets are evolving to fill niches that larger, deskbound computers can’t reach. But as they shrink, these gadgets are faced with problems mammals face, too, such as efficiently dissipating heat.
The recent example of Apple’s first-generation ipod nanos causing fires in Japan raises the question of whether increasingly innovative product designs are impinging on safety. The nano incident illustrates how risk can increase as devices decrease in size, says Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies.
"As [gadgets] get smaller, the tradeoffs become more difficult, the balance becomes more critical and there’s less room for error," Kay said.
(Read the full post about ‘Gadget Designers Push the Limits of Size, Safety’…)
