Tech Gadgets Reviews

Posted Mar 11th 2008 1:15PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment

With all these projectors running around claiming to be the world’s smallest, it’s hard to say who’s really being truthful anymore. Nevertheless, Sharp seems pretty confident that its 55- x 264- x 188-millimeter LP-XW60 LCD projector is in fact the most compact in its class. Whatever the case, there’s no denying that thing is mighty small, and features wise, you find a 1,024 x 768 resolution, 400:1 contrast ratio, built-in one-watt speaker, 2,000 lumens, audio in / out and a VGA video output for good measure. We’ve no idea if this one will ever make it outside of Japan, but for those shacked up over there, get ready to grab one in late April for a staggeringly high ¥207,900 ($2,028).

[Via FarEastGizmos]

On March 10, 2000, dot-com shareholders were heard screaming around the world as they raced to save their pocket books when the dot-com stock bubble exploded, taking US$5 trillion in market value over the next 2 years. One of the little known casualties of the dot-com market decline was also the decline of university students taking Computer Science as a major.

What was once thought to be a hot lucrative study for college students soon cooled in the years following the dot-com implosion, according to surveys conducted by the Computing Research Association. The CRA noted that during the last 5 years the number of Computer Science majors in Universities were declining each year. Now, a new survey conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute is saying for the first time in a while, the Computer Science major decline is leveling off. In 2000, the number of CS majors number was at its highest with 16,000 freshmen, while 2005 and on shows less than half those figures–around less than 8,000.

The numbers could indicate that interest in Computer Science as a field of study could be ready to take off again in the near future. Of course, with an increase in CS students, we could see another boom in the technology sector. As with any boom, however, there is always a bust looming in the future. March 2000 certainly showed us that.

Read more at Ars Technica.

It seems to me that the more gadgets I acquire, the more USB cords that I am collecting. Is it just me, or are we steering away from charging our mobile devices with traditional electronic outlet plugs to charging exclusively to USB power.

I suppose that is all right if you have your computer on the whole time, or if you travel by laptop, like most businesspeople. However, what if you are in a situation where you have a gadget that powers only by USB charging and there is not a USB port to be found?

Fortunately, Belkin, a company known for PC peripherals, has a solution. You will notice that the power strip in this picture has a few outlets on it, but also has some USB ports on it as well. Now you don’t have to go crazy trying to find a USB port whenever you need to recharge your ipod, cell phone, or other mobile gadget.

I think that the Belkin powerstrip shows what kind of world we live in, and what world we are heading toward. I predict that, in the near future, every outlet will have at least one USB port, located right in the middle of the two plugs.

Source

The Float Away concept by designer Young Hwan Kim concentrates on the bane of mobile computing - the matter of heat. His design involves an extremely simple solution, and you’ll probably smack your forehead with your palm thinking, “Now why didn’t I think of that before?”. All Young did was to elevate the back end by including a lift bar into its design, allowing heat to dissipate into the air while keeping your laptop cool despite running ahead at full speed. As we all know, the cooler electronics run, the more efficient it is and the longer it will be able to last.

Posted Mar 11th 2008 9:52AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Peripherals

Microsoft is at it again with its boring-as-can-be product names and its terrifically designed computer mice and keyboards. First off is the new Wireless Laser Desktop 7000 (pictured), which Microsoft calls the “little black dress” of peripherals — something we find to be at least a little disturbing. The keyboard and mouse combo include “smoked translucent border” design elements, conveniently-assignable My Favorites Keys, and some rather sleek / thin looks. The keyboard — which we saw pass the FCC in February — is of the Comfort Curve-ilk, the Wireless Laser Mouse 7000 has a horizontal charging station, and both use 2.4GHz wireless tech. The worst news is the price, at $130 when it hits in April. If you don’t need all the fancy, Microsoft also has the new Digital Media Keyboard 3000 (pictured after the break) with some fun media-centric keys for the much more palatable $30 pricepoint. It’ll be out in June.

Weekend Washbag - For Her
It’s different for girls, of course, in a way that most of us at gadgetshop HQ can only begin to speculate. But when it comes to waking up and needing to feel spruced up, the same rules apply to chaps and chapesses.

See price

Newsweek’s Steven Levy has managed to lose his Apple-loaned macbook air. Much has been made of the thinness of the Mac notebook, mostly it’s ninja-like ability to slide, almost undetected, into a manilla envelope.

Levy isn’t sure exactly what happened to his review machine, but strongly suspects that it was so thin that it got mixed up with a pile of magazines, which either he or his wife threw out The evidence? The power brick was still right by the sofa, the last place Levy remembered seeing the Mac alive.

As humiliating as it sounds, let me repeat: the MacBook Air is so thin that it got tossed out with the newspapers.

Gone, Without a Trace [Newsweek via Daring Fireball]

The Seven alarm clock is one of the best thought up designs I’ve come across so far for this humble home appliance, and I am sure that you are inclined to agree with me. Designer Joel Escalona aims to wake you up using MP3 files with his creation, slowly increasing the volume until your poor ears can’t take it no more, ensuring you get out of bed thanks to its built-in motion sensor. The large screen also displays the current temperature outside as well as humidity, letting you know whether it is a good day to send those wash clothes out to dry.

Along with EA (Maxis) and Sega (Super Monkey Ball), Doom creator John Carmack has added his company id to the list of game developers for the iphone/ipod Touch platform. According to him, the distribution capabilities offered by iTunes is the key benefit of developing for the Apple platform: the ability to distribute larger applications than the regular cellular network limits imposed by the carriers, effectively market a title with more than a dozen character deck name and the reasonable revenue split offered by Apple.

As we already wrote it, once again, iTunes proves to be a formidable weapon for Apple’s business development.

Samsung has just launched its SWT-W100K WiBro Communicator in Korea, bringing 13Mbps wireless Internet access to a portable device. Features of the SWT-W100K include :-

• 4.3″ WVGA TFT-LCD touch screen display
• PMP functionality
• T-DMB TV with PIP function
• Built-in GPS support
• Compatible with MP4, XviD, WMA and H.264 file formats
• Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
• 8GB of internal memory
• 2 megapixel rear camera and VGA front camera