Tech Gadgets Reviews

Horse Racing Extravaganza

You can have this for ?39.95

So you’re driving around at night with no idea where you’re at, and your partner is having trouble reading the map? Obviously you haven’t heard of GPS navigation devices, so the next best thing is to flood the map with a light source, and what better way to do it than with the Seatbelt Light?

Just clip it onto your seat belt and turn it on when you need to read a map or follow directions. Passengers can use it without distracting the driver. Two levels of brightness from 4 LED lights (included). Uses 3 AA batteries (not included).

A set of two will retail for $14.99, although I’d say that using your car’s ceiling light ought to be good enough. Still, maybe you have a really old jalopy whose light has already expired a long while ago, making this little auto accessory a necessary purchase.

It seems that Apple has an idea for a way we can actually wear an iPod. The company has filed a patent application in regards to an “Enhanced Image Display In Head-Mounted Displays”. What the application is basically for is a way to watch and interact with a device through small displays located in glasses or in another form of headgear.

The biggest advantage of such a device is that though the displays are small their proximity to the eyes gives the user the impression they are watching the display on a large screen. The idea opens up the possibility of a new accessory for an ipod or even the possibility of an iPod which is embedded into special glasses. The invention would allow Apple to offer mobile viewing of video on a larger screen without the need for a larger device.

Like with most patent applications, there is no guarantee that the idea will be made into reality. Still, the idea of glasses you can wear and watch movies with, especially on planes and on the subway, is an intriguing one. Such a device could be pretty popular if Apple is able to get the price point for it to a reasonable level. Though small displays embedded in glasses are already offered, it hasn’t really been a common item you see used because of the cost.

Read more from the Apple patent application.

Portable apps are great, they are now becoming more and more popular and users can choose to run just about anything from email clients to web browsers to office suites all from a USB drive. Scott Kingery, a blogger at TechLifeBlogged recently wrote about his application, Windows Live Writer Portable. Scott has released a new version of Windows Live Writer that will work with U3 and non-U3 based USB drives. The software launcher U3 is typically found on USB sticks by SanDisk.

Kingery wrote a step by step instructions on how to use the Windows Live Writer Portable 2.0 app and thankfully he included instructions to make it work on both U3-based SanDisk drives, but also non-U3 drives as well. You may view Scott’s detailed instructions here.

Read [TechLifeBlogged] Via [on10]

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Amazon now has the Kindle back in stock. After the initial launch this past November the popular reader sold out after just about 5 hours and has remained near impossible to find ever since, that is aside from a few overpriced eBay auctions.

So, anyone who has been eyeing the Kindle and awaiting its return, you better not wait much longer, they are currently available and remain at the original retail price of $399.

Product [Amazon]

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You might have heard the news that the Microsoft Surface table has hit five select AT&T stores across the country, and are now available for you to try out for yourself. In case you haven’t had the chance to drop by any of these stores yet and seen the Microsoft Surface in action, we have here a video showing just how it can complement your AT&T experience by adding multi-touch and satellite mapping technology. The surface, it seems, could serve as a perfect tool for presentations with its touchscreen interface, and it adds a nice touch of interactivity while enabling easy, user-friendly graphics to complement the user-experience. Apple’s CoverFlow could make it much nicer, though. But that’s just my opinion.

Via [Gotta Be Mobile]

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If this screen-grab is to be believed, Canon Germany has made something of a blunder. The picture shows the hotly anticipated EOS 5D Mark II, and confirms a few features: a 16 Megapixel sensor, a 6.5 fps shooting speed, the new Digic III processor and a weatherproof body. The originals are posted below for your Photoshop scrutinization.

We don’t know why the anonymous tipster didn’t click through to the product page to get the full rundown, but it could be that the page didn’t exist (this alleged thumbnail has already been pulled from the Canon.de site) or that this is indeed a fake. But given the somewhat chaotic nature of global industry, and the rumors of an April 24th announcement, we wouldn’t be surprised if this is for real. Hell, take a look at the Canon DSLR page again. The 450D is listed as available from April. I saw one in a local store a month back.

EOS 5D Mark II Displayed on Canon Germany Website [Photography Bay]

This video illustrates perfectly the confusion caused by the mixed messages coming from the British Police. Photographers Lawrence Windrush and John (no last name given) started snapping a tussle between a man, a security guard and a police officer in a Middlesborough high street. In the clip below you’ll see Windrush being harassed by one jobsworth “security supervisor”.

Idiotic psuedo-cops are nothing new, of course, but since the Metropolitan Police instigated its War on Photography, we’re hearing a lot more about the plight of photographers in Britain. Simply pointing a camera at something or someone marks you out as a Terrorist. That’s Terrorist with a capital “T”, a term almost as useful as Communist was back in the 1950s for silencing any and all activity regarded unfavorable by the authorities.

The worst part here isn’t the yappy little Jack Russell of a security guard, but the lack of knowledge of the policewoman who finally turned up on the scene (although she did wave away the mob of six amateur cops). Windrush recounts that “She wanted to check my camera saying it was unlawful to photograph people in public”. He told that that this is, of course, absolute nonsense and we guess somebody back at the station agreed: After radioing in, the WPC told Windrush and John that they were free to go.

So what do we take from this? That public (and official) ignorance are dangerous things, and that if we, as photographers and citizens don’t kick up a fuss then we will lose rights, even if those rights are still enshrined in law. Remember that social pressure is a much greater force than the law: Legislation isn’t what made drink-driving and seatbelt wearing a success. It was peer pressure.

Make sure you read both accounts over at Flickr. There are some great comments there, too. And above all, keep taking pictures and videos. See how uncomfortable the guard looks? That wouldn’t happen if there wasn’t a camera trained on him.

Radio for back up [Lawrence Windrush/Flickr via Photodoto]
VIDEO: You can’t herd cats or street photographers [Shutterfever/Flickr]

For those who don’t know Carrefour, it’s huge retailer, much like a WalMart (except that they sell all kinds of food as well). They started out in France but Carrefour retail stores can be found in many countries. For example, there are around 10 Carrefour stores in Beijing. Anyhow, when you see a company like that going into the Movie Download business, it means a few things:

• The technology behind the business is a commodity. Sure, it can be improved, but it is no an edge anymore.
• Margins are going to get thin. I doubt that Carrefour will compete on user-interface or user-experience. They will compete on price. It’s their DNA.
• Expect more companies to jump in, as the technology behind it can probably be “bought” as a white label service.

Remember back to late Dec 07 when we announced the launch of text-to-web service, kwiry, which gives you a great way to add items (kwirys) to your Remember or To Do lists.

Well, kwiry is currently running a promotion at least until Jun 28, 2008 where you stand a chance of winning one of your kwirys assuming it’s a movie, book or music album. They’re giving away 1 per week each up to a value of US$25.

All you need to do is to kwiry like you normally do and just include the keyword ‘music’, ‘book’ or ‘movie’ along with the full title of the item. So if you wanted to kwiry “Spiderman 3″ b/c you wanted to remember to buy it, then tack on the keyword ‘movie’ to make it “spiderman 3 movie” or “movie spiderman 3″, and you’re golden.

BTW, if you haven’t tried kwiry, give it a whirl. It’ll take you 5 minutes to get set up and run a few tests. Honest.

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