Tech Gadgets Reviews

by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 4:01PM

First things first: considering the huge amount of press garnered by a recent position art scam, this here could indeed be just another spoof to get your hopes up. That being said, we’re pretty sure no one with any level of decency would do such a vile thing on Easter Sunday, which is precisely when the above bunny was purportedly created from waltzing about with a Magellan GPS and a digital camera. The artist himself admits that what you see above is a slightly cleaned-up version of the actual path, but we’re told that any edits that occurred had no huge bearing on the outcome of the piece. You be the judge.

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Filed under: GPS

FROM APPLETELL - With all the WDDC rumors flying around Worldwide Developers Conference 2008, it has become tough to keep track of them all.  Here is a list of recent rumors, and details on their credibility. 1.  3G iphone - Is the Pope Catholic?  I think that it is safe to say that… MORE »

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Polaroid has given their ZINK printer a price tag and release date - July 6th at Best Buy and July 20th through Target—both selling it for $149. The pocket-sized product will be marketed as the Poloraid PoGo, which is short for Polaroid-on-the-go. The Polaroid PoGo supports full color printing through cell phones and digital cameras via Bluetooth or USB (PictBridge compatible). The PoGo weighs a measly eight ounces, but don’t let the size fool you. It can print 2×3-inch borderless photos in less than 60 seconds. It’s a shame that Polaroid has quit the instant film market, but if you miss those old school Polaroid cameras, this is as close as you’ll get to sharing your photos instantly.

The Polaroid PoGo uses Zero Ink (ZINK) technology that is actually embedded into a photo paper, called ZINK Photo Paper. The special paper is durable and contains colorless cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals. So instead of using traditional ink cartridges to spray color onto the paper, the PoGo printer applies heat onto the ZINK Photo Paper to activate the colorless crystals—generating full colored photos to share instantly. The ZINK Photo Paper will retail for between 33 and 40 cents per print; $3.99 for a pack of 10, and $9.99 for a 30-pack.

Product [The New Instant] Read [Gadget Review]

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by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 3:11PM

Hah, did you really have the nerve to doubt CraigIX? The iphone gamepad add-on that we heard about just last week is already inching closer to reality, and there’s a video to prove it. In the somewhat unexciting clip posted up after the jump, you’ll see a PCB mockup of the device doing its thang, though it’s quite inelegant in its current form. If you just needed one more something to boost your interest / confidence that this critter was real, you know where to head.

[Via zodttd]

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Filed under: cellphones

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 31st 2008 at 12:24PM

A retailer taking pre-orders for phones that haven’t even been announced is considered business as usual, but there’s something just a little out of the ordinary with Horizon Wireless’ listing for the alleged touchscreen superphone outta Waterloo, the BlackBerry 9500 “Thunder” — it’s accompanied by a somewhat believable picture of the thing. Extreme blur always adds a healthy dose of credibility (we kid), but more importantly, the picture shows no telltale signs of being a render and looks essentially like what everyone’s expecting it to look like. blackberry addicts who’ve been desperately fighting the urge to go to the dark side, consider this your shot of willpower for the day.

[Thanks, Yasim M.]

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Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds

Do you have more room for another one of ‘em budget handycams? Adding to our choices of small and compact budget cams are not not just one but three models from RCA’s Small Wonder video camera product line. All three RCA handycams are not only packed with good features but more importantly they come in affordable prices as well, with two of them retailing for under a $100.

First up we have the EZ210 or the Small Wonder Traveler. This splash resistant handy cam boast of a 2.4-inch color LCD screen with high-visibility even when on a well-lighted environment at 320×240 resolution. It’s got a 2GB SD card which is good enough for one hour of near-DVD quality video recording. If 2GB is not enough for your needs, you can always upgrade up to 8GB SD card.

Next we have the EZ205 or the Small Wonder Summer with a 1.5-inch flip-out LCD screen for self-recording. This baby is loaded with a 1GB microSD card for a good 30 minutes of recording time if you prefer near-DVD quality or two hours if your recording with the intention of uploading your videos to YouTube and other web-sharing sites. You can also expand this capacity with up to 8GB of microSD card.

And finally we have the EZ200 otherwise known as the Small Wonder MyLife with basically the same features as the EZ205. The only difference is that it only lets you record videos in HQ mode rather than in near-DVD quality.

The RCA EZ210, EZ205 and EZ200 retail for $149.99, $99.99 and $89.99 respectively. All handycams will be available at Amazon just in time for summer.

Read [News.com]

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by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 1:16PM

There’s honestly not a lot of mind-blowing material in the video posted up after the jump, but it definitely delivers as advertised. You see, you’ve got Creative’s Flip Video-combating Vado cheapcorder all wrapped up, and over the course of 317 seconds, it manages to slip outside of its shell and get handled. Initial impressions are dished out too (hint: they’re surprisingly positive), so don’t skip out on hitting the read link while your cursor is down in the general vicinity.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Yahoo’s Messenger software has been around the block a few times, and the new beta version (version 9) of the software adds some new social features.  While the overall look and feel of the app remains very much the same, users can now invite contacts on AOL, Gmail, Orkut, Hotmail, Myspace, and others to connect through to the Yahoo service.  The new beta version will also sport slightly larger emotions, so you can “express yourself with more oomph.” Also present are the ability to play games with your contacts, right inside Yahoo Messenger.  The status bar is split into two sections: one for availability, one for a place to share a link or thought.

The full version for Windows is due out in Q3 of this year, with a Mac version coming later into the year.

Read [Yahoo] via [WebWare]

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Microwaves are truly an awesome appliance. You could call them the epitome of the bachelor gadget, since so many unmarried men seem to rely on the device for all of their meals. We can’t say we’ve ever thought of using a microwave like this.

This excellent PC case mod makes your computer look like a stock-model microwave, complete with a cheap LED layout and a horizontally opening door. The window on the microwave has been ingeniously modded to act as the computer’s display, not to mention the microwave-themed desktop wallpaper.

The next time you head over to your microwave to cook up a cup of Ramen noodles, you might think to yourself, “What can I do with this microwave that would better fit my needs as a single nerd?” And then you’ll forget all about it and realize your noodles are getting cold.

This is definitly one of the coolest PC mods we have ever seen. And certainly the most visually accurate to the intended inspiration. If it weren’t for the icons on the desktop and the keyboard sitting in front of it, we might not even realize that this is a computer.

Source via Hacked gadgets

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Nope that’s not a portable GPS unit. In fact, its the latest portable media player offering from iRiver, dubbed the P.ple P10. First introduced at CES 2008, the P10 was expected to release Q1 2008, but iRiver was a little late in their delivery. Regardless, the company has now officially launched their iPod Touch rival in two forms: The iRiver P10 Standard ($328) and Pro ($398). Spec-wise, both models sport a 600MHz processor running a stripped down version of Windows CE, 4-inch TFT touch screen, 800×480 pixel resolution, e-book reader, and a 33GB hard drive. Both models also support PDF, Word and Excel files, and can playback Flash, MPEG, WMA, XivD, MP3, and WAV file formats. However, the P10 Pro adds an electronic dictionary (in English, Chinese, and Japanese) and a DMB digital TV tuner that’s only usable in Korea (so, I doubt this will make it Stateside).

Interestingly, the device has no physical buttons beyond the power and volume controls. It also utilizes a flash based UI that allows users to rearrange and organize the menu as they desire. But in all honestly, the top horizontal menu sure bares a strong resemblance to the ipod’s own, but being able to customize the main menu screen will surely be a welcomed feature. Now, if we can only get rid of that stylus…

Product [iRiver P10] Read [AVING]

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