Tech Gadgets Reviews

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 10:18AM

It’s hard to stop a rolling stone, don’t you know? Just months after you figured you’d never hear of Rock again, the recently rescued outfit has introduced a few Centrino 2-based lappies of its own. At a high level (tenth time you’ve heard that today, office dwellers?), we’ve got the Xtreme 780 with a Core 2 Duo Extreme X9100 and GeForce 9800M GTX, the Xtreme 620 with a Core 2 Extreme T9500 and 512MB GeForce 9800M GT, the Pegasus 520 and the Pegasus 320. As for pricing, you can expect a mild level of sticker shock when the crew goes up for pre-order later today. Check the read link for the full rundown of specs — try not to get lost in there.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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MobiFindr is a feature that helps you find the geographic location of your mobile. That might come in handy if you forgot it somewhere or if someone “helped you” lose it. It could also be used to spy on your loved ones, if you choose to do so, but that would not be very nice… Anyhow, it now works on blackberry and you can get it at navizon.com.

FROM GAMERTELL - Bookmark this page and plan to press REFRESH a lot. We’re Live Bloggin’ Nintendo’s E3 press conference. It starts at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time (Noon Eastern time), Tuesday, July 15, 2008. While you are waiting, make sure you check out the rest of our E3 2008 coverage. 8:55 am (PT)… MORE »

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by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 12:56PM

It looks like the Centrino 2 train just keeps on rolling, and Fujitsu’s now hopped on board with six new LifeBooks in tow, including a pair of convertible tablets. That latter duo consists of the enterprise class LifeBook T5010, the successor to Fujitsu’s T4220, and the slightly less security minded LifeBook T1010, both of which boast 13.3-inch displays and all the usual Centrino 2-related goodies. On the non-convertible front, Fujitsu has the 15.4-inch LifeBook A6210 (pictured above), the Centrino 2 vPro-supporting LifeBook E8420, and a pair of thin-and-light 14-inchers, the LifeBook S6520 and LifeBook S7220, each of which weigh in around four pounds. From the looks of it, the whole lot is available now, with the exception of the vPro editions of the LifeBook T5010 and LifeBook E8420, which are set to follow in 30 days.

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Do you know someone that is such a deep sleeper that they literally need to be blasted off the mattress to get them up? Well, if you had the Time Bomb Alarm Clock, you could wake them up with a sound “blast” and let them know you mean business.

Strangely enough, however, this alarm clock looks more like a cartoon fuse bomb than a time bomb, but indeed this bomb does keep time. To see what time it is, press down on the bomb and the time is projected internally from the hidden LED display.

The alarm in the alarm clock is even more ominous and foreboding, warning sleepers with a loud ticking noise before the clock erupts with an appropriate explosion sound and flashing red. To diffuse the bomb is easy enough, however, by simply pulling the fuse on the top.

Currently being sold in the United Kingdom, you can get a Time Bomb Alarm Clock for £19.99, or approximately US$40.

Head on over to DrinkStuff.com for more details and to pick one up.

The iphone Dev Team has succeeded in unlocking the iPhone 3G, days after it was released. This will free users from restrictions such as installing apps that aren’t on Apple’s “approved” list – game emulators are high on the list, for example. Video in the full post.

Sony has just introduced the new VAIO Z Series notebooks that brings a sleek and powerful machine in a lightweight package. It tips the scales at slightly over 3 pounds, featuring a vivid 13.1″ widescreen display backed by Sony’s own XBRITE-DuraView LCD technology that offers scratch-resistant durability and 100% color saturation. Depending on the model chosen, you will be able to get a maximum high resolution 1,600 x 900 widescreen display, offering a wider workspace compared to a standard display despite sharing the same footprint. The keyboard panel is covered by a seamless sheet of brushed aluminum, framing its individual keys. Spaces between keys have been precisely engineered to create a comfortable typing experience so that mistakes can be avoided, but it is always better to get off on the right footing beforehand.

The unit is housed in a durable carbon-fiber casing to help endure the knocks, bumps and accidents common to frequent travel. It also incorporates G-Sensor Shock Protection technology to counteract sudden movements helping to prevent damage and data loss. It is powered by new Intel Centrino 2 technology, the chipset designed for sizzling performance, unbelievable system responsiveness, and energy efficiency. Road warriors will love its built-in 802.11n wireless LAN capabilities making it faster and easier to connect to compatible wireless networks with greater performance and range than ever before. For blazing-fast wireless access beyond networks and hotspots, the unit features optional built-in wireless Sprint Mobile Broadband, the nation’s largest wireless broadband network.

In addition, you will be able to choose the optional Blu-ray Disc optical drive if you want to enjoy high definition movies on the go, although the screen doesn’t exactly do the images justice. You’d best use the included HDMI output though, so make sure there is a full HD-ready TV or projector at home to maximize this feature. Other features include a biometric fingerprint sensor, a Trusted Platform Module compliant chip and proprietary hard disk drive password protection software that prevents protected data from unauthorized access. Prices start from $1,800 upwards, while an SSD model will begin at $2,300.

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My sister owns a wallet made of real ostrich leather and every time she takes it out of her bag, I feel a shudder go thru my body.

I mean really, I find anything made with ostrich leather GROSS. You can actually see the skin follicles where the feather used to be. It’s just gross! Haha.

Anyway, this laptop sleeve is made of Italian leather with ostrich embossed printing. So it’s not real ostrich leather, but it looks real nonetheless.

Fits 13″ laptops. Hot or not? It’s eew for me! Haha.

Price: £125.99
Where to buy: 21st Century Diva

Time For A Poll!

Hot Or Not: Blue Ostrich Embossed Leather Laptop Sleeve!

• Hot!
• Not!
• I think it is _____. See comment.

View Results

Tags: cute laptop sleeve, leather laptop sleeve, ostrich leather

After the initial weekend blowout, you’d think that all things iPhone would be calming down. After all, last year, when the queues had subsided, the more sensible iphone buyers were able to walk into Apple and AT&T stores and get an iPhone right away. They still sold fast, but with a few phone calls it was possible to track one down.

This year, even Apple seems to have been surprised at the demand. One million iPhones have been sold worldwide this past weekend, a phenomenal number. To get an idea of that, let’s take an average of the many reports of the actual price carriers are paying Apple for a handset. We’ll say it’s $500. The maths is easy. That comes to $500,000,000, or half a billion dollars. Even if we only count the median of the prices charged to the customer, it’s still a quarter of a billion. Clearly that’s a successful launch, but it could have been so much better.

Apple’s activation issues probably didn’t affect the figures at all. After all, once you’ve bought the phone, what’s a few more hours? But the new policy of only selling a phone with a contract probably hit the figures harder. First, it effectively cuts out the buy-to-unlock market, but consider also the actual time taken to buy an iPhone. Last year, you could buy one as easily as buying an ipod. It was a simple retail transaction and the heavy credit checking work went on back at home on the customer’s computer. This time, each transaction took a minimum of ten to fifteen minutes. Even the geared-up Apple stores were only expecting to process 100 customers per hour.

Add to this the shortages. My experiences trying to find an iPhone in my home country of Spain have been, to put it mildly, frustrating. On launch day, the main stores had no inventory. Even now the supply is a tantalizing trickle. Gadget Lab reader Pieter, who tipped us off to the Spanish iPhone tariffs, emailed me this morning to tell me where to find one. I just spent the last three hours on my bike going from store to store, and the best offer I had was a phone call to tell me when stock arrived.

And even in the iPhone’s homeland, handsets are in short supply. According to Fortune, a Kansas man named Jim Neal laboriously checked inventory in every Apple Store using the online widget. Yes, all 188 of them (Jim is retired). The result? Only 27 of the stores had all three models in stock.

Timothy Cook, Apple’s COO in charge of logistics, usually has a strong grip on the company’s supply chain, something essential for a company that suddenly stops selling one product when it is replaced with a newer model. And we’ve heard rumors that Apple was secretly shipping handsets into the US a few months ago. These glitches seem very odd. Could Apple have been caught out by this unprecedented launch demand? Or is this shortage a deliberate attempt to crank up the hype? Either way, one thing is clear. If the iPhone had been fully stocked in all 21 launch countries, the first weekend figures could have been a lot higher than one million.

Panasonic has released a couple of new Toughbook models based on Intel’s new Centrino 2 platform. They are the 15.4″ Toughbook 52 and the 13.3″ Toughbook 74. They will both share :-

• 1,066Mhz bus speeds
• Intel graphics chipset
• 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity
• 160GB storage

The only difference would be the screen size, and they will be able to resist most shocks and spills thanks to the magnesium shell, complete with internal connections that bend rather than break and a splash-resistant keyboard. The Toughbook 52 and Toughbook 74 will retail for $1,949 and $3,199, respectively.