Tech Gadgets Reviews

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 23rd 2008 at 8:04PM

One of the longest-running — and certainly most fascinating — soap operas in the entire wireless world, the seemingly endless patent drama between Nokia and Qualcomm, has finally drawn to an amicable (dare we say anti-climactic) close. After just a single day of arbitration, the two firms have basically agreed to a patent swap, allowing Nokia to use all of Qualcomm’s patents and vice versa. Furthermore, Nokia is just stone-cold handing over a bunch of patents it holds related to GSM, WCDMA, and OFDMA, which presumably means companies that are currently licensing those patents can get ready to start writing those checks to Qualcomm. What’s more, Espoo’s dropping its anti-competition claims against Qualcomm in Europe — but beyond that, specific terms (read: cash money) weren’t disclosed beyond the typical PR pleasantries that both sides are happy with the outcome. If this means we finally have to retire our Nokia-Qualcomm starburst graphic, we’re going to pout like little children, so we can only hope these two lovebirds find something else to squabble over in the not-too-distant future.

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Filed under: cellphones

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by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 10:42PM

Nah, it’s no Mag-Lite, but the Tri-Solar LED Flashlight should handle most minor lighting needs. The unit can operate with one LED on, three LEDs on or all three LEDs flashing (you know, in case you realize the car you just hopped in is now making a b-line for the Bates Motel). Because a single solar panel can only catch so much sunlight, this one has a trifecta of cells that fold out and generate juice for the bulbs. Not too bad for $32, particularly when you realize that it doubles as a weapon.

[Thanks, Joe]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

No, the Wasp Injector Knife is not a weapon for dispatching Vanderbilts and Roosevelts (although doubtless it could be pressed into this service). It is a surgical stainless steel knife with a gas canister in the handle. When you stab a victim, the knife “injects a freezing cold ball of compressed gas, approximately the size of a basketball, at 800psi nearly instantly”.

It is primarily for use by divers, where the sudden injection of gas will cause Jaws (or any other leviathan) to speed towards the surface before they burst, effectively removing them from the fight and also safely carrying their shark-baiting blood along with them. There are also hunting versions, and the site lists “tactical uses” amongst the features. However, this is only meant for self defense or justifiable revenge: The blurb also tells us that “WASP Injection Systems, Inc. does not condone the killing of innocent creatures.”

We imagine more harmless uses — primarily pranks. Slip this into your dinner partner’s place setting next time you are at the steakhouse and watch as hilarity ensues, transforming the dining room into a scene from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From $380.

Product page [Wasp Knife via Uncrate]

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 22nd 2008 at 7:02PM

Okay, okay — we get it. So maybe there’s just not enough room in a genuine Zapper to fit all the necessary innards of a Nintendo Entertainment System into, but it’s just a bit weird to see the Big N’s antiquated console crammed into some other light gun. Similar to the NES-in-an-NES-controller mod we peeked earlier this week, this unit includes a plethora of games and all the controls you need; just plug it up to a TV, pop a few batteries in there and you’re golden. Is it any surprise this guy was tracked down on Ben Heck’s own forums?

[Via Nintendo Wii Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming

The September* issue of will have an e-ink cover. 100,000 of the total 720,000 print run will be assembled by hand, with parts criss-crossing the globe before ending up newsstands, jumping out at your eyes with shifting images.

Esquire first thought up the idea eight years ago, but the technology was still too clunky. Since then, the Kindle has gone on sale, and the same company that invented the tech used in Amazon’s device — E Ink — is making the covers. The price, although undisclosed, is prohibitive, and Ford has been brought in as a “sponsor”: A moving car ad will appear on the inside cover. Esquire even had to design a battery (a “six-figure investment”) that was small enough to fit into a magazine and keep things running until the mags are sold. The batteries will last for 90 days.

Here is the supply chain, as reported by the New York Times: The batteries and covers are assembled in China and shipped to Mexico via Texas where they are then hand assembled. From there, the magazines will be distributed in refrigerated trucks to keep the batteries fresh.

Even so, it seems that this will not be the Blade Runner style shifting ad platform we might expect. It looks like it will have more in common with the early web: Think flashing text rather than Flash animation. Still, we want one, if only because it will be a piece of history. I’m looking forward to seeing Playboy adopt similar tech. It will be used to disguise the magazine to look like a plain brown envelope, so I can “read the articles” unmolested on public transport.

News Flash From the Cover of Esquire: Paper Magazines Can Be High Tech, Too [NYT via Kottke]

*That is, the issue that hits the newsstands in September. Likely it will actually be marked October or November, as is the way with print mags.

Sony Ericsson just made a mistake. They came out with another bad looking phone with not so bad features. Not that this isn’t a good phone but it really doesn’t do anything much for me. Sony Ericsson’s W902 is another music phone coming out of their stable. The W902 brings you a clear audio experience with clear bass, clear stereo and the premium HPM-77 headset. It is not that bad a phone, if you own it just for the sake of music ( what are iPods invented for then?). The W902 gives you thousands of possibilities - about 8,000* of them, to be specific as The 8GB memory card stores up to 8,000 eAAC+ encoded songs.

Apart from the music business it has some more good featues like a great 5 megapixel camera. Click yourself to glory and enjoy the snaps on the the bright and clear 2.2″ display. No information on availability and price yet.
[ Source ]

Neoneco has a new speaker peripheral for your iPod collection - the iPod Swing Speaker. Arriving first in the Korean market, this rechargeable stereo speaker is hooked to the rear side of a crystal case, capable of 10 hours of continuous audio playback when fully charged. There will be three models available to cater for iPod nano 3G, iPod Classic and ipod touch owners, with each individual iPod Swing Speaker retailing for approximately $30, $32 and$35, respectively.
[ Source ]

Bruno Oro’s creepy bear-shaped Dilus is many things, not least of which is its ability to scare hospital-bound children.

Conceived as a distance learning tool, the Dilus is intended for children who are on an extended hospital stay and cannot attend school. The skin of the bear-thing is a a conducting polymer which can change color and display pretty much anything, from web pages to games to, we guess, schoolwork. Oro calls this display “holographic”, but we’d say that it is more correctly a kind of 3D.

But why a bear? Well, according to Oro, the bear shape will console the poor lonely kids and become a friend. Which, aside from the problem of the pre-mentioned creepiness seems to forget that there is a reason that more computers don’t come with bear-shaped monitors: They’re not efficient. We admire the innovation here, based as it is on actual field research, but we can’t help thinking that it would be better (and cheaper) to just give the kids a real teddy bear and a cheap laptop.

Project page [Coroflot. Thanks, Bruno!]

PC World reviews the Helio Mysto and writes, “For music, the Mysto comes with a loud but thin-sounding speaker, earbuds, a microSD slot that’s buried in the battery compartment (along with 106MB internal memory), and stereo Bluetooth. The basic but functional mp3 player lets you create playlists, and you can bring your own tunes or buy them over the air for $2. The 2-megapixel camera snaps decent-looking pictures, though they exhibit some graininess and the colors look muted (our black cat seemed rather brownish). You have to slide the phone open to expose the camera lens and self-portrait mirror, which is rather annoying.”

Read more about the Helio Mysto.