Tech Gadgets Reviews

I know that Pikachus are extremely cute, and good thing Game Freaks did not make them impossible to catch in Pokemon. Kaseo has an affinity for this yellow pocket monster, constructing an entire orchestra of musical instruments that consists of modified Pikachu toys. That’s like, totally whacked out, dude. Insane yet cool at the same time - this person’s got some rare talent here. The Pikachus themselves surely look out of whack, and would send even Ash packing.

NVIDIA has just taken a huge charge of up to US$200 million for dealing with a problem regarding faulty die/packaging used in some of its GPUs. We are now seeing the fallout from manufacturers who are suffering with those faulty graphics chips and Dell seems to have been hit hard.

A posting on the Direct2Dell blog has acknowledged that some of the company’s laptops contain these GPUs. If you have one, then there is a higher chance of the GPU failing, with the first signs being random characters on the screen, multiple images, lines across the screen or just no output whatsoever as a final nail in the graphics coffin.

The affected Dell laptops include:

• Inspiron 1420
• Latitude D630
• Latitude D630c
• Dell Precision M2300
• Vostro Notebook 1310
• Vostro Notebook 1400
• Vostro Notebook 1510
• Vostro Notebook 1710
• XPS M1350
• XPS M1530

If you have one of the above machines and are not experiencing any problems then Dell recommends you update the BIOS on the machine. This will help alleviate the issue, but unfortunately the fix involves making your system fans work harder so your machine is noisier and potentially the battery will drain more quickly.

The Direct2Dell blog does say that battery life shouldn’t change, however, stating:

Several of you have expressed concern over potential battery life issues. The reality is that these BIOS updates will not have any noticeable effect on battery life or overall system performance. These updates do not make the cooling fan run all the time. The fan may cycle on more frequently, but when it does, it will run at half or quarter speed.

Read more at Direct2Dell.com

Matthew’s Opinion
If I was a Dell customers with one of these machines I’d be a bit annoyed that my laptop could potentially stop working if the graphics chip gets hot. The solution doesn’t seem that reassuring either as the fans will just come on more to try to cope.

I would actually want to send my machine back and have the GPU replaced. NVIDIA is taking a hit for their faulty processors so why shouldn’t all the GPUs be replaced if owners want them? I know this would cost them an absolute fortune, but they sold faulty goods.

If you do have one of the above machines that has gone wrong, or another make that contained one of these GPUs let us know your experiences and how manufacturers are dealing with these problems. Ars Technica also has a good piece about the faulty chips if you want to know more.

New Zealander Glenn Martin has achieved the dreams of The Rocketeer — only it’s unlikely his 250-pound jetpack will land him in bed with Jennifer Connelly.

The 48-year-old spent 27 years developing the first "practical jetpack," Martin told the New York Times. He plans to start mass producing his device and selling it for $100,000 a pop.

Martin’s jetpack, equipped with a 200-horsepower twin rotor, provides 600 pounds of thrust. For safety, it includes a ballistic parachute. He admits the device will likely give "somebody a very bad experience" at some point, but he said it’s still the "safest jetpack ever built."

It’d probably be wise to wait for someone to build a jetpack and sound more confident about not getting you killed. Then again, 100 grand isn’t much to spend if you’re going to die.

The Jetpack: From Comics to a Liftoff in the Yard [NY Times]

I’m surprised that someone hasn’t already covered this particular gadget yet, because it is definitely one of the coolest gadgets that I have seen in quite a while.

We have covered stories on Microsoft’s Surface, a touchscreen mounted on a coffee table frame. The Sphere is the next step up from the flat display, as the user interacts with something round, for a change.

The Sphere is prepared for the next generation of 3-D interactivity and viewing. It is the perfect viewer for watching footage from cameras with a 360-degree view. The user can then “spin” it to view it from any angle.

The user can also “spin” the globe function, just as they could a real globe. I can imagine their version can do a lot more than a regular one.

As for a photo viewer, it works a lot like a touch screen viewer, but on a big ball. In fact, if you place and keep your hand on the photo, it automatically transports over to the other side of Sphere.

The Sphere even has a game that looks a lot like pong. If you would like to see more, check out the attached YouTube video.

Microsoft is going to showcase the Sphere today, but it doesn’t look like it is going to be available anytime soon. However, with something as cool as this, how could you not resist rushing the development? I want to be able to grope this big bad ball by CES 2009.

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Imagine being able to unplug your hard drive and hook it up to your TV to watch some popular movies or even see some great digital vacation photos sent by Uncle Phil of his recent vacation to Cleveland with the wife and kids. Okay, that would be torture, but being able to enjoy movie downloads or listen to favorite songs while looking at a digital photo album wouldn’t be too bad, would it?

The trouble is, that unless people know a lot about networking and media center TV hacks, the blinking VCR crowd isn’t likely to get it, much less enjoy it. Until now. This SATA HDD Multimedia Dock will plug in not only 2.5/3.5 inch hard disks but also SD Cards. And with its standard RCA or S-Video outputs, users can easily enjoy video, photos and even audio from their TVs without a computer.

The Multimedia dock also works as a data backup unit as well thanks to its USB interface. This unit presupposes the ability to remove a hard drive and install it into the unit, but if that hard drive is part of an external array, then removal is much simpler, and safer for other data, than removing it from within the computer itself. The only real drawback is that it only works with FAT32 formatted drives but for less than $100, it represents an intriguing option for enjoying PC based media on a TV without hooking up one’s computer.

Hat Tip – The Ferret

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 29th 2008 at 5:23AM

Engadget Chinese received the slide image above showing ASUS’ Eee PC roadmap. Go ahead count ‘em up, we’ll wait… Right, 23 Eee PCs before they’re done, some of which we’ve already seen. The “extreme slim and light” S101 and S91 models, however, are new and tantalizing Eee PC “Ultimate” series additions and should compete nicely with the Dell E Slim. Really though, 23 models ASUS? Guess we shouldn’t be surprised, after all, this is the same company that offers more than 50 models (not just configurations) of laptops.

Read — Engadget Chinese
Read — ASUS Notebook list

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Filed under: Laptops

This nifty looking device you see above is known as the DVD Zabady VD-J713CW, and it will be perfect for those who just cannot tear themselves away from the TV even while taking a bath. Since large screen waterproof displays are expensive, the VD-J713CW comes in a much smaller 7″ display at 480 x 234 resolution which makes it way more manageable. Features include an integrated DVD player and a 1Seg TV tuner to accompany an SD memory card slot and multimedia support. It is not waterproof indefinitely, as leaving it underwater (less than 1m) for more than 30 minutes will result in seepage, making it turn off permanently.

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 29th 2008 at 2:05AM

You read that title correctly, iriver’s Spinn is apparently touchscreen (not D-Click as mentioned in the FCC leaked user manual) and features haptic feedback to boot. Now that it’s officially spec’d on iriver’s Korean site, we’re also seeing a slightly degraded audio lifespan of 24-hours (not 27) and the apparent removal of the mini SD slot — it’s no longer mentioned in the specs and we don’t see a suitable slot on any of the pictures. Otherwise, it’s the same sleek slab of 10.7-mm thick metal and plastic sporting a 3.3-inch, 480 x 272 pixel AMOLED display, T-DMB TV, Bluetooth, and new analog SPINN Wheel we’ve seen kicking around since CES. Currently on pre-order for South Korea with the 4GB model fetching 259,000KRW (about $259) or 8GB for 299,000KRW (about $299). That’s right, it maxes out with just 8GB of flash. Check the gallery while we all anxiously await iriver’s international launch plans including the rumored August UK release.

Gallery: iriver’s touchscreen Spinn gets priced for pre-order

[Via DAP Review, thanks Al]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Nintendo has had a long standing feud with firms that play a role in providing a means for propogating original software the illegal method - through ROMs, and this time round, their hugely popular DS platform (both the Phat and Lite versions) are under fire by hardware that allows illegal ROMs to be played. Five Japanese firms will fall under this lawsuit, and they will be accompanied by 54 other Japanese software makers. Surely the M3 and R4 (read our review) will fall under the jurisdiction of this lawsuit. It takes great discipline not to download illegal ROMs if you happen to own any of either hardware, but how many people actually buy them for homebrew purposes?

Navigon’s new GPS system, the Navigon 2150 Max is now readily available in the UK. It looks exactly the same as the Navigon 2110 Max which rolled out in June, but like mom used to say - never judge a book by its cover. The Navigon 2150 Max does come with some important enhancements and features normally found in GPS devices of a higher class. Features include Text-to-Speech capability and an integrated Bluetooth hands-free kit. Interestingly enough, you can update the Navigon 2110 Max’s firmware through the Navigon Fresh online service, but those who want to pick up the Navigon 2150 Max straight away will have to pony up £229.