Tech Gadgets Reviews

As its name indicates, the LaCie 5big can receive up to five 3.5″ drives to reach a total capacity of 7.5TB (5×1.5). It can be configured in seven different RAID modes, among them RAID5 and RAID6. Most people will use a half the capacity for redundancy (in case of a hardware failure on one of the drives). It is a network attached storage (NAS), but it also has a USB 2.0 and three eSATA ports (eSata is as fast as internal HDD). The 5big comes with an administrative interface that makes it possible to create user account accounts to manage “who can access what”. It costs between $900 (2.5TB) and $1900 (7.5TB).

Willcom took the opportunity to roll out the Willcom 03 device at the recently concluded CEATEC 2008 in Japan, and this slide-n-tilt smartphone is powered by none other than Windows Mobile 6.1. Some of the other features on the delectable Willcom 03 include :-

• 3″ display at 480 x 800 resolution
• 1-Seg support
• Wi-Fi connectivity
• Bluetooth 2.0 support
• 2 megapixel camera
• microSD memory card slot

You will be able to get around 420 hours of standby time and 360 hours of talk time on a single charge - while I find the former figure realistic, the latter is clearly out of the question, perhaps they meant minutes? No word on whether this 50mm x 116mm x 17.9mm device will be hitting any country other than Japan or not.

Videogame publisher XS Games has lifted the veil on the innovative AirG peripheral that will accompany an upcoming video game known as PopStar Guitar. The AirG won’t be available across all three platforms, but will remain a Nintendo Wii exclusive to offer new game play dimensions to music rhythm games. What the AirG actually is, is an air guitar that enables gamers to drop all pretense and sense of self-consciousness by attaching the peripheral to the Wii Remote. Each copy of PopStar Guitar will be packaged with a couple of compact AirG peripherals for just $59.99, enabling you to jump straight into multiplayer mode the moment you unwrap the game in your living room.

As recently announced, PopStar Guitar will feature original mastered tracks from mega pop artists Rihanna, The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and leading bands Maroon 5, 3 Doors Down, Simple Plan and Blink 182. The game puts players in the role of a lead guitarist on a musical journey that begins with forming a garage band and progresses to the ultimate performance on the main stage of a worldwide “Battle of the Bands” competition. PopStar Guitar features twelve playable characters, 25 visually stunning venues and more than 50 pop songs. Players can customize their band, giving it a unique look, as well as win a number of VIP vehicles, so their band can travel like real pop stars! With three difficulty levels, PopStar Guitar will feature a single player Career Mode along with single player and multi-player mini-games.

While PopStar Guitar will be released on both the Nintendo Wii and PS2, only the AirG peripheral is available on an exclusive basis to the Wii, whereas folks who are still rocking to the venerable PS2 can pick up PopStar Guitar for just $29.99, with their gaming sessions fulfilled by officially licensed PS2 non-USB guitar peripherals. You game?

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So, I just wanted to make a post about the status of the 2008 Halloween Hunt… there is none this year. Why you may ask? A few reasons. Allow me to explain.

First off (And this is a big one), the code that powers the halloween hunt is more trouble than it’s worth. Things are so not efficient. It takes HOURS to set everything up, insert items into the list, create team emails (That task alone takes 4 hours), adjust teams, etc. It’s a hassle. Approving posts takes days, and is hard to do with multiple people. (This was tried last year and just caused more problems) The original plan was to recreate the whole site, and make everything light years better. Unfortunately this didn’t happen. (The reasons for this will follow too.)

Second off, I have no time. I’m busy working on paying projects. There’s no money in the Halloween Hunt. It’s not sponsored by anyone, no one pays me to do it. It’s all out of my pocket, which is looking pretty empty these days, as my paying projects haven’t yet paid off. I keep the site ad free to save bandwidth on the device and make it load faster and frankly, I hate ads. If I got paid hourly for the work that goes into the hunt, I’d be a very rich individual. Let’s just say when there is a hunt, the whole month of October gets devoted to it, and it’s still not enough to do everything.

Now, up until a hour or so ago I was highly considering still doing a hunt… although scaled back. (It’s tradition… it has to go on, right?) However, the actions of some individual or individuals has led me to say, “F**k it.” An individual sent me a link to an urban dictionary post containing the following;

exiva

a larger than average male (we are not sure on the fact that he is a male… will get back to you on that one). He loves Danger Inc. with his heart, and will suck their c**ks to get their attention. Unfortunately, (s)he is a failure at life and his/her apps suck c**k (not Danger c**k though)

God damnit, that dude(tte) is trying to submit his lame ass app and is being an exiva by sucking danger c**k.

Now, why would I waste my time and put off my projects and squeeze in time to do something entirely for free for someone who decides to post that? I wouldn’t. I don’t care anymore. The hunt was something I had volunteered to do… out of courtesy to the community. But if people go ahead and post this crap, why waste my time? Is it fair to kill off the hunt for the actions of one or two individuals? No. But, again, I don’t care. It’s [now] my hunt, and I’ll do whatever I so choose with it. Should MikePop or divinity choose to continue the hunt, more power to them. I will not be putting it on this year.

I had considered posting a name of the individual who I think did this, but I’ve chosen not to. It’s not worth it.

Oh, also, Volcom? I don’t care about your prizes. Seriously, they might end up in the trash tomorrow. Call Danger and whine to them about it.

So, Happy Halloween everyone and thank you Hiptop3 for the space to post this. Maybe I’ll be back next year with the hunt… Who knows.

-exiva

After teasing us with videos and a vague web site, Research in Motion has finally decided to come out of the closet with full details on its touchscreen handset, the BlackBerry Storm.

Those following the smartphone market are aware that the word touchscreen has become a synonym for "iPhone competitor." So we’ve compiled a chart comparing the two handsets’ specifications (below the jump). You’ll be entertained to see that in terms of hardware, the Storm is much more competitive with the iPhone than the underwhelming T-Mobile G1.

Behold:

Those of you who have been itching with curiosity over the Storm are probably surprised to see the handset’s lack of Wi-Fi connectivity. That’s the major area where iPhone has an advantage, although BlackBerry smartphones are typically aimed at enterprise users, who primarily use their smartphones for e-mail — so they may not mind. Still, quite an odd omission from a handset that features a web browser and multimedia capabilities virtually identical to the iphone.

As for the Storm’s advantages, you’ll notice that the camera sports a superior resolution at 3.2 megapixels and also includes a flash, auto focus and video-recording capability. We can only hope the Storm’s battery lasts long enough to handle those features without rendering them impractical.

Another interesting tidbit: The Storm’s screen is a wee bit smaller but sports a higher pixel resolution than the iPhone screen. Wired.com’s Daniel Dumas had some hands-on time with the Storm, and he’s described the screen as "Beautiful."

Moving on to software — the Storm will ship with the popular blackberry OS, which, as I mentioned earlier, is optimized for enterprise purposes. Think wireless synchronization with Lotus Notes, Outlook and Novell GroupWise.

Overall, the Storm appears to attempt to strike a balance between "business" and "casual," allowing serious enterprise users to take a breather every once and a while and watch a video, for example. However, it remains questionable whether enterprise users will appreciate the lack of a physical QWERTY keyboard.

RIM has not disclosed U.S. pricing or an official ship date yet. Verizon will serve as the U.S. carrier. We’ll provide updates as more details become available.

See also:

• Hands On With The BlackBerry Storm

Specification Sheet (in PDF) [RIM]

Microsoft Surface’s software developer kit is finally out, and will be made available to those attending Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference later this month. It would be interesting to see Microsoft slowly but surely opening up the Surface’s development instead of restricting it to a selected group of companies only. Interestingly enough, multitouch will be part of the Windows 7 interface, so it would be nice to see how the SDK’s release will affect the mobile operating system to go up against the iphone’s operating system.

   

Walking around Union Square in NYC last year, I seriously felt as if image displays had replaced windows as the main dynamic framing device. But if a new clear display prototype is any indication, windows might make a comeback as prime eyeball subjects . . . by turning into flexible 3D displays.

In a paper released this week, Sony and the Max-Planck-Institute in Germany announced the creation of a flexible translucent display that renders images in single laser beams and ‘paints the pixels in different colors.’ I know what you’re thinking: Superman’s Fortress of Solitude! Clear, crystal displays! Well, we’re not there yet, but it’s plenty interesting.

The chemistry of the new display is what makes the magic of the screen happen. A photosensitive chemical is combined with a (polycarbonate) transparent sheet to create the screen, which forces the chemicals in the screen to emit light when an infrared lights (lasers) hit it hard.

This process is called ‘photoexcitation,’ though the group calls the whole process ‘upconversion’ due to the way energy moves from the lasers to the screen and ends up in the photons that are the images displayed. We’re grateful it has nothing to do with rude product pushing.

This is not the same thing as the other 3D technologies we’ve recently discussed, like the Quad Full TV from Philips. That one recreates the human optical trick of splicing images together at super-fast rates to make things seem to appear in 3D. In this one, a chemical reaction is actually occurring to create the images.

This isn’t the first time we’ve heard of this tech. Several small up-converting displays were created in the last few years, but none were viable as a real display. The lasers needed for larger displays were too expensive, the performance degraded over a few hours, and the high-intensity needed to achieve the needed luminous intensity could not be maintained on a transparent screen.

According to Sony and Max-Planck, tests have shown that there’s no performance deterioration in this screen after 100 straight hours of use.

Such claims bode well for the eventual mass-market reproduction of the display, though the lasers for this level of image-inducing reaction are still too expensive at this point, especially when you need to create the same number of the color lasers that would replicate a true color image. So don’t set your calendar to any release date.

However, we’re sure that won’t stop a few Dr. Evils from trying to get their hands on the display/windows to try to stud their buildings with them. When that happens, you can be I’ll be there, gawking restlessly at the moving-picture windows.

So, Junior just got his license and you’re worried about how fast he’s going to be ripping around the neighborhood, huh?  Well, Ford just may have the solution you’re looking for.  They’re coming out with the new MyKey and it is aimed to help parents both monitor and limit certain areas of their children’s driving habits.

With MyKey, drivers won’t be able to go over 80 miles an hour, and a warning chime will go off at 45, 55 and 65 miles per hour.  Kids won’t be able to turn on the radio until they are nice and safe and secure by fastening their seat belt.  Even once they can turn the radio on, there isn’t much danger of them blasting it, since the volume is limited to 44 percent of the maximum allowed. 

If the seatbelt isn’t put on, it will continue to emit a warning chime the entire time the car is being driven.  You have a little bit better chance of not hearing the “I didn’t realize I was going to run out of gas excuse,” since the low-fuel chime gives them a warning when there is 75 miles remaining.  There are even additional safety technologies built in like the inability to deactivate traction control and blind-spot detection.  Most of these features can be turned on and off by the parents.

Jim Buczkowski, Ford’s director of electronic and electrical systems engineering said, “Our message to parents is, hey, we are providing you some conditions to give your new drivers that may allow you to feel a little more comfortable in giving them the car more often.” As for the reason they chose the 80 mph even though most states have a lower speed limit, Ford says that they wanted to leave a leeway in case of special circumstances.  They felt placing it at 70 mph was cutting it too close.

According to Ford’s market research, 75 percent of parents like the idea of the MyKey, while an expected number of teens (67 percent) thought it was a bad idea.  However, also according to their research, use of the MyKey makes parents more likely to let their teen drive their car and in that situation, the view of teens being against the key drops by half.  Guess they figure it’s better to have a car even with limits than ride a bike.  A Schwinn tends to look goofy trying to pick up a date.

The MyKey is set to come standard on the 2010 Focus, and will be optional on several of their other cars as well.

Via [techdigest] and [msnbc]

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You know those late night e-mails you send out pleading for your girlfriend to take you back?  Then, you wake up the next morning and remember all the reasons you broke up with her in the first place and think oh my God what did I do?!? and wish there was a big old RETRACT button on your e-mail?  Well, until they come up with that e-mail retract button, they have something else.  Something that will at least sort of slow you down and make you think before you send that pleading missive of unrequited love.  Something that makes you solve math problems.

Yep.  You read that right.  Solve math problems.  See, GMail Engineer Jon Perlow over at Google Labs figured that if you are actually going to sit there and be able to think through solving some math problems, then just maybe you are in fact thinking clearly, and actually do want to send that email and the desire isn’t just an alcohol induced psychosis.

So, he developed Mail Goggles.  In its default settings, Mail Goggles is only active late nights on the weekend (since they figure that’s when most people need it and make their frantic emails that they later tend to regret).  You can change when it is active in the General Settings area once you enable the program though, if you feel your prime “I need goggles” time is different or if it is an around the clock thing.

This just may save a few relationships, jobs, or just help a few save face before hitting “send.” Regardless, this is kind of a fun idea.

via [techmeme] and [gmailblog]

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If, like me, you think from time to time about switching from a PC to a Mac, you’ll want to check out Robert Jensen’s account of how, in the course of reviewing the new iMac, he fell in love and ended up buying one.

The lack of cable clutter is delightful, but of course the changeover is not quite seamless. I got interested in Mac potential when Apple’s Boot Camp and Parallels made it possible to use Windows programs on the Mac. There are a couple I just can’t give up.

But Jensen apparently is not taking that easy way out. He has just published the first in what he says is a series of tutorials describing what’s involved in transferring years of your life to a different operating system.