Tech Gadgets Reviews

by Nilay Patel, posted Oct 26th 2008 at 4:03PM

HP’s obviously getting ready to expand its netbook line beyond the well-received Mini-Note 2133 — the company recently started teasing the Vivienne Tam Digital Clutch, and now images and pricing for a “Mini 1000″ have appeared on the HP shopping site. As expected, the new rig is basically a non-glam version of the Digital Clutch, and specs appear to be right in line with what we’ve seen: 10-inch screen, sub-1-inch thickness, and 2.25-pound starting weight — and we’re guessing the Mini 1000 also gets the upgrade to an Intel Atom over the 2133’s VIA C7-M. Not bad at all for a starting price tag of $399 — hopefully we’ll find out a lot more soon.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

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Filed under: Laptops

FROM GAMERTELL - Penguin United has created a charger that will recharge four WiiMotes at once. It looks great and works well but the setup does have a few flaws…
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What is the strongest thing in the world?  The Boy Scouts know the answer.  The Internet.

Since putting their fundraising products on the Internet, the Boy Scouts have seen a 700% increase in sales.  Yes, I said 7.  700%!  Now that’s a great return on your investment.  Weaver Popcorn, the Boy Scouts’ supplier of popcorn changed their ecommerce provider to LaGarde and updated the Boy Scouts’ fundraising site. 

They will still sell door-to-door, but now you can get that yummy popcorn easier and faster by ordering online.  If you have never experienced the scrumptious treats they sell, you must get some of the chocolaty caramel crunch popcorn and experience heaven on earth.  It is worth every penny – and you help out a good cause.

It pays to focus on ecommerce and update your website.  Why didn’t the rest of us think of that?  Oh, wait, we did.  About ten years ago.  Maybe the Girl Scouts will follow suit – because I get tired of trying to find someone to buy cookies from.  But, according to their website, “*** For the safety and security of the girls who are selling cookies, Girl Scout Cookies are not available for purchase online. (policy of Girl Scouts of the USA)***” With 700% increase, I think the girls have some catching up to do.

LaGarde offers ecommerce solutions to businesses of all sizes.  They have worked with names like Hitachi, Lee, and the Detroit Pistons.

Read [Press Release]

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by Nilay Patel, posted Oct 26th 2008 at 1:11PM

Garmin launched its updated 7×5 series of nuvi navigators back in August, but the high-end MSN Direct-equipped 785T is just hitting stores, and GPS Magazine says it’s a solid improvement over previous nuvis — but if you’re not willing to pay the $50 / year for the MSN service, you’re probably not going to miss it. The 785T drew high marks for its fast frame rate, nice 3D lane guidance / upcoming turn features, and semi-realistic building displays, but the MSN Direct traffic implementation was less accurate than the free traffic service built into lesser T-series nuvis, and download speeds for the service weren’t particularly swift. We’re not all that sold on the connected GPS concept yet, so we’re inclined to take the reviewer’s advice and pick up the otherwise-identical non-connected 765T, but click on for the full exhaustive review to decide for yourself.

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Filed under: GPS

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 26th 2008 at 9:06AM

With all sorts of outlandish figures being bandied about regarding sales / expectations for the T-Mobile G1, someone intimately close to the situation has finally chimed in with his take. Peter Chou, chief executive and co-founder of HTC, stated in a recent interview that it expects to ship over 600,000 G1s this year, and while he wouldn’t come clean on an exact figure for 2009, he did proclaim that “in general, we think we can do more next year.” We aren’t betting the farm that his prediction will come true or anything, but it certainly falls within the realm of feasibility. Oh, and if you were wondering how Mr. Chou planned on convincing potential iphone buyers to opt for the G1 instead, he reckons that the full QWERTY keypad will handle that for him — after all, “Americans are very keyboard-oriented.”

[Via mocoNews]

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Filed under: cellphones

If you’ve ever wished you could email a girl you thought was cute that you saw once in real life, you’ll like this new technology.  W-41 allows for you to access the person’s facebook, myspace, blog or whatever else she has registered to this site.  How it works is you would have to have the technology downloaded onto your phone, then when you see someone wearing the t-shirt with the logo you’d have to take a picture of it.  Keep in mind you’d have to be close enough to do this.

If you want other people to be able to find you, you’d have to buy some of their clothing.  They have three different shirts for guys and three for girls.  One of the down sides is that yes, you could meet some new people this way, but you could also get a few creepy emails as well.  There is also the annoying factor of knowing that someone is likely going to attempt to take your picture on their phone.  Then if you don’t live in a large city, it’s highly unlikely anyone will know what the strange symbol on your back means.  Either way, it’s still a cool way to meet new people.  The shirts aren’t too expensive, but still a little pricey t-shirts are $49 and sweatshirts are $56.  The download for you phone is completely free though.

Source: Coolbuzz

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You might take Parrot rather casually when it comes to the various portable gizmos that they roll out, but this time round it looks as though they have a clear cut winner on their hands. The Parrot Specchio was designed by Martin Szekely, and this stylish digital photo frame is not short on innovation and technology, featuring a whole bunch of ways to transfer and share pictures and albums. Just in case the name Martin Szekely fails to ring a bell, he is a contemporary well-known French artist who is widely acknowledged worldwide as a “master of minimalism”, and already has pieces in the permanent collections of the world’s major museums. This latest digital photo frame brings a timeless mirror into the picture (pun intended) that can more or less fit into just about any home and complement the overall ambiance. What makes the Parrot Specchio so special, you ask? Well, read on after the jump to find out.

When turned off the Parrot Specchio functions as an ordinary mirror. When you turn it on, it automatically becomes a work of art, displaying all your favorite digital memories in a classy manner. It is able to receive photos via a variety of methods, and we will take a look at the wireless ways first. You can choose from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or NFC (Near Field Communication), but if you think that going wired is the right thing to do (or if you do not happen to own a Bluetooth-capable handset), then there is always the mini-USB port and SD memory card reader for you to transfer all those special digital moments over to the Specchio in a seamless manner.

The Parrot Specchio frame is able to hold up to 1,500 digital pictures when it arrives in stores sometime this November, accompanied by a recommended retail price of $500. Image courtesy of Engadget.

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As with any launch of an intricate smartphone, there are always some problems.  However, it is important that the manufacturers of the phone work quickly to solve the problems of their users.  Within a couple of days of the official T-Mobile G1 launch, there have been several problems, and now many users are posting on the T-Mobile forums saying they are having trouble accessing their e-mail.

Whenever a user tries to send an e-mail, it either doesn’t send or sends as null.  In addition, it is nearly impossible to receive e-mail and this isn’t just associated with one e-mail service, it’s practically tied to all of them, except for one - Gmail. 

Of course, Google would make sure their own e-mail service functions the best.  Fortunately, a T-Mobile representative, Will, commented on the forums in effort to calm the people and work with them through this difficult time for T-Mobile.  He states that this e-mail problem is being looked into by T-Mobile in high priority, and he goes on to add:

“We used to see similar errors and symptoms with the old MyEmail service and the new Consumer Email Client.  Those are found on regular phones, but do encounter issues when there are more than 100 e-mails on the POP server or when there are emails with relatively large attachments.”

He seems to think that by saying T-Mobile has encountered such problems before, people will be reassured that T-Mobile has fixed it before and they will fix it again.  Feel free to let us know if you are encountering any similar problems with your G1.

Read [T-Mobile Forums] Via [BGR]

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In this week’s Wired Gadget Lab Audio Podcast, Dylan Tweney, Brian Chen, and I talk about the lightning fast and sexy-looking new Macbooks, as well as Apple’s surprising financial quarterly report.

In addition, we put the seemingly tepid launch of the Google Phone in perspective and explain why the differences between the user demographics of the new handset and those of the iphone may give the latter an unfair advantage in terms of publicity.

Finally, we preview our new Product Reviews website, which we’re launching this weekend. After months of heavy (and often sweaty) hard work by the Gadget Lab crew, over 400 reviews are now ready for your enjoyment and close scrutiny. So dig in!

If you have any comments about the new site or have some ideas about how we can improve it, please send me an email at jose_fermoso@wired.com, or to Dylan at dylan_tweney@wired.com.   

Thank you for listening to the podcast. Please remember, if the embedded player above doesn’t work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3 file.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes.

Also be sure to check out the Gadget Lab Video Podcast — on iTunes and on the Gadget Lab blog.

In this week’s Wired Gadget Lab Audio Podcast, Dylan Tweney, Brian Chen, and I talk about the lightning fast and sexy-looking new Macbooks, as well as Apple’s surprising financial quarterly report.

In addition, we put the seemingly tepid launch of the Google Phone in perspective and explain why the differences between the user demographics of the new handset and those of the iphone may give the latter an unfair advantage in terms of publicity.

Finally, we preview our new Product Reviews website, which we’re launching this weekend. After months of heavy (and often sweaty) hard work by the Gadget Lab crew, over 400 reviews are now ready for your enjoyment and close scrutiny. So dig in!

If you have any comments about the new site or have some ideas about how we can improve it, please send me an email at jose_fermoso@wired.com, or to Dylan at dylan_tweney@wired.com.   

Thank you for listening to the podcast. Please remember, if the embedded player above doesn’t work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast MP3 file.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes.

Also be sure to check out the Gadget Lab Video Podcast — on iTunes and on the Gadget Lab blog.