Gadgets Blog

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 27th 2008 at 2:58PM

Asus’ R&D design studio, PEGA, looks to be coming up with some surprising product concepts as part of its Between On & Off exhibition. We’re betting that none of these will ever see the light of day, but we’re intrigued — and prematurely annoyed — by the Look@Me emoticon keyboard. Stocked with 40 emoticon bits (eyes, mouths, noses), the keyboard allows users to express their emotions on a more regular basis, if that’s possible. Other concepts include Embrace, a night light that emits as much light as you have opened the book; JustDrawIt!, a power management device that visualizes on / off settings for appliances with a pen; and the On&On bench that doubles as a solar charger. Sadly, the exhibition is over, but check the gallery below for some of PEGA’s other concepts.

Gallery: PEGA Designs Concepts

[Via OhGizmo]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets, Peripherals

This little set-top box hit the market early last week with quite a bit of excitement. The Roku Netflix Player was what a lot of people had been waiting for, and based on statements about a 10 day delay from the Roku forums, they either sold really well or Roku had underestimated the initial sales numbers. Either way we were lucky enough to be able to get our order in early and with that ours is now in hand. That means you can be on the lookout for a review in the future, and if you have any questions about how it works send them our way. In the meantime enjoy some pics from the unboxing.

Keep reading for some more pics…

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While the latest round of details to surface for the Paris are not exactly as flattering as the rest, this should still prove to be a worthy handset. The new details that have come to light reveal a solid offering coming from SE. The P5 is a slider style phone with a QWERTY keyboard and will be UIQ based.

The handset also offers a touch sensitive display with one-touch screen rotation, the ability to browse or view bookmarks without sliding the handset open and one-touch zoom in/out navigation.

The Samsung based camera with auto-focus comes in at a nice 5-megapixels, and we can also expect to find Wi-Fi, an FM radio and standard Walkman player. The included GPS will default to Google Maps, however WayFinder 7 will also be installed as a trial option. Finally there will be support for Microsoft Office documents.

We also now know that the Paris is expected to retail for 400 Euros and is rumored to include UIQ 3.3 and Opera 9.5 at the time it ships. As of now it is expected to be available in early September.

Via [Mobile-Review] Image [My Symbian Forums]

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Psystar has revised its Open Computer, doing away with its negatives of the past where fan noise is one of the main culprits. This new iteration sees a much quieter machine, and another notable improvement is the inclusion of a NVIDIA GeForce 7200GS 256MB graphics card that makes this a decent portable casual gaming notebook. Thankfully unlike global oil prices, the Psystar Open Computer will still retail for $399, although you will need to fork out another $155 if you plan to have Leopard pre-installed on the system.

LG has a new home theater system known as the LHT888, and this one isn’t exactly new since it was introduced at CES 2008 back in January. Apparently, this is one neat system in the sense where you won’t see cables running all over the place, thanks to all four speakers that come with stands, where the rear speakers are wireless to prevent any accidental trips while making that short journey across the living room. Features include 1080p upscaling, HDMI and USB connectivity, a CD/DVD player, as well as an integrated AM/FM tuner. LG has slapped a $649.95 price tag on the LHT888, making this an intermediate purchase for anyone looking for a seamless and no-frills home theater system.

Panasonic will be releasing its new pair of earphones known as the RP-HJE900 on June 15th in Japan. What makes this pair different from the rest in the market is the use of zirconia, a material often associated with the manufacturing of fake diamonds. Apparently zirconia suppresses sound distortion, or so the story goes. Sound pressure sensitivity has been rated to fall in the vicinity of 100dB/mW, with a frequency response of 6Hz–28 KHz accompanying each purchase. To add to the RP-HJE900’s uniqueness, it boasts removable cables, making it a whole lot easier to stow away without ending up with a tangled mess when you need it. No idea on how much it costs though.

7″ Memory View Silver Digital Photo Frame is the first frame developed by Digital Frame Direct that comes with a 128MB internal memory. Its USB capability lets you connect it easily to a PC even without using a USB memory stick or memory card. 7″ Memory View Silver Digital Photo Frame sports a 16:0 screen ratio and gives you a brilliant 480 x 234 screen resolution.

Features

• Calendar, Clock and Alarm Function.
• Ultra High Definition Screen.
• Supports MP3 Audio Formats.
• Supports MPEG Video Formats.
• Supports JPEG Image Formats.

CFCM MMCM MS and SD are the four memory cards that are supported by 7″ Memory View Silver Digital Photo Frame. You can even enjoy a slideshow on 7″ Memory View Silver Digital Photo Frame. With 7″ Memory View Silver Digital Photo Frame you also get a remote control. Not only this, it comes with a full 12-months warranty.

Price

7″ Memory View Silver Digital Photo Frame is available at a price of $ 69.95.

Source: DigitalFramesDirect

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Winds of change are coming to AT&T, with the Pantech Breeze leading the way. This is one handset that caters to those with the most basic of phone call needs, possibly making it a firm favorite with oldies as well as those who want quicker calling. You get a row of 3 quick call keys that can be assigned to your phone numbers of choice, doing away with the need to scroll through the phone book. In addition, the Breeze comes with a simplified phone menu and a large keypad to make things much easier to figure out even if this is the first time you’re using a cell phone. Other features include a VGA camera with video recording support and Bluetooth connectivity. AT&T will sell the Breeze for $40 with a 2-year contract or $125 as a standalone clamshell handset.

Solid State Drives are about to get useful. Samsung has announced a laptop friendly (2.5″) 256GB SSD which will be shipping by the end of the year. Samsung’s Jim Elliott quite rightly points out that this is analogous to the jump from hard drives to flash storage in portable MP3 players. There’s a big difference between the 32GB iPod Touch and the 160GB ipod Classic, for example, but the 32GB is enough for most people.

Samsung also plans to have a 1.8″ model available by the end of 2008. We’re guessing that, while the notebook sized drives will cost the same or less than today’s smaller SSDs, this tiny version will be a little pricey. We’ll also lay bets that it’ll end up in a macbook air.

The skinny: Thin (9.5 mm or 0.37″), low powered (0.9 watts when running, less in standby), fast (read speed 200 MB/s, write speed 160MB/s) and long lasting (Samsung claims one million hours, although that equates to 114 years which seems a little optimistic).

Press release [Street Insider]

by Thomas Ricker, posted May 27th 2008 at 4:39AM

We’ll get into more detail later, but we thought it was appropriate to share the moment when the Japanese showed the world just how pathetic your 3G iphone fantasies really are. Announced today are 19 new handsets from NTT DoCoMo’s 906i and 706i series. All 8 of the 906i feature 3G / GSM international roaming, GPS, HSDPA, 1-seg mobile TV, full browser with Flash 8 support, DCMX mobile credit card and iD mobile credit payment tech, VGA LCD screens, and voice to text translation of Chinese, English, and Japanese. Some even support direct transfer of Blu-ray video. The 11-strong 706i series features a variety of handsets including a waterproof 1-Seg phone, world’s slimmest 1-Seg phone, and a wellness phone to monitor your health and diet. All eleven 706i phones rounded up and pictured after the break.

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Filed under: cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video