Gadgets Blog

SanDisk has just added a fast read/write memory card to its Memory Stick product line, the Extreme III Memory Stick PRO-HG-Duo. How fast? If 30mbps read and write capability ain’t fast enough for you, better wake up, cause this is the fastest that a memory card could possibly read so far.

Slated for launch during the PMA Australia Imaging Technology Show which runs from May 30 to June 1, this new memory card will come in 4GB and 8GB storage capacities. Suffice to say that this card would be of great use for photography purposes. Be reminded that Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo is the direct off-shot of the Memory Stick PRO format memory card and was developed by both Sony and SanDisk to answer the needs of PRO-HG capable Sony cameras.

The 4GB and 8GB memory card will start hitting the market worldwide sometime in June for $89.99 and $149.99 respectively.

Read [SanDisk]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

The direct-to-TV movie/video rental market is heating up with each of the major industry players coming up with their own proprietary movie rental services for the movie-watching public. The latest news that we have is coming courtesy of TiVo which has just sealed an agreement with Disney-ABC and CinemaNow to a offer direct-to-TV movie rental service. Under the said agreement, TiVo subscribers can now download their favorite Disney movies from TiVo for a 24-hour rental period.

This deal will boost TiVo’s lineup of movie offerings coming from major movie studios as well from Amazon Unbox, Music Choice and other movie content providers. If things go well with the Disney tie-up, TiVo is even planning to make the service available to its broadband-connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 subscribers.

Although pricing for this service has not yet been announced, we are hoping that it would be competitive enough to match up with related offerings of its competitors such as Blockbuster’s planned set-top boxes for movie streaming and DirectTV’s still undisclosed movie rental-related offerings. In the meantime, parents we suggest that you don’t let your children know about this service as you might find yourself being forced to partake too much of what TiVo has to offer because your kids won’t stop bugging you until you rent them that old Cinderella animated classic.

Via [Crave]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

That sound you hear may be the death knell for the set-top box/dust magnet in your home entertainment center. Sony and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association have announced an agreement that will place the cable companies’ technologies inside future Sony TV models. This will allow consumers to dial up ALL their cable channels, access video-on-demand and use interactive services without having to find a place for a steaming-hot cable box near the TV.

The nation’s largest cable companies - Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House - are on board, and the pressure is now on Samsung, LG and other big-screen makers to follow Sony’s lead. The NCTA says they’re welcome to do so.

You may be happy about one or two less cables cluttering up the space behind your TV, but you also may be concerned about any cable cards you’ve received from your local provider, or that handy digital video recorder in your current rented set-top box. The NCTA is being a little stingy with full details on the agreement but is assuring customers that cable cards will still work and video recording will still be offered. But in what form? The NCTA says Tivos will work with the new TV’s; but will some of the new Sony models also have built-in hard drives for recording? Will the cable companies still be offering separate DVRs for rent?

We also don’t know when to expect the new TVs to hit the big-box stores. But it’s clearly a digital coup for Sony, a victory for space-conscious consumers and validation of the cable companies’ strategy of building out services like VOD. Let’s just hope they don’t use this as validation for yet another rate hike.

Read [Associated Press via Wired News]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

by Darren Murph, posted May 29th 2008 at 10:31AM

Just a few months back, we all gave SanDisk a round of golf claps for moving towards 43-nanometer NAND production. Fast forward to today, and that “feat” doesn’t look so mighty anymore. Intel and Micron have just announced the industry’s first sub-40nm NAND flash memory device, the 34nm 32 gigabit multi-level cell chip. The process technology was collaboratively developed by the two firms’ joint venture, IM Flash Technologies (IMFT),” and there’s nary a hint of shame when they trumpet that this is the “smallest NAND process geometry on the market.” Sample shipments are expected to leave the dock in June, while mass production should get going sometime in the second half of this year. Somehow, we get the impression this won’t stay on top for long.

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 9 Comments

Filed under: Storage

Weight loss isn’t exactly one of my major priorities. It’s not that I couldn’t spare a few pounds (or a lot of few pounds, even), it’s just that with so much going on in my life right now, it seems like a I can’t find a spare second to sleep, let alone weigh myself and monitor food intake. Does this sort of mentality remind you of anyone?

Health and physical well-being are on an upswing compared to the indulgence of the late-90s and early millennium years. People are starting to get back into their peak condition for health reasons, rather than sex appeal, even though that’s always a plus. But how can you work such a time-swallowing event into your traveling? The Magellan Travel Scale is the key.

What makes the Magellan Travel Scale such an awesome little gadget is its compact design. The sides of the scale pull-out to reveal a backlit digital display, readable in both pounds and kilos. It’s lightweight and compact design allow the scale to easily squeeze into your average carry-on bag.

For $40 you can grab your own Travel Scale and never have to miss another weigh-in. Keeping it around will also keep you inspired, or at least stand as a visual reminder that you should be a good boy. The looming image of the scale is inspirational enough to diet most of the time.

Product Page via Red Ferret Journal

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

Ripple from Korea rolled out its new DIY tablet pc known as the TN120R, although I’m not too sure where the DIY part comes in. Do I have to actually piece it together? After all, it does look as though it comes all ready to function out-of-the-box. The basic configuration consists of :-

• 12.1″ LCD display at 1,280 x 800 resolution
• Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 2.1GHz processor
• 120GB hard drive
• 1GB RAM
• DVD Multi Burner

Now the Glovephone concept will probably never take off, since it can be quite a hassle to use if you happen to attend barbecue parties all the time. Imagine taking off your phone just for the sake of tearing into some delicious racks of lamb. While electronics woven into clothing has been around for a while already, that doesn’t mean it will work with a phone sewed onto the palm of your glove. According to the designer, one good thing about this is it will call 911 automatically whenever it detects itself being in a fist fight. Pretty neat, although you won’t have time to talk to the operator on the other end of the line when you’re busy trying to avoid punches.

The first video sharing website for women launched in beta a little over a month ago, with the mission to build an online community around the creation and sharing of intelligent video content. SheZoom offers professional videos featuring experts on topics such as technology, food, money and fashion, as well as member contributed content. Once you join as a member, you can share your own videos, and comment on and rate other videos on the site. The site also links to popular videos on YouTube and other video sharing sites; SheZoom, editors curate this outside content for those of us who are too busy to comb through it all ourselves on a daily basis.

Experts you’ll find on SheZoom include Greg Harper (technology consultant), Jeff Morgan and Jodie Morgan (food and wine experts), Dr. Lou Aronne, (obesity expert), and Julie Ross (parenting expert). The site’s primary focus, according to founder and CEO, Stacey Artandi, is the community aspect of video sharing: “All of our contributors can relate to one another and have a wealth of knowledge based on their experiences as executives, mothres, runners, sisters, chefs - the list goes on and on. SheZoom enables women to tape into and share this collective knowledge.”

BenQ has just launched its latest digital camera offering, and boy can we just say that it sure is slim. In fact this ultra-compact camera, dubbed the T850 may just be the slimmest in the crowd so far at only 14.9mm thick. But no matter how much we convince you that this baby is as sleek as it can get, we know that you would rather know about its features and functionality. Luckily, the T850 delivers a nice little punch that might drive you to consider getting one as soon as it becomes available.

The T850 packs good features such as a high 1600 ISO sensitivity, 3x optical zoom, 3-inch TFT LCD, 8.0-megapixel CCD sensor and SD/SDHC media support. But aside from these features, what makes BenQ T850 stand out among the crop of digital cameras in its line is its touch screen feature which would allow you to access camera functions by finger tapping, encircling or swiping. And yes, for a digital camera which employs actual “swiping” gesture to view photos, the T850 hits one mark on this one.

All these nifty features add up to other equally good features of the camera which include, “smile catch” technology, auto face tracking, Z lighting, advanced photo art, scribble and scrawl and quick bar.

If only BenQ has already announced the T850’s pricing and availability details, we might already be saving up for it.

Via [Photography Blog]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

by Donald Melanson, posted May 29th 2008 at 4:14AM

Vstone’s various humanoid robots have already made their presence known in Japan, and it looks like they’re now finally making their way over here with a little help from the folks at Texas-based KumoTek. They’ve just announced their new line of KT-X series bots (seemingly identical to Vstone’s Robovie-X), including the 13-motor KT-X Lite, the 17-motor KT-X, and the 20-motor KT-X Gladiator, all of which are apparently aimed at the educational market and range in price from $990 to $1,490. Like its Vstone coutnerpart, the KT-X measures about 13 inches tall, and is able to be controlled with a standard PS2 wireless controller, although it apparently comes with the added educational benefit of KumoTek’s Robot P.E.T.S. (Robots Promoting Education Through Science) educational system, which the company hopes will help set students off into a career in robotics or mechanical engineering.

[Via I4U News]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 2 Comments

Filed under: Robots