Gizmodo: gizmodo hearts

Sulis Personal Water Purifier: A Bottle-Top Device That Could Save Lives

www.gizmodo.com — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 10:26:14 EDT

We've already written about the LifeStraw, a product that could save the lives of the 1.5 million under-fives who die each year from drinking untreated water, and here's another. Developed by an Israeli company called Water Sheer, the Sulis personal water purifier (named after the Roman goddess of spring water) is a 2.7-inch, 10-gram device which you attach to the top of a bottle of water to drink through.

As well as helping people in the developing world, the device, which can purify water tainted by organic, biological, and chemical contaminates, is also aimed at hikers, victims of natural disasters, and the military. The company is looking for investors in order to build a manufacturing plant and start production, but they say the device, which is good for purifying 1,000 liters of water and, unlike other purifying devices makes the water taste like, well, fresh water, will cost no more than a "large coffee and cake at Starbucks". – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Watersheer via MedGadget]

Nokia N90 Available?

Travis Hudson — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 14:46:21 EST

Nokia has announced that their highly anticipated N90 is available through Ritz Camera. Ritz is selling the phone for 400 bones with an activation plan through T-Mobile, or a straight up $700 without any kind of plan. Nokia has been giving us Gizmodo blue balls with this phone for around seven months and we are happy to see that it is FINALLY coming around to getting released.

Product Page [Ritz Camera]
Nokia Announces N90 Availability at Ritz [I4U]

HP iPaq rx1950 - The Small One

johnb — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 16:20:58 EDT

Lots of handheld news today. The iPaq rx1950 looks like a stunted little thing but it's quite powerful and runs Windows Mobile 5.0. The 3.5-inch TFT screen is another plus but the 300Mhz processor places this firmly in the lower stratum of handheld majesty. Styling, however, is just about perfect and Windows Mobile 5.0 apparently kicks butt.

rx1950 First Looks [DavesiPaq]

HP iPAQ hx2795 Reviewed (Verdict: Fast)

johnb — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 12:51:31 EDT

I am so far out of the PDA loop that it's nice to see that, in a way, I'm not missing much. PDAs are following the same path they've always taken—shadow the laptop market as much as possible and dumb things down a bit for on-the-road apps. Amazingly, however, the hx2795 comes with a 624Mhz processor which is just about as fast as you could please. Built-in WiFi also adds a bit of sass and the design, a far cry from the iPaqs of old, is bordering on minimalist.

Overall, I'm not going back to PDAs, but if you're in the market, this one looks to be a winner.

HP iPAQ hx2795 [DavesiPaq]

Olive Musica Wireless Music Center

johnb — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 13:57:57 EDT

I have an old Compaq iPaq Jukebox from, say, 2000, what still runs like a champ. It's basically the same as this Musica dealie, which is to say it has a CD/DVD ripper, can stream audio—the Jukebox's audio streaming was pretty primitive,though—and it stores music onto a hard disk. The Musica, unlike the beastly Jukebox, looks super cool and has a red-hot LCD and a 160GB hard drive, which makes me think that I might need to trade up on pretty soon.

Priced at $1,099, the Musica looks like a pretty interesting bridge between the PC and the home theatre.

Olive introduces Musica wireless music center [PlaylistMag]

Gateway 14" Widescreen Tablet (Sexy!)

Travis Hudson — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 10:15:21 EDT

I often consider myself immune to tech news. Please, that new iPod didn t even faze me. But Gateway has a new tablet coming out and I am getting all worked up. This is a 14" widescreen convertible tablet PC. The Gateway CX200 to be exact. First thing is first, this tablet is starting at only $1100, which is pretty damn good for a quality tablet nowadays. Also this machine is full customizable, from battery type, CPU, video card, everything is customizable. Pardon my enthusiasm, but I am a tablet PC user and this thing tickles me pink. It is up for preorder currently and should be available in the near future.

Product Page [Via Tablet PC Review Spot]

More Nikon Goodies

johnb — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:44:10 EDT

As we mentioned before, Nikon dropped five cameras today. We liked the P2 but the S3, an update of the ultra-slim S-line and the flippy S4 are both winning our hearts as well. Then you've got the Coolpix P1 with wireless connectivity (!!) and the L1 and L101, two standard shooters. Very nice line-up.

S3
S4
P1
L1
L101
[LetsGoDigital]

Wolf CRRAAAWWW ][ Keyboard Reviewed (Verdict: CRAAAAW!)

johnb — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:55:03 EDT

The Wolf Claw II Keyboard amused us to no end a few months ago and now it's out. ExtremeTech reviewed this majestic keyboard with unique gaming numeric pad thing on the side. Apparently, this is one of the few gaming keyboards that you'll actually want to use after you quit out of Vegitales: The First Person Bible Adventure Shoot-em-Up.

Wolf Claw Type II Keyboard [ExtremeTech]

TomTom Mobile 5 Reviewed (Verdict: Very Nice, Better With John Cleese)

johnb — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 13:52:31 EDT

The TomTom Mobile 5 is a Bluetooth device that beams tracking info to a compatible Windows Mobile smartphone. TomTom, best known for their excellent standalone GPS devices, is maintaining its comparatively high standards by offering quite a few good features in a box the size of a pack of Virginia Slims, provided, of course, you have a good enough phone to load maps and voices without maxing out your memory cards.

Will this replace the in-dash or self-contained GPS unit in the US? Never. Is it very cool, especially because you can add a special John Cleese voice so he can tell you where to drive? Absolutely.

TomTom Mobile 5 Review [CoolSmartphone.com]

LifeStraw - $2 Saves a Life

johnb — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 10:31:15 EDT

Mike over at GizMag.com pointed out this interesting device. It's a water purifier that costs about $2 and lasts about one year. There are no replaceable or electric parts and it uses simple suction to filter out most major pathogens. Over 6,000 people, mostly children, die of water-borne diseases each day. The LifeStraw, quite clearly, can help. Mike says:

If we (as in the big WE) can find a way of manufacturing and distributing one of these to each human at risk, every year, we could save countless lives (now there s a noble outcome for the tech blogs and mags of the world to work together to promote this). Each LifeStraw lasts for one person s annual needs of clean water a simple straw costing a few dollars will ensure that one at-risk person will not die for a year - now that's a donation we can all make with a serious kicker!

Not to get all Suzanne Sommers here, but this product, like the excellently named Plumpy'nut, is an great way to solve a burgeoning, if not already massive, problem. Now back to your regularly scheduled poop jokes.

The LifeStraw the invention of the century? [GizMag]

Sanyo Xacti E6 - That's Some Camera

johnb — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 12:54:53 EDT

I hadn't heard much from Sanyo recently and then they go and spring this cool little number on us. This is a beautiful 6-megapixel camera with a 3-inch LCD and 3x optical zoom. I particularly like the lens placement and the clean lines of this point and shoot. Very rare to see a camera that looks like a bar of soap and doesn't have million buttons. In fact, most of the UI happens on the screen. It's nice to see the move away from the "twist and click" button-loving legacy of manual cameras.

Sanyo Xacti E6 introduction [LetsGoDigital]

Logitech MX 5000 LCD Keyboard

johnb — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 10:31:59 EDT

First we got the G15 Gaming Keyboard and now Logitech has an LCD keyboard for the rest of us non-AWSD-tapping computer users.

This keyboard has a slew of interesting features including an external temperature sensor (!!??), a "dashboard" displaying the time and current user, along with media and email notifications. There's even a feature that turns the keyboard itself into a calculator, using the keypad, and then pastes the results into the clipboard. Plus it's cordless. Sweet.

Logitech presents cordless MX 5000 set with keyboard LCD [DVHardware]

LACO "Marine Uhr" 861216 - That's Some Watch

johnb — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 15:43:03 EDT

Was just watch browsing/drooling when I stumbled upon these beauties. Nothing too high-tech, but in terms of watch design they're just about perfect. These use a standard, automatic ETA movement in a nice 46mm steel case. They're priced at about $1000, so maybe I need to go sell a kidney. I like this steel on steel one.

Product Page [WatchUSeek]

Kinpo iDo S600 Pocket PC Phone

johnb — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 13:55:16 EDT

Mmmm... big touch screen, sexy removable keypad, huge tri-band love. The Kinpo iDo S600, which we will never see, is just about the nicest little phone I've seen in a fortnight. It looks a bit like the Sony Ericsson P900, actually and runs Windows mobile on a Freescale i.MX21 266MHz CPU.

It does video recording and even has a 1.3 megapixel camera as well as some nice media playback features. So pretty.

Kinpo iDo S600 Pocket PC Phone [Slashphone]

Zen Vision Coolness Round-Up

johnb — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 12:07:29 EDT

I've been waiting for this moment. This is kind of like prom night, only I'm involved this time. See, I'm in love with something—the Zen Vision. It has everything I could ever want and more and it's now available. We're going to get married. You can't stop us, Dad.

Here are a few stories about my beloved.
Creative unveils portable video Vision [TheRegister]
Creative ZEN Vision, spazio a foto e video [HWUpgrade]

More as I find them.

Old School LED Watch - Now in Gunmetal

johnb — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 11:50:26 EDT

I loved LED watches. They're so James Bond circa 1975 when he's trying to disable that bomb and the countdown appears in a little window looking like some squiggly weird clockwork thing even though it's really electronic. You can find similar watches on eBay, but they're usually busted-up gold or busted-up chrome. However, one lad in England has created a full line of excellent LED watches in gunmetal or brushed steel, adding some class to your old skool look.

Priced at about $100, this old/new watch is great for geeking out in front of your Timex-clad friends. They'll be all like "Is that radioactive?" and you'll be like "Yeah. I'm James Bond."

Product Page [LED-WATCH]

Samsung YP-T8 - Mini Flash Video PMP

johnb — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 11:19:35 EDT

Samsung just sent out a massive release on their new and update products. This little bugger really stood out. It's a flash-based PMP weighing in at just under 2 ounces includes an FM tuner and recorder, MPEG4/OGG/MP3/everything else playback, and up to 1GB of storage. The 1-GB model with 1.8" screen is priced at $299.

Samsung really did a nice job on this tiny player. Very small, slim, and priced just about in line with similar ~~MP3 only~~ PMP devices [Sorry, got confused - Ed.]. It's great to see that a) we're getting cool PMPs b) we're getting cool PMPs. An aside: Also, guys, what are we thinking about the model used in this product shot. I'm sure she's nice in real life...

Press Release [Samsung]

Zen Vision is $400, Still MIA

johnb — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 14:00:15 EDT

First it's there, then it's not, then we hear that it costs $400. Creative, why do you taunt us so? We love you and you do this to us? The Vision is so small, so much potential.

Zen Vision going to cost 400 bucks? [DAPReview]

Griffin iFM All-in-one iPod Accessory

Travis Hudson — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 14:39:37 EDT

Griffin knows how to do it right when it comes to iPod accessories. The iFM is a remote for the iPod, FM tuner and recorder built into a nice aluminum package. Even though I ve been spoiled by the wonders of satellite radio, I ll admit there are times that I m in the mood for some FM goodness. Props go out to Griffin for coming through with another quality iPod accessory in an already flooded market. Griffin Technology Inc. for the win.

Griffin announces iFM for tuning in and recording FM on your iPod [MacMerc]

MicroTrack 2496 Now Available

Travis Hudson — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 04:49:35 EDT

We've been lusting after this for a while and it's nice to see that its finally out. Portable recording has usually been a hit-or-miss proposition, but with this thing you know you're at least going to get something that sounds like beautiful music. The MicroTrack 2496 is a compact two-channel digital recorder that will fulfill the wildest audiophile dreams. It supports WAV and MP3 format, allows for easy data connection transfer from the compact flash storage, has 1/4 TRS inputs, S/PDIF digital inputs, RCA inputs, and 1/8 monitoring outputs. I can already hear the kids squealing over this. Prices begin at $499.

MicroTrack 2496