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Steve’s Digicams on Minolta’s update of the Dimage Xi, the Dimage Xt. The Xt is slightly smaller and lighter than the Xi, but has the same resolution (3.2 megapixels) and the same 3x optical zoom lens. Read
LCD televisions are starting to get bigger and bigger, Samsung has a new 40-inch LCD TV out, the Syncmaster 403T, and Philips says it has 42- and 52-inch models on the way. Read
Researchers in Singapore have created a swimming robot that moves like an amoeba: The “amoebot” has no propeller or rudder, but relies on a series of water-filled balloons to move and steer itself… It inflates and deflates its balloons in a specific sequence to redistribute the water between them and so change the overall shape…
The geekiest drug smugglers of all time were busted the other day in Tampa. Their special hiding place for the contraband: the tiny spaces inside of hard drives. Read
A Federal court just rejected a last-ditch effort by US cellular companies to stop the FCC from imposing number portability, which means come November 24th you’ll be able to switch your carrier and bring your number with you: In April, attorneys for Verizon Wireless and the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, an industry group, told…
A new group weblog by a bunch of Japanese college students covering how cellphones, or keitai, are changing the social and culture lives of people there. Read
Word that the TravelMate 240, Acer’s long-expected Tablet PC with a 14.1-inch display (the largest on a Tablet PC yet) will come out next month. One thing though: unlike earlier models, the TravelMate 240 won’t have a screen that can swivel around and fold into a writing surface. Rather to keep its price down, it’s…
CNET guide to of the best mountaineering gadgets, like Avocet’s Vertech II Alpin watch, which can tell you the temperature, altitude, barometric pressure, as well as how many vertical feet you’ve climbed; Garmin’s RINO 120 GPS-enabled two-way radio; and North Face’s MET5 jacket (pictured at right), which has built-in heating panels. Read [Thanks, Eric]
New portable DVD player from Sony. The DVP-FX700 has a 7-inch widescreen LCD screen, weighs less than 2.5 pounds, and is just about an inch thick. Comes out in September, expected retail price is about $600. Read
Not that this should be considered the final word on this, but a recent study by New Zealand’s Wellington School of Medicine has uncovered no increase in cancer rates since the introduction of cellphone service there in 1987: The report concluded that incidence rates for malignancies arising in the head and neck, including those sites…
A new convertible-style Tablet PC from Sharp. The Mebius MURAMASA PC-TN1-H1W is sure to be renamed for the American market, and has a 1.1GHz Centrino processor, a 30GB hard drive, 256MB of RAM, a 12.1-inch LCD screen, and a built-in biometric fingerprint scanner for extra security. Comes out August 1st in Japan. Read [Thanks, Christopher…
Just rumors really, but a photo, possibly a fake, has turned up of what purports to be the successor to Palm’s Tungsten T, the Tungsten T2. Looks about the same as the original, just with more RAM (32MB as opposed to 16), a transflective TFT LCD screen, and Palm OS 5.2 rather than Palm OS…
Sometime after Palm completes itsa acquisition of Handspring later this year, they’re going to rename the newly merged company. The obvious pick is “PalmSprings” or some variation thereof, but it’ll probably be something horrific and vaguely late Nineties-sounding. Read
Joi Ito on his new cameraphone, Sony Ericsson’s SO505i, which is only for the Japanese market (of course): The 1.3 Megapixel camera works and feels like a real digital camera. The screen faces out so that you can use it like a camera without opening the phone. The bad news. Emailing the 1280 x 960…
A little portable FM radio must cost, what, like $10, these days? Anyway, if you really need to be able to listen to the radio on your Palm, iBIZ is coming out with an FM tuner that fits into an SD expansion slot. It just costs $50. Read
Well, thanks to everyone who filled out or reader survey a couple of weeks ago. We do have a winner for the prize (their choice of a Palm Zire, a Panasonic DVD-S35K Ultra Slim Progressive Scan DVD Player, or a Gameboy Advance SP), but so far they haven’t responded to any of our emails, so…
Worried that the poor battery life of their new video cellphones is hurting sales, NTT DoCoMo wants to have fuel cells in their handsets by 2005. But check this out: rather than recharge the phones like you do now with a regular phone, you’ll have to carry around a “cigarette lighter-type fuel container” whenever you…
As if anxiety levels weren’t high enough already, AlertsUSA is offering a new service where they will text message you whenever terror threats and disaster alerts are issued by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Infrastructure Protection Center, the State Department, or other Federal agencies. Read
We’ve already seen kiosks for recharging cellphones, now nReach is putting “Mobile Content Vending Machines” in malls that will let you add ringtones, wallpapers, games, and applications to your cellphone. You don’t have to actually connect the phone, you just feed it cash for whatever it is you want and then your purchases are transmitted…
This is really only news for the geekiest among us, but Apple is said to be looking at using Organic Light-Emitting Diodes in the displays of the next-generation iPods they’re going to introduce next year. OLEDs are supposed to be brighter, thinner, cheaper, and use less power than LCDs. We’re just starting to see the…