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Sony Ericsson has officially taken the wraps off the Z800i, a new clamshell that looks to be a lot like (probably even the same as) the Vodafone V800 3G phone. With a 1.3-megapixel camera, a multi-format music player, and a UMTS radio (the high-speed cellular network being deployed, slowly, by Cingular), the Z800 looks like…
This is a wee bit crusty, but I missed it last week: Skype has apparently teamed up with i-Mate (one of the companies that rebrands and resells products from HTC) to sell Pocket PC smartphones pre-loaded with the VoIP software. Each unit will also, of course, have Wi-Fi built in. That’s great news in a…
There’s a whole industry dedicated to buying crappy products and silk-screening pharmaceutical brand names onto them. This mug is promoting Vytorin (which from the scientific name appears to cure the effects of playing timbales), but also happens to include a built-in, AA-powered stirring mechanism in the bottom. Push the button on the mug’s lip to…
See the miracle of sound inside! (Thanks, Ryland!)
It’s important to keep children as distracted as possible, else they construct death-rays out of juice boxes or feast on the blood of the postman. Hasbro is doing their part by introducing the ION gaming console, a games console designed for the young monsters that uses a Sony Eye-Toy-like camera to track their movements (sadly,…
Sony is ready to launch a new portable DAB radio in the UK—its smallest yet. The XDR-M1 is a fine little unit, with a 4-line LCD display for showing all the extra program information that DAB affords. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have any built-in memory to record live radio streams for live pause and rewind, but…
Product Highlights • Nokia introduces NFC shell [MobileTracker] • Ruta Movistar: carrier-branded, subscription-based GPS for cell phones [CanalPDA] • Plantronics Announces Single Headset For Use With Apple iPod And Mobile Phones [DigitalMediaThoughts] The miracle of splicing. Business • FCC rejects TV stations digital cable carriage [CNN] • Consumers Not Receptive to Music Services [DesignTechnica] Not…
Finally providing us entrepreneuring city planners with a way to grow our own Combine (Half-Life 2, not John Deere), R&Sie is developing a piece for the yet-to-exist Bangkok Art Museum that literally feeds off the city’s pollution. Titled “Dusty Relief”, the installation will use electrically charged wire that pulls all the floaties out of the…
Is purple your favorite color? Do you often lose to yourself in drunken games of mumblypeg? Good news for you, then. DERMABOND (From the latin for ‘skin’ and ‘sticky’) by a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary is a liquid stitching system— simply pinch the wound to bring the skin together, apply two layers of Dermabond, and…
Finally, a use for your Segway besides getting a little play (from other Segway riders). Matthew Chalmers has developed Seamful Game, a GPS- and Wi-Fi-based game that you play outdoors, in real, honest-to-god sunlight. Players run around town collecting digital “coins” and upload them to get point. Some coins exist outside of Wi-Fi coverage, though,…
Halloween or thereabouts seems to be the word from the Interweb on the launch of the Xbox 2. Not so much news for the Americas, where it’s been presumed that it would be released before the year’s end, but something for our friends across the pond to get excited about nonetheless. Games Industry also includes…
I’m not confident in the future of traditional PDAs, so when I see news that HP is continuing to expand their smartphone/PDA hybrid lines, it makes perfect sense to me. The new HP Mobile Messenger hx6500 is certainly a step in the right direction, but the boneheaded lack of Wi-Fi (and the seriously junky-trunk form…
If when reading the specs of the recently-updated Apple Powerbooks, you sort of skimmed over the Bluetooth 2.0 part and figured you’d learn about it later, well, me too. Obviously, it had to be faster, because 2.0 is bigger than 1.2 (the current, most-common Bluetooth standard), but the Powerbooks were one of the first devices…
Reactions are mixed to a California school’s decision to require students to wear RFID-enabled radio tags that will allow their location and activies to be tracked throughout the campus. Some parents see the tags as a serious invasion of their children’s privacy, likening it to retail inventory tracking (another common use for RFID), or the…
The EROS is a new FDA-approved device designed to increase bloodflow to the clitoris, providing a gentle vacuum with draws blood to the area, providing increased sensitivity, improved lubrication, and a better chance of orgasm in many users. That means there is a good chance the device, with its surely-patented ‘CAREss cup,’ might be paid…
LaCie has launched a few new products, including an external DVD burner with LightScribe technology (which I think I’m going to have to break down and get, from LaCie or someone else), as well as the well-named, well-proportioned LaCie Biggest F800 2TB [pictured], a desktop RAID solution designed for people who need loads of fast,…
NHJ has a new flash memory-based player called the ‘v@mp VP-525D’ that supports MP3 and WMA on 256MB of internal memory or SD card. It’s only truly unique feature is the ability to clip on five color panels that snap over the LCD display, customizing its “look” or “color.” It’s AAA powered and not likely…
Not content to only let Korean children get My First Tumor, Chicago-based Firefly Mobile has released the new Firefly GSM phone through SunCom Wireless. There’s no numeric keypad, instead featuring instant call buttons for Mom and Dad, as well as a 20-number phone book. It’s really more of a personal communicator that happens to use…
UK Design firm PDD will be showing off their Helix concept phone at the 3GSM World Congress in Cannes and it looks stunning. While it hasn’t been picked up by a mobile manufacturer yet, the design concept has plenty of tricks, including a rotating screen that flips around when the clamshell is open, as well…
As much as we’d like to flatter ourselves by claiming to be the first to notice the Mac mini’s car stereo-sized form factor would be a perfect fit, it was an idea that probably was obvious to anyone who has installed a car stereo (or in our case, made sandwiches while watching someone install it).…