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Texas Instruments have developed a new sensor for lithium-ion batteries in laptops that should more accurately gauge the amount of power remaining, preventing the always delightful mid-save loss of work. The custom two chip solution is done, but won’t make it into actual shipping products until sometime in the middle of next year. A laptop…
I’ve held off from buying a Bluetooth headset for my own because they mostly all look like my ear is crapping a Transformer. The Bluespoon AX is small enough, though, that I’m going to pick one up—I’ve used too many to know how handy they are and I think I can handle the $100 price…
The OnCinema TEATRO D1 has been much talked about since we first noticed it (or I first started other people talking about it, more likely). It’s a beautiful bit of Media Center PC—it’s also like six large. Fortunately, A-Tech Fabrication (who makes a lot of nice home theater PC cases anyway), has come up with…
Duck-tailed, rumble-beseated sister site Jalopnik has some more hinkfo and pics about the MDI Air-Powered Car platform, which uses compressed air to drive the car in an emissions-free manner over short distances, yet can kick on a small four-banger to keep feeding it air for longer journeys. http://www.jalopnik.com/cars/alternative-energy/index.php#more-on-the-mdi-airpowered-car-028559 More on the MDI Air-Powered Car [Jalopnik]
Tivoli Audio makes classy, monophonic radios that win nothing but acclaim for their rich, full sound. And with their small footprint, they would make a perfect clock radio, you’d think. When it comes to sound quality, the $200 Tivoli Model Three seems to live up to typical Tivoli quality, but some silly decisions in the…
The amount of generosity I’ve seen from my friends and family towards the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami has been inspiring. If you haven’t had a chance to donate to the international aid programs, there are literally dozens of options to do so, including Amazon’s one-click donation to the Red Cross, which is pretty…
Damn it. I knew we should have been covering more electric scooters. Top 2004 Froogle Zeitgeist [Google]
I really wanted the Motorola A630 to rock, but almost everyone who finally has gotten their hands on one has been less than impressed. This new LG phone for Cingular looks promising, though, if only because it’s got a similar form factor and has a focus on IM. The LG F9100 doesn’t even have Bluetooth…
For me, nothing beats a good D-pad and an analog thumbstick for gaming, but for the ultimate fighting game championships, it’s hard to go wrong with a nice 8-way joystick. And while it’s not my favorite stick from history (the metal-shod, Ghostbusters II NES Advantage probably is nearest to my heart), the Neo Geo controller…
There’s no doubt that the Sharp LL-151-3D is a cool product—3D displays without any goofy headgear is the double pluses. But are any of you guys actually using them? I can think of a few situations (medical, 3D imaging) where they’d be handy, but the 15-inch size seems a little down market for hot-to-trot medical…
Czech site Mobil.CZ has some phone porn of the new Motorola V635 that we mentioned yesterday. Included are plenty of pictures of the phone’s externals, as well as pictures of the phone’s interface screens. http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/motorola/index.php#motorola-v635-028491 Motorola V635 vylep en top model [MobilCZ]
Think Secret is reporting that Apple will unveil a new display-less iMac at the upcoming MacWorld Expo on January 11th that will sell for just $500. Similar in power to an iBook, the G4-powered box will be targeted at Windows users who would like to move over to a Mac, but haven’t considered it as…
The Motorola V635—likely to debut as a Cingular handset here in the US due to the EDGE data capabilities—isn’t much to speak of in general, with the exception of the use of a TransFlash memory card which is said to be user-accessible via USB. That means copying data on and off the phone (like pictures…
Sega has released more USB controllers for PCs, available in a variety of new colors, including the always sassy pink. I’ve never been a Sega controller man, myself, preferring the SNES pad on the whole, but I think it’s fantastic that companies continue to release controllers from years past, despite a wealth of conversion dongles…
Hepped up, hot rodding sister site Jalopnik reports that steam is hot—especially inside of cars, where a British Steam Car Challenge team plans to put the gaseous gas vapor. The ‘Inspiration’ is a 300 horsepower steam-fired car that might just hit 200mph with an turbine that will hit almost 12,000 rpm. The English engineers are…
We bought Susie’s mom a low-end digital camera this year. Upon opening, her first words were, “Oh, I’ll have to get one of those little photo printers so I can send you guys some pictures.” I, naturally, was appalled—we don’t even own a printer, nor have I given much thought to purchasing one, when I…
Suunto looks to be releasing the n6-HR Microsoft SPOT Watch soon, if the new pre-order list from a Suunto watch dealer is to be believed. Supposed to ship on January 6th, the new $400 watch is designed for the athletic, 401k-monitoring grandfather, with a built-in heart rate monitor, training logbook, and broadcast stock market information…
Sony has released a new sleeker version of the CyberShot DSC-T3, called the DSC-T33, in countries that aren’t Japan or the United States. Much like the DSC-T11 was the slimmer counterpart to the DSC-T1, the new camera isn’t fundamentally different internally than its predecessor—the difference is just the casing. I have no idea why the…
Sony’s new Bluetooth headset the DR-BT1 is an odd-looking unit. I can’t decide if I like it or not. In general, big boom microphones aren’t appealing to me, but the chrome and black plastic isn’t unattractive. Feature-wise, it has all the standard bits, and is available from Sony directly for $130. Catalog Page [SonyStyle via…
This year definitely was the year of the streaming media device. Sharp is introducing a new unit in Japan early next year, called the CE-MR01, designed to stream a variety of image and movie formats over Wi-Fi. And it looks nice and all (you really can’t tell with these things until you use the interface),…