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As if we needed any more hints that Korean phone manufacturer Pantech & Curitel is one to watch, they’ve announced a prototype version of their P1 phone that can communicate over the upcoming Zigbee wireless home automation protocol. At their press showing today, P&C showed off the capabilities of the concept, which can communicate with…
In case you’re the type who completely ignores headlines, you’re probably wondering why there’s this goofy-looking radio on the front page. For the rest of you, this so-called Friendly Vac is (yet) another line item on the ever expanding list of automated vacuuming robots. At around $2,000 it’s at the higher end of the price…
Phillipe S+arck (who is much less impressive when you spell his name ‘Phil Starck’) has a new line of Fossil watches hitting the streets which confirm my initial suspicions about timepiece technology: ugly is in. I’ll cop to a certain affection for all of these—even the sherbet-colored analogeqsue ones—but you can’t look me in the…
To continue our inadvertent wood grained theme today on Gizmodo (we narrowly avoided a ‘British Christmas’ theme this morning), this Spectrum Clock Radio/CD Player from Pottery Barn of all places is causing much confusion in our feeble minds. It has wood-grained sides, which according to the rules and whims of today’s analysis is: dandy (just).…
It was apparently announced back in October, but this MobileForce CA27 Tablet PC is new to us. It’s a military spec unit, though—perhaps it was here all along, waiting for its moment to strike. It’s not a beast, but ruggedized, tank-battling equipment rarely is. The slate-style unit has a 1.1GHz Pentium M processor and a…
It’s a busy day around here, so we’ve got a few more Swedish metaballs to pass out. First off, the DiscHub Hidden Codes contest is in full effect. Hidden in various stories are codes good for a free DiscHubs that we’ll be sneaking in throughout the week. Today is sort of softball day—I don’t think…
Yahoo! has licensed their name to a company called Diamond Electronics to produce these rather ghastly bits of co-branded consumer electronics—two home theater systems and three DVD players. On the upside, most of the products are very cheap—on the downside, most of the products look like they were designed by someone who spent their entire…
HP’s new Media Center PC, the Digital Entertainment Center z545, gets a glowing review from PC Mag’s Bill Howard, who says it’s perfectly ready to replace almost every other piece of A/V equipment in your rack—not just because its plethora of functions, but because of its component looks, as well. In fact, if it had…
Product Highlights • Aluminum Handle for iBooks [QuickerTek] Business • The iPod is a stealth tool to sell more Apple Macs [TheInquirer] I think they’ll be lucky to get back over 5% again. The iPod can’t be hurting, though. • Sinn Fein meets mobile phone watchdog on ‘roaming’ charges [BelfastTelegraphUK] I just linked it because…
It’s not quite a review, but importer Play-Asia dropped about $1,500 on a charity auction that brought home a pre-release Sony PSP—but no games. There is a demo disc with videos, though, so they’ve got plenty of pictures and images of that, as well as the start up screens and the like (this setup screen,…
This Yamada Beatbox (previously discussed here as the M-Bird XT-21) is undoubtedly one of the more interesting looking portable audio devices released of late, and PC Review squeezed out a critique of the unit on Friday. Looks like it’s even smaller than I’d imagined previously, about 1.25-inches wide, 3.4-inches tall, and a mere 0.73-inches deep—or…
Sony has confirmed that the upcoming PSP gaming system will be able to play back movies copied from a user’s PC to its MemoryStick flash cards. The PSP will support the MPEG-4 variant called H.264, which is similar to Xvid or DivX in that it’s based on the same technologies, but they are not interoperable.…
I’m not sure when 1970s faux wood grain became cool again, but it looks to be making a comeback (especially on today’s Gizmodo, for some reason). Fortunately, the good folks at Tivoli Audio have the good sense to use real wood in their products—Maple, Walnut, and Cherry are all common, and far more attractive than,…
I like the way Animal Planet thinks. They strapped a tiny wireless camera to the back of a golden eagle, trained to carry the whole rig on her back as she flies. The views are pretty amazing, showing the mechanics of the eagle’s feathers as it flies around and is harassed by other birds. And…
C-Net’s got an awkwardly-titled multi-day feature called, “Japan’s Sun Rises Again,” focusing on the reemergence of Japan’s consumer electronics business as they start learning to export their “culture of cool.” Or maybe it’s talking about China and they just stole Japan’s sun or something. Anyway, it’s pretty high-level but interesting stuff, and while I don’t…
T-Mobile’s new Sidekick II accessories catalog has a link directly to NYC Peach’s website—they’re the people who add all the Swarovski crystals to flash people’s gadgets. So I had to click on the link and it looks like NYC Peach has a whole new website, so they must be selling quite a few $300 iPod…
UK mobile provider Orange has launched its 3G service today, not long after rivals 3 and Vodafone launched their own multimedia-centric cellular networks. There are five 3G phones announced for the network, including this Motorola C975 (announced, yet not shipping) which bears a certain resemblance to Cingular’s Motorola A845 UTMS handset. https://gizmodo.com/at-t-wirelesss-first-umts-3g-handsets-17995 The best bit?…
This little bit was posted on the subscription-based TheFlyOnTheWall.com this morning: 07:44 EDT XMSR theflyonthewall.com: XM Satellite-XMSR poised for pos catalysts in early 2005, reit Buy@FLCR We believe catalysts to be: the more pervasive availability of the Delphi MyFi wearable device to enable carry-through momentum from the holiday season into the first half of 2005;…
Amazon has the Logitech Z-3 Wood Grained 2.1 speakers for $35— a very decent price for a pair of desktop speakers that have reviewed very well. Add in a $10 off rebate and you can squeeze them in for $25 with free Amazon shipping. Catalog Page Rebate
I’ve got nothing to add to the rumors swirling of a new iPod with a built-in Sirius satellite radio receiver. My initial thought is that it’s probably nigh-on impossible to cram all the hardware necessary for a satellite receiver and antenna into an iPod of the current sizes, but I’m only making that assessment from…