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Vodafone has lit-up its 3G wireless network in a variety of markets (none of them which are the US, just in case you were a bit confused). To go along with the launch, they’ve introduced 10 new phones, including the Sharp 902, the first 2-megapixel cameraphone in Europe [pictured]. We’ll have more details later if…
It’s a passively interactive art project, but more importantly, it’s a robot. Translator II: Grower senses the carbon dioxide level in the air via a small digital CO2 sensor, and gradually wheels itself around the room, graphing the CO2 levels on the wall in green ink. I guess as a robot it’s kind of boring—it…
Niveus Media has announced its upgrade plans for purchasers of its Niveus AVX Media Center 2004 PCs—something that shouldn’t be so noteworthy, but with all snuffle about Gateway’s lack of an upgrade path for its products is probably worth mentioning. Niveus has two options: pay $10 for an upgrade CD; or pay between $600 and…
Four Saudi Arabian ministers have suggested the Kingdom-wide ban on cameraphones be repealed, due to the overwhelming influx of phones equipped with cameras —and perhaps as an acknowledgment of the backwards thinking that prompted the ban in the first place. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to have a ban on the…
Little more info and a pic of those potentially wearable speakers we talked about last Friday. It looks like you can pick up a 5.5cm by 30cm strip of speaker material for under $150 from Protro. Not bad, but a whole leisure suit might be prohibitively expensive at this point. Also, looking at the pic,…
Western Digital is shipping two new USB 2.0 external hard drives called the WD Passport, claiming they are ruggedized for extreme data security. The drives are rated to be able to handle 250 Gs of shock while spun up and 900 Gs when not operating (an unannounced DJ Jazzy Jeff version will be rated to…
Right out of a Monty Python sketch, the “Street Sleeper” is simultaneously a bed and a Volkswagen, leaving you free to laze about in comfort all through your commute. It pushes 75 horsepower, and claims a 0-60 time of 40 winks. Is it real, though? Looks like it might be, but I can’t say authoritatively.…
It’s a bit expensive at $40, but the new PodLock software from Micromat looks like it could be really handy for people that like to use their iPod as more than just a dumb music storage device (there is a hard drive in there, remember?) It’s namesake feature is the ability to create a hidden…
Keyspan has a new version of their Digital Media Remote that will work specifically with Apple’s Airport Express Wi-Fi/iTunes extender. By plugging the infrared receiver into the USB port of the Airport Express, users will be able to control not only iTunes, but other applications on their Mac or PC as well (I think—I’m a…
Someone put up one of those Logitech Cordless Headsets for Xbox on eBay, which to my knowledge are not available in stores quite yet. It’s at $1 with no reserve, but there’s 6 days left on the auction, so who knows. The headset was reported to be out ‘This Fall,” though, so I wouldn’t blow…
MobileBurn got their hands on the Sony Ericsson S700i and S710a, which are of course the US domestic and international versions of what amounts to the same phone. The features all seem to be there: 1.3-megapixel camera, Memory Stick support (only up to 128MB, sadly), Bluetooth, IR, etc. Overall, the review tends to be favorable,…
Ohhh! I want the kitty! These Lovely Pet phone covers (I prefer phone cozies, myself) are unbearably, obnoxiously cute. I don’t know that I could ever live down actually carrying one around attached to my phone, and they’re apparently pretty bulky—too bulky for a pocket—but I can easily see teenage girls who have a purse…
Archeologists excavating the remains of on old settlement in the Pacific Northwest discovered this relic lurking beneath a pile of old flannels, the Beastie Boys’ Ill Communication, and a bumper sticker reading, “K(h)urt…don’t let it end this way.” It appears to be some kind of Motorola handset, but it is extremely bulky and has a…
The Room Defender is a $33 tripod-mounted, foam disc-shooting weapon that has a motion sensor to detect intruders into your kid’s overly-moist room. When someone enters, the Defender gives them a verbal warning, then proceeds to pelt them in annoying discs until it runs out (depending on setting). There is a remote which can be…
Xingtone has announced version 4.0 of their software that lets you use MP3s as ringtones. The biggest new feature: the ability to use Xingtone to load your own ringtones even on Verizon’s ‘closed’ network. In addition to just MP3 formats, they now also support WMA and OGG Vorbis in their $20 software package. They’re really…
Pocket PC Smartphones just keep getting smaller. It may be just premature to say that the day of the standalone PDA is done, but if we’re not there yet, it won’t be long. The just-over-$600 i-mate Jam, known variously as “Magician,” “T-Mobile MDA Compact,” and, “Qtek S100,” is one of the newer entries and is…
Forbes profiles the Henk suitcase—$20,000 of the finest luggage money can buy. Each unit is more than a simple bag, instead comprised of 500 different parts, fashioned from materials such as horse hair, magnesium, and carbon fiber. Twin wheels recess into the bag when not in use, and various levels on the top cause hidden…
Media Centers are popping up like wildflowers across the Kansas prarie, and like those wildflowers, most of them will get trampled underfoot by angry farmers, never to be seen again. Nobody can tell at this point which varieties will thrive and which will wither away into nothingness, but everybody’s got an opinion. Sparktoblog got their…
CryptoStick might be familiar to some of you. These flash drives are known for compressing and encrypting the data stored on them with the CryptoBuddy 64-bit block cipher, just in case your KleptoBuddy can’t keep his hands off your files. Anyway, they’ve got a 2GB CryptoStick out now, so bully for them. Unfortunately, they’re calling…
This flower is a project from MediaLab Europe—it blooms each time a specific person logs into their IM client. It’s intended to evoke a “sense of presence” of friends and family. I do the same thing for my loved ones, except it’s less like a wireless flower pot and more like a jar of skin…