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I’ve yet to buy into this whole SPOT watch thing from Microsoft, mainly because I don’t feel like paying a yearly fee to tell time. But the watches do offer some cool, if limited functions, so I am almost persuaded to give it a try after reading this review of the Fossil Abacus watch. Not…
We’re all sort of waiting for cameraphones to replace our point-and-shoots—we know this. And right now we’re in a painful limbo, as our cameraphones get incrementally better, but still not anywhere near what they need to be to replace cameras entirely. That being said, megapixel-plus cameras are slowly creeping into the market, and Mobileburn took…
I like to know what teenagers think the future of transportation will look like, and I know you do, too. Motor Trend’s 2004 International Design Contest winners have been announced, full of lots of names of people that may not even be American. Fortunately, you can just ignore all that and check out their nifty…
Speaking as a mere hobby photographer, zoomability rules. I find my crappy old digital camera with 3x optical to be inadequate a lot of the time, and messing with a friend’s 10x optical always gives me zoom envy. I’ve long assumed that I was stuck with 3x, at least until I dropped the cash money…
PolkAudio is promoting the new XRt12, the first component XM tuner, and it looks pretty okay. It’s relatively cheap, at $330 ($300 on sale at Polk’s site), has digital audio out, and even a composite video output so you can output its control graphics on your television instead of using just the integrated LCD screen.…
I really like this RCA Astro TV, but there’s no way a 13-inch CRT television is worth $500—even crammed inside a plastic ’50s-style casing. Fortunately, I found it at another store besides Brookstone for just $350. Unfortunately, even that is too expensive. In fact, I don’t think I’m willing to pay any more than what…
Researchers at Georgetown University have been using robot cats to help treat patients recovering from surgery or succumbing to dementia. By providing some companionship without needing much care (beyond the occasional fresh set of batteries), the NeCoRo from Omron helps patients “increase focus and decrease aggression.” The pair of robot psychology researchers who ran the…
Hey, you guys remember that PacRim Technologies contest? If you found a winning code, could you email me and let me know if you’ve received your chosen case or not? Thanks.
Congratulations to Digitalway for producing the first flash player in a long time that I am interested in owning. I don’t know why, exactly, because I have absolutely no need for a flash player with built-in stereo speakers, but I think it’s just the fact that they call the MPIO FG100 a ‘micro boom box’…
Far be it from me to criticize someone for meandering in an article, but somewhere inside this ramble from Bob-X Cringely is an impressed review of TV2ME, one of the new streaming television services being promoted as a way to send your home programming to your laptop over the internet. Although he was checking it…
Adaptec’s new AVC-3610 USB Dual TV Tuner looks pretty great—dual-tuners in an out-board solution is really nice, especially since it should mean less CPU thrashing in general as the unit does encoding itself. It captures FM, too, which is handy for those of you that still listen via broadcast, and can control satellite boxes and…
Apple doesn’t think you need a video iPod, but apparently these people do: the Movie Vision AV has a 20GB hard drive for MP3s and video, including MPEG-4 and DivX. Even better, like a lot of the other newer PMPs on the market, it can record video, as well (although only shows about dolphins, due…
After hearing our complaint about the Apple Store’s rating system, reader Stefan Wrobel wrote in with his experiences with the rating system on Overstock.com. According to him, Overstock.com employees screen negative reviews from the website so that only positive reviews are posted. Has anyone else had an experience like Stefans? It’s a pretty bum deal…
Not only are Japanese cellular phones far more advanced than anywhere else in the world, they are far more “accessorized.” The “strap craze” has been going on in Japan for a number of years, and I think it’s just starting to catch on (in the USA, at least). These appear to be a cellphone strap…
So it looks like Apple ammended their ‘trust us’ phrasing on the 5-apple ratings. Don’t worry, though. I took a screenshot. Apple Store Screenshot (Cropped to hide porn) [Gizmodo] Related Apple Rating: WTF is This? [Gizmodo] https://gizmodo.com/apple-rating-wtf-is-this-24962
If you thought the Lowrence GPS was feature-filled, check out this recently-announced high end navigation system from Pioneer. It’ll play MP3, too, but pumped through a 50 watt amplifier, with three preamp outs and onboard EQ. The 6.5″ touchscreen not only displays navigation and point-of-interest data, but you can watch DVDs on it to boot,…
I still don’t have an automotive GPS sytem, but the newly-shipping iWay 500C from Lowrance (previously known mostly for boating and aviation type GPS devices) gives me a strong desire to give the automotive GPS idea some more thought. It can be had for as little as $800, so isn’t the cheapest one around—competing models…
Want to know what a Blu-ray disc made out of corn starch looks like? I never knew that 25GB of data could look so delicious. (Thanks, jkoshi!)
New Jersey Institute of Technology just got another $1.1 million to continue testing their ‘smart gun,’ a handgrip system for firearms that prevents non-authorized users from using the weapons. By using a series of sensors along the grip, the gun can determine who is holding it and can even support multiple users. However you feel…
It’s sort of clunky, but if you have a non-Bluetooth phone but would still like to use a wireless, Bluetooth headset, Jabra is now offering the A210 Bluetooth Adapter which plugs into a standard 2.5mm headset jack. It has its own rechargable battery and blinky lights, plus it supports Bluetooth 1.2 (so most new headsets…