Tag Archives: gadget

Compact flash adapter

a8a8a51d97abb9961ad454e1c3d02306The new CompactFlash adapter from Photofast can hold four 16GB microSD cards running in RAID. This makes the slower microSD format as fast as CompactFlash by striping data across all four microSD cards at once.

For those that don’t need 64GB of storage, the CR-7100 will hold one 16GB microSD, while the
CR-7000 holds one 32GB SD. The 7200 will be available for $30 and the 7100 and 7000 for $25, all in July.

New Android Hero (HTC)

UK iplug air

UK plugs are bulky. We all know that. For security reason they should have a fuse so when traveling with a macbook air for instance, the adaptor takes more space than the computer.

Watch this video because it is a great solution!

bChamp: iPhone app to beatbox

bChamp, drums controlled by voice

bChamp offers an exciting new way to drum. bChamp is a voice controlled drum kit for your iPhone. Easily make groovy beats by beatboxing into the iPhone microphone. bChamp instantly translates your beatboxing into impressive drum sounds. Making and practicing beats was never so easy or fun. No talent required. bChamp does the work, you claim the fame.

Sound recognition

bChamp recognizes three easy to learn beatbox sounds:
Snare (say “k” as in “cabbage”, without breathing out)
Kickdrum (say “b” as in “bogus”)
Hi-Hat (say “t” sound with your teeth closed)

Pitch adjustment and visual effects

Adjust the pitch of your beats by using an easy to use interface, optimized for blind use so you can focus on the beat. Simply swipe one finger to change the pitch.

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Palm pre is out

Palm pre, which is like an iPhone (user interface I mean), was out on the US (with Sprint) last Saturday.
Looks like it is looking pretty good: multitasking, elegant, great touch screen experience, great photo quality (3MPx), full keyboard….

We’ll see later today if Apple releases the new iPhone with new hardware, and hopefully adding multitasking, better camera, more capacity, faster processor and better battery life…

Car DC power splitter

car-splitter-with-usb-port1-webSantok released a DC power splitter that includes two USB slots. Great for pluggin your ipod+gps+whatever other gadget…

BenQ GP1 pocket projector

4008377The BenQ GP1 Pocket Projector is the first to use LED lights. It weighs 1.5 pounds with a 20,000 hour lamp life. Great little device at a price tag of around $500. Great for travel, or salesman.

It uses LED technology and has great specs such as 1000:1 contrast ratio.

pelican cases

Are you thinking about buying a stong wateproof suitcase?
Maybe this is the one…

COOL-ER Ebook Reader

(Jason Kincaid from crunchgear.com)

We’ve gotten our hands on the COOL-ER, a new Ebook reader coming out in two weeks that’s sporting a (relatively) low $250 price tag and a case that looks like an over-sized iPod Nano (it’s also coming in 8 Applesque colors). Interead, the small startup that built Cool-er, is obviously trying to bring Ebooks to a new market, shunning some of the features seen on the Kindle in favor of a lower price-point and a broader appeal. And it just might work.

Unlike Amazon’s device, Cool-er has no wireless connectivety, so you can’t buy books online or browse Wikipedia, nor does it have Amazon’s oddly controversial text-to-speech functionality. But it’s also over $100 cheaper than the Kindle, and while some other devices (like the Sony Reader) are in the same price range, Cool-er also has a very unique look – I’m sure many people (especially younger crowds) would rather sport a colorful Ebook reader than the beige and black color schemes that currently dominate the market.

The device is quite light, weighing in at around 6.25 ounces (the Kindle 2 weighs in at a comparatively hefty 10.2 ounces). Cool-er has 1 GB of integrated memory, which you can expand with up to 4 more GB through the SD card slot. Battery life on a single charge is around 8000 page turns, which the company says should last around three weeks. And the device supports JPEG, PDF, EPUB, and TXT files, as well as DRM for PDF and EPUB. You can find full specs here.

 

coolershots

So how does the Cool-er work when it comes down to actually reading?

I’ve been using the original Kindle regularly for a few months now, so any gripes I have with Cool-er may have more to do with what I’m used to rather than what’s actually wrong with the device. That said, I’m not a big fan of the navigation wheel. It’s nearly flush with the device case, and while you can still feel for it with your fingers without looking, you’re going to have to apply some force to the button to change the page. Not a lot of force, mind you, but coming from Kindle’s massive shoulder buttons I could see it getting frustrating. Aside from these issues, the device works perfectly well for reading. You can change between a number of different fonts and sizes, the device supports eight different languages (including Chinese and Russian), and you can easily rotate text if you’d like to switch to a portrait mode (you’ll have to press a button, but seriously – do you really care if your E-reader has an accelerometer)?

 

The biggest issue I think new Cool-er users will face at this point is actually getting books onto the device. The process is actually quite simple: drag the book from your computer desktop onto the Cool-er using Windows Explorer or Finder on the Mac. It’s very easy if you’re comfortable around computers, but many people would likely prefer some kind of content manager connected to the Cool-er book store that they could sync to their device, so they wouldn’t have to worry about drag-and-drop. For the same reason Apple’s iTunes played a key role in making the iPod popular, Cool-er will need a similar application if it wants to appeal to a broad audience.

coolerbookshot

The company is also launching an Ebook store alongside the device at CoolerBooks.com, which has over 750,000 available books. Anyone can buy books at 20% off list price, but Cool-er owners will get an extra 5% off across all books. This is a fairly good price, but when it comes to New York Times Bestsellers, Amazon leaves it in the dust – on the Kindle, a bestseller costs $9.99, while CoolerBooks appears to charge anywhere from $3-10 more per book. That said, CoolerBook does have significantly lower prices on some books that are not bestsellers, and the Cool-er’s initial sale price is obviously much lower.

Another factor that will play an important role in Cool-er’s success will be its availability. CEO Neil Jones says that deals are currently in the works to sell the device in retail stores, which could be a huge boon for the company. Cool-er may not have all of the features of some of the other Ebook readers, but if its eight colorful models are sitting on the shelf next to the Sony readers and other less striking devices, it could do quite well regardless.

picture-110

External battery for Macbook and iphone

5-04-09hypermac1

Cool idea. You plug one of this and you have extra juice for your Macbook and iphone. Up to 32 hours!!

Go and visit the company’s web, hyperdrive.

Camera buyer’s guide

Are you looking to buy a new camera?
Give a try to this camera buyer’s guide, where you can specify your requirements and will suggest you the best models.

http://www.bestinclass.com

GPS photo finder mini

minigpsNow we have plenty of software that use gps location from the photos we take. You take photos with a gps phone, such as the iphone, most of the nokias then you import the photos into iphoto or picasa3 and voila, you know where the photo was shot, using google maps, for instance.

Well, if this technology is available and is damn cool, why new compact and SLR cameras do not come with integrated gps?

gps for my nikon d300 cost a fortune.

I found a website where they sell a little gps module that you can put in your pocket, and using their card reader it will add the position of where you took the shot. I don’t know if the way it works is that it takes the time where you shot, but it looks pretty clever is it is this way. No complicated cables …

http://www.atpinc.com/newweb/p2-4a.php?sn=00000414

In fact the idea is very good. The beauty is that you just have to switch it on and sync the clocks. 

I could achieve similar results (more manual input) if I use my oregon 300 and mark a waypoint for every photo… but then to match them… not easy.

Spot satellite messenger

spotThis is a very cool gadget. Basically a gps, with the particularity that has a couple of buttons, one to check in, so it sends communicates your position, and the second one for help. Same thing but you are asking for help.
The beauty is that works everywhere, not dependent of GSM or mobile networks. It can send emails with your coordinates when you click on the button.

http://findmespot.com/en/

3G portable router

3g-routerThis is the first 3G portable router.

LevelOne 3G MobilSpot Portable Wireless HotSpot (WBR-3800) by CP Technologies.
Putt your 3G sim card into the router’s CardBus or USB interfaces and you’ve got an instant portable network for sharing to any 802.11b/g WiFi or Ethernet device. A 10/100Mbps WAN jack lets it double as your home router with auto-switching 3G backup for those of you with particularly troublesome DSL/Cable providers. The device measures 129 x 124 x 32mm (which isn’t that small) but costs a reasonable $149.

Genius G-Shot HD520 HD cam with 720p for less than $150

g-shot-hd520-250Are you looking for a low end camera that records pretty good video resolution? Here you have the winner: Genius HD520. It shots 5MB stills and 720p video.

It is a high definition video camera, can output on high-resolution flat-panel TVs using the HDMI cable ; it supports high efficient MPEG4/H.264 image compression format and reduces the file size so you can easily upload clips and photos to share with friends. Other features of the G-Shot HD520 camcorder: shoot photos up to 11MP, listen to music, read E-books, voice record, and it can be a portable media player to view clips or even still images.