Skype has taken the world by storm over the last few years. Recently we are seeing more and more phones become available so that you can make calls like you would with a regular phone and not have to be attached to your PC and wearing a headset.
The Belkin Skype phone is a nice new Wi-fi Skype phone which has all the software built in. All you do is get your self to the nearest wi-fi hotspot (which are all over these days) and then you log in on the phone to the Skype network and can make calls all over the world for free to other Skype users. These new phones are just amazing! What else makes it great is that wi-fi is world wide. It doesnt matter what country you are in, as long as you are in a hotspot then you are good to log in and call anywhere.
The only downside is that wi-fi networks are not as accessable as a mobile cellular network, but who cares? Wi-fi is growing at a huge rate and it wont be long before wi-fi is everywhere.
The phone is set to retail for $190 and looks just like a regular phone. More details below.
The Canon Digital IXUS 60 is a digital camera with a 6 megapixel CCD making this very desirable. It has a nice all-metal body which contains the precision optics for taking amazing shots with. With it having a large 6 megapixel CCD it can take a whole variety of shots from portrait all the way to scenery and catch them at a high resolution so that you can get photo quality prints at all sizes.
It boasts a 3x optical zoom lens and also uses Canon’s DIGIC II processor which makes it fast and responsive with amazing image processing capabilities. The processor also analyses each scene you are shooting and configures the camera to give the best overall shot before the shot is taken (in other words, it’s fast!). This ability is thanks to iSAPS which performs the magic.
It has a large 2.5″ LCD colour screen with a wide viewing angle so that it makes it easier showing the shots to your friends. Also included is a light sensor which can adjust the screen brightness in outdoor conditions. Also the night display mode improves visibility when taking shots at night.
The IXUS range cameras are an excellent range in the Canon series and can be highly recomended!
LG have launched this fashionable phone which is numbered the LG KV2300. It sports a 1.3 Megapixel camera and 90Mb RAM. It’s got the usual MP3 player built in and acts as a dictionary. It is available in 2 colours (Black and Red).
This LED phone sensor has been introduced to give a visual alarm of incomming calls to a mobile phone. It’s not the greatest of ideas in my opinion and would look better just sitting on your desk iluminated at all times. It is available for $20 and more details can be found below.
Pfeffer Industries have launched this nice looking laptop stand. It is made from clear plastic and is available in 3 sizes. To make the stand look crisp they use a laser cutting device. Small pads are included which stops the stand from sliding while using your notebook and the stand can be adjusted to optimise the viewing angle.
Only 1 real downside is the lack of ventilation on the device. A few holes would be good to let that hot air out the bottom of your laptop.
The wind powered bike light is a new concept which was designed by Hsieh Jung-Ya. The device is powered by wind as you ride your bike. This in turn charges a lithium battery which then poweres the 1700 lux LED. This covers the problem of the lights going out when you come to a stand still. The idea won an award recently and could be out soon although no official details have been given about that.
This is an interesting game which I came across. It uses a portal generating gun which you fire once at one surface to create an exit point and then fire at another place to create an entry point. When you run through 1 portal you come out of the other location which you decided.
This game requires skill and quick responses as you need to think quick on how to get out of an awkward situation. The video below explains and shows in more detail about how the game works…
Rumours have stated that this weapon was supposed to appear in Half Life 2, but now it seems that it will be a stand alone game with in Half Life 2.
Shure have started to ship their headphones in the UK. The E500PTH in-ear monitors are not cheap.. they will weigh in at $550, but promise amazing sound quality from the amazing 2 woofers and 1 tweeter. The earphones isolate about 90% of external noise. There is a feature called PTH (Push to hear) which will allow you to listen to noise outside with out taking them off which is handy. This function activates a microphone that picks up the noise and plays it over the ear phones.
The 3 speakers in each ear phone offer rich lows and precision highs in sound quality and are supposed to do to headphones what HDTV did to the TV.
The sound isolating sleeves have 2 roles. The first is to block ambient noise while the other role is to make a customised fit for comfort. Ears are all different in size and Shure have taken this in to consideration by giving 3 sizes (small, medium and large) as well as a universal foam which will be good for all ear sized. When installed correctly it blocks out the ambient noise while enhancing the bass.
The sure engineers have also listened to user feedback and now provide 2 cables with the ear phones. One is 9 inches long and the other is 3 foot long. This allows you to taylor the cord to what kind of activity you are doing.
From what we can see, they seem to have got everything covered here.
Have you ever been in a situation where you needed an inflatable giant football pitch? Subbuteo have got you covered They have introduced us to a giant inflatable pitch and it is available now from firebox.com.
It falls in to the catagory closest to a bouncy castle but in the form of a football pitch. It is built for 4 men to use in the back garden. You plug in the powerful pump and the whole thing can inflate in just 30 seconds.
It measures a massive 20ft by 12ft and will impress all your mates Go and check it out at firebox.com.
We all like the idea of wireless devices They make life so much easier and lazy which can be a bad thing I guess
The s-Dream connects to your PC and streams the music you play anywhere around your house or garden. The pack comes with 3 parts which are needed to make this work. You start with the chic USB transmitter which you connect to your computer or laptop. Then there is the powerful receiver which can connect to your stereo speakers any where in your house and then you have a very nifty and small remote control which allows you to adjust volume, tracks, genre, what ever you like really from anywhere in the house. It’s a smart device!!! It utilizes the Music Anywhere(tm) wireless technology which provides crystal-clear digital audio.
This is a cool LCD bendable display as the picture and video show below. The concept was created in 2004 and the video shows a working version of what it will be like. One idea is that it can give clothing a personality of it’s own by talking to it in different ways. The LCD display would show the clothings personality.
CodeMasters are bringing an excellent and very realistic racing game known as Racer Driver 2006. It is described as the “most realistic motorsport experience you’ll ever have on your PSP”. It hit the shelves in June 2006 and features 15 different motorsports which are “GT Sports Car Racing, Street Racing, Rally, DTM, V8 Supercars, Global GT Lights, Rally Cross, Formula Ford, Open Wheel Grand Prix, Classic Car Racing, Super Truck Racing, Stockcar Oval Racing, Ice-Racing, Convertible Racing, and Performance Cars”. It looks like a truly amazing game. More details below.
The Nyko Theatre Experience is an excellent addition for those who enjoy watching UMD movies. It is Black, with a brushed aluminium case and has an angled stand which props up the PSP for an excellent view of the screen. It has a built in rechargeable battery, stereo speakers and these are all built in to a single case. The extra batter allows for around 7 hours of playback on the PSP and can even charge the PSP’s battery two or three times before needing charging it’s self. The case has a neoprene lined interior which protects the PSP against shock.
The USBM8 is not aimed at the usual business user. It has a diary, homework scheduler, dictionary, thesaurus, calculator and also an MP3 player and a diary. Not a bad little device! It comes in 3 sizes which are 256Mb, 512Mb, 1Gb. Another plus is that the device is shock and water resistent. Also a tamper-proof virtual name tak which is handy to track down if stolen.
The Flying Superman is out now. Look at it as a glider where you have some influence of how it flies. Still cool. It looks like you will need a big field and plenty of wind to keep this thing in the air. It’s available from Amazon.com.
They have introduced us to a giant inflatable pitch and it is available now from 
