Archives for August 2007

HTC Kaiser TYTN II – Now in Europe

August 29, 2007 by Leave a Comment

htc-kaiser-tytn-ii
The HTC Kaiser has now launched in Europe. It has been a long awaited smartphone. It is 3.5G compatible and runs Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional, has a built in QWERTY keyboard, GPS, 3 mega pixel auto focus camera, Bluetooth, 128MB RAM, Wifi b/g and a 2.8 inch display. The phone will be available on Orange, T-Mobile, Telefonica Group and Vodafone.

This is one particular phone I am going to try get my hands on when my upgrade is due in a month or 2. Having the keyboard and large screen as well as built in GPS makes this phone a great phone to have.

Via: Cellphoners

Filed Under: Cell Phones, Cool Gadgets

Vodafone Data Speed Increase

August 29, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Vodafone is about to upgrade its mobile broadband service which will see download speeds jump from 1.4Mbps up to a possible 7.2Mbps over a HSDPA. To add to this download speed they are also making the upload speed to be an impressive 1.44Mbps which is very good in my opinion. The upgrade is for those paying 25 GBP per month and will initially be available in parts of London and some of the major airports.

Connectivity at this speed will only be found in 3G covered areas while the 2G network coverage will provide speeds at GPRS levels. Unfortunately 7.2Mbps will not always be met although it is a possibility. Speeds will normally fall in between 1.7Mbps to 5.5Mbps. Along with having high speeds Vodafone have a fairly good usage cap of 3GB per month which should be more then enough for most browsing.

Via: TechWorld

Filed Under: Cell Phones, Cool Gadgets, Tech News

Ball and Magnet Watch – The 900 Abacus

August 28, 2007 by 1 Comment

abacus_watch_silver
Watches are getting very interesting over the last few years which LED watches becoming quite popular from Tokyo Flash. Often they are made from slightly different materials to get a sleek look. The latest I came across was the 900 Abacus watch which uses a ball and magnet to tell the time. There are no hands or numbers on the watch. To tell the time you take a look at the magnetic sphere which moves around the face. The sphere is not fastened down and when you walk around the sphere moves around freely under the glass till you hold the watch flat. At this point the sphere rolls to the correct time. As it only has 1 sphere, it only tells time by hours which means you need to roughly estimate how many minutes past the hour it is.

The watch is also water resistant down to 30 meters.

The watch prices will start just short of $150 with more information available at Questodesign.

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

Sony-Ericsson PSP Concept

August 28, 2007 by 17 Comments

sony-ericsson-psp-phone-concept
Over the last year I have heard a couple of rumors floating about regarding the Sony PSP mobile phone. Currently the ideas are just concept which has inspired the picture above to be created. As can be seen it takes the current Sony Ericsson square looking type phone and includes a large screen and controlls. I am not sure if this concept or any concept will go ahead for the PSP phone, but we can hope for it. The idea could do real well if a cybershot camera, walkman type phone and PSP could be crammed in to the same package. All it would then need is wireless and VoIP and all would be perfect.

Via: TheWildKid

Filed Under: Cell Phones, Concept Gadgets, Cool Gadgets

AAA Battery Powered Phone

August 28, 2007 by Leave a Comment

AAA Powered Phone
The phone above is by Wilcom and is shaped like a battery and uses a AAA battery to get its power. The AAA battery can power the phone for 250 hours on standby with about 5 hours of talk time. On the feature side this phone is about as basic as you can get these days. It has no screen, no MP3 player built in, no 3G access and not much else.

I am not sure how a phone like this will fair in the industry. It isnt the type I would go for as I like to have quite a few features packed in to a mobile phone. I am sure it might catch some peoples attention though.

Via: Akihabaranews

Filed Under: Cell Phones, Cool Gadgets

Seam Carving – Chopping Up your Images in Style

August 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Retargeted Image
I came across a cool video today from SIGGRAPH 2007 which shows a process to manipulate images with out having to chop them up the usual way. The process uses gradients to find continuous lines of pixels which can be removed without effecting the subjects of the image. When the subject of the image does get manipulated for some reason, a marker can be put on to the image telling it to preserve that part. Also, objects can easily be removed by marking them negatively. The software will then take the gradients near by to fill in the gaps.

This type of manipulation will be very useful for websites which can be displayed on various sized screens such as high res large monitors right down to pocket pc sized screens. The full effect of the image could be displayed with out cropping out the main parts of the image.

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

FrogPad One Handed Keyboard

August 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

FrogPad
The FrogPad is a mobile keyboard which does not use the conventional QWERTY keyboard layout. Instead, the FrogPad has 20 keys but still promised easier use then a standard keyboard. The keyboard is to be used one handed allowing you to hold documents in the other hand. It is small and measures 5 x 3.5 x .4 inches and connects via Bluetooth to any Bluetooth device that supports the HID Bluetooth profile. According to ThinkGeek, you will be typing at 40 words per minute with in 10 hours of using the keyboard. Compare this to the 56 hours needed to achieve the same on a QWERTY keyboard it seems like the FrogPad is the way to go.

The FrogPad will set you back $149 for the right handed Bluetooth version with cheaper prices for the USB left and right hand version. For some reason there is no left hand Bluetooth version listed.

Product Page

Filed Under: Cell Phones, Cool Gadgets

HIPerWall runs at 200 Million Pixels

August 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

HIPerWall
The HIPerWall pictured above is capable of displaying imagery at a 200 million pixel resolution. The display measures 23 ft wide by 9 feet tall and has 50 LCD panels which appear to be the Apple 30 inch cinema displays. To make use of such a high resolution, a software app was developed and it allows Google Earth to be used on the HIPerWall. Previously, images had to be stitched together to get the huge, high resolution versions. They were not done in real time and had to be done manually which took a long time. Calit2 worked with Google to create software which could utilise the 50 displays in real time allowing researchers to do a huge amount of work and observation in a fraction of the time.

Via: Calit2

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, Displays

Custom PSP Touchscreen

August 27, 2007 by Leave a Comment

PSP Touchscreen
The PSP has been subject to a number of mods and hacks over the last couple of years. Most of it (if not all) has been down to software and the running of homebrew software. The latest hack is the PSP touchscreen which was created over at Spark Fun Electronics. The PSP touchscreen is a layer that sits above the screen which senses when it is touched. Match this up with an interface and you have a fully fledged touch screen PSP. The screen overlay touchscreen costs just $23.95. There is no mention of compatible software yet and I am sure some kind of homebrew will need to be used to make use of it. Hopefully we will see something soon.

Product Page Via: Technabob

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, Hacked Gadgets

Olympus Voice Trek V-41 USB

August 25, 2007 by Leave a Comment

voice_trek_V-41
The Voice Trek is made by Olympus and is set to be released next month over in Japan. It has 512Mb of capacity to catch voice memos. It features a unique design in which the batter looks to be released which reveals the USB connector which connects to your PC to transfer the audio files. MP3, WMA and various other formats are supported on the voice recorder which is due to cost $141.

Via: DeGadget

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, USB Gadgets Tagged With:

Car Sandwich Maker

August 24, 2007 by Leave a Comment

Car Toasty Maker
When you are out for a long drive and suddenly crave a cheese toasted sandwich then this one built for a car could come to the rescue. It plugs in to your lighter socket on your car and can create some seriously nice sandwiches anywhere you are parked. Although its a real bizarre idea, I could actually see a good use when you are parked up somewhere on a long day out in the cold and you just want something warm to keep you going.

The sandwich maker for your car will cost you $18 in the sale over at skingcompany.

Via: Daily-Gadgets

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets

USB Mini Green House

August 23, 2007 by Leave a Comment

USB Green House
If you want a small indoors portable green house then this one might work well for you. It is a USB powered mini green house which takes energy from your PCs USB port or from a USB socket on the wall. Along with the USB Green house you also get a CD which has instructions on when you should be watering the plants inside. The USB is used to power an ultraviolet light above the green house to emulate the sun.

Costing $20 at Geeks.com you have your self a fairly affordable present for the young ones who could get to grow some plants etc…

Via: EcoGeek

Filed Under: Cool Gadgets, USB Gadgets