This next device isn’t really technical, and I’m not even certain to classify it as a gadget. However, it certainly makes using laptop and netbook gadgets easier.
Yeah, this is another low-tech laptop stand, like the Cushdesk from Belkin. The AViiQ Portable Laptop Stand is very different than most laptop stands because it can conveniently fold up.
According to AViiQ, it is made of Hylite, a composite material of aluminum sheets bonded to a polypropylene core. This allows the material to fold like origami.
For example, you can remove the triangular fold there by pushing in the two tabs. From there, it becomes a flat sheet that has three creases. It can then be folded up into a sheet about 12.75 inches by 2.75 inches by a quarter-inch.
This folded up iron bar is very compact, and you should have no trouble fitting into your bag with your laptop bag. Yes, unlike most laptop stands, it can compact to something smaller than the laptop itself.
Now, you wouldn’t think that something made of sheet metal would be able to hold a laptop or netbook without it sliding off. However, those tabs that are poking through are lined with rubber, so they can keep a 17-inch laptop up there if needed.
You should be able to pre-order the AViiQ Portable Laptop Stand for about $79.95 from here.
Asus previously release UL50 notebook and now the Asus UL30Vt laptop which is the enhanced version of Asus UL30. The main change it has switchable-graphics: Intel GMA X4500MHD with 512MB of RAM and nVidia GeForce G210M.
You can switch this GPU adapter depend on mode operation to have better performance or to reduce the power consumption. Asus UL30Vt laptop powered by Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (1.4 GHz) or Intel Celeron SU2300/743 (1.2 GHz) processor and Intel GS45 chipset. Another features like 250GB, 320GB or 500GB of HDD capacity, wifi 802.11 b/g/n, HDMI and VGA out, 4-in-1 card reader (SD/MMS/MS/MS Pro), 0.3M pixel webcam and 3 USB 2.0 ports.
The display of Asus UL30Vt is 13.3-inch and also fitted with bluetooth 2.1+EDR. The dimension is 322×233×148~246 mm and the weight is 1.5kg with 4-cell battery. Also you can choose the 8-cell battery with 5,600 mAh but the price is not available yet.
Don’t let the small size fool you, the VOT550 mini computer from ViewSonic is a powerful and sleek machine, powered by a 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD, built-in Blu-Ray drive, and Microsoft Windows 7.
Aside from being small, the ViewSonic VOT550 comes in a piano black casing that’s sure to go well with your other gear. It also provides six USB 2.0 ports and an S/PDIF port for your AV receiver. For added security there’s also a Kensington lock.
Take a look at this bike from Germany, and stop looking at the model with the silvery wardrobe from a cheesy James Bond movie. I’m pretty sure she’s not Megan Fox, who isn’t all that in the first place.
This bike is made from Formula One parts as well as parts from fighters. If that doesn’t sell you, then you should know that it is electric powered. Yes, there is a 1300-watt motor with lithium ion batteries in lieu of pedaling.
It is called the Grace, and it is good enough for 18 to 31 miles per charge, which depends on the rider’s weight. It takes about one hour to recharge the battery, and it can achieve a top speed of 40 miles per hour.
Yes, this bike is not available on the bike racks of your local Wal-Mart. Yes, this is a specially made bike made in Hanover, Germany, and it will cost you $8742.
That might sound pretty expensive, but you should consider the price of that compared to a car. At least that’s what the company says. They also say that it is “the world’s first and finest E-motorbike”. I mean, hey, if you live in a place that has warm weather all year, and you live alone, then this is the vehicle for you.
Acer release the new convertible notebook. It’s Acer Aspire Timeline 1820PT which already release a month ago and now available in Australia stores. It’s powered by Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 processor (1.2 GHz) and you can choose using 2GB or 4GB of RAM.
The graphic card of Acer Aspire Timeline 1820PT using Intel GMA X4500MHD with 11.6-inch touch scren LED-backlit HD display. Another features like 250GB of HDD, wifi 802.11 b/g, HDMI and VGA out, 5-in-1 card reader, and bluetooth 2.1+EDR. The battery life up to 8-hours and the color available in black and blue. The price available around US$1263 – US$1492.
Here is the specification of Acer Aspire Timeline 1820PT:
* OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
* Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 (3MB L2 cache, 1.20GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 10W)
* Memory: 4GB DDR3 1066MHz
* Hard disk: 250GB or 320GB
* Display: 11.6 inch HD 1366 x 768 (WXGA) pixels or 11.6-inch SD 1024 x 600 (WSVGA) pixels, LED-backlit, 200nits, multitouch
* Graphics: Intel GMA X4500M HD
* Audio: Dolby Sound Room
* Networking: Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g WiFi Link 5100, UMTS / HSPA, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
* Interfaces: 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI, audio jacks, multi card reader
* Dimensions: 285 (W) 208.9 (D) 28.5/34.5 (H) mm
* Weight: 1.72 kg
* Warranty: 1 year
The Short Version: The ContourHD 1080p is a capable, semi-rugged, conveniently-shaped HD camcorder that’s great for all kinds of sporting and active events where a full-size camera isn’t practical. The 1080p video has admirable still image quality, but skew and compression mean it’s more of an enthusiast tool than a professional one. But for $330, it’s a great little tool for documenting your rides, falls, and so on, and putting the results up on the internet.
Features:
1080p max resolution
Water-resistant
Compact casing
Variety of mounts
MSRP: $329.99
Pros:
Small and lightweight, can be taped or mounted to nearly anything
1080p image quality is good under the right circumstances
Much more resilient than your average HD camcorder
Cons:
No LCD means it’s hard to frame shots
Skew in fast-moving video
Aside from start/stop, peration isn’t really intuitive
We’ve seen the ContourHD camera in a few guises before: first as the VHoldR, then as the ContourHD proper, and now the ContourHD 1080p. Does a resolution bump really necessitate another post? Well, it’s a cool gadget and there’s no danger of running out of internet, so why not?
Peter demonstrated the ContourHD on his skateboard, and I’ve done the same on my bike. Throwing caution, traffic laws, and my hair to the wind, I raced (-ish) from the top of Capitol Hill (15th) to Cafe Vita on Pike Street. Then we taped this sucker to my friend’s shoe and went for a walk in the park. That part of the footage is nauseating, so I’ve kept it to a minimum. Check out the video below; my comments on quality, exposure, and so on are embedded.
[One correction: I say 640x480 in the video, but it's actually 848x480. There's also a "tall HD" mode, 1280x920, which is handy if you're working in 4:3.]
I had the camera stuck to the frame of my bike with one of the included flat-surface mounts; we also attached it to a headband-mounted flashlight but the end result was too ridiculous to wear in public. The ContourHD comes with a sticky mount for putting on a helmet or, say, car hood, and also a goggle strap attachment that took me a while to figure out. You can order additional mounts and replacement sticky pads from the site for a reasonable fee, or you can just wrap the thing in gaffer’s tape like we did in order to get it on something new.
Build and usability
The camera itself is small, as you can see in the pictures; I tried to have some objects in there for scale (the candy corn was not wasted). I put its weight at about a quarter of a pound, and upon checking the specs… yes, 4.3 ounces. I’m really good at ballparks like that. It’s heavy enough that you’ll notice it on your goggles (or shoe), but light enough that you don’t have to worry about it flopping down or peeling off its mount. It’s mostly aluminum on the outside, and it feels sturdy but not exactly rugged. I’m sure it can survive being banged about, but I wouldn’t trust it in a more punishing situation. It’s water-resistant, as you can see when Mike jumps in the puddle there. The lens has a plastic protector over it, so you don’t have to worry too much about what you wipe it with. The rear door just has a power button on it and the record slider above, but it’s quick and easy to pop it up and switch out the MicroSD card or change shooting modes.
The device is meant to be set up beforehand and simply activated on-site. The switches and flashing lights aren’t exactly user-friendly, so keep the user guide handy if you want to be sure you’re doing it right and not trying to record to a full card. Basically you can switch between two recording modes and either record or stop recording. Beyond that there’s nothing to it.
Video quality
You can activate a little laser level, which is kind of cool, but not really a precision instrument. The two dots, which indicate the horizon of the video, are no more than an inch apart, so if having a really level video is important, be sure to do a test before doing the actual stunt or race. In fact, due to the lack of any kind of feedback or monitor on the device, it’s probably a good idea to do a really quick video every time you set it up, to make sure you’re in the right mode and have the thing pointed in the right direction. My bike video has a lot of sky because I didn’t think to tip the thing down a bit.
Video quality is a mixed bag. Obviously 1080p is the star of the show here, so that’s what I tested. At that bitrate it’ll fill a gig in about 15 minutes, which is perfectly reasonable. Its max file size is, I think, only limited by the file system the MicroSD card is formatted in. It’s encoded in Ambarella something something, “minimal” quality, basically an H.264 .mov file. I was pleasantly surprised by image quality, at least during calm moments and still shots. Fast motion, as is the case with every low-end camcorder sensor, leads to skew and jelly effect. You may notice it in quick turns and during bumpy parts of the ride above: objects sort of distort or stretch briefly. Strangely, it also has a fast exposure speed, as evidenced by the individual drops visible when I ride through the mud puddle after entering the park. Slow sensor pull but short exposure… a strange combination. But it ends up looking fine, and certainly no worse than comparably-priced camcorders. Watch the video above to see how it performs in different circumstances, and click here to download a full-res, unprocessed movie file.
Looking at stills from the above-linked video, it’s clear that the compression hits the wall in areas of intricate detail or very high contrast, and the lens loses a lot of detail at the very edges. That’s really to be expected, though; remember, this is a compact, fixed-focus camera. Compared to, say, the Sanyo I like so much, it’s got nothing to be ashamed of. Exposure is remarkably even throughout; even when I’m pointing the camera more or less into the sun, it retains some shadow detail.
A camcorder for all seasons
The ContourHD 1080p is a handy little camera. The question is whether it has $50 worth of advantage over its friend the ContourHD “original flavor.” I’d say that if you’re already working in 1080p, the extra dough is justifiable. That said, the physical limitations of the sensor size and lens clarity mean that you’re not really getting that much more detail. It comes down to what format you prefer to work with. And it’s certain that 1080p downrezzed to 720p will look better than the “plain” 720p. As for the camera itself, if you are willing to accommodate the spartan controls, this little guy will be handy for lots of projects. Since it’s pretty resilient, you can put it in situations you might hesitate to put something like a Flip or a nicer 1080p camcorder.
Like the high-speed Casio I reviewed a while back, the possibilities really open up once you have the thing in your hand. I’d recommend the ContourHD in either of its forms to any amateur videographer looking to expand their oeuvre a little.
My favorite iPhone cases are those that are more a hard shell than a case. They take a minimalist approach to scratch protection and while they don’t offer much, if any, protection from life’s bumps and bruises, these snap-on cases don’t add much weight or bulk to the device. That’s a trade-off I’m willing to make.
The latest snap-on shell I have been reviewing is a case from Konnet. The HardJAC Graffito is a three part-system that I really love using. (Well, more accurately loved since someone took a liking to it yesterday and, as a result, it is now his.) Let’s take a look.
Waterproof cameras are great for getting those outdoor shots in winter, but they are so huge and bulky. At least they were, but not anymore. At just .78 inches, the Casio EX-G1 is now the thinnest rugged camera in existence.
Yes it’s thin and can take a beating. It will survive a drop from 7 feet onto solid ground or a dunk into 10 feet of water. Plus this 12.1 megapixel shooter manages to actually look nice. Look for it in black or red next month for $300.
I’ve seen various concept designs that have silent ways of waking up the user. This one is actually something you can purchase online. It is a bit bulky in comparison to the sleek concept designs, but at least it’ll allow you to wake up without waking anyone else up. It’d be especially great for brand new parents that don’t want their alarm clock to wake up the baby.
The device can either be strapped to your wrist or put underneath your pillow. Then when it’s that time to wake up the device will begin to vibrate until you wake up. You just shut it off like you normally would. You can also set it to beep instead for those occasions when you need a normal alarm clock. The clock display is a backlit LED display. You can normally purchase the clock for £14.99 or about $25 through Thumbs Up UK. Although right now it’s out of stock.
Asus is latest manufacturer to out a Windows Home Server. The TS Mini Server seems to pack the goods too with up to a 2TB capacity and a modest price. Too bad it doesn’t have easy-access hard drive trays for expandability.
But I can’t hate on everything. Asus has built-in a couple custom WHS plug-ins that allow for more detailed back-up and restore options, along with an interface for an online storage locker that’s free for the first year.
Hardware wise, the TS Mini Server is on par with other offerings. A N280 1.66GHz Atom is at the core, paired with 2GB of RAM and up to a 2TB hard drive. It 6x USB ports, 2 eSATA ports, and, of course, Gigabit Ethernet. The server isn’t shipping yet, but Amazon has the 2TB version priced at $529 and available for pre-order.
Is it just me, or are MP3 players in everything these days? I guess some concept designer just had to put an MP3 player in clothes, and why not the pants? After all, the words “dance” and “pants” rhyme.
Say, is that an MP3 Player in your pants, or…all right, I think you all know where that one was going. I’m not liking where the Dancepants is going.
You see, the Dancepants isn’t just an MP3 Player that is designed to fit in the pants. That would probably be easy. You would just find a convenient place to stitch in the apparatus, and just make certain that the user can charge it and download tunes easily.
The Dancepants are not like that. You see, it is powered by kinetic energy. So if you like to listen to music while you are jogging, then you had better keep jogging, or your music will die. That, or you will. Heh heh heh.
Seriously, the Dancepants are a great idea. After all, kinetic energy is just the energy of motion, and we need to channel all of the excess energy in motion if we really want to save energy. After all, our highly technological society always needs energy to power our machines, and we also need to exercise more. Why not combine the two?
AquaOne Technologies’ H2Orb will let you know when you’ve got a leak or an overflow in your toilet. It attaches directly to the water valve behind the toilet, with a single float sensor that hangs inside the toilet tank. When it detects a leak, it shuts off the water and alerts you of the leak with an alarm as well as an icon on its LCD screen. The entire system runs on a single 3V lithium coin cell battery.
This device is great for those who live in places with limited resources, not to mention saving water. The sooner you know about a leak, the better.
This huge Ford F650 pickup truck has something that the typical model does not. A 7,000HP GE J85 jet engine. Which makes it less of a pick-up truck and more of a rocket on wheels.
The truck is capable of reaching speeds of up to 200MPH and is apparently street legal, as long as the engine isn’t firing. Though that won’t be good for anyone if it misfires. Not that anyone could catch you.
So you want to class up your abode, but standard digital picture frames just aren’t doing it for you. Juicy Couture has introduced a digital picture frame that looks like an antique goldtone resin frame for you more sophisticated types.
It comes with a 2GB memory card and a stand. You can pre-order it now and the Juicy Couture Digital Picture Frame ships later this month for $148. The dimensions are 6.5″H x 8″W x 1.4″ deep. It probably looks better with vintage photos on it.
The Powermats are pretty cool. They charge without eff’n wires. But they are all plastic and might not look right in some deco. So why not stuff the guts into something a little more pleasing like a block of wood. It seem to work fine and this Instructable will guide you through how to make one. I’m thinking that you’ll probably void your warranty though.
Today we are introducing a new series entitled “It’s The Next Best Thing To Being There”. In it we’ll share stories of ways in which tech lets of make and maintain connections with one another.
After reading Dan’s post yesterday, I wanted to share my own tech moment with everyone.
My grandparents are in their mid-80s. Traveling isn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world for them to do anymore. Neither one of them can sit in a car for hours on end. And airplane travel? This is not even an option for my grandmother. Her health issues simply won’t allow for it and her doctor has pretty much forbidden her to do it.
Yesterday we wrote about the soon to launch Google Phone, a Google branded Android phone that we believe will hit the market in early 2010.
Lots of people are saying there’s no way Google will enter the phone market directly and compete with all these handset manufacturers who have bet on Android. Daring Fireball, PC World and IntoMobile are among the doubters. And a lot of people are pointing to a Tom Krazit/CNET article last month that quoted Google’s Andy Rubin: “We’re not making hardware…We’re enabling other people to build hardware,” and “Rubin, vice president of engineering for Android at Google, scoffed at the notion that the company would “compete with its customers” by releasing its own phone.”
Normally I’d just point to the fact that many companies deny the existence of products until the day they announce them. Apple scoffed at the notion that they’d ever build a phone until they announced the iPhone, for example. The last thing Google wants is a lot of confusion among handset manufacturers just when those manufacturers are putting the finishing touches on their own Android phones.
But there may be another way Google will argue that they aren’t “competing with customers” by launching their own device – technically, it may not be a phone.
The Google Phone may be a data only, VoIP driven device. And Google may be lining up at least AT&T to provide those data services for the Google Phone, says one person we spoke with today.
There’s some sort of video game developer conference going on in Motreal this week (titled, to use its full name, the Montreal International Game Summit), and an interesting charge was just levied there. The CEO of A2M (the company that developed Wet), Rémi Racine, said that some game publishers will go out of their way to deceive the ESRB in order to get a lower rating for their games. You know how Hollywood tries hard to make sure the summer blockbusters are rated no higher than PG-13 in order to ensure a large audience? Same thing with video games, apparently. Why release an M-rated game, and know that your limiting your potential audience, when you can eek out with a T rating?
Of course, this is the opinion of one man, and not to be taken as the gospel truth. But what he said makes sense, at least on the surface:
As a developer who has worked with a lot of different publishers, we’re aware of many that have tried to cheat the rating. They say to the ERSB that it’s a Teen rating rather than an Mature to try and sell more; you can do this just by sending them a video that doesn’t show the most violent stuff and then you’ll get the rating that you want rather than the rating you should get.
Again, we have no way of knowing if this guy is speaking truthfully, but it doesn’t seem too far-fetched. Of course, then you run into all sorts of issues that I can just picture some grand-standing politician exploiting i.e. the ESRB has failed us, so we need tighter regulations.
A lot of people are going to a laptop only computing experience. There are even some that are going to a netbook only experience as a netbook is all they need. Sometimes, however, it is nice to have a screen that is bigger than what a netbook can provide. The same can be said about the touchpad and the keyboard. Wouldn’t it be nice to plop your laptop or netbook down and have it attached to a 24 inch LCD? That’s where this dock comes in. … [visit site to read more]
I’m all about gadgets that are made to look old but still have that new technology we all know and love. Yet the USB gadgets made to look like older ones just seem a bit like cheap impostors. However, if you don’t want to pay the price for an expensive antique that runs just like the old ones always have, these would work out great. Especially since they’re plenty affordable.
These hurricane lamps are made out of plastic and stand 4” tall. The light within the lamp can change colors, it flips between a total of 7 different colors. The light uses LED bulbs, so it won’t require too much power to keep it going. It of course just requires you to plug it into your USB port to keep it up and running. You can purchase the Color Change Hurricane Lamp $9.69 from UX Sight.
This next device isn’t really technical, and I’m not even certain to classify it as a gadget. However, it certainly makes using laptop and netbook gadgets easier. 
Don’t let the small size fool you, the VOT550 mini computer from ViewSonic is a powerful and sleek machine, powered by a 2.2Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor with 4GB of RAM, a 500GB HDD, built-in Blu-Ray drive, and Microsoft Windows 7. 
Let’s take a look.
Waterproof cameras are great for getting those outdoor shots in winter, but they are so huge and bulky. At least they were, but not anymore. At just .78 inches, the Casio EX-G1 is now the thinnest rugged camera in existence. 
AquaOne Technologies’ H2Orb will let you know when you’ve got a leak or an overflow in your toilet. It attaches directly to the water valve behind the toilet, with a single float sensor that hangs inside the toilet tank. When it detects a leak, it shuts off the water and alerts you of the leak with an alarm as well as an icon on its LCD screen. The entire system runs on a single 3V lithium coin cell battery.
This huge Ford F650 pickup truck has something that the typical model does not. A 7,000HP GE J85 jet engine. Which makes it less of a pick-up truck and more of a rocket on wheels.
So you want to class up your abode, but standard digital picture frames just aren’t doing it for you. Juicy Couture has introduced a digital picture frame that looks like an antique goldtone resin frame for you more sophisticated types. 
Yesterday we wrote about the 
