iPhone 3.0 software

its not out yet..but it’s a start.

check it out..

http://www.apple.com/iphone/preview-iphone-os/

LG Dare

 

The good:The LG Dare has an intuitive touch-screen interface, an advanced 3.2-megapixel camera, a full HTML browser, EV-DO Rev. A, and plenty of other powerful features. It also has excellent call quality.

The bad:The LG Dare’s touch interface has a slight learning curve, and we weren’t too pleased with the handwriting interface. Also, the Web browsing experience was quite disappointing.

The bottom line:The LG Dare is an innovative and feature-rich handset with several surprises that sets it apart from other touch-screen phones.

 

SPECIFICATIONS:

 

• Manufacturer: LG Electronics
• Part Number: DARELGBLKVZW

General

• Product Type: Cellular phone With digital camera / digital player
• Service Provider: Verizon Wireless
• Height: 4.1 in
• Weight: 3.76 oz

Cellular

• Technology: CDMA2000 1X
• Band: CDMA2000 1X 1900/800
• Phone Design: Candy bar
• Antenna: Internal
• Vibrating Alert: Yes
• Polyphonic Ringer: Yes
• Automatic Redial: Yes
• Call Divert: Yes
• Call Barring: Yes
• Call Timer: Yes
• Call Waiting: Yes
• Conference Call Capability: Yes
• Voice Recorder: Yes
• Voice Mail Capability: Yes
• Caller ID: Yes
• Volume Control: Yes
• Ringer Control: Yes
• Speakerphone: Yes
• Computer Link: Yes
• Additional Features: Touch-screen , Handwriting recognition

Messaging & Data Services

• Short Messaging Service (SMS): Yes
• Internet Browser: Yes
• Included Services: VCAST, VZ Navigator
• EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized): Yes
• Messaging / Data Features: Text messages

Digital Camera

• Camera highlightsWith a resolution of 3.2 megapixels, this model will give you higher quality pictures than other phones.
• Sensor Resolution3.2 megapixels
• Still Image Resolutions640 x 480

Organizer

• Alarm Clock-Yes
• Calendar-Yes
• Reminder-Yes
• Calculator-Basic

Display

• Type-LCD display
• Technology-TFT
• Display Resolution-240 x 400 pixels
• Color Support-Color
• Color Depth-18-bit (262000 Colors)
• Features-LCD touch screen

Digital Player (Recorder)

• Supported Digital Audio Standards-AAC , MP3

Connections

• Slot Provided-1 x microSD

Power

• Type-Power adapter

Battery

• Technology-Rechargeable
• Talk Time-Up to 280 min
• Audible Battery Alert-Yes

Manufacturer Warranty

• Service & Support-1 year limited warranty

The Wovel

The Wovel, or the Snow Shovel On A Wheel, is a handy invention, a little bit large, but something that makes a painful task go by a lot quicker.

Check it out here:

http://www.wovel.com/

Twist & Spout

A company i just recently discovered is Fred.

http://www.worldwidefred.com/home.htm

And the Twist & Spout is a product of Fred’s

making any recyclable water bottle into a sprinkler.

Its not too hard if you think about it, and it is very useful for quick gardening.

I get a feeling we will be looking at some more Fred Products Very soon..

buy it here:

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000NIBWDI?ie=UTF8&tag=diemot-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000NIBWDI

 

Fish Bowl Bookends

Small:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000L40K6Y?ie=UTF8&tag=diemot-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000L40K6Y

Large:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HVT8P0?ie=UTF8&tag=diemot-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B000HVT8P0

Can Safe

Why not hide your money in a special doctor pepper safe?  unless your robber likes doctor pepper and has a couple hours to figure out how it opens, your money isnt going anywhere.

http://www.amazon.com/Ziotek-DS-DRPEPPER-Can-Safe-Pepper/dp/B0009ZEXJU/ref=pd_bxgy_e_img_c

Book Safe

This is an old idea, but perfected enough to be sold on amazon…so if you have a lot of valuables, it might not be a bad idea..

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002SFELU?ie=UTF8&tag=diemot-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B0002SFELU

Volkswagen Pool Table

 

It’s a full-size pool table which uses a Sixties camper as its base. The shortened and narrowed car has had all of its mechanicals removed, while lifting the engine cover reveals storage for the balls.

However, the lights still work, and it’s classed as a trailer, so is actually road legal. You’ll have to dig deep in your pockets if you fancy one, though.  The VW debuted at the Woodward Dream Cruise classic car event in Detroit, US.

Floating Bed

Air Mattress….Isn’t that a blow up mattress for camping trips? Yes…well no…take a look at this picture..and its actually real too…

Your eyes do not deceive you: that sleek slab levitating in midair is in fact a bed, and it is floating unsupported–though lightly tethered at its four corners–16 in. above the floor. The hovering bed is the daydream of a Dutch designer who says he was inspired by the monolith in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Its secret is a matching set of repelling magnets, built into the bed and the floor below, that’s powerful enough to support almost 2,000 lbs. The magnetic fields are supposed to be perfectly safe for sleepers, but you’re advised to take off your earrings before vacuuming underneath.

Inventor: Janjaap Ruijssenaars
Availability: Now; $1.5 million
To learn more visit universearchitecture.com

 

Invisibility…well..almost

Scientists around the world have been coming up with new ways to make the unimaginable come to life. One of their inventions is the ability to become invisible. Now, this is not perfect…yet…but it is a tremendous start for something we thought would only ever be in movies.

 

EyeTv Hybrid TV Tuner

EyeTV Hybrid is a highly-acclaimed Mac TV tuner that delivers stunning-qualityHDTV to the high-resolution display of a Mac. And because it receives both analog and digital TV, it’s an ideal (and inexpensive) solution for the digital transition.

What’s more, EyeTV Hybrid is not just a TV; thanks to the included EyeTV 3 software, it’s also a digital video recorder (DVR) with a comprehensive Program Guide and editing capabilities. It’s a DVR that can put your television recordings on a Mac, iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV with one easy click of a button, and can export them for use in other Mac video applications. All this, in one small TV tuner stick.

Ready for the digital transition

EyeTV Hybrid instantly turns your Mac into a digital TV and DVR. Enjoy stunning quality HDTV on your Mac with an antenna, as well as analog TV with an antenna or by standard cable — including unencrypted digital cable

 

Superb quality digital TV recordings 

EyeTV Hybrid records digital TV in one quality setting, Lossless. The digital stream is recorded unaltered for full quality digital content as encoded by the broadcaster. EyeTV also supports closed captioning and Dolby® Digital sound.

EyeTV Hybrid records analog television using the encoder built into the EyeTV software together with your Mac’s processor. As a result, the quality of analog recordings depend on the power of your Mac.

 

Made for the Mac

With its classic matte aluminum finish and surprisingly small size for such a versatile product, the EyeTV Hybrid is a perfect complement to the Mac. It features a USB 2.0 interface for the streaming of superior quality, uncompressed TV content to your Mac. EyeTV Hybrid is USB powered and therefore requires no external power supply; it also has a standard F connector and does not require an antenna adapter.

EyeTV Hybrid can record from a cable or satellite set top box, video recorder or camcorder, using either composite or S-Video connections. 

 

System Requirements

• Macintosh® computer with a PowerPC® G4,G5 or Intel Core® processor
• 512 MB of physical RAM
• a built-in USB 2.0 port
• Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later
• Internet connection required to download Program Guide data

Note: 720p or 1080i HD features require a Dual PowerPC G5 or an Intel Core Duo processor. Analog TV recorded and processed by a software encoder; quality depends on processor performance.

Technical Specifications

New!
EyeTV Hybrid now comes with revolutionary Xceive 5000 silicon tuner and 6th generation demodulator technology for improved reception (both analog and digital) and unencrypted digital cable (Clear QAM) support.

Analog- /ATSC-Tuner

• Frequency range: 48-860MHz (VHF and UHF)
• Analog TV standards: NTSC
• Digital TV standards: ATSC
• Digital cable standards: Clear QAM

Input and Output

• USB 2.0
• Antenna input: Standard F connector
• S-Video (via break out cable, included)
• Composite video (via break out cable, included)
• Stereo audio (via break out cable, included)
• IR remote control sensor

Power Supply

• USB bus power

Dimensions

• 82 x 32 x 15 mm
• 30g

 

Dell Studio Hybrid

 

The good:Flexible design lets you customize appearance and positioning; best combination of looks and specifications among supersmall desktops.

The bad:Standard budget PCs offer better price-performance and more upgradeability; laptops deliver better space economy with similar specifications for the dollar.

The bottom line:If you’re considering all of the computers in the $700 to $1,000 price range, the Dell Studio Hybrid is not very compelling. However, if you limit yourself to the very specific niche of small PCs, you’ll appreciate this system’s clever design and its relatively powerful hardware.

 

 

 

 

General

• TypePersonal computer
• Product Form FactorDesktop slimline
• Width8.3 in
• Depth7.8 in
• Height2.8 in
• Weight4.9 lbs
• ColorSlate
• Desktop typeSmall-form-factor PC, Budget desktop system

Processor

• TypeIntel Core 2 Duo T8100 / 2.1 GHz
• Multi-Core processor technologyDual-Core
• 64-bit processorYes
• Installed Qty1
• Max processors supported1
• UpgradabilityUpgradable

Cache Memory

• TypeL2 cache
• Installed Size3 MB
• Cache Per Processor3 MB

Mainboard

• Chipset typeMobile Intel GM965 Express
• Data bus speed800 MHz

RAM

• Installed Size2 GB / 4 GB (max)
• TechnologyDDR2 SDRAM
• Memory speed667 MHz
• RAM form factorSO DIMM 200-pin
• RAM featuresTwo DDR channels
• RAM configuration features2 x 1 GB

Environmental Parameters

• Environmental & energy standards complianceEPEAT Gold, EPA Energy Star
• Min operating temperature50 ?F
• Max operating temperature95 ?F
• Operating humidity range20 – 80%

Storage Controller

• Type1 x Serial ATA – Integrated
• Controller interface typeSerial ATA-300

Storage Controller (2nd)

• TypeNone

Storage

• Floppy drive typeNone
• Hard Drive1 x 250 GB – Standard – S-ATA – 5400
• Hard Drive (2nd)None
• Hard Drive (3rd)None

Optical Storage

• TypeDVD+/-RW – Serial ATA

Optical Storage (2nd)

• TypeNone

Storage Removable

• TypeNone

Monitor

• Monitor TypeNone.

Multimedia Functionality

• TV tuner typeNone

Graphics Controller

• TypeIntegrated
• Graphics Processor / VendorIntel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 Dynamic Video Memory Technology 4.0

Audio Output

• TypeSound card – Integrated
• Sound output mode5.1 channel surround
• Audio output compliant standardsHigh Definition Audio

Input Device

• TypeMouse , Keyboard

Keyboard

• Keyboard interfaceUSB

Mouse

• Mouse technologyOptical
• Mouse interfaceUSB

Audio Input

• TypeNone

Telecom

• ModemNone

Networking

• Networking10/100 Fast Ethernet – Integrated , Network Adapter
• Wireless LAN SupportedYes
• Data Link ProtocolEthernet , IEEE 802.11a , IEEE 802.11b , IEEE 802.11g , Fast Ethernet , Gigabit Ethernet , IEEE 802.11n (draft)
• Compliant StandardsIEEE 802.11n (draft)

Printer

• TypeNone

Expansion / Connectivity

• Expansion Bays Total (Free)1 ( 0 ) x Front accessible – 5.25″ , 1 ( 0 ) x Internal – 2.5″
• Expansion Slots Total (Free)1 ( 0 ) x Processor – 478-pin Micro FCPGA , 2 ( 0 ) x Memory – SO DIMM 200-pin , 1 ( 0 ) x PCI Express Mini Card
• Interfaces5 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A , 1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) – 4 pin FireWire , 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45 , 1 x Audio – SPDIF output , 1 x Display / video – DVI-Analog/Digital – 29 pin combined DVI , 1 x Display / video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A , 1 x Audio – Line-out – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm , 1 x Headphones – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm ( 1 in front ) , 1 x Audio – Line-in – Mini-phone 3.5 mm

Miscellaneous

• Included AccessoriesVertical stand
• Features8-in-1 media card reader

Power

• Power device typePower adapter
• Voltage RequiredAC 120/230 V
• Power provided65 Watt

Operating System / Software

• OS ProvidedVista Home Premium
• SoftwareDrivers & Utilities , Microsoft Works 9.0

Environmental Standards

• EPEAT CompliantEPEAT Gold
• EPA Energy Star CompliantYes

Manufacturer Warranty

• Service & Support1 year warranty
• Service & Support DetailsLimited warranty – 1 year – On-site

 

Logitech MX Air (air mouse)

Accessory powerhouse Logitech is getting into the gyroscopic-mouse market with the new MX Air, a rechargeable cordless mouse that can control a computer’s cursor just by being moved through the air (when placed on a flat surface, it works as regular laser mouse). At $149, it’s not the cheapest mouse on the market, not even the cheapest gyroscopic mouse, but it adds plenty of media-friendly features, such as playback and volume controls that work right out of the box. The MX Air isn’t for everyone, and takes a little getting used to, but we’re convinced that many users would be happier unshackling their mice from the desk.

There are a lot of reasons why you may want to move your mousing out of the standard 2D, flat-on-the-desk mode. For computer users with persistent hand and arm pain caused by poor ergonomics or repetitive motion (sometimes called mouse arm), gyroscopic mice like those in the Gyration line have been good solutions, letting users lift the mouse up off the table and control the cursor by moving the mouse through the air. Later on, home theater enthusiasts also discovered gyroscopic mice, and these devices have become a popular, if not exactly common, choice for controlling the functions of a Media Center PC from the living room couch.

The MX Air is aimed clearly at the home theater market. Besides left and right mouse buttons and a touch-sensitive scroll panel (replacing a traditional scroll wheel), the mouse includes a dedicated Play/Pause button that works in most media-playing apps, and a volume button. When the mouse is on a desk, the Volume button mutes and unmutes the sound. When you pick up the mouse in your hand, hold down the Volume button and move the mouse to the left or right, and a volume meter will pop up on the screen, allowing you to raise and lower the volume with a wave of the hand. Logitech’s included driver software lets you reprogram these buttons as well.

The mouse has a built-in rechargeable battery, and sits in a small recharging dock when not in use. A tiny RF receiver, about the size of a USB memory key, plugs into a USB port on your system.

 

With other gyroscopic mice, if you hold the mouse sideways and move your hand up, the cursor will still go sideways. We especially liked the extra sensors in the MX Air, which forced the cursor to move in the direction we moved our hand, no matter the physical orientation of the mouse. One feature we missed, however, was an underside trigger, common on the Gyration mice, which could be used to freeze the cursor while the mouse is in the air. It makes for much more precise movement, especially when trying to click onscreen buttons. Instead, the MX Air offers the option of an oversize cursor while the mouse is in the air, making it easier to see and control.

It takes a good 24 to 48 hours to get used to, but trying out a gyroscopic mouse can be an eye-opening experiment for any desktop or laptop user.

Blackberry Bold

If you were feverishly anticipating a cellphone this year, this is it. That’s because the BlackBerry Bold is RIM’s most powerful, polished handset ever. With 3G, a glossy new UI, a real web browser, serious hardware and an almost beautiful body, the Bold doesn’t redefine the BlackBerry experience, but it does elevate to the highest point its ever been.

 

Let’s be clear: If you hate BlackBerry phones, you will still intensely dislike the Bold. As many coats of polish as RIM has thickly layered on the Bold, it is still a BlackBerry, with all of its suit-and-tie DNA fully intact. Fundamentally, it works and plays just like every other BlackBerry, but with a load of small-to-medium improvements, updates and tweaks that add up to a richer, more refined phone that also looks far better than the rest while doing its thing.

Screen
Yes, the Bold’s 480×320 screen is dazzling enough to warrant its own section dedicated simply to praising it. Incredibly rich and contrast-y with stunning pixel density, it’s so nice you want to touch it. I actually tried to once or twice to hit okay on a dialog box, forgetting that it wasn’t the touchy kind of screen. It almost makes reading the plain text of an email depressing, knowing you could be looking at a gorgeous video instead.

Keyboard
A BlackBerry lives and dies by its keyboard. When RIM diehards countered reckless banter about the death of the BlackBerry per the iPhone’s Exchange support by pointing to the keyboard. After you get used to the slight angle shift in the Bold’s keys, they’re fantastic, like a delicately balanced wine, with a perfect blend of springy, punchy and spongy. The glossy navigation keys are overly large for reasons I cannot quite divine. The backlighting is beautiful.

Body
It’s hands-down the best looking phone RIM has put out, not to mention one of the most attractive pieces of kit on the whole market, even if the clean chrome on black is borrowed from another phone (and we’re not saying it is). It looks like an incredibly modern business device, what you imagine people with more important jobs than you would carry to conduct business that’s more important than yours, while talking to their accountant about how much fatter their bank account is than yours. It exudes power. Welcome to 2008, RIM design department.

It’s larger and wider than the Curve, but it still feels fine in my hands, which aren’t giant-sized by any means. The faux-leather backing, however, is absolutely puzzling, like RIM tried to add a touch of class in the same way Donald Trump’s hairdo gives him a touch of handsome. In other words, it’s fake as crap and feels tacky. Insignificant, really, but it’s actually the thing I hate most about this phone. Nonetheless, it feels rock solid.

Connections
It has everything you want: 3G, GPS and Wi-Fi. Despite earlier reports that it suffered from bad 3G problems, I found that it was more consistent and reliable with its 3G connection. It wasn’t uncommon to grab four bars of signal where, say, the iPhone only saw one. (I realize bars are not standardized or totally accurate, but the disparity between the two was often significant, two or more bars.) In drive-testing, handoff went smoothly. GPS was slower than I would’ve liked, more often than not taking up to a minute to get a lock, and the maps app could be snappier (and prettier) than it is, but it’ll do. At least on AT&T it will immediately have a decent navigator app.

Battery
It’s a champ. Despite lots of 3G browsing, email and other everyday app use, a half charge right out of the box got me through an eight-hour day with no problem. Expect more detailed battery test update later, but all indications are that this thing will last you throughout the day with no problems at all. Way to go, RIM.

Browser
Okay, so there was some controversy about how quickly its browser renders compared to the iPhone. In my tests over Wi-Fi—and believe me, I triple checked to make sure it was on Wi-Fi—it was either tied with, or just behind the iPhone, like the dude who lost to Michael Phelps by a finger tip. The speed difference really is trivial.

It’s the best BlackBerry browser ever (this phone is a lot of “best BlackBerry ______ ever”), and one of the most usable mobile browsers around. In other words, it’s actually usable. Not a miracle. The trackball isn’t the most elegant way to navigate pages—largely because of the zoom metaphor—but it gets the job done, and the vast majority of the time, the Bold shows you pages the way they’re supposed to be. It definitely sets a standard for what mobile browsers should do at a minimum, and it’s fine for light surfing.

Email
What’s a BlackBerry without email? Perhaps wisely, RIM chose to mostly not fix what ain’t broken, adding small but significant tweaks like the ability to see pictures in message, full HTML and attachment viewing. Otherwise, it’s basically the same experience you’re used to. The higher res screen makes the text pop more and adds clarity, but it’s not any prettier, which somewhat stands out against the rest of the overhauled UI.

Media
The Roxio-powered desktop Media Manager still sucks total balls—can you please get a decent integrated manager, RIM? And the music/video setup is essentially unchanged—same menu system and organization—but it has a cleaner, less tacky skin on top that makes it look like it’s greatly improved, even though it isn’t.

But! Watching videos on this thing is a-maz-ing. The sample Speed Racer trailer was so gorgeous and yummy, I almost wanted to watch that 80-car-pile-up of a movie. Almost. The external speaker is surprisingly good, too, with richer sound than most other handsets. Still, this is one of the areas of the phone that needs work—the video quality nearly woos me into giving it a pass—but I can’t emphasize enough how much it needs a decent media manager.

OS & UI
RIM has re-skinned the entire operating interface, shifting from pixel-y, realish bitmaps to slick, almost Tron-like high-res icons that have a neon pseudo-science fiction modernist feel to them. One issue: It’s no longer immediately apparent what each icon does, so expect to hover initially. (With Precision Zen, the theme with splashes of color, it’s easier to discern what icons represent.) I like them, but it’s really an issue of personal taste—still, future skins will benefit from being able to go high-res.

All of the top-level menus have been cleaned up as well, with crisp white text on a black background. It feels nice, and goes with the look of the handset itself, conveying the sense of it being modern and powerful. Unfortunately, when you go into applications themselves—mail, contacts, etc.—or deep into settings, you feel like you’ve entered a time warp three years into the past. It’s like eating a tuna sandwich after a piece of sashimi—the tuna sandwich alone, uncontextualized, is fine, but next to a pure, clean slice of maguro it looks like crap.

Startup on this device has been exceptionally slow—I initially thought my unit was busted or something (maybe it is), though I suppose BBs are always damn sluggish on cold starts. For the for first minute or so after booting, the OS kind of chugs as well, but after clearing the pipes, I guess, it runs totally smoothly, as it should with its speedy 624MHz processor.

Still, overall, it’s the same BlackBerry OS as before, just prettier and running on snappy hardware. If you’re used to a BlackBerry, you won’t have any problems getting around. If you’re not, well, it’s one of the easier mobile OSes to learn and deal with, everything is more or less up front, and on top, at least, it’s pretty.

Conclusion
This is RIM’s best phone ever. Does that mean it’s the phone for you? If you’re a BlackBerry fanatic, yes—it really is the phone you’ve been waiting for, if you’re not hoping RIM radically changed the recipe. Because they didn’t. It’s cleaner and brighter, but it’s not an overhaul by any means. It’s a more powerful and beautiful distillation of the same experience.

For other people who were eyeing it as the time to switch to BlackBerry, the issue is less straightforward. As I said in the intro, it’s coming into a complicated world, where it has more consumer crossover appeal than a flagship RIM device—currently, the 8800—ever has before. (No doubt, even more people are looking at it in light of 3G problems on other handsets, either suit-and-ties who were considering the jump, or people looking for their first high-end smartphone, though more of the former.) At its heart, this thing is a corporate workhouse. It will play movies, music, browse the internet and all of the things consumers usually want—and do it well—but it is coming from a different mindset than the iPhone, something to keep in mind if you’re torn between these two phones.

 

 

Links:

http://www.blackberry.com/blackberrybold/features/#experience

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/blackberrybold/

Blackberry Storm

 

The very first time you touch the BlackBerry Storm—RIM’s first all-touchscreen keyboard-free smartphone, just announced for Verizon Wireless—you will be startled. No matter how many times your fingers dance on the screen like you’ve been trained on every other touchscreen, nothing will happen. At least, not until you push the screen all the way down and you feel a click. Yes, the screen is a giant button, one you have to punch for basically every action, even every letter you type, completely breaking the touchscreen paradigm. Surprisingly, it works.

 

While the Storm’s defining feature is this, what RIM ungracefully calls ClickThrough, the phone is much, much more. The term “iPhone killer” is clumsily tossed around by bloggers and journos (including us) to describe almost any phone with a touchscreen, but by trying to actually innovate rather than imitate, RIM has conjured up the phone most deserving of the title yet. It’s got an innovative multi-touch UI (thanks to ClickThrough), runs on Verizon’s EV-DO 3G network in the US, as well as any GSM HSPA 3G networks when abroad, so it’s a true global smartphone. OK, maybe there never will be an “iPhone killer”—it’s a stupid idea anyway—but based on our limited time with the BlackBerry Storm, it seems like it will definitely hold its own against every other marquee handset on the market.

Typing on that clicky touchscreen
Let’s talk more about ClickThrough, since using the Storm means using it. RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, who notoriously said he can’t type on a piece of glass, told me that it was in development for years as they looked to evolve past the trackball while accomplishing something no touchscreen has before: Separating navigation from confirmation. So you have to push the touchscreen like a button every time you do something. Typing with it takes some getting used to, even if you can fly on an iPhone or other touchscreen device, because you have to retrain yourself to actually lift your thumb back off of the screen to let it pop back up between every single letter. Since you can’t “flow” continuously in a stream but are pounding out a series of clicks, it’s hard to tell in the limited time I had with it how fast you would be able to go once you’re completely re-trained. It’s a unique and finely tuned sensation, and I liked it, but I could definitely see people loathing it.

Getting around
More on navigation. One annoyance when typing is that it highlights letters in blue rather than doing a magnified pop-up like the iPhone or LG Vu, so letters will probably be obscured if you have fat fingers. One of the weird inconsistencies (there are a few) with needing to clickthrough for an action actually occurs with copy and paste, which took a few seconds to get down since it involved a long hold and drag when it was demoed for me—they oddly didn’t show me the multitouch method shown in the leaked user guide, though RIM later confirmed it would be there. Also worth noting is that it has an accelerometer (which seemed to be a hair more sensitive than the iPhone’s), so it detects whether it’s in landscape or portrait orientation, using the QWERTY keyboard for text entry in the former and SureType for the latter.

While the BlackBerry OS has been optimized for grubby fingers, all of the standard BlackBerry navigation paradigms are in play, so there’s plenty of pushing the four buttons along the bottom of the screen: menu, back, send and end like you would on a regular BlackBerry to get around.

Browsing and network
The browser improves upon the one in the Bold and is even more competent at rendering HTML. You have a couple different ways to navigate around a page, though the most unique makes use of the whole screen as a trackpad, so that once you have the cursor pop up, you can put your finger anywhere on the screen to move it around, just like on a notebook. It’s context sensitive, so it’ll do what it’s supposed to when you hit a link or whatnot. It had some trouble with a text entry field in the browser, as well as some other jitters, but then it obviously wasn’t a final version. RIM’s concern with the user experience is very apparent, so I expect it to be cleaned up when the final version ships in November, though I’m not holding my breath for flash support.

Overall, it was a solid browsing experience, though one thing to take note of that is per Verizon standards, you’ll be doing it over EV-DO, not Wi-Fi, since it doesn’t have the latter. Lack of Wi-Fi is one of the biggest knocks on the phone, no matter how damn good Verizon’s network might be. The fact that it packs both EV-DO and HSPA into a single phone is a truly impressive feat worth marveling over, but why couldn’t they cram Wi-Fi in there too?

Screen, multimedia and consumer features
The screen is gorgeous. I haven’t seen the HTC Touch HD in person, but barring that, the 480×360 184-pixel-per-inch stunner could be the best screen on the market. It’s bright, contrasty, the colors are beautiful and the viewing angle is ridiculous. I think I could watch the whole of Iron Man on it. Media navigation isn’t as intuitive as the iPhone, basically re-using the usual BlackBerry UI, but it’s not difficult to get around by any means. Still, RIM clearly intends to take the fight seriously, since the Storm supports a bunch of audio and video formats, will come with an 8GB microSD card and supports stereo Bluetooth. It’ll also have Verizon’s V CAST, naturally.

The Storm is RIM’s most consumer-oriented device yet, but it’s also still a BlackBerry heart, with all of the standard enterprise features like Office document editing, full email search, Exchange support—everything a BlackBerry user expects. Not to mention littler touches like BlackBerry Maps (it’ll have Verizon’s VZ Navigator too), BrickBreaker and Facebook pre-installed.

The outlook
You’ve already seen the app store in leaks, and RIM told me that there will be an SDK for the phone in short order. The weird explosion of consumer-oriented BlackBerry apps a little while ago was not a coincidence—RIM seems fully aware that a strong developer community and killer apps are more critical than ever in the consumer smartphone market.

This will be the most important phone in Verizon’s lineup, and from the looks of it, the best. Some people will hate ClickThrough—it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s genuinely innovative and really damn good. Some people will hate that it’s not the iPhone (or the G1, since it’s another tightly integrated hardware/software package). But for BlackBerry users looking for a touchscreen phone, or Verizon customers who don’t want to do without the carrier’s superior coverage area, this is the best there is.

 

 

Links:

http://www.blackberry.com/blackberrystorm/

http://estore.vzwshop.com/storm/

Photoshop Express

The title pretty much speaks for itself. Photoshop Express is a free online tool that is great for anyone who doesn’t need the power of the full photoshop, or just needs something on the go. Sign up for your free account and you can sign on anywhere you go. You can also create public galleries, slideshows, and more. The interface is like no other, simple to use, good looking, and powerful. Its free, so go ahead and give it a shot.

 

https://www.photoshop.com/express

 

Acrobat.com

 

Adobe’s Acrobat.com is a great new online app for people who don’t have the money to buy Adobe’s Creative Suite, or who just want to get the job done quickly. Acrobat.com comes with Buzzword, ConnectNow, the ability to create PDFs, and a file storage service, also ConnectNow, which helps you connect with coworkers and etc. 

The most useful aspects of acrobat.com are Buzzword and The File Storage, buzzword is a full office-style online word processor, and one of the best out there today. For a free website, you can’t go wrong with acrobat.com, and be sure to check out Adobe Buzzword, which is a smart alternative to the writer application of Google Docs.

Overall, Acrobat.com is worth your time. Take the 5 minutes to set up a free acount and try it out, if you dont like it, just forget it. If you do like it, keep using it.

 

Microsoft Surface

Microsoft Surface (Codename: Milan), is a Multi-touch product from Microsoft which is developed as a software and hardware combination technology that allows a user, or multiple users, to manipulate digital content by the use of natural motions, hand gestures, or physical objects. It was announced on May 29, 2007 at D5 conference.^[2] Initial customers will be in the hospitality businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, retail, public entertainment venues and the military for tactical overviews. The preliminary launch was on April 17, 2008, when Surface became available for customer use in AT&T stores.^[1] The Surface is also being used in the CBS series CSI: MIAMI, where the crime lab uses it for investigation purposes, the MSNBC coverage of the 2008 US presidential election^[3], Disneyland’s future home exhibits, and various hotels and casinos

 

Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a table, topped with a 30-inch reflective surface in a clear acrylic frame. A projector underneath the surface projects an image onto its underside, while five cameras in the machine’s housing record reflections of infrared light from human fingertips. The camera can also recognize objects placed on the surface if those objects have specially-designed “tags” applied to them. Users can interact with the machine by touching or dragging their fingertips and objects such as paintbrushes across the screen, or by placing and moving tagged objects. Surface has been optimized to respond to 52 touches at a time. During a demonstration with a reporter, Mark Bolger, the Surface Computing group’s marketing director, “dipped” his finger in an on-screen paint palette, then dragged it across the screen to draw a smiley face. Then he used all 10 fingers at once to give the face a full head of hair.

Using the specially-designed “tags” on objects, Microsoft Surface can automatically offer additional wine choices tailored to the dinner being eaten based on the type of wine set on the Surface.

A commercial Microsoft Surface unit is $12,500 (unit only), whereas a developer Microsoft Surface units costs $15,000 and includes a developer unit, five seats and support.^[4] However Microsoft said it expects prices to drop enough to make consumer versions feasible in 2010.^[5]

Partner companies use the Surface in their hotels, restaurants, and retail stores. The Surface is used to choose meals at restaurants, plan vacations and spots to visit from the hotel room. Starwood Hotels plan to allow users to drop a credit card on the table to pay for music, books, and other amenities offered at the resort. In AT&T stores, use of the Surface include interactive presentations of plans, coverage, and phone features, in addition to dropping two different phones on the table and having the customer be able to view and compare prices, features, and plans. MSNBC’s coverage of the 2008 US presidential election used Surface to quickly and easily share with viewers information and analysis of the race leading up to the election. The anchor analyzes polling and election results, views trends and demographic information and explores county maps to determine voting patterns and predict outcomes, all with the flick of his finger. In some hotels and casinos, users can do a range of things such as, watch videos, view maps, order drinks, play games, and chat and flirt with people between Surface tables.

 

 

 

Nike+ Amp Watch

Apple Computer and Nike plan to introduce a new wireless wristband device that will allow runners to interact with their iPods without constantly fiddling with the players’ sweat-slicked Click-Wheel.

According to a report in Men’sHealth, the $80 device will act as a wrist-mounted Bluetooth remote and let users browse the songs on their iPod and check running times without that constant fumbling that often ensues while attempting to maintain focus on a run. 

The device will sync up with the existing Nike+iPod running system, displaying information on an illuminated LED display “hidden beneath the matte-finish face of the bracelet.” Meanwhile, the iPod may remain tucked away in a runner’s pocket or armband.

Further features of the device, expected to be released under the name Nike Amp+, are unclear from the report. However, a single included marketing image suggests that gadget may hold potential to deliver one of the most frequently-requested components for the Nike+iPod system: a heart rate monitor.

Since beginning their foray into the wireless iPod accessory market earlier this July, Apple and Nike have sold over 450,000 of the Nike+iPod sport kits. The $30 system includes a wireless Bluetooth mode that inserts under the heel of a Nike+ compatible running shoe and a transceiver that plugs into an iPod nano.

 

 

This watch lets you control your ipod while keeping your hands free to run, it also shows the current time. The only thing its missing is the distance you have run, unfortunately it does not connect to the nike+ sensor.

A Unibody Macbook

 

Until now, all notebooks were designed the same way. By assembling multiple pieces to create a single enclosure. But once you include all the necessary parts, you add size, weight, complexity, and more opportunities for failure. Solving a problem like this required more than an incremental change. It required a breakthrough. To create the new MacBook, the design and engineering teams devised a way to replace many parts with just one. That one part is called the unibody — a seamless enclosure carved from a single piece of aluminum.

 

Of course, building only one part creates its own set of challenges. When you have multiple parts that are fastened together, tolerances don’t need to be perfect. You have wiggle room, both literally and figuratively. But when one part is responsible for many functions, it’s critical to manufacture that part with absolute precision, down to the micron. Every time. Millions of times over. There was only one way to achieve this level of precision: mill the unibody from a solid block of aluminum using computer numerical control, or CNC, machines — the kind used by the aerospace industry to build mission-critical spacecraft components.

When you pick up a new MacBook, you immediately notice the difference. The entire enclosure is thinner and lighter. It looks polished and refined. And it feels strong and durable — perfect for life inside (and outside) your briefcase or backpack.

 

 

 

One Solid Internal Skeleton helps make the macbook thinner and lighter than ever.

 

Solio Solar Ipod Charger

The Solio Solar Charger is great little pocket-size charger designed to solar charge your Apple iPod, iPod Mini, iPod Nano, PDA, GPS, game players, digital cameras, or cellphones (using the correct adapter tips).

The Solio charger is powerful enough to charge all of your handheld electronic products at home or on the go, anywhere the sun shines. The solar ipod charger is a hybrid charger because it can accept power from either the wall socket or sun storing this energy using it’s internal rechargeable battery. Solio then uses this energy to power your gadgets at the same rate as if they were plugged into the wall. Solio will also hold its charge for up to a year.

Solio limits your need to purchase and carry around multiple chargers for all of your gadgets and is your one stop charging solution for all of your products from cell phones and iPods, to digital cameras, game players, and GPS.

One hour of sun will give you enough juice to play your iPod for about an hour or provide up to 25 mins of additional talk time on most cell phones.

When fully charged Solio can store enough power to charge a typical cell phone or an iPod Nano at least two times.

Provides emergency power for your mobile gadgets anywhere you go.

 

Provides an emergency power source when away from power outlets.

Adapter tips allow you to power multiple gadgets with a single charger ( tips for most products included in pack.)

Works with multiple gadgets, including mobile phones, iPhone, Bluetooth headsets, smartphones/PDAs, MP3 players, portable gaming devices, digital cameras, GPS and much more.

Reusable – use it again and again.

Compact lightweight design – convenient for travel or emergency use.

Solio is Carbon Neutral and made from recycled and recyclable materials.

Includes

• Solio Hybrid Solar Charger
• USB cable (powers iPod)
• Mini-USB tip
• Nokia, Motorola (including V3), Samsung connector tips
• Global travel charger with US/UK/EU/AU-NZ adapters
• Universal cable
• Window Suction Cup
• Instruction Manual

Specifications

• Rated output: 4-12V, 0-1A
• Solar panel output: 155mA @ 6V
• Internal battery: rechargeable 3.6V, 1600mAh Lithium Ion
• Dimensions (L x H x W): 4.7 x 1.3 x 2.5in./11.94 x 3.30 x 6.35cm
• Weight: 5.6oz/156g
• Temperature Range: -4°F to 131°F,-20°C to 55°C
• Backed by a One-Year Warranty

Works with:
Apple iPod, Nokia, Motorola (including V3), Blackberry and Samsung. 

Price $99

 

iPod Backup Battery

     

We have all done it, run out of battery the moment your flight takes off, having a 18 hour car ride when your ipod will only last 4 hours of video, or other unfortunate incidents. This handy little idea has made car rides, flights, and long travels much more enjoyable, by giving your ipod an extended life. 

This site has a list of different ipod batteries that will help you out.

http://www.digitalmania-online.com/iPod-Battery-Backup.html

 

Cordless Headphones for the Ipod Shuffle

This is an interesting little contraption. The idea of an ipod built into a headphone has always been interesting to me, but this is far from that. You place your ipod in the headphone and you never have to worry about a cord ever again. Overall, this idea seems very unique, interesting, and seems to be an idea that can be improved and perfected. This product is far from what could be done with the idea, it is very uncomfortable, and the sound quality is nothing amazing, but this presents an idea that can be used to create better products that fit all requirements of great headphones, and are still convenient.

 

Workout Ipod (2nd gen shuffle)

The Ipod Shuffle 2nd Generation is the perfect ipod or just music player in general for working out. Its light, easy to use, has few buttons so you dont need to look at it to find what you need, has relatively good storage, same great ipod sound quality, and most importantly and most conveniently its clip. This little thing looks, and technically is just an ipod, but if you have ever had a moment where you forgot your shorts dont have pockets, you drop your ipod out of your pocket while ur running on the track and someone else crushes it, you become increasingly paranoid over scratching your precious ipod, or you just think ur 1st generation 10lb. ipod is just too heavy to run with, you know why you need this.

You can clip this thing anywhere the cord reaches. for weight lifters, clip it on the top of your shirt. for runners, on your waste of your shorts. you dont have to worry about an armband, or a pocket, just worry about forgetting where on you you clipped it.

I have had it for about a month, and it has never let me down. after dropping it in a pond twice, and blowdrying it, it still works perfectly. this thing is almost invincible.

For only $50, and 1Gb of memory, this ipod pays for itself in about two uses. Also, it comes with the normal apple headphones which retail for $30, so thats a great deal already. If you workout frequently this is a must.

 

Nike Vapor Headphones

Nike Sport Vapor SHJ036 headphones, by Philips, are ideal for someone who participates in active sports. These headphones have a unique earhook design that allows adjustment in three different ways resulting in a snug, personalized fit with optimum stability. The earhook design stabilizes headphones to sit comfortably in your ear when you are on the move. Headphones are lightweight ensuring comfort during long periods of use. Headphones have 24-inch extension cable to provide choice of length offering the flexibility to wear your audio device where it fits comfortably. Reinforced cable connection ensures extra durability. Headphones are designed with neodymium magnet to enhance bass performance and sensitivity creating sound perfection. 

Review:

The sound quality is a clear upgrade from any headphones that ship with any mp3 player or ipod. The odd shape takes a little while to get used to, but eventually becomes very comfortable. They fit in your ears very well, dont fall out, and sound great too. The only negative i have found to them is that the length of the cord is very short, too short to really use, but when you add the cable that comes with it to extend it, it is way too long. the length of the cord is simply annoying to runners, weightlifters, or any other athletes. It also feels like they are falling out when you lightly pull.

Final Verdict:

Besides the annoying cord length and the pulling out feeling, these are incredible headphones that are well worth the money. For only $30 these are a great upgrade from anything that comes with your music player, and are much better for exercising, if you can live with the cord, or find a way to fix it. I say, get them, its only $30.

Nike+ Sportband

 

New Nike+ SportBand Expands the Nike+ Experience to Make Running Even Easier

 

The Next Innovation in Nike+ Offers a New Way to Connect to the World’s Largest Running Club and Lets You Track Your Results to Train for Better Performance in Any Situation

A New Way to Run with Nike+

Nike+ SportBand allows runners to see their distance, pace, time and calories burned when they run, in addition to gaining access to all of the features and tools on nikeplus.com. Designed for runners who choose not to run with music and for those times when you can’t use music, the Nike+ SportBand provides all the benefits of Nike+ technology, but opens up the Nike+ experience to a broader audience of runners. Runners who enjoy that extra motivation, or who are music fans, can continue to hear their run details through an iPod nano system.

“Nike+ is all about improving your running experience,” said Trevor Edwards, Nike’s Vice President of Global Brand and Category Management. “Nike + iPod revolutionized running. Now the Nike+ SportBand gives more choice and allows Nike+ to cover any running situation. It tracks your distance, calories burned and other performance information while providing a simple link to the world’s largest running club, when you choose not to or can’t run with music.”

In the same manner that the Nike + iPod Sport Kit allows shoes to send information to a nano, the Nike+ SportBand is a wristwatch that also monitors a runner’s steps. But now a runner can check time, pace, distance and calories burned at a glance of the wrist. The Nike+ SportBand watch face is a detachable LINK that captures all the run data from a sensor located in the runner’s Nike+ ready footwear. Once a run is completed, the LINK conveniently plugs into a computer like a USB drive, so data can then be sent to nikeplus.com where a runner’s progress is tracked.

By offering runners a second way to track run data and progress, the Nike+ SportBand opens the Nike+ experience to runners across a variety of situations. It gives runners who are part of clubs or running groups a chance to keep track of their run information while on a social run. In competitive situations where minimal equipment is needed, the Nike+ SportBand provides athletes with a simple way of seeing nuances in their performance in real time. The Nike+ SportBand provides a new way to connect to the Nike+ community and reap the benefits of Nike+ technology, when runners choose to run without music.

 

A Personal Coach For Everyone

Running is only the first part of the Nike+ experience. By using Nike+, runners get an easy, accessible way to connect to the global Nike+ Community at nikeplus.com where they can track their workouts individually or alongside other runners from around the world. The Nike+ website helps runners monitor their running experience with dynamic graphs that compare distance and time between single sessions, as well as weekly and monthly totals.

On April 10th, all Nike+ runners can get access to their own personal online trainer with Nike+ Coach. Nike+ Coach takes online coaching to the next level by empowering runners of all levels with the information and motivation needed to build their own training programs. With Nike+ Coach, beginning and intermediate runners can access existing programs to train for a 5k, 10k, half-marathon or full marathon. For advanced runners, Nike+ Coach will help users build and edit their own training programs. No matter what personal coaching program users choose, runners can also automatically track and share their results.

With Nike+ Coach, every level of runner is accounted for, beginning with walk-to-run programs and progressing to advanced marathons and beyond. Whatever the goal, Nike+ members can join at any pace.

In coming months, teams will be integrated into the Nike+ Coach tool, allowing members to train together as a group, supporting one another and accepting challenges from other teams.

Additional community features at nikeplus.com include the “Challenges” section, one of the site’s most popular destinations. Here, runners can push themselves further by initiating or participating in competitions with friends—or complete strangers—to see who can reach the virtual finish line first.

Other newly launched features include motivational tools like a leaderboard that shows how members run in comparison to other runners across the globe, a Google mapping tool that illustrates individual running routes, which can be shared with others, and a runner’s blog called “The Forum.”

About Nike+

With Nike+, runners never have to train alone again. Nike+ enables footwear to talk to an iPod nano or Nike+ SportBand, giving instant performance information and real-time feedback during a run. Like a personal coach or training partner, Nike+ puts this information at runners’ fingertips, in the process creating a Nike+ revolution. As of February, 2008, Nike+ members have run over 50,000,000 miles, logged over 14,000,000 runs and issued over 450,000 challenges. Nike+ has also created the world’s largest running club at nikeplus.com, a global running community where Nike+ members can log their run data, track their progress, utilize training tools, and connect with other members all over the world.

 

World’s Smallest Bluetooth

Danish company NextLink may claim its Invisio G5 is the world’s smallest Bluetooth headset – it’s certainly one of the tiniest we’ve seen – but if you think the brandname means no one’s going to spot you’re wearing one, think again. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves – beyond its size, the G5 has some other neat touches.

NextLink’s Invisio G5: big picture, small headset

The first is the charger. Looking like an outsized Zippo lighter, the charger is a matt-black plastic box in which you place the G5 then close the lid to charge it up. There’s a mini USB connector on the charger’s base that takes a cable from the AC adaptor.

That’s not all: there’s a battery on board too, which NextLink claims is good to re-charge the G5 five times once it itself is charged up. The charger is incredibly light, so it really does double as a carrying case and a charger.

The next point in the G5’s favour is its novel ear attachment. Most Bluetooth headsets rely on some kind clip that goes around the back of your ear. The G5’s fits inside it. If that sounds uncomfortable, we can hopefully reassure you that it isn’t, no more than any other headset.

The G5 itself is a 16mm long, 13mm diameter tube with a speaker grille at one end and a blob that holds the microphone and controls on the other. The tube section’s clad in shiny black plastic, but the other bit’s matt black. The outer-facing part of the headset is almost entirely taken up with the on/off/take call switch, and there are tiny volume up and down buttons on the top and bottom edges of the G5.

Yes, we’re afraid to report, there is a flashing light, but here it’s discreetly tucked on the inside face of the headset. This is a very nice touch, and should appeal to all those folk who fancy a Bluetooth headset but are put off by the idea having a blinking blue light on the side of their head.

Out of the box, the 6g G5 is small but it clearly won’t fit into or onto your ear. Alongside it, you’ll find a baggie containing two rubber things that look like giant tadpoles. They’re actually the G5’s novel clip, one for the left ear, the other for the right. The thick end fits neatly into a groove running around the end of the headset, and it’s moulded into a rough cone that points into the ear canal.

The tail, you bend over against the body of the headset and then release once you’ve put the G5 in place. The tail springs gently back and tucks itself into the folds of your ear, anchoring the headset.

It’s more comfortable than it looks

It sounds odd, but it works. If the tail’s too long, just trim a bit of the end off, NextLink suggests, but we didn’t need to. The tail isn’t spring-loaded, so there’s almost no pressure on your ear, but it’s elastic enough to hold the headset in place. You can give your head a good old shake, and the G5 will stay where it is.

With the G5 so sited, you can accept a call by pushing its outer-most face. Tweaking the volume is rather more fiddly, but the buttons poke out far enough for you to be able to feel your way to them quickly, and they have a good movement to them.

We found using the G5 to be as good as it gets with Bluetooth headsets. These things are never going to be totally discreet. Make them flesh-coloured and they look like old NHS hearing aids, and any other colour makes them stand out against all but the brownest of skins. But the G5 does a pretty good job – again, having no visible flashing light helps – and it’s as comfortable to wear as any compact headset on the market today.

Size does, however, affect its performance. Making and taking calls, we found that while callers could hear us just fine – which is no mean achievement given how far away the microphone is from your mush – they came across as a little distant and tinny to us.

Now, we’ve tried a range of Bluetooth headsets, and we’ve yet to try one that generates the same sound as holding a phone up to your ear, so we don’t want to give the impression that the G5’s output is poor – it isn’t. But there is a price to be paid as you miniaturise the speaker.

The rubber earpiece doesn’t go so far into your ear as to muffle out external sounds to any real extent – it’s not like those in-the-ear noise-reduction earphones, for instance – and may actually muffle the sound a bit.

NextLink quotes a talk time of four hours. That’s not long as far as modern Bluetooth headsets go. Jabra’s almost equally tiny JX10 will let you chat for six hours and will run for 200 hours between charges if it’s unused. That’s 50 hours more than the G5 can manage, according to NextLink’s specs.

The G5 weighs 6g to the JX10’s 10g, but that difference is barely noticeable. However, the G5 is by far the smaller of the two, and it doesn’t have a big round-your-ear clip, of course.

The G5’s case/charger: strike a light

We got just over four days’ usage out of a single charge of the G5’s battery, and made around an hour’s worth of calls. Not fantastic power performance, perhaps, but then the G5 does have its wireless charger. The G5 fits into it even when the ear clip is attached.

Since the charger can power the headset even when there’s no AC connection, NextLink likes to say the G5 actually has a talk time of 20 hours – five times four. Charging the G5 up takes around three hours, and curiously the charger was still registering full when the headset was done. We doubt that’s actually the case, but it bodes well for future charges. As when the charger finally gives up the ghost and needs recharging itself, we’ll let you know in the comments.

One flaw with the charger is the arcane set of codes used to display each device’s power status. The charger has a row of five green LEDs: the sequence in which the light up shows you whether the G5, the charger or both are charging, or indeed charged. You can’t charge the G5 directly, which is probably a good thing: our JX10 bit the dust because the tiny power connector built into the headset broke through frequent use.

Of course, a new JX10 costs around £50 – £30 less than the G5. We liked the JX10 – it was comfortable and the sound was good – but the G5 just comes out on top. There’s not much to choose between then in weight, but the G5 fits so much better, and despite being smaller is less fiddly to use, thanks to the JX10’s too-tiny controls.

Verdict

The Invisio G5 is truly tiny as far as Bluetooth headsets go and one of the most discreet that we’ve seen. Its novel earclip not only works but is comfortable too – despite its looks – and while we’ve had better sound out of other headsets, the G5 is entirely usable even in a noisy car. And the smart charger means it’ll run and run.

Virtual Laser Keyboard

 

Remember when you were promised all those amazing future tech innovations? Just around the corner was supposed to be a shining technology utopia with flying cars, personal space travel to distant galaxies, and bio-implantable cell phones. It’s almost disappointing enough to make you sit at home and watch old episodes of “Space 1999″.

Don’t lose hope! An amazing glimpse of this promised future has just arrived at ThinkGeek in the form of the Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard. This tiny device laser-projects a keyboard on any flat surface… you can then type away accompanied by simulated key click sounds. It really is true future magic at its best. You’ll be turning heads the moment you pull this baby from your pocket and use it to compose an e-mail on your bluetooth enabled PDA or Cell Phone. With 63 keys and and full size QWERTY layout the Laser Virtual Keyboard can approach typing speeds of a standard keyboard… in a size a little larger than a matchbook.

Product Features   Connects to PDAs Smartphones and Computers using Bluetooth Projects a full size keyboard onto any flat surface Allows the convenience of regular keyboard typing in a tiny form factor Rechargeable battery lasts for 120 minutes of continuous typing Tiny size only 3.5 inches high Compatible with PalmOS 5, PocketPC 2003, Windows Smartphone, Symbian OS, and Windows 2000/XP. Limited Mac OSX Support.

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