Computer Gadgets New

USB CELL rechargeable batteries

You can have this for ?12.95

It will take a much better command of written Japanese Korean than my paltry non-existent skills afford to suss out full details on Gakken’s vacuum-tube ipod amplifier, but damn, this looks like a fun assembly project in the "pre-soldering ability" class. Looks like they even supply the screwdriver. And when you’re done, you have a faux-Heathkit beauty that should be the envy of your workgroup.

Price is around $125, and with no overseas distributor, your best bet is probably to search for "Gakken" and "amplifier" on eBay, where they show up occasionally.

Vaccum Tube Amplifier [Funshop]

The Float Away concept by designer Young Hwan Kim concentrates on the bane of mobile computing - the matter of heat. His design involves an extremely simple solution, and you’ll probably smack your forehead with your palm thinking, “Now why didn’t I think of that before?”. All Young did was to elevate the back end by including a lift bar into its design, allowing heat to dissipate into the air while keeping your laptop cool despite running ahead at full speed. As we all know, the cooler electronics run, the more efficient it is and the longer it will be able to last.

The Palm Centro is like the friend you call when you need to be bailed out of jail: Reliable, smart and capable of getting the job done. But its dependable nature also means it’s not exactly the handset you want to party with.

Now offered by AT&T in a GSM flavor, the pocket-size, easy-to-use Centro handles messaging (IM, texting, personal and corporate e-mails) and light office tasks with graceful aplomb. Apps like viewing PDFs, creating Word files and listening to MP3s are handled swiftly and easily. Simple web pages (like craigslist) loaded quickly but bright colorful ones (like Wired.com’s) stalled and hiccupped on the Centro’s screen.

Our main beef: Centro stuttered a bit during TV or Internet radio streams and while zooming in and out of Google Maps. Blame it on the phone’s relatively slow EDGE antenna and AT&T’s inconsistent coverage. This was less of an issue on the original Centro from Sprint mostly due to its 3-G support.

To make it up, AT&T’s version roams internationally; Sprint’s can’t. But that’s about the only significant edge the GSM Centro has over its CDMA brother. Sure for going out and clubbing, the flashy iphone is the handset of choice. But for steady business apps, the Centro is a fine selection. And besides, it’s a cellphone that you’ll never have to jailbreak.  —Grace Aquino

WIRED Talk to your buddies or coworkers walkie-talkie-style. More compact than its older Treo cousins. Healthy portion of third-party applications from medical databases to games.

   
TIRED No WiFi or integrated GPS (a Bluetooth GPS receiver is optional). Short three-hour battery life. The 1.3-megapixel camera captured crap-quality photos. Plastic housing feels like it could be busted by a strong wind. 

$200 with a two-year contract, wireless.att.com

Just as quickly as the “official” word came through yesterday, it seems that was not quite as “official” as we would have hoped. According to even more recent reports The Beatles tracks will not be heading to iTunes just yet.

“There is no deal for the music of the Beatles to go to iTunes or be sold anywhere on the Internet for downloading,” Roger Friedman reports for FOXNews.com.

So as of now both Apple and the current music rights owners have denied that The Beatles tracks will be appearing on iTunes anytime soon. While we here at Gadgetell are excited about the Beatles hitting iTunes, we will try and limit our next report to when the tracks are actually available for purchase.

Via [MacDailyNews]

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Over time I’ve upgraded everything on my desktop — bumped up the memory, bought a new monitor, treated it to a new back-up system, but I was still hacking away on my old keyboard. So when Logitech sent me the new MX 5000 keyboard-and-mouse combination, it was perfect timing.

I’m still testing it, but here’s what I already am addicted to:

- The Bluetooth feature for the keyboard and mouse. The MX 5500 desktops receiver can also be used as a Bluetooth hub, enabling other Bluetooth devices, such as a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone or a PDA, to connect to a computer through the hub. The wireless feature allows you to use the MX 5500 Revolution desktop at a distance of up to 30 feet from your PC.

- The built-in LCD screen which shows the time and date, calculator, temperature, website favorites, a keystroke counter, email updates and media information, such as band and song titles.

I’ve seen many mice that serve a variety of functions. Some will let you use them as a Skype phones while other will function as a vacuum cleaner. One thing that all of them have in common is that they’re also able to be used as a method for controlling your PC. Perhaps someone should have informed the makers of this USB mouse speaker.

Just looking at this you would likely think that it was just an ugly computer mouse with a speaker in it. It even has eyes which you might mistake for really crappy buttons. The sad truth is that this is just an ugly speaker. It really wouldn’t make much sense to put a speaker there, but rarely do cheap convergence devices make sense anyway. It has a 3.5mm plug for hooking into your ipod or other mp3 player. You can pick it up for $14 from Brando.

Source: GeekAlerts

Samsung F700 and F510 - ultra new and ultra comfortable mobile phones

Mar 11, 2008 The latest technologies allow us to unite watching videos and listening to music using one gadget - ipod; talking on the phone, using mp3 player and camera - our modern mobile phones. But now Samsung Company gives us the possibility to watch TV using our cell phones.

Recently the company has presented mobile phones Samsung F700 and F510. At first let’s find out about more usual features.

The camera of Samsung F700 has 5 mega pixel power and auto focus. Its touch screen of 2.8 wide has 262K colors, with 440 x 240 pixels of resolution that is more than great for a mobile phone.

The advantage of Samsung F700 is that it is filled with HSDA (3.5G) technology that provides the high speed data access. It also has QWERTY keypad that will open a fresh view on typing messages. F700 touch screen has exclusive feature VibeTonz that gives the users possibility of real sensation of vibration when touching the screen button. Moreover, thanks to latest developments, it ensures more comfort while using the menu of the phone. But, actually, all these advantages of Samsung F700 will be felt while using it.

Speaking about Samsung F510, I’d like to say that almost all the features of this phone are the same as F700 has. But it is also called Ultra Mobile TV. F510 is supplied with opportunity of DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting-Handhelds) receiver, which gives the users amazing possibility to pick up TV broadcast. Thanks to unbelievable rotary design of the screen you can choose the best visual angle.

On account of this function of Samsung F510, its camera is not of the same quality. It has 2 mega pixel camera, but it makes up for the double screen: the main display and the TV screen. Moreover, Samsung has made one more interesting and unique function of F510 mobile phone: it is supporting DivX codec that enables to play various video clips, including MPEG-4, H.264, WMV and AVI.

Both mobile phones are pretending to be called the most comfortable gadgets with sensory displays while using media. So, knowing all the functions of these gadgets it is hard not to agree with this expression

Major League Baseball 2K8 is not just a coat of paint and a roster update; it truly is a revolutionary new baseball simulator, which completely changes the way we virtually play America’s pastime. After hearing just that from 2K Sports producer Ben Brinkman during a conference call a couple weeks ago, I was somewhat skeptical of the new system and figured it wouldn’t really play as much of a role in the game as it actually does. Read on to find out if this game is ready for “the bigs,” or if it should go back to the minors.

The latest baseball simulation introduces a new set of advanced controls, which replace the more standard button press to pitch, etc. Now, pitching involves a series of gestures, with much more focus on what it’s like to actually throw a baseball. Throwing a slider, for example, involves moving the right analog stick to the left, making a circular motion up. Once you’ve gotten that down, a circular area comes up near the catcher’s glove, and you can finally try to release the ball.

More often than not, you will fail at one or all of these things, unless you’re born with some extra sensory skills. I found myself serving up more than the occasional meatball pitch, despite my best efforts to match the gestures and the timing to what I’d been told to do. It’s not often that playing with an Xbox 360 game would make me wish I had a Nintendo Wii, but my experience with MLB2K8 is the exception. The act of trying to simulate baseball all in the thumbsticks is much much tougher than it should be.

The system is somewhat tough to get into initially, and I could see it really hurting the casual gamer, who just wants to get in 9-innings with a buddy. Thankfully, you can revert to the more standard system.

If you do accept the challenge of mastering a new set of controls, then you will eventually appreciate the intricacies–especially if you are much more of a pure baseball fan than a gamer. Sure, you are not exactly staring down a Major League hitter and firing bullets; but you can get much more into the game with this new set of controls.

Difficulty is pretty steep initially, but as you master the controls and get used to thinking much more like a real baseball player, it levels off somewhat. It’s still much tougher than the last baseball game I played in the 2K series–MLB 2K6. I think fans expect more challenges in each successive game, so it’s not that big of a deal.

Graphically, this title falls short of where some of the other 2K Sports sims are in terms of looks. I would say NBA 2K8, NHL 2K8, and College Hoops 2K8 are all as or more attractive than this game. Additionally, there are some freezes and lockups, which I found slightly frustrating. Overall, though, developers did a good job of creating a baseball title that looks like the real thing from a distance–just probably 5-10 feet further away than some other 2K titles.

If you really enjoy 2K8, then you’ll more than likely get into the card collecting system. I haven’t collected baseball cards since I was about 12, but doing so in-game is an additional–and dare I say Geeky–reward for eventually getting better at the game. Besides this mode, there are all the typical ones you’d expect in a sports simulation.

All told, I think the revamped controls extend the boundaries of what developers can do with an Xbox 360 controller, and I look forward to seeing similar schemes implemented in future 2K offerings. I would caution beginners that it is not pick-up-and-play easy, and if you know that going in, you’ll appreciate the system. I’d suggest this game to the most hardcore baseball fans, because you will get in the game like never before. Play ball!

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Intel’s Z-P140 solid state drive is but a predecessor to superior drives in the future (2008 to be exact). According to Intel’s flash memory marketing head Troy Winslow, the chipmakerwill be introducing a series of 1.8″ and 2.5″ drives which target ultraportable devices sometime later this year. These new lines will see capacities ranging from 80GB to a whopping 160GB, making the latter much larger than the current king-of-the-hill, a 128GB solid state drive. A segment of these new drives will rely on the superior SATA II interface in order to increase the available bandwidth for transferring data, traditionally a weak point for SSDs compared to normal hard drives. There is no word on pricing for this new range of SSDs though, but 2008 is definitely an interesting year where SSD development is concerned.