Computer Gadgets New

In this week’s Wired Gadget Lab Podcast, Dylan Tweney, Daniel Dumas, and Jose Fermoso will discuss the rip-roaring results from the FCC’s 700Mhz wireless spectrum auction. In particular, why Verizon’s big win will lead to open networks, how it may lead to a greater variety of device compatibility, and how Google may ultimately benefit from their own failed bid.

In addition, they will talk about the disappointing Samsung Ace smart phone, the upcoming HTC Dream phone (scheduled to be first ‘Googlephone’ released), and explain why Daniel received some potentially severe injuries in the middle of week.

Finally, they wonder whether the electric shocks coming from Rob Beschizza’s new Apple keyboard are another example of the business theory discussed in this week’s Evil/Genius feature on Steve Jobs.

Thank you for listening, and remember that you can subscribe to the podcast feed by clicking right here. And you can find the eighteen previous podcasts after the jump.

The Podcast (above) requires Quicktime (you can download it at Apple’s page here).

The last few Gadget Lab podcasts are below:

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #20: Exploding Batteries, Lost gadgets, and the Week’s Best Reviews

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #19: From the iPhone SDK Release to Microsoft’s TechFest

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #18: From Nokia’s Phone of the Future to the DIY-Friendly Chumby Gadget

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #17: The Bankruptcy of The Sharper Image and Insider Info on the Death of HD DVD

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #16: The End of the hd dvd Format, 1080p Projectors, and More

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #15:Technologies from Orwell’s 1984, Cool Gear From the Super Tuesday Primaries, and More

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #14: From Garmin’s Nuviphone to the Linux-based Haier Ibiza Rhapsody mp3 player

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #13: Macworld 2008 Review and macbook air First Impressions

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #12: CES 2008, with Pioneer’s Project Kuro, the Dystopian Life Wall, and More

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #11: The CES 2008 Preview with Touchscreen TVs, Wireless Phones, and More

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #10: Last-Minute Holiday Gifts for Geeks and Wired’s 2007 Vaporware Awards

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #9: All Around Smackdowns Between the ipod and Zune 2 Media Players and Kid-Friendly Laptops

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #8: From Dell’s New Retail Strategy to the Film vs. Digital Deathmatch Controversy

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #7: From the Blu-ray/HD-DVD Wars to the Exploding Battery Mystery

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #6: From The Microsoft Zune 2 Release to Warner Music’s Surprising iTunes About-Face

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #5: From Google’s Android Alliance to the iPhone’s iBricking Firmware

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #4: From Wal-Mart’s Early Black Friday To NBC’s Word War With Apple

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #3: From the CTIA Trade Show to the Leopard Launch

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #2: We’re Giving Away Good Times (Nokia N810 Tablet and iphone Apps)

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #1: Listen and Be Amazed (Microsoft’s Zune and the Gateway One PC)

The Averatec 2575 ultra portable notebook is extremely pocket friendly, retailing for $1,099.99 while featuring the following :-

• 12.1″ WXGA widescreen display
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• 250GB hard drive
• 2GB RAM
• AMD Turion 64 X2 2.2GHz dual-core processor
• 802.11b/g connectivity
• 4-in-1 memory card reader
• SuperMulti DVD burner

Here’s yet another idea that helps you save water - the Washup concept features a washing machine that is placed right on top of a porcelain throne, recycling waste water from the clothes washing cycle to flush down whatever logs you just laid. Pretty interesting, but will such an idea hold up? After all, doing laundry in a toilet isn’t exactly my cup of tea and it will take a paradigm shift for many traditionalists to move towards that direction.

Posted Mar 21st 2008 12:20PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Peripherals

Our latest micro-series, Screen grabs chronicles the uses (and misuses) of real-world gadgets in today’s movies and TV. Send in your sightings (with screen grab!) to screengrabs at engadget dt com.

You’d think a car with AI sophisticated enough to carry on a lengthy conversation with its driver would kind of obviate the need for a keyboard, but hey, maybe that’s why we’re not in the TV business.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Sony will remove all the pre-installed garbage from its notebooks for an extra $50, but only if you spend $100 to upgrade to Vista Business first. The new configuration option comes on the slick TZ-series subnotebooks, reports PC World, and is being marketed as "Fresh Start." Most sites covering this are positively incensed at the idea of being held to ransom like this — having to pay to not have system-damaging software pre-installed seems, to them, to be a bad move.

Sony, however, is making a benevolent gesture. It merely wants you to free you from this:-

This was what came up the first time I booted up a $2,700 Vaio SZ sent in for review. See how horrible that is? And all you can do is complain about being saved from having to deal with it, for the low, low price of $50. Ingrates!

Perhaps all this trash is part of the production process, burned onto the hard drive in the factory, which is why it has to charge extra to remove it afterwards. It makes me sad, because Sony makes fantastic computers.

Here’s a funny quote from PC World’s story:

"Customers opting for Sony’s Fresh Start will miss out on software including Microsoft Works SE 9.0 bundled with a 60-day trial version of Microsoft Office, Sony’s Vaio Creation Suite Photo Software bundled with a 30-day trial version of Corel Paint Shop Pro; the Click to Disc video editor; WinDVD, and a free edition of QuickBooks Simple Start that can only track 20 customers."

"MISS OUT?," my editor shrieks.

Sony Removes Bloatware–for a Fee [PC World]

When I was in Seattle last summer, I had the opportunity visit the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame. As I entered in, I saw a very large sphere that had many images from old sci-fi shows being projected on it.

I only bring this up because I thought that sphere was unique to the Science Fiction Museum, but this spherical screen is available for anyone. All they have to do is order the Pufferfish PufferSphere, which can be set up with some inflating.

Which leads me to wonder how they get the projections up there. It appears that after a client inflates the PufferSphere on the easy tote base, there is an internal projection unit that takes care of that. Now all that is needed is a little imagination for what to put there.

The Pufferfish PufferSphere can be set up for all sorts of events, and is certainly one of the most unique displays that I have ever seen. I imagine that it will get so popular that it won’t be unique anymore. Remember those cool Stereograms back in the early nineties?

However, if this is something that you want to do for a party, feel free to check out the Pufferfish PufferSphere website.

Source

Sanyo has introduced the new MPEG-4 digital camcorder called the Xacti CG9. This pocket-sized beauty records video in the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format encoding technology, storing up to an hour of video for each GB of memory found on a regular SD/SDHC memory card. It features 9.1-megapixel CMOS sensor and offers 5x optical zoom as well as 12x digital zoom. Specs also include a 2.5-inch LCD display which flips out from the camera, an ergonomic design, still image capture, USB 2.0 support, Pictbridge support.
[ Source ]

Want to play with your favorite cell phone games wirelessly? That can be achieved with the new Zeemote JS1 controller (read our Zeemote Review) that measures 3.7″ x 1.4″ x 0.8″, tipping the scales at a mere 1.7 ounces. Powered by a pair of AAA batteries, this wireless controller helps provide gaming thumbs with a better overall grip, since most handset keyboards weren’t designed for gaming in the first place. And to think that you have to carry yet another device in your pocket just to play some cell phone games…I would say settling for the PSP or DS Lite is a much better option. There is no word on pricing as at press time.

In what seems like a strange story, Opera has announced they are now including a direct link to the AccuWeather mobile website from the Opera Mini start page. While Opera Mini seems to be the favorite mobile browser right now, and I do appreciate their effort to make my weather checking ability quicker and easier, couldn’t I just bookmark the weather site of my choice?

Nonetheless both Opera and AccuWeather seem pretty pleased with the announcement.

AccuWeather’s Senior VP of New Media saying: “We’re very pleased to offer our weather directly to Opera Mini users from their start page.”

Opera’s Senior VP of Consumer Products said: “Offering fast and convenient access to pertinent information is part of that experience and is even more critical on a mobile device. Partnering with AccuWeather.com provides timely and useful weather information to our users wherever they are.”

Its almost funny to see two companies so happy over a what amounts to a simple link, but seriously if you have not yet checked out Opera Mini, assuming you have a compatible phone, you should go ahead and download it. In addition to having quick and easy access to AccuWeather you will also get a solid mobile browsing experience.

Via [IntoMobile] Read [Opera Mini]

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AMD today announced the appointment of Nigel Dessau as chief marketing officer (CMO). Before this job Nigel Dessau work for IBM and Sun. Now he has a difficult task: AMD’s global marketing, image and campaign strategies.

We wish him Good Luck but maybe AMD should hire some engineers to make better CPU…