Computer Gadgets New

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 5th 2008 at 5:04PM

WowWee goes out of its way to make one thing very clear about the Rovio: “this is not a toy.” That being said, it doesn’t make the patrolling sentry any less fantastic, as critics over at Robots-Dreams proclaimed that it was “intuitive and a pleasure to use from the moment you first open the box.” From the painless setup process to the unparalleled mobility, reviewers sounded like they were grinning from ear-to-ear during the entire writeup process. It performed its robotic sentry duties with vigor and valor, and the review crew couldn’t help but note that this bugger was “positioned to be the hottest robot for the upcoming holiday season, and for a long time to come.” In other words, if you’ve been on the fence about dropping three bills on this thing, all your worries about it potentially sucking just got thrashed.

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Filed under: Robots

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 5th 2008 at 12:57PM

For obvious reasons, we don’t get too excited about PMPs developed and produced entirely in China, but similar to Gemei’s lot, Ainol looks to have a winner on its hands with the V3000. We’ve seen this display-dominated unit prancing around for awhile now, but we’ve just now learned how much the company plans on charging for it: 699 Chinese yuan, or around $102 before haggling. For that, you’ll get 4GB of internal space, a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, FM tuner, TV output and a rechargeable battery. Now, where to find one is the real challenge.

[Via PMPToday]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Let’s say that you’ve run out of beer and for some awful reason you can’t go get more.  What could possibly taunt you more than a beer filled USB drive?  I swear it would not surprise me in the least to see a news bulletin somewhere, where a guy decided to try to suck the beer out of his USB drive.  It’d likely start with one guy either daring or offering up some small fund to do it, like a dollar.  It really wouldn’t take much for someone to do it.  Well luckily there are no links to actually purchase this USB drive, instead it is just an example of all the cool things a certain company can do with USB drives.

The company can not only fill your USB drive with liquid but add little objects to the mix.  Like a car for a racing company.  Basically, those cheesy pens that the top of them was filled with liquid have now been replaced with these USB drives.  Well, I suppose it had to happen eventually.  If you feel the need to create liquid filled USB drives with your company name stamped on them just follow the link to find out more info.

Source: Techeblog

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Most of us know that 3D displays require a special set of glasses, and so far no fashion house has come up with frames that help you look cool instead of a bona fide dork for obvious reasons - style and geeks tend to be at loggerheads. Good thing the geeks are smart enough to come up with a 72 “3D display that not only gives you the whole 3D works, you can view it without having to wear any silly special glasses. This new display is a collaboration between Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) and Victor Company of Japan Ltd,, and is currently on display at CEATEC Japan 2008. Features include full HD resolution at 1,920 x 1,080, and NICT hopes to commercialized this display by the year 2011.

source: Tech On!

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We have seen how LCD technology has revolutionized our daily lives, from cellphones to television displays.  All of this occurred less than a decade ago, when we made our transition from CRT displays to LCD displays.

Recently, researchers from Sony and the Max Planck Institute in Germany have unveiled the result of their research by demonstrating a flexible video screen.  Some have come up with numerous applications of this technology such as foldable computers and reusable newspapers where you can upload the content of a newspaper onto a device equipped with one of these screens.

Unlike previous attempts to create foldable screens, this latest research seems to have resulted in a technology that surpasses the LCD technology in terms of energy efficiency, viewing angle, response time and does not need a backlight.  I would expect an extension of portable electronics battery life if this were implemented into devices of the future. 

The transparent nature of this display may allow it to become part of windscreens in all sorts of vehicles.  Transparency also allows for some kind of 3D display by stacking these screens.  This technology may very well turn a lot of science fiction gadgets into items at available Amazon.com!  Wearable displays, anyone?

According to a researcher, “There are practically no display size limitations and they could be produced relatively easily and cheaply compared to today’s screens.” In my opinion, this could translate into cheaper-and-better-than-LCD displays for all!  I’m going to keep my hopes up on this.

Read [Telegraph] Via [jkOnTheRun]

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by Darren Murph, posted Oct 4th 2008 at 11:10PM

HP’s got the Special Edition itch again, and it’s scratching it with both hands as evidenced by the newest dv4t and dv5t SE notebooks. Starting with the former, we’ve got a flashily designed 14.1-incher with a WXGA panel, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a handful of Core 2 Duo CPU choices, NVIDIA’s 512MB GeForce 9200M GS, up to 400GB of hard drive space, WiFi, optional WWAN and an integrated HDTV hybrid tuner. The equally fashionable Pavilion dv5t SE sports a 15.4-inch LCD, a GMA4500MHD integrated graphics set, optional Blu-ray writer and most everything already mentioned on its smaller sibling. You can snatch either of these up for $1,099.99 / $949 (or higher) right now, but we’d make sure you really dig the tattoos before making a decision you’ll regret forever.

[Via Notebooks]

Read - HP Pavilion dv4t Special Edition
Read - HP Pavilion dv5t Special Edition

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Filed under: Laptops

Speaking of cell phones, and aren’t we always, CNET has rounded up details on several that are in the works for autumn and the holiday trade. Or are supposed to be.

by Darren Murph, posted Oct 4th 2008 at 6:15PM

First off, we’ll warn you that these reports are currently unconfirmed by the suits in Redmond, but word has it that Microsoft is working with at least one OEM to have the Windows XP “downgrade” deadline pushed out from January 2009 to at least July 31, 2009. That’s according to an e-mail sent from Microsoft to an unspecified partner company, which purportedly details a plan to work with other buddies in pushing that deadline out another half year. Given the results thus far, we suppose we’re not too surprised to hear that firms are still clamoring for the XP option, but one wonders when this madness will ever end. Will folks really be opting for XP on new machines after Windows 7 is out?

[Via Download Squad]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops