Gadgets and New Technologies

The exhibitors at today’s Greener Gadgets conference were few and far between, but those who made it had some interesting concepts and ideas worth looking into. Nokia, who’ve been on the forefront of diminishing our gadget footprint on the earth, showed off new packaging designs that would not only cut down on the number of blister packs you cut yourself on, but would reduce the amount of waste produced and fossil fuels used to transport oversized packaging.From right to left you’ve got what American phones are currently packaged in, what European phones are packaged in, and where Nokia would ultimately want to go. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia Attempts to Ease Packaging Woes’…)

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Most people are familiar with the video tours offered on Apple.com that feature a guy in Jobsian-attire showing off either how to navigate around your iPhone or demoing all of the new features of Leopard. Well, Apple just released a few more tutorials under its Find Out How section that are specifically geared towards showing you how to navigate around OS X (the Finder, System Preferences, etc..), use Windows on a Mac, and / or Move to Mac. The new tutorials can either be watched directly at Apple.com or downloaded to your iTunes library.

I was a little skeptical at first, but after having watched them I have to say that Apple is doing a great job of making the Mac look like it’s the easiest machine to use.

(Read the full post about ‘Apple releases more tutorials to get you to switch to Mac’…)

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PMA is a busy, busy period for everyone involved in the imaging business, and the same can be said for Sony. The company has just introduced a couple of photo printers that boast one touch printing as well as in-printer photo editing features, allowing even the most clueless person to be able to print out some rather decent images straight from the camera without any need to know about Photoshop and its wonders. The two photo printers in question are the Sony PictureStation DPP-FP95 and DPP-FP75, being small and portable enough to be carried around anywhere without snapping a tendon in your shoulder or something. Since these photo printers are light enough to tote around, they can be taken to different events for instant printouts. (Read the full post about ‘Sony helps simplify printing process’…)

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Belkin’s N1 Vision Wireless Router makes going wireless so simple that my mom will be able to feel like she’s on her way to a job at the Genius Bar. You’ll set NI Vision up without having to follow a manual or insert a CD and obey its “Wizard.” Instead, after plugging it into a power source, its on-screen commands (via an clear and readable LCD display) will help you get connected in no time. Slim design and set with the latest in Wi-Fi standards–802.11n 3×3 MIMO technology that provides a link rate of up to 300 Mbps, and an unprecedented range of up to 1,600 feet. If you don’t lock your network down, your neighbors will have another reason to love you even more than they already do. (Read the full post about ‘Belkin’s N1 Vision Wireless Router’…)

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has said that the company can’t keep up with demand for its ebook reader, the Kindle. At Amazon’s fourth quarter earnings call, Bezos detailed a Wii-like success for the ugly white box: Kindle is, in terms of demand, is outpacing our expectations […] We’re working very hard to increase the number of units that we can build and supply per week.This comes alongside the news that Amazon wants to buy the audiobook company Audible, for a planned $300 million. (Read the full post about ‘Bezos Says Kindle is On Fire’…)

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I try not to generalize about the members of groups I’m not in, but I can’t help but think that cups are a pretty insecure lot. Why else would they continue to pursue their efforts to deceive us? I turned a blind eye when they tried to pass off the coffee mug as a chalkboard, but I refuse to let the group try to pull the wool over our eyes again with this porcelain cup designed to look like a disposable paper one. As if the “I am not a paper cup” declaration printed on the box of the 6-inch cup would fool anyone! When the cups become available in late February, I’m going to contact Decor Craft with a $20 bill in hand and expose the plastic look-alike lid that sits atop the double-walled porcelain vessel for what is: silicone. (Read the full post about ‘Porcelain cup asserts that it is not made of paper’…)

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Hitachi of Japan has come up with a way to ease surveillance work, featuring a CCTV camera that relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and prioritize just a handful of humans from an entire sea of them for closer inspection. This system is capable of taking feeds from up to 100 online cameras, transferring them to a PC for image processing and a central server that searches through video archives for comparable footage. Subsequently, four of the most important video streams will then be pulled out and displayed in high resolution on a monitor while the rest remain as thumbnails. The system uses face-recognition as well as behavior-analysis software to root out the potential troublemakers. (Read the full post about ‘Hitachi Develops Smart CCTV Camera’…)

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In a move that completely has the tech industry shaken up, Microsoft has put out a statement saying they have Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share - which of course equates to $44.6 billion dollars.  Yes, that this number -> $44,600,000,000… wow. The bid for tech giant Yahoo is a mix of cash and stock, and would clearly be a giant blow to search leader Google.  The release states that online advertising is a big plus to the acquisition, in a niche where the two companies have struggled to compete with Google’s AdSense / Adwords. Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer, Steve Ballmer sent the following letter to the Yahoo! (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft offers to acquire Yahoo! for $44.6 billion dollars.’…)

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The DS Lite is a runaway success even by Nintendo’s lofty standards, but one gripe that many people have concerning it would be the lack of punch when it comes to speaker performance. The Sound Shell DLite takes that notion and bins it, claiming to offer superior, tubthumping sound without the aid of headphones. It doesn’t drain the DS Lite’s battery as there is a built-in battery compartment. While the sacrifice involves a much larger handheld console to carry around, you get dual benefits of improved audio quality and a protective case. The Sound Shell DLite can be picked up for $30. (Read the full post about ‘Sound Shell DLite A Delight’…)

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Check out this hot new DSLR camera by Sigma. The DP1 features a “TRUE” image processing engine, a 2.5-inch LCD, pop-up manual flash, hot shoe, manual or 9-point autofocus modes, and QVGA movie recording capabilities, a 14 megapixel FOVEON X3 sensor and a fixed, 16.6-mm F4 lens. No word on pricing at the moment, however. [Source] (Read the full post about ‘Sigma DP1 Digital Camera’…)

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