Gadgets and New Technologies

MySpace Mobile has officially gone live. MySpace addicts can now access the social network website on their favorite mobile devices. While no other impressive features were added, MySpace is expecting that more and more users will get to try the mobile version. Just like the website version, MySpace Mobile also allows reading and send bulletins, accessing of MySpace message, approving friend requests, viewing of photos, searching for other users, posting comments, blogging, and checking out friends profiles. Sprint particularly is MySpace’s partner in this venture but any compatible mobile phone can be used to access the mobile site. (Read the full post about ‘MySpace goes mobile, perhaps a bit late’…)

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(Photos: Jim Merithew/Wired) Strida 5 Folding Bicycle The first thing you need to know about the Strida 5 folding bicycle is written on a small yellow sticker on its buffed aluminum frame: "Caution!! Using rear brake first when braking." Ignore that advice and you may find yourself hurtling forward over the handlebars like Wired.com associate editor Danny Dumas does in the video below. Thanks to the Strida’s narrow wheelbase, doing an endo is much more likely than it is with most other bikes. The Strida 5 is also underpowered, with a single-speed drive that won’t let you go much faster than 10 miles per hour without pedaling as furiously as a meth-addicted circus clown. (Read the full post about ‘Review: Triangulate Your Commute With the Folding Strida 5 Bike’…)

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Posted Mar 19th 2008 9:01AM by Paul MillerFiled under: Laptops Still mourning the passing of the Foleo? You and the other couple of dozen people on earth that need something like that might find a winner in the REDFLY Mobile Companion unveiled at CES this year. The device offers external control of Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices over Bluetooth 2.0 or USB, with a full keyboard, 8-inch 800 x 480 LCD and some USB and VGA plugs for tapping into external drives and an external monitor. ZDNet’s Matthew Miller got an early beta version of the device to test out, and while he admits he’s in the minority of people willing to shell out $500 for something like this, he was fairly impressed by the build quality and usability of the device. (Read the full post about ‘REDFLY Mobile Companion gets previewed’…)

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ConAir Body Benefits Heated Massaging Neck Rest NM8 The cheapest neck massager on Amazon.com is this tacky blue contraption by ConAir (you know, the company that makes all those cheap drug store hair products). My boyfriend bought it for me on a whim the other day when I had a crook in my neck. It costs less than 20 bucks—and it’s not hard to figure out why. The rotational arms smell like cheap synthetics and fit awkwardly on your shoulders, and the adjustable internal vibrator barely qualifies as a massager. The optional heat at the back of your neck is  a nice touch, but you have to be leaning aggressively against it in order to really feel it. (Read the full post about ‘Review: Conair Massaging Pillow Is Nothing More Than A Pain In The Neck’…)

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MediaCart is coming soon to a supermarket near you. The next-gen shopping trolley has a host of features which are purported to help the shopper: a live, voice controlled guide to help you find what you are looking for (the cart uses WiFi triangulation to locate itself), a barcode scanner to both check prices and allow you to skip the checkout, and a slot for your loyalty card, effectively a log-in which will store your purchase history and preferences. What it’s really about, though, is advertising. Microsoft provides the software for the MediaCart, but tellingly the company is also handling advertising. (Read the full post about ‘MediaCart Does Everything But Carry Home The Shopping’…)

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Better late than never, right? T-Mobile certainly believes in that as the carrier will finally receive the Blackberry Pearl come this April 14th, although other carriers have long made available this model. Still, if you’re rocking with T-Mobile and always wanted to pick up a blackberry Pearl, now’s the time to break open that piggy bank of yours and start counting down the days on your calendar. (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile gets Blackberry Pearl’…)

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Ever wondered what is inside the Eye-Fi SD memory card? Well wonder no more, as IkonTools has just taken one of those and placed it under a skilful surgeon’s knife, revealing it’s innards for all and sundry to see. Just check out the WiFi radio (number seven is the antenna) and marvel at how small everything has become today. I wonder when a microSD version of the Eye-Fi will be released. (Read the full post about ‘Eye-Fi Card Goes Under the Knife’…)

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Filed in archive Cameras by jim on March 19, 2008 The latest, top of the Panasonic, "FX" line, has just been announced and it looks like a dream camera to me. The slim line Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX500 has just about every feature necessary to satisfy everyone from the casual snap shooter to the most ardent photo-hobbyist. For fans of wide angle photography, such as yours truly, this camera, with its 25-125mm lens, 35mm equivalent, should fill the bill nicely. I'm eager for the results of the first tests to see how well the Leica F2.8 Vario Elmarit lens fares on barrel distortion, the bane of ultra wide angle lenses. (Read the full post about ‘New Panasonic Lumix Looks Like A Winner’…)

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Laptops using solid-state drives (SSD) are not the reliable pieces of gear we would expect them to be, according to research company Avian Securities.

Avian’s managing partner Avi Cohen has commented that one of the large PC manufacturers is currently getting a return rate of between 10-20% on laptops with SSDs due to technical failure. With traditional hard drives, the technical failure rate peaks at 2%. The returns are not only due to that failure rate, but also because of poor performance users are experiencing when trying to use applications.

Although Cohen has refused to reveal which manufacturer he is referring to, Dell has publicly commented about the poor performance of SSDs in applications that require access to small amounts of data.

(Read the full post about ‘Flash notebooks facing problems, 10-20% return rates’…)

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Posted Mar 19th 2008 4:34AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: Digital Cameras Take Panasonic’s 9.1 megapixel TZ5 with 10x optical zoom and 3-inch LCD, slap in some 802.11b/g WiFi and what do you get? This, the Lumix DMC-TZ50. As with most WiFi cameras, the TZ50 can upload your pictures from any WiFi hotspot but is then locked into specific image sharing sites; in this case, Panny’s own Lumix Club. There is hope for a more open model, however, when the TZ50 goes global. After all, the Panasonic / T-Mobile WiFi demo we saw at CES tied images to Google’s Picasa. Ok, it’s not Flickr but it’s a start. Available May 16th in Japan for ¥49,800 or about $500. (Read the full post about ‘Panasonic’s DMC-TZ50: a TZ5 with WiFi and Picasa photo sharing, maybe’…)

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