Gadgets and New Technologies

Kensington is a company known for its staple, innovation-free products. There is nothing wrong with that per se. They make cheaper versions of much needed devices, sparing the frills to deliver cost effectiveness. So imagine my surprise when Devin Coldewey pointed me toward Kensington’s new Ci740 keyboard. It features a low-profile design to reduce its desk footprint, but more importantly, it offers two USB 2.0 connectors with cable routing. The downside? It’s flat as a 2×4, meaning its lacking in what they call “ergonomics”. So in summary, looks pretty, probably performs well, will give you carpal tunnel syndrome. I’m sticking with my Logitech Wave. (Read the full post about ‘Kensington Ci740 keyboard doesn’t suck’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 5:16AM See it? No there, the one that looks like a flat screen TV hanging on the wall. Right, that’s Sony’s new E4000 TV series. Sony’s pushing its new Picture Frame Mode and four “blend in frame colours” hard as its looks to differentiate the 32- and 40-inch Full HD LCDs (and a wee 26 inch of unspecified, sub-1080p resolution) from the competition. As such, the TVs will display one of six, pre-installed images like Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Cypresses. Really though, why bother pre-loading content when it’ll display any image you stuff into a connected USB drive. Oh right, copyright law. (Read the full post about ‘Sony’s Bravia E4000 series is pretty as a picture’…)

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I think we all know people who are way too “into their game”. These are the people who have a near-unhealthy obsession with board games like chess, backgammon, or even Scrabble.

For that last example, the hard-core Scrabble player might want to check out the Franklin SCR-226 Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (3rd edition). This device can definitely come in handy when players dispute if a word is valid, as it can resolve over 100,000 different words.

It can also help a Scrabble player when making his or her next move. All a player has to do is enter in the seven letters that he or she has on the scrabble tile keypad, and the Players Dictionary will come up with several words for his or her turn.

(Read the full post about ‘Franklin Official Electronic Scrabble Players Dictionary’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 7:03AM 3D baby, that’s what we’ve wanted from home television for 50 years. Now it’s yours… if you live in Japan anyway. Introducing the world’s first 46-inch 3D stereoscopic television. Built by Hyundai, the 1,920 x 1,080 set is capable of grabbing BS11 3D broadcasts pumped by Nippon BS in Japan for the last few months. The ¥498,000 (about $4,857) LCD brings 2x HDMI and 3x composite inputs (to name a few) and apparently works fine for traditional 2D broadcasts. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wear what appear to be 3-foot wide, 3D glasses judging by the image provided above. (Read the full post about ‘World’s first 46-inch stereoscopic 3D TV from Hyundai on sale in Japan’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 8:08AMThe Hollywood Reporter is stating in no uncertain terms that Blockbuster is developing a set-top box to stream video into the home. Now the real bombshell: it should be announced “sometime this month.” The device is expected to make the most of Blockbuster’s access to Movielink’s 6,000 strong Movie catalog just as soon as the content is migrated to Blockbuster.com (sometime before June). (Read the full post about ‘Blockbuster announcing streaming set-top box this month?’…)

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Virginia was first with a law requiring public schools to teach classes on Internet safety. Hear, hear. Texas and Illinois have both followed suit. I totally agree. The Internet is something that has taken hold in the general public in the blink of an eye, relatively speaking. Its uptake has been rapid as compared to say, television or radio.

As an IT person who understands a fair amount of computers, technology and the Internet, I still maintain that computers are complicated beasts, and it is downright scary how little people know and understand. This doesn’t stop them from trawling the Internet, happily clicking away at things they don’t understand.

(Read the full post about ‘Virginia, Illinois and Texas say kids need to learn Internet safety’…)

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The new Coolpix are looking pretty good! I’m really on a look out for a nice, sleek point and shoot camera and I think I’ll add Nikon to my birthday wishlist (just 2 months away!). Nikon S52 Features: 2000 ISO In-camera slideshows with music from iTunes (wow, this is new) 3″ LCD. The S52 retails for $250, while the S52c is $280. The S52c is basically the same with the S52 except that it has WiFi! You can upload your photos to Nikon’s my Picturetown online community or Flickr and other sites. Comes in black and red. Totally cool. (Read the full post about ‘Nikon Coolix S52 and S52c: Sleek and Sexy!’…)

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Philips GoGear SA28 is the first mp3 player that features its own Fullsound technology. The SA28 was first introduced during the CES2008, and now, it is available at China mainland. The 2GB SA28 is sale for RMB399 (approx US$57) with built-in FM tuner. Fullsound is a digital audio algorithm patented by Philips that refines audio output by performing 10 million operations per second to analyze and re-compute the music signal before it is sent to the speaker. This means that FullSound brings out the best of any audio system and delivers more life to the music. (Read the full post about ‘Philips GoGear SA28 for $57′…)

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If you are an avid paintball aficionado or are just looking to protect your little corner of the backyard then has EMT has the gadget for you. Say hello to your new little friend, the Paintball Sentry Turret. Evolution Model Technology has created the EMT Paintball Sentry Turret to add another dimension to paintball battles and even let those with physical disabilities a chance to join in some paintball fun. The unit itself is mounted on a tripod and is sealed to protect itself from paintball impact but can also be modded to add water and winter protection for all year paintball action. It is loaded with 400 round hopper and can also be upgraded to 1000+ to keep the action going. (Read the full post about ‘Guard your territory with the EMT Paintball Sentry Turret’…)

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USB flash drives have led to the death of the floppy disk drive. Unfortunately, they’ve also introduced some risk when it comes to business data being placed on unsecured flash drives. In fact, it seems that many IT executives and managers don’t realize how much unsecured flash drives are being used. According to a SanDisk survey, 77% of corporate end users indicated that they have used a personal flash drive for work-related tasks. IT executives and managers surveyed only estimated the use to be around 35%. Naturally, such wide use of personal flash drives to store work data increases the risk of such data falling into the wrong hands. (Read the full post about ‘SanDisk survey warns of personal flash drive use’…)

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