Gadgets and New Technologies

If you know any high school girls (preferably juniors or seniors) in the greater Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, or New York City metropolitan areas who have a talent for computers, spread the word to them that there’s this award they can apply for.  It’s the NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) Award for Aspirations in Computing, and it’s sponsored by Bank of America.  Important dates to remember are April 30, 2008 (deadline for online self-nominations) and May 2, 2008 (deadline for receipt of supporting documentation), with award notification in early May 2008.  Up to 5 winners will be chosen in each of the 6 metropolitan areas, and each winner gets $500 in cash and a laptop!  I don’t know the specifics of the laptop, but I would imagine it’s a nice souped-up one. (Read the full post about ‘Computing award for high schoolers promotes girl power’…)

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RED Digital announced the Scarlet handheld specialty camera at the NAB 2008 conference this week (in Vegas of course), and it’s a potentially red-hot build. Due to its high-quality, sexy-looking specs, they’re already calling it, rather sheepishly, the ‘Pocket Pro.’ No joke required here, other than the fact that when its whole build is set up, the camera is most definitely not large enough to fit in anyone’s pocket. The Scarlet has a 2/3-inch Mysterium X sensor, 8X t2.8 Zoom lens, and can shoot up to 120 frames per second at a 3K  (3000 pixel) resolution. That is high, though not as high as last year’s RED One camera. Some of the other quality features include the 100 MB/second capture rate of RAW HD video, and a burst option at 180 fps. (Read the full post about ‘First Look: Red Digital’s Scarlet ‘Pocket’ Professional Camera’…)

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  Listen to your body’s health using the advanced fitness watch called Polar F55™ Fitness Watch. Get the ultimate fitness experience with Polar F55™ that provides you with a variety of exercise sessions. Be it cardiovascular or strength training or relaxation, with Polar F55™ you can do it all. With features like Body Workout and OwnRelax, Polar F55 Fitness Watch works wonders with a simple placement on your wrist. Its Body Workout, a muscular strength-training guide can be easily adjusted as per the user’s progress to provide the basic guidance required for a strength training. OwnRelax feature of Polar F55 Fitness Watch lets the user check the body’s exact state of relaxation after or before a workout. (Read the full post about ‘Polar F55 Fitness Watch’…)

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The Arduino platform lies somewhere between Technic Lego and the low level geek world of circuit building. It consists of two parts; the hardware and the software, and with these you can build almost anything, from a simple flashing light to a box of tricks that sends you a Twitter message when your houseplants get thirsty.

Our home computers are great at communicating with other computers and (sometimes) with us, but they have no idea what is going on in the world around them. Arduino, on the other hand, is made to be hooked up to sensors which feed it physical information.

(Read the full post about ‘Just What Is An Arduino, And Why Do you Want One?’…)

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Many of us here at the Gadget Lab had a feeling about this one, but now the FDA has confirmed it: Human placentas are not nutritional supplements. That ruling is bound to upset Danny, as well as Herbal Science International, a Japanese company who must now recall a number of its dietary supplements that contain things like ephedrine alkaloids, aristolochic acid (a rodent carcinogen) and human placenta. Says the FDA: Finally, the company is recalling Seng Jong Tzu Tong Tan, a product that contains human placenta. Human placenta may transmit disease and dietary supplements that contain it may not be lawfully marketed in the United States. Japanese placenta connoisseurs needn’t worry, though. (Read the full post about ‘Confirmed: Human Placenta Not a Nutritional Supplement’…)

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  Is your child a Mario fan? Then there won’t be any better gift to give him or her that the new Mario Kart Go. In real life plumbers can be hard to find, but Mario Kart Go makes it easy for your child to call a plumber in a play way. This entertaining toy comes racing on a racecar, like the ones seen on television. Mario Kart Go is high quality Carrera slot-racing system that can be enjoyed by racing lovers of all ages. This toy features 1:43 top quality scale versions of colorful Mario B Dasher and Wario’s Brute. Manufactured by Carrera, this toy has acquired license by Nintendo. You get over 20 ft of curving and swooping racetrack with Mario Kart Go that can be adjusted easily. (Read the full post about ‘Mario Kart Go!’…)

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Is working on your notebook giving too many body aches? Then try out the new Lenovo Ergotron StyleView Notebook Cart. Featuring sit-to-stand height adjustment and an adjustable negative tilt keyboard tray, Lenovo Ergotron StyleView is a non-powered notebook cart. This easy to use notebook cart lets you use your laptop in a comfortable way.

You can easily maintain the neutral position of your wrist while doing data entry with its negative tilt keyboard tray. Lenovo Ergotron StyleView Notebook Cart comes with an expansive cable management storage area.

(Read the full post about ‘Lenovo Ergotron StyleView Notebook Cart, Non-powered’…)

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Overview If you are a music lover you would love playing your favorite collection wherever you go. COBY MP-C582 1GB CLIP MP3 Player is just for you. Sporting a cool design COBY MP-C582 1GB CLIP MP3 Player comes in five different eye catching colors including pink, blue, red, white and black. You can easily start this MP3 Player with its Quick Start Guide. Features Plays MP3 and WMA Digital Music Files. Mobile Data Storage Function. Hold Feature Presents Accidental Key Presses. USB 2.0 for Fast File Transfer. Random Music Playback. COBY MP-C582 1GB CLIP mp3 player supports integrated flash media. You can easily enjoy your favorite music with the 2.5mm Headphone audio output of COBY MP-C582 1GB CLIP MP3 Player. (Read the full post about ‘COBY MP-C582 1GB CLIP MP3 Player’…)

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It looks like Asian handset outfit MWg is getting ready to bust out the family tree and make an homage back to the lands of its ancestors for a triumphant (it’d hope, anyway) new beginning. The company rose from the ashes of what was once O2’s Asian outpost — but now that it’s been acquired by mega-retailer Expansys, it’s looking to make a splash all the way back in O2’s proper European backyard with the official launch of its Zinc II and Atom V smartphones in a press conference early next month. With the Windows Mobile market as crowded with worthy entrants as it ever has been, it’s not entirely clear how MWg intends to stand out here — but hey, wireless charging might just be a good start if they can pull it off. (Read the full post about ‘MWg retracing its roots back to Europe’…)

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Microsoft has just completed its purchase of Danger, which means the Sidekick handset is now under the company. Guess Microsoft finally has the means to design cell phone hardware, so we can expect to see a more pleasant Windows Mobile experience sometime down the road assuming the engineers at Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division do a good job. Word on the street has it that this purchase cost Microsoft somewhere in the region of half a billion dollars, but that’s a drop in the bucket for them. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft Completes Danger Buyout’…)

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