Gadgets and New Technologies

Have you ever received an email from a company that told you not to reply? Chances are the email address included the domain “donotreply.com”.  Many companies use this thinking it’s fake and will cause any replies to bounce back. Still more customers ignore the instructions and reply to it anyway, and their emails don’t bounce back at all. They end up in the inbox of a man named Chet Faliszek, he happens to own the donotreply.com domain. Along with various customer service inquiries and complaints, and large amounts of spam, he’s gotten emails containing information that might surprise or even shock you. (Read the full post about ‘Meet the “DoNotReply” guy’…)

Share This

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the KL-285 from China emulates the iphone in terms of form factor, but apart from that it can’t even dial 911 to save your life. What you will get inside includes the common features in the majority of China-made MP4 players such as a microSD memory card slot, support for 3GP, MP4, and AVI video formats, MP3 playback, a clock and calendar function, an e-book reader and an integrated FM radio. The remaining noteworthy specifications include :- 2.8″ touch screen 320 x 240 resolution display 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability Built-in speaker 4.5 hour playback for video 8 hour playback for audioIf you wish to purchase this in bulk, the chassis will cost $47 while 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB of internal flash memory will retail for $3.75, $6.30 and $12.30, respectively. (Read the full post about ‘MP4 Player takes after iPhone’…)

Share This

Crestron has enabled its touchpanels as well as 2-way devices to support dynamic text, making it function just fine with Windows Sideshow so that you’re always on top of things where e-mail and RSS feeds are concerned. Heck, you will even be able to send control information back to Windows, switch songs or cancel your BitTorrent downloads remotely just because you need the connection for something else. Well, I personally don’t see a need for this - just how connected do you want to be? But if it makes you feel better knowing your home is all teched out, then go ahead and deck out your living room with some Crestron love. (Read the full post about ‘Crestron Touchpanel Supports Windows Sideshow’…)

Share This

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 17th 2008 at 5:08AM Color us completely unsurprised, but it’s being reported that a number of state politicians are looking at the possibility of imposing new laws to levy taxes on digital downloads as a method of taping up shattered budgets. Yep, anything from music to videos to books are at risk, as a growing number of lawmakers are looking to start collecting taxes from each iTunes track and Kindle eBook you purchase. Of course, this idea is far from new, and a number of US states already impose such taxes, but it seems that the ever-growing amount of content purchased online has caught the eye of those looking for new streams of tax revenue. (Read the full post about ‘Lawmakers eying taxation on digital downloads’…)

Share This

Another day, another compact camera announcement. This time it’s Panasonic, which is faithfully following the industry-wide tradition of releasing new models with tiny, almost unknowable feature differences. The DMC-TZ50 is not much more than a TZ5 with added WiFi.

The twist is that the camera comes with access to T-Mobile’s Hotspots, which means there’s about to be a whole lotta pictures of coffee shops up on the web. The service sends direct to Google’s Picasa photo service, although we’d have preferred Flickr.

One year of T-Mobile service is included in the price, and that year begins the first time you access the network to upload (the offer expires on August 31st 2009).

(Read the full post about ‘Panasonic’s New Lumix Camera Packs WiFi And Free T-Mobile Access’…)

Share This

by Nilay Patel, posted Apr 16th 2008 at 1:12PMUh-oh, it looks like wannabe Mac clone maker Psystar has more than one licensing issue with the Open Computer: the company didn’t get permission from developers working on the OSx86 Project to sell their work. Netkas, who developed the EFI emulator Psystar is using, posted up a blog entry yesterday calling Psystar “liars” and has re-released his code under a license that specifically forbids commercial usage. We chatted briefly with Netkas and he told us that not only did Psystar take his code without permission, it’s using other code from the project like the NVInject graphics patch developed by Gotoh, and that he contacted Psystar when he learned about the Open Computer with no results. (Read the full post about ‘OSx86 Project not too happy with Psystar either’…)

Share This

Popular BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay (TPB) has decided to take action against the IFPI, the anti-piracy representative for the recording industry worldwide.

Back in February the IFPI took TPB to court and the judge ruled in favor of IFPI. What followed was the court ordering Danish ISP Tele2 to block access to TPB, which it did as it had little choice. The action forced TPB to register new domains and they managed to continue their service despite the block. Ironically, the action taken by the IFPI and the courts actually increased the traffic TPB got.

TPB has now filed a complaint against the IFPI and is demanding compensation for the time and inconvenience caused when ISP Tele2 was forced to block them.

(Read the full post about ‘The Pirate Bay demands compensation from IFPI’…)

Share This

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 16th 2008 at 3:29PM Surely those rumored shots of TAG Heuer’s luxurious first handset from last week are still stuck in your head, right? Go on and purge those puppies right on out, as we’ve got the very first press shots (more in the read link) of the now-official Meridiist to focus our attention on. Reportedly, the handset was indeed developed in partnership with Modelabs, and beyond the all-metal casing, you can also expect a sapphire crystal screen, 2-megapixel camera, multimedia player, 1.9-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth and a battery good for 7-hours of yappin’ aimlessly about how pricey your new mobile is. Speaking of which, did we mention this prized piece will run you between €3,400 ($5,420) and &eu (Read the full post about ‘TAG Heuer’s €3,400 Meridiist handset gets official’…)

Share This

The Push-kun (Mr. Push) robot must be an ancient ancestor of R2D2 as he gets around on crab-like legs. In addition to moving around independently, it is able to tell jokes (useful for social situations where you’re an introvert), playing drum rolls on itself, tossing oversized dice as well as performing screwball antics. Robot Force from Osaka is the company behind Push-kun, and one will realize by now that this robot doesn’t really have any practical use other than to wow first time visitors to your home.

Share This

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 16th 2008 at 12:58PM It’s not quite implantable, but Insound Medical’s new Lyric hearing aid is about as close as you can get, with it designed to squeeze in deep in your ear canal and sit just a few millimeters from your ear drum. That, the company says, not only allows for the wearer to hear much more natural sounds since they don’t have to be amplified as much, but allows them to wear the hearing aid for 24 hours a day. Of course, a device of that size also poses a number of problems, but Insound appears to have all those sorted out, with it employing a special “spongy material” that allows moisture to escape and prevent infection, and a magnet to actually remove the device from the ear. (Read the full post about ‘Insound’s Lyric hearing aid cozies up right next to your ear drum’…)

Share This