Gadgets and New Technologies

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jul 17th 2008 at 11:31AM While we love Rock Band 2 as much as the next guy, playing that miniaturized plastic controller will forever look a little dorky (or just make us look like giant men, which is kind of cool). Nothing wrong with looking dorky — heck, we make a living of it — but Mad Catz’s new full-size Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers for Rock Band 2 are bringing the cool back. They’re exactly what you think they are: actual Fender Squire axes turned into Rock Band 2 controllers, with the size, heft, and weight you’d expect from dad’s electric guitar. Of special note was the Precision Bass controller, which has a dual flipper and thumb rest to allow fast pickers to do their thing Entwistle-style. (Read the full post about ‘Live shots of Mad Catz’s full-size Rock Band 2 Fender Stratocaster and Precision Bass controllers’…)

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Thanko has released many weird products in the past, but their latest product actually seems quite sensible. The Cooler mouse is a fairly standard looking mouse, but has a built-in fan that draws air from the bottom of the mouse, and pushes it out the top of the mouse to keep the user’s palm cool. This will probably go a long way to help users with sweaty palms. This mouse is also a 5-button mouse, with buttons to control the airflow. The Cooler mouse is currently retailing for about $18 in Japan. It’ll be interesting to see if this mouse does a little vacuum cleaning while chilling users’ palms. (Read the full post about ‘Cooler Mouse To Combat Sweaty Palms’…)

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Let’s face it. We can’t always explain why people do things - like this Bluetooth headset project for example, called the iGiveUp. Someone decided it would be a good idea to place a bluetooth headset inside an airsoft gun so it looks like you are talking on your mobile phone with a gun to your head. Calls are answered or ended by pulling the trigger on the gun. Of course I ponder that the creator thinks this is very hillarious in public, right up to the point where the SWAT team tackles him to the ground and he gets dowsed with a full can of pepper spray - if he’s lucky. That being said, if you would like to follow in his outrageous footsteps and make one for yourself, the instructions seem simple enough to follow. (Read the full post about ‘Bluetooth Gun Headset takes calls/draws unwanted attention from Police’…)

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If you’re wondering why it is so hard to get your kid’s attention and teach him something, has it ever occurred to you that you’ve been using the wrong method? Try the Clonetrooper laptop instead - this £29.99 edutainment device ought to be able to do the trick, as it features 30 pre-loaded games that will fool kids into thinking that life’s about fun and games only, without realizing that these titles are imparting important and positive values into their psyche. Features include a QWERTY keyboard to get those young ‘uns started on typing and a mouse cursor function to help them get familiar with the world of computers. (Read the full post about ‘Clonetrooper Laptop’…)

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Today Series3 and HD owners should start seeing a nice addition to the content available on their TiVo. TiVo’s summer upgrade (9.4) brings along the ability to watch YouTube video on your TV, which means your video collection just increased by a few hundred million.

TiVo has all the information on their site, but the important thing is that it is finally here. This is something that people have been expecting from TiVo for some time so while it’s not necessarily a game-changer, the diversity and quantity of content that this makes available is considerable.

(Read the full post about ‘YouTube streaming its way to TiVo today’…)

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iriver has announced that they would be rolling out their latest portable media player, the Lplayer, in the US market. Basically, this PMP is one of the smallest and most compact that iriver has to offer. It sports a 2-inch LCD screen and comes with a familiar “D-click control system” like various other iriver players, such as the Clix. iriver has added more media support to the player such as FLAC, OGG, XviD, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPG, and WMV. In addition, it comes with an integrated FM radio, and it can also record radio, however there was no mention on how long it can record for. The battery life is pretty good, as it can pump out tunes for 12 hours straight, and 4 hours when playing videos. (Read the full post about ‘iriver’s Lplayer PMP now available in the US’…)

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A semiconductor plant producing precious IBM chips is set for business expansion. This chip plant is located in East Fishkill in New York, USA. IBM or the International Business Machines Corporation has spoke of its plans of investing $1 billion over the next three years. This is for the expansion of the said chip plant. IBM aims to maintain its mission to live for the chip-making business. The billions-worth of investment will be divided among the three projects related to chip nanotechnologies. IBM presented this announcement as it also discloses of about $500 million worth of money to go for research and development, plus capital equipment in the University of Alabany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. (Read the full post about ‘IBM’s chip plant to get $1 billion investment’…)

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Sony today unveiled the VAIO FW notebook—a multimedia PC that displays HD movies the way they were meant to be seen. Part of a series, the VAIO FW notebook comes in multiple configurations, including a premium and a standard model. The premium model plays Blu-ray Disc high-definition content like movies in full 1080 HD resolution when connected to a compatible HDTV. It can also record, store and play back personal content on high-capacity BD media. Weighing a little over six pounds, the Sony FW notebook features the world’s first 16.4-inch display, which combines the benefits of a slightly larger17-inch widescreen with the smaller “footprint” of a 15.4-inch model. (Read the full post about ‘Sony announces Worlds first 16.4 inch wide Multimedia Notebook’…)

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A friend of mine on Plurk asked, “What’s your take on bluetooth headsets? I wanna go hands-free but don’t want to go around looking like a dweeb. Would you actually walk around wearing bluetooth headsets?” I know for a fact that a lot of people use bluetooth headsets while driving. But would you actually walk around the streets with a bluetooth headset? There’s a lot of fashionable bluetooth headsets going around and I could name a few… but talking to yourself while walking would probably give people an impression that you’re looney Or even worse… Bluetooth headset while on a date? (Read the full post about ‘Bluetooth Headsets: To Wear Or Not To Wear?’…)

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Google has angered a number of developers this week by limiting access to the latest Android SDK release.

Recently a competition was run called the Android Developer Challenge (ADC). Split into 2 rounds, the first round has been completed and the top 50 developers awarded US$25,000 each. Those 50 also get access to the second round of the challenge, which is expected to commence after Android handsets actually ship at the end of this year.

The reason developers are angry is because Google has limited access to the latest Android SDK to winners of the first round of the ADC.

(Read the full post about ‘Google upsets developers by limiting Android SDK access’…)

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