Gadgets Base

Posted Jan 27th 2008 5:24PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Transportation
We don’t know about you, but we were doing far, far less productive things than Andrew Angelloti when we were 16. The green-minded youth — a forum member over at Ecomodder — has taken his 1988 Mazda pickup truck and converted it to run solely on electricity using $6,000 he’d earned as a part-time lifeguard. According to Andrew, the truck reaches a top speed of 55 MPH, sports a range of 40 miles per charge, and has acceleration that’s, “Not that bad.” The mod uses 20 flooded lead-acid batteries (for 120 volts), and a 60 HP, 9-inch electric motor. For most of us, that one major conversion would be enough, but Andrew is cracking away on his second EV mod, working his magic on a 1992 Toyota Tercel and gunning for more speed and a larger motor. Who said kids were lazy these days?

[Via Digg]

People that are interested in using Skype to communicate with others for free, need a good gadget to listen and speak. A headset with microphone is probably one of the most used products, but the latest keyboard launched by Buffalo can change the scenario.

Codenamed BKBU-SKJ109/SV, the keyboard will become available at the end of the year in Japan, with a price tag of $65. As you can see on the image, by the right side of the NumPad, there is extra space for the Skype phone - meaning that you can say goodbye to the uncomfortable Skype headsets.

Besides the incorporated phone, the upcoming Buffalo keyboard is like any other keyboard.

Via Dvice

The Eee PC 4G-X with Windows XP pre-installed that we recently told you about is also set to be coming to the US market. Originally launched in Japan this past Thursday, the 4G-X is expected to be available in the States sometime in late February or early March.

The Japanese launch will include the Eee PC with Windows XP, 4GB SDHC card, optical mouse and free access to the NTT WiFine network for a very nice price of around $468. No word on the US price point or whether it will ship with the extra goodies.

Read [CNET]

Verizon Wireless is now the proud carrier of the new purple Samsung Gleam! This new phone is more than just a new color scheme. It has a living wallpaper capability, which allows Verizon Wireless users to view the phone’s status with either an urban or a country view that changes with the time of day. It also features popular multimedia and messaging features including, V Cast Music and Video, Instant Messaging using AIM, MSN and Yahoo and text, picture and video messaging. These are the same features offered on the popular, original bronze Samsung Gleam, which may have proved to be too neutral for the more colorful among us.

The Purple Gleam also has limited Bluetooth technology for certain profiles as well as headset, hands-free, serial port stereo support for music and certain dial-up networking profiles. Some of the Purple Gleam’s other specs include a bilingual interface (English and Spanish) and a personal organizer with calendar, calculator, alarm clock and stopwatch.

The purple Samsung Gleam just launched a few days ago and it sells for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement.

Via [Mobile Mag] Via [SlashPhone]