Gadgets Base

They say that necessity is the mother of all invention, and it could not be any truer for Australian Kevin Barr who realized that there is actually a need for purpose-built eye protection for folks involved in the extreme water sport market, and hence his brainchild in starting Barz Optics. This company kickstarted an innovation process that has not looked back since its humble beginnings, offering a wide range of products that help keep your eyes safe no matter what extreme sport you are involved in, protecting against a variety of elements such as wind, salt, water, dust, sand and glare.

Other than sports, Barz Optics eyewear have also seen action all over the world and is currently being used by special forces who have been posted to the thirsty deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan. Extreme water sports enthusiasts who laugh in the face of danger while engaged in PWC racing, Kitesurfing, Sailboarding, Water Skiing and Wake Boarding will also find the Barz Optics range of glasses handy. This company is currently seeking out international distributors in order to make a name for itself throughout the world.

In order to tempt buyers, Barz Optics has just released its latest pair of sunglasses that combines polarized sunglasses lenses along with non-polarized optical quality +1.5, +2.0 and +2.5 reading lenses, allowing those with poorer vision to be able to read important stuff like maps and road signs without missing a beat. Since polarization has been excluded, it will be even easier to read digital instrumentation, cell phones, PDAs, GPS navigation systems, and digital watches among others. Retailing for nearly $70, I’m happy to say that the price point does not make it out of reach for everyday folk who love outdoor and extreme sports. What kind of sunglasses are you rocking to?

Source: Gizmag

Posted Feb 5th 2008 1:05PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Cellphones
While those in London can use SMS to actually find a lavatory, folks passing through Western Finland will be required to bust out their handset in order to relieve themselves in select public restrooms. In an attempt to curb vandalism, the Finnish Road Administration has implemented a system along Highway 1 which requires restroom visitors to text “Open” (in Finnish, of course) in order to let themselves in. The idea is that folks will be less likely to lose their mind and graffiti up the place knowing that their mobile number is (at least temporarily) on file, but it remains to be seen if uprooters will simply take their defacing ways elsewhere or actually excrete in peace.

[Via Switched]

I know that Al has had his fair share of frustration with Windows Vista (so did Marc at the recent CES event), but I suppose it was just the operating system being pushed out to the market rather prematurely, and hence required a fair bit of time to adjust to its environment, and we, it. After a fair number of months, Microsoft has made an important announcement for the Vista operating system - the Redmond giant aims to release Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Vista to manufacturing soon, and users of this rather buggy platform will soon be able to get their grubby hands on it in five different languages - English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. This SP1 will be made available as a download from the middle of next month onwards, just in time for the release of new systems that come pre-installed with Vista SP1.

So far, the beta testing of Vista SP1 has successfully weeded out device drivers that were improperly designed and will most likely cough up more hassle with SP1. Since Microsoft cannot make sure that all peripherals (as well as future ones) are compatible with SP1, this means that SP1 can be downloaded via Windows Update come March. There is no further information on who is the brain behind the drives, but according to Microsoft, they are doing all they can with a portion of their hardware partners in order to make sure that everything else moves smoothly. I guess if you really want to be sure, all you need to do is pick up a peripheral or device that comes with the “Windows Vista Capable” sticker.

If you have yet to migrate to Vista and are still rocking on with Windows XP like yours truly, will the imminent arrival of SP1 be enough for you to make the leap of faith?

Source: Ars Technica

Posted Feb 5th 2008 8:25AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Laptops
We know you Toshiba lovers out there have been twiddling your thumbs for weeks on end just waiting, praying, hoping that the beastly X205-SLI would get updated with a Penryn chip. Thankfully for all four of you, the wait is over. Announced today, Tosh is cranking out the 17-inch X205-SLi2 and X205-SLi4, which both house a 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, integrated HD DVD-ROM / DVD burner, built-in Harman Kardon speakers (with subwoofer) and twin 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT GPUs. As for the former, you’ll find 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a pair of 160GB 5400 RPM drives, a 1,440 x 900 resolution panel, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, 802.11a/g/n WiFi, webcam / microphone and a fingerprint reader to boot. The SLi4 ups the ante by tossing in an extra gig of memory, 7200 RPM HDDs, an external USB HDTV tuner, 1,680 x 1,050 panel and a bundled remote. Grab yours now for $1,999.99 or $2,499.99, respectively.

Posted Feb 5th 2008 11:06AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Laptops, Peripherals
Lenovo seems to think this whole “brick” terminology for laptop power adapters is some sort of slight on the good name of AC/DC adaptation, and is releasing a slim new combo adapter to fight that negative stereotype perpetrated by a biased media. The new $119 90W brick measures a half-inch thick and is about the size of a deck of playing cards. It can power your ThinkPad, IdeaPad or Lenovo 3000, but is also built to charge most phones and PDAs, and some music players if you buy the optional connector tips. The adapter can charge two devices at once, is 25 percent lighter than Lenovo’s previous model, and is bricking up Lenovo’s online store as we speak.

Posted Feb 5th 2008 10:24AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Laptops
If you’ve been wishin’ and hopin’ for a new Dell laptop, you might want to hold off for a little bit. According to a speculative report over at CNET, the company is planning on upgrading laptop CPUs to Intel’s fancy new Penryn chips, though the PC-maker is remaining tight-lipped about just which models will get the spike, if any. Sure, we understand that Dell doesn’t want to cannibalize its sales by hyping up new systems, but since it’s highly likely these will be broadly adopted for laptops in the future, and HP, Sony, and Toshiba (amongst others) are onboard for the 45-nanometer CPUs, you’d think Dell would say something.

CNET Australia reviews the Motorola ROKR E8 and writes, “The keypad morphing also worked well. When I pressed the dedicated music button the backlighting illuminated only the music buttons, just as the E8 is supposed to do. Same goes for the camera; once we selected that feature only the camera buttons were backlit. Though the transition between the individual functions took a few seconds, but that wasn’t an issue for me. The new menu interface was simple and attractive and I liked the position of the 3.5mm headset jack on the top of the phone.”

Read more about the Motorola ROKR E8.

We can’t say for sure what changes are being made to Apple’s product lines - if any - but the Apple Store is currently showing the classic splash-screen.  According to Gizmodo, the updates are going to be “minor,” and it’s only the U.S. store that’s down.  Will we see a spec boost in the Macbook line - or the Macbook Pro line?  Hopefully the latter since I just told a friend it was safe to buy a Macbook.  Whoops!

More to come as we find out what’s going on.  In the meantime, check out Appletell.

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Posted Feb 5th 2008 5:22AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Cellphones
Bring it, we say. Opera Mobile 9.5 is prepped and (almost) ready for beta release. Version 9.5 is noticeably faster thanks to a re-enginered Presto rendering engine and features a new browser interface and downloadable Opera Widgets. A World Factbook widget pulls data from Flickr, Google Maps, and CIA World Factbook simultaneously. Opera was more than happy to compare their new browser with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile to demonstrate the obvious — IE mobile is cruel. Opera mobile 9.5 will see its first public unveiling starting February 11th at GSMA with a public Symbian, WinMo, and Linux beta expected soon. Click on through for the video.

Posted Feb 5th 2008 5:50AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: StorageMere days ago we were being treated to the adventures of Intel and Micron in their efforts to create the “world’s fastest” NAND drive, and now Intel’s got its hands in some phase-change memory, with a technology to double the storage capacity without adding much cost to the fabrication. Phase-change memory is being billed as the successor to flash memory, since it relies on the configuration of a material’s atoms instead of those dinky electrons we’ve been pushing around in our devices for the past few decades. Up until now phase-change memory has used two states to record data: loose and rigid organization of atoms (amorphous and crystalline). Now Intel, along with partner ST Microelectronics, has discovered two more distinct states in between those extremes, effectively doubling capacity in the burgeoning technology. Apparently this sort of advancement puts the clincher on this tech coming to market eventually — and with speeds comparable to RAM plus the non-volatility of flash, we can hardly wait.

[Via Slashdot]