Gadgets Base

Posted Mar 2nd 2008 1:02PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Gaming
Alright, things are starting to get really good with these hacks. Just after seeing a GameCube / Wii Tetris, Linux build, SNES emulator, and the first homebrew mp3 player for Nintendo’s money-maker, we’re getting a totally radical, native Genesis / Megadrive emulator for the console. Coder-extraordinaire Eke-Eke has created not only the first of its kind for the Wii (and GameCube), but it’s also the first ever that’s capable of playing Virtua Racing, a milestone in Genesis emulation. This latest feat utilizes the same backdoor Twilight Princess hack, which is proving to be the best thing that happened to Wii development since… well… ever. Hit the read link and check it out yourself.

[Thanks, Craig]

Posted Mar 2nd 2008 3:03PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
You can’t blame these guys for trying to milk the Eee PC, and Asus is doing just that with its new smorgasboard of Eee PC accessories. Most interesting is the Ai Guru U1 VoIP phone. It plugs in with USB, and in addition to letting you make calls to all your broke-ass friends, you can also use it to browse and listen to music stored on the Eee PC. Next up is the Eee AP, which acts as a 802.11g wireless access point and little else — think AirPort Express minus the sexy. The USB “3.5G HSDPA Card” is just as straightforward, with GSM900 / 1800 / 1900 and WCDMA2100 / 1900 / 850, and download speeds up to 3.6Mbps. The slim DVD-RW drive and the totally generic headsets aren’t spicing things up either, which you can probably tell is par for the course here. There’s no word on price or availability for any of these yet, but we’re guessing none of them will break the bank — they sure don’t look it.

Gallery: Asus shows off new lineup of Eee PC add-ons

Posted Mar 2nd 2008 1:35PM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video
It’s big, thick, lacking any sort of keyboard and not all that pretty. But if you’re aching for ASUS’ next gen UMPC to cut loose from the product chute then the R70a is it. Besides toting a 7-inch display with Vista tucked inside a 120GB disk (we think) purring along on a 1.6GHz processor of unspecified Intel make (Silverthorne, please?) we really can’t tell you much. Forgive us but the show doesn’t open for a few more days — instead of marketing types the booth is currently staffed with a mustachioed security brute named Dieter. Nevertheless, from the outside we can tell you that it sports a pair of USB jacks, memory card slot, kick-stand for watching videos, and controls in line with the 5-inch R50a. And judging by the way it’s displayed as a dashboard-mounted device, it’s safe to say that integrated GPS is at least an option. We’ll find out more just as soon as ASUS decides to make the R70 official.

Gallery: ASUS busts out 7-inch R70 UMPC at CeBIT

Posted Mar 2nd 2008 2:32PM by Chris Ziegler
Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds
So it now looks like that rumored high-end ZX1 Windows Mobile 6 Professional handset from ASUS is a lock for a CeBIT announcement, though we’re going to be totally honest, we’re not certain it’s worthy of the Lamborghini name. Granted, we’ve got to withhold judgment until we get one in our hands, but outside of a Lamborghini badge-shaped nav pad and a speedometer-inspired clock on the home screen, we’re not seeing anything special about the darned thing. On the plus side, it’s a 3G world phone with HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100 and quadband GSM / EDGE, a 3 megapixel autofocus camera out back with a VGA sensor up front for video calling, 256MB of ROM, 128MB of RAM, microSD expansion, GPS, WiFi, and the typical QVGA display. We guess the 13.2mm thick shell is notable, but Lamborghini notable? More on this one as soon as we catch it in the wild.

Gallery: ASUS Lamborghini ZX1 propaganda spotted at CeBIT

If you are not worried about data, then Sprint’s other unlimited plan may be something to consider. The second unlimited plan, which is more in-line feature with the other major carriers. Sprint’s plan goes for $10 less than the other carriers and costs $89.99 a month, it includes unlimited voice, messaging and direct connect. In addition to the lack of data, this plan also does not include the Sprint TV and GPS services.

Personally for just $10 more, I would suggest going for the $99 Simply Everything plan and getting all those extras, but I suppose there are a lot of people out there who could care less about surfing the web or watching TV on their phone.

Via [MobileBurn]

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Posted Mar 2nd 2008 10:53AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Handhelds
Enter the Cuso PC S600 “UMPC,” your ticket to near-constant ridicule from friends and family. Sure, you’d think with specs like the blazing 266MHz ARM CPU, 1GB or 4GB of flash memory, 802.11b WiFi, miniSD support, playback of MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, OGG, AAC, APE, AVI, WMV, DIVX, H.264, ASF, and 3GP files (um, with the freeware app TCPMP), and all kinds of Windows CE-powered document handling (TXT, DOC, XLS, PDF, PPT, PPS) you’d be all set, but we don’t think it’s that simple. There’s something about that cheap looking plastic casing, stereo speakers, and totally out of line use of the term UMPC that tell us this probably isn’t much more than a glorified PMP. On the bright side, we’re thinking this isn’t going to break any banks, though we’ve got no word on price or release date.

[Via thegadgetsite]

Windows Vista has been out for over a year now, and yet many people are still hesitant to upgrade, and frankly, I don’t blame them. I have one machine that runs Vista, and that’s only because it came installed on my laptop. For many reasons I’m just not ready to upgrade the other half-dozen machines in my house, one of which is that I don’t want to shell out all of the extra dough when XP is doing just fine. Apparently there are plenty of others thinking the same way, and thankfully Microsoft has been listening. They have announced that later this month they will be cutting prices on their latest versions of Windows.

The price cuts will range from $30 to $80 depending on which version you decide to purchase. A full copy of Ultimate has been dropped to $319, while the upgrade is now only $219. A Home Premium upgrade has been dropped to only $129.

Microsoft has stated that they are hoping to attract more casual users to Vista, whereas they are still primarily seeing tech enthusiasts and early-adopters picking up the new OS. I’m still not sure that I’ll be picking it up, even with the new lower price. XP is doing just fine, and if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.

Source: DigitalTrends

While there still is not a price to be found, the 9@9j has been officially released and with that comes the full list of specs. Of course we have already seen the unique battery system. The 9@9j contains a standard Li-Ion battery that offers 8 hours of talk time and 1 month of standby and a single AAA battery that serves as a backup and offers up to 2 hours of additional talk time and up to one week of standby time.

As for the rest of the specs; the 9@9j features Quad band GSM (900/1800/1900/850 MHz)/GPRS connectivity, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a microSD card slot, USB 1.1, stereo Bluetooth A2DP support, an FM radio and a 176 x 220 color TFT display.

The 9@9j has been release (as of now) only in the Asian market. No word if or when this will ever be available elsewhere. The whole backup AAA battery option seems like something that could easily be adopted into other cell phones.

Via [IntoMobile]

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In an age where everyone carries cell phones, I tend to wonder why people still wear watches. I’m sure that not everyone wants to pull out their phone whenever they want to know the time, so I guess I can understand. I’m perfectly content with looking at my phone or ipod, so I rarely even consider putting on a watch. If I’m going somewhere important I might put on my trusty pocket watch which was a gift from my wife so I don’t look like a huge dork every time I whip out my iPod to check the time. Somehow I don’t think that putting on this new 8GB Multimedia Watch would make me look like any less of a dork.

Since the days of Dick Tracy people have envisioned watches that can do just about everything. I’ve begun to wonder if I’m the only tech geek that really doesn’t have any desire to have a giant screen attached to my wrist. I keep my phone and iPod Touch carefully hidden away so that I don’t look like a complete dork at all times. However, if you don’t mind carrying around a 1.8-inch screen, you’ll get a massive array of features including 20fps video playback, 8GB of storage and an mp3 player. I think it might even tell you the time. While the giant screen might weigh down your arm, it won’t break your bank with its $86 price tag.

Source: GeekAlerts

The latest media statistics show that “four in five of all U.S. adults—or an estimated 178 million people—go online”, and the local TV news station has also stated that there is a new wave among teenagers, where driving-aged teens are delaying their license application and driving lessons just because they want to remain connected to their friends through the virtual world as well as blog online. Further data from the IDC shows that “the average internet user spends 32.7 hours per week on the internet”. Average that out and you get 4.67 hours a day, so you can imagine just how many hours a blogger spends in front of that radiation emitting screen. All the time spent sitting in front of the computer does not bode well for the human body, mainly because of the lack of exercise and poor posture that seems to be a problem for most people, which will result in carpal tunnel syndrome eventually. Enter the Springflex UB device.

The Springflex UB offers way more freedom to perform various exercise routines in order to avoid picking up a variety of repetitive strain injuries (RSI), as it helps you move around much more often that you normally do in addition to lowering the dangers of sedentary computer use, lowered metabolism and weight gain. This is because with the Springflex attached to your desk, you will be able to perform your workout right there and then without packing your bags and heading off to the local gym.

There are over 120 exercises that can be performed with the Springflex UB in order for you to further tone and firm your upper body. Too bad there is no add on for the lower body, but hey - women love nothing but a nice, large pair of biceps as well as drooling over those pecs. Guess reading Coolest gadgets won’t be such a fattening experience any more, is it? I just wonder what your colleagues have to say about this - unless it is an office-wide policy to install the Springflex UB in each and every single desk, chances are the majority won’t want such a distraction, especially if you tend to carry around a strong BO where a whiff of it is enough to send the nearest skunk packing, tail between its legs.

Source: American Inventor Spot