Gadgets Base

Posted Mar 7th 2008 6:30PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Features, Laptops
When we gave you readers a shot at ranting about the Everex gPC, little was left unsaid. If we were betting souls, we’d guess the firm’s über-cheap laptop — affectionately known as the Cloudbook — is about to suffer a similar beating. Based on early reviews, the wannabe Eee PC slayer wasn’t exactly a dream come true, but we just know there’s a good bit of potential here untapped. So, for those of you who’ve parted ways with your $400 in exchange for one of these Cloudbook contraptions, how would you improve upon what’s already there? Clean up the user interface? Add a bit more horsepower under the hood? Or would you just find a way to plug that unsightly gap between the LCD and keyboard? Go ahead, your momma’s not listenin’ — let us know how you really feel.

Posted Mar 7th 2008 7:18PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Gaming
We can only assume that Blu-ray’s victory in the format war pushed this particular Briton over the edge and made him truly believe that the PS3 is in fact “the best console ever made” — his words, not ours. Quite frankly, we’re not sure exactly how much alcohol was involved in making this decision, but we’re going to assume that it’s just a matter of time before he gets three more to one-up this fellow. Catch the video of the entire process after the jump (if you’re a glutton for punishment, that is).

[Via PS3Fanboy]

Posted Mar 7th 2008 5:49PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: cellphonesIs that an exodus we smell, or what? Nary 24 hours after Motorola’s chief marketing officer decided to start his weekend early by parting ways with the company, along comes word that the (now-former) president of Motorola’s Mobile Devices business is doing the same. According to a breaking release from Moto, Stu Reed’s departure is “effective immediately,” and Greg Brown, company president and CEO, made mention that the outfit “appreciates [his] many contributions and wishes him the best in the future.” As of now, there’s no word on who’s lined up fill Mr. Reed’s shoes, but it seems the pool of choices could be dwindling.

In the hopes of recovering from its losing trend, Pioneer Corp. of Japan have announced they will stop producing plasma display panels (PDPs) and will resort to buying its requirements for the product from rival company, Panasonic.

In an issued official statement, Pioneer said that the company has judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of PDPs against projected sales volumes will impede the company’s growth. What was once a strong contender in the electronics industry, Pioneer fell behind rival companies such as Panasonic’s Matsuhista and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co., as well as LG Electronics.

Although the pulling out of plasma TV panel production will cause Pioneer a one time expense amounting to $184.5 million, Pioneer is confident that it will return to profit at the end of the fiscal year 2010.

Pioneer’s decision to outsource its plasma display panel requirements is the second time that Pioneer has partnered with a rival company. Last year it teamed up with Sharp Corp. by buying its liquid crystal displays which are used for flat TVs. This partnership has brought positive effects for Pioneer. In fact, Pioneer is set to launch a new line up of flat TVs. Pioneer and Sharp will also work on Blu-ray disc recorders and players.

Read [Yahoo News!]

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Can anyone duplicate the enthusiasm Apple has built here?  Like me, I am sure you’ve read all about yesterday’s Apple event.  Perusing the forums this morning and it feels a bit like Christmas, doesn’t it?

Apple over delivered on a promise they under sold.  Originally an SDK was a no go.  Then, Steve gave it some thought and built something amazing and amazingly simple at the same time: a way to get applications through them to the public all while maintaining control.  How excited are the developers?  I think the SKD download server crashes says it all.

I think Fake Steve Jobs sums it up best,

Seriously, folks, it’s game over. This announcement today is as big as the announcement of the original Macintosh in 1984. At airports all around the world they put flights on hold so that people could stay in the terminal and watch the news as it was announced.

Has Apple found the magic combination by leveraging a hugely popular and familar brand (ipod) with their larger business aspirations?  Over at Salon.com, Farhad is crowning the iPhone for finally living up to all they hype.  How many execs started smiling at the Exchange support announcement?  This road warrior sure as heck did. 

So who can catch them?  Palm?  Uh, Palm, hello?  Palm/Handspring gave it a good try.  They had the Palm Pilot/Visor that was popular, they had a great design and they had a loyal (to a fault) dev base.  But nothing fed those flames and they’ve slowly died out.  Rim?  The RIM UI still makes me giggle, it is so 1998.  Windows Mobile?  I still can’t find access to some settings on my phone and it has been a year in the looking.  Symbian?  To Euro to care about America. 

Now the question becomes, how will Apple continue to feed the flame?  At the one year mark we see iPhone 2.0 software.  Logic would seem to say, hold off on 3G iPhone until September/October to ramp up for the holiday season both on new phones and on discounted left overs.  $5 says the 3G iphone has the same dimensions so that 6 months later, they’ll intro iPhone Slim, perhaps the width of the touch.  Then what?  Clearly Steve’s got a road map and it looks to be a good ride.

Can anyone throw a roadblock?

Read [any tech blog you can think of]
photo credit:

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Fashionation’s inexpensive Eco-Speakers are tiny 3.25-inch cubes and made from recycled materials. They are also lightweight, fold flat for portability, come in several colors and patterns, and need no batteries because they draw a bit of power from your ipod or mp3 player.

What’s not to love? Well, Eco-Speakers are exceptionally portable because they have no amplifier. And you know what that means: less than wonderful sound.

So are you willing to trade great music sound for speakers that are ecologically sound, also cheap and snazzy? Only you can decide. Fortunately, an experiment won’t set you back much. Fashionation’s list price is $14.95, but a search will cut that down substantially. I’ve seen Eco-Speakers for as little as $9.99. They come in several patterns and colors including the inevitable pink (shown), purple, blue, aqua, red, and (of course) green.

Posted Mar 7th 2008 4:59PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation
We’ll be honest, we’re not getting ourselves all riled up about this just yet — after all, it’s not like QuantumSphere is the first (nor the last) company to teeter on announcing a legitimate “solution” to ditching gasoline. Nevertheless, said startup has reportedly figured out a way to “make hydrogen at home from distilled water and ultimately bring the cost of hydrogen fuel cells in line with that of fossil fuels.” More specifically, the outfit claims to have “perfected the manufacture of highly reactive catalytic nanoparticle coatings that could up the efficiency of electrolysis, the technique that generates hydrogen from water.” Unbelievable though that may sound, it’s still looking to unveil a battery using its own technology later this year, so we’ll just wait and see what becomes of that initiative before bidding gas stations adieu for good.

[Via Autoblog, thanks Sean]