Gadgets Base

I love getting new gadgets. Whenever I do, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning. I want to tear into the packaging and catch a whiff of that new gadget smell. However, with some such devices, their packaging is nearly impossible to get into. You know the kind, the ones with the super-thick plastic that even the sharpest of knives have difficulty with. That’s why I wouldn’t mind a pair of these.

They’ve called this handy tool Open It, and for good reason. You have three different tools that ensure you’ll be able to open any package. First there are the cutter blades which can cut through even the toughest plastic clamshells. Then the box cutter blade, for obvious purposes. Finally there is even a small screwdriver for those times that your gadget has a screw-protected battery cover. For $15 I’d be glad to have one of these the next time I’m tearing into a new gadget.

Source: RedFerret

Fashion and technology often share a rather uneasy relationship with one another, but time and effort has proven that both parties are willing to move to an agreement. Mimoco, the Boston-based manufacturer of its Mimobot designer USB flash drives has just announced its new tokidoki Mimobot collection that is in line with the company’s goal of ‘bringing style and soul to personal tech devices’. This series holds the distinction of being the first fashion-oriented release from Mimoco, and could be the turning point where USB flash drives are transformed into everyday fashion accessories for the masses. I know that bling USB flash drives have been around for quite a while now, but most of the time they are out of reach from the masses due to expensive diamonds and other gems adorning the surface - not so with the tokidoki Mimobot.

According to Dan Ruby, Mimoco’s marketing and communications manager, “We’ve always felt that flash drives have the potential to allow individuals an entirely new way to display their personality, fashion sense, and creativity. After all, most people keep their very personal, very creative digital lives on USB flash drives, so why shouldn’t their design reflect the creativity inside the memory stick and of the individual?”

The tokidoki brand might be unheard of to some, but it has grown steadily over the past few years from its humble beginnings that stem from artist Simone Legno’s personal portfolio, having experienced a transformation into a trendsetting global brand that encompasses products ranging from toys to jewelry to hard-to-find women’s purses and bags.

These new tokidoki Mimobots will come preloaded with a range of selected tokidoki digital art, animations, and soundBytes. They will be available in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities, with (obviously) differing prices for each. You need not fret if you’re rocking to a Mac or Windows-based computer since the Mimobot range functions just fine on either. Pre-orders are already open, and shipping will begin this April 18th.

Press Release

Have you ever seen that Element that some people have been driving? I always thought those rectangular cars were odd, like giant shoeboxes. It appears that Toyota has rolled out an environmentally friendly box-shaped car.

The Toyota Hi-Ct concept car was first shown at the Bangkok International Motor Show, but not at the more famous New York Auto Show. This hybrid vehicle can charge from an external electric source, such as a AC100V accessory socket.

Information is pretty limited other than that, for now. Judging by the picture, it appears there is only room enough for two. So much for room for the whole family. I suppose they could hang out on that back flap of the trunk.

I swear, every time I see one of these concept cars, it feels like it’s driving out of a science fiction movie. This one feels like one of Steven Spielberg’s. The cars in A.I. sort of looked like this, and if you look close in a certain scene from Minority Report, there is a car that really resembles this one.

I suppose the green era that we will hopefully be living in will produce more cars like this. Hopefully, they have a little more curves on them.

Source

Kodak, a household name when it comes to all things photography, has just announced an enhanced Digital Picture Frame portfolio which consists of three different digital photo frames, ranging from 7″ in size to 8″ and 10″ to suit just about every need there is for a casual living room accessory. Not only does Kodak claim that these will look both sleek and stylish, they also boast a range of features including the recently unveiled Quick Touch Border for easier image manipulation and maintenance. All it takes with Quick Touch Border is a slide or touch of the finger at the highlighted sections, as this will not result in a smudged screen which will interfere with photo viewing.

Check out what the press release has to say about the three photo frames released - the Easyshare M820, M1020 and P720.

The KODAK EASYSHARE M820 and M1020 Frames display crisp, vibrant images and video on 8-inch and 10-inch (diagonal) screens, respectively. Set up is a snap and with an illuminated Quick Touch Border and Kodak’s unique scrolling feature; you can easily scroll through your images with a simple slide action. Your favorite MP3 songs can be played through built-in speakers, bringing a special dimension to any picture slideshow. Enjoy any JPEG picture, most video types (MPEG 1 and 4) and MP3 music using all the popular memory card formats (CF, SD, MMC, xD and MS). Boasting 128MB of internal memory, the frames can store up to 300 pictures and even more pictures when using the two convenient memory card slots or by copying digital files from a digital still camera, home PC, or USB Jump Drive.

The KODAK EASYSHARE P720 Frame features a 7-inch (diagonal) high-quality viewing screen and Quick Touch Border. In addition to USB flash drive compatibility, the KODAK EASYSHARE P720 offers SD, MMC, xD, and MS card slots, plus an additional SD slot to configure your frame with the amount of memory you want. The frame is not limited to tabletop display thanks to a new sleek white cord design, which allows for easy and neat mounting to walls.

The Kodak Easyshare P720, M820 and M1020 will retail for $119.95, $179.95 and $229.95 respectively.

Press Release

Immediately after USA Today published a report declaring that Amazon’s music store is now the number 2 online seller of digital music, eMusic CEO, David Pakman disputed the report and said that eMusic is the number 2 online music seller and not Amazon.

“This morning I read with some surprise in USA Today that Amazon is “No. 2 in digital [music] sales since opening nearly six months ago.” Amazon’s entry into this market last year was an important milestone in the continuing irrelevance of DRM and the overly restrictive and anti-consumer policies that the music industry has foolishly wielded in this new, digital age. But let’s get one thing straight: outside of iTunes, no one sells more music digitally than eMusic, and we don’t plan on giving up that title anytime soon.”

After reading the report, Mr. Pakman talked to USA Today and found out that the online newspaper based the outcome of the report from the declaration of representatives from the four major four labels naming Amazon as second to iTunes in online music sales. Likewise, USA Today told Pakman the newspaper did not mention eMusic since its subscription model was not relevant to the story that USA Today wanted to publish.

eMusic unlike Amazon or iTunes offers their customers an option to download music on a regular subscription basis, starting with $9.99 a month for 30 tracks. Mr. Pakman said that these MP3 which were obtained by users from their site were actual purchases and were even included in 239 million digital tracks sold this year as reported by Nielsen Soundscan.

And speaking about sales figures, Mr. Pakman also wondered how could the USA Today arrived at an announcement about Amazon reaching the number 2 spot in digital music sales when it did not even disclose its sales figures since it was launched six months ago. The eMusic chief even cited the company’s own digital music sales figures - 7,000,000 songs average monthly sales, 40,000 tracks since Amazon’s music store was launched, 200,000,000 songs sold since eMusic was launched - all huge numbers proving that in terms of sales eMusic is doing pretty good and which should earn the company the number 2 spot next to the iTunes.

Mr. Pakman then concluded his letter by saying the eMusic is the number 2 online music store and it has no intention of giving that spot to Amazon.

But unfortunately, the USA Today report has already been published and has been read by so many. It would have been better if an established research firm would delve into this and come up with its own report citing different sales figures from all the online music stores. Only then would the stigma of the USA Today report could be erased and the number 2 title be given to whoever really deserves that accolade.

Via [MacDaily News]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Word-a-day calendars might improve your vocabulary, but unless they’re electronic, they’re not exactly great for the environment. Here’s a more creative and lasting alternative that you don’t have to wait for a new year to try out: the key calendar from Takumi.

I’m not sure exactly how it works, but it seems that you move the key every day to keep track of the date. It would be very cool if turning the keys revealed some kind of secret compartment (you could set it to deliver a love note on your anniversary or something) but I don’t think that’s an option yet.

Apartment Therapy says the calendar “plays upon both the metaphorical and also the innate physical desire to manipulate the mechanical as an effective way to keep track of the days of a month.”

I just think it’s pretty.

iRiver of Japan has just announced the availability of its Mickey Mouse-shaped mp3 player known as Mplayer Camouflage. This new range will come with a wide variety of patterns adorning Mickey’s head, so you will be spoilt for choice if you’re trying to pick one up for that significant other in your life. They won’t come cheap though, as each 1GB black, pink and blue Mplayer Camouflage will retail for approximately $135 after conversion.

Source: AVing

Samsung has unleashed a set of classy and user-minded point-and-shoot cameras to augment their L-series line of digital cameras, the L210 (10.1 MP), L110 (8.2 MP), and L100 (8.2 MP). Besides the megapixel count, all three models share the same core specifications—a 2.5-inch LCD and 3x optical zoom. Interestingly, “ease of use” is the philosophy behind the latest Samsung additions. One helpful feature incorporated is the Function Description, which provides brief and easy to understand descriptions of the menu system—reducing the learning curve for new users. Another feature included is the Photo Help Guide, which offers users step-by-step tutorials, shown directly from the camera, on how to take better photos.

While they may be easy to use, Sammy is going all out with its new ‘L’ line of cameras, adding features such as a photo slide show function, auto macro, face detection, red eye correction, and a self portrait mode. The interesting tidbit about the self portrait mode is that the cameras use their face detection technology to remove the “guessing” when taking a self photo. They will not allow a picture to be taken when the subject’s face is out of center. For those with shaky hands, don’t fret. All three are equipped with an optical and digital image stabilizers that work in tandem to ensure clear, perfect shots—which should come extremely handy with the cameras’ SVGA quality video recording capability.

The Samsung L210, L110, and L100 is available now in silver, black, or red; with an MSRP of $269, $229, and $199 respectively.

Via [Samsung]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

As someone who has uploaded a few videos in YouTube myself, I sometimes long for the ability to see more detailed information about my uploaded video’s viewers. I’d like to know where visitors came from, how much time they spent going from one of my videos to another, is there a specific time of day when they stay longer than usual watching my videos, etc. And just recently YouTube has revealed that it now lets users do exactly that, providing a Google Analytics-like service with Youtube Insight.

With YouTube Insight, uploaders can now “see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time.” It’s really just as simple as applying the principles of regular web site tracking programs for YouTube page views. The resulting statistics from YouTube Insight can then be used by uploaders to optimize their content, presentation, and overall delivery in order to get the most out of their uploaded videos.

As of now, YouTube hints that the service is still not going to be delivered in its entirety—they’re probably tweaking the systems up a bit to make sure no bugs or errors ever occur for users. But you can get a taste of the upcoming full YouTube Insight service by going to My account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos and then click on “About this video” for any uploaded video. From there you’ll be able to see a graph representing your video’s number of page views as well as a geographical map detailing where in the world your visitors are all coming from. It’s actually pretty neat by itself right now that if YouTube hadn’t posted about it in their blog, I would never have known that this service was not yet complete. So I’m really excited for them to release the full version. I’m sure they’re going to do just that very very soon.

Read [The YouTube Blog]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Posted Mar 28th 2008 4:35AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Displays, Transportation
If those darn kids would get out of the way, what you’d see before you is a fancy new dashboard that Daihatsu teamed with Provision Interactive Technologies to build for its latest concept car. They’re calling it HLXX, and it’s pretty straightforward: there’s a traditional flat screen 2D dashboard that is used for all the usual driving infos, with a 3D holographic screen in front that overlays warnings or alerts so they’re more easily seen by the driver. Daihatsu hopes to have HLXX in production vehicles by 2012, but until then we suppose we’ll just have to pretend these gauges and dials on our dashboards are 3D. Oh wait.