Gadgets Base

I want to talk briefly about bluetooth cellphone headsets, as California’s new cell phone ban is due to take effect in a few months, and I might need to buy one for myself. The decision I face reminds of the plight of Stanley, the iconoclast everyman of absurdist playwright Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros, played by Gene Wilder in the 1974 film adaptation. In the story, Stanley and his friends are shocked (not surprisingly) when people suddenly begin turning into rhinoceroses. Ionesco takes the allegory for conformity in society to the extreme as more and more people turn into rhinoceroses–what was shocking at first, soon becomes avant garde. Desire to resist tranforms into envy as more and more people change into the large, clumsy, powerful beasts.

Which brings me to bluetooth cellphone headsets. Walk through an airport, an office, a mall, and you’ll see them–bluetooth headset wearers. At first, you could guess who they were–”early adopters”, trying to pretend that walking around with a piece of electronic gadgety stuck in their ear is perfectly normal. Of course, it’s not just early adopters anymore–in addition to the smiling gadget geeks with silver doodads with blue lights on them, there are now soccer moms, and grandparents and teenagers walking around looking like Lt. Uhura.

For me, the decision is not so much which bluetooth headset to buy, but rather, do I join the pod people, and walk around, wearing this ear widget like it is a perfectly normal thing to do, or do I hold out, like Ionesco’s Stanley, refusing to succumb to the inexorable tide of all of humanity tranforming into bluetooth-wearing rhinoceroses before his eyes.

The problem for me is the whole ostentatiousness of it all. It seems to me that the bluetooth cellphone headset, when worn all the time, whether in use or not, is not an adaptation of a functional tool, it’s just the latest incarnation of cellphone snobbery. It’s a way to say, “Look at me, look how tech-savvy I am. I am so indispensable that not only do I need to remain in constant contact with everyone in the world, but I can’t even allow my nonstop communication trunk line to interfere with my hands at any given moment.” It’s all so… pretentious.

So what do I do? If I don’t give in, then in order to use my cell phone in the car, I have to use a clumsy corded headset, or risk getting a ticket from California Highway Patrol. Or do I give in, and join the bluetooth-headset-wearing nerds?

Given that I am already pretentious enough to begin a geekblog post with a literary reference to an obscure French/Romanian playwright , then I guess an electronic cellphone dongle in my ear will fit right in. Bluetooth, here I come. Snort.

Posted in Phones

Sharp has introduced two new laptops into the Japanese market, the PC-FW70X and PC-FW50X. While the two laptops’ external design and color choices (black and white) may remind you of the MacBook, make no mistake because neither of them will match up to the computing powers of the MacBook.

Both laptops have a 15.4-inch LCD with 1280 x 800 resolution and are either powered by AMD Turion 64 or Mobile Sempron 3600 with AMD M690V Chipset. Both are covered by UV coated case that also serve as protection from UV rays. Other features of these two laptops include; 2GB of RAM, 120GB hard drive, DVD multi drive, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g and infrared support. And for the clincher? The PC-FW70X has a battery life span of 1.1 hours while the PC-FW50X’s battery lasts for an estimated 50 minutes. The notebooks also weigh in at around 5.74-pounds. I wonder what’s inside those batteries if they could only last that long. Major bummer, eh?

Via [Akihabaranews.com] Product [Sharp]

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Pioneer and their Kuro range of plasma HDTVs are undoubtedly the best of the market, and have received a large number of awards, especially for their extremely impressive black levels and overall image quality.

The new 2008 Pioneer Kuro plasmas improve on the very best with even higher picture quality performance. The 2008 second generation Kuro plasmas move even closer to “absolute” black by further reducing idle luminance and improving black levels by five times the 2007 Kuros. This 5x statement is very impressive, and we can’t wait to see these sets in action!

The improved black levels lead to more accurate and higher contrast levels with deeper colours. The 2008 Kuro plasmas are avaliable in 50-inches as the Pioneer PDP-LX5090, or as the larger 60-inch Pioneer PDP-LX6090.

The new Kuro’s have a feature called “Optimum Mode”, which automatically synchronises video and sound, while also monitoring the content and room light conditions and then adjusting the picture and sound settings, which results in the best viewing experience.

All models are “HD ready 1080p compliant” with a 1080p resolution, are just 3.7 inches thick (20% smaller than the 2007 Kuros), feature a new remote, ISF C3 calibration ready, and seamlessly integrate with other A/V equipment. There are also the “H” models of the new Kuros, the Pioneer PDP-LX5090H and PDP-LX6090H, which we believe are the high specification models with both a digital terrestrial and satellite tuners, an advanced user interface with Kuro style graphics, and DLNA compliant “Home Media Gallery” for playback of movies, music and photos through a home network or USB.

Model Information:

• PDP-LX5090 (PDPLX5090) | 50-inch - 1080p - SD Terrestrial - June 08
• PDP-LX6090 (PDPLX6090) | 60-inch - 1080p - SD Terrestrial - June 08
• PDP-LX5090H (PDPLX5090H) | 50-inch - 1080p - SD/HD Terrestrial and Satellite - Region Dependant release date.
• PDP-LX6090H (PDPLX6090H) | 60-inch - 1080p - SD/HD Terrestrial and Satellite - Region Dependant release date.

Finally, the long awaited Facebook chat is rolling out. First reported by the Inside Facebook blog, and a few hours later, the Official Facebook blog announced that new Chat facility is indeed being gradually rolled out in some Facebook networks.

The Facebook blog did not specify any exact date as to when the Chat feature will be implemented across all Facebook networks. But users don’t need to do anything to install the Chat facility, as it will just pop out at the bottom part of the users browsers. When the Facebook Chat bar appears, users can view the list of online friends and even start a conversation with any or all of them.

Unlike other Facebook communication facilities such as the Wall or Inbox, the Facebook Chat works in real time, that is, messages are delivered and displayed as soon as they are sent. Facebook is also working on pulling other features of Facebook into the real-time Chat facility.

Facebook is also assuring its members that they will have control of their Chat transactions to preserve their privacy. Hence, users can save message history or clear this out anytime they want to. Facebook for its part will not log chat sessions permanently, so users are assured that their information are safe.

Now that Facebook has officially announced its Chat facility, one can’t help but wonder what will happen now with the third-party developed Facebook chat facilities such as Social IM, Friendvox, and the recently launched Babuki?

Read [Facebook Blog] Via [CNET]

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Barrons Tech Trader Daily is quoting Hitwise’s figures for March.  These figures show growth for Google’s search and declines for both Yahoo! and Microsoft.  Google gained a little over 3% over the past year while Microsoft lost more than 2%.  Can Google be outdone?  I am starting to wonder.

The US figures:
Google: 67.25% (up from 64.13% a year ago)
Yahoo!: 20.29% (down from 21.26% a year ago)
Microsoft: 6.65% (down from 9.01% a year ago)

Ask.com also declined.  If information is king, how can a company that is not as big as Google dethrone the champ?  Better algorithms?  Catchy marketing?  Maybe with moves like this, they’ll find a way to blow it…

Read [Barrons]

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If you think that the Microsoft-Yahoo merger issue is already dead, think again as here comes Yahoo issuing yet again another statement saying that they are not opposed to Microsoft’s buyout offer. But they will definitely not accept Microsoft’s proposed $31 per-share offer.

Yahoo issued the statement as a reaction to the recently published letter from Microsoft which gave Yahoo an April 26 deadline to accept their final offer. In the said letter, Microsoft threatened to resort to hostile takeover should Yahoo continue to refuse the $31 per-share price.

And while this seems to be a back-and-forth game that is being played, Yahoo is expected to send a return letter that denies Microsoft’s claims that Yahoo’s business is falling apart.

Read [Reuters]

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About frickin time!  Looks like the Moto Sidekick slide will get another color:red in May or June of this year, according to a report from a tipster to Boy Genius Report.  The Slide is offered by T-Mobile for $199 while the Sidekick LX sits at $299.

Looks like these two Sidekicks will have to hold you crazy texting kids over until Microsoft is able to get their mobile XBox deal going with their recent Danger purchase (the software behind the Sidekicks).

Read [Boy Genius]

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I’m not quite in the market for a tiny portable PC just yet, however, once I am ready there will be plenty of options to choose from. While the Eee PC from Asus really sparked things last year, Intel’s Atom chip is likely going to revolutionize the industry. At least that’s what Intel is hoping to do.

The above picture is just one of the prototype devices utilizing the new Atom chip which will be launched in June. The chip is one of the cheapest you’ll find, and doesn’t take up much space at all. It is around the size of a penny and runs at speeds from 800MHz to 1.8GHz. This is exactly what the UMPC market has been waiting for.

Source: Crave

IOGEAR has announced its new ultra-slim portable media player that allows users to tote their multimedia content just about anywhere they like, thanks to a slim form factor that is appealing to the eye. It also makes for a handy portable hard drive since you will be able to use it to carry your important files wherever you go. Folks who thrive on digital video, songs and pictures can now transfer it from a PC to a laptop through USB 2.0, watching it on a big screen HDTV or an entertainment system later regardless of location.

One interesting aspect of this portable media player is there isn’t any display on it - unlike other PMPs which we have seen in the past. I guess that will help with the cost in the end, but the drawback would be you won’t be able to watch your movies wherever you are since there isn’t any way to hook it up to a TV while you’re sitting on a plane. Still, it does boast some impressive features such as improving standard definition video playback by automatically upscaling it to 720p resolution whenever it is hooked up to a HDTV. All you need is to plug it into the said TV using RCA or component and you’re good to go - would be nice to see an HDMI connector, but I guess there is always room for improvement with future iterations.

According to Miranda Su, executive vice president of IOGEAR, “IOGEAR recognizes that today’s tech-savvy consumers are creating and collecting large amounts of digital media, such as movies and photos, and need simple solutions to transport and access them from any location. Our Portable Media Player makes it easy for people to transfer, organize and take their entertainment with them while on-the-go, and enhances the viewing experience by upscaling standard content to HDTV resolutions.”

The IOGEAR Portable Media Player (GMD2025U120) will be available immediately, retailing for $349.95.

Press Release

Do you have a predilection for both digital and analog watches but don’t have the money for both?

The E-Ink Display watch is something you might want to take a look at. Using e-paper technology rather than the usual LCD screen, you can view the time on this watch at any angle. What’s more, it’s equipped with a variety of different displays, ranging from analog to digital screen, and black to white color background. Taking all the options into account, there are 16 possible displays to choose from. E-Ink Display Watch is now available in ThinkGeek for ₤125.