Gadgets Base

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Apr 21st 2008 at 3:55PM
According to a recent, sensational survey from Samsung Mobile, 61 percent of lazy, distracted, and impossibly ignorant cellphone users over the age 18 say they would be comfortable casting their vote for President of the United States via a text message. Meanwhile, the totally serious and meaningful survey found that eight in ten (or 80 percent) of teens under the legal voting age would use their mobile devices to cast a ballot in the election. Additionally, Samsung Mobile discovered that 90 percent of cellphone users would like an ice cream cone, while another 87 percent would like an ice cream cone only after eating a quarter-pounder with cheese. Soon Samsung Mobile hopes to determine what percentage, if any, of the people surveyed know who is running for the office of president.

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Filed under: cellphones

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 21st 2008 at 2:54PM We’ve already seen one hack to automate Guitar Hero, but it had the slight disadvantage of having to be pre-programmed for each song, and even then it was slightly hit-and-miss. Now, a father looking for a way to finally beat his son at the game has taken things considerably further, with his hack actually using the composite video input to determine which notes need to be hit in real time. That, as you might have guessed, is way beyond any notion of practicality, and far outside the realm of the average DIYer’s skill level, but it seems like it does indeed work, although there are apparently a few minor kinks left to be worked out. If you’re still not undaunted, you can find the schematics and other information you’ll need at the link below, and check out a video of the setup in action after the break.

[Via Hacked gadgets]

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Filed under: Gaming

Only days after the announcement of the NFC-enabled Nokia 6212 Classic, there is already an NFC-compatible accessory that goes with it. The Parrot PARTY Black Edition, according to its makers, is the first in the world to commercialize Near Field Communications Technology or NFC. What this means is that not only is it small and portable, but it will be very easy to pair up with compatible devices and pump up the volume. It’s not just easy, it’s ridiculously easy. Think knocking the two devices against each other and you get the picture. Other than being NFC-enabled, this baby also comes with a built-in Class-D amplifier, two drivers that collectively pump out 6 watts of power, Stereo Widening, and a so-called Virtual SuperBass technology. It’s portable and will have a rechargeable battery, so you can take it anywhere you go with your NFC-enabled device. The cost? A mere UK£ 79.00 or about $160 US. Pirate crew not included.

Via [Pocket Lint]

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Sony Ericsson and Def Jam records have made a deal to pack the newest Sony Ericsson W910i limited edition white/gold handsets with hit videos and songs by artists that are under the popular music label. Among the artists included in the deal are Ludacris, Nas, Fabolous, Rick Ross, Chingy, Rocko, Rihanna and Ne-Yo. They even threw in the two divas Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey into the mix. This will have fairly old songs (which are still good, nonetheless) preloaded onto Sony Ericsson W910i phones, as well as a few videos. They also have this package exclusively in the UK courtesy of Carphone Warehouse. This is good news for hip-hop enthusiasts, I’m sure. Kanye West should’ve been thrown in that list somewhere, though. Don’t you think?

Via [IntoMobile]

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Man, nothing gets me up in the morning like my iPod and hot cup of joe. Hey, I’ll bet it would work twice as good if I combine the two…there! Oh man, I really need to get sober, fast.

Yes, that does sound stupid, but the photo to the left is not the product of a hangover, but an actual product. This is a designer’s bright idea of an ipod speaker “disguised” as a coffee mug.

The Music Mug works on any MP3 player, provided it has a headphone jack. All you need to do is plug the Music Mug’s cable into the mp3 player, and let the music play. Just don’t try and pour coffee or some other hot beverage into your Music Mug. The Product Page clearly warns about that.

Is this Music Mug really meant to be some sort of subterfuge for your iPod? If so, then I recommend a smaller MP3 Player that won’t stick out the top, such as the Creative Zen Stone. That way, if your office allows coffee, but not MP3 players, you will finally be able to “beat the system”. Of course, your boss and other co-workers might wonder where the music is coming from. They’ll never suspect the innocent coffee mug!

You can buy the Music Mug on the Generate site for about $69. It is available in white or black.

Source

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. has just dropped an announcement concerning its new full disk encryption (FDE) 2.5″ 7,200RPM SATA hard disk drive, bringing a whopping 320GB of storage space to the table while offering the industry’s highest security standard for data at rest. The Fujitsu MHZ2 CJ series is proud to claim the mantle of being “the first HDD in the world to support the hardware-based AES-256 bit encryption standard”, preventing unauthorized access by virtue of setting a password. High performance and maximum data security? I like the sound of that - it certainly makes the mouth water.

Fujitsu’s take on security is slightly different as current software-based security solutions has encryption keys that exist in system memory whenever the system is being used, and in addition to that, the encryption is computationally intensive, which is detrimental to the system performance. Fujitsu’s MHZ2 CJ series will rely on the hard drive’s hardware to perform both encryption and decryption, freeing up the CPU for more important tasks. Heck, the key used to encrypt and decrypt data is cryptographically regenerated whenever the correct password is received at power-on, and won’t be able to be attained whenever the system is turned off. Data encryption and decryption will be done automatically without any impact on the system performance. The spate of laptop thefts in recent news also makes such a solution all the more viable, so bosses of large corporations, take not if you value your organization’s data.

The Fujitsu MHZ2 CJ series also comes with a special advanced secure erase feature that immediately invalidates every piece of data just by changing the in-drive encryption key, turning the stored data completely indecipherable. Such an immediate and secure erasure ensures both time and money savings will be trickled down to the company’s bottom line, which is always good for shareholders. I suppose folks who download plenty of illegal stuff from their homes would appreciate this feature as well, considering the overzealous folks at the RIAA when it comes to dispatching their duties.

Press Release

So you’re part of the remnant on this earth that still owns video tapes but have run out of players to play them. Why not digitize these video tapes instead? At least you will be able to loop them infinitely on your PC, and best of all is there is no need to rewind those tapes once you’re done as everything can be done at the click of a button. ION Audio has just released its VCR 2 PC device that connects to your PC via USB 2.0, with an adjacent composite connection for camcorders, while RCA output is located on the back to playback previews on a TV. In the PAL version, you will find the SCART output as well. All digital conversion will be in the H.264 for ipod/PSP or MPEG-2 for DVD authoring formats. The ION VCR 2 PC will retail for $249 each.

Source: Everything USB

by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 21st 2008 at 5:08AMJerry Shen, ASUS CEO, is casually twisting Eee PC fans into a tizzy this morning. At the launch of the 8.9-inch Eee PC 900 in Taiwan, he uttered the magical phrase “10-inch Eee PC” for the first time. Expected sometime later this year, Shen said that the 10-inch screen will be the biggest allowed on the Eee PC. Good for you Jerry, but we’ve got the feeling that you’ve completely forgotten about the original promise of a $200, 7-inch laptop. Surely we’re due for a price drop now that the 900 is out, right?

Update: Asus also confirmed that an Atom-based Eee PC will launch at the Computex show just like we heard. No details about the screen size or any other specs were provided.

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Filed under: Laptops

I’m sure you have used Wi-Fi before on on a variety of devices that you own, and you most likely never had to register the device to use the Wi-Fi. We take the ability to use our Wi-Fi for granted, with never any thought of having to register it beforehand. In Russia, the government is taking appropriate measures to make everyone register the Wi-Fi devices they own. The specific part of the Russian government is called the Russian Mass Media, Communications and Cultural Protection Service, or Rossvyazokhrankultura. Every person has to receive permission by means of registering to use their Wi-Fi enabled device.

The registration would be required on all Wi-Fi devices, including headsets, laptops, portable game systems, portable media players, phones, PC’s and anything else that uses Wi-Fi. Rumor has it that it takes about 10 days to get a single Wi-Fi device registered. Now, to register a home Wi-Fi network, it would take a lot longer. So far, this is all that we know, if any of you folks live in Russia, leave a comment and share with us what you know about this.

I, personally, can’t imagine anything like this ever happening here in the United States. Lets hope that holds true, because I for one can tell you the paperwork would seem endless for some of us.

Via [Switched]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 21st 2008 at 4:08AMMSI just got right with the gadget lorf by going official with its Wind Notebook. Launched anonymously at Intel’s IDF, the Wind is pretty much everything we’ve heard: about 1-kg weight; XP-only (at the moment); LED-backlit, 8.9- and 10-inch 1,024 x 600 displays; and traditional 80GB, 2.5-inch hard disk. MSI also claims to have a superior keyboard and battery life compared to the competition. Yup, they’re looking right at you Eee PC. No word on price or delivery date though we previously heard Juneish (with Atom CPU launch) for between $470 to $1,099.

[Via DigiTimes]

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Filed under: Laptops