Gadgets Base

by Thomas Ricker, posted May 27th 2008 at 6:51AM
Microsoft’s and Ford’s next generation SYNC has official taken us from our origin at Smittenville to the rural outpost of Gobsmacked. The new SYNC adds 911 Assist, SIRIUS Travel Link navigation, and DVD playback on a large 8- or 6.5-inch touchscreen display depending upon the guzzler you choose. The full $1,995 navigation option (or $395 for just the voice-controlled SYNC) is available exclusively on Ford’s 2009 Escape, Escape hybrid, Flex, Lincoln MKS and F150 before rolling out to the rest of Ford’s fleet. A new 10GB hard drive “Jukebox” has also been added which allows you to insert a CD, lookup the Gracenote CDDB info (including cover art) from the pre-installed database, and then rip the audio back to the disk if you choose. Rounding out the features are Sirius Radio (of course); aux-in and USB-in device (yes, iPods) support; voice commands; streaming audio and SMS text to voice read-out from Bluetooth enabled-phones; and several real-time, Sirius Travel Link services such as traffic data, weather detail, sports info, movies listings, and even gas prices at nearby pumps. Timely. Video walkthrough after the break.

[Via Autospies]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video, Transportation

by Thomas Ricker, posted May 27th 2008 at 3:25AM var Ok ok, we hear you tipsters, iphone now official for Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia “later this year” thanks to a deal between Apple and TeliaSonera. At this point, only The Netherlands seems to be out of the loop in Europe.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones

This is a very creative product that would make the perfect gift for any one. It looks like an ordinary mug with nothing special about it except that it changes colors depending on the temperature of the liquids in it. It uses heat sensitive materials so that the mug will change colors when introduced to heat from liquids. The black color is cold, and the white stands for the hot. The lettering on the mug will also change from cold to hot. This is a great way to know if your coffee is hot or if you should go and refill your cup. No more drinking lukewarm coffee with this mug. This gizmo will let you know when it is time for another coffee break!

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $25.00
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Posted in Gizmo of the Day, Tools, DIY, Home, Office

In a very good move, the NY Times has announced that it is developing an API so that programmers/readers can access the various content that it has stashed around its vast site. This is exactly what the Times needs to compete with a Rupert Murdoch-run Wall Street Journal that is probably going to turn to more political news reporting to compete head-on with the NYT.

The Times has already been one of the traditional newspapers that has led the way into the digital age, with Web-ified versions of their newspaper content, RSS feeds, blogs, a news aggregator, and even a Facebook application. This is certainly the next logical step in their digital evolution. We should start seeing pieces of this API appear this summer.

via Read Write Web

Posted in Miscellaneous

If you’re one of the many mobile phone users who sometimes experience getting cut while in the middle of an important call, and a cellphone charger is not around, IOGEAR has offered up a remedy - the GearJuice Rescue Charger GMP3001W6. Like what it’s name suggest, the GearJuice Rescue Charger, well, will rescue you when your phone battery has lost its juice. The rescue charger will give you an additional 15 minutes of talk time. And since the GearJuice Rescue Charger is supposed to be an added accessory that you have to carry around, the good news is that you don’t have to worry of having an additional weight on your already fully-packed accessory bag. The rescue charger is ultra portable and lightweight so you can even put it in your pocket for easy access anywhere, anytime.

Now for a little bit of fun, this Rescue Charger can also charge up other devices. And to think that it only costs $11.99 with a one-year warranty, this nifty device is definitely a steal.

Via [FarEastGizmos]

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted May 26th 2008 at 9:36PM
Chicks and dudes, get ready for extremely spicy, delicious, and stimulating news. Remember those new DS Lite colors we mentioned a few days ago? Apparently Nintendo has all but confirmed the forthcoming arrival of cool ice, hot red, and lime green — at least in Europe. According to DS Fanboy, the big N has started circulating an e-teaser with the new paint jobs, which pretty much puts to rest any chance that this was just some over-eager Photoshopper’s weekend art project. The landing date of June 13th seems to be holding as well, but what we really want to know is when we can see some of these provocative color schemes Stateside. Well Nintendo?

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Filed under: Gaming

Palm has announced that it’s popular Centro smartphone has launched on Australia’s Telestra network. Priced at $299 the handset will come in Glacier White and feature a dedicated link to the network’s BigPond service, allowing them to access exclusive content.

“Pre-Paid mobile phone users now have access to a number of features not available on standard mobile handsets with the addition of the Palm Centro to the Telstra Pre-Paid range. The Palm Centro will allow customers to stay on top of email and text messages, as well as access the Internet, manage appointments, view documents or make use of a multitude of other productivity-boosting and entertaining features.” said Tim Copper,Telestra’s director of Consumer and Marketing.”

The Centro will be sold locked to the network, but Telestra says an unlocked version may be available in the future. Telestra’s Centro is a quad-band GSM/EDGE smartphone running Palm OS Garnet v5.4.9. It has a 320×320 pixel touchscreen display, Bluetooth v1.2, a 1.3-megapixel camera with video capture and 64MB of RAM with a micro SD slot. The US version is Palm’s best and fastest selling smartphone ever.

Via [PalmInfoCenter]

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by Ryan Block, posted May 26th 2008 at 10:46PM
Remember the Inspiron 1535 that was due any day now? Unfortunately, it’s still MIA, but if you’ve got to get in on the action early you can apparently buy Dell part #310-9760, an AC adapter listing compatibility with two laptops the company hasn’t yet announced. Um, just in case you weren’t following along, that’d be the Inspiron Studio 1535 and 1536 (or maybe it’s just the Studio 1535 / 1536 — we don’t really know).

[Thanks, nizzy1115]

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Filed under: Laptops

We never claim that these criminals are smart, but they always seem to be hitting a new low for stupidity. Recently a 17-year old from Wisconsin has been charged with felony child porn after he posted nude pictures of his 16 year old (i.e. underage) girlfriend on his MySpace page. When contacted by police, Alex Phillips refused to remove the photos, which is where the new low for stupidity comes in, and in turn prompted his arrest. The photos, taken with the unidentified girl’s cellphone, had been given to Phillips while the two were still together. He maintained that he had not intended to cause his ex any harm but admitted it he shouldn’t have done so. He has been charged with distributing child pornography, defamation, and sexual exploitation of a child. He’s facing up to 15 years in prison and if convicted he will be forced to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Via [CrunchGear]

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by Nilay Patel, posted May 26th 2008 at 8:00PMGameStop leaked the existence of the $100 Rock Band Stage Kit back in January, and it’s updated the listing with the first pictures we’ve seen of the included smoke machine and strobe light. The smoke machine looks fairly ordinary, but the light features controls so Rock Band vocalists can apparently blind themselves while making selections. The kit’s listed with a ship date of August 15, but who knows if that’s accurate — and considering you can pick up a real fogger and strobe light sufficient to glam out your living room for all of $50, we’re not exactly waiting on pins and needles.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming