Gadgets Base

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 30th 2008 at 9:21AM
We’ve always been skeptical of Rolly’s purpose, but Associated Press business writer Rachel Metz isn’t pulling any punches when it comes to reviewing Sony’s MP3-playing dance-bot. She calls it a mere conversation-starter “if your dancing hamster has run off”, notes that the $400 toy lacks a headphone jack, and scoffs at the 2GB of storage. She also offers that while she gets the notion of the Rolly as a programmable bot with its “Rolly Choreograhy” software, she had a hard time justifying the time it took to just get through one song (30 minutes of tweaking for 20 seconds of bot action). We’re not about to defend the Rolly’s place in life, but let’s be fair: Rolly isn’t meant to solve problems: it’s meant to confuse AP writers, scare cats, and get hacked to all oblivion.

[Via BoingBoing]

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Filed under: Robots

by Thomas Ricker, posted May 30th 2008 at 5:32AM
Warning: rumor and speculation ahead.

Here’s an oldie but a goodie. Remember rumors last year that Apple’s .Mac was about to get a Google overhaul? It’s back with a bullet thanks to the latest 10.5.3 Leopard update. That iCal code snippet above replaces “.Mac” with the “%@” variable which Apple can fill-in later with any name it chooses. If that’s not enough of a hint then there’s always the text, “the new name of Apple’s online service (was .Mac).” This code change has also been found in the newly updated Safari and Mail apps and did not exist prior to the 10.5.3 update. So now the question: will the name change, presumably coming next week at WWDC, usher in Jobs’ promise to “make up for lost time” with the bealeugered service, or will it simply reflect the new semantics related to Apple’s Computer’s increased emphasis on iPhones, iPods, and other consumer level products? We’re hoping for the former but expecting the latter.

[Thanks, Supermario]

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There are already lots of timed sprinkler systems out there that help you to automate watering your lawn and plants to keep them looking their best, but you usually have to intervene when the weather threatens to make your sprinklers moot. For example, when it rains or gets too cold.

Enter Orbit Irrigation’s solar-powered wireless rain/freeze sensor. Ok, that was a mouthful.
Let’s break it down. This sensor acts together with the Orbit Professional Irrigation System (aka timed sprinkler) to detect when there’s rain (or even after it has rained) or when it’s freezing.

It communicates wirelessly to the Sprinkler system to let it know when to shut off and when it can resume operations. The last little perk is that this sensor has a solar panel to keep it powered without you needing to replace the battery or hook it into wall power.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $59.99
(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, Home Automation

by Nilay Patel, posted May 30th 2008 at 4:53AM
ASUS seems to be bringing a lot of new toys out to play at Computex, but we’re suddenly most intrigued by the Eee Stick, a pair of motion-sensing game controllers that looks like nothing more than a pair of Wii nunchuks. We’re hearing that the left nunchuck can also work as a 3D mouse, but it’ll be interesting to see if ASUS plans to actually pitch the $70 set to game developers, or if it’s just another gimmicky controller that’ll inevitably get dumped for the comforts of WASD. Gameplay video after the break.

[Via Engadget Chinese, thanks Anonymouse]

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Filed under: Gaming

by Thomas Ricker, posted May 30th 2008 at 3:04AMWe now have official word from Samsung regarding the browser on its new Samsung L870 slider. You may recall that the Samsung-issued press release listed “Safari browser (full browsing)” as a feature. Now the clarification:

“Actually, L870 is equipped with S60 OSS browser, also known as S60 safari browser because both are using same webcore platform. Sorry again for the unclear specification, and bothering you with this.”

Of course, the S60 browser has never been known, even informally, as the “S60 safari browser,” but we’ll let Samsung bang heads together internally over that one.

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Filed under: cellphones

by Nilay Patel, posted May 30th 2008 at 1:54AM
MSI’s been making a lot of noise with the Wind lately, but we’d heard the company was going to be bringing personal navigators and PMPs to the US back at CES, and it looks like the first one has hit the FCC — say hello to the MS-5654. As always, the gov’s photographers don’t exactly bring out the inner beauty of the device, but there’s enough to see that the unit features a 4.3-inch, 480 x 272 touchscreen, a 372MHz Centrality processor running Windows CE 5.0, 1GB or 2GB of internal storage with SD expansion, and the usual basic PMP features. Of course, there’s no pricing or availability info, but if you’re into detailed RF reports, heaven is just beyond the read link.

[Thanks, jkkmobile]

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Filed under: GPS

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 30th 2008 at 3:33AM
The US Patent and Trademark Office has revealed a mammoth document that can only be described as The iPhone Patent, a 371-page spectacular that covers Apple’s handheld multi-touch UI paradigm in excruciating detail. Many of the mocked-up screen shots depicted in the paperwork are dead ringers for screens that we’re well acquainted with in the production phone, while others represent ideas that either haven’t finished cooking or eventually found their way into the Cupertino circular file (follow the break for a picture of a home screen with dedicated “Blog” and dictionary apps, for instance). And in case there’s any doubt over who was responsible for this compendium of legalese, industrial design, and technical diagrams, one only need look at the header of page 1: “Jobs et al.” Yep, Steve himself wasn’t the least bit shy about taking credit atop an entire column of company A-listers for inventing the iphone’s trademark user interface, which we’re guessing came about from a mix of equal parts truth, ego, and ass-kissing from the legal department down the hall. Seriously though, if you’re Scott Forstall down there at number two on the Inventors list, what are you going to do — go boardroom showdown all John Sculley-style?

[Via Cellpassion]

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Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 29th 2008 at 10:02PMFans of high-def audio rejoice: The first Blu-ray recording has been released. Fans of anything other than Divertimento, hold your horses: The first release is from Thondheimsolistene, an orchestra from Norway. “Divertimenti”, as it is called, will be released by the 2L label in full HD audio glory along with a SACD track for those not on the Blu-ray bandwagon just yet. Formats include 2.0 LPCM, 5.1 LPCM, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, 5.1 Dolby True HD, 5.1 Dolby Digital at 48KHz, and it has been confirmed to work just fine on the PS3.

[Via MiC]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Not too long ago we mentioned the Asus P320 PDA as having passed through the FCC, now we learned that it has just been launched by Asus in Taiwan. So aside from the features that we already know that includes its Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, GPS, 2-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 and a microSD card slot we now know that it retails around $390. Certainly not a bad price for such a seemingly powerful device.

In addition to these features, Asus has also added two additional useful features into the P320, the Auto Cleaner Function and Ur Time. The first application automatically and fully closes an application after it was used,which frees up space and memory usage to make your currently open application run faster and a little smoother. While the second application is useful for when setting up meetings with attendees coming from different countries. It lets you set up four different country times on the P320 for quick country-specific time referencing. Of course these are over and above the P320’s GPS feature which brags of faster satellite pinpoint and download for users no matter where they are located anywhere in the world.

Sadly, no information is available yet as to whether this PDA phone will be available internationally, but with the growing popularity of GPS-enabled device in the US, we are hoping that it will hit the streets in a not so distant future.

Via [SlashPhone]

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by Tim Stevens, posted May 29th 2008 at 8:37PMStellar photography seems like a wonderous thing: you and a loved one on a starry night taking beautiful images of the heavens — before making out. Unfortunately, anyone who has tried it knows it’s more often a frustrating exercise of fiddling with exposure and aperture settings on your SLR while it hangs precariously off the side of your telescope, held in place only by a flimsy adapter ring. The Imaging Source has a simpler option, a series of digital cameras designed for slotting into your scope like an eye piece, capturing the night sky at up to 60-minute exposures over USB or FireWire. The range starts at $390 for a monochromatic VGA model, going all the way up to $870 for color and 1280 x 960 resolution. Not cheap, but it’s probably a lot less than you paid for the equatorial mount on your new reflector.

[Via Picture Snob; thanks Jay]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras