Gadgets Base

I always enjoy reporting on the latest Conceptual gadgets, so I couldn’t resist reporting on this one. It is known as the “Kage roi”, is a concept gadget that helps groups come up with more concepts.

Simply put, the Kage roi is a boardroom table that has built-in voice recognition ability. So the next time you and a group of businesspeople are having a vocal brainstorming session, the Kage roi picks up on your keywords, and provides each person a display of its internet search. In short, the Kage Roi is a brainstorming table with a brain.

But it isn’t just the table that is the concept. Apparently, the room is equipped with LEDs that can change the lighting. For example, if you want to make people feel like the sun is about to set, the Kage roi can accommodate you.

You might be wondering why you would need that feature. I believe it is there to facilitate a “mood shift” of the room. I guess people are more apt to spurt out ideas before the meeting is about to close, so the feeling of a sunset could prompt that.

The Kage roi is designed by the Japanese IT group Kayac, with researchers from Keio University in Japan. Kayac plans to field-test it soon, and I would like to see it used with Microsoft’s Surface.

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The team behind Opera Mobile has announced that they will have Opera Mobile 9.5 available as a “first beta” on July 15. The beta edition will be available for public download and will be based on the same engine as the desktop version of 9.5. The new version of the browser will offer support for Opera widgets, Javascript, AJAX and Flash (Lite 3.0).

Although Opera Mobile is available for both Windows Mobile and Symbian-based phones, this release announcement only mentions a Windows Mobile release. You can also already find a version of Opera Mobile 9.5 on currently shipping phones such as the HTC Touch Diamond.

Read [Opera Mobile Blog] Via [MobileCrunch]

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This strange looking toy is actually a Nerf gun in disguise.  Which is just proof once again that there are a great many of us that don’t seem to want to grow up entirely.  I’d imagine  that the gun originally looked something like this, which is sold on ThinkGeek.  The best part is to cock the toy gun you have to pull back on the cross.  The seller of this mod does warn that although it shoots foam darts, shooting someone in the face could still hurt them.  Apparently he thinks that the adults that would buy such a toy aren’t grown up enough to realize that.

I mean, I personally would never test that theory out, well I might not.  The mod itself is made by using expensive bronzers and toners to give the aged metal look a bit more depth.  Apparently his camera doesn’t quite do justice to the mod, according to him.  He also claims that all of his mods do better than when bought brand new.  The curent bid is up to $46 or you can pick up the original over at ThinkGeek for $9.99.

Source: boingboing

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Trusted Reviews has a review of the LG KF750 Secret and writes, “The phone has a front-facing camera for video calls, too, but it is the main camera that gets the glory. With a small LED flash and autofocus as well as that 120 frames per second video shooting and a macro mode it sounds well-equipped…The macro mode proved very good. The Sempervivum photo, taken using this mode, shows this small (just a couple of centimetres across) succulent plant in good detail and the colour capture is spot on. The white flowers were photographed quite close up too, though this time not close enough to need the macro mode, and again the shot is quite sharp and clear.”

Read more about the LG KF750.

From tomorrow (1st July), Sky will be re-branding their Sky HD service to “Sky+ HD“, and reducing the price significantly. I believe the name change has been done to avoid confusion with people thinking that Sky HD does not include the recording and pausing features as offered by the Sky+ service.

Now for the interesting part, Sky has reduced the price of the Sky+ HD box by £100!, down to £149 from £249. I’m sure this price drop will make Sky’s HD service a whole lot more tempting! Sky+ HD really does offer the best HD service in the U.K, you can read my Sky+ HD review here, and join Sky at the best prices here.

There has never been a better time to join or upgrade to Sky HD.

Logitech, which makes some of the best webcams for PCs, just announced its first Mac-compatible webcam, featuring premium autofocus technology and, most importantly, Carl Zeiss Optics.

Add the sleek black and silver Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam to your Mac computer, and you’ll be recording sharp 720p high-def video clips, and VGA-quality video at up to 30 frames per second while video calling with iChat and Skype. Features a 2-megapixel sensor, and Logitech’s RightLight 2 Technology, which enables the webcam to “adjust intelligently in dim or harshly backlighted situations.”

Available in July for approx $129.99. Mac owners rejoice!

FROM GAMERTELL - The newly designed and uber cool Bat Pod will be on display at the park’s main entrance Saturday July 5, 2008, from noon until…
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Lancerlink has just announced a new HD camcorder that is scheduled to become available in July. The DDV-1080HD offers up the ability to record 1080p video at 30 frames-per-second or 720p video at 60 frames-per-second, in .mov format. In addition the DDV-1080HD also has a 5-megapixel camera, 90MB of internal memory, an SD/SDHC/MMC card slot for up to an additional 32GB of storage as well as a 3.0-inch LCD, USB 2.0 connectivity and rechargeable battery.

Unfortunately it looks like the DDV-1080HD is headed just for the Japanese market, however once available it will retail for ¥49,800 (around $474 US).

Via [Akihabara News]

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 8:15AM
Watch out DXG, you’ve got a new rival in town, and it goes by the name Lancerlink. Just when we thought you had the cheap-o HD camcorder market all locked up, in comes this firm with a rather chintzy looking camcorder capable of logging clips at 1,440 x 1,080 (30fps) or 1,280 x 720 (60fps) in H.264 format. The 5-megapixel sensor can also snag stills, but considering that there’s just 90MB of free memory within, you should probably keep an SD / MMC / SDHC card nearby. You’ll also find a 3-inch lcd monitor, HDTV (component) output, USB connectivity and a rechargeable battery good for around four hours of use. The worst part, however, is the ¥49,800 ($474) price tag that’s attached to the July-bound DDV-1080HD, which makes it a few hundies more than most of DXG’s awfully similar collection.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 7:26AM
Matrox just announced er, last week, it’s new M-Series of graphics cards powered by the industry’s first QuadHead GPU. All the PCIe X16 cards offer 512MB of graphics memory and support up to 4x widescreen monitors (DVI or analog) simultaneously as one large desktop or as independent resolutions. The cards can connect a pair of monitors at a max digital resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 or just 1,920 x 1,200 if you’re looking to go quad. What, you’re not still getting by with just a single display are you? Look for the M-series to go retail before September is through.

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Filed under: Desktops, Displays