Gadgets Base

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 3:08PM
Aw, aren’t these two just as cute as a button together? We can almost see Dell gushing at the thought of rolling Ubuntu out in a pair of new machines early next month. Nah, we didn’t just fabricate that — the Ubuntu 8.04-powered XPS M1530N and Studio 15N should be available in a matter of weeks, and in the meantime, you open source aficionados can enjoy Hardy Heron as a pre-installed option on the XPS M1330N, Inspiron 1525N and Inspiron 530N. Hit the read link for purchase options in your country.

[Via TG Daily]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Oakland is building a stadium for A’s that will be known as Cisco Field, and the builders are considering adding an interesting feature to every seat: interactive touchscreens.

The purpose of these screens is to provide information to the spectators. For example, spectators can access player stats on whoever is up at bat, or in the field. They can also call up driving routes out of the park, so that once the game is over, they can find the fastest route home.

It also has some great real-time information and services, as it can figure out where the shortest bathroom lines are. And if you want a hot dog or a cold drink, just order it up, and the refreshment man will personally come to your seat with your order.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen a stadium become more compatible with technology. I believe that one year ago, Seattle’s Safeco Field offered similar information services for their spectators, but only with the wireless Nintendo DS.

I find that this idea to be a little less practical. I can see these touchscreens becoming an easy target of vandalism. Then some poor soul at the next game will have to say, “hey, my screen isn’t working, can I use yours to get a hot dog?”

Well, the stadium builders are only thinking about this idea for now. Let’s hope they have considered all of the obvious problems before investing what will obviously be a huge chunk of change for this feature.

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So sad for those hoping that the blackberry Bold would be landing shortly at T-Mobile here in the US, but instead pricing information has been announced for T-Mobile Germany.

The price is set at €219.95 (about $350 US), which is a bit higher than the $299 that has already been announced for Rogers, which will begin offering their version next Friday on July 25.

T-Mobile Germany currently has the available date simply listed as July, with the option to reserve now, but it is rumored to be coming on July 21, which is this Monday.

Coming back to the US release, at this time we have only seen a confirmation come from AT&T, but they are still having trouble setting an official availability date.

Product [T-Mobile] Read [Mobile Bulgaria] Via [Engadget Mobile]

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The day is finally here. The Dark Knight, the much anticipated sequel to Batman Begins, is now in theaters. We won’t speak for you (you can do that yourself in the comments!), but we’re mighty excited about this flick. Heath Ledger’s role as the Joker has everybody up in arms. Apparently it really does measure up to the hype.

We came across this absurdly cool The Dark Knight Joker Poker Set and couldn’t help but wet our pants a tad. What a perfect piece of viral merchandise! This poker set includes a prop replica 54 card deck emblazoned with, the now classic,  Joker vandalism style. Every card is a joker to this guy!

But the fun doesn’t end there. The Joker Poker Set also includes 100 Joker-themed poker chips and comes shipped in an aluminum carrying case. Even the case itself features the handwriting of the one and only Joker, covered with a series of creepy “Ha Ha”s.

With this awesome poker kit you can actually pretend you’re the Joker. Just use the included joker cards from the deck as your official business card and you’ll be ready for action. You can pre-order the Joker Poker set now for $84. This awesome set will be released in August.

Product Page via Nerd Approved

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by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 8:43AM
Apparently some folks have $6,600 to toss on a gaming PC, and thankfully, those folks — we won’t mention names — invested in a camera to let us all live vicariously. HP’s Blackbird 002 Exhilaration Edition, which packs a pair of NVIDIA’s potent GeForce GTX 280 cards, has landed in the home of one lucky gamer, and there’s a good selection of pictures to prove it. You know where to head from here.

[Thanks, bioender]

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Filed under: Desktops

Remember all those bizarre Thanko products that were exclusive to Japan?  Well, turns out Thanko is opening up a shop for those of us in the US.  Which is partially great news, because then I won’t have to mess with translating the page just to see the speccs of all their strange products.  It won’t open till August, so as of now we still have to translate things over to English.  Which includes this USB Cooler Mouse.

Thanko seems to think of everything, even those that tend to get all hot and sweaty while on their computer.  The mouse sucks air through the bottom and blows it out directly onto your palm.  When you’re cool enough, you can just shut off the tiny fan and use it as a normal mouse.  The mouse has five different buttons and the extras are programmable.  It is being sold for about $19.  Which isn’t bad considering you get the extra perk of having your hand blown on.  After all, who wants to purchase a normal sized fan and cool off your whole body at once?!

Source: gearlog

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Canadian smartphone users who are either boycotting or simply not interested in the iphone 3G will now have another solid option to choose from, and at an affordable price to boot.

Rogers Wireless has announced that they have dropped the price of the Nokia N95 down to just $199. Of course that new low price still comes along with the same three-year agreement, but that seems to be the standard with Rogers.

Sounds like a good deal, now you can get the N95, a great smartphone for about half of what it was priced at before and don’t forget, you can also take advantage of that limited time data plan that offers 6GB or monthly transfer for $30 a month.

Via [electronista]

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FROM APPLETELL - The iphone 3G was such a big hit that there were lines for the product even for a few days after it came out. This was bound to bring shortages, and it did.
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The extremely attractive Philips 32PFL9603D is one of Philips’ latest LCD HDTVs from their very impressive Philips 9600 Series. Before I get into the juicy technical details of the 32-inch Philips 32PFL9603D/10, lets talk a little bit about the design and styling. I have seen a lot of HDTVs, but this has to be one of the most stylish and attractive looking sets I have seen. The black glossy frame surrounds the LCD screen with smooth rounded corners, finishing it off with a thin elegant silver trim and invisible speakers. Part design feature and part technical feature, the 32PFL9603D features the Philips Ambilight Spectra 2, where light is emitted around the set matching the colour of the image being shown, creating an impressive look which makes viewing even more impressive and also reduced eye strain.

The Philips 32PFL9603D has a full HD resolution of 1920×1080p for the best quality images, running at Blu-ray’s native resolution. It’s still unusual to see this high resolution format in a 32-inch HDTV, so the 32PFL9603D leads the game in this respect. As well as a full HD resolution, there is also a very high 55,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio for impressive colours, and HDMI 1.3 deep colour support. Connection wise the Philips Cineos 32PFL9603D is very well equipped with 4x HDMI 1.3 inputs, PC VGA input, 2x Scart, component, composite, s-video, audio ins and outs, along with USB 2.0 and a DNLA Ethernet connections. TrustedReviews looked at the 32PFL9603D, gave it a perfect score and say, the combination of intense black levels and scintillating fine detail resolution helps pictures look remarkably 3D and cinematic for a 32in HDTV. The audio once again blows the competition out of the water, the amount of volume it can produce is remarkable given its size. The Philips 32PFL9603’s impressive looks are merely the start of a love affair that constantly grows, its picture performance attain a genuine benchmark level.

A few weeks ago, we covered Creative’s latest Portable Media Player (PMP), the Zen X-Fi. Believe it or not, Creative has already rolled out another PMP with the Zen Krystal.

The Zen Krystal looks like the Zen Stone Plus with Display (a PMP which I highly recommend), but has a more rectangular look. It appears to only be available with 4GB worth of memory, which is enough for about 2,000 songs. Songs and other audio files are easily downloaded with the drag and drop function with no drivers to install.

In addition to its 10 hour battery life, the Zen Krystal has a lot of other nifty features like a voice recorder and a radio with 32 preset stations. It even has some nifty motion-sensitive games programmed on it like Hurdle Race, Catch & Dodge, and Dice Roll.

It appears that the Zen Krystal is targeted for the sports and fitness crowd. It has a pedometer built-in, which is a first for Creative. It allows you to track your calories burnt, and you can use the stopwatch for your workout with the included bundled wrist strap.

The Zen Krystal just appeared on Creative’s Hong Kong site, and so there is no real word as when it will become available or price.

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