Gadgets Base

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 26th 2008 at 4:58PMHey, both of you Yahoo! Music Store customers, listen up. Just hours after Yahoo! affirmed that it would be powering down its DRM servers, along comes a spokesperson to alleviate any worries that you two will get screwed in all of this. According to Carrie Davis, customers “will be compensated for whatever they paid for the music,” and she continued on to state that Yahoo “had not yet decided what exactly it would do, but it would take care of its customers.” Some of the possible options include getting cash back for the money spent on tracks or receiving MP3 versions of the jams sans DRM (we’d take the former, thanks). Depressingly, there doesn’t seem to be a definitive time table laid out just yet for the restitution process.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 26th 2008 at 1:23PM
Hold onto your dollar bills, y’all — the WhiteKnightTwo is set to be unveiled (and swooned over) on Monday. We knew the fabled space tourism vehicle was set to be unwrapped this month, but knowing that said event is merely hours away just gets our juices flowin’. Richard Branson and “other dignitaries” are preparing to officially launch the ship at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California (a short drive from Zzyzx, we hear), and we’re still being led to believe that test flights should begin as early as this fall. Hey, at least you know what you’re doing next year if your ship comes in.

[Via The Register]

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Filed under: Transportation

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 26th 2008 at 1:23PM
Hold onto your dollar bills, y’all — the WhiteKnightTwo is set to be unveiled (and swooned over) on Monday. We knew the fabled space tourism vehicle was set to be unwrapped this month, but knowing that said event is merely hours away just gets our juices flowin’. Richard Branson and “other dignitaries” are preparing to officially launch the ship at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California (a short drive from Zzyzx, we hear), and we’re still being led to believe that test flights should begin as early as this fall. Hey, at least you know what you’re doing next year if your ship comes in.

[Via The Register]

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Filed under: Transportation

I don’t know why, but I love hose nozzles, maybe not so much for the device itself, but b/c I get to play with water! Probably goes back to being a kid. After all, what kid do you know doesn’t like splashing around or squirting someone else, and it just gets better with a high-powered nozzle!

This nozzle has 5 spray settings, and a 2-way shut-off. It’s heavy-duty, and is guaranteed for life. It’s made with stainless steel, fiberglass, brass threads and has a comfort-grip of santoprene rubber.

Summer is here, and you need one of these to replace that leaking, clunky garden hose nozzle you have now.

Gimme!

Price: $29.99
(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 Miscellaneous

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 26th 2008 at 12:15PM
At this point, we’ve seen the Tube from everyone but Nokia — heck, even Morgan Freeman got a chance to show it off — and it looks like that trend isn’t going to abate any time soon. Another round of in-the-wild shots of the supposed XpressMusic 5800 have popped up (yes, the latest prototype seems to have dropped the “XpressMedia” badge), showing off a pretty uninspiring keyboard that we can only hope has no bearing on the final product. Guess that’s why they haven’t announced this sucker yet, eh? We hope?

[Via The Nokia Blog]

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Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 26th 2008 at 4:51AMIt has been a solid tick since we’ve seen a good FairPlay hack, so it’s with great pleasure that we pass along El Tunes for Ubuntu 8.04 users everywhere. Tested to work on Hardy Heron using RhythmBox (but assumed to work on any modern Linux Distro with GStreamer and a media player that utilizes GStreamer), said plug-in enables open-source aficionados to play songs purchased from the iTunes Music Store. As for limitations, the current version has no Pause / Seek support and cannot de-authorize a machine for playback, but a future version should hopefully cure those two quirks and add support for purchased video content and audio streaming to an AirTunes device. Give it a shot and let us know how it treats ya.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio

Things are not looking up for the highly-anticipated BlackBerry Bold. With further delays now expected from AT&T, it is also seeing a slight delay with Rogers in Canada.

The BlackBerry Bold will still be available for Canadian customers long before it hits here in the US, however it was supposed to have been officially available yesterday, July 25 and that of course did not happen. Rogers has pushed that launch back to July 29.

Luckily its just being delayed a week, and not nearly as bad as what we are seeing here in the US.

AT&T, which was originally expecting to have the Bold available in July, has since pushed that back to mid-August and now it looks like it will be delayed even longer with a possible launch coming on September 1. Of course that date is dependent on whether or not AT&T will be able to properly train their staff on the phone.

Via [blackberry News]

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If you’re an avid jogger or cyclist who still wants to enjoy listening to your favorite tunes while working out a sweat on the pavement, perhaps it would be more prudent to invest in a pair of AirDrives? These allow you to groove to your tracks without missing out on ambient sounds that could mean the difference between life and death as a vehicle bears down on your six. The AirDrives rest just outside the ear, allowing you to stay alert to traffic, announcements and people around you. Audio from your mp3 player are transmitted using bone conduction technology. You can choose from adult, kids, and iphone versions which retail for £49.99, £39.99 and £59.99, respectively.

Source: Shiny Shiny

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Be the life of the party with this Beer Tube Siren! It will require a quartet of AA batteries to operate, so hopefully you’re sober enough to replace them should they run out of juice in the middle of a hard night’s partying.

Great for bars & restaurants - patrons can flip the switch to let your servers know they are ready for another tube. Wonderful for parties - having a birthday party? Let the birthday child feel special with a lighted lid Turn on the switch and light will let everyone know that the tube is ready to party.

For $19 a pop, this is one of the cheaper (and wackier) drinking gadgets I’ve seen so far…definitely not meant for folks who intend to remain sober.

Product Page via Nerd Approved

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iSkin wants to pamper your precious new iPhone 3G with the revo2 soft premium silicone protector, offering protection, quality and style in a single package.

Crafted for a superior fit, the revo2 snugly encapsulates the iphone 3G and provides complete coverage from everyday hazards such as impact, shock, dirt, dust and moisture. Complimenting this protection is an array of impressive features, highlighted by Microban antimicrobial product protection, a detachable ViSOR transparent face shield, a dust repelling micro-texture grip, integrated port-to-port protection, accented volume and power buttons, an anti-glare and anti-fingerprint screen film, unobstructed silent mode switch, mic, camera and speaker access, and an industry first: a special translucent silicone zone that protects the iPhone’s proximity and ambient light sensors without obstruction. The revo2 is also compatible with the iSkin revoClip (sold-separately): a belt holster that keeps iPhones and their owners safely connected.

You will be able to choose from a range of fashionable two-tone colors combinations that consist of Onyx (Black/Black), Diablo (Red/Black), Sonic (Blue/Black) and Ozone (Clear/Black). The revo2 will cost $39.99 which might put some people off, but the benefits far outweigh the cost IMHO.

Press Release

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