Gadgets Base

Finding ways to personalize your desk space is sometimes essential to your sanity.  Especially when the entire office looks bland and horribly sterile.  Well this little digital photo frame will keep your pictures flipping all day long.  Luckily it’s also fairly small, so although it is one more thing to clutter up your desk it won’t actually take up that much room.  The tiny little screen might make it difficult for some to see, but if you are just looking for a fairly cheap digital picture frame it should do the trick.

The screen size itself is only 1.5 inches, so as I said before, it is kind of small.  It supports Windows Vista and has 2MB of memory.  Which should give you at least a fairly decent amount of pictures of either your kids or your pets.  The picture frame thankfully comes in several colors.  It is sold in white, blue, green and of course, pink.  There is bad news with this product though, it is a product sold in Tokyo.  So those of us in other parts of the world are so far out of luck on this one.  It is priced at ¥3,900 or about $36.

Source: Technabob

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Sep 7th 2008 at 5:57PM
So the good news here is that Best Buy’s getting ready to open its arms to yet another HTC product that’s impossible to find by wandering into the brick-and-mortar store of the US wireless carrier of your choice; the bad news, though, is that it doesn’t seem to be the version we wanted. The Touch Diamond now has a Coming Soon page all its own on Best Buy’s site, which is just fantastic considering that neither AT&T nor T-Mobile have yet bothered to pick it up — but the problem is that the specifications make no mention of US 3G despite the fact that we know there’s just such a version floating around. Our hope is that we’ve just caught the big box with its pants down (wouldn’t be the first time) and they’ll look into carrying the real deal by the time “coming soon” switches to “in stock,” especially since they’ve given the Touch Dual the same courtesy.

[Thanks, Mark]

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Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds

Here’s a little trivia - bamboo is a type of grass and not a tree, and it is one of the fastest growing grass in the world when it works at it. Hence, the Vers 2x Bamboo Sound System that is made from the highly sustainable, renewable material that augments whatever audio which comes out through it.

The Vers 2X is designed with a more sustainable mind-set, with wood selected from managed plantation sources, 100% post-consumer recycled packaging materials and energy-efficient components. The Vers hand-crafted wood ipod sound system brand was founded in 2007. The company’s first product, the Vers 2X, is offered in four hand-crafted wood finishes (Bamboo, Walnut and Dark Walnut available late October) and is distributed internationally in thirteen countries.

Folks who have more than just a passing feeling for Mother Nature can always pick up the bamboo-built Vers 2x for $179.

Press Release

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A few weeks ago, you probably remember when Archos announced their new line of Internet Media Tablets. A few days later, the Archos 5 was on sale at Amazon, but it wouldn’t ship until 2-4 weeks later. Finally, the wait is over, the Archos 5 has begun officially shipping from all major retailers.

The Archos 5 comes with a 4.8 inch touch screen and is Wi-Fi capable. It also comes in three different models, a 60GB, 120GB and a huge 250GB version. The 60GB costs $349.99, the 120GB costs $399.99 and the 250GB costs $449.99. If you have a big media library with a lot of videos and music you may want to get the 250GB. If you have an average media library then the 60GB and 120GB models are probably enough. It will be interesting to see how the Archos players do compared with the new 120GB Zune, and the expected new Apple gear.

Read [Archos]

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When you’re feeling the need to cook up something, especially if you’ve never cooked it before, you’re likely going to need a timer.  Now, the odds of only having to time one item are fairly slim.  Actually you might need to time several things.  That is unless you have the scheme set up and down to an art.  However, trying to create something new, you’re unfamiliar with it and likely will want to make sure it’s timed correctly.  Well this cute little timer has been designed with the idea that we do indeed cook more than one thing at once.

They feature a highly retro design and are created with two timers.  One on either side, so you can set it to go off for two different items.  That also means you can likely have a third timer going on your oven and, hopefully,  will have everything covered.  It comes in two different colors, red and a mint green.  They will keep time for you for up to 55 minutes, which should keep most meals covered.  They are made out of metal and sadly are currently out of stock.  However, the site claims that typically they get more within 2-4 weeks.  When you do check back to try to pick one up it will cost you $16 from Uncommon Goods.

Source: Cribcandy

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How many of you still tune in to your once-favorite DJs at a local radio station? Not many, I suppose, what with the advent of MP3s as well as podcasts and Internet radio. I must say that with speeds of Internet connectivity getting faster and faster all the time, Internet radio is starting to look all the more attractive to just about any and every layer of society, so one might as well keep up with the times by jumping onto the Internet radio bandwagon. But how do you get started, you ask? The answer is as simple as bringing the Morphy Richards Internet Radio home.

As long as you have a Wi-Fi internet connection set up at home, this smart internet radio automatically detects your network connection and hey presto, you have access to over 4,000 radio stations from all over the world. Tune in from the comfort of your home to a radio station anywhere in the world. You’ll find all radio stations conveniently listed by genre and country for fast browsing using the user friendly controls on the front of the Wi-Fi radio, and you can save up to six favorite stations. All the nation’s favorites are on there such as BBC Radio 1 to 5 and you can even listen to BBC Radio shows from the last couple of days through BBC iPlayer! An available line in lets you connect your ipod or mp3 player to the Wi-Fi radio and play your favorite tracks through the internet radio speakers, and a handy SD card slot can be used to play music. You can even play music from your computer through the Internet Radio via a Wi-Fi connection! Order your Morphy Richards Wi-Fi radio now and tune into any radio station, anywhere in the world.

This puppy can be yours for £54.95 a pop.

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by Darren Murph, posted Sep 7th 2008 at 1:00PM
CEDIA 2008 was a whirlwind of new projectors, HDTVs and all sorts of other wares that home theater freaks just love. As always, we were here in the Mile High City covering every minute, but we completely understand if you missed anything. Just in case, we’ve compiled a summary of what all happened here in Denver, and make sure you head on past the break for the rest.

Hands-ons

Hands-on: Sony shows off prototype 400-disc Blu-ray Mega Changer
Hands-on with LG’s BD300 Netflix / Blu-ray deck
Hands-on with the THX-certified QuietHome door
Hands-on with Niveus Media’s Denali, Rainier and Cargo media wares
Hands-on with Sony’s SXRD BRAVIA VPL-VW70 and VPL-HW10 projectors
Hands-on with Hitachi’s 1.5-inch thick plasma prototype
Hands-on / a look within Pioneer’s Elite BDP-09FD Blu-ray player
Hands-on with Toshiba’s SRT REGZA HDTVs (and other old crap)
Eyes-on with Sony’s BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray playerSony’s VAIO JS, LV and RT all-in-one desktops hands-on
Sony’s BDV-IT1000ES and BDV-IS1000 HTIB systems hands-on
Panasonic’s DMP-BD35 / DMP-BD55 Blu-ray players hands-on
Sony’s high-end SCD-XA5400ES SACD player eyes-on at CEDIA
Panasonic’s PZ850 VIERA plasma hands-on
Sony’s 240Hz KDL-52XBR7 / 9.9mm KLV-40ZX1M HDTVs hands-on
EI breaks the 8 CableCard / 10 Extenders barrier too with Life|media 810
Sharp’s AQUOS BD-HP50U / BD-HP21U Blu-ray players eyes-on
Sony’s WiFi-enabled VAIO CP1 hands-on
Sony’s NHS-A30C / NHS-70C AV racks and HomeShare hands-on
TiVo HD XL DVR hands-on at CEDIA
JVC’s DLA-HD750 / DLA-HD350 1080p projector hands-on
Sony’s STR-DA6400ES and STR-DA5400ES receivers hands-on
Panasonic’s PT-AE3000 1080p projector eyes-on
Sherwood’s BDP-6003 Blu-ray player hands-on
Universal Remote’s MX-450, MX-880 and MX-6000 hands-on
Cambridge Audio’s 640BD Blu-ray deck hands-on
Belkin’s FlyWire hands-on at CEDIA
Kaleidescape’s 1080p Player / Mini Player hands-on
JVC demonstrates prototype wireless HDMI box, plans to launch in Q1 2009
Panasonic holds live tru2way demonstration on TH-50PZ80Q plasma
Integra quietly launches DBS-6.9 Blu-ray player at CEDIA: hands-on
Crestron’s home automation iphone app demoed at CEDIA
Gefen’s UWB / WHDI-based wireless HD solutions face off at CEDIA
Velodyne’s latest subwoofers at CEDIA: eyes-on

Booth tours

SpeakerCraft CEDIA 2008 booth tour: it’s a jungle in there
Bowers & Wilkins / Rotel / Classe CEDIA 2008 booth tour
Harman International CEDIA 2008 booth tour
Control4 CEDIA 2008 booth tour
ZeeVee CEDIA 2008 booth tour
projectiondesign CEDIA 2008 booth tour
NuVo Technologies CEDIA 2008 booth tour
Runco CEDIA 2008 booth tour

Announcements and everything else

Read ‘em all right here.

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Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Sep 7th 2008 at 10:52AM
If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on the voluminous 120GB Zune, the wait appears to be coming to a close. According to an Amazon page that just went up, the player is in stock and available for your ordering pleasure right this second. And hey, check out those savings!

[Via Pocketables]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Paul Miller, posted Sep 7th 2008 at 10:24AM
Archos fan-site Archos Lounge lived up to its name this week and threw down a 300,000 page review on the new Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet. We won’t tear down the whole thing here, but the primary takeaway seems to be mixed. Apparently the new processor on board really souped up the thing, but Archos skimped on the software, shipping what basically amounts to a buggy beta. That’s no small criticism for Archos from its number one fans, so let’s hope the company gets its act together fast. The review is in French, but there’s an unboxing vid after the break, in that universal language of nerdery.

Déballage de l’Archos 5 / Archos 5 unpacking
by ArchosLounge

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Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 7th 2008 at 7:37AM
Really people, enough is enough. Death threats? Seriously? According to a fresh report from the Telegraph, gurus working on the mysterious Large Hadron Collider are receiving all sorts of strange messages, e-mails and faxes as the go-live date (this Wednesday, supposedly) draws ever closer. For those curious about why some folks are up in arms over this thing, we’ll simply point you to this very informational rap video; for those opposed to nerdy hip-hop, let’s just say its primary goal is to “seek out new particles including the long-awaited Higgs boson responsible for making things weigh what they do and the possible source of gravity called dark matter.” Somehow or another, the paranoid among us think that carrying out those tasks will rip the world wide open or leave you stuck in 1990 with nothing in your CD player but Ice Ice Baby. Okay, so maybe that last scenario is worth getting worked up about.

[Via TGDaily]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets