Gadgets Base

We’ve talked before on Popgadget about some of the geek girls who inspire us the most. So when one of those women, Cali Lewis, talked about a site called Nerd Girls, an online community of women tech enthusiasts, I had to take a look.

The site aims to encourage women and girls to get into technology, science and math. The first
Nerd Girls Club was founded by Dr. Karen Panetta, a professor at Tufts University, to empower her female engineering students and challenge the stereotypes about women in engineering.

Why is that important? As the site says:

Tech site RedFlagDeals.com opens the door of a female focused website

Walmart is often accurately accused of having everything you need all in one place.  If you are a Walmart fan for that reason, and you are of the female gender, you might enjoy browsing the aisles of the Scarlett Lounge.  The website is geared toward women—women who love to shop but need just a little more: women who need everything all in one place.

Shopping assistance and product suggestion is front and center on the site.  What is so pertinent about a shopping site for Gadgetell’s female readers?  It is what’s on the rest of the site.

Shop if you want, but you may be more interested in checking your horoscope or the forums and reading money saving tips and product reviews.  For an example of the treasures inside Scarlett Lounge, go by their“Business Class” section, pick “Briefcase,” and be sure to look up “Tech Savvy Chick.” Your travels will land you in the middle of some rather unique electronic accessories to satisfy your tech tastes, in much of the same way as pink camouflage is available for the female hunter.

Site editor, Pegah Aarabi, determines the Business Class section of the website as greatly important for the world of working women and will be updated often. Pegah also states, “Tech Savvy Chick” is just one article, but future product reviews are possible, and sections like the monthly Inspirations column might feature some Tech Savvy Chicks.”

A note to men:  Beware!  Unless you like vibrant pinks, frilly background art, and an overall feminine touch, you might want to steer clear of this girly gear site and spend your time in its parent site, RedFlagDeals.com.  But, if you are feeling brave, browse through some of the electronics showcased on Scarlett Lounge.  You might just find the perfect Christmas present for your tech-loving girl!

Check out the site: [Scarlett Lounge]

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The faucet has got to be one of the oldest examples of technology. I’ve heard that the Ancient Egyptians even had running water. So how can you improve on the simple faucet? By adding an LCD touchscreen and networking it with other faucets in the house.

The Elettronico Faucet, designed by Carlo Frattini, allows the user to control the temperature of his or her water with a touchscreen, which had better be waterproof. The technology is similar to the Bath-O-Matic that we covered a while ago, as you can regulate the temperature and amount of water with a computerized interface.

Unlike the Bath-O-Matic, it doesn’t appear that the Elettronico Faucet has a centralized interface. As I mentioned before, the Elettronico Faucet is designed to network with all other Elettronico faucets in the house.

So if you are doing the dishes, and you want to prepare a bath at the same time, the controls for all of that are at any faucet. I have no idea how these faucets are synced together, wirelessly or with wires around the pipes.

Unfortunately, there is no word on when these nifty networked faucets will be available, or how much it will cost. I definitely think these spigots deserve some points for design. As for the touchscreen, perhaps an iphone could be put there, but it might be hard to talk while the water is running.

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HP and MySpace just announced that they’ve teamed up and the partnership will now be providing the ability to print on all user profiles on MySpace.  Now, true, you could do this yourself before by going through steps of your own and saving things yourself and sending them to alternate programs to then print.  But now, it’s just oh so much more simple.

Beginning in November, MySpace users will see a HP-branded button that says “Click to Print” all over the place, not just their photo album.  It will be in their blog, comments, even the mail sections. 

Plans are to extend this even further by selling personalized merchandise.  The merchandise will have users’ photos on it.  No details have been provided at this time as to exactly what kind of merchandise, but, expect the usual mugs, t-shirts, calendars, that sort of thing. 

I can see this being a huge boon for the multitude of band sites on MySpace, and I’m sure they are loving this move.  I’m wondering though, can someone just click on a site, and decide to buy a mug with someone’s photo on that they don’t even know?  That would be kind of creepy.  I mean, imagine, someone can hit your page, print out your photo, stick it on a mug with the words “my guy” or “my girl” or something.  Ummm….ewwww.  And you know some freak out there will do just that.

The new feature is set to kick in just in time for the holidays here in the US, as well as Canada, Australia and Western Europe.  Get ready to start pressing “Click to Print” and again, you better get ready of any of those risque shots before they end up on someone’s t-shirt.

Via [yahootech]

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Electronics giant Samsung has had its fair share of hits over the years, including a fair number of cell phones that have done pretty well internationally by cramming in as many features as possible into a slim and svelte form factor, while their line of LCD TVs have wowed audiences everywhere, not to mention a wide range of electrical appliances that serve millions of homes faithfully worldwide. How about hard drives? Well, Samsung is making a splash this time round with the S2 and S1 mini portable hard drives that is meant to end up with a road warrior and not to sit down idly at the desk in your home.

First off we have the S2 external hard drive that takes in a 2.5″ hard drive, while the S1 mini is much smaller at just 1.8″, so you can tell that the latter won’t be able to store that much data while you’re on the go, although that doesn’t mean it has diminished performance. Using a USB controller inside the conventional hard drive, Samsung has managed to churn out devices with a smaller case footprint compared to its competitors, while the on-board technology will see a reduction in weight as well as power consumption, helping your notebook battery last much longer while you’re out on the road with the S1 mini/S2 connected. Nice to know Samsung has furthered green technology in both models, boasting a power savings intelligence program that monitors the drive’s use. This technology will coerce the drive into a low power “sleep mode” whenever the drive is left idle for 10 minutes or more.

You will be able to pick up the 2.5″ Samsung S2 in 160GB, 250GB, 320GB and 500GB capacities. Just in case you’re interested in a size comparison, the S2 will be 17% smaller in terms of form factor compared to the rest of its competition. As for the 1.8″ S1 mini, that model is available in 80GB, 120GB and 160GB capacities. Look out for both in the US sometime in the fourth quarter.

Source: Tech On!

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Recently, sports gadget manufacturer Freestyle, has released a new waterproof MP3 player called the Soundwave.  Nope, this has nothing to do with Transformers, unfortunately.  Although bringing your mp3 player while diving or snorkeling is already possible before with the use of third-party waterproof casings, Soundwave Freestyle eliminates the need for those with the Soundwave’s waterproof features that allows it to be submerged down to 10 feet of water.

In case the MP3 player accidentally slips from your pocket, it will float onto the water surface so you don’t have to worry about losing it.  The Soundwave MP3 package also comes with an armstrap which can hold the device securely when you are using it on a rugged environment.

Aside from those features, the Soundwave MP3 is also shock resistant, can store up to 2GB of music, be it MP3, WMA or WMA DRM-ed files.  Complementing its music player is a built-in FM Tuner that comes with channel presets.  It also has a black and blue OLED screen, an internal rechargeable battery, and boasts 18 hours of playback per battery charge.

The Freestyle Soundwave MP3 is available for purchase now and will set you back for $90 if you prefer a blue model or $100 if you prefer you it in camo.  The MP3 package comes with an armstrap, USB cable and waterproof earbuds.

Product [Freestyle]

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Slingbox has just released yet another device for the living room, and this time round, this is a universal media player that will deliver broadcast TV, Internet video and personal content to the TV seamlessly. Fact of the matter is this - the SlingCatcher could eventually end up to be one of the more flexible Internet video devices released in recent memory. Slingbox did go as far as to describe the SlingCatcher being able to stream video from network TV sites such as ABC.com, videon content sites like Hulu.com and CollegeHumor.com, and community video sites such as YouTube.com. With a whole lot of videos for you to view, it makes me wonder whether you will have the time to watch all of them or not, or will it be relegated to certain dusty sectors of your hard drive in due time, ever waiting for “tomorrow” before it is viewed.

One of the most striking features about the SlingCatcher is its ability to hook up to video rental store Netflix, letting you stream movies straight onto your TV as though you were a subscriber to the service, but being the end user, you won’t be able to see anything that happens on the back end as long as the front end segment works fine and dandy, eh? Each SlingCatcher will come with a remote control that enables access and control of virtually any device hooked up to the SlingBox. some of these compatible devices include a DVR, Cable or Satellite set-top box. The good news is this - you don’t have to place the connected device in the same room, as it will work in a different room, another house or even from a remote location. With the addition of a USB port, you can connect a USB hard drive or flash drive to playback video media stored, including home videos, downloaded movies and other content. Native file format support consists of WMV, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264 and XviD, but you can add it extra format support for AVI, VOB, IFO, MPG, MOV and WMA.

Slingbox’s SlingCatcher will retail for $300 and works with both standard definition and high definition outputs. You getting one?

Source: TG Daily

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Recently, a Circuit City flyer showed a new Compaq laptop listing, the Presario CQ70.  This laptop sports a lot of great features and is pretty cheap considering what it comes with.

First off, it runs on Intel’s Pentium Dual Core 2GHz processor, 3GB DDR2 RAM, a big 17 inch screen, with 1440×900 resolution, and comes with GMA 4500MHD graphics processor.  In addition, it comes with a 205GB hard drive, DVD burner, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi capability, integrated webcam, 3 USB ports, VGA port, and comes with a full-sized keyboard.  Since it comes with such a keyboard, it probably acts more like a desktop than a laptop, however, no word on how long the battery life is. 

If you want to order one of these, you will receive a $120 instant savings discount, followed by a $30 mail-in rebate, thus lowering the price to $580.  For all the features included and the price, it looks to be a pretty competitive laptop.

Read [Circuit City] Via [Electronista]

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 8:06AM
It looks like Compaq has added a big-daddy to its line of Presarios just released, tacking on the 17-inch CQ70 to the gang. The new laptop (currently available at Circuit City) sports a 2GHz dual-core Pentium T3200 CPU, 3GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a 1440 x 900 widescreen display, 802.11b/g/n, a 5-in-1 card reader, and a bunch of other expected goodies (you know, like USB ports). The CQ70 is listing for $729.99, but after a series of shocking rebates at the aforementioned giant electronics retail chain, it can be yours for $579.99.

[Via Electronista]

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 12:05PM

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Filed under: Laptops