Suppose you work in a highly secure building that doesn’t allow camera phones through their doors. Nokia is offering a camera-free E51, for users who want full access to high-end mobile features, but who can’t have a camera phone on their daily trip to the office. Running off of the Symbian S60 3rd Edition user interface, the E51 is a business-oriented device offering a wide selection of spectrum support including quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and WCDMA (2100 MHz). The camera-free edition will be available at some point this quarter for around $366. — Andrew Dobrow. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia to offer camera-less E51′…)
Cubite In a world where USB is becoming the source of all power (though no doubt Gandolf may have a thing or two to say about that), USB hubs are becoming a necessity. You can have this for ?29.95 Tags: gadgetry, home theater, amps, plasma (Read the full post about ‘Cubite’…)
I still want to believe that HD DVD is going to pull out of its slump and emerge victorious. Sure, it’s a pipe dream, but I can still hope right? I figured that with the cheaper players, they were sure to come out on top. Well, if you’re still convinced that they’ve got a shot, and you own an Xbox 360, now is a good time to get yourself and HD DVD player add-on. Microsoft has officially announced that they’ve slashed the price of their HD DVD player add-on for the Xbox 360 by $50. Sure, this is likely an act of desperation to move the units before the format dies completely, but there’s always the chance for a miracle, right? (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft drops their Xbox 360 HD DVD player to $129.99′…)
Posted Feb 8th 2008 3:15PM by Paul MillerFiled under: Desktops, Laptops In a memo sent out today by Dell, the company has reassured us that even though AMD is disappearing rapidly from its online store, the company remains “committed” to AMD, and is just “in the process of redistributing its product mix” — whatever that means. But despite those euphemisms, consumers can only buy most Dell AMD systems through a retail store or over the phone. Dell pointed out that it has kept its Energy Star 4.0 Inspiron 531 consumer desktop available online, but most other AMD machines are now just for business customers or those strange creatures that use “phones” and “buildings” to buy things. (Read the full post about ‘Dell confusingly “committed” to AMD’…)
Posted Feb 8th 2008 10:30AM by Paul MillerFiled under: Digital Cameras, Household Everybody knows that if you’ve got real criminals to deal worry about, you buy a gun or a katana. That’s why we’re planning on pointing this “witness camera” DIY project at those little household criminals, like Felix. The project involves a few cheap-as-free components like a VGA CMOS color camera, PIR movement sensor, ATmega32 processor and a 1GB SD card. (Read the full post about ‘Build your own “witness camera;” Felix’s fishnapping days are numbered’…)
If you’re going to build a floating chair, why not make it look as high tech as possible? That’s what Brit company Hoverit has done with its magnetic, levitating chair. Is it a mistake that this picture looks like something out of Tron? No: Hoverit continue to develop and design and engineer their entire range using state-of-the-art CAD software.The Hoverit has big-assed magnets in both the base and the upper section of the acrylic chair to keep it floating. (Read the full post about ‘British Hovering Chair Floats on Magnets’…)
Check out this sultry Samsung slider, dubbed “the Soul”. “Uhn”, as in a James Brown, “uhn”. Samsung is calling this its flagship model, so you can be the price will be on the premium side of things. Samsung will show this phone next week in Barcelona. What sets this phone apart from other good-lookers? Actually a couple of really cool things. Check out the User Created Skins and you’ll create a skin all your own, additionally Sammy packed in different UI themes. A Magical Touch (and yes, they capitalize it, good grief), application specific buttons that change depending on what you are doing. 5 MP camera,7.2Mbps HSDPA and an amp by Bang and Olufsen round out the interesting specs. Looks to be headed to Europe in April. Hot. (Read the full post about ‘Hot new Samsung slider to show next week’…)
The GSMA Mobile World Congress begins in Barcelona, Spain on Monday, and the Gadget Lab will be there, tirelessly investigating the latest in mobile gadgetry and trying to find out exactly why Robert Redford appears on the Congress web page. You’ll be able to keep up with all the news right here, and everything that happens at the show can be found under the new GSMA category. If any Gadget Lab readers are going to be there, drop me a line and we can meet up (my email is at the top right of this page – put Gadget Lab Meet Up in the subject line to keep it out of my Spaminator). If there are a lot of us, we might organize some kind of low key, unofficial event (read: you can by me a cerveza in a local bar). (Read the full post about ‘Gadget Lab Goes to GSMA in Barcelona’…)
Shape-shifting robot forms from magnetic swarmFeb 08, 2008
Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by researchers.
The grand goal is to develop swarms of micro robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together.
Seth Goldstein, who leads the research project, admits this is still a distant prospect.
Research team is using simulations to develop control strategies for futuristic shape-shifting, or “claytronic”, robots, which they are testing on more primitive and pocket-sized machines.
These prototype use electromagnetic forces to manoeuvre themselves, communicate, and even share power.
Posted Feb 8th 2008 4:01AM by Thomas Ricker var Mr. GEOrge HOTz did it again. He just loosed a world of hurt on AT&T with a software unlock for 1.1.3 iPhones. That’s right, the software is said to work on any fresh from the Apple store, shrink-wrapped iPhone sporting the latest 1.1.3 firmware and 4.6 bootloader. Something the AnySim unlock can’t do. GeoHot’s instructions (and dev/elite team smack talk) posted after the break. We haven’t tested yet so as always, take care.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]geohot’s 1.1.2 software unlockyes, this is what you have all been waiting fornow fixed to support 1.1.31. (Read the full post about ‘Out of the box 1.1.3 iPhones now software unlockable’…)
