Gadgets Power

Dreamworks, who had been standing strong with their contract to Toshiba and their commitment to hd dvd have announced their exit plan. Their HD DVD movie shipments will end next week, but the exact release of upcoming titles on Blu-ray has not yet been announced. A few titles that were set for release such as the Bee Movie, Sweeney Todd and There Will Be Blood have all been canceled, and will be released only as standard DVD’s. The last and final HD DVD titles will include next weeks release of Things We Lost in Fire and Into the Wild, somehow I cannot imagine either of them selling that well. Via [EngadgetHD] Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed → Tags: hdtv, D (Read the full post about ‘Dreamworks to begin offering Blu-ray titles’…)

Posted Mar 1st 2008 4:34PM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Misc. gadgetsWe haven’t heard too much lately about the South Korean government’s probe into the Samsung Group’s alleged corruption and influence in the government, but the AP is now reporting those bribes were emanating from a $213 million slush fund the company supposedly set for use in swaying government officials. Various executives have been in and out of questioning with special prosecuters, including Samsung vice chairman Lee Hak-soo, top strategic planner Kim In-joo, and the chairman’s son, Lee Jae-yong, who is an executive and apparently viewed as the eventual successor to the company when his father, Lee Kun-hee, hangs up his money-stuffed envelopes. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung execs called for questioning in continuing corruption probe’…)

Imagine peering into a photo frame only to find out afterwards that there’s someone watching you through it. This is what the Digital Photo Frame Webcam does. It has all the trappings of the spy gadget — if only that camera wasn’t so obvious. The webcam can take photos too, when connected to a PC. The picture viewer itself is detachable from the base. Aside from its basic photo viewer and slideshow function, it also has a built-in calendar and thermometer. A bit more tweak into making the webcam a bit more imperceptible would be ideal, but as of now, I like what I see. (Read the full post about ‘Digital Photo Frame Webcam: A Potential Spy Gadget’…)

If you think motion sickness is the worst thing in the world, try being pregnant, or perhaps go through chemotherapy. The nauseating feeling one gets during pregnancy or after chemotherapy could be so severe that nothing can compare to it. One way to try and curb this sickness is through the use of ReliefBand. According to the company which manufactures ReliefBand, nausea comes from the nerves in your wrist. By dabbing a bit of conductivity gel on your wrist and putting this wristwatch-like device on, your nausea will be cured within minutes. The science behind that is that the device releases electrical impulses which curbs the symptoms of nausea. You can buy one for around 65 here. (Read the full post about ‘ReliefBand: Making Sure You Don’t Need a Barf Bag’…)

USB Desktop Missile Launcher The USB missile launcher is the perfect defence system operated from your computer. Plug it in, take aim with the mouse, fire. Tags: sat-nav, mobile phone, tests, mobile devices (Read the full post about ‘USB Desktop Missile Launcher’…)

Shockball There's nothing quite as nerve-wracking as playing pass the parcel with a time-bomb, or quite as much fun. You can have this for ?14.95 Tags: video game, tests, M4A, technology (Read the full post about ‘Shockball’…)

Posted Mar 1st 2008 1:04PM by Darren MurphFiled under: Transportation There’s a decent chance your average hybrid owner wouldn’t know the difference between a lithium-ion and nickel-metal hydride battery if their life depended on it, but we know you — dear reader — are not one of those “average” joes / janes. That being the case, you may be interested to know that the 2009-bound S400 BlueHybrid is in prime position to be the world’s first production Li-ion hybrid, which will offer up “compact dimensions and far superior performance” compared to existing rivals. (Read the full post about ‘Mercedes S400 BlueHybrid aims to be first to use Li-ion battery’…)

Posted Mar 1st 2008 8:10AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Wireless, Storage You kind of miss the point if you open your Time Capsule after just a day or two, but at least we now know that future generations can, in fact, expect an active drive cooling system (by way of a blower fan).Tags: amps, technology, Hi-fi, Ogg (Read the full post about ‘Time Capsule opened despite it not yet being the future’…)

Another day marks the release of another wireless media streamer. Today, I present to you the Mvix MX-780HD wireless streamer, which promises to transform any home into an HD media database. The box supports file types such as DivX, XviD, AVI, MPEG, WMV, ASF, AAC, OGG, AC3, MP3, WMA and JPEG, not to mention all the others. In terms of operation, the MX-780 takes your hard-drive, and connects via ethernet or Wi-Fi 802.11g/b/n. It wires up to your TV with its 1080p HDMI sockets or coaxial if you are not using an HD screen. The LCD screen on the front is a nice touch, and its use as a control panel should make like a little easier. Its price-tag of $299 means it’s perfect for people on a budget. (Read the full post about ‘Mvix’s new wireless HD streamer’…)

Posted Mar 1st 2008 5:41AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Networking So IBM is apparently working like crazy on some next-gen communications technology that — ready to have your mind blown? — “uses light instead of wires to send information.” We know, this is some crazy future crap up in here, but check it out. Apparently this so-called light-based communications system is supposed to be ten times more power efficient than others in its class, and can transfer data at speeds far greater than our current 4Mbps token-ring networks and even the next-gen 10BASE2 Ethernet (as if!); if optical data communications are actually real, well, it’s just in time because we’ve been seriously maxing out our Tandy 1000 playing MUDs. (Read the full post about ‘IBM’s “green optical link” promises one second movie downloads’…)