Best Gadgets World

With the AppleTV “take 2” still not available, Vudu seems to be willing to put up a strong fight to remain in the market. It was just last week that Vudu lowered their price by 25% and have now added more HD content.

A new update, that will bring the software to version 1.2 will add about 80 more movies and also adds an on-screen broadband instant-HD indicator. The movies are priced starting at $4 each, which is comparable to the AppleTV pricing. The indicator will help the instant start movies by giving users an alert as to whether or not their current broadband speed will be able to handle the movie without any delays in watching. It also has a recommendation option that will help you choose the best movies based on your broadband speed. Like other competing services, the eventual winner will come down to who has the better user experience and more available content.

Read [Wired]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 3:27PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Robots, Wearables
Apparently somewhere along the way Dean Kamen’s robo-prosthestesis came to be called the Luke arm (care to guess why?), and according to the IEEE Spectrum blog, it’s gearing up to undergo Food and Drug Administration trials pending DARPA’s final thumbs-up, which would put the project in motion. Be sure to check out the rest of the profile of the arm’s development, which is well worth the read.

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 6:31PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Solar’s had a pretty rough time breaking the ~40% efficiency level over the years, but Idaho National Laboratory researchers have apparently developed a nano-antenna array capable of collecting power not from photonic energy as is done today, but from infrared energy that could be harvested in any weather (or even at night). The cell production process is even supposed to be ridiculously cheap compared to making standard silicon photovoltaic cells, but, as always, there’s a rub. The grid collects its oscillating IR energy at ten thousand billion times per second, which is proving to be a challenge to the nerds behind the tech, who are working on a way to convert that to the 50-60Hz power that the world uses. So yeah, it might be a few more years before this one pans out (if it does pan out).

[Via EcoGeek]

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 4:47PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds, Peripherals
Legitimate (read: legal) Famicon support for your DS Lite may seem like a dream come true for the retro gamer, but Cyber Gadget’s Cyber Famulator Lite might be a little much to ask for all but the geekiest. You have to strap on a (barely) pared down “famiclone” system onto your cute little portable, but pulling out and blowing into a dirty old Metroid cart on the go will no doubt be a privilege for some.

[Via ExtremeTech]

Dementia due to Alzheimer’s Disease is a terrible thing to witness on a loved one. Scientists from the University of Sunderland in the U.K. claim they have the answer to the problem.

The answer comes in form of a hat which is to be worn for ten minutes everyday. Creators claim that the hat bathes the brain in infrared light which, in turn, stimulates growth of brain cells. This new technology, if successful, could not only slow down rate of dementia but even, to a certain extent, reverse it. Critics express their doubts at the hat’s efficacy and underlying mechanism. According to the Health Blog in WSJ, however, there is a possibility that that this might just be true, although studies on infrared have only focused on strokes before.

The scientists who came up with the device have already performed lab experiments although it would take more time for this new technology to be confirmed as true and viable. We could only wait and see.

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 11:41AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: cellphones
We don’t yet know for sure what’s up, but we’re hearing that customers of Voce, the luxury MVNO based on AT&T’s network, woke up on February 1st to zero service, dead customer service lines, and even some crazier claims like being double-billed for the final month of service. We gave their sales lines — usually the very last thing to go down — a ring, and got no reply. It’s possible this could be some kind of huge misunderstanding and outage on Voce’s part, which we do hope it is, because if they did shut down they certainly did so in about the most abrupt, impudent way imaginable. Either way, looks like guys are going to be out for the count — we wouldn’t exactly expect a mobile phone provider to go completely dark, ignore its customers for days, and expect to retain any business.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 8:38AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
For Rock Band players that have also had some experience with a bona fide six-string, getting used to that plastic strum bar can take some work. For one gamer in particular, he decided to spend that time doing something a bit more productive than getting acclimated, like adding in an actual guitar string. There’s also a switch mechanism that gets triggered by said string, which then sends an input to the game. Pretty swank, we say — check out the video for yourself after the jump!

Canon HV30 Camcorder is one of the revolutionary collections of Canon’s greatest camcorder product series. The major point concerning in Canon HV30 Camcorder is its HD 3-CCD image sensor at its core and its better video quality, even under low-lighting conditions. Its new 30p recording feature has pronounced better online video production supporting a halfway house between full 60i and 24p recordings. The miniDV solution of Canon HV30 Camcorder has profound effect on tape offering upgraded pros than DVD like better image compression via HDV, instant archiving and a higher drop-resistance.

Moreover, due to its SD card, experience of capturing still photo is also enjoyable. Its LCD screen undoubtedly falls under mentionable attribute for a wider acceptance angle and decreased solarisation problems.

Further, Canon HV30 Camcorder is up in market with few more features like 30p model and both automatic and manual control options. With the battery life of one hour, this easy to carry camcorder is gaining the attention of any kind of buyer.

<!– ch_client = “mmliewcf”; ch_type = “mpu”; ch_width = 468; ch_height = 180; ch_color_title = “0065CE”; ch_non_contextual = 1; ch_default_category = “200001″; var ch_queries = new Array(”Canon HV30 Camcorder”); var ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length)); if ( ch_selected

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 5:51AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Household
Frankly, we’re not totally sure we actually long to “create a physical link between our virtual and real identities” — you know, we like to keep that stuff pushed far, far away from the forefront of our minds — but if we ever have a change of heart, it seems the Wable will be right there waiting. This unique “table,” as it were, sports four bars that raise and lower automatically based on the activity from web applications such as Plazes, Flickr and Last.fm. Beyond that, it doesn’t seem to add too much more value to one’s life, but if it’s the simple things that keep you smiling, check out a remarkably unremarkable video of it after the jump.

[Via Core77]

Never in my life have I seen the same computing product get more hardware changes than software updates. Yes, I’m talking about Sony’s playstation 3, a product that is now starting on what can only be described as its third major retail beta program… with a fourth supposedly in the works.

According to an Engadget report, Gamestop has done everything but dole out the ISBN numbers on the packaging for the still unconfirmed 120GB Playstation 3. Was 80GB too small for their top tier PS3? No, of course not. It was too small to also be bundled with the new DualShock 3 controller… the controller that should have been bundled with all PS3 models to begin with. Sorry to everyone who bought an 80GB PS3 in the last few weeks. No refunds or exchanges please.

Thinking about picking yourself up a new 20, 40, 60, 80, or 120 Gig PS3 in the coming months and want to know which is the safest buy? Click on through to find out.

Read the rest at TechLore.com