Best Gadgets World

Hitachi have announced the new Hitachi W61H clamshell phone, the main claim to fame of which is a body that can display 95 different patterns on the back at the touch of a button. Similar in concept to Nokia’s old xPress On covers, where you could snap on a new cover to customize your phone, Hitachi’s new design, called “Silhouette Screen” is a little more sophisticated.

Rather than using physical bits of plastic that have to snapped on and snapped off, the W61H uses e-Ink technology, similar to that used in e-Book readers such Amazon’s Kindle. The whole back of the phone therefore acts as a separate display, but rather than displaying info, it simply displays a pattern.

More details after the jump.

This is an interesting use of e-Ink technology. Created for reading eBooks, e-Ink offers extremely high definition and draws virtually no power. As such, a pattern displayed on the back of a phone using this technology would look virtually indistinguishable from the same pattern that was painted on using traditional methods.

I can’t see this being much of a seller, and it certainly won’t change the mobile phone world overnight, but it’s an innovative use of e-Ink technology, and should do well in the younger sector of the market, where customization is a seen as A Good Thing.

The Hitachi W61H is destined for Japan only at the moment on the KDDI network, but if it’s successful, it shouldn’t be too long before similar technology is seen on other phones around the world.

[Source: UnwiredView]

Hmm. Unless you want Child Protective Services knocking on your door, don’t hang a picture of your kids sleeping on these Livingstones floor cushions in your office. Few will believe that these realistic-looking stones are actually made of 100% virgin wool and are filled with hypoallergenic polysilicone fiber.

They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors and are available directly from smarindesign, where you can also obtain a price list. If you can keep CPS at bay until then, the Livingstones should be delivered within about four weeks of placing your order.

Via GEARFUSE.

In case you’ve been looking for a simple way to mix some music, the Micro Mixer DJ-4 can get the job done, but keep in mind this is a very simple system…

Basically, the Mixer DJ-4 consists on a device that has 2 input jacks so you can connect two audio sources, which can be a mp3 player, laptop, etc. There are also 2 volume knobs to control each device, that make all the mixing possible.

There are no special effects, but at least there is the possibility to start a low-budget DJing career for $134, right?

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Posted Feb 3rd 2008 4:03PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Apparently, water is all the rage these days if you want to get a message seen. In Tokyo Bay Monster-fashion (sans holographic video monster), a designer named Julius Popp has created a system of displaying moving text and images using falling drops of water, thus creating a kind of virtual billboard that appears to be hovering in mid-air. The system — called AquaScript — works by utilizing magnet-valves which expel single drops of water on demand; proprietary software syncs the valves into a “freely definable bitmap-muster” which produces blocks of images with the falling liquid. Check the video after the break and see the wetworks in action.

Posted Feb 3rd 2008 1:55PM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Digital Cameras
We already witnessed the overseas announcement of JVC’s palm-friendly GR-D850, but now it looks as if the firm is making it official here in the US of A along with a slightly (and we stress “slightly”) more advanced sibling. The GR-D870 High-Band Digital Video Camera features the same 1/6-inch 680k pixel CCD, 35x optical zoom, 2.7-inch lcd monitor, DV in / out and 3D Noise Reducer, but steps it up ever so slightly by tossing in a SD / MMC card slot for snapping digital stills (up to 640 x 480) while recording footage to miniDV. So yeah, nothing to get too antsy about or anything, but the GR-D870 can be snapped up immediately for a nickel under $250, while the GR-D850 will run you $20 less.

[Via LetsGoDigital]

Gallery: JVC intros GR-D870 miniDV camcorder with 35x zoom

Posted Feb 3rd 2008 11:52AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Laptops
During the recent Greener gadgets Conference in New York, former OLPC CTO (and XO challenger) Mary Lou Jepsen discussed the real-world difficulties with using the kid-friendly laptops, including the creation of an XO “hospital” used to repair broken computers. Apparently, in the crowded conditions of schools in places like Nigeria, the little green laptops have a tendency to be jostled around and even knocked on the floor from time to time. As there’s typically no repair shops nearby, the kids have learned to fix the systems themselves, setting up a “laptop hospital” where they can repair what’s broken using simple tools and cheap replacement parts. Mary Lou says the company designed the systems to be easily fixable, including extra screws embedded in the computers themselves, and allowing for quick changes of the LCD backlight and other components. The in-house repairs cut down on shipping, promote reuse, and increase kids’ understanding of ownership and responsibility, thus furthering the OLPC mission, and making everyone generally want to hug.

What kind of chair do you sit in? I’ve got a pretty decent chair that I’ve had for around five years. It’s nothing fancy, just a black high-back computer chair. If you like to sit in something that differs from the norm, and happen to be an aviation enthusiast, this B-52 Stratofortress Ejector Seat Chair should be right up your alley.

This rather eccentric-looking chair is modeled quite accurately to the ejector seats found in B-52 bombers. I’m going to guess that when you pull on the straps, the seat will still remain firmly planted on the ground.

I’m going to venture a guess that only the most dedicated of aviation enthusiasts will want to pick one of these up. Besides the obvious fact that it’s going to draw a lot of strange looks, it doesn’t appear to have any real armrests. Those yellow and black straps really don’t look too comfortable if you ask me. No word on pricing or availability.

Source: BornRich

Posted Feb 3rd 2008 9:53AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Robots
C’mon, be honest — the unofficial cutoff age for playing with Legos sans kids is sometime way before puberty, but thanks to a new development from Carnegie Mellon University, we adults may soon be able to unashamedly indulge in those desires once more. Posey, hailed as a “hands-on way of interacting with computers,” features a plethora of snap-together, sensor-laden parts that can communicate with PCs through ZigBee. When a user attaches a leg to a body, for instance, an on-screen representation immediately mimics the movement, providing hours of fun and some real promise for future applications. No word on whether these things are set to go commercial anytime soon, but we’d sure love to replace this aging (and seemingly busted) voodoo doll with one of these critters, pronto.

[Image courtesy of Posey Code Lab Wiki]

Posted Feb 3rd 2008 7:41AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Unfortunately, Dr. Chunlei Guo of the University of Rochester hasn’t yet figured out how to turn scrap metals into gold, but he, along with Dr. Anatoliy Y. Vorobyev, has discovered how to colorize a variety of metals. By utilizing a “femtosecond laser processing technique,” the duo has crafted a method for turning even aluminum into aluminum with an impeccable gold finish. Furthermore, they’ve also been successful in turning tungsten dark blue, leaving reason to believe that nearly any metal could be altered to appear as a different color. Ah, just imagine what these folks could do with your MacBook Pro.

[Via The New York Times, thanks Jonathan]

Posted Feb 3rd 2008 3:38AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
You thought the goggles did nothing before? Shine the 38-million-candle Maxablaster and watch as faces melt Raiders of the Lost Ark style under its concentrated mercury arc plasma bulb powered by a 54 battery pack. Right now it’s just the pet project of a Dutch engineer by the name of Ralf Ottow, which is probably for the best, since this would be far more effective at boring holes in concrete than lighting any scene.

[Thanks, Trev]