Best Gadgets World

Posted Feb 8th 2008 4:16PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Wearables
We’ve certainly seen our share of wearable cameras and CCTV gear, but a company in England called WCCTV is aiming to combine the worst qualities of each with the 3G Covert Backpack, a torso-mounted vest with built-in camera and 3G modem. We’re not exactly sure how “covert” a giant vest with a camera sticking out of it is, but assuming you make it into your mark’s back-alley lair, the vest will transmit audio and video over 3G to your handlers, as well as your GPS-tracked location. If things get hairy, there’s a panic button — but it’s located on the right shoulder, so smacking it is just about as discreet as yelling for help into the camera. Of course, you could always just chuck the enormous waist-mounted battery pack and control unit at your assailants while you wait for help to arrive — or you could slip any number of video-capable cellphones into your shirt pocket and, you know, actually be discreet.

[Via picturephoning]

Plaxo, the online contact management service is rumored to be getting purchased by none other than Google. The deal is said to be sub-$200 million, but details are still lacking, recently a Plaxo representative declined comment stating that the company does not allow for comments based on rumor.

You may want to head on over to Plaxo and grab an account just in case this rumor does turn out to be true, remember based on Google’s previous purchase history a lot of their newly acquired company’s close their enrollment shortly after the deal is closed.

Via [Wired]

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Scientists from both the US and Canada have managed to develop a brand new accessory that generates energy which could be used to power portable devices in the future, and this very accessory must be strapped onto the knee. Sounds like a no-brainer to help keep your BlackBerrys and PSPs juiced up at all times if you’re the type who tends to do a whole lot of walking. This modified knee brace comes equipped with a drive train that is capable of converting mechanical energy into electricity, collecting lost energy whenever a person brakes the knee after swinging the leg forward to take a step.

This works in a rather similar fashion as that of how regenerative braking charge batteries that are found in hybrid cars. According to Arthur Kuo, a mechanical engineer at the University of Michigan, “There is power to be harvested from various places in the body, and you can use that to generate electricity. The knee is probably the best place. During walking, you dissipate energy in various places, when your foot hits the ground, for example. You have to make up for this by performing work with your muscles. We believe that when you’re slowing down the knee at the end of swinging the leg, most of that energy normally is just wasted.”

So far initial tests have shown that a single minute of using this device will be able to produce more than enough juice to charge up to a whopping 10 cell phones simultaneously - that’s a whole lot by any standards. I believe that those who head off to the gym and love running on the treadmill won’t have any problems with flat batteries once they’re done with their daily regime. This modified knee brace might feel rather uncomfortable at first, weighing 1.6kg. Not only do you generate energy while using this, it also helps you burn more energy to lose weight simultaneously. What are some of the other more innovative ways you can think of to juice up your gadgets in a green manner?

Source: Red Orbit

I recently purchased Guitar Hero III for the Wii the other day, and it is now my number one distraction. It isn’t hard to see why this game has swept the nation. Something happens when I pick up that Guitar Axe, and I’m hypnotized once the notes start flowing. Of course, I cannot play a real guitar, but it feels like I can do. Not only that, I feel like I can play so well that I am a rock god.

A company called Game Tank wants to take the Guitar Hero concept to the next level with a game appropriately titled Guitar Rising. Guitar Rising doesn’t need any special Axe to work, but uses a real guitar. All a user has to do is connect the audio input to their PC using direct audio in, microphone, or even the ¼ inch-to-USB adapter.

From there, the player must match their strumming and chords to the Guitar Hero-like streaming music sequences. Guitar Rising has many tunes, as well as beginner and experienced difficulty levels.

Guitar Rising was recently unveiled at the Independent Game Conference in Austin, Texas. It has already won the Developer’s Choice Award by popular vote, and will hopefully be a hit when it is released in the fall.

Source

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?

One thing to consider is that at $129, it will at least make a good upscaling DVD player. Don’t forget that you still get 5 free HD DVDs whenever you purchase select players (which includes this one).

Source: EverythingUSB

NXP Software has just announced that it will be throwing in its LifeVibes MusicPlayer to accompany Samsung’s new SGH-F250 cell phone. The LifeVibes MusicPlayer concept is known to be a unique, cost effective software mobile music solution which brings high end MP3 functionality on baseband platforms to the pockets and hands of end users, all without the help of a media co-processor.

This truly complete and pre-integrated middleware solution supports local playback, downloading and streaming, and offers dedicated features for easy navigation. It is also compatible with both Windows Media and 3GPP playback, instantly making the MusicPlayer a hit due to lower development risks as well as costs and increasing the speed of time-to-market. In addition, MusicPlayer also works just fine with both Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WM DRM) and open-standards OMA DRM (versions 1 and 2). This compatibility offers access to a vast choice of songs and playlists, along with their associated metadata. Since it is also compliant with Microsoft’s PlaysForSure and Napster OTG, you will be able to sleep easy knowing that virtually all compatible content will play on the SGH-F250.

Some of the comprehensive navigation controls found in the LifeVibes MusicPlayer include start, stop, pause, jump and next song. With the inclusion of metadata support, one can also be assured that all songs will appear in the navigation without giving two hoots on where their source is nor where they are stored. Heck, a bunch of post-processing features is touted to offer sparkling listening sessions, with a natural 3D effect for headphones and stereo-widening for true stereo reproduction to boot despite being in an environment that contains closely-placed speakers. The Samsung SGH-F250 music phone is more than able to take full advantage of these mentioned features, thanks to its dedicated music playback navigation keys located on the front and the ability to store a maximum of 1,500 tracks in various formats.

Press Release

Just recently we told you about the ongoing campaign to help “save Windows XP” from its certain death. As it stands now Microsoft will stop issuing new licenses for XP as of June 30, 2008 and based on their latest response it seems that date will hold true.

A Microsoft spokesperson recently stated that they are “aware of it” when referring to the campaign, and went on to state that they are listening “first and foremost to feedback we hear from partners and customers about what makes sense based on their needs.” Well at last count the petition had just over 75,000 signatures on it, if that is not enough customer feedback than I am just not sure what they would be looking for.

Via [PC Pro]

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Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business International Marketing Director John Starkweather has recently confirmed that talks were taking place between Microsoft and Nokia. Could we possibly see a Windows Mobile based Nokia device in the future? While the talks are there I would not expect to see it, especially anytime soon.

John mentioned that while Nokia has “significant investments in Symbian … there are a lot of places where we have significant synergies and we would love to see the day where those synergies would extend completely with Windows Mobile.” Of course he later went on to mention that “It’s something we talk about all the time.” Personally I think if Nokia went with Windows Mobile they would have a lot of angry Symbian fans on their hands.

Via [IntoMobile]

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A UN report has stated that because of mobile phones and internet access the gulf between rich and poor nations is narrowing, with 58% of cell phone subscribers world wide coming from the developing nations.

This should only be seen as the green shots of recovery though as while technology is credited with boosting development in poorer countries, according to the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), it also warned that the digital divide still meant the gap between the rich and the poor is still a big divide.

Examples in the report include:

• In Africa, where the increase in terms of the number of mobile phone subscribers and penetration has been greatest, this technology can improve the economic life of the population as a whole.
• In rural communities in Uganda, and the small vendors in South Africa, Senegal and Kenya mobile phones were helping traders get better prices, ensure less went to waste and sell goods faster.
• A study of Thai manufacturing firms showed that a 10% increase in computer literate staff produced a 3.5% productivity gain.

This all seems like good encouraging progress to me.

Via [BBC]

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With a still undecided format war, many of us are unwilling to commit to either of the next generation formats. So until we can get a winner declared the best options seem to be a combo drive. Thanks to Plextor you now have two more options, they have just released the PX-B920SA and PX-B300SA. According to Plextor both drives will be available in late-February but no pricing information has been announced.

Both drives offer SATA Blu-ray/hd dvd playback. The PX-B920SA offers BD-R writing at 4x, DVD’s at 16x and CD-R’s at 40x and can also read HD DVD. The lowered spec’d PX-B300SA will also write to DVD’s at 16x and CD-R’s at 40x, but cannot write to BD-R’s.

Via [EngadgetHD]

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