Best Gadgets World

When it’s not playing music or a video for you during sanctioned “breaks” at work, what is your ipod nano doing? Considering how brazen it became after slimming down, my guess would be that it’s just lounging on its back and falling asleep due to inactivity.

It’s time to teach that lazy player a lesson. I mean, if you have to work, why shouldn’t it? Snap it into one of these apple-shaped kickstand hard cases ($14) from USB Fever, set it up next to your computer, navigate to the Photo menu, and press play. Voila! Your nano is now serving as a digital photo frame instead of dozing off and contributing nothing to society. And by “society,” of course I mean your entertainment needs.

Available in pink, black, crystal clear, and apple green.

Via GeekAlerts.

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 22nd 2008 at 5:42PM
Archos just launched its new GPS In-Car Holder for the Archos 605 WiFi. True to its name, the unit holds the 605 in your car and pipes steaming hot GPS data into the unit. With that 4.3-inch LCD to view the maps it’s certainly a fitting match, and features include full voice navigation. There are three versions of the device, one for Europe, one for North America and one for China, and all of them will work with all sizes of the 605 WiFi. It’ll be available in May for $130, or bundled with a 30GB 605 for $400.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: GPS, Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 22nd 2008 at 1:22PMUsually, when a product is officially announced, the veil of mystery surrounding it is lifted, but that’s not the case with Dell’s new Dell 500 laptop, which the company announced in India today in conjunction with the opening of a new factory in the country. As you may recall, we previously heard that Dell was all but set to introduce a new budget-priced 8.9-inch laptop, and it seems like this could well be it, although we don’t have so much as a screen size on this new model to confirm that possibility just yet. Still, the Rs 24,500 price tag (just over $600) is at least in the same ballpark, and the choice of Windows XP Home or Ubuntu Linux only would seem to suggest some Atom-level hardware. Apart from that, the only details the company seems to have deemed fit to announce are an 8-in-1 card reader, some direct media playback buttons, and a “host of wireless access options.” Leading us to suspect that it might not be the same 8.9-inch laptop, however, is the fact that this one is apparently intended specifically for emerging countries like India and China, which doesn’t exactly match up with Michael Dell’s comment that the company was readying an answer to HP’s Mini-Note, though we suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how things shake out.

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Filed under: Laptops

While we have heard the rumors, it now looks like it will soon be official. During a recent conference call, the CEO of Netflix, Reed Hastings announced that because Blu-ray discs cost more money to purchase, that they need to charge a higher rental rate for them. He also went on to state that “consumers are used to paying more for high-definition.”

Personally I think consumers are used to paying more to own high-definition, I am not so sure how eager they will be to pay more to rent it. Currently Netflix has a small amount of subscribers who choose Blu-ray over standard DVD’s and with a price increase it seems that small percentage will remain small.

While the statements from Hastings seemed pretty clear that the price increase was going to happen, there has not been any official statement as to just how much the increase will be. As for when it will take effect, customers can expect to see it “later this year.”

Via [Crave]

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HTC officially announced the P3470 back in early February and we are now seeing it launch over in India. The Windows Mobile 6 Professional, touchscreen based, GPS equipped smartphone is currently available through authorized retailers for 19,900 INR, which is about $500 US.

In addition the P3470 will also retain the previously mentioned features, which include a 2.8-inch 240 x 320 display, 2-megapixel camera, quad-band GSM connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0, 256MB internal memory with a microSD card slot for additional storage as well as USB support.

Via [softpedia]

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This strange looking device is actually quite neat. It’s called the Bedfan and it’s meant for those of you that are ‘hot’ sleepers and need a bit more airflow around you but perhaps without the noise and space requirements of a floor standing fan. Also, this can be geared specifically for 1 sleeper, particularly useful if you share the bed with your significant other and they don’t want this additional air.

The Bedfan runs on just 12V via an AC adapter and pulls in air from under your bed and pushes it where you direct it, perhaps in between your bedsheet and blanket. The speed is adjustable and it can pump out 100 CFM of airflow.

The picture below will give you a better idea of how this works.

It easily installs without tools. Just place the bracket in between your mattress and box spring.

Gimme!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $99.95
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

via OhGizmo!

Posted in Gizmo of the Day, Home Automation

Filed in archive Tutorial by jim on April 23, 2008

<!– <rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.digital-shot.com/50226711/control_white_balance_in_your_digital_photographs.php” trackback:ping=”http://www.creative-weblogging.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.pl/120999″ dc:title=”Control White Balance In Your Digital Photographs” dc:identifier=”http://www.digital-shot.com/50226711/control_white_balance_in_your_digital_photographs.php” dc:subject=”Tutorial” dc:description=”" dc:creator=”jim” dc:date=”2008-04-23T00:00:03-08:00″ /> –>

While the "Auto" setting on most digital cameras usually provides good results under normal lighting conditions there are other controls you'll want to know about.

Sooner or later most amateur photographers, whose goal is to do produce more than basic snapshots, will start playing around with his or her camera's more advanced options.

One of the easiest of these to master is the "white balance" control found on all but the most basic of digital cameras.

Simply put this setting allows you to remove unrealistic color casts, so that objects which appear white in person are rendered white in your photo.

Here's an excellent article about white balance in digital photography and this link takes you to a free tutorial about digital camera white balance control.

Take a camera with you whenever possible, and look around, you'll find a picture somewhere.

Source:www.photoaxe.com

Yes, now this is important geek news! Dilbert.com now has all kinds of cool Web 2.0 type stuff to keep you nice and occupied during your ‘downtime’ in your cube while you’re at the miserable place called work.

What’s new? Mashups. You get to fill in the dialogue for a partially filled in strip. Next up will be the ability to completely write the dialogue for an entire comic. Apparently, Scott Adams himself will be joining in the fun (he writes a good blog, btw).

Oh yes, archives will now go back all the way to 2001. Sweet. Now I won’t have an issue passing the time at that place called… what? Oh yes, ‘work’. Never liked the stuff I had to do there anyway.

via Webware.

Posted in Computers, Networking & Internet

Recently, at the Display 2008 expo trade show in Japan, Sony released an new “ultra-thin” OLED that is only 2mm thick. In addition Sony showed the newest version of the 11″ XEL-1 which is the world’s first mass-produced OLED TV. This latest version measures only .3mm in thickness which is better than the current model’s bulky 1.4mm.

Not about to go into commercial production, but an even thinner 3.5-inch prototype display was shown off that measures a mere 0.2mm (0.008in) and features a 320 x 220 pixel resolution.

Source: Pocket-Lint

Posted in Audio/Video, Home Theater

by Paul Miller, posted Apr 22nd 2008 at 11:14AM
Dell is busting out a “Flamingo Pink” version of its much-loved XPS M1530 laptop, but unfortunately for any prospective buyers there aren’t any pictures of the thing yet. We’re sure it’s magical. Just like Midnight Blue, pink will cost you $25 extra.

[Thanks, Brett]

Update: Somebody apparently from Dell said this picture of the laptop was making its way around the office. We can’t imagine why.

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Filed under: Laptops