Best Gadgets World

by Joshua Topolsky, posted May 28th 2008 at 1:40PM
Word on the street is that Google just busted out a live demo of the oft-rumored HTC Dream doing its Android-flavored thing at the company’s I/O conference in San Francisco. Reports tell us that the device is a roughly 3-inch by 5-inch touchscreen phone with a slider keyboard. Not a lot is known right now, though apparently the device packs an accelerometer which allows you to tilt the unit to scroll across Google Maps or Street View. A video is on the way, so stay tuned for more information (and images) as we get them.

Update: Video after the break!

Read - Android demoed at Google IO
Read - Screenshots: Google’s Android comes to life

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Filed under: cellphones

Digital Trends reviews the Helio Mysto and writes, “Snap is the camera function, and its 2 Megapixel power is fine, especially with the flash included on the back. Snap can also be accessed quickly using the camera button on the right side. The visuals are slightly above average, and the Mysto will automatically assume you want to send it to someone after its taken – by default a digital mailing screen will pop up for easy email attaching or uploading to a Flickr website account.”

Read more about the Helio Mysto.

by Darren Murph, posted May 28th 2008 at 8:54AM
Although we’re still waiting for WiMAX to really crash the party, WiNetworks is way ahead of the curve with its Win7200. The Pico Base Station was designed to provide “optimized indoor and outdoor WiMAX coverage,” and is available in the 2.xGHz and 3.xGHz (802.16e Wave 2) frequency range. The single-piece device promises to sip power and stay tight for use in cramped environments, and it’s also crafted to play nice with existing network equipment and provide interoperability with third-party WiMAX-certified gear. To date, a price has yet to be divulged, but the outfit will be proudly showcasing its new toy at the WiMAX Forum Global Congress and CommunicAsia late next month.

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Filed under: Wireless

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted May 28th 2008 at 7:48AMAh, summertime. Hot dogs, baseball, beer, bikinis, submersible pool speakers. Yeah, we said that. This speaker, called the Weatherproof Submersible Wireless Speaker (bonus points for creativity, guys) from Grace Audio is good for up to 9 feet of underwater music fun. The turtle-like unit connects to any music source up to 150 feet away, runs for about six hours on a single charge, and will set you back around $149 with additional speakers for $99 each. Up to ten speakers can be chained wirelessly for the ultimate sub-surface disco bash.

[Via Crave]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

The garden gnomes at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have built a walkway through the trees nearly 60 feet off the ground. Dang. The exchange rate is probably going to prevent me from treetop walking this summer at least, but it’s got to be an extraordinary experience.

The walkway is also structurally extraordinary. The walkway design, carried out in steel, is said to be based on the Fibonacci number sequence. (Starting with 1, each new number in the sequence is the sum of the two before it: 2, 3, 5,8,13….. No prize if you can figure out the next one.)

Here’s what the Kew says about it:

The ratio provides a perfectly proportioned growth pattern. This sequence is used for the spacing of the connection points for the diagonals of the walkway trusses. The 12m long trusses are connected to circular nodes which are in turn supported by pylons. It provides a seemingly random, natural appearance that in fact comes from a clear underlying geometry.

A slightly spooky aspect of the Fibonacci number sequence is that it’s not uncommon in nature, for example in plant branching patterns and number of petals on some flowers.

I believe that I have mentioned on Coolest gadgets just how much I love Guitar Hero. Just playing the game makes me feel like a huge rock star.

I have yet to play the similar game of Rock Band, which allows you to use a guitar, drum, keyboard, and microphone. The game has been selling as good as Guitar Hero, and encourages playing in a group instead of solo.

Whether you play solo or in group on these musical games, a new product has come out that allows you to go with that “I want to be a rock-and-roll star” aspiration.

So far, there has been very little information given about the The Stage Kit, a peripheral for Xbox 360’s Rock Band. From what we can see, it appears to have some kind of strobe light, and what looks to be some kind of fog machine effect.

After all, what is a rock band stage show without strobe lights and smoke effects? All that is needed now is a laser show and some type of Iron Maiden monster. The Stage Kit does appear to have what looks to be some kind of newfangled wireless controller of some type.

We’ll find out when it gets released on August 15th, for about $100. It is available for pre-order on the Gamestop site.

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Digital Trends reviews the HTC Touch Dual and writes, “The 2.0 Megapixel camera lacks a flash, a surprisingly omission for a phone of this caliber, but otherwise the HTC Dual Touch does the job. Press the camera button on the side – or go through the menus – and the screen turns into a viewfinder. (It should be held horizontally, like a traditional camera.) You can attach the photo, save it in memory and so on. One odd function is what may be described as a rapid-fire option: the camera will take five photos in rapid succession, allowing you to save the best ones. It’s a nice touch.”

Read more about the HTC Touch Dual.

I’ve never been the type to use emoticons in my IM messages or emails, but I know some people who cannot stop using them.

So why not use them while you are driving? This is the reason the Drivemocion was invented.

The Drivemocion affixes to the inside of the rear car window via power suction cup. It is operated by a remote control for the front of the car that attaches to the front windscreen. All you need to do is press a button to send simple emoticon messages to motorists.

The Drivemocion comes in several models, which have several options for message displays. For example, the original model has a smiley face, winking face, an “Ooooo” face, plus two words of “sorry” and “thanks”.

That is one of the nicer models. Some of you might be relieved or agitated to know that there is a Drivemocion that allows the middle finger to be displayed. For the sake of the more easily offended readers, such as myself, I have chosen not to show the electronic bird.

The Drivemocion uses 4 AA batteries for power, and last for about 4 months. You should be able to get it for about £24.99 on the Au-my website.

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The new Sony Bravia Z / Z4100 series is a new flagship LCD HDTV from Sony, which is available in two large sizes. Both are full HD 1080p LCD HDTVs, the smaller is the 40-inch Sony KDL-40Z4100, and the larger is the 46-inch Sony KDL-46Z4100. Our attention was first grabbed by the Z4100’s in January at the CES (consumer electronics show) and it now seems that Sony are about to let these beasts out to the public next month (June 1, 2008).

Apart from their stunning brushed metal finish, or piano black gloss, and over all excellent design, the Sony Z / Z 4100 series is packed with great features which offer the very best in HD and overall image quality. The LCD screen in both the KDL-40Z4100 and KDL-46Z4100 has the highest Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and is 10-bit along with 10-bit processing for improved color reproduction. Sony’s new Bravia Engine 2 delivers the very best image enhancement technology, reducing noise, enhancing colors and much more. Also featured is Motionflow 120Hz technology which doubles the number of image frames to create a more true, and judder free smooth flowing image, while retaining sharpness and reducing motion blur.

Inside the Sony Bravia Z series we find Sony’s new Advanced Contrast Enhancer (ACE) which intelligently and dynamically enhances the contrast by using real time image processing and automatically adjusting backlight levels, leading to deeper blacks and fine details in shadows and other dark areas. Also featured is 24p support which is the best way to watch film content, as this is the frame rate films are recorded in.

Connections are very good on the Sony Z Series with 4x HDMI 1.3 inputs, 2x component, PC input, DMe, Digital Media Port and DLNA support for media sharing from your PC and network.

Sony Z Series:

• Sony KDL-40Z4100 | 46-Inch, $2,299
• Sony KDL-46Z4100 | 46-Inch, $2,799

After several cries and complaints, Sprint has finally explained its decision to cap its “unlimited” data usage plan to 5GB a month, plus 300MB a month of off-network roaming. According to Sprint, the new limit is plenty enough, since it only affects 0.5% of customers. Sprint also notes that the limit applies to both existing and current consumer and individual accounts, but not corporate, business, public sector, or government contracts. The company states that the Simply Unlimited plan is exempt from the new rule—as the limit only applies to data cards and phone-as-modem plans. Interestingly, Sprint is permitting customers to go over the limit only if they do not exceed the limit in two out of three consecutive months—otherwise, termination is possible. However, Sprint is being gracious enough to inform users of the new limits prior to termination, giving customers a chance to change their usage habits. To aid monitoring data usage, the company will allow customers to check their data usage via Sprint.com starting June 8.

If 99.5% of customers are not going over the 5GB limit, than why is Sprint enforcing it? Granted 5GB of bandwidth should be plenty for most users, is it really worth losing the 0.5% of its “hardcore” customer base? Wouldn’t keeping the 0.5% and removing the limit give Sprint the competitive edge its needs, by being the only wireless provider to offer a true “unlimited” data plan?

Via [MobileCrunch]

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