Best Gadgets World

Are you at a loss on keeping your stuff organized? Well, the Portable Electronics Charging Station is definitely here to lend you a helping hand.

The Portable Electronics Charging Station keeps you neat and organized. Thoughtfully designed for recharging cell phones, PDA’s, MP3 players and more, this sleek-looking valet will keep your desk or dresser from looking like a spider web of wires and cords. Comes with a built-in power strip with surge protector hidden in back to simultaneously plug in three electronic devices. A flip open tray in front features discreet recessed notches for easy access to the power cords. Also, includes fabric-lined handy storage bin in back and front drawer, ideal for storing small personal items like jewelry or keys.

It comes with a built-in power strip with surge protector and is made from wood. Inside, you’ll find a fabric lined drawer and trays. Looks like the perfect Father’s Day gift to me, but unfortunately it is out of stock until the 11th of this month at a $29.99 price point.

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There’s no doubt that the iphone-mania is hitting the web big time. Apple rivals have been trying to steal some publicity hype away from the iPhone by preempting the WWDC announcements where Apple is expected to announce the new iPhone. Take the case of Samsung’s latest mobile phone, the i900. It was not that long ago that rumors about the i900 began to surface. A Chinese site even have a hands-on report with the actual unit. But Samsung, knowing that Apple’s iPhone is about to take the center stage any moment now, decided to officially announced the Samsung i900 which is now also called the Samsung i900 Omnia.

So what does this Windows Mobile 6.1-powered i900 Omnia has in store for us to make it worthy of matching up with the 2nd generation iPhone? We’re afraid to say that it actually does pack up some pretty great features that could give the iPhone, whether the older or the new 3G version, a run for their money. The i900 Omnia packs of a 5-megapixel camera, a 3.2-inch WQVGA display, an optical mouse, geotagging features and a built-in GPS receiver.

In addition, the Samsung i900 also boasts of quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support including HSDPA at 7.2mbps. Plus, Samsung even throw in an FM radio with RDS, stereo Bluetooth (A2DP), Wi-Fi and a built-in accelerometer.

Certainly you can’t find most of these features in the upcoming iPhone. But the most important feature of the i900 that makes it worthy of being compared to the iPhone is its touchscreen feature. Samsung has ported is TouchWiz technology into the i900 for a touchscreen user interface.

Didn’t we tell you that the i900 is being touted as an iPhone competitor? If you need another affirmation of this fact, then don’t be surprised when we tell you that it will be available in Europe sometime in July, almost the same time as the new iPhone will be released.

Via [GSM Arena]

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A survey published last week revealed that 55% of Americans who have HDTV don’t know what Blu Ray is. Of those who did know, just 9% plan on buying a Blu Ray player anytime soon.

Considering that Blu Ray and HDTV go together like french fries and ketchup, it’s a shame people aren’t more aware of - and more enthusiastic about - the new DVD format. Unless you only ever rent movies from iTunes or have no interest in films whatsoever, it’s hard to avoid ads for Blu Ray movies in every video store on and offline. There can’t be many stores wihtout a small but prominent Blu Ray section, and I’ve seen more than one confused customer try to check out a Blu Ray disc when they don’t have the capacity to play it.

In short, it’s worth learning what Blu Ray means. And if you have splashed out big bucks on a high definition (HD) television, it’s worth thinking about investing in a Blu Ray DVD player.

Carry on over the cut to learn what Blu Ray is, and why you might want it…

Online demos for the Nokia E66 and E71 have recently surfaced and offer up a very good look as to what we can expect once these handsets are officially available. With these great leaks, I would not hesitate to think that these demos will not last online very long, until Nokia gets wise and pulls them down. Better check them out while you can. Hopefully this leak means that we can expect the official release coming soon.

Read [E66 Demo] Read [E71 Demo] Via [MobileCrunch]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 9th 2008 at 4:07AM
When you’re looking to set a record this is how you do it. Not only has IBM’s Roadrunner supercomputer come on-line, it’s now the world’s fastest — twice as fast as the old BluGene/L champ — and churning through 1.026 quadrillion calculations per second. The $133 million supercomputer achieved the milestone with the help of 12,960 “improved” Cell processors (yes, like those powering your PS3) and a smaller number of AMD Opteron processors — 116,640 processor cores in total. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon your perspective), Roadrunner is for military use only so you’ll have to solve the traveling salesman problem on your own time. While not quite into Exaflop territory, we’re definitely on the way.

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 9th 2008 at 2:04AM
In an extremely brief statement, Acer says to have “settled all ongoing patent litigation with HP.” The confidential settlement wraps up months of legal wrangling that kicked off in March of 2007 when HP accused Acer of infringing upon 5 HP patents related to “DVD editing, processing ability, and power consumption and efficiency.” Acer then countersued, and so on. While it’s unclear if any fault was admitted, we’re certain that a handful of patent lawyers from both sides are sipping at their 60-year old Macallan in a fit of haughty disdain for corporate executives at this very moment.

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jun 9th 2008 at 1:27AM
The last time we checked in with Thecus, they’d broken off a five-bay NAS called the N5200. Well, it appears the company upped the ante just a touch at this year’s Computex with its new array — an eight-bay monster known as the N7700. The massive storage appliance doesn’t seem to deviate from the previous model much, utilizing a Celeron CPU to control the system, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, and a wide variety of RAID options (0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD). We don’t have word on pricing or availability just yet, but hopefully the archiving of your of “films” and “music purchases” can wait.

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Filed under: Storage

FROM APPLETELL - I absolutely love the WWDC. I’ve never been to one, most likely never will be to one, but I absolutely love it. I love it because it’s the future of the Macintosh and all things Apple. I should point out now that this article offers no speculation on an iTablet… MORE »

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Realtek Semiconductor Corp. from Taiwan has just rolled out a fair number of new reference designs that boast Wireless USB Host and Wireless USB Docking Station functionality. This development is very much welcome, as it enables PC OEMs to have the industry’s widest portfolio of complete end-to-end single-vendor solutions for wirelessly connected docking stations. These reference designs will greatly speed up the development process while enabling customers to roll out solutions to the market in a swift and decisive manner. To know more about the Wireless USB Docking Stations, head on after the jump for an excerpt from the press release.

Wireless USB Docking Stations extend the convenient docking station concept by adding wireless functionality, providing the ideal way to manage USB peripherals, video & audio, and Ethernet through a single unit. Wireless operation untethers the office environment user, allowing a notebook PC to be placed anywhere on the desk or in the office, and further simplifies the user experience with automatic connection and disconnection. With full support for multimedia functionality, wirelessly connected docking stations enhance the home entertainment center experience, adding convenience and eliminating clutter.

Those rocking with notebooks have a trio of new reference designs to choose from, based on a couple of Realtek Wireless USB host controllers:

• RTU7305 Wireless Host Controller Interface (WHCI) host controller, certified by USB-IF, plus RTU7012 dual-band WiMedia ultra-wideband physical layer (PHY) chip, in single-sided Half-MiniCard form factor
• RTU7305 plus RTU7012 in ExpressCard form factor
• RTU7300 Host Wire Adapter (HWA), certified by USB-IF, plus RTU7012 in USB Dongle form factor

As for the Wireless USB Docking Station, a reference design was announced based on the dual-band capable, USB-IF certified single-chip Realtek RTU7105. Among the features of the Wireless USB Docking Station are :-

• VGA or DVI ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet 10/100 port, Microphone In and Stereo Out ports
• Resolutions supported: up to UXGA (1600×1200 pixels) or WSXGA+ (1680×1050 pixels)
• 2.1 stereo speaker compatible - Dolby Pro Logic support
• 10/100Mbps Dual Speed Ethernet

Press Release

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I don’t think it will be an everyday situation when you find that you’ll need the Lil Guppie Multi-tool to get you out of a tight spot, but somehow having this item around makes me feel safer, knowing I have an avenue to bail myself out of sticky situations that requires tools of some sort.

The adjustable wrench on the Lil Guppie Multi-tool opens to 10 mm so it can be used for light repairs and assembly jobs. The carabiner is great for attaching to a D-ring, belt loop or backpack. The high-carbon stainless steel blade has a razor sharp edge and can be opened or closed with one hand. The tail of the Guppie is a flat blade screwdriver that can handle smaller size screws in a pinch and the base of the jaw is a Phillips screwdriver. The curved fin is a built-in bottle opener. The Guppie also comes with a detachable stainless steel pocket clip that makes a great money clip.

In essence, it packs in a steel blade, an adjustable wrench, a carabiner, a flat screwdriver, a Phillips screwdriver, a pocket/money clip, and a bottle opener when you get thirsty after finishing all that hard work. $19.99 is the asking price.

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