Best Gadgets World

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 2:22PM
It looks like Nyko’s nunchuck controllers for the Wii could possibly be getting a whole lot more limited, at least if a recently filed lawsuit plays out the way Nintendo would like. As Bloomberg reports, Nintendo is claiming that Nyko’s wireless Kama nunchucks not only infringe on its trademarks for the Nunchuk name and packaging, but that they wholly appropriate the “novel shape, design, overall appearance and even the color and materials used in the Nintendo Nunchuk controller.” For its part, Nyko is not surprisingly only saying that it has “not knowingly violated anyone’s intellectual property,” and that they’re “still examining this.”

[Via Wii Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming

You’ve got a beautiful backyard, with a gorgeous pool and a deck large enough to size a decent sized party, but something is missing from this luxurious scene. Where is the multimedia? A bunch of people standing around chatting on a pool deck can only steal the crowd’s attention for so long. And a music system blasting cheesy classical music can only accomplish so much.

If you’ve got the money, why not add an awesome theater system to go along with your poolside facade? The Backyard Theater System is an all-in-one unit for displaying video on a large screen on your very own property. Awesome for both sporting events and movies alike, this theater system from Frontgate offers the very finest of outdoor displays.

The theaters incredible 720p digital resolution 12-foot wide screen is completely weatherproof, which means there’s no inflatable parts which have to be messed with everytime you want to watch video from your poolside. It takes just 20 minutes to assemble and dissemble the full product. The system ships with a pair of 80 watt speakers and a Epson MovieMate 72 projector for producing a theater-quality experience.

It’s all easily transportable with an included travel bag, and the Epson MovieMate even features wheels for easy movement. With a retail price set at $2,999, you’ll be spending less than you would be on a theater system for inside of your home, which is pretty incredible if you ask me.

Product Page via Baller House

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Verizon Wireless has announced that it will soon be coming out with a new plan designed for small business customers that will give them unlimited calling features to five numbers of their choosing, which would cost them $5 per line. If this new plan seems a little familiar to you, chances are you have been using it before in the guise of Alltel’s MyCircle Plan.

For those who may have forgotten, Verizon has recently acquired Alltel for $30 billion. With such an investment, it’s no wonder that Verizon is not wanting to waste any time in taking full advantage of what Alltel has to offer.

Although the new plan may seem a good bargain for customers, it is however limited to subscribers of Verizon’s Freedom for Business unlimited long-distance service. So, any calls to the five lines coming from a Verizon Wireless cellphone will not count against a customer’s wireless minutes.

The new unlimited service plan comes as a welcome addition to Verizon’s string of services. However, we are hoping that Verizon will offer it as well to regular customers and not just to business plan subscribers.

Via [unwired view]

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 11:22AM
Okay, so that was eerily fast. Merely two days after ASUS’ Eee PC 1000H went on sale in Taiwan, the cats over at TweakTown managed to secure a unit and curb their excitement long enough to unbox the thing, snap some photographs along the way and even capture the experience on video. Here’s a hint: it’s an Eee PC, it has a 10-inch display, and it’s leaving its original packaging. Video after the break.

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Filed under: Laptops

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jun 13th 2008 at 7:57PM
Word in the OSX86 world is that a new product will revolutionize (and simplify) the process of installing OS X on a PC — and that product is called the EFiX. The USB dongle allegedly pops into a free port and allows you to install the retail version of the Mac operating system on just about any system by automatically locating the proper hacks and drivers needed. Famed OSX86 hacker Netkas has demoed a beta unit on video (which you can see after the break) and claims that it’s working as it should. The manufacturer is aiming to have models available for purchase by June 23rd… barring any more “sabotage.” This sounds like a much more reasonable solution than marketing a Mac clone — feel free to send one our way whenever you like guys.

[Via Boing Boing gadgets]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

We have had our eye on the very impressive Samsung SC-HMX20C full HD (1080p) camcorder since the start of the year when Samsung announced this beauty. For most people, HD is the king, and in particular 1080p in h.264 is the very best available, allowing you to record amazing HD quality yourself. The Samsung SC-HMX20C camcorder looks great and is a handy size, fitting easily into most hands.

The lightweight Samsung SCHMX20C features a huge 8GB of built in storage space for recording upto 90mins of Full HD glory (longer in lower formats), and also supports accepts both high capacity SD and MMC card formats. As well has featuring full HD recording, or 1080i(60i) or SD 720 x 480, the SC-HMX20C can also shoot still shots in 1920×1080p 4mega pixel mode.

The Samsung SC-HMX20C is not just about the HD recording, it also features a 10X high quality optical zoom and a massive 100x digital zoom lens to get you closer to the action than ever before. The 2.7-inch touch screen LCD and handy swivel handgrip makes it easy to capture all angle shots with minimal effort, allowing you to guarantee that the image is recorded just how you want it.

From using the built in HDMI connection the Samsung SC-HMX20C connects and works perfectly with your HDTV, bringing you HD video and audio from the same cable to your TV or other AV components. You can also connect the SC-HMX20C to your computer via the USB 2.0 port to upload movie clips and photos for viewing and or editing.

The Samsung SC-HMX20C HD Camcorder should be available very shortly for around $799. Samsung SC-HMX20C page.

Toshiba has just announced that it will be releasing the industry’s highest-capacity series of SATA 1.8″ hard drives, bringing 5,400 RPM performance in single-platter 80GB and dual-platter 160GB models. These new hard drives are meant to deliver market-leading capacity, high-performance and durability in a diminutive package, targeting space-efficient mobile PC systems. Guess well will see more mini notebooks and other such portable media players with larger capacities without a huge bump in price sometime in the near future thanks to Toshiba.

The storage capacities offered by the 160GB MK1617GSG and 80GB MK8017GSG mirror those of larger form factor HDDs, while reducing the storage footprint by nearly 40 percent compared with the 2.5-inch form factor. Combined with the new micro-SATA connector, Serial-ATA 1.5Gb/s interface and 5,400 RPM spin speed, the MKxx17GSG series offers small and light-weight solutions at increased data transfer rates for enhanced performance in sub-notebook PCs. To develop these products, Toshiba applied an extensible platform approach that features a shared architecture base with the company’s landmark 2.5-inch HDD product line, ensuring cross-platform compatibility. This approach allows the new 1.8-inch HDDs to leverage proven technologies, as well as certified compliance to the Serial-ATA 2.6 specification.

How do you see this release affect the gadget and computer world? Which are the gadgets that you would like to see most featuring a larger capacity? Do you think a hard drive based iphone is a viable idea, compared to just using (relatively) more expensive flash memory inside? Well, just mark August 2008 in your calendars if you’re looking forward to these new Toshiba hard drives as both the 80GB and 160GB models will ship to PC manufacturers and distribution partners then. Maybe those China-made portable media players will put up more a fight now by including hard drives instead of being capped at a measly 4GB memory.

Press Release

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Granted, cell phone displays these days on the high end segment are able to display a whopping 16.7 million colors, and that specification doesn’t really matter since the display is so small to begin with. What about your monitor? Surely it can do more than that, but HP’s latest offering will definitely put whatever number your monitor can muster to shame. The new HP DreamColor Display (we mentioned it briefly earlier this week) is a new LCD screen which is able to offer a whopping 1 billion colors at the very minimum in a 30-bit, LED-backlit display. Of course, it would be a waste to purchase this just for word processing and surfing the Internet, so you must realize that this targets those who deal with plenty of colors in their everyday work including designers and animators. This phenomenal display is now shipping worldwide for $3,499.

How did this monitor come about anyways? Well, it is but the result of an unprecedented technology collaboration with DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., helping address an increasingly critical need for affordable and consistent color accuracy in the animation, game development, film/video post, broadcast, product design and graphic arts categories. The HP DreamColor breaks new ground as for the first time in mankind’s history, we will have a color-critical LCD display that is affordable enough (relatively speaking) to be placed on virtually every desk, resigning color checks, redesigns and multiple proofs to history.

The HP DreamColor display was designed for professionals for whom accurate color management is a must have, while consumers who have pockets deep enough and want the very best in technology innovations will find the HP DreamColor display more than suitable, achieving over 64 times the colors available on mainstream LCDs. This means reds, blues and greens are visibly deeper, while blacks are four times darker and whites are adjustable.

Press Release

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We have reported about some advancements in Pong before, so I figured we should also report about advancements in ping-pong. Okay, that was a weak introduction, but I believe that Robo-Pong 2040 is the best thing to happen to ping-pong since the paddle.

Robo-Pong could easily play the main villain in a Balls of Fury sequel in the ultimate battle of man vs. machine. Robo-Pong wields a gun that fires ping pong balls at its human opponent at varying speeds, and can even do fast chops and shallow spikes. With a top serving speed of 75 miles per hour, Robo-Pong would give Forrest Gump a run for his money. “That’s all I got to say about that.”

Unlike the automatic servers that tennis players use, the Robo-Pong won’t be running out of balls anytime soon. Once the player hits the balls back, they are collected in a net and put back into the shooter.

You can purchase the Robo-Pong off the official site or by calling 877-55-ROBOT. It costs about $700, but you can set up an easy payment plan.

I have included this video below so you can see it in action. Listen closely to the narration, as it makes it sound like you will finally be able to face an opponent as tough and soulless as the Terminator.

Source

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The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan has successfully developed a small box-like display device which is able to conjure up 3D images on a palm, and has dubbed the device gCubik. The gCubik displays 3D images, enabling multiple people to view it simultaneously from various angles with the naked eye, doing away with the need for pesky glasses and the like. This development is made possible thanks to an applied technology of “integral photography method,” a kind of multiple-lens method. lcd panels are used in all three sides, measuring around 10cm x 10cm and being adjacent to each other, giving the illusion as though there’s a 3D object within.

Source: Tech-On

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