Best Gadgets World

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 6:30PM
Not to crack open a can of worms or anything, but we’re honestly curious to see what the legions of Area-51 m15x / m17x owners would change about their machines. When launched, both rigs were fawned over for their top-notch specifications, but the m15x hasn’t seen the warmest of receptions from its owners. As you well know, the 17-inch sibling just now started landing on doorsteps everywhere, and we’re genuinely hoping that it doesn’t present those same cracking issues as found on the aforesaid m15x. Beyond defects, we also want to hear what you’d change about a flawless m15x / m17x. Whittle down the weight? Change up the style? Swap out a few components? Go on and let ‘er rip in comments below.

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Filed under: Laptops

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 5:41PM
It may not boast built-in Bluetooth or an array of sensors and motors, but inventor Jerome Rifkin says his so-called Tensegrity prosthetic foot can nonetheless give amputees a more natural gait and make it easier for them to walk across difficult terrain. That’s apparently possible thanks to a unique but simple mid-foot joint, which takes the place of the ankle joint more commonly found in prosthetic feet and creates a flexible arch in the middle of the foot. A range of springs and tensioned cables are used to control it and a second joint at the toe, which simply respond to the natural pressue of walking and adapt to uneven terrain. As you can see for yourself in the video of the most recent prototype after the break, that setup appears to work remarkably well, and Rifkin has even thankfully managed to tone down some of the squeaking noise that plagued earlier prototypes.

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets, Wearables

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 8:24AM
e-Detail’s Prezenter PSR was floating around CES a few months ago, but now it seems that the Korean firm has managed to get its atypical tablet into trials here in America and in Europe. In a nutshell, the dual-screen unit includes a 14.1-inch touch panel that ideally gets pointed in the face of your client; the 7-inch touchscreen faces you, giving you clues on what to say next and enabling the traveling salesperson (still you, bub) to give a presentation without being all up in the area of the potential customer. Specs wise, it runs Windows XP Home and gets powered by an AMD Geode LX800 processor, and there’s also a trio of USB 2.0 ports, VGA output, gigabit Ethernet jack, WiFi and a 1.3-megapixel camera. We’re hearing that it’ll eventually sell for around $1,800, but a US release date is still far from certain.

[Via SlashGear]

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Filed under: Tablet PCs

by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 4:02PM
We caught a brief glimpse of Toshiba’s Sportio W62T when KDDi announced its vast summer 2008 lineup of phones, but the Japanese carrier is just now giving the handset its proper due with an official launch. As the rather unfortunate name suggests, this one’s intended to help you out in your various athletic endeavors, with it packing an accelerometer and built-in GPS to keep track of how many steps you take and how far you’ve gone, as well as how many calories you’ve burned. As if that wasn’t enough, you’ll also apparently be able to “compose music” by jogging along to special tracks. Otherwise, you can expect a 2.2-inch 240 x 320 display, a built-in 1seg TV tuner, a 2-megapixel camera, and built-in Bluetooth — no word on a price just yet though.

[Via Pocket-lint]

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Filed under: cellphones

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 10:46AM
Leave it to QSTARZ to innovate so dramatically upon the tried-and-true Bluetooth GPS receiver design. Okay, so maybe it just created two new 66-channel ones that are exceptionally small. Up first is the new BT-Q1300, a “miniature” device that’s dubbed the world’s smallest travel recorder. Continuing on with superlatives, we see “the best” of the best in the BT-Q890, which measures in at 60- x 40- x 7-millimeters and is somehow also the “world’s smallest GPS receiver.” We’re on to your fuzzy math, QSTARZ, and we don’t like it one bit.

[Via NaviGadget]

Read - BT-Q1300
Read - BT-Q890

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Filed under: GPS

Canadians can now rejoice, well maybe that is a little bit much, but they can now get business listing information by calling 1-800-GOOG-411. The free information service has been available in the US for some time now, and while it is still listed as experimental for those in Canada it does still offer the same features, which include the ability to find and be connected with a local business. When GOOG-411 is called from Canada users will be promoted for their “city and province.”

As of this posting the GOOG-411 service is still just in English, so any French speaking Canadians may have to wait a little longer, however Google has been “working hard to make it disponible en Français dans un proche avenir.” Google has also “incorporated some Canadianisms such as “eh,” “Traw-na,” “Cal-gry,” and, of course, “aboot.” into the service, which should hopefully take any such accents into consideration.

Via [Official Google Mobile Blog]

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by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 11:54AM
Technologic Systems’ TS-7800 ARM9 single-board computer already had quite a bit going for it with its promised 2-second Debian boot times, but the company’s now gone and let loose a new firmware upgrade that cuts that down to under a second — 0.69 seconds, to be exact. As you might expect, that time is helped considerably by being able to boot the OS (Debian Sarge, specifically) off of the board’s 512MB of NAND flash, and in that 0.69 seconds you will only get a linux shell prompt and access to the Busybox file system but, still, it is an OS booted in 0.69 seconds.

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Filed under: Desktops

This portable photo printer looks like a Sanrio lunch bucket for kids, which is perfect actually, as it gives off the impression of something light and easy to carry (which it is). The compact Canon SELPHY CP770 photo printer is one of the newer additions to Canon’s SELPHY line of compact photo printers, and seems made for that person who is just so impatient to print photos that he/she must print while the party is still going on.

The actual printer is the top part of the bucket; the basket space is used to store your paper and other supplies. Comes with an A/C cable, but with an optional Canon battery pack, you can take this anywhere. When you’re ready to print, you can either insert your camera’s memory card into one of the slots on the printer, or print wirelessly from your Bluetooth-enabled camera phone. Maximum paper size is 4×8. Big buttons, large display for previewing your photos (2.5″ TFT display), and automatic red-eye correction make this very user-friendly, even for grandma.

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 11:07AM
Sure, you love your iphone, but did you ever feel like there was just one application missing from the home screen… besides MMS, IM, or a video recorder? If you’re like us, that missing application was a full-featured Packbot control program replete with streaming POV video and a standalone, direct WiFi connection that doesn’t require a proxy machine to pass along commands. Rodrigo Guiterrez and Jeff Craighead — the brains behind this operation — claim that next up they plan to utilize the phone’s accelerometers and a fullscreen video display to deliver a “you are there” experience for bot-steering. Engadget and its team of armed Packbots can hardly wait. Check the video after the break to see it in action.

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Filed under: cellphones, Robots

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 20th 2008 at 8:48AM
Look out 1366 Technologies, you’ve got yet another solar-based MIT spin-off company vying for business in the alternative energy sector. The company’s name is RawSolar, and in due time it could end up selling solar dish arrangements that could power factories or even heat / cool office buildings. Recently, a team of students and faculty celebrated as a prototype dish proved that it could concentrate sunlight by a factor of 1,000, which obviously bodes well for converting that into useful energy here on Earth. Another standout feature of the dish is its small size, and furthermore, the material required to build it is relatively inexpensive and accessible worldwide. Sounds like all the ingredients for a successful startup are there, now we’ve just got to wait and see if anything becomes of it. We’re watching you, RawSolar — don’t let us down.

[Thanks, Spencer]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets