Best Gadgets World

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 6:46PM
A few dubious screens from Apple’s upcoming OS X mini-update “Snow Leopard” popped up the other week, but now we’re staring at a full-on collection of shots from the folks at German site Apfeltalk. They seem legit enough, but given the fact that Snow Leopard’s improvements primary are under the hood, there’s not a ton to see. Most interesting is a new Safari feature to “Save as Web Application,” which creates a Safari-lite, double-clickable application out of any webpage. Google Docs, anyone? Other features shown off in the screenshots include Exchange integration and Javascript benchmarks, but it’s clear to see that Apple has perhaps a tiny bit more in store for Snow Leopard than what it’s letting on.

[Thanks, John]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 8:18PM
Nintendo talks a big talk, but has never invested heavily in actually protecting its systems from those nefarious homebrew junkies. While the Wii Menu 3.3 did slightly break the Twilight Hack, it didn’t even bust up folks who already had the hombrew channel installed, and its protections against further hacks were minimal. Now the HackMii folks are back with Twilight Hack v0.1beta1, which bests Wii Menu 3.3, along with some other improvements for homebrew usage. We can’t tell if this is incompetence or benevolence on Nintendo’s part, or perhaps these hackers are just that good, but either way we’re lovin’ it JT-style.

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Filed under: Gaming

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 3:50PM
iriver’s Lplayer, which we just got done handling ourselves, made it over to the review crew at PC Magazine. As expected, both design and interface were smiled upon, and critics also felt the price was fair. Upon using the admittedly wee device, they seemed to have problems getting the click buttons to respond like they wanted, but aside from that, hardly anything negative was said. The broad codec support was praised, the built-in equalizer worked as advertised and the FM tuner / voice recorder were welcome extras. All in all, it was seen as a worthy rival to the ipod nano, and if you’re the type that prefers something different in the pocket, this puppy just might be the ticket.

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Filed under: Podcasts, Portable Video

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 5:18PM
Sure, you’ll be able to pay out the nose for a Vista machine with a XP Professional “downgrade” soon enough, but Dell just pushed back its cutoff for straight-up XP machines. They’ll be selling select Inspiron and XPS desktop with whatever flavor of XP you choose up until June 26th, at precisely 6:59AM EST. Naturally after June 26 you’ll be able to buy a Vista Biz or Ultimate machine and downgrade to XP Pro, but we’ll hope it doesn’t have to come to that. We heard that one guy even got a printer to work with Vista. Things are looking up, folks!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Desktops

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 12:40PM
These days, it’s pretty wild and crazy if a PMP manufacturer manages to do anything different than what’s already out there, so we’ve got a soft spot for Shenzhen’s EM-2811, being sold as the “Latte ICE.” Sure, nothing spectacular, and the 1GB-4GB capacity is seriously amature hour, but we like the look of the device, and the interface is pretty strong for a no-name DAP. There’s a miniSD slot to overcome that capacity handicap, a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, FM radio, voice support, AVI / MPEG video playback, and a built-in speaker. Tetris is included, but with the button layout we’re hoping they can finagle a couple emulators on there. Battery life of 4 hours video and 8 hours audio is painful, but overall the Latte ICE isn’t at all bad for a $70 starting price. Video is after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Paul Miller, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 12:40PM
These days, it’s pretty wild and crazy if a PMP manufacturer manages to do anything different than what’s already out there, so we’ve got a soft spot for Shenzhen’s EM-2811, being sold as the “Latte ICE.” Sure, nothing spectacular, and the 1GB-4GB capacity is seriously amature hour, but we like the look of the device, and the interface is pretty strong for a no-name DAP. There’s a miniSD slot to overcome that capacity handicap, a 2.8-inch QVGA screen, FM radio, voice support, AVI / MPEG video playback, and a built-in speaker. Tetris is included, but with the button layout we’re hoping they can finagle a couple emulators on there. Battery life of 4 hours video and 8 hours audio is painful, but overall the Latte ICE isn’t at all bad for a $70 starting price. Video is after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Omar Khan, an 18-year-old student from Coto de Caza, California attempted to pull a move straight from the movie War Games. And I am not referring to the whole “lets play Global Thermonuclear War” incident, but instead the hacking into his schools computer to change his failing grades to passing grades. Mr. Kahn was “allegedly” changing his D’s and F’s to something a little more positive, A’s. Wow, talk about an improvement, you would think he would have settled to at least pass and just move them up to a C in an effort to avoid detection. But instead he went all the way up, because it seems his intention was not only to avoid failing and the potential summer school, but to get into a good college. I can only assume that he would have continued to hack his grades after he started college as well.

Then to make matters worse, he also changed the “transcripts of at least 12 other students” from his school as well as installed a malware program so he would not have to worry about gaining access to the computers in the future. His criminal behavior came to an end when he requested a copy of his transcript, possibly to mail off to one of those colleges he had hoped to get into, you would have thought that with his regular access he would have taken care of the printing himself.

What really gets me is that, assuming you are smart (and I use that term loosely, because he did get caught) enough to do this, why could he not have just studied and actually passed the classes in the first place.

As a result of his actions he has been charged with 69 felony counts that include identity theft, computer fraud, falsifying a public record and second degree burglary. All said and done he is facing up to 38-years behind bars. At least he will not have to worry about getting into college any more.

Via [CrunchGear]

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by Nilay Patel, posted Jun 21st 2008 at 2:30PM
Brain-computer interfaces have been popping up left and right lately, but the latest system from Germany’s Technical University of Braunschweig, might be the silliest one we’ve seen so far. While the system doesn’t involve the careful placement of electrodes, it does require you to don a large metal helmet fitted with sensors, which can even detect brain activity through hair — and makes you look like Magneto on a bad day. The system is solid enough to allow test subjects to control an RC car and researchers say the tech is similarly applicable to wheelchairs and prosthetics. Yeah, that’s great — we’ll stick with the dangerous neurosurgery implantation over this contraption, guys. Video after the break.

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

Samsung has unveiled their latest specialty handset, the gold plated edition SGH-D780 DuoS, which is a follow up to the standard (non limited edition) model that was released in May. The SGH-D780 is a dual GSM SIM capable handset that offers the ability to have and use both SIM cards at the same time. The SGH-D780 has triband GSM 900/1800/1900 GPRS/EDGE connectivity and features a 2.1-inch QVGA TFT display, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, FM radio and a microSD card slot. The handset also comes with a 1200 mAh battery. The gold plated SGH-D780 DuoS has also become the official handset of the Russian Olympic team.

Via [unwired view]

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So, you’ve holed up in your room for a whole weekend and now feel like you’re a spy yourself. But a spy isn’t a spy without technology to back him/her up. First thing on the list? Spy camera.

You’d want something inconspicuous–an everyday item which no one would suspect. A pen, perhaps. But why go for a pen when you can go for something that looks like a packet of gum? This Mini Gum Camera Recorder is a spy camera with a built-in 2GB memory. It can record in real time 3gp format video with a less than 500KB per minute file size. The device charges via USB, and playback is as easy as plugging it in your mobile phone or PC. Anyone can be a spy with this baby, you just have to pray nobody picks it up and tries to eat it!