Best Gadgets World

by Ryan Block, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 3:14PM
We’d already heard the Vaio FW and SR series were due in short order, but they’ve since apparently shown up on Circuit City’s site. The pages are down now, but the shots of the 16-inch FW (which looks pretty reminiscent of the old school Vaio Z-series) and 13.3-inch SR are still live, indicating model designations VGN-FW140EH and VGN-SR140EB. We’ll keep you in the know.

[Via Notebook Review]

Gallery: Sony Vaio FW and SR series show up on Circuit City

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 24 Comments

Filed under: Laptops

by Ryan Block, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 7:08PMMetroPCS may not have the largest wireless footprint in the States, but they did take a jab at the larger two CDMA carriers by announcing their intention to take on any Verizon and Sprint customers ready to jump ship — as well as any “compatible” devices they may want to bring along with them. Sprint already supposedly does this (although we’ve still yet to hear of it actually really happening), but the specifics of MetroPCS’s MetroFlash seem equally unclear. It doesn’t sound like they’ll reprogram just any CDMA device that walks through their doors, though, just the ones they’ve had a chance to test on their network. Definitely kills the buzz (and the number of devices that can be ported), but a little open is still kind of better than totally closed, right?

[Via Seattle P-I and Mobility Site]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 13 Comments

Filed under: cellphones

by Ryan Block, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 3:14PM
We’d already heard the Vaio FW and SR series were due in short order, but they’ve since apparently shown up on Circuit City’s site. The pages are down now, but the shots of the 16-inch FW (which looks pretty reminiscent of the old school Vaio Z-series) and 13.3-inch SR are still live, indicating model designations VGN-FW140EH and VGN-SR140EB. We’ll keep you in the know.

[Via Notebook Review]

Gallery: Sony Vaio FW and SR series show up on Circuit City

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 24 Comments

Filed under: Laptops

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 4:53PM
Well, what do you know? That Guitar Hero axe that was spotted a few months back on How I Met Your Mother was actually a sneak peek of the six string that comes bundled with the new Activision title. The unwavering rockers over at FW Labs were able to secure a copy of the game in Chile before most everyone else on the planet, and rather than enjoying their fortune without telling a soul, they decided to snap a host of photos and even upload a few videos of the experience. The new toys in the attic are right there in the read link.

[Thanks, David]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 11 Comments

Filed under: Gaming

by Ryan Block, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 2:09PM
Well what do you know, ZDNet’s German bureau has apparently released a functioning overlocking tool (ZDNet Clock) for Mac Pros and Xserves. Vater Steve doesn’t look kindly upon such things, but with a little luck (and a lot of cooling) you might be able to eke out a few hundred extra MHz from your aluminum clad box without tipping off any Geniuses the next time you bring it in for repair. Unfortunately, for the time being it only appears to work on newer Pros and Xserves — not laptops or iMacs — running the latest release of Leopard.

[Via Computerworld]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 45 Comments

Filed under: Desktops

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 4:53PM
Well, what do you know? That Guitar Hero axe that was spotted a few months back on How I Met Your Mother was actually a sneak peek of the six string that comes bundled with the new Activision title. The unwavering rockers over at FW Labs were able to secure a copy of the game in Chile before most everyone else on the planet, and rather than enjoying their fortune without telling a soul, they decided to snap a host of photos and even upload a few videos of the experience. The new toys in the attic are right there in the read link.

[Thanks, David]

• Read
• Permalink
• Email this
• 11 Comments

Filed under: Gaming

With the absurd increase in gasoline prices almost every week, more and more people will be forced to use buses and other modes of public transportation. Now, here is a very interesting futuristic concept – the Slimbus.

Intended for short distance travel in very crowded urban areas like Tokyo and Nagoya in Japan, Slimbus is only 1.2 meters wide and divided into different compartments. It can easily maneuver and doesn’t take up much space, unlike the regular big buses available now. It’s also quite flexible, and similar to a trains because you can add or remove compartments depending on the situation.

The bummer - all passengers must stand to save space. Then again who needs a seat for a short trip, right? It has a standing capacity of 50 people. Seats are optional in case there are some disabled passengers on board but will reduce capacity to less than 30 people.

Slimbus is a mere concept to date but its potential to minimize traffic in crowed cities is very promising. It’s up to the transportation committees to decide whether this will come into fruition.

Via Tuvie

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

With the absurd increase in gasoline prices almost every week, more and more people will be forced to use buses and other modes of public transportation. Now, here is a very interesting futuristic concept – the Slimbus.

Intended for short distance travel in very crowded urban areas like Tokyo and Nagoya in Japan, Slimbus is only 1.2 meters wide and divided into different compartments. It can easily maneuver and doesn’t take up much space, unlike the regular big buses available now. It’s also quite flexible, and similar to a trains because you can add or remove compartments depending on the situation.

The bummer - all passengers must stand to save space. Then again who needs a seat for a short trip, right? It has a standing capacity of 50 people. Seats are optional in case there are some disabled passengers on board but will reduce capacity to less than 30 people.

Slimbus is a mere concept to date but its potential to minimize traffic in crowed cities is very promising. It’s up to the transportation committees to decide whether this will come into fruition.

Via Tuvie

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Princeton University has become the latest to announce that they have plans to begin offering Kindle editions of their textbooks. Joining other universities such as Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley the Princeton textbooks will be available beginning in the fall semester.

While there was not any mention of the pricing for the Kindle edition books, the nice part here is that students will have a much easier time carrying around a Kindle loaded with textbooks as compared to a backpack filled with textbooks. In addition the built-in functionality of the Kindle should only aid in studying. The Kindle has support to highlight portions of the text, make notes for future reference and even search to find the text you are looking for. While students could always highlight and make notes, the added search should make studying or trying to find something much easier than thumbing through several hundred pages of text.

Aside from hopefully making it easier to study, the Kindle can purchase books from anywhere, which would be nice and also a huge time saver at the beginning of school, no more long lines at the bookstore. Of course, on the flip side, the Kindle edition likely cannot be sold back to get some extra cash at the end of the semester.

Still a worthwhile trade off in my opinion. Hopefully the Kindle will make its way to more colleges across the US.

Read [CNET]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Princeton University has become the latest to announce that they have plans to begin offering Kindle editions of their textbooks. Joining other universities such as Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley the Princeton textbooks will be available beginning in the fall semester.

While there was not any mention of the pricing for the Kindle edition books, the nice part here is that students will have a much easier time carrying around a Kindle loaded with textbooks as compared to a backpack filled with textbooks. In addition the built-in functionality of the Kindle should only aid in studying. The Kindle has support to highlight portions of the text, make notes for future reference and even search to find the text you are looking for. While students could always highlight and make notes, the added search should make studying or trying to find something much easier than thumbing through several hundred pages of text.

Aside from hopefully making it easier to study, the Kindle can purchase books from anywhere, which would be nice and also a huge time saver at the beginning of school, no more long lines at the bookstore. Of course, on the flip side, the Kindle edition likely cannot be sold back to get some extra cash at the end of the semester.

Still a worthwhile trade off in my opinion. Hopefully the Kindle will make its way to more colleges across the US.

Read [CNET]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →