Best Gadgets World

So sad for those hoping that the blackberry Bold would be landing shortly at T-Mobile here in the US, but instead pricing information has been announced for T-Mobile Germany.

The price is set at €219.95 (about $350 US), which is a bit higher than the $299 that has already been announced for Rogers, which will begin offering their version next Friday on July 25.

T-Mobile Germany currently has the available date simply listed as July, with the option to reserve now, but it is rumored to be coming on July 21, which is this Monday.

Coming back to the US release, at this time we have only seen a confirmation come from AT&T, but they are still having trouble setting an official availability date.

Product [T-Mobile] Read [Mobile Bulgaria] Via [Engadget Mobile]

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by Paul Miller, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 10:38AMDespite AT&T’s best attempts at completely failing its free WiFi promises eternally, iphone owners can finally fire up Mobile Safari in their local Starbucks, or, um, that one other place we heard about with AT&T WiFi, and get browsing. Of course, that’s not to say the service won’t crash horribly in the next 10 minutes, but at least AT&T stuck by its word, and can now move on to more pressing issues.

Update: Yeah, turns out this isn’t true, and AT&T has pulled the page. Free WiFi? That’s just silly.

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Filed under: cellphones, Wireless

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 8:21AMNot that robots with emotions are anything new, but a project going on in Europe could perfect the art of crafting mechanical people that can “learn when a person is sad, happy or angry.” The Feelix Growing project is getting even more advanced with software that gives robots the power to understand how a person is feeling based on feedback from cameras and sensors. The bots look at a human’s facial expression and key in on their voice and proximity to determine what kind of mood they’re in. As with the recently announced UMass Mobile Manipulator, this creature too learns from experience, and there’s a video explaining just what we mean waiting for you in the read link.

[Via Physorg]

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Filed under: Robots

A few weeks ago, we covered Creative’s latest Portable Media Player (PMP), the Zen X-Fi. Believe it or not, Creative has already rolled out another PMP with the Zen Krystal.

The Zen Krystal looks like the Zen Stone Plus with Display (a PMP which I highly recommend), but has a more rectangular look. It appears to only be available with 4GB worth of memory, which is enough for about 2,000 songs. Songs and other audio files are easily downloaded with the drag and drop function with no drivers to install.

In addition to its 10 hour battery life, the Zen Krystal has a lot of other nifty features like a voice recorder and a radio with 32 preset stations. It even has some nifty motion-sensitive games programmed on it like Hurdle Race, Catch & Dodge, and Dice Roll.

It appears that the Zen Krystal is targeted for the sports and fitness crowd. It has a pedometer built-in, which is a first for Creative. It allows you to track your calories burnt, and you can use the stopwatch for your workout with the included bundled wrist strap.

The Zen Krystal just appeared on Creative’s Hong Kong site, and so there is no real word as when it will become available or price.

Source

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by Paul Miller, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 9:52AM
Who needs to be “green” when you can go really, really fast? Well, Shelby Supercars figures it can have it both ways, with an all-electric version of the Ultimate Aero, the Ultimate Aero EV. Seeing how the Ultimate Aero is already the world’s faster production car (at least officially, sorry Buggati), they don’t see it as much of a leap of faith for this new version to carry that mantle into the electric space: “I think we can do it faster, leaner and cleaner than any other manufacturer,” says the ever-modest SSC founder Jerod Shelby. The new car will be powered by a single 373kW electric motor, with a dual-motor “high performance” version being considered, which should give its gas guzzling sibling some serious competition around the track. Testing will begin in February next year, with full production supposed to commence in Q4 2009.

[Thanks, Yossi]

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Filed under: Transportation

Remember all those bizarre Thanko products that were exclusive to Japan?  Well, turns out Thanko is opening up a shop for those of us in the US.  Which is partially great news, because then I won’t have to mess with translating the page just to see the speccs of all their strange products.  It won’t open till August, so as of now we still have to translate things over to English.  Which includes this USB Cooler Mouse.

Thanko seems to think of everything, even those that tend to get all hot and sweaty while on their computer.  The mouse sucks air through the bottom and blows it out directly onto your palm.  When you’re cool enough, you can just shut off the tiny fan and use it as a normal mouse.  The mouse has five different buttons and the extras are programmable.  It is being sold for about $19.  Which isn’t bad considering you get the extra perk of having your hand blown on.  After all, who wants to purchase a normal sized fan and cool off your whole body at once?!

Source: gearlog

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If you’re tired of wandering the house looking for whatever it is that goes bump in the night and having your candle just blow out on you at a very inconvenient moment, you might pick up one of these instead.  Since all of us immediately go for the highly fickle candelabra to inspect a spooky noise in the night, one designer decided to create an update.  I know, some of you might think it’s more reasonable to just pick up a flashlight instead, but that’s just crazy talk.  Candelabras are just cooler.

These LED recreations come in either a color-changing form, where you can flip between all the bright shiny colors or a hand-embellished version.  The hand-embellished one actually features a lace pattern, to make wandering the house at night just a bit more spooky.  The color-changing type is being sold for €200  or $317 and the lace patterned one for €300  or $475.  Which is a bit much to pay for something to just appear as if you’re into modern technology while loving things that came along before such hi-tech things like the light bulb.

Source: technabob

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Digital Foci has announced its new and upgraded Photo Safe II. This portable digital photo storage now either comes in 80GB or 160GB storage capacity and a built-in memory card reader that supports practically all card formats including CF Extreme III, IV, UDMA, MMC, SD/HC card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture card. The Photo Safe II card slot also offers rubber covers for added protection from dust.

In addition to the increased storage and wide range of memory card support, it also has a nifty “Auto Copy” button which copies all the content of a memory card, including all file formats (RAW images and videos) without changing their file name and file structure. Adding more value to the Photo Safe II is the fact that it can be used as a back storage device as well when connected to a computer thought the USB port.

Other features of the Photo Safe II include; fast copy speed, a backlit LCD, user-replaceable lithium-ion battery, high-speed USB 2.0 support, auto shut-off functions as well as full compatibility with Mac and PC.

The Photo Safe II is available now in retail stores and retails for $139 for the 80GB and $189 for the 160GB model.

Via [Imaging Resource]

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 18th 2008 at 4:34AM
So much for early 2008 or even July for that matter. Sony’s David Reeves now confirms that PlayTV — the €99 PS3 TV tuner / DVR add-on — will hit the UK on September 10th. The service will then march onto the continent before completing the European rollout in December — Australia and New Zealand get theirs in January or February. Notably, the service will in fact record television in the background without interrupting your regularly scheduled gaming regimen thanks to the recent 2.41 firmware PS3 update. Phew, for a moment we felt threatened by a lack of manufactured distractions.

[Via gamesindustry.biz]

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

FROM GAMERTELL - Title: The Dark Knight (aka Batman: The Dark Knight, Batman Begins 2, The Dark Knight: The IMAX Experience) Release Date: July 18, 2008 Company: Warner Bros. Rating: PG-13 Length: 142 min (2 hours, 22 minutes) Pros: A lot of great acting, a well-woven story and plenty of psychological creepiness. The… MORE »

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