Best Gadgets World

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 4th 2008 at 12:54PM
All but the most affluent among us have likely purged the pricey Meridiist from our memories, but if you’ve ever wondered what exactly a £2,650 ($5,162) cellphone looks like (and really, who hasn’t?), you’ll definitely want to check this out. The fine folks over at Stuff were able to point their camera at TAG Heuer’s exquisite handset ever-so-briefly, and while the images tell half the story, the folks handling it told the other. The chunky phone reportedly reeked of unnecessary luxury and was built solidly, but we didn’t get the impression that they were champing at the bit to call this a bargain. At any rate, there are a few more shots where this one came from (that would be the read link, for the uninitiated).

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Filed under: cellphones

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 4th 2008 at 9:31AM
Tilt controls might be getting all the fanfare, what with the iphone and Sony Ericsson’s own W760 featuring tilt gaming, but the analog stick still reigns supreme when it comes to getting some actual fragging done. We spotted Zeemote’s promising JS1 mobile joystick back at MWC this year, featuring four trigger buttons and an analog nub, but the little Bluetooth controller is finally getting a release. In fact, Sony Ericsson is giving this thing away in the Netherlands, with the purchase of a W760. Sadly, folks who already own a W760, don’t live in the Netherlands, or just want a stand-alone JS1 for throwing at people or wedging in small crevices are still out of luck — still no word on price or release of the thing outside this deal.

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Filed under: cellphones, Gaming, Peripherals

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 4th 2008 at 11:04AM
Lenovo’s dimunitive X200 finally made the scene just recently after hiding out in the shadows for a couple weeks, and it looks like it’s got a little friend waiting back there as well — some specs for a tablet version of the 12-inch ultraportable surfaced over the weekend. We’re not taking any of this as fact — the spec sheet showed up on the web page for the Hong Kong Baptist University, and it’s accompanied by a picture of the regular X200, so it could just be a mistake — but we certainly wouldn’t say no to a 4-pound tablet with a 1.86GHz SL9400 Core 2 Duo and a 7-hour battery life for $1,339, so we’ll see how this one plays out.

[Via GottaBeMobile]

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Filed under: Laptops, Tablet PCs

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 4th 2008 at 11:28AM
From the same brilliant mind that brought you the RoboStool comes something a bit less useful but equally mesmerizing. Put simply, Norris Labs’ Stonehenge is a robotic time teller which rearranges placards in order to express the current time. The concoction utilizes a CrustCrawler Smart Arm and a Parallax Propeller chip along with 14 cards to display the current time, though it does operate, um, a bit slowly. Ah well, it’s not like you’re in any hurry to see what this thing can do, right? Oh, wait… you are? Head on past the break for a quick look.

[Via OhGizmo]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

If you are headed to the beach, pick up Microsoft’s 10-K filing with the SEC for some light reading.  It’s filled with characters you know and love and their almost comic book struggle to restore peace in the galaxy bring profitability to Microsoft.  If you follow the report carefully, you’ll learn Microsoft is, in fact, a software company.  And what software company doesn’t want to get their applications on the hottest mobile computing device going?

Maybe that is a stretch, but a valid concept just the same.  But what you will learn is that Microsoft sees the vertically-integrated business model of one company (ahem, Apple) controlling both hardware and software as a threat.  And Microsoft’s proposed response (or threat?) is to battle it with marketing and dump the margin. 

…efforts to compete with the vertically integrated model may increase our cost of sales and reduce operating margins

. Interesting.

Microsoft goes on to tell its shareholders to expect “lite” versions of its software at discounted price to compete with open-source and/or freeware.

In response to competition, we are developing versions of our products with basic functionality that are sold at lower prices than the standard versions.

With the Mojave experiment, talk of a Windows replacement, and some “new” thoughts on an internal direction maybe there is life left yet for Microsoft (despite what those posting their thoughts at AppleInsider believe).

Anyone think we’ll see MS office in the App Store before Hades freezes over?

Read [Microsoft] via [AppleInsider]

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With the Steampunk trend still going strong, many are still creating lots of fun things for us to drool over.  This new one has found it’s way onto eBay.  The watch was of course handmade and comes complete with brass hardware as well as little vintage clock parts and gears.  For the watch itself he used a vintage quartz Giani-Giorgio watch.

It will expand to fit wrists ranging in size from 5 ½” on up to 8” by utilizing the two brass buckles on the bands.  Although it appears as if it would be impossible to change the battery on a watch like this.  It’s actually not as bad as it looks, all you have to do is unscrew the two cup-screws.  The band itself is made of three different kinds of thick and soft red-brown leather.  As of now the watch is set at $150 but it has another 3 and ½ days to go as of now.  Which gives it plenty of time to climb to a much more appalling price.

Source: Gizmowatch

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Some time in the future, we will discover an ancient yet technological race of druids who will have their own version of Stonehenge. Instead of a series of stones gathered in a circle as a calendar, this strange futuristic race of druids will have a robotic arm that will rearrange a set of numbered cards to indicate the current time.

The future is now. A clever designer who my source does not name has built the robot arm and the numbered cards for it. It appears that the cards are made of some simple foam with some neodymium magnets to make certain they are put back in the same place every time.

If you want to see this Stonehenge in action for yourself, feel free to watch the attached YouTube video after the jump.

As the video shows, it takes less than a minute to change from 12:09 to 12:10. Granted, that is two numbers that the robotic arm has to shift around, but imagine if it were four, like changing from 11:59 to 12:00? I suppose the user has to account for the time it takes to change the time when viewing this clock.

I suppose this clock is good for getting a good idea of the time, rather than the exact time. However, can you imagine being almost late and you need to know the exact time, and the Stonehenge is locked in a time change? “Come on, hurry up! What time is it for crying out loud!”

Still, you got to admire the designer for rethinking the idea of a clock. I can totally see it in some doctor or business waiting room, for aesthetic purposes only. Hopefully it will come available to the general market in some sort of kit or something.

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It’s a story you won’t be reading in any Agatha Christie novel, but the mysterious allure is just as thrilling as the daily tribulations of Detective Hercule Poirot. It was a pleasant day in August, I remember it well. The day I realized that something was amiss in the city of Cupertino, California.

If you haven’t already noticed for yourself, Apple has been pulling the plug on a few of their most popular iphone applications in their arsenal. It was only last week when the high profile app, NetShare, was plunked from the App Store inventory without a word, and now the popular Box Office application has been ripped from the metaphorical shelves. The really weird thing is that the developers of these apps haven’t received any explanations for the sudden recalls.

Metasyntactic, the developer of Box Office, says that they have attempted contact with Apple multiple times, trying to get at least an inkling of an explanation. But so far, they’ve heard nothing. Rumors are circulating that the back alley of the Cupertino security department might be in disarray. A possible security flaw could be the culprit for the unanswered product yanking.

Apple has made it very clear that they are the big dog in the yard when it comes to the App Store. If they want to yank an app off their shelves, they will do exactly that. And while an explanation is nowhere to be found, we’ll surely hear a lot more about it soon if the reasoning happens to be security related.

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Like we said, it was just a matter of time before Creative would make its new media player, the artsy-looking Zen Mozaic available in the US market. Creative now has two models of the Zen Mozaic on its website with a notation that says “In Stock (Available for Shipment).” These are the 2GB and 4GB Zen Mozaic media players with retail prices of $59.99 and $79.99 respectively.

If you’re eyeing the oddly-designed media player, here’s what you’ll get for your bucks; a 1.8-inch TFT color display, 36 hours of continuous audio playback, 5 hours of continuous video playback, an FM radio, 8 preset equalizer settings, voice recording feature, USB 2.0 connectivity and support for album art.

Unfortunately, only the black colored Mozaic design is available although previous announcements indicated that the media player will also come out in pink and silver designs. Similarly, although the storage capacity specifications list an 8GB model, the site doesn’t seem to carry it yet, including the 16GB model that was previously announced. So, you might want to hold off your order first and wait a little more time for a larger capacity Zen Mozaic media player in two other designs.

Product [Creative]

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I have an on-again off-again relationship with the Simpson family. We’re going through an “on” period right now, so I watch the daily reruns and weekly shows whenever possible and am more interested than usual in their merchandise. That’s why this string of Homer Simpson USB lights (£15.99) is something I’m imagining draped around my husband’s widescreen desktop monitor (I’m a notebook and UMPC gal myself, so I don’t have my own LCD to dress up).

Each of the nine lights has its own suction cup to make sticking and rearranging them around the screen quick and easy. My only complaint?

Well, aside from the novelty factor, I have to say that I don’t care for some of Homer’s expressions. How are we supposed to get any work done when Homer is either trying to distract us or is frightened to his core by the way we look? I assume it’s the latter, as it isn’t every day that he sees someone without bright yellow skin.

Via PeepCulture.