Archive for October, 2008
Friday, October 31st, 2008
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Digital photo frames are quite “young” in the market, but since there are already many such products on sale, manufacturers try their best in order to diversify their approach to this segment. Their goal is to make their offer more attractive and that’s also the case with Sanyo’s latest announcement, the HNV-M70 ALBO digital frame, whose design doesn’t resemble anything we’ve seen on the market lately.
You must agree that this seven-inch LCD frame has one of the most interesting designs, straight out of a science-fiction TV show, meant to predict what television would look like in the future. It makes sense, isn’t it, if you give this thing a chance and you analyze a bit its design? You’ll see that the new digital frame from Sanyo has a very peculiar design, being a mixture between retro and futuristic.
The main selling point of the Sanyo digital frame is represented by the display, which has a 7-inch diagonal and an 800 x 480 pixel resolution. Additionally, the LCD TFT screen has a 16:9 native ratio, plus 140 degrees and 120 degrees horizontal and vertical viewing angles, respectively. This device is primarily designed to display photos, but it also boasts the ability to display RSS feeds via WiFi and receive photos from your cell phone via infrared port.
Furthermore, the HNV-M70 also incorporates a few more “classic” interfaces, such as a memory card reader compatible with the SD/SDHC, miniSD, microSD, Memory Stick Pro Duo and Memory Stick Pro-HG Duo card formats, plus a USB port. The ALBO digital frame from Sanyo has 256 MB of internal memory, which can be increased by adding memory cards. It also sports 1-W stereo speakers, which explains why the device is compatible with a wide range of multimedia files, including MP3, WAV, WMA, as well as JPEG and BMP picture formats. As you can see from the photo, it is possible to turn the screen on a swivel for various formats, and you can use the slideshow mode with image display special effects.
The Sanyo ALBO is scheduled to come out in November 14, for a price of about $422, and it will probably be available only in Japan.
(Source: Dvice)
Posted in Office Gadgets | No Comments »
Friday, October 31st, 2008
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No matter how easy-going and patient you usually are, there’s one thing that can instantly drive anyone crazy: when ears don’t “pop” after getting off a plane. Normally, the suggested yawning or swallowing is enough to solve the problem, but there are also those unpleasant situations when nothing works. And when I say nothing, well, trust me, it’s nothing. You have no choice but to just wait for the ear blockage to disappear and try to control the beast inside you.
But you experience this irritating and painful pressure in ear not only during flight landings, when increased cabin pressure presses the eardrum inwards and the ears become “blocked”, but also when you’re climbing mountains or after scuba-diving, for example. Yet with this ingenious device, painful ear pressure is no longer a problem.
The Ear Pressure Equalizer is as small as a mobile phone and 45 grams light. The device helps people like you relieving ear pressure and is basically nothing more than a small pump that creates a vacuum in the outer ear canal that gently pushes the eardrum back into its original position. Using the equalizer is child’s play: you simply close the ear canal with the equalizer, briefly press the yellow membrane and you’re done. Of course there’s always a safety concern with any device you’re supposed to stick in your ear canal, but the Ear pressure Equalizer features a built-in safety vent that will prevent the build-up of too much pressure.
This so-called enemy of ear blockage was developed by Professor Burkhard Franz, founder of the renowned Tinnitus Research and Balance Clinic, Melbourne, an internationally expert in ear, nose and throat medicine. After many years of research, he found that negative pressure impulses are the ideal way to quickly and effectively bring ear pressure relief. This resulted in the development of the Ear Pressure Equalizer.
Measuring 9.5 x 6 x 2.5, the Ear Pressure Equalizer comes in package with ear pieces available in three sizes and they’re not suitable for children under 3 years. If you want to put an end to the ear blockage nightmare, then go to Pro-Idee and purchase your own device for £ 38.95 ($60), and you’ll benefit an extension of the 2-year manufacturer’s guarantee to 3 years.
(Source gadgets.boingboing.net)
Posted in Sound Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
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Sometimes, having a wall clock may turn in a genuine burden, a very unpleasant and unbearable thing, because you have to stand excessively close to the device in order to read it properly. This happens when the placement of the hands are very difficult to see and unravel from a considerable distance. Taking this into consideration, you probably wonder why people are keen on having something like this in their houses. Well, I imagine they pick up clocks like this for one reason and one reason only: the overall look is fascinating.
Homeloo’s 16-inch large Jumbo Gear Wall Clock it’s actually a gear made clock that consists of more than 50 gears which are all running. If you think this has a decorative purpose only, I’m afraid you are wrong, because the gears are really turning, including the small-sized ones. The big centered one turns clockwise, while the other gears turn counterclockwise.
There’s no doubt about it, the device looks like a clock that has exploded with the bloating of its own horological guys: those 50 gears are all exposed on the surface of the clock and draw stares from anyone who tries to tell time with it.
If the hands of this oversized wall clock (and when I call it this way I do it due to the numerous gears which the clock is made of, as it measures 16 x 16-inches and weighs 1000 grams approximately) were multicolored, it would have helped a great deal. However, with them being one color it does simplify the look of the overall clock. On the other hand, having fifty exposed gears is plenty to clutter the clock up by themselves without adding a contrasting color to the clock hands.
The device takes 4D-cell batteries to keep the entire mechanism turning and is now available from Homeloo for $78 USD.
(Source gadgets.boingboing.net)
Posted in Electronic Gadgets | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
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Though you might consider Parrot to be a rather casual when it comes to the various portable gadgets that they roll out, this time they’ve done it. They seem to have a clear cut winner on their hands. The Parrot Specchio was designed by Martin Szekely, and this stylish digital photo frame is not short on innovation and technology, featuring a whole bunch of ways to transfer and share pictures and albums.
If the name of the designer doesn’t ring a bell to you, let me remind you that he is a contemporary well-known French artist acknowledged worldwide as a “master of minimalism”, with pieces in the permanent collections of the world’s major museum, including the Centre Georges Pompidou and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Well, this guy co-created an artful digital photo frame that incorporates a timeless mirror in the overall design.
When lights, shadows and reflections play on its surface, the Parrot Specchio frame becomes a mirror when it is turned off. In the blink of an eye, the mirror becomes a screen which projects your memories. The designer explained: “If you look in the mirror, your left is on your left and your right is in your right. On the photo, your left is on your right and your right is on your left. So, this object is both a mirror and a photo”.
If you are opting for this modern-day Polaroid, moments are instantly brought to life and shared through a beautiful frame that offers multiple connections (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth(R), NFC – Near Field Communication, mini-USB port and SD card reader). This way, special moments are captured and framed immediately. Using the latest in wireless standards, sliding an NFC mobile phone against the back of the Parrot Specchio Wi-Fi digital picture frame will enable photographs to be right away transferred and displayed on the screen of the digital photo frame without the need of pairing the products.
Featuring Wi-Fi connection and email functionality, the Parrot Specchio frame by Martin Szekely brings the virtual picture sharing experience into every day home decor. Therefore, the frame can automatically receive and display pictures that are sent by an owner’s friends and family, as well as those that are uploaded onto community sites (such as Picasa, Flickr, Fotolog and so on). This way, the shared virtual images can be viewed from the comfort of any living room.
More than that, you can also use the frame to view articles scanned from newspapers or magazines, recipes for dishes, to-do lists for the weekend. In other words, it can be used to view practically any information or pictures that help make daily life easier for the user.
The Parrot Specchio Wi-Fi digital picture frame can store up to 1,500 photos and will be available starting November 2008 at a recommended retail price of $500.
(Source coolest-gadgets.com)
Posted in Office Gadgets | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
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Philips is back in the groove where MP3 players are concerned with the GoGear Luxe from its GoGear portable audio player range. Pay a little bit of attention to this device, because you might be fooled, at a first glance, into thinking that this is a miniature Nokia Prism handset from afar. Upon closer inspection, you’ll eventually realize that you can only use it to playback your favorite MP3 tunes only.
The sparkly, diamond-esque Philips Luxe MP3 player is a tale of contradictions, being something like a double agent. On the one hand, it’s an MP3 player with a mere 2GB of memory, 10 hours of battery life and a one-line LCD screen. On the other hand, it’s a feature-packed Bluetooth 2.1 handset, providing 100 hours of standby time, an FM radio, an excellent sound quality and built-in dual microphone to answer any incoming calls with active noise cancelling.
The music will automatically stop when a call comes in, so be careful about shouting out loud your System of a Down favorite song when your grandfather wants to hear your voice after a long time, because you didn’t bother to give him a call. Lucky you, the one-line LCD allows you to view the caller’s number at a glimpse, so you’ll have the time to stop your performance before answering the phone. In addition, the Luxe packs Philips’s proprietary FullSound for CD-quality of digitally compressed tracks; in other words, the technology cleans up audio compression artifacts.
The jewel-like outside of the player comes in red, silver and a likely future chromed shell, all of which help keep the player discreet when not in immediate use. Singapore will be the first country in Asia Pacific to get the Luxe next month, followed by Thailanda, Malaysia, India, China and Southeast Asia. Prices are set at the equivalent of about $94. No mention has been made of a North American release.
(Source gizmodo.com)
Posted in Music Gadgets | No Comments »