Archive for November, 2008
Monday, November 24th, 2008
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A high tech company has designed and developed a new innovative electronic key chain LCD device that gives parents the possibility to monitor how their teens behave in traffic or the family car is being driven by whoever might be handling the wheel. RookieDriver.Net, an online provider of teen driver safety products, markets the Lemur Autovision created by Root Four Imagination.
Therefore, the device is meant to increase road safety. But only if it’s used correctly, I suppose. The Lemur Autovision is a snap to install in just about any vehicle and it helps you get a clearer picture on your driving, recording important information like speed, distance and brakes. This is a great way for parents to review such data after their kids have taken out the family car for a spin and to be able to better advise the younger ones on picking up life-saving pointers when driving. And you must admit that this is a quite interesting innovation, as speed, inexperience and distraction are key risk factors in most teen accidents. From the moment a teen backs out of the driveway, the Lemur Autovision electronic keychain is capturing driving data.
Not to mention the fact that there is no need for you to download data to a personal computer, as it’s all there, in the palm of their hand.
“A quick review of the data collected by the keychain with their teen driver provides parents an opportunity to positively reinforce good driving habits, or take appropriate action to modify poorer onesâ€, said Corinne Fortenbacher, the president of RookieDriver.Net. “And, it gives teens an opportunity to show they are responsible driversâ€.
â€The main focus is that the teenager is aware – that their parents will be aware; therefore they won’t drive recklessly in the first place, because they want the car next weekendâ€, said Maurice Tuff, the president of Root Four Imagination. “It is a preventative device, not a catch-you, tattle-tale deviceâ€.
â€In terms of trust, yeah, we’ve been asked that question a lotâ€, Tuff added. “We’ve got to go beyond trust. We’ve got to go to safety; we have to save our children. Parents don’t consider reviewing a teen’s school report card as spying, or a breach of the parent teen trust relationship, so why worry about a device that reports on their driving performance? The consequences of poor driving habits can be fatal by comparisonâ€.
Some of the features available on the Lemur Autovision include: real-time feedback, reports speed, distance, brakes, convenient keychain LCD, easy to install, affordable – no monthly fees and Tamper Proof and PIN protected.
If you’re interested in such a device, you can pick it up for $99.95 and must be used responsibly in order to be somehow useless when it comes to cutting down the number of road accidents and fatalities.
(Source: coolest-gadgets.com)
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Sunday, November 23rd, 2008
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I’m sure you all know that MP3 players are nothing new, especially those which are non-video playing brands like the iPod nano and the Creative Zen Stone. But it seems like Nextar is trying to get things further by releasing its MA588, otherwise known as the Peanut. The device is called this way due to its resemblance to a peanut, of course, and it’s available in both 1GB and 2GB capacity.
Nextar is a designer and marketer of bold and new consumer electronic products and is lending a hand to Santa Claus this Christmas with its uniquely designed peanut-shape MP3 player. Being only 2-inches long and available in a variety of colors, “the Nextar MA588 MP3 player is sure to delight any music lover who receives it as a gift or finds it in their Christmas stockingâ€, said Eddy Zheng, Nextar founder. “With one fresh AAA battery, it will provide up to 12 hours of continuous playback, making for an enjoyable, it not-so-silent, nightâ€.
The MA588 MP3 player is available in five colors, such as black, pink, red, blue and silver and supports MP3 and WMA audio formats. It features voice-record capability and a removable flash-memory drive. There is also a folder navigation function that makes managing and accessing files very easy to accomplish.
There are also seven equalizer modes, like normal, pop, rock, classical, jazz, bass and soft that are meant to enhance your audio experience. Assorted play modes – normal, repeat one, repeat all, shuffle, intro, repeat folder, folder and random – provide plenty of listening options. User support is offered in seven languages, including English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
SRS WOW sound-effect technology significantly improves playback quality by creating an encompassing sound field with restored digital clarity and deep bass. Other features include a high-speed USB 2.0 interface, auto power off, a power-off timer and easy-to-understand graphic menus. It is especially designed for upgrading to future formats and features.
The package consists of the following accessories: an earphone, USB cable, one AAA battery, a Win98 installation CD and an instruction manual.
Measuring 2.7 x 1.3 x 0.7 and weighing less than half a pound, the Nextar MA588 MP3 player is available at Staples, Kmart, Bon Ton, Canadian Tire and other leading retailers across the US and Canada. The suggested retail price is $19.99 for a 1GB capacity and $29.99 for a 2GB capacity.
(Source: coolest-gadgets.com)
Posted in Music Gadgets | 4 Comments »
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008
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If you’re asking yourselves what a Solid State Drive is, then let me tell you that a SSD is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. A SSD emulates a hard disk drive interface, thus easily replacing it in most applications. A Solid State Drive using SRAM (static random access memory) or DRAM (dynamic random access memory) is often called a RAM-drive.
Samsung, an important competitor in the world of advanced semiconductor technology, announced that it started to mass produce 256 gigabyte (GB) solid state drives for use in notebooks and desktop PCs. Let me remind you the skepticism most of you showed when the company ambitiously proclaimed in late May of this year that it would deliver such a beast in quantity by the end of 2008. But here there are: Samsung Solid State Drives joining Micron and Toshiba in the 256GB SSD club.
With the addition of the high-speed 256GB drive, Samsung now offers the most extensive line of SSDs in the industry, with 8, 16 and 32GB SSDs for low-density designs and 64, 128 and 256 alternatives for the higher densities.
The new 256GB SSD more than doubles the performance rates of Samsung 64GB and 128GB SSDs to become the SSD with the highest overall performance in the personal computer industry, combining sequential read rates of 220MB/s (megabytes per second) with sequential write rates of 200MB/s. This sharply narrows performance gap between read and write operations to only 10 percent, compared to a read-write speed difference of between 20 and 70 percent for other SSDs. In addition, erase cycles are a rapid 100GBs per minute, allowing the entire drive to be re-written much faster, when needed.
“While SSD’s have always been touted for their performance, Samsung is turning the storage industry upside down now with an SSD that delivers truly disruptive performanceâ€, said Jim Elliot, vice president, Memory Marketing, Samsung Semiconductor, Inc. “Getting our exceptionally high performing 256GB SSD in a notebook is analogous to having a 15,000rpm drive, without all of its size, noise, power and heating drawbacks.
These new Samsung Solid State Drives expedite data transfer when large multimedia files are read and stored in the same time. It can store 25 high-definition movies in just 21 minutes, which is a significant improvement over a 7200rmp hard disk drive (HDD) which takes about 70 minutes. More than that, the 256GB SSD launches applications 10 times faster than the fastest 7200rmp notebook HDD.
The 256GB SSD’s advanced performance is the result of a new, optimized, single platform design which consists of a chip controller, NAND flash and special drive firmware all developed by Samsung. This single platform is designed to easily adapt to Samsung’s 40mm class NAND flash memory.
The new drive offers a high degree of energy efficiency, consuming 1.1 watts of power compared to two or more watts for a similar HDD. The high operating speed of the 256GB SSD translates into longer periods in either stand-by or idle mode resulting in up to 40 minutes of extended operation on a single battery charge.
Weighing as much as the 128GB SSD, 81 grams, the 2.5-inch multi-level cell (MLC) 256GB SSD retains the standard 9.5 millimeter drive thickness.
In addition, the new Samsung Solid State Drives are also available with optional proprietary encryption programming that provides full disk encryption, a key feature for many corporate users. But what about the price, Samsung? Unknown command…
(Source: Dvice)
Posted in Computer Gadgets | No Comments »
Friday, November 21st, 2008
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According to Wikipedia, “a fuel cell is an electrochemical conversion device. It produces electricity from fuel (on the anode side) and an oxidant (on the cathode side), which react in the presence of an electrolyte. The reactants flow into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintainedâ€.
A Swedish company known under the name of myFC (My Fuel Cell) has one purpose and one purpose only: to free you up from power cables with advanced micro fuel cell technology. Its prototype is a charger that is based on a compact, flat alternative to the usual fuel cell stack – it’s a passive planer fuel cell. The FuelCellSticker are the result of the remarkable effort of myFC and, being layered together to create the charger, gives the device a thin appearance.
The highly anticipated Excess Charger was unveiled back in February 2008 at the 4th International Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Expo (FC Expo 2008), which was held in Tokyo, Japan.
The Excess Charger is the pioneer product in the myFC’s Excess Line and the first product stemming from the collaboration between myFC and its Nordic Consortium. This new and improved charger incorporated fuel cell with a world leading power density, based on myFC’s patent-protected FuelCellSticker technology, powered by an integrated and easily replaceable metal-hydride cartridge. The first in the Excess line has been designed specifically to cater to portable electronics demanding power levels of up to 3W.
Adding hydrogen, you obtain a clean and seemingly effortless passive power, and the only byproduct is water vapor that dissipated into the air. Something we’re not told by the company is how you get the hydrogen into this tiny package or how the hydrogen is produced.
More than that, the company wants to go beyond the micro fuel cell tech-based charger. It hopes that someday will have its micro fuel cells incorporated inside any cell phone or laptop, eliminating the need for plugging it in at all.
I’m not sure if these devices are as easy to manufacture as myFC claims them to be, but if they will ever hit the mass production, this could be big.
(Source: Dvice)
Posted in Electronic Gadgets | No Comments »
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
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Maybe you wouldn’t have expected the wristwatch to become a cell phone trend and to catch on this fast, but as surprising it might sound, it really did and the latest ever-growing family of wristwatch cell phones is the C-watch. Still, there’s something to make it a whole lot different than other similar devices that we have seen earlier, as it comes with dual SIM support. This means you will be able to carry two cell phone numbers at the same time. The C-watch comes in package with a pair of Bluetooth stereo headphones.
As far as the multimedia features are concerned, the device has many such features just like any other popular cell phone. You can watch movies or videos on the 1.3 inch color display, or, if you like, you can view pictures with your dear ones. More than that, watching videos is something you can do in full screen mode.
There’s also an audio player integrated which helps you listen to MP3’s or audio files. This way, you’re allowed to listen to your favorite songs all day long directly to your Bluetooth headphones. The MP3 player also features programmable track listing, visualizer and the ability to assign MP3 ringtones.
You’re addicted to photography? You like taking pictures anywhere, anytime? Then, the built-in 1.3 megapixel digital camera allows you to record video or still images directly to your Bluetooth headphones. The video player allows you to play back video you took or downloaded to the watch.
As far as the 1.3 inches TFT 256 K colors touchscreen display, it gives you choices for navigation and input. You can use both the screen and the buttons to navigate, allowing you to access the menu functions of the software. Similar to most modern cell phones – “soft buttons†are located at the bottom right and left of the touchscreen on most menus. The screen is not just for touching. By using the integrated stylus you can input handwriting gestures directly on the watch face. This way, through gestures, you input numbers, names and texts as if you were writing on a tablet or a PDA.
When it comes to connectivity and data transfer, this dual SIM card cell phone gives you the chance to choose between Bluetooth, USB or microSD card. When using the integrated Bluetooth functionality, you can transfer music, audio or data wirelessly to another Bluetooth enabled device. There is also a small USB jack located on the left side of the watch and allows re-charging and connectivity to a computer. With the built-in File Manager you can transfer documents, images, audio/video files or presentations from your computer to your watch. Underneath the battery there is an enclosure which holds a microSD card which can be removed and used in any other electronics device that accepts them.
With a 250kb base storage on the watch, there’s the possibility for you to expand the capacity storage through a microSD card slot. Cellular network specs include GSM, 900/1800/1900 MHz, supporting GPRS, WAP, STK and can be used by any network with a SIM card.
Measuring 70 x 44 x 16 millimeters and weighing 55 grams, the C-watch provides 72 – 100 hours of standby time and 8 – 12 hours of talk time. The dual SIM card cell phone comes in package with a travel charger, extra battery, Bluetooth stereo headphones, USB cables and 1GB micro SD card.
If you’re interested in purchasing the device, visit the C-watch’s official website where you can grab it for $399.99.
(Source: cellphonebeat.com)
Posted in Phone Gadgets | No Comments »
