Archive for August, 2008

Microsoft’s new “Blue Track” mouse spotted?

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Filed under: Peripherals We're not really sure if Microsoft is peddling a revolution here or just the mousing tech flavor of the month, but we've got ourselves a much better idea of where things might be going. After that little "Say Goodbye to Laser" teaser turned our pointing device world upside ...

Virtual mirror destroys all the fun you have trying on outfits

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, WearablesThe always-imaginative gurus at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft never cease to amaze, and at this year's IFA, they're delivering once more. The so-called "virtual mirror" gives to-be garb buyers an accurate look at what different outfits look like on their person without requiring them to try a single thing ...

Reconfigurable Performance Display to show off engine stats in select GM cars

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Filed under: Displays, Transportation We'll be honest -- we still kind of prefer the days when hacking Wiimotes and other household gadgets was the preferred method for extracting more enjoyment from one's vehicle, but we suppose there's no stopping progress. Starting in 2009 (a few years too late for the Fast ...

Immersion to pay Microsoft $21 million, Sony groans

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Filed under: Gaming Immersion, the company that owns virtually every vibration and haptic tech on earth, is getting a taste of its own medicine now that it owes Microsoft $21 million. You may remember back in 2003 when Microsoft floated an unknown sum of cash in the direction of Immersion in ...

NVIDIA kicks out low-end GeForce 9400 GT, starting price $59

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Filed under: Desktops While it likely won't cause the same clamoring for benchmarks that we see around the release of a new high-end NVIDIA card, those on a budget will no doubt nonetheless be pleased to know that the company's just bolstered it's low-end offerings a bit, with a new card ...

Nerds race across Azeroth IRL, nearly die from shame

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Filed under: GamingLet's try not to read too much into this one. Here are the facts: two dweebs thought it would be a good idea to hook up treadmills to their PCs, don brightly-colored wigs and cardboard swords, and race their avatars across about a mile of virtual turf by ...

New Aiko hand sheds the clumsy glove, attains exciting new levels of creepiness

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Filed under: Robots It's official: Dr. Trung doesn't have a day job. He's been tweaking his fembot "Aiko" for almost a year now, and his latest creation is a rather amazing hand that can be used for Aiko or for human augmentation. The last time we saw them the hand was ...

Udea Expert 300W electronic dictionary boasts FM radio… and more!

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Filed under: Handhelds While we're quite certain you can still buy an "electronic dictionary" that is actually only a dictionary (or, maybe, a thesaurus), that seems to be the exception to the rule in Korea, where devices like the Udea Expert 300W are the norm. Apparently, this is the first such ...

AT&T adds two international data plans for iPhone, still pricey

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Filed under: Cellphones, HandheldsFollowing new plans geared to the decidedly less fruity phones in AT&T's lineup earlier this month, the carrier has announced a pair of international data packages geared specifically toward the iPhone and iPhone 3G. The bad news is that they still cost more than the average subscriber's ...

M2E says it will deliver cellphone-charging motion power device in 2009

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc. Gadgets We haven't heard a whole lot from M2E Power since it burst onto the scene last year with promises of powering your gadgets with movment, but the company now says that it's made some real progress with its wonder device, and it's claiming that it'll actually ...

Nokia launches the N79 and N85

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Filed under: CellphonesNokia promised us two new handsets today, and just as we heard last week, it's the N85 and N79. Not a lot of surprises with the N85 since it popped in the FCC database a couple weeks ago and started appearing in the wild: 2.6-inch AMOLED screen, GPS, ...

New Canon budget compacts leaked en masse, oppressively mundane?

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Filed under: Digital Cameras There's no telling how legit these shots are: the impressively extensive spec sheets and well-done product shots make us want to believe that no one on earth is actually bored enough to fake these, but at the same time we're really hoping Canon has something better in ...

Panasonic intros DMR-BR360V Blu-ray / VHS combo player

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment Blu-ray and VHS together at last -- so crazy it just might work? Probably not, but if you're still clinging to a library of tapes and haven't been able to bring yourself to upgrade or transfer them to a more 21st century-friendly format, you'll no doubt ...

IOGEAR’s USB Laptop KVM Switch provides your portable with impressive new powers

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals Despite the best attempts of computer manufacturers, most of us still need two computers to make it through the week: perhaps a laptop for the daily grind and a desktop for transcoding h.264 files... whatever works for you. IOGEAR is looking to cash in on this ...

Samsung rolls out 8 new HDTVs, first 40-inch LED backlit LCD

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Filed under: Displays, HDTV Samsung's Series 7 / 8 / 9 plasmas and LCDs have broken cover already in Europe or North America, including the slim PAVV Bordeaux 850 (pictured), but Asia gets first crack at the company's local dimming LED backlighting tech trickling down into the 40-inch LCD size range. ...