Gadgets Connect

Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) may compete in the mobile handset market when it comes to Windows Mobile and the BlackBerry, but the two companies have teamed up to allow BlackBerry owners the ability to have greater integration with Windows Live online services. The two services to be integrated first on the blackberry will be Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger. To utilize the services a user need only to have a free Windows Live email address and password. Once entered, both services will be available to the user through their BlackBerry. Windows Live Hotmail for BlackBerry will utilize push technology. So, Windows Live Hotmail users will be able to enjoy automatic message delivery and synchronization with their online account. (Read the full post about ‘Windows Live services coming to BlackBerry’…)

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2030 to me seems too far away, but I’ll take it. The report itself was over 200 pages, which indicates to me that they spent a ‘government’ god-awful amount of money to produce it. Ok, fine, but let’s see if they now spend the important money to make this a reality.

According to the report, it would $6/person/year to implement this. The Wired article wasn’t clear on whether this was every year or just for 1 year, but who cares? At that amount, I will gladly take a line-item tax on my 1040. Persons making less than $40k or so can get that waived.

Other stats - wind power could account for 300Gigawatts of power, reduce carbon emissions from coal and natural gas plants by 25%, drop water consumption by 4 trillion gallons per year.

(Read the full post about ‘DoE report says wind power could be 20% of power reqs by 2030′…)

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by Donald Melanson, posted May 12th 2008 at 7:11PM If you can get past the tinge of disappointment in learning that something named the BeBook isn’t actually the BeOS-based laptop you’ve been waiting for all these years, you may be only slightly less disappointed to know that it’s another fairly ordinary and somewhat overpriced e-book reader. Coming in at a hefty €330 (or $510), this one ditches newfangled features like built-in WiFi or EV-DO, with it choosing instead to focus on basic features like a six-inch E Ink display, 512MB of internal memory, and an SD card slot for expansion. You’ll also get support for all the usual document and image formats, as well as some basic MP3 playback functionality. (Read the full post about ‘BeBook e-book reader makes its debut, doesn’t run BeOS’…)

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Sprint isn’t the first carrier to get its hands on the Curve, but they did succeed in putting they’re own spin on it, and in my opinion has created the bundle to beat. The Curve itself hasn’t changed much and still sports a track ball, Micro-SD card slot, 2MP camera, Bluetooth, and integrated GPS. Sprint’s own flavor is the key differentiator though, with connectivity to the Sprint Software Store, Sprint TV, Sprint Music Store, and Sprint OnDemand, among others. I fired up the test device that was shipped to me with relatively low interest, having played with the Curve in the past. That quickly changed, however, when I saw how easy it was to not only customize the device but also access a variety of Sprint-only offerings. (Read the full post about ‘Hands on: BlackBerry Curve 8330 on Sprint’…)

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Microsoft has decided it is going to offer PC vendors a discount on the price of a Windows XP licenses. There is a catch, however, as the discount only applies to machines that have a specification no higher than a level set by Microsoft.

The Microsoft-imposed machine limits are as follows:

• Single core processors only, with a maximum clock speed of 1 GHz
• No more than 1 GB of RAM
• Screens no larger than 10.2 inches
• No touchscreens allowed
• Hard drive capacity not over 80 GB

The discounted licenses for those machines that qualify will be US$26 each in developing countries and US$32 each everywhere else.

(Read the full post about ‘Microsoft drops Windows XP pricing for low hardware specs’…)

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Sony Ericsson recently had not one, but two new handsets hit the FCC’s approval list. The lucky phones are the R300 Radio and the C902 Cyber-shot. The R300 Radio is the less exciting of the two, and is aimed more at developing nations. This handset will be more on the basic side with a 1.8-inch color display, VGA camera, as well as a built-in AM and FM radio. The R300 will also feature Sony Ericsson’s TrackID application so users will be able to record small portions of music and be able to get the details such as artist, track and album names. The C902 is a little more on the exciting side, its still a basic looking candybar style phone, however it will offer a 5-megapixel camera that has facial recognition and auto-focus. (Read the full post about ‘Sony Ericsson’s R300, C902 achieve FCC approval’…)

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Solar Airship The kite is dead. Long live the Solar Airship, heir apparent to the kite’s 3 centuries of dominance of the skies. The Solar Airship might look like an eight metre bin liner, but it’s wise not to be fooled. To unleash its might, just fill it with common-or-garden air, and it will amply demonstrate the power of solar energy. Tags: video game, gadgets, laptops, home cinema (Read the full post about ‘Solar Airship’…)

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While this sounds like just about as strange a name that Nokia could come up with, the rumor train has dubbed the iphone look-a-like the iPerformer. Personally I am thinking this one has to be false, having an iPhone competitor named the iPerformer sounds like they are just asking for trouble. This handset has been a long time in the making, the pic alone is courtesy of an image from the GoPlay event that was held back in August of 2007. Along with the vague rumor of a name, the images are just not available and the known specs are just as elusive. The iPerformer, as we can tell from the picture feature a widescreen display, which appears by the lack of buttons to be touchscreen based. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia’s iPhone look alike dubbed the iPerformer’…)

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The latest, but still rumored information is now putting the soon-to-be-released blackberry 9000 with an official name, the BOLD. According to the folks over at CrackBerry this “appears with *reasonable* certainty that this is in fact the case” however without an official announcement we are still not 100% convinced. Either way it should not be long now before we see the 9000 BOLD officially announced and its fair to say we will also learn the name at that time. More important though is that the BOLD, whether or not that is the true name, is going to be a very nice addition to the current BlackBerry lineup. Here’s hoping that announcement comes as expected on Monday. (Read the full post about ‘Unconfirmed: The BlackBerry 9000 gets official with a name, the BlackBerry BOLD’…)

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by Ryan Block, posted May 12th 2008 at 5:34AMDean Kamen’s done a lot of work over the years building technologies for the disabled, which lends a bit of irony to the fact that his most well-known consumer transport, the Segway, is seeing some increased use by veterans. A non-profit by the name of Disability Rights Advocates for Technology (DRAFT) has snapped up some 150 units over the past few years — 30 of which just went out last week — to help amputees get around quicker and further than with your run of the mill wheelchair. (Read the full post about ‘Segs-4-Vets hooks up veterans with Segways’…)

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