Gadgets Connect

AppleTV and Vudu are going to have to make room in the online-movie boxing ring for two more rivals offering similar services. Strangely enough, they’re both gaming consoles. Sony on Tuesday announced that an online movie rental and purchase system would be available on playstation 3 by end of day. The move is in direct competition with Microsoft’s recent announcement that users with Netflix accounts will soon be able to stream Netflix movies from their Xbox 360 consoles. But here at Gadget Lab we wonder, do Sony and Xbox know what they’re getting themselves into? Dedicated TV set-top boxes face enough challenges as it is in terms of movie-studio bureaucracy, imposed time windows and maintaining the video-downloading service itself. (Read the full post about ‘XBox 360, PS3 Wade Into Online Video Melee’…)

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 15th 2008 at 11:38AM Boy Genius has landed a blackberry Bold — RIM’s big, splashy push into the brave new world of HSDPA — in production hardware trim, and it looks like the rougher users out there might need a quick lesson in fragile handling if they want to get in on the action when it launches around the world in the next few weeks. The screen is said to be absolutely beautiful (as it should be at 480 x 320), and there’s a much improved browser to take advantage of that extra real estate; unfortunately, the whole package apparently scratches up with ridiculous ease, so it’s anybody’s guess just how long you’ll be able to actually see the screen before it’s awash in damage. (Read the full post about ‘BlackBerry Bold reviewed, scratched’…)

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Looking for a simple way to run the Ubuntu Eee OS on your Eee PC? Then this may possibly be the answer for you, the team behind the Ubuntu Eee project have announced that they will be offering a limited edition 4GB SD card with the OS pre-installed. Users would have to just insert the SD card into their Eee PC and then select to boot from the SD card. Nothing really special to do, nothing to install, just insert the card and start up your computer. The cards are currently available for order, but are a little pricey at $50. With the low price of 4GB Class 6 SD cards nowadays you can certainly accomplish this for less, but then you would not have the convenience, or satisfaction of donating to a good open source cause. (Read the full post about ‘Ubuntu Eee based SD cards available for order’…)

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Remember Friendster? Many of us created Friendster accounts way back when, but then along came MySpace, and then Facebook, and well, we just plain forgot about little old Friendster. Poor Friendster, the forgotten, dowdy older sister. But, wait, what’s this? According to a story in VentureBeat, Friendster is actually a contender in the competition for global domination of the social networking market. No! Really? In what alternative universe? Well, in the universe where there’s a little country called “China” with a population of over 1.3 billion people. Friendster’s user base has nearly doubled in the past year due to growth in Asia, with versions available in Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Spanish and Malay. (Read the full post about ‘Top social network site in Asia? . . . Friendster’…)

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Admit it: 50 percent of the time you insert your thumb drive into a USB port, you stick it in backwards. Story of your life. Soon, iPhone owners will never have to put up with this again, provided they buy a $7 application. (Lucky bastards.) Veiosoft’s DataCase, which will be available for purchase July 28 in the App Store, will turn your iPhone into a wireless drive. So long as your computer and your iPhone are connected to the same network, you’ll be able to copy files to and from your beloved life-in-your-pocket handset. It’s kind of like having an 8GB or 16GB thumb drive — only wireless — or a puny Time Capsule. (Read the full post about ‘Turn Your iPhone Into a Wireless Drive for Seven Bucks’…)

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Is this the gadget/toy that will bring about the final Robot Uprising? While not the most benign design that one would expect (like a giant Trojan horse) we must be careful of its movements and keep our collective eye on it. Created by the VStone Co. robot shop team in Japan, the tiny (1 ½ ft.) Vstone Blackox robot has 20 movable axis points that move it pretty easily around a room, with appropriately robot-type moves. The creators have said that the axial power of its robot arms is probably barely enough to combat slow-moving Roomba dirt cleaners, but we’re on to them. In addition, they claim that there will only be 30 of these robots produced, available next September, for an unapproachable 4,700 Euro (a little more than $7000). (Read the full post about ‘$7000 Vstone Blackox Robot Toy Steps Out of the Darkness’…)

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Notebooks geeks everywhere are rejoicing as today marks the official launch of Intel’s Centrino 2. We’ve known about this for a long time but the day is finally here. There were a few delays, but the kinks were worked out and in finally Montevina is available along with a number of new notebooks. Any upgrade this big comes long with a slew of new notebooks from all the big players.

The Centrino 2 platform is built on three components: the processor, wireless module, and chipset, all provided by Intel.

(Read the full post about ‘Centrino 2 arrives, brings along lots of new notebooks’…)

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Transcend is on a roll with the StoreJet 25P portable hard drive that boasts a slim design that is convenient to tote around. It targets those who carry their portable hard drives everywhere with them, every single day. It comes with a special chequered aluminum front panel that offers a distinct look from other portable hard drive cases in the market, making it easy to spot in a crowd. In addition, the unique slide-open case makes installation and removal a cinch. Data is transferred via USB 2.0 connectivity, and each Transcend StoreJet 25P will come pre-installed with 250GB of hard drive space, but you are more than welcome to replace that with your own 2.5″ SATA hard drive. (Read the full post about ‘Transcend StoreJet 25P Portable Hard Drive’…)

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Logitech has a brand new wireless keyboard - but not for the PC. This time round, the Swiss peripheral masters has released one for the Nintendo Wii. This licensed keyboard is a snap to configure, and relies on 2.4GHz wireless technology to communicate, having a maximum working range of 30 feet (assuming you don’t have anything in the way, of course). Dedicated buttons not found on regular PC keyboards consist of Zoom In/Out, Forward/Back, Quit and OK. As with most wireless products, the $49.99 Logitech Wii Keyboard is powered by a couple of AA batteries and measures 11.85″ x 6.57″ x 0.87″. Perfect for those who want to chat with their friends or enter URLs speedily compared to pointing around with the Wiimote. (Read the full post about ‘Logitech Wii Keyboard’…)

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It was just about a week ago that we first began hearing that the blackberry Bold would make its debut with Rogers for the low price of $199, and while it may have just been a week, that price has since been deemed inaccurate. The new listed price will instead be $299, which of course as standard with Rogers comes along with a three-year agreement. Coming from the early reviews that have been showing up on the web, it seems that while the $199 price tag would have been really nice, the $299 is still going to be more than fair. Of course, the pricing is still yet to be officially confirmed, however the Bold is expected to be available on July 25, so it should not be much longer before we all know for sure.. (Read the full post about ‘BlackBerry Bold for Rogers gets priced, $299′…)

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