Gadgets Connect

by Donald Melanson, posted Jul 17th 2008 at 12:26PM While New York taxis are set to go hybrid by 2012, at least one company in the UK looks to be doing its part to take things one step further, with it now showing off an all-electric taxi that it says will be available as soon as October of this year. Dubbed the E7, this one packs a bundle of lithium ion batteries that promise to give it a range of 100 miles on a single charge and a decent enough top speed of 60 miles per hour, as well as a price tag of £39,450 (or just over $78,000). (Read the full post about ‘E7 electric taxi makes its debut in the UK’…)

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Thanko has released many weird products in the past, but their latest product actually seems quite sensible. The Cooler mouse is a fairly standard looking mouse, but has a built-in fan that draws air from the bottom of the mouse, and pushes it out the top of the mouse to keep the user’s palm cool. This will probably go a long way to help users with sweaty palms. This mouse is also a 5-button mouse, with buttons to control the airflow. The Cooler mouse is currently retailing for about $18 in Japan. It’ll be interesting to see if this mouse does a little vacuum cleaning while chilling users’ palms. (Read the full post about ‘Cooler Mouse To Combat Sweaty Palms’…)

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For users who still haven’t gotten over the YouTube craze yet (read: everybody), more good news is coming. TiVo will be joining the YouTube party as well. As it was announced earlier this year, TiVo users can finally expect the update to show up over the next few weeks. More accessible YouTube videos can only be a good thing, right? Tags: cable, audio, laptops, PDA (Read the full post about ‘TiVo Joins The YouTube Party’…)

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HP’s latest business-centric tablet pc, the Compaq 2730p has just been released in the Korean market. The 2730p will also be Centrino 2-powered, bringing the following specifications to the table :- 12.1″ WXGA LCD display Intel Core 2 Duo L9400 1.86GHz processor 2GB DDR2 RAM 120GB hard drive GMA 4500MHD graphics chipset Windows Vista Business operating system No idea on how much this will cost though. Tags: wireless, tests, lcd, gprs (Read the full post about ‘HP Compaq 2730p Tablet PC’…)

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There is a reason why the term poker face means never letting your facial expression betray you, and a pair of poker eyewear will go a long way in helping you maintain such a look. Royal Poker Eyewear just raised the stakes with the launch of a new line of revolutionary state-of-the-art poker glasses, giving poker players a superior way to shield their eyes from opponents, without sacrificing vision and styleSun Wearing mirrored poker sunglasses puts opponents at a disadvantage, making it difficult for them to read your eyes and pick-up any give away “tells.” Until now, many so-called poker glasses were nothing more than re-packaged sunglasses with dark lenses that are not conducive to clubs, casinos, and dimly lit card rooms. (Read the full post about ‘Royal Poker Eyewear’…)

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It seems as though Asus will be revising its Eee PC 900 by offering 30GB of storage space, but it remains to be seen whether this new variant will be added to the 900 line or will it completely replace the 12GB SSD and 20GB hard drive models that are readily available. Word has it that this new 30GB model will come in black or white colors, powered by Windows XP and Linux (the choice is yours). Other than the change in capacity, other specifications remain the same including 1GB RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity and an SD memory card slot. Chances are the 2.5 hour battery life will drop a wee bit since hard drives do consume more power than a regular SSD. Tags: Ogg Vorbis, ipod, hi fi, plasma (Read the full post about ‘Asus Eee PC 900 has 30GB?’…)

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Amazon is rolling out a new video on demand service that will replace the rather crappy “Unbox” service. Not surprisingly, Amazon decided to shelve Unbox, which required downloading the video to a device (PC, Xbox 360 or other). The download was anything but “instant”. The new one stream movies directly in the web browser, which is much better, instant-wise. Now if they could have a decent Media Center plug-in, that would make my day. I suspect that we won’t see this anytime soon on the Playstation3, given that Sony just launched their VOD service. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon Launches Video On Demand Service’…)

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Although Brando doesn’t make even the slightest hint that they were intending to make a Mario Bros reference with these little desk cleaners, the mushrooms still have a great deal of appeal to those loving the classic game.  If your cubicle has been looking overly dusty lately, these can suck up dust, hair, and even cigarette ashes.  They do mention that one for your car, but we all know the one time you’d really love to have a cigarette is right in the middle of your office when your boss is driving you nuts. (Read the full post about ‘Brando’s Mushroom Desk Mini Cleaner’…)

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Opera Software has announced public availability of the next version of Opera Mobile. The release is still in beta, but will give users the opportunity to take a sneak peak at the improved features included in the new mobile browser. The biggest change previous Opera Mobile users will note is that there are new visual effects and a new look to the browser. One thing that many Opera Mobile fans will love to hear is that version 9.5 beta comes with improvements in performance over version 8.65. Besides that, the browser also includes enhancements to the browsing experience including the ability to view an entire web page. Other nice touches include the ability to pan and zoom, improved standards support and the option to save pages and images. (Read the full post about ‘Opera Mobile 9.5 beta released’…)

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The US has been having tough times lately on Wall Street.  Meanwhile, it’s rumored that the “tech giants” may not be following suit (that’s a good thing).  Google, Microsoft, and IBM are expected to report their second quarter (Q2) 2008 earnings later today.  How do you think they’ll do? Times and Webcast Information: Google 4:30PM Eastern Google Webcast IBM 4:30PM Eastern IBM Webcast Microsoft 5:30PM Eastern Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed → Tags: game, wireless, robots, pvp (Read the full post about ‘Google, Microsoft, IBM to report Q2 2008 earnings later today’…)

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