Gadgets – Page 10 – LIVEdigitally

First attempt at embedded wireless power will miss the mark

Posted on January 18, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Reuters photo I just read this Reuters article about the “desk of the future” in which the designer (Herman Miller) is incorporating wireless power technology from eCoupled (a competitor to WildTangent, who I saw at CES last week – more on eCoupled at Engadget). I love the concept of wireless chargers, and I love the concept of building them into existing products such as furniture and cars (the Reuters article discusses both).

What I don’t like is this part…

But no mobile devices will have eCoupled built in by that time, so Visteon customers will have to purchase an adapter from Mobility Electronics Inc., said Walter Thornton of Mobility Electronics.

Available this summer, the adapter will be able to work with Motorola phones, Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod Shuffle and other gadgets, Thornton said.

This is actually the same flaw I have with the WildTangent system – it puts too much burden on the consumer and requires too much of a behavioral change. This whole system is designed to make charging devices more convenient, not less. Here’s a quick analysis on the process after and before (intentionally in that order).

After (in other words, you bought the desk)
1. Remove cell phone from pocket (it’s not on your belt, is it? c’mon)
2. Look around cluttered desk for special charging adapter
3. Insert phone into adapter
4. Leave phone on desk until charged
5. Remove phone from adapter
6. Place adapter somewhere “you’ll remember later” (causing at least 10 minutes of searching next time you want to find it, since you inevitably place it in that one drawer you never open)

Before (in other words, today, without the desk)
1. Remove cell phone from pocket
2. Connect to charger which you have at your desk already
3. Leave phone on desk until charged
4. Remove phone from charger

In my opinion, this is a clear case of technology being released to consumers way too soon. This fits none of the bill of: faster, better, cheaper. Maybe next year this’ll actually get easy, but only once the following has come true…

Phonemakers will embed eCoupled soon after Visteon releases its product, Hazlett said.

However, Motorola would not comment and Lynch refuses to get really excited until Motorola is on board.

“I’m hoping that they do get the (device) manufacturers to buy into this so that it doesn’t fizzle out,” Lynch added.

Update: thoughts from Engadget and CrunchGear.

Is that 12GB in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Posted on January 16, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Seagate drive For the past couple of years, Seagate’s portable 5GB drive was quite popular. But 5GB is so 2004. Now Seagate is introducing a whole new line of portable hard drives, ranging from pocket-sized to pocketbook-sized (official press release). The smallest unit will come in either 12GB or 16GB when it ships later this year, which is a perfect amount of storage to have accessible when you are on the move. Here’s a little video we shot at Seagate’s booth during CES 2007:

I think it’s interesting that they are referring to the drives as “data movers” (under the Freeagent brand). I’m not sure if that’s exactly the terminology I’d be using to market portable storage. I see the concept that you use the drive to “move data” from one PC to another, but with 12GB, that’s a lot of data to move. I think a 1GB or 2GB USB flash drive is more appropriate as a “data mover” (unless you are doing a lot of video editing). To me, 12GB is a good chunk of a personal media collection. It’s all your digital photos, or much of your music collection. Don’t get me wrong, I love the product, I just think the marketing may need a tweak.

This becomes even more true on the higher volume Freeagent drives (500+ GB!) which are clearly more for personal backup than anything else. And keep an eye on backup – I’m predicting it’ll be a big trend in 2007!

More Seagate CES coverage: Engadget, Tech Digest, and Electronista.

WildCharge: Wireless Gadget Power

Posted on January 13, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

WildCharge was one of the few companies whose press releases prior to CES really caught my eye. Wireless power? Whozawhatzit? Huh? Watch this video interview for a brief explanation:

Another interview here and more CES coverage here.

Netgear knocks it out of the park at CES

Posted on January 7, 2007 by Jeremy Toeman

Opening disclosure: I am working on a consulting project with Netgear, but that work is unrelated to my blogging about them. I was invited to their press conference and chose to attend and got to see three new products that I was previously unaware of. This blog post is because I am genuinely amazed with a product of theirs.

Now, onto the story. Netgear had a press conference this morning and unveiled three new products which I will list and describe in ascending order of excitement and interestingness. Before the demos, Debbie Williams (Netgear’s Chief Marketing Officer) gave a brief “state of the union” for the company. Basically: 10 years old, market cap of $883M, products sold in >16K retailers, and they introduced 50 new products in 2006 (methinks about 42 of them were routers, but I guess it counts anyway, right?). She then went on to discuss how 2006 was the year of building the home network for the digital lifestyle (love that term, but I think I may have heard it before), and 2007 is the year of delivering the experience. She then introduced Vivek Pathela, Netgear’s VP of Product Marketing to do the demos (again, listed here in my order, not theirs):

Storage Central Turbo. This updates 2005’s Storage Central device by adding the capacity to expand to multiple terabytes of data as well as gigabit Ethernet. If you aren’t paying attention to the bits and bytes, it means it can store and stream HD movies around your house. This is a fairly evolutionary/logical enhancement to the product line. The MSRP is $249 (with no included hard drives, which makes sense since it’s so much cheaper for you to buy your own anyway) and the product should ship “early” this year. More pics:
Dual-Mode Cordless Phone with Skype. Now we’re seeing some interesting convergence happen. Quite a few companies introduced Skype or VoIP phones in 2006, some worked well, some didn’t. Netgear seems to have added a clever twist by incorporating a standard telephone in the same handset (aka Plain Old Telephone Service, or POTS). This is a very smart combination, as it lets a consumer have just a single home phone that can work with both Skype and POTS systems. Also, you can get multiple handsets all working with the same base station (although an audience member asked a great question: can more than one handset make a simultaneous POTS call? which stumped the Netgear team – I sure hope it’s a yes). The demo went great as Vivek called Patrick Lo, Netgear’s CEO, and had a quick live call with near-excellent audio quality. MSRP $199, available now (on Amazon)!
EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD. Oh my is this one interesting. It’s a, well, “box” that hooks up to your TV and your home network connection. It then streams your music, photos, and videos from any PC or networked storage device (NAS) to your TV. It also streams from YouTube (they demoed a classic Diet Coke/Mentos video, which about 90% of the audience reacted as if they’d never seen it before – wow). It also works in high definition (up to 1080p resolution), including full upscaling/downscaling of video. It supports almost every video codec, including MPEG-4 HD, WMV HD, DivX, MPEG-2, H.264, etc etc. It also streams iTunes (including protected content if from a Windows PC, sorry Mac folks). It also has USB to locally connect a flash drive or an iPod. It also supports multiple units so you can start a video in one room, then finish it in another. It also has full PVR (TiVo-like) capabilities. And from the demo, it looks like it works very well! As a guy who has spent about 8 years designing award-winning devices just like these, I am quite impressed. Quite! MSRP $349, available early 2007.

I’ve seen a bit of other coverage already of the conference. MacUser compares it against iTV and calls the UI “uninspired” which is a fair point, but I think making comparisons against a product that’s not really been “announced” yet isn’t quite appropriate. Also, I disagree that Apple will beat the $349 price point, as I think they’d rather rip into their loyal customer base who are more willing to overpay for the Apple brand. More coverage from Ed Kohler, Eric Savitz at Barron’s, Gadgetell, and SciFi.com, but for very extensive details, here’s the Engadget transcript. I also bumped into Dave Zatz (with Sakshi Goel of Netgear), Netgear’s resident CES blogger.

So there’s my front-runner for most interesting new product of CES: the Netgear Digital Entertainer HD. We’ll see how the rest of the show pans out! More Netgear conference pics below and the whole CES collection is here.

An hour in Akihabara

Posted on June 10, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Akihabara is Tokyo’s “electronics town”. Prior to about 2001 or so it was about the coolest place in the world to go look at gadgets, as it was often the only place to find really interesting stuff. With today’s globalization, it’s definitely lost some of its allure, but is still a must-see spot in Tokyo. Heck, even my wife got a kick out of it! Here’s a fun assortment of photos I took in my extremely rapid stop at Akihabara last week…

In-store demos actually show the insides of these machines and how they work. Of course you can only wash one sock at a time.

Here I am at the Akihabara subway station

Remember Taito? Anyone? Cool 80s video games… Well, they seem to be alive and well in Akihabara!

More English here than anywhere I saw in Japan!

How can Sega even afford the lease anymore?
(also if you look in the background of the picture you’ll see a reflection of Ishimaru – I like the effect here)

Ishimaru is a “middle tier” store in Akihabara

These Panasonic headphones have replaceable ear buds and retractable cables – nice.

Despite the popularity of the iPod, Akihabara stores are full of tiny shiny mp3 players to choose from. After which, everyone inevitably picks the iPod…

One of the better in-store demos I’ve seen, both displays had the same DVD playing, with the obvious quality difference of the HD player. And with titles like “The Brothers Grimm” I’m sure people were rushing out to buy the players!

AirEdge is a company offering various 3G connectivity options

When the Japanese do mobile TV, they do it widescreen – check out these Aquos branded phones from Vodafone

I don’t think it’s perfectly clear from this picture, but this thing is bigger than the PPC6700. From AirEdge/Willcom, this is one big honking Windows Mobile PPC phone!

When the Japanese do mobile TV, they do it widescreen – check out these Aquos branded phones from Vodafone

Laox is the 2nd biggest store in Akihabara, behind Yodabashi. It has a bit of a K-Mart feel, but is a good stop.

I know it was big in Europe (it is huge in Belgium), and maybe Japan too, but at the end of the day, MD was lame, and good riddance. But, Laox still has a shelf full of the things…

While not commonly known, it’s actually illegal in Japan to run a store with no Hello Kitty products. This doll/gadget has built-in speakers (in the feet) and … uh.. hmm..

This portable media player is nicely sized, and plays all the ‘popular’ video formats, like xvid.

Oh, so shiny!

I think this one is pretty cool. Not sure if I’d pay $700ish for it, but it’s a cool idea.

Inside Laox Bose has their own store where they show their tiny speakers that sound awful or their really really big headphones that sound good but weigh 14 pounds

Panasonic brings you full 1080p vacuuming with their new HD unit

Love the concept, love the sign.

I really like the idea of video games that have exercise themes (note: I like the idea, but I don’t want one), Xavix has a full working in-store demo

Get your bronco workout in the convenience of your home… ?

I think this is where Tom and Katie picked theirs up

Shows you which floor on Laox to find your rodeo machine

Right across from Laox is a store with all sorts of wires and cables, they’ll even make your own custom cable there!

Another view of the buildings in Akihabara

A recent addition to Akihabara is this giant-sized Yodabashi store

Aww, so cuuuute

Someone’s still trying to push keyboards in the living room… ugh.

Seems similar to the new EVDO units we have in the US

I guess a lot of people are buying these things here…

If you haven’t found a way to thoroughly embarrass and spoil your pet yet, well, here’s the answer. Print your own design then clothe your lap-dog with this kit!

Yep, all mice.

I hadn’t heard of marimekko before, but I thought these were a little distinctive…

My wife thought this Disney-themed mouse was the ‘pick of the litter’ (so-to-speak)

Fans, lights, vacuums, cup warmers – if you have USB, you can do just about anything now!

Yodabashi sells generic power supplies for virtually any laptop

Lots of routers and ADSL modems on display in Yodabashi

Yep, we’ve seen em before, but the display was nice. I especially like the touch of putting them under glass

This kids camera allows you to take pictures and instantly print them on customized little papers, some with different designs too.

Need a telescope? Binocular? Yodabashi’s got it!

Last I checked the local Best Buy has about 3 different varieties… Yodabashi has… more.

I like Canon cameras. That’s it.

8-in-1? got it. 11-in-1? got it. 13-in-1? got it.

Just follow the simple chart and display

Not sure why, but I’ve enjoyed taking escalator pictures recently.

This is the best way to train your children how to use a remote control, a skill they will need much later in life.

They sure do look nice

When you get to Yodabashi, just go to the 7th floor and take the escalators down from there.

In a rare sunny moment, here I am outside of Yodabashi

Small cubes and other tiny non-competition for Apple

Sigh, couldn’t Walt have inspired more in his team?

Never heard of it, but it’s iPod-white, so it must be good.

See, it’s red! Sharp’s iPod non-knockoff

I like the form factor AND the blue, but I’m sure Panasonic has otherwise messed up this small mp3 player

Yodabashi has about 400 different MP3 players to try out. And then you go buy an iPod (you know, to stand out from everyone else)

For all those times you’ve dropped your TV in the bathtub, fret no longer, thanks to this portable Casio unit

Yodabashi has all your stereo and home theater needs

Yes, that’s right, it says Rodeo Boy. How do you get to the Alamo? Practice, practice, practice.

The Japanese sure love their toilet seats. At $900, this Passo unit even has a built-in iPod dock! (just kidding, but it IS $900!)

Yes, the title is accurate, these are demos of high-tech toilet seats in Yodabashi. I wonder if anyone else has used “toilet seat” as a Flickr tag before?

Perfect fun for all the kids. My favorite part is the screen shot of the ‘fun’ game (red circle added for effect)

This is somewhat neat, this little kit has your favorite Peanuts characters playing along with your music. Not sure what you need it for, but, hey, there’s Linus!

Another kit to play along with your music, just in case you are bored of a peaceful looking mantle.

In the Tokyo metro system, just 15 minutes away from Akihabara!

Tokyu Hands: Crafts, Gizmos, and Toys, oh my!

Posted on June 4, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Imagine taking the coolest aspects of Toys R Us, Best Buy, Target, and hmm.. Home Depot(?), throw em together, and weed out anything really mundane. Now have lots of interactive displays, spread everything out onto 7 floors (each with its own checkout line unfortunately), and turn it Japanese. Next, put the store in downtown Tokyo (right by the Shinjuku station), and you have my favorite store in all of Tokyo.

Tokyu Hands: Creative Life Store.

My friend Yuichiro (we call him Woody, don’t ask) took me here about 4 or 5 years ago, and I’ve been craving it (and Ippudo ramen) ever since. Its a very fun place, with lots of different types of appeal.

On the first floor I really liked the Let’s Play TV demonstrations, featuring 80s classic arcade hits like Xevious and Mappy (ok, so the premise and storylines weren’t as polished as today’s games, but you could pick up a controller and play the damn thing without learning the 14-button sequence to get your guy to jump!). In the US we have some retro TV-based gaming systems, but these seemed like a bit more fun, I think because they were just less polished-looking.

Also featured on the first floor was a huge section devoted to customizing your cell phone, with stickers, studs, jewels, beads, and I think even raw fish. There were also a few interesting carrying cases for iPod nanos in the mix.

Other highlights in the ‘bizarre gizmo’ section included: ifish and idog (some type of music-reactive iPod accessory), about a dozen different digital Sudoku games, and something called Cube World, which really just seemed like a collosal waste of money for the pure sake of LCD screens… ifish was my favorite piece of silliness.

On the remaining floors were other treasures, ranging from blocks of wood for your carving needs, small furniture, cooking supplies, and just about any type of gadget or gizmo related to any hobby or pastime you may have. I spent some time looking through travel gadgetry, but unfortunately didn’t find anything particularly new to waste money on.

Got a few days in Tokyo? Sure, go to Akihabara and Yodabashi, but you pretty much know what you are going to see there. Head to Tokyu Hands for a lot more fun. Who knows, maybe you’ll even get to comparison shop electronic toothbrushes?

Panasonic Oxyride Review – The Revolution in Battery Power

Posted on May 19, 2006 by Matt Whitlock

-Courtesy TechLore.com

One of the key problems facing consumers is that portable electronic devices are getting more power hungry with each new generation, but those single-use alkaline batteries that power them haven’t really improved much over the last decade. Perhaps 10 or 20 years from now, it will seem silly that we had to tote around two or three spare sets just to make sure that we could always use our portable device whenever we wanted to. Or, has that time come already in the form of Oxyride?

In this review, I pit Panasonic’s new Oxyride batteries against Energizer Max and their own alkaline battery. Does Oxyride provide the increase in battery life you need to keep that digital camera and MP3 player running when you need it most?

Read the rest of this entry >> (external link)

GfG Reviews Mvix MV-5000U

Posted on May 16, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Mvix box There’s a whole lotta convergence goin on these days. A big push (one I used to spearhead while working for Mediabolic) is getting digital media from a PC to a TV set. I for one have a few thousand digital pictures, about 100GB of ripped music (did it myself for about 700 CDs!), and some digital videos. Products like the MV-5000U are designed to let me playback this digital media at the TV set with a handy remote control, rather than at the PC with a keyboard. I could go on for some length about the “10-foot” experience compared to the “2-foot” experience, or “lean-forward” versus “lean-back” activities, but I think we’ve all heard enough already. Personally, I love my Sonos for the music around the home, but it would be nice to be able to do photo slideshows on the LCD TV.

Anyhow, the Chief Gizmateer over at Gizmos for Geeks (oh that’s what he meant by GfG) had some hands-on time with the MV-5000U. A short excerpt of his review:

What’s Groovy: The Mvix MV-5000U has a decently high grooviness factor and as my wife mentioned several times… this is “pretty cool!”

What’s Sucky: The only part of the gizmo that was frustrating was the remote control. The navigation arrow keys were small and close together and I kept hitting the down arrow key by accident while trying to hit OK. Also, the manual was quite basic, but who uses manuals anyway?

For the rest (and it’s thorough!), read more here.

Have you skinned your gadget lately?

Posted on May 3, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

I must start by being perfectly honest about something: I don’t understand how the ringtone/wallpaper/theme industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. I’ve tried out a few ringtones, but I think they are for the most part silly. I’m one of the fifty million (or so) Sprint Ambassadors who received a free phone to try out, and it’s cool, but if I had to pay for a background image, it would be fedexed out of my possession a few minutes later. But for some reason I have yet to discover, I really think there is something cool about custom skins for devices.

skinit logo Maybe it’s because owning a RAZR was cool for about 3 days, and having a black one for about 2 more days than that. Everything is a commodity today. So when I found out about skinit, I decided I needed to have a Habs phone.

Getting your device skinned is terrifically easy. Go to their Web site, select your category of device, then pick the brand and model. Then pick a skin. Or start by selecting your skin. They have TONS of em (art, sports, models, colleges, movies, etc).

Pricing ranges from $14.95 to $29.95. At face value, this seems a wee bit high to me, but then I gave it some thought – if I personally put value on personalization, this isn’t all that pricey. Don’t get me wrong, if you are reading this, and your dull grey Compaq laptop is looking suh-weet in your opinion, you are probably shaking your head wondering how I could even possibly consider spending that money. No worries, my friend, you are under no obligation to purchase, and may safely go on your merrily surfing ways. But if you want your own Star Wars Vaio, keep reading!

I selected my skin (Montreal Canadiens hockey logo) and my phone (LG VX6100), and today received it. A little bit of prying and applying, and a few minutes later, the Habsphone was born!

In today’s world of endless Starbucks, Targets, Walmarts, Mickey D’s, Home Depots, and every other chain that is strategically placed 1.7 miles apart, it’s fun to find a little individuality. Granted, buying a sticker (easily removable, by the way, with no residue left over) isn’t going to solve world hunger, but at least I can make the bet that I’m the only guy in San Francisco with a cell phone that looks like the Montreal Canadiens hockey team logo. I have to go now, I need to get a new pair of khakis at the Gap.

Girl’s Gadget Report: Wireless pool thermometer

Posted on April 29, 2006 by Guest Contributor

Pool Thermometer The summer time is coming!

Many of us have already begun planning summer hot weekends.

It feels like sun has given everybody a kind of additional energy. Women begin visiting fitness centers, solaria and pools in order to get ready for hot season. You’ve probably noticed that the more things you have to do, the more you manage.

But I can have a bet that when in several months you lie in the sun you won’t be able to leave your couch because of total laziness. Just then Floating Pool Thermometer will be the right device you need.

It gives you an opportunity to check the water temperature without making any effort. It means that you won’t have to leave your cosy place in wait for water gets worm. Being absolutely wireless it transmits the information to your indoor display. The thermometer features 433MHz transmitter. That’s why you can get the information being away about 100 feet. Moreover, it has its own display with rather big digits, as its developers say. So you can also read figures at distance.

At the same time you shouldn’t worry about its safe keeping. The materials it’s made of are absolutely waterproof and sun-resistant. Actually, it’s rather useful device, I think.

The only thing you have to perform is to dip it into water and just enjoy your holiday.

The Weekly Girl’s Gadget Report is brought to you by http://www.gadget4girls.com/

Docupen – Scan on the Run

Posted on March 10, 2006 by Jeremy Toeman

Okay, I must admit when I first heard about the Docupen, I thought it was a combination scanner/pen, and I couldn’t possibly conceive what I would ever do with it. But they offered to send me one to try out, so I figured I’d give it a shot. As a pen, it performed quite poorly (probably since there is no pen involved), but as a scanner, it’s worth a little look.

The device is about 8″ long, and about a 1/2″ thick, comes with a leather (pleather?) carrying case, a USB cable, and software. It has a built-in lithium-ion battery that nicely charges over USB and according to documentation should last a couple of hundred scans a time, which is more than plenty! It has a single button which is used for both scanning and synchronizing files with the PC, and is basically designed to let you carry around a black and white scanner in your laptop case with no noticeable weight difference.

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Ritek’s QuattroDrive: How many functions can we pack in one little box?

Posted on January 6, 2006 by Jonas Review Editor

Introduction

I have a confession to make: I don’t like multifunction devices. When shopping, I buy the best of the individual devices. For example, I own a separate printer and scanner, not a multifunction printer/scanner/copier. Therefore, it was with some trepidation that I approached Ritek’s latest creation, known as the QuattroDrive.

With an older television, I am limited in that I have one set of RCA inputs in the rear (those are the round yellow, red, and white connections). I have a stand-alone DVD player hooked up. It works well at playing my CD’s and DVD’s. My old DVD player does not display photos, but with only one set of RCA connections, I didn’t have the room for a dedicated TV flash card viewer. I thought the answer was a new TV, but I’ve been holding off with LCD prices tumbling, and the unknowns of the new HDTV signal.

Then along comes this little box, known as the QuattroDrive. It promises to interface not only with my computer, but also with my television. What can it do? These are the four functions accrdong to the manufacturer:
– flash memory to CD burner
– digital media player
– multicard reader/writer
– external CDR/W writer
I first dismissed this device as only being for professional photographers who needed to back up their memory cards on the road to a more secure optical disc. The more I started looking into this device, the more I realized that it had a lot more to offer for many different users.
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