Gadgets Control

by Ryan Block, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 3:14PM We’d already heard the Vaio FW and SR series were due in short order, but they’ve since apparently shown up on Circuit City’s site. The pages are down now, but the shots of the 16-inch FW (which looks pretty reminiscent of the old school Vaio Z-series) and 13.3-inch SR are still live, indicating model designations VGN-FW140EH and VGN-SR140EB. (Read the full post about ‘Sony Vaio FW and SR series show up on Circuit City’…)

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MetroPCS has just announced that they will begin allowing customers to activate handsets from other carriers. As a CDMA carrier, customers will be able to use handsets from other major carriers such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Alltel. According to the official announcement this will make MetroPCS “the largest U.S. wireless carrier” to allow the use of other carriers phones. MetroPCS however is limited in coverage areas with just 14 large metro areas across the country, some of which include Miami, Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. Still a nice change to see, and hopefully this trend will carry on to other large carriers as well. (Read the full post about ‘MetroPCS opens up, will activate other carriers phones’…)

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Princeton University has become the latest to announce that they have plans to begin offering Kindle editions of their textbooks. Joining other universities such as Yale, Oxford, and UC Berkeley the Princeton textbooks will be available beginning in the fall semester. While there was not any mention of the pricing for the Kindle edition books, the nice part here is that students will have a much easier time carrying around a Kindle loaded with textbooks as compared to a backpack filled with textbooks. In addition the built-in functionality of the Kindle should only aid in studying. The Kindle has support to highlight portions of the text, make notes for future reference and even search to find the text you are looking for. (Read the full post about ‘Princeton will soon offer Kindle edition textbooks’…)

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There is always some latest and greatest scam to help you lose weight, and some do work, they just rid you of every important nutrient your body needs.  However, others you spend money on and they vibrate your fat and that’s where it ends.  Over the years I swear there have been hundreds of these things under all different names and with all different looks.  All claiming to just “melt” the fat right off of you.  I’m sorry, I have never seen fat melt off, but I would most definitely pay to see it.  Sadly, I don’t think vibrating your stomach is going to do the trick. (Read the full post about ‘Vibro Shape belt vibrates your fat off’…)

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Perhaps you’re thinking that # should be higher, but then again, this
isn’t really surprising, is it? After all, 2012 is only a few years
away, and even in the country of the Internet’s birth (the US), uptake is less
than 75%.

Appropriately enough, the highest growth will be in high economic growth/’emerging’ countries like China, Russia, India and Brazil (BRIC).

Now if only we could get even 0.1% of those 1.8 billion people to come visit our sites.

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tags: cable, mobile devices, gear, lcd

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Perhaps you’re thinking that # should be higher, but then again, this
isn’t really surprising, is it? After all, 2012 is only a few years
away, and even in the country of the Internet’s birth (the US), uptake is less
than 75%.

Appropriately enough, the highest growth will be in high economic growth/’emerging’ countries like China, Russia, India and Brazil (BRIC).

Now if only we could get even 0.1% of those 1.8 billion people to come visit our sites.

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tags: digital, players, home cinema, pvr

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by Darren Murph, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 11:05AM Okay, so maybe Cizmo’s CX1730M is based heavily on Clevo’s M570TU, but it’s still one beast of a machine. This 17-inch monster packs a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a 160GB SATA hard drive, WSXGA+ panel, a 2-megapixel webcam, dual-layer DVD burner (or optional Blu-ray drive), NVIDIA’s 512MB GeForce 8800M GTX and a plethora of ports. Amazingly, this one tips the scales at “just” 8.7-pounds, which actually isn’t half bad for a unit this potent. (Read the full post about ‘Cizmo’s CX1730M gaming laptop packs a wallop’…)

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The Me Generation, Generation X, Generation Y…they’ve all had their time in the media spotlight. Now prepare yourself for “Digi-Kids,” the term that market research firm NPD Group uses to refer to youth ages 4-14 who spend more time on their computers instead of parked in front of a television. Parents of digi-kids probably didn’t need a market research report to confirm all this, but NPD’s latest “Kids and Consumer Electronics” report shows that 75 percent of youth surveyed use a computer while only 70 percent say they use a TV. The report also shows an increase in usage of social networking sites for this particular demographic, which should be of particular interest to parents, educators and law enforcement worried about online predators. (Read the full post about ‘How to punish a “digi-kid;” take away their PC’s, cell phones..not their TV’s’…)

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If you want to know who’s the most dominant member in a meeting is, you should try this new noise-sensitive light-emitting meeting table codenamed Reflect. This luminous board captures conversation via its built-in directional microphone and determines who is talking, the length of time talking, and other metrics. Participants need not wear any special gadget to capture the conversation so all they need to do is talk, talk, and talk. On the other, it can also detect those guys who are not actively participating in the conversation. Cool, eh? Reflect might prove very helpful in balancing conversation and give equal opportunity for each member to speak. (Read the full post about ‘Noise sensitive table identifies the most talkative person in the group’…)

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by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 29th 2008 at 10:03AM Remember those cool Nike high-tops that Marty McFly wore in Back to the Future? The ones that laced themselves and you wished you had a pair just like them? If so, listen up: Nike is releasing the Marty McFly 2015’s as the Nike Hyperdunks. They won’t lace themselves, unfortunately, but will be made of Nike’s super light-weight materials. They’ll be shilled by Kobe Bryant in black, and we’ll be surprised if the Back to the Future roots of these shoes will be shown the light in order to keep the cool young’ns interested, but we all know the truth behind these bitchin’ kicks. Hoverboard sold separately.Read PermalinkEmail this6 CommentsFiled under: Misc. (Read the full post about ‘Hello? McFly 2015 Nikes to be resurrected as Nike Hyperdunks’…)

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