Gadgets Control

After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs’ fundamental physics research lab. Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software. The idea is to align the research work in the Lab closer to areas that the parent company is focusing on, says Peter Benedict, spokesperson for Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent Ventures. (Read the full post about ‘Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research’…)

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Are you bored at the office? I’m sure we’ve seen plenty of remote controlled toys in the past, but that won’t stop me from adding the R/C Mini Tank to our annals. R/C Mini Tank is the coolest racing car you have ever seen. It is designed in the military tank shape. It can be charged on the remote control which is powered by 3pcs AA batteries only. Just install the batteries and enjoy playing it with your friends. Here comes with Green Tank and Camouflage Tank. It certainly doesn’t look too professional, and too bad there are no laser fights you can hold with this, otherwise you and your mate could build an elaborate obstacle course, waiting for someone to make that fatal move first. (Read the full post about ‘R/C Mini Tank’…)

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Ask any dad and he’ll tell you that he wears many hats, and among the more popular ones would be that of a driver - at least until the kid is old enough to drive. Enter the Dad’s Cab novelty taxi meter. Gifts for dads don’t come much better than this Gift of the Year Award winner, Dad’s Cab. Dad’s Cab is a novelty taxi meter that comes with an assortment of forfeit cards that overworked dads can dish out to their blood-sucking children by way of a bill. Payments include ingenious tasks like ‘tidy your room’ and ‘make dad a cup of tea’ – that’s no more free rides for the kids and some well-deserved rewards for dad! (Read the full post about ‘Dad’s Cab novelty taxi meter’…)

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Instead of toting around a projector as well as a notebook, why not merge both devices into one machine? Enter the portable PC theatre concept that sees a full-fledged multimedia PC and a 5.1 surround sound system that allows you to enjoy your favorite movies anytime, anywhere - just make sure you’re near a power outlet since a projector will probably drain a standard notebook battery dead within a short period of time. It would also be an engineering challenge to make sure the heat from the projector will be dissipated correctly without adversely affecting the rest of the computer’s components. No idea on whether this concept is viable or not, but it would definitely be mighty impressive it if is ever realized. (Read the full post about ‘Portable PC Theatre Concept’…)

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Asus has quietly launched their latest offering, the Eee Download service, and judging from the initial support and initial response, they should have kept it a little quieter and made sure it was a little further developed before they unveiled it. See, at first glance its a great idea, the Eee Download service offers the ability to “install software and multimedia in just one click,” which comes courtesy of the Click ‘N Run (CNR) format. If you remember back, CNR comes from Lindows Linspire fame shame, however CNR has since recently been purchased by Xandros. So that all sounds great, Xandros owns a service and the version of Linux that is installed on the Eee PC’s is Xandros, that sounds like it should be a match made in heaven. (Read the full post about ‘Asus launches the un-compatible Eee Download service’…)

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A company’s releasing a Guitar Hero ripoff that doesn’t make you taint your soul by rocking out to tunes by Satan. Slated for a September release, Guitar Praise features a diverse Christian Rock song list, including "Undo Me" by Jennifer Knapp, "Jesus Freak" by dc Talk and "This Fragile Breath" by Todd Agnew. And of course, the game comes with a plastic wireless guitar, which unfortunately isn’t shaped like a Holy Cross. You can also purchase an extra guitar separately for two-player mode. By tilting your guitars upward you’ll be able to send each other "surprises." You can pre-order a copy now for $100. (Read the full post about ‘Thank God: Guitar Praise Offers Guitar Hero for Christians’…)

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by Donald Melanson, posted Aug 27th 2008 at 11:27AM While it likely won’t cause the same clamoring for benchmarks that we see around the release of a new high-end NVIDIA card, those on a budget will no doubt nonetheless be pleased to know that the company’s just bolstered it’s low-end offerings a bit, with a new card that starts at just $59. That, of course, won’t exactly get you a Crysis killer, but the GeForce 9400 GT does at least boast 16 processor cores, a 128-bit memory interface, dual-link DVI, DirectX 10 support and, in its standard configuration, 512MB of graphics memory (from the looks of it, 1GB versions are also available). Unlike something like a GTX 280 SLI config, this one also likely won’t make a noticeable impact on (Read the full post about ‘NVIDIA kicks out low-end GeForce 9400 GT, starting price $59′…)

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LG Electronics has just announced the LG70 and LG80 LCD TVs from the Scarlet series, featuring the following specifications on both models :- Full HD resolution (1080p) Precisely tuned speakers 3.1-channel Virtual Surround Sound sytem 50,000:1 (LG70)/30,000:1 (LG80) contrast ratio USB 2.0 connectivity It is interesting to note that the speakers will automatically slide sideways whenever you turn on the TV to add to the overall cool factor. No idea on pricing, but these will definitely add a ‘wow’ factor to your living room. Tags: cool gear, video game, hdtv, pvr (Read the full post about ‘LG Launches Scarlet LCD TVs’…)

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Dell’s famous XPS line of notebooks will soon make its transition into the Inspiron Studio range later in this year according to a roadmap from undated Dell slides. The XPS 1530 will go the way of the dodo this November, while two new notebooks will be unveiled at the same time - the Studio XPS 13 and Studio XPS 15. Both of the newer notebooks will come with the following :- Slot-loading Blu-ray drives Illuminated keyboards (great for working in dark rooms) Glass floating displays with a RGB LED option Webcam facial recognition Fingerprint reader HDMI ports Will this piece of news put off your purchase of the current XPS line, no matter what the model number is? (Read the full post about ‘Dell Inspiron Studio Transition’…)

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In private beta testing mode since January, the England-based ProofHQ has just opened it’s program up to the the public. What makes it so appealing to so many is the obvious allowance for collaboration. ProofHQ makes this simple with the use of several formats on the web. Blogs, social media applications…users are able to comment and give feedback on a project that can be seen by anyone working on it by using embeddable objects. There is no cost for this new personal version, unless you want to upgrade to a more advanced package that offers more storage.  The free package only allows for five proofs a months (50 megabytes of storage), and the upgrades run anywhere from $29 to $99 a month. (Read the full post about ‘Cloud-based collaboration app ProofHQ moves to public beta’…)

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