Gadgets Control

T-Mobile’s takeover of Suncom is pretty much complete after about a year since the purchase was announced. They’ve announced that it is now “T-Mobile Service” in the areas that Suncom formerly provided cell service for. These areas include North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They’ve also started rebranding the Suncom stores as T-Mobile stores, so you should see signs switching on the brick and mortar stores if you’re in one of these areas. Here’s the official press release from T-Mobile: T-Mobile USA Launches Service in the Carolinas and Puerto Rico And in Additional Former SunCom Markets BELLEVUE, Wash.—Sept. (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile is now in the Carolinas and Puerto Rico’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Sep 9th 2008 at 12:11PM var Ah, bug fixes galore. Apple just announced firmware 2.1 for the iphone and iPod touch. “No crashes,” says Steve. He’s calling it a big update with the promise of fewer dropped calls, big battery improvement, and faster backups. Is this a dream? We’ll find out when it’s released this Friday.P.S. No mention of copy and paste.Update: 2.1 will be available for ipod touch owners for $10. Come on, you didn’t really expect it to be free did you? There’s a “buy now” button at the end of that link but it only downloads v2.0 at the moment.Update 2: Fine print says free to those who paid for iPod touch 2.0 update. Lucky you. (Read the full post about ‘iPhone 2.1 software update announced (update: $10 for some iPod touch owners)’…)

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Nothing beats a great trailer in movie-style for teasing the launch of a new product. In this case it’s the XPERIA from Sony Ericsson. The movie trailer just hit the internet so we can now only hope that means that the phone is soon to follow. The trailer is definitely worth watching and shows the phone being used in a number of sequences. I won’t give the plot away but it’s very cool and I’d 100 percent pay to see this movie, if it were ever to come to the theater. Instead, I have to sign up to be notified when new episodes hit. I had some fondling time with the XPERIA back in May and found it to be innovative but a bit rough around the edges. (Read the full post about ‘XPERIA launching soon? Ask Johnny X’…)

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Last weeks coolest gadget was a close one and for a change it was won by relatively cheap and what could be called “sensible” gadget, the stash reef sandals. Submitted by S2999, these sandals are ideal for hiding valuables, that is until everybody knows about them. The idea is brilliant: they have a little “drawer” inside the sole where money, credit cards or keys can be stashed. I’ve never ever heard of shoes being stolen from the beach, so your valuables would be much safer than anywhere else. High quality footwear that’s more than just a pair of flip-flops? Win. …. In second place we have previous CGOTW winners Gaj-It with the cool LayZ inflatable spa. (Read the full post about ‘CGOTW and $50 Winner are…’…)

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When you mention you have a thumb drive, no one usually stops to think you might mean its literally in the shape of a thumb.  Well you might have seen these drives a while back ago.  However, thankfully these come with a bit more memory than the original batch.  Plus these are being sold by a different seller that is selling them in the US, whereas the original was in Japan. This new design is packed with 2GB of storage, the original was half of that.  Now you can weird out all of your friends with a plastic thumb sticking out of your computer.  It is compatible with Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and Mac OS.  Making it more flexible if you are stuck using more than one computer for school or work.  You can pick one up from USB Geek for $20.  Which isn’t that bad of a price, especially for a novelty drive like this. (Read the full post about ‘The 2GB USB Real Thumb Drive’…)

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True, the Nintendo Wii is set up for wireless gaming, but unless you have a router, it’s pretty much nigh useless. Except for the new Mario Kart game, the Wii’s online gaming capability has been pretty much untapped. It’s not like Xbox, where most players do Halo online for several hours. I can’t remember the last time I was playing some online game on the Wii for that long. In order to compete in the ever-growing online gaming industry, the Nintendo Wii will have to put out more games that can be played online. I suppose a router designed for it is just the next logical step. As you can see, the Wii router is designed to match your Nintendo Wii and even comes in that wonderful Wii white. (Read the full post about ‘Nintendo’s Wii Wireless Router’…)

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As an adult, it starts to look a little strange attempting to purchase a race car bed for yourself. Not only that but unless you’re vertically challenged, eventually you will become too tall for those kid-sized race car beds. It also makes it awkward when you’re trying to take a girl home with you. It’d be about the equivalent of asking her if she’d like top or bottom bunk. Well if you’re trying to appear as if you’re an average adult, but miss your race car bed, at least you could pick up this alarm clock. The alarm clock features a design that is created to look about like the dashboard in your car. (Read the full post about ‘The Atomic Cherry Red Motor Alarm Clock’…)

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On its way to the CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) show this year, Sony stopped off in a side-street and completed a small transaction. It exchanged cash money for some “magic beans”, which it promptly swallowed, waiting for the pretty colors and unicorns to swim into view. This is the only explanation for Sony’s crazy demonstration at the show: A 400 Disk Blu-ray changer, or a jukebox-for-junk as we like to call it. How on Earth could the former Japanese Superstar think that anyone would need to store 400 Blu-ray discs? Certainly the format will die before anybody amasses a collection of that size. And before you say “data backup” remember that, at around 50GB each, 400 disks is only 20TB. (Read the full post about ‘Sony Shows Over-Optimistic 400 Disk Blu-ray Changer’…)

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Little by little the Microsoft Surface is finding its way into the lives of more and more people. Between the slow, but seemingly steady move into hotels and bars such as the Sheraton and Rio, now the Surface has gone and gotten all political and made its latest appearance on MSNBC. The newly political Surface was a customized unit that featured two new applications which included Electoral Map and Battleground States. Although other apps were not demoed, it was mentioned that more will be unveiled in the coming weeks that will “further highlight the candidates, the issues, polls and relevant political news.” Electoral Map – Todd will use Surface to quickly and easily view historic voting results, polling insights and demographic data for each state. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft Surface gets a Political makeover, appears on MSNBC’…)

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Picture credit: Steve Nicholson Today Apple is almost certain to announce, at the very least, a new, taller iPod Nano. But amidst the hype surrounding the “Let’s Rock” event, it’s easy to get so caught up in the ipod’s future that we forget where it came from. The iPod was not invented in 2001 in Cupertino, California. It was invented in England in 1979, by “serial inventor” Kane Kramer. This is not a story of intellectual property theft, or of big companies putting the screws on the little man. Instead, it is just the retelling of another old story — the story of a lone, visionary inventor and his inability to market a product that appeared way before its time. (Read the full post about ‘Briton Invented iPod, DRM and On-Line Music in 1979′…)

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