Gadgets Control

ipod speaker docks as well as Internet radios are getting more and more common these days, and today we’ll look at a couple of these courtesy of iBlik. iBliks represent the next generation of do-it-all home audio, and they really can do the lot, bar make the tea and self-destruct when Chris Moyles comes on. Totally idiot-proof, both the iBlik Wi-Fi and iBlik RadioStation are capable of accessing thousands of internet radio stations from around the world, so you can listen to pop from Paris, talk shows from Tashkent and metal from Milwaukee. And those are just our insipid alliterative examples. All you need is a Wi-Fi or wired broadband connection and the world is your lobster. (Read the full post about ‘iBlik iPod Internet Radio’…)

Share This

by Ben Drawbaugh, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 6:11PM We’ve heard this about this dream so many times before, DRM that will make digital media as easy to use and as consumer friendly as a physical medium like DVD. We’d normally be quick to disregard this as yet another DRM “ecosystem” for digital media, but the list of players backing the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE) has us taking notice. As impossible as this seems, if anyone could make it happen, it’d be a group composed of: Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Fox, HP, Intel, Lions Gate, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, VeriSign, and Warner Bros — yes, we also find it hard to believe that all these companies are working together. (Read the full post about ‘Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem, the DRM of the future?’…)

Share This

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 1:04PM Sure, you want to keep that keg of Natural Ice you scored nice and cold, but what did Al Gore say about global warming? According to Professor Qiming Zhang and Penn State University, we can see a more eco-friendly kegerator appliance on the horizon — courtesy of the growing field of ferroelectric polarpolymers. Instead of relying on gasses similar to Freon, a process which can only be performed with energy-intensive compressors and heating coils, the new kegerators will rely on something called magnetic field refrigeration. In magnetic field refrigeration, electricity is introduced to a polarpolymer, causing the usually disordered molecules of the polarpolymer to become highly ordered. (Read the full post about ‘Ferroelectric polarpolymers will chill your beer, save the planet’…)

Share This

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 12:05PM
Right, so Voodoo’s succulent Envy 133 looks a lot better in high-res images than in some highly compressed, artifact-laden YouTube clip, but that’s what your imagination is there for. For those still waiting for their freshly shipped machine to hit the doorstep, hop on past the break for an unboxing sure to make you even more impatient. Or just restrain yourself and experience it first-hand in a few days. (Read the full post about ‘Voodoo Envy 133 unboxed on video, lookin’ good’…)

Share This

If you’ve been following the news of the HTC Touch Viva, you might have heard that it’s rumored to only have a 200 MHz processor. While such a processor might struggle to handle HTC’s TouchFLO 3D, HTC has developed another version called TouchFLO 2D, which is supposed to be less processor intensive.

(Read the full post about ‘TouchFLO 3D For All Windows Mobile Phones’…)

Share This

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 2:27PM We already found that Dell was shipping out the first wave of Mini 9s to eager consumers, so it’s perfectly logical to see that at least one particular owner was able to stifle his excitement long enough to video the unboxing process and upload it to the intartubez. Not like there’s anything there you’ll be shocked about, but the comparison shots with a much beefier sibling really puts things in perspective. (Read the full post about ‘Dell’s Mini 9 netbook gets unboxed on video’…)

Share This

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 7:38AM We’ve been pretty underwhelmed by the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 thus far, and the news that this machine runs particularly hot (and not in the good way!) isn’t likely to win over too many, uh, fans. The keyboard itself gets pretty warm, with temperatures measured between 38 and 42°C (100.4 and 107.6°F). That slightly edges out tests performed on the Eee PC 900 (101°F / 38°C), and leaves your Cloudbook (83°F / 28°C) as cool as a cucumber. (Read the full post about ‘Lenovo IdeaPad S10: the heat it generates is remarkable’…)

Share This

by Darren Murph, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 10:17AM
Hard to believe that Jack Kilby’s unsightly concoction (pictured above) turned 50 yesterday, but it’s true. Half a century ago, Mr. Kilby crafted the integrated circuit, which ended up having a monumental impact on taking computers from warehouse-sized to, well, not-warehouse-sized. As the story goes, the very first microchip was demonstrated on the 12th of September in 1958, and it passed its first test: “producing a sine wave on an oscilloscope screen.” Safe to say we all know how things progressed from there. (Read the full post about ‘Integrated circuit turns 50, now isn’t that nifty?’…)

Share This

by Thomas Ricker, posted Sep 13th 2008 at 10:52AM
var With firmware 2.1 now out for the iphone and ipod touch we bring you the inevitable PwnageTool and QuickPwn response. Apparently, the DevTeam took offense to a previous posting where we questioned the relevancy of continued jailbreaks in the age of the AppStore and official, worldwide iPhone distribution. (Read the full post about ‘DevTeam releases PwnageTool and QuickPwn 2.1, wants to rumble’…)

Share This

I think all of us have used our laptops while in front of the television, and so we use two controllers: a mouse and a remote control.  Now, there is a way to have two controllers on one device.  The Eizo C T-One is a wireless mouse that comes with nine TV remote control functions including power, channel up/down, volume up/down, broadcast switching, input switching, and even picture-in-picture.  This mouse/controller has a range of about 10 meters, and operates on the 2.4GHz wireless band. (Read the full post about ‘Eizo C T-One is both a mouse and remote control’…)

Share This