(Credit: Logitech)For this week’s installment of the weekly Crave giveaway, we’ve got a hot one: Logitech’s Squeezebox Boom, which we consider the best all-in-one tabletop Wi-Fi radio we’ve seen to date. It earned an Editors’ Choice award last year. (Read the full review of the …
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Invisible flash produces photos without glares originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The HydraLux lightbulb is, according to its manufacturer Eternal LEDs, the world’s first liquid-cooled bulb. Liquid cooling is usually reserved for machines which need to shift a lot of heat, and fast: Car engines, high-end gaming rigs and Cray supercomputers. So why an LED lightbulb?
It seems that it’s little more than a gimmick. As the liquid (paraffin oil) isn’t circulated mechanically to help dissipate heat through conduction, the only gain appears to be a more efficient moving of energy to the outer surface. The lamp also gives a “true 360 degree light like a regular light bulb”.
We don’t really see the advantage of this over other LED bulbs. If Eternal LEDs had put a mini lava-lamp inside, though, we’d be happy to pay the $35. The bulb consumes 5W power and puts out the equivalent of a 25w incandescent bulb. It also last for 35,000 hours, which is four years of 24/7 use.
Product page [Eternal LEDs]
Cheaper or faster?
That’s going to be the burning question for computer shoppers perusing the aisles of electronics retail stores this fall. That’s when the new line of notebooks powered by consumer ultra-low voltage (CULV) chips will start appearing in force. They’ll be sitting right next to the trendiest offering in portable computing, Netbooks. Netbooks have come to be viewed as the best way to get cheap, portable computing, but CULV notebooks could change that.
CULV-based notebooks are poised to give Netbooks a run for their money.
(Credit: Macles)
Netbooks are mini-notebooks with screens between 9 and 11 inches, that have lower-power processors, and fewer features, but very attractive price points. CULV-based notebooks are ultrathin notebooks. They come with a more traditional 12- or 13-inch screen, but are also very low-power, so they have great battery life. Starting at $600 to $1,000, they’ll occupy the price range just a step above Netbooks, which run between $200 and $500.
That’s where the choice comes in. Will consumers go for a Netbook, which is less expensive, sometimes harder to use, but very portable? Or a sleek-looking notebook with great battery life and a slightly higher price? Just a bit more money could mean a far more fully featured computer. Who would still go for a Netbook?
Some analysts suggest many won’t.
For its part, the provider of these ultra-low voltage chips, Intel, would prefer to steer people toward CULVs. Sure, Intel is also responsible for the Netbook phenomenon, but those devices carry much lower profit margins. Intel CEO Paul Otellini on Tuesday talked up CULV notebooks and their advantages over Netbooks, saying, “Now, if you want a thin and light notebook, you don’t have to just pick a Netbook. You can pick an affordable notebook that has more functionality.”
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This might have been a Crapgadget contender but for the fact it’s a homemade system and therefore deserves some kudos for the ingenuity shown. An irrepressible geek by the name of Thomas Edwards has concocted a system for communicating breathing over the interwebs — a surefire way to take your cyberstalking game to the next level. Employing an Arduino protoshield, AdaFruit Xport shield, Lantronix Xport Direct, and a Kestrel impeller to create the device, Thomas demonstrates a taste for obscure technology usually not seen outside of prototyping labs. Click through for video of a candle being blown out remotely, perhaps the one and only family-friendly use for an instrument like this.
[Via Make]
Continue reading Video: Breath-over-IP concept is a fun way to creep out your friends
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Video: Breath-over-IP concept is a fun way to creep out your friends originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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There is more than one way to skin a clock: Our own soft-haired and sensitive Daniel Dumas prefers the indecipherable blipping LEDs of Tokyo Flash watches, I rock an old school Casio calculator watch, and Wired.com editor Dylan Tweney actually measures the hour using the shadows cast by the handsome crags on his perfect face (at least, that’s his excuse for the constant mirror-ward glances).
Designer Sander Mulder, though, has opted to link second to minutes to hours in a recursive chain of hands. The big one shows hours; the medium hand, which dangles from the end of the hour hand, shows minutes, and so on.
At first, the lightning-bolt beauty obscures functionality, and it all looks a little hard to read. But try it: What time is shown above? That’s right. 3:38 and 30 seconds. The video shows the clock in fast-forward action:
The whole thing reminds us of a cross between the Sketch-a-Graph, the hard-to-use toy for inaccurately enlarging, reducing or copying pictures, and one of those magic spiral-drawing toys. Imagine a pencil on the end of the second hand and you’ll see what we mean. Can you buy it? Amazingly, yes, but there will only be 20 of the brass and aluminum timepieces made, plus one artist’s proof. And that single word – artist – means that you’ll have to get in touch to find out the price.
Product page [Sandermulder via Core77]
Oh Brando! Junky plastic spy gear and novelty toys flow from your throat like a stream of Sky Mall regurgitation. Once in a while, though, a gem can be panned from the dirty silt of your catalog. And one of those times is now.
Brando’s six-in-one flash set is distinguished by two things. One, every component appears to be useful and two, it’s cheap. $88 for a box of translucent plastic parts might not sound cheap to you but in the world of photo accessories it is a steal.
You get the standard light modifiers: a circular honeycomb grid, a softbox, a set of barn-doors and a neat, extendible conical snoot. You also get the more unusual globe diffusor, which looks just like a lightbulb and should aid in getting the go-everywhere “bare bulb” look, a beauty dish (called a mini-reflector, here) and the odd plastic flash adapter, which itself looks like it could give a nice strong central beam with soft edges.
The adapter is supplied in different sizes and will even fit the monster Nikon SB900 and Vivitar 285HV strobes. The only problem will come if this is just too thin and plasticky to last. Other than that, it looks like a sound addition to any strobist’s kit.
Product page [Brando via Oh Gizmo!]
That was quick. We heard that HTC was moving to standardize around 3.5mm audio jacks but we weren’t necessarily expecting the meaty Touch Pro2 to be on that list of devices. After all, it’s already shipping in its GSM version. Nevertheless, MobileSyrup has a soon-to-be released CDMA version of the Touch Pro2 for Telus (and ultimately, Verizon) that goes straight-up 3.5mm — no goofy ExtUSB jack converter required. Oh, and they’ve got video to prove it. See it after the break.
[Via WMExperts, thanks Guill M.]
Continue reading HTC Touch Pro2 calls dibs on 3.5mm audio jack for Telus and Verizon
Filed under: Cellphones
HTC Touch Pro2 calls dibs on 3.5mm audio jack for Telus and Verizon originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Whether you agree that Apple was justified in kicking Palm’s Pre out of its iTunes party doesn’t matter. Whether the Pre was in the kitchen chugging back tequila shots, or whether it was engaging in polite conversation with the host’s wife in the drawing room, the result is the same. It was a huge pain for Pre users.
Now, though, there is a third party workaround. Actually, there are a few, including DVD Jon’s DoubleTwist. But Salling’s Media Sync is a simple application which eschews the social aspects of DoubleTwist and just sends music, podcasts and photos to almost any USB connected device, including the Pre.
Media Sync sends photos from iPhone or Aperture and music and podcasts from iTunes. It also replicates the whole structure of playlists and the playcounts of individual songs. The only thing it won’t do is copy over DRM’d music, but if you ever bought copy protected music from iTunes that’s your own fault.
Media Sync, like DoubleTwist, is free and available for both OS X and Windows. There is also an upgrade fee so you can enjoy “faster syncing”.
Product page [Salling]
The latest addition to the Olympus Mju (Stylus in the US) family of ruggedized cameras is the Tough-6010, which claims to be waterproof up to (or is it down to) 3 m (10 ft), freezeproof to -10°C (14°F), and capable of withstanding drops from 1.5 m (5 ft). It retains the TAP Control Mode from its elder sibling, which lets users access various functions by tapping the camera’s top and sides. If you’re going to be snorkeling on Greenland’s north coast, there is perhaps no other camera for you — but if you care about actual camera specs, this is a 12-megapixel shooter, equipped with 3.6x optical zoom, 2.7-inch LCD, dual image stabilization, ISO sensitivity up to 1600, and storage handled by your choice of xd-Picture Card or MicroSD. Should you be leaving for Greenland soon, fret not, as the UK will be getting the 6010 this month for £299, with continental Europe and the US probably not too far behind.
Filed under: Digital Cameras
Olympus Mju Tough-6010 seeks clumsy photographer to grow old with originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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