Hasta La Gadget!

My cellphone is such a piece of junk that I cannot sync it with my computer, and it seems not to recognize the numbers of any incoming callers anyway. This is why I hold an iPod Touch in one hand and manually dial the number with the other. And as I never answer calls from unknown numbers, there is little point in calling me.

However, every few months I (and probably you) get emails from people who do store all their numbers on their phones, and have lost those phones. “Please send me you numbers,” they cry, and then spend hours tapping the details in on their tiny cellphone keyboards.

These people are so shortsighted that even the Backup Pal is off their radar. This ugly and expensive ($60) hunk of plastic plugs into your cellphone and sucks the numbers from within, storing them for restoration after the inevitable lost-phone-in-taxi scenario. It takes three AAA batteries and comes with adapters for LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson cellphones, and can hold details for up to 4,000 contacts.

Better, head to the local store of your cellphone provider. Many of them offer a backup service, and if you have to pay, it’ll certainly be less than $60. Plus, your flatmates won’t throw the backup away thinking it is a novelty toy that came out of a Christmas cracker.

Backup Pal Product page [Solutions via Book of Joe]

This is the Pardo, a concept human powered vehicle. Kind of cool looking, right? Like a big pedal-powered go-kart. Now take a look at this picture:

Less cool, and much more scary. The Pardo (short for guepardo, Spanish for cheetah) splays the rider out prone on its plywood surface where he can cling to the small handle and start to pray for survival. Those pedals at the back are used in concert, you pump them together like a frog pumping his legs to jump, and this sends you flying forwards, face-first into oblivion. As for steering, a good deal of luck (and perhaps leaning) appears to be involved. The body of the cheetah folds in two, so it can be safely tucked in the basement when you are done terrifying yourself.

Not content with cool-looking renders of his design, Argentinian Pablo Lopez actually built a working prototype. It actually looks like a lot of fun, and it’s certainly a great antidote to beardo-recumbents. As you may have guessed, this is unavailable to buy, but it seems that money-making isn’t Lopez’ aim. “My main goal is transmitting and creating sensations”, he says.

Move Like a Cheetah with this Incredible Human Powered Vehicle [Treehugger]

Verizon on Thursday announced a new addition to its Casio G’zOne family with the G’zOne Rock, a rugged flip phone targeted at people with high-adventure lifestyles. Verizon claims the phone is resistant to water, shock, dust, vibration, humidity, salt fog, solar radiation, altitude, and high and low temperature.

The price tag is a little high at $200 after mail-in rebate with a two-year contract, but for a phone that won’t break under most conditions, I’ll bet some people will be willing to plunk down the cash. The G’zOne Rock also has a 2-megapixel camera with video capture, stereo Bluetooth, and touch-sensitive music controls. Included as well are six unique outdoor apps including a powerful compass, a walking counter, and a thermometer.

The Rock appears to be a successor to the G’zOne Boulder, released more than a year ago. The phone comes hot on the heels of the more-upscale G’zOne Brigade, a horizontal flip phone with higher specs that was announced two weeks ago.

CNET did not review the Vizio VF550M, but we did review a similar model with nearly identical specs.

Rumors of the mythical Apple tablet‘s release were just starting to coalesce around an early 2010 release, so naturally DigiTimes is now reporting that the much ballyhooed device won’t show up until the second half of next year. Apple is said to have given itself more time to swap out internals and install a 9.7-inch OLED display from LG, which meshes with earlier rumors about where the relationship between the two companies was heading. Sources expect the opening retail price to be around a hefty $2,000, but for the budget-conscious there will also be a 10.6-inch LCD version that will land somewhere between $800 and $1,000. Or so we’re told. Somewhat more concrete is the news that Conde Nast, publisher of Wired Magazine, has openly confirmed that it is developing a digital version of its tech magazine for consumption on the Apple tablet, with the rest of its content catalog to soon follow. Its own estimate of having the paid-for digitized magazines, which will include Vogue and GQ, ready for the middle of 2010 also jibes with the reported delays. Then again, Apple has refused to discuss the unannounced device with anyone, leaving Conde and Adobe developing the necessary software in the dark.

Apple tablet(s) in 2H 2010 with OLED screen and tailored content in tow? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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