If you haven’t yet invested in an iPod dock for the kitchen, the kids at ADE (a German company that manufactures cooking equipment for commercial and home use) have something right up your alley. The Rihanna kitchen scale features an iPod dock, an LCD display, and a 2 watt speaker that sits demurely beneath glass weighing area. This bad boy will handle up to 11 pounds (graduated in .04 ounce steps). Look for it soon-ish for around $105. And no, it has nothing to do with the popular recording artist of the same name.
While the BW Zeppelin Mini’s sound didn’t blow us away, this stylish, compact iPod/iPhone speaker is appealing for its size, swiveling dock, and decent performance.
Volkswagen and Stanford University build an autonomous Audi TTS. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13746_7-10400833-48.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Car Tech blog/a/p
We’ve seen the new Android-based XPERIA X10 from Sony Ericsson at a fast pace and a snail’s pace, but have we ever seen it so stunningly middle of the road? We just got a chance to play with the phone in person for the second time, and from our random sampling of three or four different handsets, it seems that performance is very contingent upon how much content is loaded into the device and what particular thing it’s trying to perform. Sometimes we’d fly through the stacks of faces, while other times we’d sit there waiting for the simplest thumbnails to load up. The good news is that we have until next year to see this thing really come together, and the word is that the software is improving and at a rapid pace. The big change about this phone is the “Nexus” UX platform, which actually all takes place in two “apps” at the moment, Timescape and Mediascape. Timescape is an integrated view for social networking and messaging, with an “infinite view” to see all types of communications for a particular person, while Mediascape is a more tame media app with a modicum of internet and social integration. It all seems very logically placed, and we like the fact that SE hasn’t really sacrificed the Android experience — you can still do Gmail and the Android Market and so forth, with very familiar UIs — but it’s going to have to be a lot more bulletproof before it hits the market if Sony Ericsson really expects us to use this day to day. Oh, also: the soft keyboard is terrible. We hear they’re working on it, but boy does it need work.
Update: We’ve added the video below, go check it out!
Looking for a toy for your child that’s similar to the Wii but doesn’t cost as much? How about an “edutainment” game that’s fun to play as well as educational? Fisher-Price has just what you’re looking for with the TV-compatible 3-in-1 Smart Sports ($60 list, ages 3 to 7). Your kids will be up on their feet.
The 3-in-1 Smart Sports includes a storage dock, base unit and grip controller with baseball bat, golf club and tennis racket attachments. All the attachments are kid-friendly and made out of soft foam. The base unit has attached AV cables and an on/off button, along with baseball, golf, and tennis balls that light up when the game turns on. The storage deck has three slots for each attachment, and the grip controller has a sliding on/off switch. Three color-coordinated buttons match the attachments and have up and down arrows for movement.
Setup is easy. You’ll need four double-A batteries for the base unit and two double-As for the grip controller. When the batteries are in, just plug the AV cord into the proper TV input, hit the on button on the base unit, and play ball.
The included games teach numbers, colors, and letters as well as adding, subtracting, and spelling words. Each game features a character, one for each sport: a monkey (for tennis), elephant (golf), and cat (baseball). Your child can customize the characters by changing the colors of their clothes and accessories. The 3-in-1 Smart Sports includes nine different games, with three levels of difficulty for each.
It ain’t flashy, but so long as you don’t ever plan on having more than 1.5TB of junk to store on an external hard drive, Transcend‘s latest should do the trick. The StoreJet 35T promises average write speeds of 42MB/s, and the one-touch backup feature enables your mind to be at ease with the simplest of gestures. You’ll also get intelligent backup scheduling, StoreJet Elite software that offers 256-bit AES file and folder encryption and… well, little else. Mum’s the word on pricing and availability, but for those who find this one too rich for their blood, a 1TB model should be landing soon as well.
Justin is sick today, so Demetrius Wren and Christina Ghubril join the show to talk about their new film “Streetball.” It’s the story of a group of homeless South African kids who try to break out of the cycle of poverty by competing in the Homeless World Cup. After some calls about “1984” and convergence, we talk a bit about some unusual uses of bacon flavor.
The most amazing part of “Streetball” was that it was entirely written, shot, edited, directed, and produced by two people! It’s a full-length transcontinental movie made possible with only a couple of laptops and some prosumer cameras that have really leaped toward professional film cameras. Demetrius points out that it would not have been possible to shoot their film with a huge camera crew and big pieces of equipment.
The movie is a really fascinating look at how South Africa has changed and not changed since the end of apartheid. The pair says the film is on track for a June-July 2010 release, so be sure to check it out. (Side note: “Streetball” is sponsored by the From Us with Love charity. Be sure to donate!)
After the break, we get to some voice mails about how George Orwell’s dystopian future may already be here. That means it may be a normal thing this time next year for Big Brother to know exactly what you purchased at Wal-Mart and that you spend way too much time at the bar down the street.
Last story of the day is about bacon–oh, that delicious food of the gods! Jeff the Hypochondriac thinks bacon-flavored envelopes just might be enough to get him to lick his envelopes closed again. Meanwhile, an intrepid live listener of the show shows us some bacon-flavored chapstick along with some bacon-flavored…personal…lubricant. Yeah, the show ends on that note today.
Side note: We changed the way we’re naming our shows in the blog. This is probably going to result in some confusion and backlash. It was done to please the Internet gods.
Has Nokia finally figured out the formula for a successful Internet tablet-gadget-thing? We’re about to find out, because Nokia just announced the Maemo-powered N900 is now on sale in the U.S. and shipping to customers who pre-ordered the device.
Unlike Nokia’s earlier efforts such as the N800 and N810, the N900 is roughly the size of a regular smartphone. It also actually makes cellular calls on T-Mobile’s 3G network or AT&T’s 2G EDGE network, instead of relying on Wi-Fi or WiMAX. The N900 offers the Linux-based, open-source Maemo OS, along with 32GB of internal storage, 3G connectivity, multitasking, and the ability to install third-party apps (commercial, homebrew, or otherwise).
The N900 also features a 3.5-inch touch screen, a full QWERTY keyboard, four customizable home screens, and Adobe Flash 9.4 support within the N900 Web browser. Look for it in Nokia’s flagship Chicago and New York stores for–hold onto your earmuffs–$649 unlocked, as well as online at www.nokiausa.com and www.amazon.com. And if you grab one, let us know what you think of it in the comments.
Oh c’mon, don’t act surprised. It’s just the natural evolution of things. Sony already upended the pocket camcorder market by adding GPS to one of its models, and now with Cisco at the helm (who, by the way, is a networking giant), it looks as if Flip Video’s next product will sport an internal WiFi module. Granted, we were already assuming as much after listening to Pure Digital’s founder speak of the device’s future post-acquisition, but word on the street has it that a new Flip with WiFi will land sometime in 1H 2010. Furthermore, a Cisco spokesperson has been quoted over at Pocket-lint as saying that a new edition will feature “a large screen that slides to reveal the record and menu buttons underneath.” We’re guessing that we’ll hear more about this mythical product as CES draws near, but that MinoHD you were about to buy? Yeah, might wanna lay off.
Google plans to host an event on Thursday morning to provide an overview of Chrome OS, its upcoming PC operating system.
Google announced Chrome OS in July, 2009 without disclosing many details about the operating system. What’s known is that Chrome will be a lightweight, open-source, Linux-based OS with a strong focus on web surfing using the Google Chrome browser. Applications will run mostly inside the browser, which in effect turns the web into the platform. The Chrome OS will initially be targeted at netbooks — low-powered, miniature notebooks, Google said in July.
Still, we have yet to see any official visuals of the OS, and thus far the media has only speculated about Chrome’s potential. Google has said Thursday’s event will give a “complete overview” of the OS with technical background and demonstrations.
Some questions to ponder on before Thursday’s event:
Will Google indeed proceed with plans to target the Chrome OS at netbooks? Compared to 2008, this year’s netbook shipments are slowing down, and the miniature devices are proving to be a recession-driven fad. Why target the OS at a played-out product category?
What apps does Google have in store to launch with the OS? The success of a platform’s launch, after all, is largely determined by its initial software offerings.
Will all apps be web-based, or will the OS support native programs as well? Apple’s first-generation iPhone supported web-based apps, and the company was roundly criticized for not providing access to the device’s native APIs until a year later.
When can we have the OS? Since Chrome is open source, we can expect that having the OS will be as easy as downloading and installing it onto our PCs. Google hasn’t provided a time frame of when we can expect the OS, but hopefully Thursday will provide an official launch date.
Have any more questions? Post them in the comments below. Wired.com will be attending the event to try to get your questions answered.
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