Hasta La Gadget!

First we had the local tie-in souvenirs and themed food. Now the manufacturers have cranked up their assembly lines and are launching Tokyo Sky Tree goodies galore.

One of the first out of the door is the massive Tokyo Sky Tree Bank 634, a money box showing you the impressive height of the tower. All right, so it’s not the real thing’s full 634 meters but even at 1.26 meters (nearly 50 inches) it is pretty big for a piggy bank! The 1/500 scale model might sound like it would be hard for people to bring home from the store but, fear not, it come in parts for you to put together yourself.

[Images via Walkerplus]

If you are looking for more of a touch of luxury, the color-changing, Crystal Sky Tree from Tomy Tec might be more to your liking. On release from later this month, the sophisticated product comes in “cool” and “warm” tone versions, though as far as I know the actual Tree won’t be shifting colors. (*UPDATE: The Crystal Sky Tree is now available through JapanTrendShop.*)

With still over 18 months to go until the Sky Tree is finished we can surely expect a heap load more of tie-ups to come. Watch this space for more.

One of the world’s top suppliers of cellular infrastructure, Nokia Siemens, has dropped some juicy knowledge today that Apple’s new iOS 4.2 update supports a technology called network-controlled fast dormancy that better optimizes how the phone connects to the network. The company touts that it’s a win-win — better battery life, less unnecessary network utilization — and also points out that Nokia implemented the technique in all of its smartphones starting earlier this year. Since network-controlled fast dormancy is a feature that benefits the network itself as much as it benefits the individual user, knocking out two power players like Nokia and Apple (over half of new smartphone sales, NSN points out) should make a big dent.

Interestingly, NSN seems to have arrived at this discovery through “tests” it conducted, not by working with Apple on implementing it. Sure, we don’t pretend to know all the interactions that occur between manufacturers, carriers, and suppliers during a phone’s development, but it certainly seems to us that Apple would benefit by engaging infrastructure companies early and often as these baseband updates come together — particularly as it seeks to keep a tight lid on the very congestion issues that network-controlled fast dormancy is designed to help eliminate. Either way, it’s interesting to see how quick Nokia Siemens was to probe for the change this time around.

iOS 4.2 supports new tech to reduce network congestion, Nokia Siemens says originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Been looking for the perfect thing to boast to your iPhone-owning friends about? Well brace yourself, because doubleTwist has just gone wireless with its latest update, introducing a feature called AirSync which allows Android users to keep their media collection simpatico sans cabling. The new app for PC and Mac boxes couples with its Android counterpart (along with a new AirSync component) and lets you do most of your management without needing a wire between your phone and computer. The desktop application and DoubleTwist player for phones won’t cost you a thing, though AirSync itself is $0.99 on the phone for the first 10,000 buyers, and then jumps to $4.99 a shot.

Setup is relatively painless, requiring just a passcode from your phone which is input on the PC side. From then on, whenever you’ve got the app open and your device in range, the content stored on the phone will appear in your DoubleTwist list just as if you’d plugged the phone in (similar to the Windows Phone 7 / Zune wireless sync). We took AirSync for a ride with our Mac and Droid Incredible, and everything seemed to work fine, though we did notice a few bugs (one that was pretty major) that need worked out. Firstly, you’ll probably want to just start fresh with syncing your collection — we made the mistake of trying to pick up where we’d left off and accidentally wiped the content stored on the phone. We also noticed issues with the application trying to sync or update your database while listening to music; more than once our playback abruptly stopped when the app was attempting to talk to the phone. Syncing can also be pretty slow depending on your connection — really slow if you’ve got a big collection.

Despite those complaints, AirSync (and both the doubleTwist Android app and desktop client) are incredibly slick solutions to a problem plaguing lots of smartphone users. The company obviously has just begun its work with the app — and it’s clear that there are kinks to work out — but the dream of a wireless future for Android users just got a lot closer to reality.

AirSync for doubleTwist brings wireless syncing to Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 20:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The holidays will be hopping for the popular avian title, with a Christmas edition on the way, as well as an official Angry Birds Day on the calendar.

Aside from all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday bargains, it’s been a relatively slow week for new gadget cravings. That said, we’ve got a few awesome gems to discuss in Jasmine’s absence, including Delorean hard drives, the perfect vacuum shoes for Donald’s recently admitted robot maid fetish, bike locks that take to the air, and social-network sneakers. Also, a pizza that should not be!

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Episode 27

–‘Back to the Future’ hard drive

–Vacuum shoes

–Climbing bike lock

–Facebook and Twitter sneaks

This is why you’re fat


–Donut pizza