Hasta La Gadget!

Darkfield Laser Tracking might sound like something the Death Star uses to find and kill pesky Rebel spaceships, but it is in fact much more mundane, albeit useful. The tech is in fact a new trick from Logitech to solve a problem that has plagued more stylish offices since the mouse-ball rolled out of town.

Two new mice have the mysterious Darkfield Lasers which enable them to track on glass. This means that you’ll not only be able to work at the dining table, but at that expensive crystal and chrome desk that has sat useless for all these years.

Regular optical and laser mice track marks on the surface of the table, but glass is too flat and too see-through. The new lasers actually peer inside the glass and reveal its microscopic imperfections. The result is that these two new mice, the Performance MX and the smaller Anywhere MX, will track on any surface except laboratory grade glass (and regular glass needs to be more than 4mm thick. If it isn’t 4mm thick it’s probably not safe to use as a table anyway).

Both mice also come with Logitech’s tiny set-and-forget USB receiver and weighted spinny-wheel for fast scrolling. The small Anywhere MX is $80, the bigger Performance is $100.

Product page [Logitech]

Remember Chumby, the cute media player that allows users to pick information widgets and then streams it from the internet?

It is set to get a wider platform as the company executives have decided to port its software on to other gadgets to create a “powered by Chumby” brand, reports Forbes.

The move means instead of selling just the Chumby device, its makers can license the software that powers it to other companies who want similar functionality in their gadgets. Chumby, for instance, can pull together information such as weather, music, news and photos from the Web and stream it to the user.

The $200 Chumby launched in the U.S. in February 2008 and is currently available in U.K, Japan, Australia. But the device hasn’t been a hit among consumers. Moving away from a single box strategy and licensing its software could bring greater exposure to the device and the concept behind it, beleive Chumby executives. It’s a strategy that other gadget makers have tried. Earlier this year GPS navigation device maker, Dash, killed its box and shifted its focus from selling hardware-based GPS devices to just licensing its applications and services to run on other products. In June, BlackBerry maker Research In Motion acquired Dash.

Chumby is betting on a similar strategy. The company is already negotiating with companies such as Sony, Samsung, Broadcom and Marvell to be included in products such as digital picture frames, TVs and Blu-ray players.  Chumby powered gadgets are expected to be available this holiday season, the first of which is likely to be a digital photo frame.  Photo frames with Chumby software could include pictures from sites such as Flickr, internet radio, weather and even twitter feeds.

Photo: Chumby

The Backpack is an ingenious, gravity-secured shelf that sits on the rear stand of an iMac or an Apple Cinema display. The punched-aluminum platform pushes against the rear stand and a couple of clips reach around to grab the back, and the shelf just hangs there. And don’t worry: There’s no metal-on-metal action. The clips are protected by non-scratch inserts.

This is clearly a home-makeable product, but we love the smooth lines and Apple-like finish to this commercial version, plus the design details (there is a scale on the slots where the clips attach so you can make sure you have it perfectly centered, for example). The product page, too, is like being at Apple.com, and even the price is a Cupertino-cloning $29.99, with a six-pack for $150.

Product page [Twelve South via Noquedanblogs]

This tiny little plug might look like an ordinary microSD card reader, and it is. The catch? Buffalo’s diminutive device will cost you $160, although for that the company throws in a 16GB microSD card.

That’s actually quite a good deal, and will turn your cellphone into a pocket media center, allowing you to share music just like the generous kids in my town. They “share” their tunes on buses, trains and even in the street, blasting tinnily distorted noise through tiny cellphone speakers. And if its too expensive, you can always opt for a smaller and cheaper 4GB version, for just $36.

These things are becoming so small that we wonder if the full-sized USB plug is too big. Is there any (technical) reason why the side of my MacBook couldn’t have a row of four mini USB ports on the side in the place of the two honking great holes there now? Wouldn’t that be a lot better?

Product page [GeekStuff4U]

GPS devices maker TomTom offered a tantalizing preview of its iPhone application and car kit at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference this year.  But that demo came without pricing or availability information.

Now a U.K. retailer Handtec  has started taking pre-orders for the app and the kit combo on its web site for£113.85 ($164). The pricing indicates the TomTom iPhone car  kit could be available in the U.S. for $200 soon.

In June, TomTom said that it would make an iPhone app that would offer turn-by-turn GPS navigation for users. What made TomTom’s announcement interesting was that the company said it will also create a car dock-connector for the iPhone. Just as with a standalone GPS device, the TomTom for the iPhone dock would stick inside the car and act as a charging cradle for the iPhone. It would also enhance the GPS capability of the phone.

At $200, the TomTom iPhone car kit would probably be the same price as a dedicated GPS device.  If customers don’t have to pay monthly subscription fees for the app and just pay $200, we think it could be a pretty good deal.

[via NaviGadget]