Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re looking to put an inline remote on your iPod, Griffin has one new way to do it — and it adds that oldest of old-school wireless music sources, FM radio.

Griffin’s Navigate plugs into the dock connector, bypassing the pesky requirement for chips that may or may not be DRM for headphones. This has another advantage — aside from piping the music, hot and steaming, to your headphones, the Navigate can also display track info in the OLED screen and give access to EQ, playlists and shuffle modes. And did we mention it has an FM radio? Try to stay awake at the back.

You might scoff — after all, this thing is bigger than an iPod Shuffle and it’s just a remote. But Griffin makes some good points, especially about restoring the tactile feedback of the clickwheel iPods to the Touch and iPhone. Apple has gone some way to addressing this with the clicky inline remote on the latest earbuds, but then you are limited to those same crappy earbuds. With Griffin’s widget you can plug in any cans you like.

All this and an FM radio for listening to ads interspersed with the occasional hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Available now, works with any recent iPod that has a dock connector, $60.

Product page [Griffin. Thanks, Evie!]

See Also:

• Hands-On with Griffin’s TuneBuds Mobile
• Griffin iTalk: Free Voice Recording for iPhone

If you ever want to get on airplane, you should probably not carry around these suitcases.

An artist in France has created a line of boxy luggage that uses toy weapons for decoration. It appears that the ‘weapons’ are cut sideways, stuck on the bag’s side, and then painted over to appear as if they’re jutting out from the case itself.

As can be seen in her website, the self-styled ‘hippie girl’ artist is trying to make a point about the apparent social behavior present in the current climate of fear when traveling. Mainly, that some people might only appear to be more threatening than others based on a physical perception.

She also believes these suitcases will foster a healthy, open conversation between strangers.

Here’s one possible convo: "Hey! You’re the one with that ‘Ax suitcase.’ Just wanted to say thanks. Without you, we would have left the tarmac by now. Instead, this five-hour postponement has made me realize how much I hate traveling and attention-getting fools like you. Thanks a lot, man."

You can buy the suitcase right here, for about $125, or you can email the artist through her site, where you can request a specific color/weapon combo.

Couch potatoes take note: Aiming your remote control and trying to bounce the signal off the wall is about to become a thing of the past.

Remote controls are set to get an upgrade as a consortium of consumer electronics companies have finalized a set of standards for using radio signals to control your TV, home stereo or other appliances. The new radio-frequency remotes use non-directional radio waves instead of the infrared signals emitted by a light-emitting diode in traditional remotes. RF remotes won’t require devices to be in your line of sight. And they are expected to be widely available by early next year.

"RF-based remote control will bring a lot of new functionality to
consumers," says Bas Driesen,
chairperson of the consortium that made the standard, RF4CE, and
technology manager at
Royal Philips Electronics. "It is faster and allows for two way
communications with devices, which means your remote control can do a
lot more than what it does today."

With the new remotes, you could be sitting in anywhere in the room to change channels and can turn on your home audio equipment from
any room. You can even put your audio equipment inside a cabinet and still be able to control it even when the cabinet door is shut. And the technology could be used to open your garage door or unlock a keyless entry
system.

So what’s exactly wrong with the traditional infrared remotes including the new "universal" remotes today, aside from having too many buttons? Plenty, say RF-remote advocates. Infrared remotes are based on line of sight so point and shoot is a must. They do not offer two-way connectivity so devices cannot communicate with the remote. Infrared based remotes also offer slower response time, so you have to press the buttons more than a few times to change the channel. It’s all too much work for people who just want to use a remote.

"Infrared based remotes can be a nuisance," says Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "You can use them only in the same room and you can’t teach the remote any new tricks."

That’s where they are hoping RF-based remotes could step in. The growth curve for these products is just beginning, says ABI Research, which forecasts a 55 percent growth rate through 2014 for RF remotes.

The ZigBee-RF4CE specification is based on IEEE 802.15.4.
MAC/PHY radio technology in the 2.4GHz unlicensed frequency band. This allows for worldwide operation, low power consumption and near instantaneous
response time, says Driesen. For instance, the response time for a can be up to 100 milliseconds compared to 5 milliseconds for a RF-based remote.

For switching from Lost to Hell’s Kitchen that response time difference may not matter, but if you want to use your remote to browse the internet, much like a mouse, the difference can be palpable, says Driesen.

RF remotes also allow for two-way communication, thus changing how  universal remotes work. Instead of doing the set-up for each device individually on the remote, RF remotes could auto detect all the devices in your house automatically.

"In case of RF remotes its not just the remote that talks to the device, the device can talk back," says Heile.

Nailing down the specification for RF remotes is important because
it allows companies to make RF remote controls that are interoperable,
says Royal Phillips’ Driesen. So far only a few high end electronics
makers such as Sony have introduced RF-based Sony offers RF remotes with some of its Bravia products.

"Interoperability makes it easier for consumers to buy remotes and
it makes it easier to shift to RF-remotes from infrared based remotes,"
says Driesen.

The first version of the ZigBee RF4CE specification is expected to be made available to members by summer. RF-based remotes will become a standard fixture early next year, say Driesen and Heile.

Now if only they can figure out how to ensure the remote does not get lost every couple of minutes, it would be truly magical.

Photo: (SkyFirePDL/Flickr)

Kiosks at malls selling iPod and phone covers, decals and accessories may be going out of business but there’s a new high-tech Silicon Valley competitor to take their place.

Coveroo, a San Francisco-based company, is offering custom laser engraving and replacement cellphone covers for select models of phones and iPods. The idea is play on the trend of personalization and customization for gadget heads who must have that Garfield, Dexter or Resident Evil 5 cover on their iPod nano, says the company.

Here’s how it works. Users log on to the Coveroo site, check if their phone is among the supported models, pick the art they want and have it shipped to them. Once buyers receive the cover, they can replace it on their existing phones.

Prices start at $10 for a Motorola RAZR phone cover and can go up to $40 for a BlackBerry Storm cover.

Coveroo doesn’t support the iPhone or older generations of the iPod. In case of the iPod Touch and iPod Nano, users have to buy a completely new device to get the custom artwork.

The four-month old Coveroo is funded by Bay Partners, Norwest and Microsoft. The company showed the products off at the ongoing DEMO 09 conference, a debutante ball for startups.

But really, in a recession is anyone going to pay $40 just to get a fancy back over for their phone?

I know this might surprise some of you, but there are women in the world who like things done a certain way–in a nerdy way, to be more specific. For example, they prefer their marriage proposals to arrive via a video game, or at least tangentially related to video games. That’s right, geeks aren’t just guys–there are lady geeks, too.

So what do you give your geeky girlfriend for Valentine’s Day? Check out Gearlog’s gifts that only a truly geekified gal will appreciate. And make sure to check back for Part Two of our geeky Valentine’s Roundup!

The iBuzz (above)
Treat your love to some pleasure–set to the sound stylings of Barry White or Al Green, of course. Plug your MP3 player into the iBuzz Two, and the toy delivers music-activated vibrations with four pulsing patterns and 11 vibrating speeds. You can plug the two provided bullets into the iBuzz Two, or you can plug in any sex toy that has a mini-jack plug. It’s £19.99 (about $30 in the US).

More after the jump.