Hasta La Gadget!

If there’s a must-have mobile technology this year, that’s Bluetooth over Wi-Fi. Easy-to-establish, peer-to-peer Bluetooth connectivity seamlessly coupled with Wi-Fi speeds. As the video shows, the experience is perfect. I want this in my iPhone.

The new Bluetooth specification—technically denominated alternate MAC/PHY—will be official this April. And unlike other technologies, it won’t be in limbo for a while before reaching consumers. In fact, your phone may support it right now, according to Broadcom’s Mukul Suth: Some of their current production chips already have this ability and they will only require a software upgrade to implement it.

The alternate MAC/PHY method is quite clever: The two devices discover each other and shake hands using Bluetooth (being cellphones, computers, or any other shiny thing supporting the standard). When you start any file transfer, the communication gets passed to the Wi-Fi hardware layer, which will transfer your data at 54mbps. Once the transfer is over, Wi-Fi is disconnected and the control passes again to Bluetooth.

It just works. According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, the standard will allow you to easily:

• Wirelessly bulk synchronize music libraries between PC and MP3 player
• Bulk download photos to a printer or PC
• Send video files from camera or phone to computer or television.

Sounds good to me. Having this easy-to-use, straightforward ability to just connect to any device and transfer information in a fast way, without needing any wireless network or access points, will be great.

Not like Dell itself didn’t already confirm this puppy, but the first Dell-branded, ZINK-enabled product is officially official. The Wasabi PZ310 ultra-mobile printer promises to produce 2- x 3-inch prints in under a minute, and users with Bluetooth-enabled handsets can send over images for printing with just a few button mashes. The sub-7 ounce device measures in at 4.8- x 2.8- x 0.9-inches, and it’ll be made available in black, pink and blue hues. The middling minutiae is all posted up after the break, and those eager to get their paws on one will certainly appreciate the immediate availability and the $99 promotional price. Better hurry — only Round Rock knows when it’ll jump back up to the standard $149.

Continue reading Dell’s Wasabi PZ310 ZINK printer now available for $99

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

Dell’s Wasabi PZ310 ZINK printer now available for $99 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We could just hug LG for this one. The LBA-C300, which just ran by the FCC, is the texting equivalent of a Bluetooth headset — a Bluetooth device that allows you to operate your phone without actually pulling out your phone, except this time it’s for hitting your peeps with rapidly a rapidly composed “LOL” or “LOL, U R.” The generous keyboard looks incredibly typable, and while the entire unit borders on the size of some phones on the market, it means you can leave that bulky numeric keypad dumbphone or hard-to-use touchscreen smartphone in your pocket or bag and get some real communication done with the QWERTY Card. You can also view and store contact info, peep a clock, set an alarm and work you calendar from the device — the Bluetooth pairing means you can even remotely control your phone’s camera, though obviously much of this functionality depends on what phone you pair it with, LG phones are likely to get much better treatment. No word on release date or price, but we’ll probably know more once LG actually announces the device officially.

[Via Unwired View]

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals

LG’s LBA-C300 Bluetooth ‘QWERTY Card’ is the best calculator look-alike you’ve seen all week originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MP3 players with screens that show pretty colors are certainly nothing new, but Rhea Jeong’s Colorsonic concept is something rather different. It’s a little donut-shaped device that lacks a proper display, instead lighting its sections up to represent different types of music tagged using software at home — think Shuffle meets mood ring. You could drop all your Sabbath and miscellaneous metal on black, Green Day and various faux-punk on green, and your Clannad and other soothing tunes on a nice dreamy blue. Then, just touch that section of the player and let the music flow. The thing even has storage for two impossibly small Bluetooth earbuds (shown below) that can nestle within the center (aka the Munchkin/Timbit zone). While we generally hate being teased by fanciful concepts as much as you, but this one was developed as part of an internship at Samsung, meaning there might just be a chance it could come to fruition. Sorry, colorblind folks, you’ll have to stick with other oddly shaped ways to play your tunes.

Continue reading Colorsonic concept MP3 player turns your tunes into groovy colors, man

Filed under: Portable Audio

Colorsonic concept MP3 player turns your tunes into groovy colors, man originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Jan 2009 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Real Virtual Skater is a controller mod that sees a Wiimote liberated from its case and placed inside a box strapped to the underside of a skateboard. Thanks to The Bluetooth, as the player gleams “the cube” (or his “living room”, as the case may be) all his movements are used to control his avatar in the magical world of Tony Hawk Pro Skater. Just the thing for a kid that already has the board, the Vans, the Jams, a Lance Mountain t-shirt, and a JFA cassette — but no real desire to leave his parent’s basement. Technical details are few, but we do have a chest-pounding video of the thing in action after the break.

[Via Feng Gui]
[Thanks, Pegasus Unicorn]

Continue reading Wiimote and skateboard hacked into a controller, Gator not impressed

Filed under: Gaming

Wiimote and skateboard hacked into a controller, Gator not impressed originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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