This is the BlackBerry watch–kind of, sort of, but not really. It’s actually the inPulse Smartwatch, a watch not designed, branded, or approved by RIM, which was created to work with your favorite non-Apple fruit-themed smartphone.
The watch syncs with your BlackBerry, letting you know when youre getting a message or call while your phone is stashed away.It doesn’t read messages. Not a heck of a lot of info available about the product beyond that.
The New York Times let slip some more details about the much anticipated Barnes & Noble e-reader. The new device, set to be announced today at an event in Manhattan,thas been christened the Nook. The device will feature dual screens–one a grayscale reading display and the other with color touchscreen controls. The reader will be priced at $259–the same as the Kindle.
The Times also amusingly quoted an ad from its own “Book Review,” stating that the device will “permit readers to lend their digital books to friends and download books wirelessly.” Barnes & Noble, interestingly, refused to comment to The Times about the ad it ran in the paper.
You’ve seen it on your Kindle, you’ve seen it on the cover of Esquire Magazine, and now you can wear it on your wrist. A company called Phosphor has introduced what it claims to be “the only E INK display digital watches available in the world today.” The company has unveiled three new models that utilize the technology–two digital and one analog.
The E Ink Digital Calendar Watch runs $185-225, depending on the band, the E Ink Digital Hour Clock Watch is $175-195, and the E Ink Ana-Digi Watch runs $185-195. All of the watches are available now.
A Sonos starter bundle, which features two “zones” that stream music from your PC and Internet-based services, will cost you $1,000, and that doesn’t even factor in the extra cost of speakers. The ZP S5, on the other hand, is basically nothing but a speaker unit, and it is controlled by either the Sonos remote, which costs $350, or an iPhone or iPod touch running the free Sonos app.
So now, any iPhone or iPod touch owner can now enter the world
of Sonos wireless audio streaming for $400. Sure, that’s not cheap, but
compared to all sorts of iPod docks out there, it’s only a bit more
expensive and can do a lot more.
More info and pics after the jump.
Spring Design has unveiled Alex, which the company claims is the first e-book reader powered by Google Android. It’s also the first reader with two screens: a 6-inch panel based on e-ink (specifically, monochrome EPD, or electronic paper display) for regular reading, and a separate 3.5-inch color touch LCD for browsing the Internet and supporting content for the main screen.
In fact, that second screen is an entirely self-contained Google Android device. Alex includes a Wi-Fi radio, as well as internal 3G support on both EV-DO and GSM networks–assuming Spring Design can find carrier support for the thing.
Alex also includes earphones, stereo speakers, an SD card slot, browser bookmarks and history, and the ability to transfer content from the touch LCD to the e-ink display for easier reading. Spring Design said it’s currently in talks with said carriers, and is targeting a release before the end of this year.
At this point, there’s seemingly as many e-reader models on the market as there are consumers willing to purchase them–a fact that doesn’t bode especially well for pretty much anyone who isn’t Amazon. There’s plenty of talk circulating about that Barnes & Noble reader expected to be announced later this week, and now Plastic Logic is looking to get in on the action with a brief preview of its latest reader.
The device is called the QUE. Plastic Logic has released some dimly light black device on a black background picks of the thing. The reader supports Office docs and PDFs, alongside more tradition e-book formats. It’s less than 1/3 an inch thick and measures 8.5 x 11 inches. There’s also a touch screen–the “largest screen in the industry,” according to the company.
Plastic Logic is holding the rest of the devices details until its more official launch at CES–three month away.
Livescribe has announced new Pulse smartpens, which digitally capture and sync handwriting and audio and make me wish I was still in college taking notes. Options now include 4GB and 2GB versions in a new titanium color. The $199.95 4GB model holds 400 hours of recorded audio, and will be compatible with Livescribe’s upcoming Application Store when it launches later this year; the 2GB model rings in at $169.95.
The company also unveiled the Pro-Pack bundle, aimed at business professionals. It includes the 4GB Pulse smartpen in an exclusive black color, an A5 starter notebook, a leather carrying case, handwriting-to-text conversion software, and the company’s Pro Charging Cradle, which looks like an ink well and charges the Pulse from a USB port or power outlet. The Pro-Pack bundle costs $249.95.
For more information, read our detailed Hands-On with the original Livescribe Pulse Smartpen.
Is this the forthcoming Barnes and Noble e-book reader? Gizmodo thinks so. The site claims to have gotten its bloggy paws on leaked pictures of the Plastic Logic designed device, which is set to finally be made official a week from yesterday.
If the images are to be believed, it’s a slick little device–definitely much more of a looker that its chief competitor, the Amazon Kindle. The player also sports a dual screen. The top portion is a traditional black and white e-ink display, akin to the one on the Kindle. The bottom is a color widget-filled dealie.
According to recent reports, the device is on-track for a spring 2010 release.
Just when you thought you’d heard it all, it turns out that pregnant women living near highways equipped with toll booth E-ZPass systems are less likely to have premature births and babies with low birth weights.
This may seem like an extremely random connection, but when cars use E-ZPass they do not have to come to a complete stop to pay the toll, which reduces congestion and emissions. As a result, premature births declined 10.8 percent and low birth weights dropped 11.8 percent for women who lived within 1.2 miles of the E-ZPass toll plaza, according to study from Columbia University’s Department of Economics.
If you lived about 2 miles from a toll booth with E-ZPass, which scans a device equipped to the car window and automatically charges the toll amount to a credit card, prematurity dropped 7.3 percent and low birth weight fell 8.4 percent, the study said. The study compared women living close to toll booths with E-ZPass with women living near toll booths without the systems.
Other studies have already revealed that systems like E-ZPass cut harmful emissions by about 50 percent, but the Columbia study is the first to study its effect on health, according to the Wall Street Journal.
TiVo enhanced its reputation as a platform, not just a DVR, with the addition of video-on-demand services from Blockbuster on Tuesday.
Blockbuster On Demand video-rental services will be available on TiVo
Series2, Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL boxes, allowing users to rent (not own) the titles in Blockbuster’s online catalog. Prices will range from $2.99 for older movies to $3.99 for new releases, according to both companies.
The deal is the culmination of an agreement the two companies struck in March, which will also allow Blockbuster the rights to sell TiVo’s DVRs inside of its own stores.
“By bringing Blockbuster’s content direct to TiVo subscribers, we show
once again that TiVo offers much more choice and convenience for our
customers compared to other DVR offerings,”said Joe Miller, senior vice president of sales and marketing at TiVo, in a statement. “We are very pleased to say
that customers can now walk into a participating Blockbuster store to
purchase TiVo DVRs and that together both companies have succeeded in
bringing even more entertainment direct to the living room.”
TiVo has a similar deal with Amazon, which can stream HD versions of Amazon Video on Demand movies down to the TiVo box for $3.99 to $4.99. Although Blockbuster is making 1,000 titles available to TiVo customers, they’re all in standard-definition for now, a TiVo spokeswoman said in an email. HD titles will be priced at $4.99 when available, she said.
Post updated at 12:19 PM with HD pricing.
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