Category: Gadgetry

The Kool-Aid continues making the rounds at Sony. The latest victims appear to be designers in the display department. They’ve come up with a real corker of an idea, a monitor that has a special area below it for Post-It Notes. (I have this already. It’s called an iMac G5.) Oh, but wait, this baby has a pen holder, too! As The Reg put it:

“It is a mystery why they didn’t go the whole hog and include a hand filing cabinet and somewhere to keep your sandwiches.”

Thanks, Jay!

Heads-up displays are one of those technologies we know will eventually make sense, but seem persistently not ready for prime time. I roll my eyes every time I see a new set of video glasses coming to market. So apparently did this AP tech reporter when he saw MicroOptical’s new myvue goggles for the video iPod. He was especially skeptical of the company’s claim that you could actually walk around and do things while you’re watching. He started out testing the device on the couch, but before he knew it, he was happily watching The Apprentice while washing the dishes and ironing his shirts. Hmmm… starching the collars on your Oxfords while watching Herr Donald and The Apprentice? There’s gotta be a level of hell in here someplace.

The robotic scriveners over at TechEBlog just LOVE the Top Ten Lists. Their latest rank offering is Top Ten Strangest Clocks. Must be a slow day in the blogosphere — well, of course it is, ’cause we find ourselves passing this titillating timepiece round-up on to you. But trust us, some of these clocks truly ARE strange, and some are downright cool. I mean, I wouldn’t kick this cathode ray clock off of my desk (or the Pong wallclock, for that matter).

No, you’re not hallucinating (tho we would advise you to stop after four Red Bulls), that’s a set or rabbbit ears on a mobile phone. MobileMag writes:

“The… g-Smart i Pocket PC smartphone is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 and …It has a 2.1 megapixel camera… and WiFi connectivity… Bluetooth opens up the possibility of all sorts of peripherals… A built in FM tuner lets you listen to the radio, or… audio files or watch video files in several formats… If your own files don’t keep you entertained, a pleasingly retro set of antennas snap onto the side, allowing you to watch TV via the PAL/NTSC tuner anywhere in the world.”

Sascha Segan over at PC Magazine has a full-length review of the new Motorola Q Windows smartphone. His bottom line is: “…the coolest smartphone in America. It’s a terrific voice phone, a dandy music player, and a swell email machine. Just be warned: Expensive service plans mean it isn’t as cheap as it appears.” 4-1/2 out of 5 stars. They also offer a comparison between it and the other major smartphones,

Those yogis of leisure over at the DenGuru have a round-up of five 1GB Flash MP3 players. Their all-around fave, for features, price, and performance, is the Samsung YP-T7JZ. Samsung players have been faring pretty well in these round-ups lately. Asute Street Techies may recall that the YP-MT6 was the stand-out in a recent Ars Technica cheap player shout-out.

Okay Samsung, we like you products, so why don’t you go ahead and start giving them actual names and stop naming them after license plate numbers.

Last year, we were knocked out by the quality of iLounge’s iPod Book. We would have been impressed if it had been a title for sale on Amazon, but it was free to download from the Lounge. Well, they’ve done it again. The Free iPod Book 2.0 is 194 pages (some of them are ad pages) of reviews, sneak peeks, maintenance and repair info, and a guide to iTunes. Truly an impressive effort.

According to a piece on The Cult of the Mac:

“Apple is teaming up with Nike to cross-promote sneakers and iPods. The footwear and earwear giants are soon launching a new line of iPod-compatible sneakers, plus a wireless pedometer-connection-kit that pumps exercise feedback into runners’ ears.”

Thanks, Alberto!

Regular readers of Street Tech might recall that I’m a big fan of the digital voice recorder as a brainstorming tool, especial the Olympus line. DenGuru takes a look at three Olympus models: the VN-120, the WS-320M, and the DS-2200. They liked ’em all, for different reasons (price, storage capacity, PC-interfacability, etc.). They have a link in the piece to Overstock Warehouse which is selling the low-end VN-120 (shown here) for an amazing US$30 (factory reconditioned). If you want to try out a DVR to see if you take to it, this might be a way to go.

Azon, a printer manufacturer known for printers that print on difficult surfaces such as metal, plastic, wood, and fingernails (you heard me), has now come out with a printer, the Micro Cylinder, that can print directly onto nearly any cylindrical object (up to 17cm long and 14 cm in dia). They show examples of printing on everything from candles and ashtrays to glasses, coffee mugs, and golf balls.

This kind of printing doesn’t come cheap. The Micro Cylinder currently sells for 10,000 EURO (about US$12,800). But before you know it, these babies will be $120 and we’ll probably be telling you about a REA 3D printer that costs $12,000 and can print you out a new set of designer dinnerware or the scaffolding on which to grow yourself that new kidney that you need.

[Via Gizmag]