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Archive for the ‘Gadgets’ Category

Eye-Fi

March 3rd, 2008 2 comments

Have you always wanted the ability to upload your photos directly from your camera to your PC, or online photo-album, without having to go through the hassle of connecting the camera to your PC with the supplied USB cable or removing the memory card from the camera and inserting it into a media-card reader attached to the PC?

Now you can using the Eye-Fi Card. This is a wireless SD memory card which stores images like a standard SD card but can also use your home wi-fi network to upload the images directly from inside the camera to your PC or Mac.

eyefi

Once you install the Eye-Fi Manager on your PC and set up an account, images will upload to your hard drive and optionally to a specified photo-sharing website like Flickr or Picasa.

So just go out, take your pictures and switch the camera on when you’ve returned home, the Eye-Fi card will automatically start uploading the images to your computer and/or your web based photo album.

All the details are available at:

http://www.eye.fi/

Categories: Camera, Gadgets, Wi-Fi Tags:

CES 2008 is open for Business

January 7th, 2008 Comments off

Lots of reports appearing on the web coming out from CES 2008.

I’ll note some of those that catch my eye while browsing around.

Fujitsu -  A Fabric PC, based on ideas around electronic paper, is literally a PC made out of fabric …

Fujitsu Fabric PC

… reports Engadget at

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/06/fujitsu-intros-a-handful-of-concept-designs-at-ces-2008/

and a report from Gizmodo at

http://gizmodo.com/341138/fujitsus-fabric-pc-and-three-other-forward+looking-concepts

Further pictures and comment from Wired at
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/01/fujitsus-future.html

Talking about Gizmodo, check out their frequently updated reports on all things happening at CES from

http://gizmodo.com/tag/ces-2008/

Sony has an interesting site specifically for Sony at CES where, amongst other things, you can see some of the first pictures of their OLED television (which has an ultra slim (3mm) 11 inch screen for $2500). They’re also showing a larger 27inch version at the show

Sony_OLED 

The site is worth a browse at

http://www.sony.com/ces/index.html

Categories: CES, Gadgets, Output Devices Tags:

Serenata

October 4th, 2007 Comments off

A nice looking new phone, the Serenata, has recently been announced. The Serenata Music-Phone is a joint development by Samsung and Bang & Olufsen.

Bang & Olufsen’s expertise in concept development, user interface experience, acoustic sound capabilities and design skills together with Samsung’s leadership in mobile phone technology, engineering and quality have realized a new way of combining unique music and mobile experiences for consumers.

To assist the user, the display changes color depending on whether it is in Phone mode (blue) or Music mode (red). Furthermore, the large 2.4-inch color LCD display developed by Samsung allows Serenata to show album covers in an excellent resolution and facilitates on-screen navigation. Also, the innovative mobile phone features sensi-touch to enhance the usability.

Read more at

http://www.serenatamobile.com/

or visit

http://www.bang-olufsen.com/

Categories: Gadgets, Mobile Tags:

iPhone available in the UK – Nov 9

September 19th, 2007 Comments off

If you’ve not heard about it already, the new iPhone from Apple will be available in the UK from Nov 9.

iPhone

With the iPhone, you make a call by simply tapping on a name or number in your address book, using only your fingers on the currently unique multi-touch display.

The embedded technology also incorporates an accelerometer device which is used to determine when you rotate the iPhone from a portrait to landscape orientation so that the display changes automatically.

Other technology includes a proximity sensor which switches off the display when you move the phone towards your ear – this also prevents accidental touches on the screen. An ambient light sensor is used to automatically adjust the brightness of the display to tha appropriate level.

Read all about the iPhone from the Apple web-site:

http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/phone/

The phone, at a price of £269 ($536) for the 8Gb version, will be available in the UK using mobile operator O2.

O2 contracts will range from £35-£55 per month which will include unlimited use of a wi-fi network from more than 7500 hot spots. Thus, for an 18 month contract, this will cost a minimum of £900 (including the cost of the phone and local taxes).

Read about the O2 side of the deal at the O2 web-site

http://tinyurl.com/yql653

Categories: Apple, Gadgets Tags:

iPod Touch

September 18th, 2007 Comments off

The Apple iTouch media player. or more properly called the iPod touch, was recently released.

The iPod touch showing different screens

perhaps it can also be called the iPhone without the phone.

Some of the features include:

  • multi-touch interface
  • 3.5 inch widescreen display
  • wi-fi web browsing

Available with an 8Gb (or 16Gb) flash drive and can store up to 1750 songs (3500), 10,000 (20,000) iPod viewable photos or 10 (20) hours of video.

The re-chargeable battery will support up to 22 hours of music playback or up to 5 hours of video playback.

Prices in the UK are £199 for the 8Gb version or £269 for the 16Gb and are scheduled to be available for shipping from the 28 September. (Prices in the US are $299 and $399 respectively).

All the details are available at

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/

Categories: Gadgets Tags:

What are the dimensions of an iPod ?

June 30th, 2006 Comments off

If you want to accurately model an iPod, then you need precise dimensional drawings

ipod1.png

Last update 17 November 2011 – dimensional drawings for iPods, iPhones and iPads are available from the Apple Developer Center at

http://developer.apple.com/resources/cases/

MacBook Motion Sensor

May 25th, 2006 Comments off

The motion sensor in Apple’s MacBook Pro is not just for protecting your hard drive.

This uses AMSTracker, a command line tool that regularly reports on the motion sensors status.

Perhaps the mechanism could be used as a 3D Model Navigation device ?

Axes Motion

There is a little more technical data provided by Amit Singh, the author of AMSTracker, read the Article The Sudden Motion Sensor at

http://www.osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter10/ams/.

Categories: 3D, Gadgets, Hardware, Input Devices Tags:

High-Speed USB Graphics Technology

April 12th, 2006 Comments off

NewnHam Research, a startup company in Cambridge UK, has launched a device that allows you to connect monitors to PCs using a standard USB 2.0 connection.

Newnham’s technology solutions allow any number of monitors to be connected to a single PC and, if required, function independently to display different content.

http://www.newnhamresearch.com/index.htm

nivo

The USB NIVO technology provides a high quality display response over a USB 2.0 connection and enables the display of static 24-bit colour images without loss of quality, colour reduction or distortion. Full motion HD video can be played in real-time.

There’s a review at Extreme Tech
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1948556,00.asp

The first fruits of the technology will appear in partnership with Kensington Computer Products Group, who will use the USB NIVO in a universal laptop docking station later this year. The Kensington product allows a laptop user to attach a VGA monitor, an Ethernet network, microphone and speakers, and up to four USB peripherals, to their laptop via a single USB 2.0 connection.

Categories: Gadgets, Hardware Tags: