I am not a big fan of Bluetooth headsets. I think they have their place, like when you are trying to drive in a manual transmission car. However, if you use one while say walking in the mall you should be kicked in the balls (or punched in the ovaries if more appropriate).
If you are into music on your phone, most go for ear buds because they are compact and don’t look as strange on your head as say your massive headphones from 1984. Nokia has announced a new Bluetooth headset called the BH-905 that is quite large. The massive size looks like something you would see with a home stereo rather than a mobile phone or MP3 player.
Yeah the battery life on my first gen iPhone sucks. Every time we stop somewhere, my kids want to play games on my phone and if I get bored while my wife drones on about whatever it is that wives talk about streaming YouTube videos kills the battery too.
There are already some iPhone batteries on the market and FSP Group is bringing another one to the U.S. in July via Newegg. The battery pack will carry an MSRP of $29.99 and offers 1500mAh of power. The device includes a universal USB adapter for any device charging from USB and includes a specific adapter for the iPhone and iPod.
Have you ever tried to eat dinner at 2:30 in the morning during an eclipse while in the middle of a power outage? Let me tell you, it’s almost impossible to see what you’re eating! Thankfully the forward thinkers at Sylvania have come up with the perfect solution. Through some manner of reverse-engineered alien technology they’ve found a way to embed LED lighting into your standard terrestrial placemat. You’d think that such a breakthrough would have been confiscated by the government, placed in a non-descript wooden crate and buried somewhere inside a giant warehouse, but believe it or not they’re actually available for sale to the public!
On a single set of coin cell batteries the placemats will stay lit for about 20 hours, and they’ve been treated with Scotchgard so they’re also spill-friendly. And they’re available in sets of 2 from the Sylvania online store for $24.99.
While I haven’t seen a perfect CG human just yet, I’m confident that it’s only a matter of time before Hollywood’s A-list are replaced by pixels. However, while we’re able to produce realistic computer generated images and animations, the same can’t be said for sounds just yet, but we’re now one step closer. Doug James and Changxi Zheng, researchers at Cornell University, have developed a way to simulate the sounds of flowing or dripping water, which in real life are produced by tiny air bubbles that compress and expand due to surface tension, creating sound waves in the water.
Now when it comes to movies and TV, the sounds of something crashing into the ocean or a babbling brook can be added by foley artists during post-production, but that’s not an option when it comes to video games or interactive simulations. So by using the geometry of a 3D scene, the Harmonic Fluids algorithm they developed can calculate where the air bubbles would have been created in real life and how they would have moved, which allows realistic accompanying sounds to be generated.
Oh sure, all the glitz of E3 might make the latest games look like tons of fun, but are they really? Probably yes. But in my old age I’ve also come to appreciate the simpler things in life, even when it comes to electronic gaming. And although it looks almost too simplistic, I think this ‘Thumb Stadium Electronic Game Kit’ available from ThinkGeek could actually be quite a bit of fun.
The build-it-yourself kit is just $19.99, and that’s probably because you don’t have to pay for some assembly line worker to put it together. But that also means it comes with the satisfaction of a job well done, if and when you actually get it to work. And besides a few wires and chips, the Thumb Stadium only has 2 buttons and a set of 3 red and green LEDs which allows you to play 1 of 4 different games including;
Game 1 – ThumbWar™
The object of ThumbWar is simple: press while the other player is pressing. If you do, you get a point.
Game 2 – SlapJack™
During SlapJack, Thumb Stadium randomly flashes the center LED red or green. Be the first to press when center is green and get a point. Don’t press if it isn’t green or the other player gets a point.
Game 3 – Jai Alai™
Center lights up ~ quickly press to “catch” your color. Press again to “throw” to the other player who has to catch on time and throw back. The time to catch gets shorter each throw.
Game 4 – Reflexy™
Reflexy is a one-player game. The object is to quickly press the button that matches the color in the center LED. You go until you miss or are too late. The time to react gets shorter each turn. After the game, your score is flashed ~ Center = x10, Red LED = x1. Press the Red Side Button three times to restart.
Now I’m not sure why it needs 3 x AAA batteries, that seems a bit much given what little it does, and no matter how entertaining you find it I would caution against bringing it along on your next flight because I guarantee you won’t be making your plane.
Well this seems like a pretty obvious bit of synergy. The Woodway EcoMill is billed as an “all green” treadmill because it uses no external sources of electricity. Instead, the display and the elevation system are actually powered by a battery that’s recharged while the EcoMill is being used.
And even though it isn’t a motorized treadmill (that would involve breaking some of those annoying laws of the universe) it still features a 900 watt eddy-current braking system to regulate the walking or running speed, as well as a near frictionless drive system.
Surprisingly it can support a user up to 800 lbs in weight as long as they limit their activities to just walking (probably not a problem) or 500 lbs if they intend to run. It’s also available in either green or black since it’s important to provide options when you’re charging $8,500.
I don’t know enough about hydrokinetodynamics (or whatever) to be able to hazard a guess about just how conceptual this concept is, but it sure seems like it could be nifty… The Blu Bottle water bottle contains some kind of refrigeration unit that’s powered by your kinetic energy. As you move, a pump cools air inside the bottle, creating condensation which collects at the bottom as drinkable water. So, as you walk around, the bottle magically refills itself.
Like I said, this seems like one of those concepts that can’t possibly work in real life, despite the fact that it has been “intricately researched and designed” by a guy named Yuri Teodorowych. We’ll be sure and keep you updated if anything ever comes of this idea.
We don’t generally go all bananas about rumors and hearsay, but when someone whips up a handy color-coded graphic that explains everything that might show up on the next generation iPhone, it provides a concise way to summarize what you might have to look forward to if you’re one of those people who feels sad and lonely and inferior without an Apple logo embossed on something expensive within immediate groping range.
This graphic was put together from many different rumors by TGR; the numbers next to the features denote a source for the rumor and there’s a key available here.
With the announcement of a $250 price tag, Sony pretty much guaranteed there will still be a market for the old PSP once the PSP Go hits store shelves. And if the reason you’ve been holding off on getting a PSP 2000 or 3000 is because of the battery life and ergonomics concerns, you’ll be happy to know that Nyko has heard your plight.
Their Charge Grip Flex works with either model and features a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that increases your play time by about 1.5x. I also like that it uses the PSP’s included AC adapter to charge both the PSP and the Charger Grip at the same time, so you don’t need to wrangle or store another cord. And when it comes to ergonomics, there’s a set of fold-out grips that extend from the bottom, making the unit feel more like a dual-shock controller.
Related Tags: BH-905, Bluetooth, Nokia
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By Andrew Liszewski
