Typing is a skill that’s almost a requirement to get by in everyday life these days. Yet I am amazed at the number of people I know that use the old “hunt and peck” method. You’d think that after working with a computer for so long, one would eventually give in and learn to do it properly. Well now there is a keyboard made especially for these stubborn people, the aptly-named Hunt and Peck Keyboard.
At first this keyboard seems like any other, until you realize that the keys are in alphabetical order. This is to make it easier for those that never bothered to learn the QWERTY layout. You can press a button and it switches to the standard layout, so that any normal person can actually type with any real speed. To add further insult, you can use the F-keys for quick abreviations like LOL, IMO and ASAP. If you’re thinking about buying this for someone, take that $30 and go find a copy of Mario Teaches Typing or something. It did wonders for me back in the 6th grade.
If you feel the need to bring something like a humidifier with you when you travel, odds are you’re not a light packer. But the Air-O-Swiss Travel Humidifier is compact enough for even those who travel with just a backpack since it doesn’t have a built-in water tank. Instead, it uses a plastic water bottle which you simply cap with a special adapter and the stick into the device. Ultrasonic technology is then used to produce a micro-fine mist which is blown into the room where it evaporates, increasing the humidity. It also comes with a handy transcontinental AC adapter and exchangeable plugs allowing it to be used in any country, and there’s even an auto-shut-off for when the bottle runs dry in the middle of the night. $59.99 from Air-O-Swiss.
LG showed off their ‘wearable’ GD910 watchphone at CES earlier this year, but given the choice I would most definitely opt for the thinner S9110 watchphone that Samsung just announced. Now it’s easy to boast that you have the world’s thinnest watchphone when there are really just 2 contenders on the market, but the S9110 looks even more svelte than the Casio Databanks I used to wear as a kid.
The watch features a 1.76-inch touchscreen (176×220 pixel resolution) covered with scratch-resistant glass as well as Bluetooth 2.1, a speakerphone, voice recognition (all rather vital to a watchphone) as well as email with Outlook sync support. It will set you back a whopping $638, though hopefully that will be reduced with carrier subsidies.
When you want to see what’s going on in your neighbor’s apartment you can simply get yourself a nice telescope or a high-quality pair of binoculars. But what if you want to record those ‘moments’ without having to spend thousands of dollars on a high-end video-capable DSLR with a nice telephoto lens, you can go with Chinavasion’s far more affordable Avatar digital camera instead. (~$128)
The most obvious feature is its 21x zoom telephoto lens which is hopefully removable, otherwise you’re going to have a heck of a time finding a camera case for it. And besides capturing stunning 2MP photos, the Avatar can also capture 640×480 videos at a PAL-friendly framerate of 25fps. Media can be stored on the 1GB of internal storage, but a microSD slot is also included making the thing actually usable. And like pretty much every single device with an LCD display that Chinavasion sells, the Avatar can be used as a media player supporting everything from Divx movies to MP3s to even .TXT eBooks.
Dirk Auer, pictured above, is an extreme inline skater who already holds the world speed record for skating, achieving a top speed of 190mph while being dragged behind a Porsche GT2. So how does one top such an accomplishment? Well by designing a special pair of inline skates that allow you to ride a wooden roller coaster of course! This stunt, which took place on the Mammoth roller coaster at the Trips Drill theme park in Stuttgart, took 2 months to plan including 110 hours making the custom inline skates. But the ride itself took just over a minute with Auer reaching a top speed of 56mph after the first 30 meter drop.
And I would totally call shenanigans on these photos were it not for this news report with footage of Dirk actually racing around the coaster.
Anyone here remember switching over from USB 1.1 to 2.0? The difference in speed was like going from dial-up to T1. Well we’re finally approaching that kind of change again with USB 3.0. We’ve been hearing about this new standard for years, but until now there hasn’t been a single device that supports it. Well someone had to come first, and that someone is ASUS.
If you’ve ever wondered which came first, the port or the peripheral, the answer is apparently the port. Asus has been working on their new P6X58 Premium motherboard, which will feature a pair of USB 3.0 ports. You’ll also have support for the latest i7 CPUs, six DDR3 slots and three PCI-Express 2.0 slots. No word on when it’ll be hitting the market, or how much of a premium it’ll fetch for the USB 3.0.
By Evan Ackerman
Woot.com normally sells one heavily discounted gadgety item every 24 hours, but during a Woot-Off, a new item appears as soon as the current item sells out (sometimes after mere seconds). Nobody knows what’s coming up next, but whatever it is, it’s dirt cheap (with flat rate $5 shipping). Among the items you’ve missed so far have been MyVue iPod video goggles for $70, Candi the USB pole dancer for $10, a 4 port USB hub with an integrated rechargeable battery pack for $4, and the world’s crappiest projector for $50. And all the obligatory random weird crap, of course.
If you’re too lazy to refresh the page to see when the item changes, here’s a list of automatic Woot-Off checkers.
The sound of an air raid siren is what most people associate with natural or man-made disasters, but Germany’s extensive network of sirens was dismantled after the Cold War and replaced with a satellite based warning system (SatWaS) that alerts the population via TV and radio. The only problem is that if people aren’t watching TV or listening to the radio, those warnings go unheard. Over the years many alternatives have been considered, like using the cellular networks to alert everything from phones to smoke detectors, but they still don’t ensure the entire population gets the message. And replacing the siren network would end up costing the government hundreds of millions of Euros.
So researchers at the INT (Fraunhofer-Institut für Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Trendanalysen) have come up with a more clever alternative. As of September 2010 all new cars in Germany will be equipped with something called the eCall emergency system, which functions a lot like OnStar does in the event of an accident. However, this system could also be used to trigger the horns of parked cars in the event of a disaster that the public needs to be aware of. Because the eCall system also features GPS, the warnings can be limited to a specific geographic area, and while they won’t provide info on exactly what’s happening, it will at least let citizens know they should turn on their TVs or radios for more information.
When I’m building a new system, be it for myself of someone else, I consider each component very carefully. The ultimate goal is to select parts that will provide the best performance for the buck. When it comes to the case, you want something that can accommodate all of your components (with some room for future upgrades), keep them cool, look good and still be within budget. The new M59 mid tower from NZXT looks as though it should fit each of those criteria.
The feature list for this case looks a lot like some of the other NZXT offerings, which have impressed us in the past. You’ve got 5 fans for airflow, including optional side and top-mounted 120mm fans. Like most of NZXT’s cases, you’ll find pre-drilled holes for mounting a liquid cooling solution. The mesh front and overall look are probably enough to sell the case to most people, but there are two features that I’d like to point out, that should really make you think long and hard about upgrading your case.
Related Tags: Keyboards
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By Evan Ackerman
