By Chris Scott Barr

Windows 7 will be out before you know it, so it’s probably good to start thinking about upgrading. Namely, if you’re going to do a clean install, or attempt to keep all of your files/programs in tact by performing a straight upgrade. Personally, I like starting out fresh, but that doesn’t work for everyone. Well if you’re planning on doing an upgrade, here’s an idea of just how long it is going to take.

So basically, you’re looking at anywhere between 30 minutes and 21 hours for the upgrade. That’s right, if you have middle-of-the-road computer with a ton of crap on it, the upgrade will take all day. Honestly, at that point you’re better off just backing up the data and installing fresh. For that matter, if you really have 650Gb worth of data, it really shouldn’t be on your primary hard drive in the first place.

[ Technet ] VIA [ Ars Technica ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Revealed at IFA last week the Samsung Furot II is yet another robot vacuum cleaner, but this one sounds like it could be a bit smarter than those already on the market. Not only does its built-in camera allow it to see and avoid obstacles, but a visionary mapping system also makes it aware of its location. So instead of cleaning your floors by randomly rolling around your home, it sounds like it can more efficiently map out your floor plan and even remember what areas have been cleaned and which haven’t. On a single charge it will happily (assuming it comes equipped with emotions) clean away for about 90 minutes, but if it doesn’t get the job done it will simply pick up where it left off once it’s recharged. As for a release date or pricing info, unfortunately Samsung hasn’t announced that yet.

[ Samsung Hub - Furot II – Robot Vacuum Cleaner with integrated camera ] VIA [ Born Rich ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Instead of relying on soundwaves, which can be problematic if you’re trying to tune a guitar backstage at a noisy venue, the Headstock Tuner from D’addario detects vibrations to determine if a particular string is in tune or not. You simply attach it to any part of the instrument that vibrates when a string is plucked, and the device’s “optimally positioned, highly sensitive piezo transducer” will let you know if you’re ready to rock.

Now tuners that use vibrations aren’t new or anything, but the Headstock Tuner does seem particularly easy to use thanks in part to a backlit LCD display that glows red when a string is out of tune and glows green when it’s hitting the right note. $42 available from Planet Waves.

[ Headstock Tuner ] VIA [ The Gadgeteer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I guess all their cameras can’t have cool names like the ‘Digital Rebel’ so this new vandal resistant mini-dome camera from Canon has been dubbed the completely unmemorable VB-C500VD. But if you’ve been trying to protect your property against hooligans or vandals you’ll want to take note. The camera features an 82° wide horizontal field-of-view with 2.4X optical zoom as well as a fast F1.1 lens giving it great low-light performance. A progressive scan CCD ensures crisp images even with fast moving objects, and Canon’s proprietary ‘DIGIC NET’ processing engine allows the camera to capture full color video even in brightness levels as low as 0.2 lux. A pretty important feature when police might only be able to ID a suspect based on the color of their clothing.

And of course there’s that vandal resistant housing which features a movable based and dome cover to absorb high-impact blows, and tamper resistant screws which can’t be removed with standard screwdrivers. The VB-C500VD will have an MSRP of $999 and will be available in mid-October, just in time to protect your home against toilet paper and smashed pumpkins.

[ Canon VB-C500VD ] VIA [ Fareastgizmos ]

By Brian Liszewski

There are plenty of universal remotes on the market that cost even more than a decently equipped netbook, but do any of them let you act our your Harry Potter-inspired dreams of being a wizard? Well the Kymera Magic Wand does. It works like a standard universal learning remote but thanks to a built-in accelerometer it’s able to recognize “magical gestures” instead of just pushing buttons.

So for example, to turn the volume up or down on your TV you’d simply make clockwise or counter-clockwise gestures with the wand, and to change the channel you’d either flick it up or down. All-in-all there are 13 different gestures recognized by the wand that you can custom-program including big swish, push forward, pull back and even multi-taps.

Now I’m tempted to call this out as being a gag, but there’s nothing revolutionary about the technology being used, and there’s even a pre-order page on the company’s website. So if you think this is as cool as I do, they’ll start shipping on October 1 and you can order one now for about $84. (£49.95)

[ Kymera Magic Wand Universal Remote ] VIA [ Tech Digest ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The recession hit everybody pretty hard, and if you’re like us, you barely managed to scrape together enough money from between the couch cushions to replace your aging iPhone 3G with the 3GS. So where are you supposed to find the cash to buy a case in order to protect your investment? Well thankfully Case-Mate has come to the rescue with their specially designed iPhone 3G/3GS Recession Case.

Constructed from only the finest machine mass-produced cardboard (100% recycled) the case won’t protect your phone from liquids, fire or drops from extreme heights (7+ inches) but according to the Case-Mate site it will make you awesome and should last forever as long as you don’t destroy it. You can order one from the Case-Mate website for just $0.99, or opt for the ‘Bailout Bundle’ which is 10 Recession Cases for just $7.99.

[ Case-Mate iPhone Recession Case ] VIA [ Gear Diary ]

By Chris Scott Barr

When most people walk into my office, the first thing they notice is that I have a lot of monitors at my desk. Two of them are for my Mac, and two for my PC. However, I’ve always thought it would be cool to have more. I’m sure you’ve all seen movies where some hacker has six ore more monitors arranged in a nice rectangle. That’s exactly what I want, and it seems that with AMD’s new DirectX11 cards, I’ll be able to do this.

Now I’m sure you’ll point out that I can hook up plenty of monitors to my Windows machine just fine. That’s true, I’ve had up to four connected at once, but it does not provide the desired effect. When I launch a game, it still only plays on a single window. However, with AMD’s Eyefinity tool, Windows will think that all of the connected monitors (up to 6) are really just one large display.

That’s right, you can have six monitors arranged in a rectangle, and when you fire up your favorite game, it will show up on all six. Of course you’ll probably have some fun in getting the game to work at the proper resolution, depending on the title. The bezels will also be a little annoying, but AMD is working with Samsung to create monitors with extra-thin bezels for this sort of purpose.

I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these cards and try this out myself. Unfortunately it sounds like you’ll need to have at least one monitor hooked up using a DisplayPort, meaning you can’t just go grab a bunch of old 17-inch monitors and go to town. Still, count me in.

VIA [ HotHardware ]

By Chris Scott Barr

It’s hard to say who is the best wireless provider here in the US. I’ve used a few, and my vote would be for Sprint. Sure, I use AT&T right now, but that’s because I love my iPhone too much, and even unlocked it wouldn’t work on Sprint’s network. When I did have a Sprint phone, the service was great and the data was always fast. Now it seems that there is another reason for them to be considered the best.

If you want unlimited calling to any mobile phone (regardless of carrier), unlimited texting and unlimited data, you can now get it for just $70. You’ll also get 450 anytime minutes to call landline phones, or to use when roaming. That’s one hell of a deal. I pay almost $100 a month for my iPhone plan, and I don’t get unlimited mobile calls or unlimited texts. Here’s to hoping AT&T gets around to lowering their prices to stay competitive!

[ Sprint ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Chris Scott Barr

What’s this, more stuff from E3? Yes, yes, embargos really are no fun. I assure you that this is the last of my coverage from this year’s show (at least I think it is). This time around we’ve got a Wireless Drum Controller for the Xbox 360 from Logitech. Like the guitar they announced not long ago, this is not a simple replacement controller, but a ‘premium’ upgrade.

This kit is a bit reminiscent of the Ion kit that I currently use, with some very noticeable differences. First, it’s not as complicated to setup. Logitech specifically designed it to be something that you can just pull out of the box and setup in a few minutes. I remember spending a good hour assembling my Ion kit. It was a nightmare.

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