Oh! Gizmo

By David Ponce

The SIGNAL Cellphone Holder is a simple device: you place your mobile in it, and when a call comes through, it blinks. Yeah, that’s it. But the point of it is that if you’re in a quiet setting, like an office, you can still know when calls come through. Just put your phone on silent and place it in there and the larger blinking holder will be easier to see than the smallish blinking a cellphone does when it rings on silent. Of course you could always put the phone on “vibrate”, but that’s not an option sometimes. Say, if you’re a lady with no pockets. Or a dude with overly tight pants…

The holder works much in the same way that blinking cellphone charms work: it picks up on the cellular radio waves. And no, it doesn’t even charge the phone, though that could make for an interesting DIY project.

It’s $21, but is out of stock at the moment.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Pryl Feber ]

By David Ponce

The musicphone market is growing, and for good reason: listening to music and making phone calls are two essential elements to life. And sure, it’s fun to carry your tunes around with you all day but there aren’t too many options to get these off your phone, and into your home sound system. Enter the Kyocera Bluetooth Music Gateway, a device the size of a deck of cards that allows any A2DP-enabled cellphone, DAP or PMP to stream their tunes right into your home speakers. It connects to your system via RCA cables, and if your mobile has AVRCP, it can also be used to control tracks and volume. Should you be a sad Bluetooth-less mobile owner, the company also sells for $35 a Bluetooth adapter that plugs right into a standard 3.5mm audio jack. No 3.5mm jack on your mobile, and no Bluetooth? Dude, you ain’t even got a real musicphone, so you’re outta luck.

Expect to see these on store shelves sometime in April, at $100 with the adapter bundled, or $80 without.

[ Product Page ] VIA [Engadget Mobile ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I consider myself pretty lucky since the downtown area of the city I live in is blanketed with free WiFi. So the days of hunting down coffee shops or stores with free wireless internet is a thing of the past for me. For those not so lucky (like you suburb dwellers) Linksys now has a Wireless-G USB adapter with a built-in WiFi finder allowing you to locate a hotspot without having to boot up your laptop.

The Wi-Fi Finder detects Wireless-G and Wireless-B networks with a simple push of a button. It displays all pertinent information such as the wireless network’s name (SSID), signal strength, the channel used, and whether wireless security is enabled or not. The information is displayed on an easy-to-read LCD display and can be set up to look for only open networks, all networks, or a specific named network. Discovered networks are listed in order of signal strength.

The adapter also uses search technology that’s smart enough to filter out 2.4GHz interference from microwaves, cordless phones or even Bluetooth devices meaning you’ll only get a list of actual Wireless-G and B networks. It’s currently available from Amazon.com for $79.04.

[ Linksys Wireless-G USB Adapter With Wi-Fi Finder ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When it comes to universal remotes Logitech has recently made a push to become king of the consumer castle but there are other companies vying for that same title. One in particular called tvCompass is pushing the idea of a wifi capable remote that does more than just control your home theater.

The Wifi Smart Remote as they call it includes a mobile phone sized 2.2-inch QVGA LCD screen that can be used for setting up and controlling all the components in your home theater system. Nothing new there but the addition of built-in wifi means the remote can automatically retrieve the ‘device codes’ for whatever hardware you’re running online and even safely backup your remote’s settings on the company’s network servers in case they need to be retrieved later on.

The wifi and screen combination also allows content to be delivered directly to the remote itself including news, sports scores, stock info, programming guides and of course advertisements. It even has a built in speaker like the Wiimote which can be used to grab your attention or probably just annoy the heck out of you.

As far as I can tell the remote is still kind of a concept in the works (the single image of the remote is a bit plain looking) but the extra features might make paying $300-400 for a remote control actually seem worth it.

[ tvCompass WiFi Smart Remote ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By David Ponce

It’s not the first time we show you a Bluetooth headset that features bone conduction technology. The last time however, it looked like a potato tubercule that got painted charcoal. Not something you’d want to be seen coming out of your ear. The Aliph Jawbone however was designed by one Yves Behar, and actually manages to look half decent.

We’ve repeated several times that being seen walking down the street with one of these things stuck to the side of your brain makes you look like a douche (think modern bum bag). But hey, some of you are important, and really do need to be on the phone every waking second. So, you may as well get a headset that looks decent, and works well. The reason the company uses bone conduction is to filter out ambient noise; it picks up your voice through the vibrations in your skull, and not so much from the air coming out your mouth. That way, even walking down the sidewalk in Manhattan rush hour traffic, your peeps will hear you loud and clear.

It’s $120.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By David Ponce

Company Blu:sens, from Spain, is releasing an MP3 player with a lot of promise. It’s called the G14, and its claim to fame is that it’s able to do what Microsoft’s Zune didn’t have the guts to. It features WiFi, and it’s not crippled with DRM. This means, in case you’re not following, that you’ll be able to share songs with your friends, wirelessly, and let them keep them. Not only that, but you’ll be able to share all the songs in your playlist, unlike the Zune, which allows record labels to dictate which songs can be shared in the first place. What’s more, the company claims that the device will be able to interact with more than other versions of itself. You’ll be able to connect it to your network, and load the device without having to plug it in. There’s also Bluetooth, for added connectivity.

The G14 supports DivX natively, as well as MP3, WMA and OGG Vorbis. It comes in 1GB and 2GB formats, has a 2 inch 256K color display and is expected to cost between 180 Euros and 200 Euros, though availability information is a little scant at the moment.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmologia ]

By David Ponce

There are many ways that you could use this product from Buffalo, and not all of them legal. So, let’s conjure an image where this might come in handy, the legal way. Say you’ve got a really, really large front yard. Say 150 meters long. And you just happen to be in the mood to do some work from the very end. Your WiFi router is a home, of course, and the signal just won’t get to you. Simply connect the WLI U2 SGH54HP, from Buffalo, to a USB port, and you’re set. The device boosts your signal by up to 210% and increases the range up to 170 meters. That’s pretty damn far if you think about it. Specs wise, this is what we know: Vista compatible, Wi-Fi b/g, WEP 64/128bits, WPA-PSK and IPv6.

For this handy device, expect to pay around 30 Euros. No word on availability, at least this side of the pond.

[ Akihabara News ] VIA [ Gizmologia ]

By David Ponce

The MyBlu from Mavizen is a product that actually sounds like a good idea; technically it pretty much defeats the purpose of owning an iPhone altogether. What you do is plug the device between the iPod and the headphones (never mind that it already looks like an iPod Shuffle; that, apparently, has nothing to do with anything) and just like that, your iPod becomes Bluetooth capable. When you get a call, the caller information is displayed on the iPod’s screen, and the device itself acts as a handsfree kit; you can then just leave your mobile in your pocket/purse/murse/whatever.

It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than the iPhone too, at $77, and is just the kind of gadget we like to get our hands on: simple but useful as hell. Oh, and did we mention that it also confers FM radio functionality upon your radio-less iPod?

[ MyBlu ] VIA [ Crunchgear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There are plenty of home automation kits available that allow you to control everything from your window blinds to your lights but they always come with some big complicated remote that usually only one person in your house ever truly figures out.

From designer Tobias Wong comes this remote light switch that is basically as simple as it gets. Just attach the remote component to the light fixture you want to operate then turning it on and off is as simple as opening the lid on the ON/OFF box and flicking the switch. (It can be operated up to 100ft away.) Hopefully in this day and age everyone knows how to operate a light switch. In reality the size of this remote including the lucite box it?s mounted in is a built ridiculous but I think that?s half the appeal.

The Remote Switch is available from Fosters.com for $125.00.

[ ON/OFF Remote Switch @ Fosters.com ]