Nokia's N85 drops by the FCC, dips head, inquires about what's good

by Darren Murph

Not that we ever (okay, maybe there was a moment of weakness in there somewhere) doubtedN85 was North America-bound, but the handset dubbed superior to the flagship N96 by one Italian reviewer is indeed coming to US soil. And we've found the FCC documentation to prove it. At this point though, there's little the User Guide, external / internal photos and SAR report can tell us that we don't already know, so again, the takeaway here is that we're one (huge) step closer to having an N85 to call our own. Now that's what's up. that Nokia's

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JVC's Sound Garden concept thrives beneath a black hole sun

by Thomas Ricker

See that? That's how far JVC's eco-friendly designers will prostrate themselves in hopes of recycling your paper money into their bank accounts. On display in Tokyo at the Designer's Week exhibition, the Sound Garden "Kirikabu" speaker combines your choice of potted plants with multi-directional speakers consisting of a woofer, and left- and right-channel stereo speakers powered by an internal amplifier. Just add water and let the electrifying fun begin. The pods can also be joined into hives where guinea pigs and other varmints of doom can breed and ultimately wash away the rain of our despair. See that particular construction after the break.

Continue reading JVC's Sound Garden concept thrives beneath a black hole sun

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Lightweight Windows 7 pre-Beta on Eee PC 1000H looks very promising

by Thomas Ricker

Sure, Windows 7 will run just fine on a thick slab of screaming desktop, but what everyone's really wondering is how it'll perform on laptops, or better yet, down-market netbooks. The very same stage that put Linux into the grubby hands of the Wal-mart consumer and forced Microsoft to extend the life of XP just to stay in the game. It's all pre-beta stuff for now mind you, but Laptop loaded up its early Windows 7 build onto an Eee PC 1000H (10-inch, 1.6GHz Atom, 1GB RAM) with decent results. For the most part, it ran "pretty well" with Laptop managing to get the netbook's features working from the XP drivers supplied by ASUS. And just as Microsoft demonstrated, the relatively lightweight Microsoft OS required just 485MB of RAM when Windows 7 was fully loaded, sans applications of course. Hot. There were some problems with graphics performance as demonstrated by jumpy, 720p video playback and video conferencing over Skype. Still, pre-beta is exactly that, pre-beta. Drop a gold-release Windows 7 OS onto an Eee PC convertible touchscreen and Microsoft and ASUS might be on to something come mid 2009.

[Thanks, Avram P.]

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Fanatec's Porsche 911 Turbo S racing wheel plays on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

by Darren Murph

If you managed to pull in the reigns and hold off on Fanatec's wireless Porsche 911 Turbo Racing Wheel back in April, you can get a beautiful alternative right about now with even more utility. Today, the outfit has introduced the limited edition Porsche 911 Turbo S Racing Wheel for Xbox 360 -- which, contrary to its name, actually plays nice with the PlayStation 3 and PC. Of note, there are three variants from which to choose: a 911 Turbo S Edition, Clubsport Edition, and Pure Edition, all of which are licensed by Porsche Lizenz- und Handelsgesellschaft mbH and feature a 900° steering angle. You'll also find a 6+1 shifter, and if you opt for the Clubsport Edition, you'll get high-end pedals that are actually crafted from aluminum and feature a load cell pressure sensor for the brake. The pain? $250, $400 and $150 in order of mention, 90% of which is totally paying for that logo in the middle.

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ASUS finally details ET1602 / ET1603 Eee Top all-in-one PCs

by Darren Murph

If you've paid any attention to the release cycle of ASUS' Eee Top, you'd have noticed by now that things have been done in quite the unorthodox way. Although we've already learned most everything we need to know from buyers in global markets, ASUS has finally seen fit to do us English-speaking folk a solid and host up official detail sites for both the ET1602 and ET1603. Both rigs boast a 15.6-inch touchscreen LCD, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB 5,400RPM hard drive, 1.3-megapixel webcam, gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, a pair of stereo speakers, two USB 2.0 ports, a multicard reader, audio in / out and a swank carry handle for lugging it around. The only difference between the two flavors is the GPU; the ET1602 includes an integrated graphics set, while the ET1603 packs a discrete ATI Mobility Radeon HD3450. Per usual, ASUS isn't dishing out any further pricing / release deets, but most everything else you could ever want to know (about the pair, not life or taxes) is just a click or two away.

[Via I4U News]

Read - Eee Top ET1602
Read - Eee Top ET1603

Dane-Elec goes its own way, intros a handful of media players

by Darren Murph

Growing tired of distributing the Meizu M6 and M3 (and growing even more tired of waiting on the M8), Dane-Elec has decided to strike up on its own and offer up a smattering of portable media players. Up first is the above pictured Music mediatouch, a 4GB / 8GB PMP with a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 resolution display, FM tuner / transmitter, microSDHC slot and USB connectivity. On deck is the reasonably attractive Music pix, which touts a 2.9-inch 400 x 240 resolution display, a 1.3-megapixel camera and your choice of 2/4/8GB of storage space. The bright green Music touch gets miniaturized to the tune of a 2.4-inch display, while the ultra-tiny Music is a simple USB thumb drive-styled DAP with either 1GB or 2GB of space. There's no word on a release date for any of the aforesaid wares, but we wouldn't bank on 'em coming to the US, anyway.

[Via PMPToday]

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Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds Lumix DMC-G1 reviewed: only knock is the price

by Darren Murph

The question has been on your mind since we first got wind of this so-called "Micro Four Thirds" concept back in August: how will it stack up? Now that Panasonic's Lumix DMC-G1 is filtering out to the world, we're able to kick back and digest a mammoth review of this here camera thanks to the fine folks at Digital Camera Resource. Without going into dissertation-level detail in this space, we'll tell you that the biggest issue critics had with the G1 was its price. Not the image quality. Not the size. Just the price. In other words, Panny has delivered a superb camera that offers up "very good quality photos, an unmatched live view shooting experience and a nice collection of both automatic and manual controls." Deemed the first to "truly offer a point-and-shoot experience on an interchangeable lens camera," the DMC-G1 looks to be a real winner if you've got $800 to blow.

[Via 1001 Noisy Cameras]

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Western Digital quietly intros WD TV HD Media Player

by Darren Murph

Well, what do we have here? With no fanfare whatsoever, Western Digital has apparently strayed from its platter-based roots and delved into the wide, murky world of HD media streaming. The WD TV HD Media Player purports to "turn your USB drive into an HD media player, allowing you to watch your favorite HD movies on your TV." For those still befuddled, look at it like this: it enables you to plug in your USB key or USB hard drive and play back multimedia clips up to 1080p on your HDTV via the HDMI / composite outputs. The 1.6- x 4.9- x 3.9-inch box ought not bog you down too much when looking to take it on a journey, and the $129.99 price tag isn't too painful either.

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HP opens TouchSmart to third-party developers

by Darren Murph

Got a touchy-feely idea you'd like to see on HP's TouchSmart PC? Then by golly, it's about time you got to work! HP has recently released its TouchSmart Application Developer Guidelines to third-party developers, enabling anyone with drive, ambition and skill (all three, not just one or two) to create their own "touch-friendly applications that integrate and run within the TouchSmart Software suite." To generate buzz and give you a little motivation, the TouchSmart Community is offering one fortunate dev a trip to CES 2009, where they'll be able to demo their software in front of the gadget world (and us!). For all the details, be sure and give the read link a visit -- crack those knuckles, it's time to code.

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Aspire One shipments on pace to beat Eee PC

by Nilay Patel

Acer's Aspire One has been somewhat overlooked in the face of a relentless barrage of Eee PCs and other netbooks, but slow and steady tends to win the race -- Acer says it's on track to ship six million machines this year, which is ahead of ASUS's target of five million Eees. Acer's mostly pulled into the lead due to its size and ability to push the Aspire One globally, while ASUS (which less than half the revenue) has been building the Eee market by market. Of course, that doesn't mean ASUS is going down without a fight -- we've already seen some aggressive ads, and Acer doesn't have anything to match machines like the S101. Looks like the netbook market is starting to get heated -- it'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out over the next few months.

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Panasonic's Lumix DMC-G1 ninja-ships to consumers

by Samuel Axon

Panasonic had us fooled with that press release dating its micro Four Thirds camera, the Lumix DMC-G1, for mid-November. We're not sure what Panny was trying to pull, but when we took a gander at its online store today we discovered that the G1 has already started shipping. The price is $799.95 as expected, so your time has come if you've been dying to try this slim and sexy micro Four Thirds thing out -- though we might wait for a few reviews to drop to confirm that the performance matches the price.

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iriver cuts prices on three PMPs for the holidays

by Laura June

Fans of iriver's PMPs should be happy to hear that it's cutting prices on three of them for the holiday shopping season. The E100 and tiny Lplayer's prices will be $69.99 for 4GB models and $99.99 for the 8GB ones -- a drop of $40. The priciest of the three, the SPINN, will see its tag drop to $189.99 for the 4GB and $229.99 for the 8GB (they normally fetch $249.99 and $279.99 respectively), though that still seems fairly expensive given its storage capacity. The price drops are in effect starting November 1st (AKA today).

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MSR-H101 Hexapod kit lets you build your own nightmares

by Donald Melanson

Robot builder Matt Denton apparently first built a one-off Hexapod robot for himself some time ago, but he's now taken things one big step further and is offering a kit of a similar bot to the general public through Micromagic Systems. In addition to being excessively creepy (just check out the video after the break), the MSR-101 Hexapod also looks to be relatively simple to get going straight out of the box, with it boasting a built-in HexEngine with plenty of pre-loaded settings, and built-in PS2 controller suppport, which'll let you parade your creation about without having to mess around with it too much beforehand. Of course, there's also plenty of room for more experienced robot builders to get their hands dirty, and Micromagic is more than happy to sell you a whole slew of optional add-ons for the kit. Those just looking to get started, however, can simply grab the base kit in their choice of black, red, or silver for an entirely reasonable €105, or roughly $168 -- just don't blame us if you never get a good night's sleep again.

[Thanks, David]

Continue reading MSR-H101 Hexapod kit lets you build your own nightmares

RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8900 gets hands-on treatment, looks mighty good

by Darren Murph

Oh RIM, why must you torture us? Just when we'd moved beyond our nightly dreams of the Javelin and had our sights set on a Bold, here you go reminding us of just how luscious the next-generation Curve looks to be. Sure, the omission of 3G makes us none too happy, but it's hard to kvetch about the design. The Boy Genius managed to get his paws around one of the forthcoming BlackBerry Curve 8900s, and his initial impressions are almost universally positive. He's totally digging the size, the screen, the keyboard and even the bezel. That's right, the bezel. Check the read link to see what the fuss is all about.

Marware Game Grip turns iPhone 3G into a gamepad controller

It’s obvious as shown in the picture, a device by Malware, called Game Grip, which physically turns your iPhone 3G into a gamepad controller.

When your iPhone is affixed into the Malware Game Grip, the iPhone will be turned into a complete game controller, presenting you a horizontal view of game play on the iPhone’s screen. This gives you much better grip of your iPhone while playing exciting games on it. And your two thumbs are nicely positioned on the touchscreen, making it to feel like a gamepad controller.

The device works with iPhone 3G. It allows you to use the headphones of your iPhone 3G and also charge it while gaming. It carries a price tag of $50 and comes with lifetime warranty.

Buy online, $49.95, Malware

via [iphoneworld.ca]

GPS lingerie, for super-possessive men to track their women!

The super possessive guys will definitely love a new line of lingerie - Find Me If You Can, which was proposed and designed by Brazilian designer Lucia Lorio. It contains GPS unit which your woman can never run away from you.

A brick-sized electronic device, a GPS unit, is sewn into the undergarment. The “Find Me If You Can” lingerie line sells between $800 and $1,100. Although the price is more pricey than any average lingerie, but overly possessive geek would not mind to spend that much, as it keeps their worries away that their women will not be able to run away from them.

And of course, brainy girls could simply remove the GPS device from the undergarment, and hide it somewhere to play hide and seek with your man. Think on the positive side, it shall be great as a safety device which you can track your girl at those high kidnap-rate areas.

via [geekologie]

Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO - an entertainment humanoid robot for your family

If you and your family are rich but too bored, you might consider getting an entertainment robot to bring more excitements into your life. Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO, is a humanoid robot that is made for this purpose and it carries a huge price tag of $15,000.

NAO is equipped with bells and whistles. It has limbs with 25 degrees of freedom, operable hands, stereo vision, voice recognition and synthesis and it’s driven by a programmable Linux operating system. You can progam NAO in either a graphical environment or code environment (Urbi scripting language, considered pretty easy to learn).

The programming environments of this bot are made to suit all ranges of skill. Of course, for average users they will definitely choose to program it in GUI mode. For those geeky ones, will want to try the coding environment. You can also program it via WiFi.

via [botjunkie]

Softbank and Sharp unveil the FULLTOUCH 913SH Aquos mobile phone

Softbank and Sharp are hot this week. Other than the overly expensive luxury phone, they have also unveiled a new FULLTOUCH cellphone, 931SH.

The 931SH comes with a large 3.8-inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1024×480. Similar to the previous Softbank’s releases, the phone boasts lots of great features that fit well into the Japanese category, including a 5.2 megapixel camera, high-speed connectivity HSDPA, GPS, accelerometer, Bluetooth etc. And some more it’s got a magnetic compass and also equipped with on-board wireless payment system which is usable in Japan.

The little short with this phone is its on board storage isn’t sufficient at all, but you can expand it via the microSD card slot. Pricing and availability are still unclear. Similar to previous models from Softbank, this phone should remain in Japan only.

via [gadgetlite]

Pure*Gold PC

Pure*Gold PC isn’t another expensive gadget that I wanna tell you today. This PC isn’t really made of real gold, it should be only housed in a gold-plated casing.

The casing of this gold PC has been created in ceramic or glass and then gets gold plated. Every single unit of this is handmade. Under the gold-plated hood are an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM, 100GB SATA II hard drive, nVidia display card with 8600GT chipset and 512MB DDR RAM, 7.1-channel high-def audio, and WiFi. No word for the pricing, but it shouldn’t be too expensive since it’s not made of real gold!

via [geeky-gadgets]

Sunjar II - a solar powered garden light

Sunjar II makes up a great decorative light for your garden. Some more it’s a green gadget that collects sunlights during day times and shines at nights with warm sunshine for your garden.

The Sunjar II is equipped with high power solar cells which are efficient to collect sun juice during day times. At nights it emits warm glow much like that of the sun jar. The Sunjar II can also be powered by 2 AA batteries, which lets it continue to shine during bad weathers when sun juice is short.

The Sunjar II pathway light can shine up for 8 hours at night after a full charge. It’s also equipped with a sensor that automatically detects the ambient lights - when the surrounding is bright enough, it’ll shut itself off to save the power during the day. For only $20, you can get it online from Soucingmap. It’s deemed pretty easy to assemble and mount it at one corner in your garden.

Buy online, $19.99, Sourcingmap