We’ve seen solar-powered LED ski suits and interactive solar-powered roof tiles and now you can add that Christmassy touch to your garden with these solar-powered fairy lights.They feature 50 bright white LEDs, and charge automatically during the day to give you around 9 hours of light at night. They will set you back $US29.95, which is a little steep, but the bulbs will last 10,000 hours which is enough for several years’ fairy-lit evenings. Praying for sun around Christmastime will have never felt so normal. – Kit Eaton [Hammacher Schlemmer via Oh Gizmo]
Thanks to nanotechnology, an assistant professor at Stamford University has come up with a breakthrough in the the longevity of Lithium-Ion batteries. As well as being able to power your laptop for up to twenty hours—ten times more than current levels—Yi Cui thinks that his design could also work on iPods and other handheld devicies which rely on small batteries to work. The skinny after the jump.
Despite the slow progress toward solid-state camcorders, there is still life in the MiniDV market yet, as JVC shows with this release of a budget camcorder that can shoot widescreen 16:9. The GR D850 is petite but packs a good 35x zoom, 680,000 pixel CCD and a decent 2.7 inch screen with auto-adjusting brightness. More details after the jump.
BenQ is rolling out its G900W worldwide, a 19-inch monitor for PCs. You’ve got resolution of 1440 x 900 and 800:1 contrast, D-SUB and DVI ports. Response time is 5 ms. Price and another shot below.
Although only waterproof to 15 feet, and therefore not exactly serious underwater snapper gear, this Liquid Image digital camera-mask is not a bad idea for kids or snorkelers as it lets you take hands-free images of the Big Blue. Full details will be released at CES next month, but we’ve got a bit more info after the jump.
From Kotaku AU: According to a story up at Atomic, if you choose to buy one of Sony’s 1080p Bravia LCD TVs, it’ll throw a Playstation 3 into the deal – free.
At the moment, all the page says is “Coming soon – Bonus PLAYSTATION®3 promotion.”, but tipster Dave is confident that the promo will start tomorrow and run until January 28. So there’s plenty of time to take the company up on its offer.
We don’t have any additional details, but we’ll knock on Sony’s door and see if it’s willing to shed some light on the situation. However, I think it’ll take more than walking into your nearest electronics store and requesting the offer.
And yes, this is an Australian deal by the looks of things. Nice to get one up over the States for once.
Update 1: Maybe you can just waltz into a store and snag the offer! A reader reports that their cousin bought a Bravia at JB Hi-Fi and was provided a special code that can be redeemed for a PS3.
Update 2: Alright, it’s official. Sony just sent through a press release with all the info on the Bravia/PS3 deal.
According to the release, the offer is valid for anyone who purchases a full HD (that’s the XBR, X and W series) Bravia LCD TV between Dec 21, 2007 and Jan 28, 2008. After your purchase, you’ll be able to lodge your PS3 redemption via the www.sony.com.au/bonusPS3 URL.
It goes on to say that it doesn’t matter where you buy your LCD TV, you’ll still be eligible for a PS3.– Logan Booker
Full press release after the jump.
BRAVIA PS3 Promotion [Atomic via Kotaku AU, Kotaku AU] More »
Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, has confirmed that major cities will only be broadcasting free-to-air in a digital signal by 2009. The nation-wide switch to digital television is to occur by 2013. According to Senator Conroy: Setting a firm date of 2013 for the switchover from analogue to digital television transmission in Australia has given industry the certainty it needs to drive consumer uptake of digital television.
Until now, industry has had no declared end date and has been unable to plan effectively for digital television.
The new targets are an amendment of initial proposals by the Howard Government to implement the switch in cities by 2008 (and nationwide by 2012). Labor considers that imminent date to be an impossible target for consumers and industry to adjust to the change. [DBCDE via The Australian] More »
Interestingly enough, Hop-On, a company once known for making disposable cellphones, has introduced a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone dubbed the HOP2001 that is AT&T and Verizon ready. The phone features dual-mode GSM or CDMA, a 320×240 touchscreen, a 3-Megapixel camera with 10x zoom, Bluetooth 2.0, Wi-Fi, 256 MB Flash ROM and 128 MB SRAM, microSD expansion, and Telenav compatible GPS.
Hidden pages on Vizio’s site have revealed two new additions to the Vizio lineup. First up we have the VO47L FHDTV complete with a 47-inch viewable, 16:9 wide screen aspect ratio, 1920 X 1080 resolution, 1080p, 1080i, 720p, 480p, 480i compatibility, a 2000:1 contrast ratio (with DCR), a 178 degree viewing angle, included HDMI cable, and 4x HDMI inputs.
