Saturday, April 5, 2008
Cameras
Lightning Review: Waterproof Shockproof Freezeproof Olympus 1030SW
1:00PM Benny Goldman | The Gadget: The Stylus 1030SW, Olympus’ semi-indestructible 10.1MP point-and-shoot, is designed for fairly extreme conditions. Olympus claims the camera is shockproof (to 2 metres), waterproof (to 10 metres), freezeproof (to -10°C), and crushproof (to 100kg) We’ve seen other cameras with features like this, but it’s rare that they’re all combined into one. More »
Phones
Touchscreen Satellite Phone Is as Beautiful as a Normal Mobile
11:30AM Adrian Covert | I could say that Mobile Satellite Ventures’ touchscreen offering is nice for a satellite phone. But screw that, this thing just looks nice, period. The L-Series phone is .6 inches thick, slides up to reveal a 0-9 keypad, has Wi-Fi and also works on cellular bands. The strangely-familiar interface of the homescreen looks as nice as any smartphone, and has drawn comparisons to the the satellite phone used in LOST. Unfortunately, Desmond won’t be tracking Penny down with this thing anytime soon, because MSV won’t drop the phone until 2010, satellite service will only cover North America and it doesn’t have a quick launch icon for the wonderful works of Mr. Charles Dickens. Seems like a waste to me, brotha. [Gearlog] More »
Peripherals
FLX USB Drive Is Uncircumcised, Convenient
11:00AM Matt Buchanan | The FLX USB drive prototype, designed by Jacek Ryn, while convenient, is not actually flexible. It’s got an accordion-like sheath covering it that pushes back to reveal the plug when you shove it into the USB port, and snaps back when you pull it out. Kind of like an uncircumcised, um, you know. And that cuts down on plastic materials, so it takes up less space in your pocket. Yep. [core77] More »
Phones
T-Mobile Sending Out HTC Wing Replacement Batteries
10:30AM Jason Chen | T-Mobile is replacing all HTC Wing batteries, swapping the default Dynapack battery for a newer Celxpert one. The note attached to the replacement says, “T-Mobile and HTC are providing a replacement for the T-Mobile Wing battery made by Dynapack at not charge to you due to rare occurrences of the battery overheating.” Ask for yours before your phone asplode. [WMexperts via Boy Genius] More »
Software
Hands On Skyfire Windows Mobile Browser: It Definitely Doesn’t Suck
10:00AM Matt Buchanan | During our brief hands on with the Skyfire mobile browser at CTIA, it actually lived up to most of its claims, and we walked away fairly impressed. We saw it on two different devices, though most of our time was on a Sprint HTC Mogul. Besides rendering media-heavy Giz with surprising snap (a feat that made the Instinct’s browser cry), it churned out YouTube and Hulu videos like a champ. Zooming isn’t quite as intuitive as Safari—you touch, a box pops up which you can drag around, then you touch again—but I was told they’re working on making it more natural. Overall, it’s definitely one for Windows Mobile users to watch, and we’ll be getting some more time with it soon. [Giz @ CTIA] More »
Games
Oral Hygiene Game Maps Mouth, Makes Kids Brush Better
9:30AM Jason Chen | As a guy with pretty horrible teeth, I can only wish that this computerised toothbrush was invented decades ago when I was a kid. When children brush using the system, the toothbrush’s LEDs get mapped via webcam onto a representation of a mouth, which then shows kids which teeth have already been brushed and which teeth need more cleaning. The kids using the system were “twice as effective at cleaning their teeth following the trial.” If only they could turn flossing into a game as well, I wouldn’t have to go get a root canal in about a month. [New Scientist] More »
Phones
Guy Collects 5000 Mobile Phones, Creates Art Show
9:00AM Jason Chen | If you’re in Boston and really like looking at mobile phones, a guy called Rob Pettit collected 5,000 of them and created an art show. Hit the link to see where and when it is, and be thankful that Rob’s collecting them instead of poisoning little kids. [Rob Pettit]
Online
Adobe Relinquishes Ownership of Photos Uploaded to Photoshop Express
8:45AM Matt Buchanan | So, one of the big sniggles about Photoshop Express, Adobe’s free online photo tweaker and sorta-kinda Flickr clone, is that using the service basically gave full control of your photos to Adobe. No more! They just emailed us that as of April 10, they’re only claiming “those limited rights that allow us to operate the service” and they don’t “claim ownership of your content and won’t sell your images.” Score one for internet rights and your mum’s Photoshop dalliances. [PS Express Terms of Use] More »
Peripherals
iHome’s iHL10, iHL20, iHL31 iPod Dock Lamps Are For iPod Dock Haters
8:30AM Jason Chen | iHome just devised a genius iPod dock—a category that’s already full up with five times too many models than it really needs—that’s not only an iPod dock, but also a lamp. It’s an iPod dock lamp, and it’s available in three models, one of which is shorter and fatter, another of which comes with a remote. The perfect thing for a desk that’s in need of lighting and/or music. At US$49.99, it’s neither too expensive for a lamp or too expensive for a dock. If we could only get more of the stuff on our desk to converge, we could actually see our desks. [Checkolite via Slippery Brick via dvice] More »
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