Gadgets Comp

Say you occasionally like to go boating.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could grab your standard GPS from your car and use it on your boat?  Recently, Garmin announced 2 new GPSs, which you could use on both land and sea. The 2 new GPSs are called the GPSMAP 640 and the GPSMAP 620, the main difference between the two is that the latter isn’t going to be sold in the American market.  Both of these GPSs, like the rest of the GPSMAP 600 series, feature waterproof 5.2-inch WVGA touch screens with 800 x 480 resolution.  More specifically, the GPSMAP 640 comes with preloaded maps of North America and U.S. (Read the full post about ‘Garmin announces new GPS for land and sea’…)

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In New Zealand, pastors are looking to technology to reach their flock. With social networking sites like BeBo and taking advantage of the fact that youths are using text messages more than the phone, ministers are including these options as indispensable tools in their quiver for reaching them. According to Rev Paul Stanaway, young people are more comfortable using technology to deal with difficult and uncomfortable issues in their lives. In addition, Church websites now have streaming church services and sermons, online bible studies, podcasts and even the lighting of virtual candles. (Read the full post about ‘Technology and social networking helps ministers tend their flocks’…)

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Sony’s latest model in their Reader family, the PRS-700 gives consumers the opportunity to choose how they would like to experience reading electronically.  It is much closer to an actual “book” experience, but with all the cool e-reader add-ons. The PRS-700 features an interactive touch display, that allows readers to actually flip pages simply with the slide of a finger.  You can also look for terms in a book or a document, take notes on the virtual keyboard, or even use the stylus pen to highlight text you find especially important or interesting. (Read the full post about ‘Sony’s latest Reader Digital Book lets your fingers do the walking’…)

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Of course, one of the things that keeps most people from working out is that exercise is tedious, and it is simply not fun. I have to admire Ab Solo’s new way of making exercise as enjoyable as a trip to the video arcade. The technique is a stroke of genius. Ab Solo takes one of those basketball tossing games that you can find at modern-day arcades and makes it into part of the exercise routine. Not only is the user getting a simple arm workout on their arms, but they are also practicing their basketball shooting skills. It even comes with a counter so the user can see his or her progress. Of course, the user does not have the option of just sitting back and shooting hoops. (Read the full post about ‘Ab Solo: Excercise and arcade basketball unite’…)

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Valeo will take the opportunity to roll out its new smart key at the Paris Motor Show. The smart key provides a genuine interface between driver and car, allowing people to send information to their vehicle over a considerable distance (several hundred meters). The key’s mini screen displays information such as whether the doors are locked and the alarm is activated, tire pressure and fuel tank level. The key can be used to preprogram the seat position or radio station, to pre-ventilate the cabin, and to exchange navigation destinations downloaded from a computer. Information can also be exchanged between keys. Sounds pretty interesting, and no longer will you have to walk away from your c (Read the full post about ‘Valeo to unveil new smart key’…)

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A few days ago, our friends over at Appletell reported on a possible increase in royalty rates that could spell out a problem for iTunes, and possibly other digital music stores.  A meeting took place on Thursday, and royalties were set on digital downloads and ringtones for the first time ever.  The good news for those who buy songs and albums online: prices probably won’t be going up any time soon, at least not because of this.  The Copyright Royalty Board set the royalty rate for songs on albums and songs downloaded online at 9.1 cents, or the same rate it was.  This rate will remain into effect into 2012. (Read the full post about ‘Crisis averted: music royalties stay the same!’…)

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Folks with clammy fingers who tend to drop their devices and gizmos onto concrete floors most of the time by accident will definitely find it much more cost effective to bring home an ugly yet functional handset instead. Today we have the MOTOACTV W450 from Motorola that will be available on an exclusive basis from T-Mobile USA, letting you live out your active lifestyle without having to worry about the frailty of your device - sorta the same feeling as getting a girlfriend who shares your passion for the great outdoors without having her worry about how the wind messes up her hair or a little bit of cycling will break her freshly manicured nails. (Read the full post about ‘Motorola MOTOACTV W450 from T-Mobile’…)

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With a few weeks left until the official launch, it seems that HTC is feeling pretty confident in terms of just how many of the G1s they are going to sell.  There have already been reports coming from “industry insiders” that T-Mobile is planning to order somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million units. Of those units being manufactured, HTC is expecting to sell around 400,000 to 500,000 within this quarter alone.  In terms of financials, this could prove very profitable for HTC and could net them somewhere around $7 billion for this quarter and $18 billion during next year. (Read the full post about ‘HTC expecting to produce up to 2 million G1s’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Oct 2nd 2008 at 5:24PM If you’re still in disbelief that wireless HD is finally catching on, here’s yet another demonstration that just may sway you into being a believer. Hitachi demonstrated a wireless HD camcorder setup at CEATEC in Japan, which saw a hacked up handycam get fitted with a protruding wireless card and stream high-def content to a nearby TV via DLNA (got all that?). (Read the full post about ‘Hitachi demonstrates wireless HD camcorder transfer at CEATEC’…)

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by Nilay Patel, posted Oct 2nd 2008 at 4:51PM 3G WiFi routers aren’t anything new at this point, but T-Mobile’s new Mobile Broadband Share Dock is one of the slicker implementations we’ve seen from a carrier — the unit consists of a USB HSDPA modem and a base which shares the connection over WiFi, which means you can unplug the modem and take your access on the road. As long as you don’t need a persistent connection at home and can live with the bandwidth, that makes the £20 / month dock sound like a pretty good deal for someone who lives by themselves, since you’d avoid paying both mobile and fixed data fees — too bad it’s UK only for now. (Read the full post about ‘T-Mobile launches Mobile Broadband Share Dock 3G WiFi router’…)

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