Gadgets Comp

This is where we call out by names the actions and companies that seem odd, out of touch or just plain straight up smokin’ crack.  Technology is an odd realm where PR speak doesn’t hold a lot of water if the 1s and 0s don’t line up.  This week sees posturing, positioning and flat out insanity.  Here is what caught my eye this week: blackberry Bold Ouch!  We are all so excited about the Thunder and then we learn there are problems under the hood with the Bold.  The Bold was so, well, bold.  Nice qwerty keys, swanky look, but trouble?  We heard you guys blaming AT&T for the problems, now we hear the same from Orange in the UK?  Uh-oh.  Last week I talked about too many launches, too many names—seems I might not be the only one overwhelmed with it all, huh? (Read the full post about ‘Who’s On Crack in tech: 10.10.08 edition’…)

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Growing up, I was always told that airing your dirty laundry in public was a bad thing, but that was before the Internet brought us blogging, podcasts and forums where we all give away all kinds of details about our lives. I guess Side Taker was the logical next step: it’s a site where couples give both sides of an argument (anonymously, so that’s something) and the public gets to chime in. Why anyone would want to bare their relationship ups and downs for others to comment on is a mystery to me (but then I’ve written about books I like online and been savaged for it). It’s cheaper than therapy though, I guess… Via Geek Sugar. Tags: ipod, hi fi, tech, gear (Read the full post about ‘New site Side Taker gives you the public’s perspective on your fights’…)

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Incipio Technologies has rolled out a dermaSHOT silicone case for the blackberry Bold 9000, merging form, fit and function into a single piece. You will be able to choose from 8 different colors, and some of the features include :- High density Silicone Play-through design for full function while in case Anti-static coating grips the iphone, not your clothes Shock absorbing silicone protects device Easy access to controls, touch screen and inputs You can pick one up for $19.99. (Read the full post about ‘BlackBerry Bold 9000 gets dermaSHOT Silicone Case’…)

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Orange had to suspend their sale of the Blackberry Bold, listing their reason as “software issues” in an internal memo to employees.  It seems that AT&T wasn’t the only company having issues with this one.  At least they chose to hold off and try to sort things out instead of rushing a release date.  In the meantime, RIM is attempting fix the situation.  This came as a result of issues starting in the UK, where the Bold was pulled off the shelves. As a result, shipments in the US have been repeatedly delayed and it now looks like we know why. (Read the full post about ‘BlackBerry Bold removed from sale for quality issues’…)

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Alright, I have never had the urge to cuddle with my speakers.  Nor do I wish for a set of speakers that would be comfortable to cuddle with.  To me, speakers are meant to sit there and make noise, on occasion maybe have a bit of geek appeal.  A cuddly bear speaker is just taking things too far.  Besides the first time you watched an rated R movie on your laptop with one of these plugged in, it’s poor ears would probably go up in flames.  It’s sometimes difficult to see who they could possibly be marketing something like this towards, luckily in this case they just came out and said it. (Read the full post about ‘The Bear Dolls Speakers so you can cuddle with your speakers’…)

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Electronics giant Samsung has had its fair share of hits over the years, including a fair number of cell phones that have done pretty well internationally by cramming in as many features as possible into a slim and svelte form factor, while their line of LCD TVs have wowed audiences everywhere, not to mention a wide range of electrical appliances that serve millions of homes faithfully worldwide. How about hard drives? Well, Samsung is making a splash this time round with the S2 and S1 mini portable hard drives that is meant to end up with a road warrior and not to sit down idly at the desk in your home. (Read the full post about ‘Samsung S1 and S2 external hard drives’…)

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by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 11:01AM This isn’t the first stab at an “in-car gaming system” we’ve seen, but it may be the most novel. Carcade! is an “augmented reality in-car videogame” designed by students at the Berlin University of the Arts. Using a webcam, the landscape is captured and incorporated into the game itself, letting you navigate the hellish urban environment that you call home with a little spacecraft just like you’ve always wanted to. The faster and more erratically your friend drives, the more difficult game play becomes — we just wish we could play it on the window itself instead of a laptop. (Read the full post about ‘Carcade lets you play your seedy neighborhood’…)

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by Tim Stevens, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 2:03PM LG, a major player in the cameraphone megapixel wars, is aiming to knock out the competition via a one-two punch of the KC920 Renoir and the newly official KC780. That latter phone still lacks a cute nickname, but now has a few official specs to go along with its resolution. Just 13.9mm thick, it sports a 2.4-inch LCD on the front and an unsurprisingly Schneider-Kreuznach certified lens on the back, the latter augmented by some advanced “face-enhancing features” like smile detection and Beauty Mode to digitally smooth blemishes. It should perform decently in low light, courtesy of an ISO 1600 shooting mode and built-in image stabilization; good things both because we don’t expect that tiny flash will brighten any room. (Read the full post about ‘LG’s KC780 8 megapixel cameraphone likes your smile, not your pimples’…)

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Slingbox has just released yet another device for the living room, and this time round, this is a universal media player that will deliver broadcast TV, Internet video and personal content to the TV seamlessly. Fact of the matter is this - the SlingCatcher could eventually end up to be one of the more flexible Internet video devices released in recent memory. Slingbox did go as far as to describe the SlingCatcher being able to stream video from network TV sites such as ABC.com, videon content sites like Hulu.com and CollegeHumor.com, and community video sites such as YouTube.com. (Read the full post about ‘Slingbox SlingCatcher unveiled’…)

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Oct 9th 2008 at 12:07AM Been wondering when you were finally going to get your eyes on that fancy new Xbox 360 experience? Well the secret is out — come November 19th, your dashboard will never be the same. The good folks at Joystiq have delivered this wonderful news live-and-direct from the Tokyo Game Show, where they’re blogging the Microsoft press briefing while undoubtedly enjoying the finest cowboy rolls known to man and hob-nobbing with other glorious gamers. Feel free to check into their live coverage via the link below, and start prepping for serious avatar creation.PS.- Check out our earlier gallery of the new dash here.Read - New Xbox Experience coming Nov. (Read the full post about ‘New Xbox 360 dashboard coming November 19th’…)

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