Sanyo had introduced a handy little gadget to recharge batteries using solar power. The Eneloop solar charger will recharge 4 AA batteries using nothing but the sun. It also has a port to let you charge other devices with rechargeable batteries via a USB connection.

At the same time Sanyo has also released a small, hand held heater that is also rechargeable, and works similarly to the small little liquid packets you would put inside your gloves at the slopes, creating a small amount of heat radiant heat.

Along with the solar recharger from Sanyo, don’t forget that you can charge up the Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable NiMH batteries. The novel feature of these batteries is not that they are rechargeable, which they are, but that they hold there charge a lot longer than normal rechargeable batteries when not being used. So much so that …

Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP was released by Microsoft on Monday. The focus on this release of the player includes changes to the navigation system and new ways to store music, video, pictures, and recorded TV.

A significant change to this version of the player involves a partnering with MTV Networks and its URGE music service. URGE is the featured digital music service for Windows Media Player 11 and is deeply integrated into the Player.

The URGE library contains more than 2 million songs from 18 genres and many exclusives from MTV, VH1, and CMT. The URGE network gives you access to hundreds of playlists, 130+ URGE radio stations, music feeds, blogs, interviews and feature stories.

Songs on URGE are typically $.99 per track or $9.99 per album. An URGE All Access subscription plan which gives you unlimited music downloads is …

Apple has announced that it’s newest member to the iPod family, the new iPod Shuffle, will be available for purchase this Friday. This will be the smallest of the iPod family to date.

The iPod Shuffle is a digital music player that can be connected to your Mac or PC via USB 2.0 and an included dock to sync up songs from Apple’s iTunes music store.

The new iPod shuffle has 1GB of flash memory which allows it to hold up to around 240 songs (avg 4 minute song), and the battery gives it up to 12 hours of life on a full charge depending on use and the number of charge cycles the battery has had. The new shuffle is only about half the size of it’s predecessor at only half a cubic inch in total size and half and ounce, …

Portable speakers in a tube.

At 3.2 lbs and 12 inches long, this handy little pack of speakers can be used indoors or outdoors running on batteries to allow you to provide the same listening experience that you have with your music player on to others.

The speakers twist off of the ends of the center tube, and then wires plug into the back of the Boomtube center piece from each speaker. Almost any MP3 player can then plug into the back of the center tube from the headphone jack with the supplied cables to have your MP3 player music come through the Boomtube speakers.

The speaker kit comes with required cables and a carrying case, and the battery is rated for 5 hours on a full charge, or the BoomTube speakers center piece can be plugged into an electrical outlet to use and to …

Elebits is a radical game of hide and seek where you search high and low for mischievous little Elebits. The fully interactive environment gives you ample opportunity to make good use of the innovative features of the Wii controller to push, pull, lift, toss and otherwise interact with anything and everything.

The story involves tiny creatures called Elebits that must be captured so that the Earth can continue to spin. You see, Elebits are mischievous little beings that are the source of the world’s power and it is your job to collect them and put them back to work. Gameplay is in first person and you move objects with a gravity gun. There are hundreds of Elebits to search for and find and you gain additional abilities as you capture more of them.
Wii Controller Features
Character movement is accomplished with the Wiimote which allows you to …

Starting today Xbox 360 owners with Xbox Live Silver or Xbox Live Gold will be able to download a free system update for their Xbox game console that will provide more than 85 new features. Xbox states that if you are not currently signed up for Xbox Live you can sign up free and get the update through your console and a broadband connection. No hard drive or disc drive is necessary. This is the sixth update that has available for the Xbox Live service.

One of the biggest features in the new upgrade is the move up to 1080p resolution to improve the resolution of both games and HD movies. Along with the HD upgrade, they have also added the ability to stream WMV files from a Windows PC to the Xbox to view from the game console.

Other significant features include …

The WinePod is a state-of-the-art device for small lot artisan winemaking which transmits data on the fermentation process to your PC. The WinePod integrates fermentation, pressing, and aging in one elegant unit to produce 4 to 5 cases of wine per batch.

The WinePod collects data on fermentation and temperature and transmits it wirelessly to your PC. This is accomplished using the SensorStick, an integrated Brix and temperature monitoring system. The wireless USB controller collects and transmits data to your PC up to 100 meters away.

The WinePod Dashboard software displays data received from the SensorStick and manages access to your records. The Dashboard displays instructions, various prompts generated by the software, and maintains your notebook during the winemaking process. The Dashboard also connects you to other WinePod users who have made their Dashboards available to the public.

The software also allows you to …

Have you ever bought a used PC or used hard drive and found someone else’s old data on it? Or worse yet, have you ever sold or lost a hard drive not being completely sure your data was erased before hand? This among other issues requiring an increased level of security has prompted Seagate to unveiled their DriveTrust security software. The technology will come built into the Momentus 5400 FDE.2 and the DB35 series hard drive and will encrypt the data on the drive without requiring external software or hindering the hard drive performance.

There are multiple situations that cause hard drive security to become and important issue, and having the encryption easily and cost-effectively implemented will improve the overall level of security with sensitive information. Everything from your own personal family pictures and financial information to health care organizations …

The Adeo Fitness Companion from MotionLingo is a pretty cool exercise gadget that fits inline with your headphone cord and tracks your outdoor workout.

The Adeo is really a GPS device that tracks your movements during outdoor workouts such as running, walking, biking, etc. As you move the Fitness Companion tracks your current position, the distance you have gone, your pace, and speed along with your workouts’ elapsed time, the elevation and estimated calories burned.

The Adeo can report this information to you audibly during your workout through your headphones. This can come in very handy for long distance or marathon runners for example, who would like to be able to keep track of their pace without having to look at their watch or do in calculations in their head while running.

Back at the ranch you can upload the data from the Adeo Fitness Companion …

Alvarion, a leading provider of wireless broadband and specialized mobile networks, today announced the availability of a primary voice service over WiMAX networks enabled by the latest edition of BreezeMAX.

Primary voice over WiMAX capability is of particular interest to pioneering service providers looking to offer voice services and broadband to areas with little or no existing telecom infrastructure.

Alvarion voice and broadband data WiMAX networks can be built quickly and without heavy investments in a complete VoIP implementation as it can be deployed using the existing TDM infrastructure capacity of V5.2 legacy switches. This is particular interest to incumbent (ILECs) and competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) who can now adopt WiMAX as their basic network strategy.

“Alternative and incumbent carriers can now use WiMAX to open their networks to major technology evolution in terms of applications,” said Rudy Leser, Alvarion’s corporate

…

Philips is hoping to make some serious headway into the Digital Media Receiver (DMR) market with release of the WACS700/37 Digital Media Receiver. The new wireless music center allows you to stream music around your house wirelessly to remote stations that you connect to the system.

The WACS700 is the latest device in the family of Streamium products, and consists of a base unit called the Center and a remote Station which has its own speakers. The system allows you to easily connect up to five stations, enough for the average house. You can listen to your music wherever you are in your home or family members in five different rooms can access and listen to their own choice of music from the Wireless Audio Center at the same time.

Equipped with a 40GB hard drive, the system offers enough capacity for you to …

Nokia has announced a new GPS device for use on roads in Europe called the Nokia 330 Auto Navigation.

Using the ROUTE 66 Navigate 7 software along with map data from NAVTEQ, you can enter you destination into the 330 and have it map you a route and direct you with voice commands in multiple available languages.

The vice president of multimedia enhancements at Nokia, Razvon Olosu, stated “Consumers are increasingly eager to use personal navigation devices while driving and we are delighted to introduce the Nokia 330 Auto Navigation device to meet this demand.” Olosu continues, “Nokia 330 Auto Navigation complements the recently announced GPS and navigation solutions from Nokia. Finding your way across Europe is simple with this comprehensive navigation package, including an integrated GPS receiver and European maps.”

The Nokia 330 GPS has a 2GB memory card that …

If you happen to be looking for a great golf gadget for the coming holiday season or an occasion, you will want to check out the Sureshot GPS. This small GPS enabled device come loaded with a large number of convenient features that can potentially be used on any golf course around the world.

For it’s simplest use, the Sureshot GPS can be used to measure your distance to the hole at the pin position for the day, along with distances to the center, front and back of the green from your current position. You can load up to 10 different courses into the device at a time with up to 33 recorded points for each hole identifying items such as hazards and the green.

As you are golfing you can also record statistical information about your play such as strokes, putts, elapsed playing time, …

This installment of the Nintendo Wii game preview series will focus on Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2, the latest in the series of DBZ-inspired fighting games from Atari. Dragon Ball Z video games are based on the popular cartoon and card game. Over twenty Dragon Ball Z video games have been released in the United States and Japan since 2002.

Budokai Tenkaichi 2 features lightning-fast melee with elements of RPG and action-adventure gameplay. Players engage in epic battles set in 15 vast and highly-destructible environments. The environments feature the high level of interactivity you have come to expect from the previous games with massive 3D destructible realms and an abundance of game modes.

Fans of the series can reenact their favorite ki-powered techniques with a roster of more than 100 characters from the pantheon of Dragon Ball Heroes. The …

Bang & Olufsen, together with Samsung have been working for the past two years on a minimalistic and more intuitive approach to a mobile phone. What their collaboration has come up with is the Serene.

The Serene is a different shaped phone that appears to be upside down compared to most mobile phones today. When being used, the circular keypad is in the top half of the clam shell design, and the display and microphone are in the bottom half, which gives the already different looking phone an even more different looking angle when being used.

The keyboard portion of the Serene mobile phone also contains a loud speaker and a thumb wheal used for navigating menu options and functionalities on the phone.

The phone comes with a stylish docking station for charging, and while charging the orientation of the display …