Archive for January, 2010

M-Edge announces waterproof case for Kindle

Posted in kindle by Shane McGlaun on January 6th, 2010

If you were one of the hoards of people who had an eReader on your Christmas list this year and receiver the Kindle, you may be looking to keep the device safe. We all know that water and electronics don’t go together.

M-Edge has announced a new case for the kindle called the Guardian. The case is waterproof and even floats. The case is designed to float upright so you can read in the tub or pool with no hands. The design allows for complete use of the buttons on the Kindle.

Garmin unveils ecoRoute hd device for nav units

Posted in Garmin by Shane McGlaun on January 6th, 2010

If you have ever had to get your car worked on at the shop or have looked under the dash by the drivers legs you may have noticed the little port on your computer controlled car. That Port is the OBD II port and it allows the shop to see any errors or warnings that the car’s computer has recorded.

That same port can be used by the driver to glean data about their ride if they have the right equipment. Garmin has announced a cool new device called the ecoRoute hd that plugs into that OBD II port and wirelessly sends information about your car to compatible Garmin GPS units.

Alereon NoWire kit streams video from PC to HDTV

Posted in Computer Components by Shane McGlaun on January 6th, 2010

I bet there are lots of you out there who like me enjoy watching the occasional video online from YouTube or Hulu. The main reason I don’t watch more videos is that I don’t like watching on my PC screen. I want to watch on my big screen in the living room.

Alereon is showing off a new OEM solution at CES that is called the NoWire Laptop to HDTV Extender Kit reference design. The tech allows you to plug a USB dongle into your laptop and a receiver into your HDTV via the HDMI port.

CES 2010: Vestalife Ladybug2 and Firefly

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on January 6th, 2010

Remember Vestalife’s ladybug? The insect inspired speaker system for the iPod sure has come a long way. At CES 2010, Vestalife took the opportunity to launch several new designs.

Among them are the LadyBug 2 and the Firefly. The new designs are bigger, which of course means larger sound, are prettier and more streamlined. The new versions are also compatible with the new iPhones and iPod touch.

CES 2010: myDitto Portable Network Server

Posted in Storage by Conner Flynn on January 6th, 2010

myDitto from Dane-Elec allows users to remotely access their home or office Servers using nothing more than a USB flash drive. myDitto will allow you to remotely access your home or business myDitto Servers through a direct peer-to-peer connection. It’s as simple as inserting a lightweight USB key into your PC. Just connect the myDitto Server to a router, create and authenticate up to 30 personalized myDitto Keys for all users, and insert it for instant access to your files, music, videos etc.

Using an app, smart phone users can also have access to their myDitto Servers. You can also easily transfer digital files to the myDitto Server from wired and wireless devices (including PCs, laptops, PDAs and smart phones).

CES 2010: ASUS NX90Jq designed by Bang & Olufsen has dual touchpads

Posted in ASUS by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

ASUS and Bang & Olufsen have been hanging out. They’ve decided to have a bro-mance. And we have to admit, this is one slick laptop. That polished aluminum exterior looks great. But it has more going for it than that.

Check out those dual touchpads that supposedly give you a DJ turntable-like experience. The high-def, 18.4-inch display is even flanked by B&O ICEpower speakers. Honestly what’s not to love? Under the hood there’s a Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GT 334M graphics, support for up to 1280GB of storage (with dual drives), a slot-in Blu-ray drive and USB 3.0.

CES 2010: ASUS ROG G73jh gaming laptop

Posted in ASUS by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

This is what I call a beautiful laptop. Powerful too. ASUS has just launched its newest Republic of Gamers laptop at CES. The G73hj manages to make other laptops look puny. I love those angles. It features a Core i7-720QM CPU, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 8-channel HD audio, up to 1TB of HDD space and DirectX 11 compatibility with the internal ATI Radeon HD 5870.

That display is a 17.3-incher with 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, Blu-ray / DVD drive, 8-cell battery, a 2 megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g WiFi, gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2.1, an 8-in-1 card reader and a mini-VGA connector. It’s running Windows 7 Home Premium.

Cobra Radar Detectors, now with color touchscreens

Posted in Radar by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

Cobra Electronics has announced a new line of radar detectors that are the world’s first touchscreen models, for those of you who need to see upcoming radar and speed cameras. There’s also a model for under $200, with no touchscreen.

The two touchscreen models are the XRS 9970G and XRS 9965. Both have 1.5-inch color interfaces. The XRS 9970G will work with Cobra’s AURA Camera Driving Hazard Database and has IntelliView Pro which will give you a pictorial alert. They arrive in March for under $379.95.

CES 2010: Oregon Scientific outs i.wakeup Sunrise Clock, appliance managers

Posted in Oregon Scientific by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

As usual Oregon Scientific has outed some new products at this years CES. First there’s the $129.99 i.wakeup Sunrise Clock arriving in February, that simulates dawn’s early light. More specifically it uses “gentle light to help users wake up naturally without the usual disturbing sounds of a blaring alarm.”

The company is also introducing two new Appliance Managers. One is an advanced wireless version for $79.99 to help users keep an eye on how much energy up to eight appliances are using. The second is an individual version for $29.99 that keeps track of just one.

Dell Atom N450-based Inspiron Mini 10 now available, starts at $299

Posted in Dell by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

As of today, the new Inspiron Mini 10 is available to order at Dell’s US website. It features a 92 percent full-size keyboard, a 9.5 hour battery, Broadcom’s Crystal HD media accelerator, built-in GPS and an integrated HDTV receiver.

There’s also some speculation that we might see a version with a Mobile DTV tuner soon, but that’s just speculation. Starting price is just $299. Of course once you start adding features that will go up up up.

Sony’s BDPorter: A portable Blu-ray projection machine

Posted in Blu-ray by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

Sony’s new BDPorter is a portable Blu-Ray projection machine in a rollable cabinet that will look right at home in your office. It comes with a Blu-ray player inside, a WXGA projector, surround sound headphones, speakers and a 60-inch screen.

This one is targeted mainly at corporate situations to use with presentations, or when you need to move it into another office etc. If you really wanted to, you could probably import one from Japan if you have a spare $7,700.

Light Blue Optics Pico Projector throws 10-inch touchscreen

Posted in Projectors by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

Welcome to the future, where if you need a new keyboard you may as well get a projector. The Light Touch pico projector throws a laser WVGA image up to 10-inches, turning any surface into a touchscreen. The projector runs on Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 and has 2GB of flash memory along with a microSD card slot with support up to 32GB.

Of course it’s also packing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to connect to your laptop or other device. The battery life is 2 hours, which is about what you would expect. It’s very useful for a variety of situations.

CES 2010: Marvell Plug Computer 3.0 with WiFi, Bluetooth and Linux

Posted in News by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

The new Marvell Plug Computer is packing a 2GHz Armada 300 processor, WiFi, Bluetooth and a hard drive. But alas, it isn’t for all of you consumers. So you and your smudgie fingered hands can’t have one.

The unit is marketed as a development platform for building embedded devices. Nothing on price yet, but remember this isn’t for you. It’s for developers. You are just browsing. That’s it. Nothing else to see here. Move along.

Klipsch LightSpeakers screw into light bulb sockets, play music

Posted in Speakers by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

These Klipsch LightSpeakers don’t look like much, but if you hate wires, they should appeal to you. The LED light bulb fits 5 and 6-inch light fixtures and is even dimmable, so you can replace the usual bulbs you use with these, which will apparently last for 40,000 hours.

Then you’ll be playing music wirelessly through your lights, which is what Thomas Edison wanted all along. They contain a 2.5-inch wide dispersion driver and use 20 watts. The kit comes with a transmitter that connects to a PC, CD player or iPod and sends the audio to up to eight of the light bulbs in two separate zones.

CES 2010: 3M unveils 10-finger multitouch LCD

Posted in 3M by Conner Flynn on January 5th, 2010

3M is more than just scotch tape and to prove it they’ve announced a new multitouch LCD at CES 2010. The 3M Display M2256PW is a 22-inch, high def multitouch LCD for professionals with a resolution of 1680 x 1050. Professionals meaning anyone who needs up to 10-finger input with fast response time.

Tom Cruise will want to check it out to practice for a minority Report sequel. The Windows 7-compatible display features DVI and VGA video inputs, an audio input, and USB ports. 3M is all set to show off some conceptual applications that they currently have in development for the platform at CES as well, which should be interesting.