Gadgets Device

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 18th 2008 at 1:34PM Oh sure, waterproof LCD TVs have been available for ages, but Sanyo’s making the choice of which outdoor display to buy simple with the introduction of its CE52SR1. You see, unlike many alternatives, this waterproof set packs a 1080p Full HD panel, meaning that you can enjoy your Blu-ray films in full-res glory while slouched in a beach chair beside your pool. Furthermore, the display is daylight readable and features a 1,500:1 contrast ratio, 1,500 cd/m2 brightness, 6.5-millisecond response time, 176-degree viewing angles, a slew of inputs and a frame constructed from marine grade anodized aluminum. (Read the full post about ‘Sanyo’s 52-inch 1080p CE52SR1 LCD sheds water’…)

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How ironic: LinkedIn - indeed any social network - is all about making a connection. Yet thanks to the blizzard of coverage generated by the professional-themed network’s new $53 million-dollar round of funding, all I saw when I first tried to get on LinkedIn were error messages saying “connection interrupted” (Firefox) or “the server unexpectedly dropped the connection, which sometimes occurs when the server is busy” (Safari). Yep, a New York Times story and ton of links on top content aggregators like Techmeme will do that to you. (Read the full post about ‘LinkedIn makes the connection to more funding and publicity’…)

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by Donald Melanson, posted Jun 18th 2008 at 2:33PM South Korea has already made its ambitious robot plans quite well known, and it now looks like a group of Japanese robot companies are doing their best to stay in the race, with them forming a consortium of sorts that they say will let them cooperate in the research, development and marketing of robots. Currently, that group includes Tokyo’s ZMP, Nagoya’s Business Design Laboratory, Vstone (makers of the Black Ox pictured above), and Tmsuk, each of which will apparently initially focus on “simple service robots” designed to keep watch on the elderly, pets, and children. They’re not getting much more specific than that just yet, unfortunately, with one of the co (Read the full post about ‘Japanese robot companies join forces to compete with South Korea’…)

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Tiger Electronics’ newest toy robot is known as A.M.P. (Automated Musical Personality), and this one ain’t too tiny to be useless, measuring 2.5 feet in height. Targeting a much more mature audience, kiddies are out of the equation as A.M.P. is best played by 16 to 25-year olds, or at least that’s what Tiger Electronics think. The A.M.P. Bot is equipped with a couple of wheels and comes with an optional remote control. It balances pretty much like how a Segway does, courtesy of its proprietary gyroscopic technology. A.M.P. features a tiny backpack which allows users to store an mp3 player that is connected to it through a 3.5mm jack. (Read the full post about ‘A.M.P. Robot’…)

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The Asus Eee PC seems to be on the receiving end of mods and hacks these days, with Popular Science showing a cheap method to get a keyboard backlight up and running on your Eee PC without breaking the bank - under $15, to be exact.

What good is that portable PC if you can’t type anywhere and anytime? With its ultra-compact keyboard, even touch typing pros will be hard-pressed to avoid frequent mistakes on when the lights go out. To say it’s a frustrating exercise in futility to locate the miniature F3 key in the dark is an understatement.

(Read the full post about ‘Asus Eee PC gets Backlight for Keyboard’…)

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I think we all know that ipod speaker docks are a dime a dozen, and the only thing that makes iPod dock stand out above another is the design. While some designers go for a contemporary or futuristic look, the PhotoFone II owes its unique look to the past. Apparently, some designer was completely enamored by the old gramophones of the nineteenth century and made it for the iPod. The horn of the PhotoFone II is not just there for an old-school aesthetic. No, there was a reason why these older record players were so horny (looking) back then. In this case, the acoustics of the horn-shaped speaker can boost the sound up to 55 decibels. (Read the full post about ‘PhonoFone II’…)

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First, The Beatles took on America, launching a British Invasion of music. Then Led Zeppelin took the hard rock world by storm. Should we be expecting another kind of invasion anytime soon? Perhaps a Robotic Invasion? Could robots eventually take the place of modern musicians, and do a better job of writing hit tracks? What could this mean for the future of the music industry? Allow us to introduce to you, The Trons! A fully autonomous robotic band. Watch out U2! The Trons are a New Zealand based robot band which does a pretty good job rocking the house all on their own. The video above shows The Trons performing their rocker “Sister Robot”. The robot musicians are even designed to resemble humanoid figures. (Read the full post about ‘Introducing The Trons: An Autonomous Robot Band’…)

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Sprint has just introduced yet another price cut for its Samsung Instinct handset, seeing a $130 price tag when June 20th rolls around. I guess this is Samsung and Sprint’s way of sending a pre-emptive warning to Apple, considering that this price point is way lower than the 3G iPhone and yet might be a more welcome addition by smartphone users. While you won’t get integrated flash memory with the Samsung Instinct, this handset will feature a microSDHC memory card slot to even things out. Which would you get - the Instinct or the 3G iphone? (Read the full post about ‘Samsung Instinct Gets Cheaper’…)

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There may be major trouble brewing in the blogosphere. If the Associated Press has their way, bloggers will have to purchase a license in order to quote as few as five words from an AP story. As you may or may not know, news blogging relies on the ability to cut and paste from other sources for quoting and reference. That’s just the way it works.

The controversy started at the Drudge Retort, where Rogers Cadenhead (the man behind the Drudge) received seven take down notices under the US’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) from the AP.

(Read the full post about ‘The Associated Press vs. the blogosphere’…)

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Kaleidescape rolled out a couple of 1080p upscaling movie players recently, known as the 1080p Player and the 1080p Mini Player (man, talk about really ordinary sounding devices!). The former was specially designed to be rack mounted, while the latter has the advantage of miniaturization technology to keep it hidden in modern A/V installations. Features among the two include :- 1080p output Content-aware video processing Advanced DVD and CD playback features Full Import Control Motion adaptive deinterlacing and reverse 3:2/2:2 pulldown 10 bit 4:4:4 color processing Automatic video configuration Designed to import and play back content from a Kaleidescape system Sigma Designs (Gennum) VXP video processor chip Option to automatically detect and stretch 4:3 format movies HDMI 1.3 Component and composite Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG Audio, and PCM support Ethernet support The Kaleidescape 1080p Player is readily available now, but you will have to wait until the second half of July for the 1080p Mini Player. (Read the full post about ‘Kaleidoscope Full HD Movie Players’…)

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