Gadgets, gizmos, and tools to help make you more productive in business

Philips is ready to hit the market with it’s elegant Xenium X-Connect. Before rushing in and buying it, you must know that it will be available first in Asia Pacific and no one knows anything about a launching date for Europe or North America.

Before we have it in our hands you should know some of its specs. It's a 3G UMTS/HSDPA mobile phone that has a beautiful 3-inch touchscreen display, runs on Windows Mobile 6, a GPS receiver, microSD slot, Bluetooth 2.0, an AA/AAA battery backup and under its case it hides a powerfull 624Mhz Intel XScale processor.

It looks like a great mobile phone and if you buy one you'll probably be a happy customer. Will keep you posted.

via EngadgetMobile

The newest member of the Olympus family is the E-502, the follow-up of the EVOLT E-510 digital SLR. This incredible 10 megapixel D-SLR presented here has under the hood a sensor-shifting image stabilization, TruePic III image processing and Supersonic Wave Filter dust protection.

It has a generous 2.7-inch LCD along with Face Detection, contrast detect autofocus (with select lenses), new vertical and horizontal panning IS modes and shadow adjustment. The E-520 includes two memory slots, one for xD and the other for CompactFlash, which is a great thing.

If you’re interested in this D-SLR then you must know that it will be available on the market in two versions. Base version is priced at $599 while the model including the 14 - 42 mm lens is $699.

Source 

I've always been a defender of Windows XP against Vista, but it looks like the much expected Service Pack 3 for XP has something against computers using AMD processors, or at least this is what Jesper Johansson, former program manager for security policy at Microsoft, says.

The problem is narrowed to AMD customers that bought their computers from HP. Apparently these machines running SP3 act funny and won't allow users to get so much as Safe Mode when rebooting. Johansson thinks the problem is HP putting images of Windows on their machines.

Enough with this much expected upgrade and though I don't run on an AMD processor I will probably stay away for a while until MSFT has it under control.

via TomsHardware 

 

Remember when we spotted the BlackBerry 9000? Well people RIM made it official and BlackBerry Bold is now live, and yes we've been rght about the looks. The waiting for it to become official is finally over, but if you were expecting to buy one right now, you'd better wait till summer on AT&T 3G.

It's specs include:

• a 480 x 320 display
• 128MB flash memory and 1GB internal memory (that's great)
• 802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, and GPS
• handles 850/1900/2100Mhz for HSDPA/UMTS
• MicroSDHC
• a 2-megapixel camera with flash
• 5-hours talk time and 13 hours in standby
• measures 4.5 x 2.6 x 0.55 inches and it weighs 4.7 ounces
• support MP3, WMA, AAC, DivX4 and WMV3
• QWERTY keyboard
• runs BlackBerry OS 4.6

The new BlackBerry Bold is going to priced from $300 to $500 and if you think it's too big, you should know that it's probably the smartest phone (smartphone) RIM ever built.

For those that want lots of media on their phone, BlackBerry Bold will use the new Roxio platform for easier operation.

Get your wallets and stay in line, because this summer the Bold will go wild. 

Having all the multimedia appliances right next to your bed is very important for the geek in you, I know it. Since the bed is one of the most important pieces of furniture we have in our homes, what would you say about this James Bond Bed?

It was designed by Nicolas Melan and named "From Bed With Love", this is actually a very luxurious bed that integrates a DVD, a big plasma screen and the 5.1 surround THX system that plays music while you're sleeping. Another interesting feature is the luminotherapic light that will get you nicer mornings.

The James Bond bend also gets a silent alarm clock that will not bother the person next to you so add your guns and it could be real.

CoroFlot 

A practical fuel cell system that is small enough (50 x 30 mm) to fit in your palm has been built by Sony. It uses a combination of lithium-polymer battery, backup battery, and control circuit, and could be the next-level when it comes to mobile devices.

Sony presented it during Small Fuel Cells 2008 in Atlanta, Ga, and a company engineer mentioned that "We have been aiming to mount (a fuel-cell system) in mobile devices and finally reached a level of commercial design."

The new fuel cell system uses methanol as fuel and the supply is controlled with a hybrid pump that regulates the amount of power used based on the system's needs. Sony claims that with 10 ml of methanol a mobile device can play a 1 seg movie for 14 hours. That's autonomy, baby !!!

The only drawback could be that we may need to refill (methanol refilling stations???) the new cells, unless Sony comes up with an idea.

Source

 

Though it may not surprise you at a first look the new BlackBerry 9000, sure has a few aces up the sleeve. The first one is the user interface that has changed and built new from the ground, with a much professional and modern theme. Second of all, the new BlackBerry 9000 comes with WiFi and HSDPA which is a great add-on for my needs.

There is one drawback I can see. I've always thought a new RIM phone that wan'ts to make a big name on the market should come with a touchscreen display. BlackBerry 9000, failed and still offers the trackball ...

Will have to see what the customers say about it, soon.

via EngadgetMobile

It was obvious that Apple is going to release a new iPhone but we never knew when and what it will have inside. Today our buddies from Engadget talked to a highly reliable source (some sort of insider) so here is what we can expect to get:

• GPS and 3G. Believe me this shouldn't even be considered the next-gen iPhone unless it has these two features. Many voices out there commented on how great the iPhone is, but everyone wanted GPS and 3G. Well people, we're getting it this time.
• Color change. The new iPhone is going to have a glossy black case and no more metal on the back. Though it's going to be slightly thicker there's no word on a removable battery.
• Should ship from July, if the "rumors" are correct.

Apple and rumors are almost synonyms, so you'd better take with with a pinch of salt. I sure hope to see how Steve Jobs is going to present it ... because it will be a blast, I bet.

Source 

The Optimus Maximus keyboard that we've been promised to see in stores so much sooner, managed to get a clear runway and is available and shipping. The sexy keyboard with and all the 113 OLED keys included, is finally on sale for a pricey $1,589.99 so I don't know how many will afford it and how many will actually buy it.

I would be very interested to get some stats from ThinkGeek, because they are the sellers.

Here are specs of the Optimus keyboard:

• Revolutionary Keyboard Features a tiny OLED screen on each key. 113 screens total.
• Each key can be individually programmed to perform a series of functions, open an application or run an Applescript (Mac only)
• Various System Monitor functions can dynamically display on a key including CPU usage, CPU temperature, Network Speed, and Memory Usage
• Play a GIF animation or Quicktime movie on a Key
• Paint images across all keys at once in your image editor of choice
• Key sets can be linked to an application, so whenever you open that app the appropriate keys come up
• Powerful layer function allows you to combine existing key sets in different ways
• Use any language with the appropriate key images including Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, Quenya, and Hiragana.
• Display notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions or any other special symbol.
• Any key (or to be exact, a unit consisting of a cap, a microchip and a display) can be easily removed by hands to be cleaned or replaced
• Built in USB hub
• SD Card Slot for Storing keyboard Settings

Let me know if you buy one, why you did and how it works.

 

 

I remember when I was at the University and I had to photo-copy books in order to be able to learn, because they were so many and so very expensive. Boys and gals, students and so on, the need to use a copying machine are over because the DL 3000 is here.

It's a book scanner with a high tech method of reading the text using bars that raise and flip the pages. The DL 3000 is the fastest scanner in the world doign 3,000 pages an hour, but for a price. It's going to cost $250,000 and I don't think many will afford it. The target niche is probably Universities and Colleges.

via RedFeret