Gadgets

MSI Wind U100

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 05:57:55 +0000

The MSI Wind U100, released in June, was the first mini-notebook to sport a 10-inch display, a near full sized keyboard and a traditonal hard drive (as opposed to solid state). The company has now released in select countries (including Canada) the Wind U90X, a fraternal twin to the original with a smaller 8.9-inch screen. While it still has some of the same features that helped the U100 garner our Editors’ Choice award, the U90X ultimately isn’t in the same league. Its SUSE Linux operating system is at times downright frustrating, and the less than two hours of battery life is poor.

Simple, Small Design

The MSI Wind U90X’s chassis is identical to that of the U100. Its black design (also available in white and pink) is basic, but feels solid. Similar to the black Dell Inspiron Mini 9, this system’s lid features a glossy finish, but it hides fingerprints surprisingly well.

Measuring 10.2 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches and weighing just under 2.5 pounds, the U90X’s footprint is a tad bulkier than other 8.9-inch systems on the market, since MSI merely shrunk the screen size while using the same chassis. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 is both 1.1 inches shorter in length and 0.1 ounces lighter. However, the size and weight of the U90X are still small; at 3.2 pounds with the AC adapter (2.4 without), it was hardly noticeable in a shoulder bag.

The right side of the U90X houses one USB port, a 4-in-1 memory card reader, mic and headphone jacks, a VGA port, and an Ethernet jack. Two additional USB ports and the power jack line the left side. Unlike the HP 2133 Mini-Note or Lenovo IdeaPad S10, the Wind U90X lacks an ExpressCard slot for adding a mobile broadband modem card, but you can always use a compact USB modem.

Comfortable Keyboard, Small Touchpad

Because the U90X is housed in the same chassis as the 10-inch Wind, the system maintains its stellar, almost-full-sized keyboard. The matte keys were springy and offered a good amount of feedback when typing, and while the keys aren’t as large as those on the HP 2133 Mini-Note, touch typists should have no problems using the U90X for extended periods.

While most of the keys are positioned normally, there are two pipe/backslash keys (most keyboards have one). The left pipe key, about two-thirds the size of a normal key, is between the Shift and Z keys; we continually hit the pipe key when we meant to hit the Shift or Enter key. Those who plan to buy the U90X in the U.S. from Canadian retailers should note that a few of the keys, including the Esc and Caps Lock, are in both French and English. We didn’t find this to be distracting.

We continue to be disappointed in the Wind’s small touchpad. Measuring 2.0 x 1.7 inches, it requires more finger movement than we would like. The mouse button, a single bar that serves as a left and right click control, is also less than ideal. It lacks a divot to separate the buttons, feels mushy, and requires a firm press. We would prefer two dedicated buttons with more tactile response like that on the Dell Inspiron Mini 9.

Via LaptopMag

LED Shower Light

admin — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:46:51 +0000

Blue light changes to red when the water heats up!

If you’re like us, you have learned to flex your schedule to avoid the rush hour of your local city. Some of us get up super early. It’s dark, then, and we smell. So we shower because we care about our coworkers. But turning on the bathroom light is too much for our weary eyes and many times we step into the shower before it has warmed up. In a word: it sucks. But the Geek Gods have smiled on us all, when they blessed us with the LED Shower Light.

The LED Shower Light is a brilliant idea. It installs to a standard shower pipe in mere minutes. When you turn the shower on, the water powers a turbine and the LED Shower Light…well, lights up! Blue let’s you know the water is chilly. When the water warms up to 89° F (32° C), the light changes to red. Now you can step in and not freeze your giblets off. And you don’t even need to turn on the light now, because your whole shower glows. It makes for a much nicer morning, trust us. Oh, and if you are the adventurous type, it also makes showers a little more fun for two. Just saying, is all.

LED Shower Light

Blue light means the water is cold; Red light means it has warmed up to 89° F (32° C).
No batteries needed - powered by internal turbine.
Installs in minutes to standard (3/4″) shower pipes.
Includes a Flow Regulator that limits maximum water flow to 2.5 gallons per minute at 80 psi (might affect Shower Light performance depending on your water pressure).
Approx. 4″ in diameter

Via ThinkGeek

Sony recalls Vaio ‘TZ’ series notebook

admin — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 14:21:38 +0000

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has dropped an announcement - a voluntary recall is required for folks who own certain models from Sony’s Vaio TZ-series of notebooks.

Approximately 73,000 units are affected, no thanks to “irregularly positioned wires near the computer’s hinge and/or a dislodged screw inside the hinge can cause a short circuit and overheating. This poses a burn hazard to consumers.” To date, Sony has received 15 reports of overheating, with one of the 15 being unfortunate enough to suffer from a minor burn. The affected models are the VAIO VGN-TZ100 series, VGN-TZ200 series, VGN-TZ300 series and VGN-TZ2000 series. If you happen to pick up your notebooks from SonyStyle stores and web site, authorized electronics retailers, and authorized business-to-business dealers nationwide from July 2007 till August 2008, I’d suggest you stop those recalled notebooks immediately and contact Sony for further action.

Via Coolest-gadgets

Jabra ‘BT2050′ Bluetooth

admin — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 13:33:11 +0000

Jabra has launchBT2050 Bluetooth headset. It has a volume buttons on top of the disk and a separate on and off button.

BT2050 up to four hours of talk time and 180 hours of standby time. Other features included auto-pairing with your Bluetooth handset as well as answer/end call, redial, and voice dial depending on your phone.

via Aving

Sungju ‘Tango Toy’ 8.9-inch mini notebook

admin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:42:40 +0000

Sungju Computers launch a 8.9 inches “Tango” mini notebook. It powered with 945GSE + ICH7 Intel®Diamondville platform 400/533MHz FSB,1.6.

With DDRII SODIMM 533M 1GB, 160G SATA HDD data storage, also equip with 1.3 megapixel webcam, integreted stereo speaker, wireless 802.11 b/g, 4-pin USB 2.0 Port * 3 / CRT port *1 / DC in Jack * 1/ RJ-45, with only 972-1075 gr weight, and available in 4 colors: yellow, white, black, pink, Sungju ‘Tango’ is very tempting to buy.

Via Aving

Fujitsu launch Life Book U2010

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:43:56 +0000

Fujitsu Asia Pacific has launch Fujitsu Life Book U2010 powered with the new Centrino Atom (1.6GHz Atom Z530, SCH US15W chipset) UMPC.

With 5.6″ WXGA LCD display and passive touch panel, it has 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. Equipt with 1GB RAM, 60GB hard drive, wireless LAN, bluetooh, fingerprint, camera, card reader, and only 0.61 kg weight in 5 available colours: ocean black, pink gold, cool silver, fuchsia red and luminous blue. The price is about $1,300.

Nokia N96

admin — Sat, 31 May 2008 14:11:37 +0000

Nokia launch its N96 dual slider phone. Nokia N96 is a high-end phone features quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900, supports 3G Network 3.6Mbps HSDPA 2100/900, has a 2.8 inches LCD display, 240 x 320 pixels, TFT 16M colors, it a sensational clear and sharp display. Powered with Symbian OS 9.3, S60 rel. 3.2, 16 GB internal memory, microSD (TransFlash) slot card (up to 8GB), 128MB RAM, 256MB storage memory, you can play and download many fantastic games.

For Multimedia, Nokia N96 equip with 5 Mp camera, 2592×1944 pixels, Carl Zeiss optics, auto focus, video(VGA 30fps), flash; secondary VGA video call camera, Built-in GPS receiver, A-GPS function, DVB-H TV broadcast receiver, MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA player, 3.5 mm audio output jack, TV out, stereo FM Radio with RDS, organizer. Nokia N96 is really an entertaining cell phone. The price should be around $ 799.

Asus U2E light notebook

admin — Fri, 23 May 2008 11:36:18 +0000

ASUS has launched a 11-inch premium black and brown leather notebook U2E, features LED backlight display with 1366 x 768 resolution. Claims as the lighest notebook with DVD-RW, U2E powered with Intel® Core™ Duo Processor U7500 : 1.06 GHz FSB: 533MHz, 2MB L2 CacheIntel, GM965 chipset, 3 GB DDR2 Memory, Dual layer DVD, 32 GB SSD hard drive, LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi Network, 3x USB, 8-in-1 card reader.

AT&T BLACKBERRY Bold 9000

admin — Wed, 14 May 2008 22:44:13 +0000

AT&T has just launch their BlackBerry Bold 9000. It is suppose the best-looking BlackBerry handset unveiled until now and also the one that packs the most advanced features. The handset is the first from RIM’s line-up to feature tri-band UMTS connectivity.

4.96 ounces (133 grams) weight and 4.48 x 2.59 x 0.55 inches (114 x 66 x 14 millimeters) dimension, 480 x 320 pixel display with 65K colors, 2 Megapixel camera with flash, 5x digital zoom and video recording, a full QWERTY keyboard, trackball navigation, quad-band GSM connectivity with GPRS and EDGE, a 624 MHz processor, GPS, Wi-Fi (802.11 a/b/g) networks, full HTM browser, BlackBerry maps, Instant Messaging and email, advanced Music and Video players, 3.5 mm audio jack. The media player has thumbnails pictures and slideshow, play movies in full screen mode and manages the music collection. 128 MB flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory. A microSD/SDHC memory card slot is accessible from a side door.

Samsung SmartPhone i200 candybar phone

admin — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:28:59 +0000

Samsung has announced to launch smartphone ‘i200′ candybar cellular phones.

It supports MS Office application program to provide office business like Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook with easy and friendly menu navigation. It easily deliver and receive email, friendly SMS and MMS management.

With Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Standard OS, only 11.8 mm thick, 2.3 inch QVGA 256k TFT LCD screen, 240 x 32o pixel, it a really handy compact and classy candybar smartphone. Further more, it equip with 3.6Mbps data transfer, bluetooth, usb connection, 2 megapixels camera (1600×1200 pixels) and organizer, games, micro SD slot, MP3/WMA/AAC/MPEG4 music player for entertainment.