2006 October - SlashGear

Archive for October, 2006

Lucky the Incredible Wonder Pup

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 3 Comments

Do I love this robot puppy more than the amazing robot cat I wrote about a while ago? Hell no. But I’m sure there are some dog-lovers out there who might be interested anyway. $60 gets you a fluffy toy that can respond to 15 different voice commands to do tricks, including sit, bark, shake and destroy (nb. one of these is a lie).

Lucky the Incredible Wonder Pup

I have to say, I wish manufacturers would think outside of the boring box when they’re coming up with these things. Where’s Albert the Amazing Albatross, or Barbara the Bombastic Bat? Give me an animatronic aardvark any day.

Zizzle [via UberGizmo]

Nokia E90 – a crayola tease

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 No Comments

I wasn’t quite sure whether to post this, seeing as it’s so very tenuous as to almost be as readily dismissed as Mariah Carey’s talent, but I shall leave it up to you to pick it apart like torrid wolves. We’re being told that the crayon-drawn cellphone in this photo is a very early concept sketch of what will eventually be the Nokia E90, an update to the popular (if chunky) Communicator line of smartphones. Apparently sporting a sliding screen which would negate the need for a secondary, external display, the QWERTY-equipped handset is rumoured to have HSPDA, UMTS, EDGE and WiFi (”Wireless Standards: gotta catch ‘em all!”), a 2 megapixel camera and miniUSB connectivity.

Nokia E90

Is it true? Is it false? You tell me, I just press these little square buttons and all these letters and numbers appear on the screen.

Softpedia [via UberPhones]

Fancy Vista with 3TB+ of storage?

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 No Comments

You know what they say about hard drives. “Buy a hard drive a fish, and you can feed it for a day. But buy it a net and it can feed itself for a year” But they also say that you can never have enough hard drive space, and that’s annoyingly true. NOVAC, when they’re not occupying themselves stuffing capitals into their name, have decided to help those short of space out by fashioning an external caddy with not one, not two, not twelve but six spaces for IDE or SATA drives.

NOVAC USB 6x hard drive caddy

Continued »

Video Telescope ideal for long distance cat spotting

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 2 Comments

Whenever I’m spying on people, I often wish two things. Firstly, that I had some sort of combination telescope-cum-video-camera, and secondly that I had the awesome power of mind-control. This gadget will certainly help with the former, but for the latter I’m going to have to keep sacrificing goats and lost children to the Dark Lords. Oh well, it saves on firewood.

Telescope with video capture

Continued »

Nokia 5300 XpressMusic phone reviewed – verdict? Meh.

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 6 Comments

Back when the Nokia 5300 XpressMusic was launched, complete with Gnarls Barkley and David Bowey on-hand to lend “youth appeal”, I couldn’t help but think it looked a little bit Tiny Town with the rubbery side panels and the Tonka-chunky controls. Not something I’d be comfortable whipping out of my pocket if I were a business person, say, or a registered medical professional. Still, the benefit of the doubt is in order and I waited until the first reviews hit the electronic streets before damning it utterly.

Nokia 5300 XpressMusic

Continued »

Never mind Musical Chairs, how about a Musical Table?

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 No Comments

Like that cheerleader everybody fancied back at your highschool, I just can’t get enough… only I can’t get enough of concept tables that light up and react to stuff that gets placed on them. Rather than the football team. This is the latest, a “tangible user interface” that “constructs different audio topologies” as a “graspable flow-controlled programming language”. Or, in words our gum chewing, mini-skirt wearing cheer-friend might understand, you move the toys on the table and the music gets made.

Reactable 3

Continued »

Microsoft’s Ergonomic Mouse gets the once-over

By Chris Davies on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 3 Comments

I think I know almost exactly what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “goodness, is that the hand of Philippe Suchaud, member of the winning French World Championship 2005 Boule team, gripping a ball so tightly that it has deformed?!” and you’re entirely wrong. It’s actually Microsoft’s Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000, being gently and caressingly held in the hand of a happily mousing member of the EverythingUSB team. But don’t sob like a teased child, instead enjoy their comprehensive review of this, the latest peripheral from the much-maligned (and grudgingly admired) software giant.

Microsoft Natural Wireless Laser Mouse 6000

Continued »

Silver PS2 Shiny, Soon to Be Outdated

By Benjamin Nied on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 1 Comment

Given Sony’s recent displays of mental instability, it’s nice to see that they haven’t forgotten about the one thing keeping the gaming department afloat right now; the PlayStation 2. Although it’s much more powerful (and much harder to find) sibling is about to see release in a few weeks, there are still plenty of reasons to love your PS2; Final Fantasy XII and the upcoming God of War II are two examples. In that regard, Sony has announced a special-edition PS2, in shiny, shiny silver, that will retail for the same as the normal PS2 ($129.99). The package, aside from the new paint job, is your standard run-of-the-mill PS2 package; console, 1 Dual Shock 2 (better save this bad boy), composite cables, and power cable. So, if you’re looking to get someone special a console that isn’t going to cost and arm/leg/pint of blood, and neither Microsoft or Nintendo’s offerings seem all that appealing, keep in mind that the PS2 is still alive and kicking.

Silver PS2

[via Gizmodo]

Microsoft Releases Xbox 360 1080p Update

By Benjamin Nied on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 No Comments

Just in time to make Sony sweat a little bit more, Microsoft has finally released the long-awaited sixth Xbox 360 update, which adds, among a ton of other things, 1080p support for both movies and games. The update will go live today for all Gold and Silver Xbox 360 members, and doesn’t require your Xbox to have a hard drive installed (for all you Core owners out there). Obviously, the update is meant to support Microsoft’s soon-to-be-unleashed HD-DVD add-on for their next-gen system, but how long until game developers start adding 1080p options to their games? My guess is that we won’t need to wait long; to see the full list of things that’ll be included in this massive update, check out Xbox.com’s list and get to downloadin’!

[via Gamasutra]

i-Talk Nano VoIP Phone

By Rue Liu on Tuesday, Oct 31st 2006 No Comments

Finally a VoIP phone that will match the sleekness of your stylish Macbook. The Digital IT-N501 i-Talk Nano from Hong-Kong manufacturer, AMEX, comes in white and black, with caller ID and speaker phone. Powered by USB 2.0 and works for both Macs and PCs. Priced at $25. So don’t just talk cheap with VoIP, now do it in style.
italk
AMEX Digital IT-N501 i-Talk Nano: USB VoIP Phone, Lawsuit In One Package [Via: CrunchGear]