For the spillover
February 18th, 2010 — gear
GorillaPod, the bendy tripods you know and love, just announced its newest version: GorillaPod Magnetic. This guy has magnets on each of its feet, allowing you to stick it to pretty much any magnetic surface.
Of course, it’ll still work without sticking to a surface, as it’s still a normal GorillaPod above the feet. But if you feel the need to have your camera attached to the side of your car door, well, now you’ve got the ability to. It’ll be available in April.
February 18th, 2010 — gear
I don't know how to best sum up Infinitec's new "flash drive" in a headline—which is obvious at this point. But what it can do is pretty unique, once you wrap your head around it.
Infinitec has created a USB stick that contains an 802.11n module capable of creating an ad hoc network through any device’s USB port. But on the receiving end, it appears as nothing more complicated than a flash drive.
In other words, you can stream media to devices that aren’t necessarily so thrilled with you streaming media. Placed in a DVD player, for instance, you need not worry about the player’s supported network standards or your PC’s sharing settings. Just set the Infinitec stick to anywhere from 1GB to 1TB+ (depending on how much storage you expect your player to support), then load MPEG4s right from the stick…streamed from your PC loaded with accompanying software.
I could see several uses for Infinitec's little device—namely, adding a media extender to any room that has a TV with a USB port. That is, if the price is right whenever it eventually comes out. [Engadget]
January 27th, 2010 — gear
Coming on more like a high-performance gaming mouse than a handy travel gadget, the new V2 Chargepod from Callpod takes the original multi-device charger and, well, supercharges it.
In addition to cellphones and USB-powered peripherals, the V2 will also juice a notebook (Mac or PC), a portable DVD-player or other power-hungry gadget, and there’s even a space for a camera battery charger. It works as a USB hub, too, so you can sync your iPhone or upload photos as you charge.
In short, it is all the chargers you’ll ever need, in a box the size of your current notebook’s wall-wart (and the shape of some future X-box handheld). Why on earth wouldn’t you buy this to replace all the junk you normally take on a trip? Well, there’s a catch.
The Chargepod might replace all your other chargers and hubs, but it costs the same as all of them put together: $200. For the frequent traveler, that’s a bargain. For the rest of us, it’s a little steep. And don’t forget, you’ll need to buy some cable-tips for your devices, which come in at $10 each. Available soon.
Chargepod [Callpod. Thanks, Steve!]
January 22nd, 2010 — gear, iPhone
The duaLink cable is essentially a specialized USB hub: It splits from one USB connector into two iPod/iPhone cables. Great for incredibly rich people with two iPhones, or upper-middle-class folk with two iPods. Available now for $26. [Engadget]
January 14th, 2010 — gear, iPhone
By day, the Airstash is a common, ordinary USB card reader. But by night, it dons the mantle of wireless connectivity, taking to the streets and sharing pictures an images in an ad-hoc, daredevil manner.
The Airstash looks much like a regular card reader, with a USB plug on one end and an SD card-shaped hole in the other. In between you can find a tiny, battery powered 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi router. Slot in a card and it can be reached wirelessly through the web browser of any Wi-Fi enabled computer or phone.
The design is simple, but the uses are manifold. You could use this to wirelessly copy photos from card to computer, but that, apart from saving you a USB port, is a little boring. What about carrying an extra 32GB of movies and music that can be streamed from the built-in server direct to your iPhone? Or creating a fully functional wireless network for sharing, well, anything? Because it uses vanilla Wi-Fi, it works with anything. And because it uses USB, it charges when you plug it into a spare port.
The product was shown last week at CES, and right now has neither a price or a shipping date (”available soon” is the only hint on the product page). If it is cheap, and if the battery in such a tiny case can last long enough to be useful, then this could be a very useful toy. And if it is given away at next
year’s CES in the same fashion as pen drives were at this year’s show, we’ll be very happy indeed.
Airstash product page [Airstash via Oh Gizmo!]
December 18th, 2009 — gear
NewerTech has announced the release of their USB Video Display Adapter.
December 8th, 2009 — gear
If you are a photographer, amateur or pro, you’ll be familiar with the two constants of the field: You can never have enough bags, and you can never find the right strap. James Duncan Davidson, photographer and podcaster, decided to do something about the strap.
You will know Davidson’s work through that iPhone photo, the one which shows staring, glassy-eyed devotees bathed in the light of the glass-caged iPhone demo unit. Unhappy with any available straps, most of which are either plain tiring to wear or just gimmicky, Davidson teamed up with industrial designer to make the LumaLoop, an across-the-shoulder strap with a quick-release lanyard.
The LumaLoop’s main selling point is comfort, quickly followed by flexibility. The shoulder pad is curved to remove the weight “hot-spot” that makes cameras feel so heavy, the bandolier-style design adds comfort and security, and the leather, buckles and webbing are all high-spec materials.
What we really like, though, is that you can either use the camera whilst still slung over your shoulder, or quickly squeeze the buckle to release it. A lanyard loops into either the strap-brackets, or a tripod-mount D-ring, or anything else designed to take a loop — even a mount on the a lens collar. When not in use, the camera dangles at your waist, and sits there comfortable enough to carry “all day long”.
The LumaLoop is $60 and comes in three sizes. Each strap comes with a lanyard, and extras will cost $10 a pop.
LumaLoop [LumaLabs]
See Also:
November 10th, 2009 — gear
This may be the millionth unofficial launch of the new 360 Wireless N Adapter, but Newegg has the device listed for $100 and on sale…NOW! And it doesn’t look like they’re frantically pulling it. [Newegg via Kotaku]
October 13th, 2009 — gear
The GlideTV is a couch mouse, something pretty handy when a lot of us are watching TV and movies on our computer screens. It works over USB, and you plug a dongle into the machine to play. From there, you can control your cursor with a touchpad, and there are a few buttons which mimic the ones most used on a keyboard, like Escape and Enter. The best part is the rim around the pad which neatly contains a lot of extra buttons. And because it works like a regular mouse and (limited) keyboard, it works with most machines, from Media Center PCs to Macs to PS3s.
But the keyboard is the problem for this otherwise sexy half-egg (it looks like a sex toy, as you can see in the photo of it being fisted, above). If you are using Windows, you can download the GlideTV Navigator software, which will give you an onscreen keyboard, but we all know how quick and easy they are to use (not very, if you were wondering).
Still, the GlideTV, which comes from the brains of the people behind VUDU and SageTV, packs a lot into a tiny device. And at $150, that’s a good thing: For the same price, you could pick up a wireless keyboard with a trackpad or trackball. Then again, the GlideTV will fulfill that other living-room remote requirement: It can be lost down the back of the sofa. Try that with a full-size QWERTY. If only the Glide people would put a vibrator inside. Then it would be perfect.
Product page [GlideTV. Thanks, Patrick!]
August 11th, 2009 — gear
The Logitech Harmony 900 is the updated Logitech Harmony One, which marries a traditional button remote with a capacitive touchscreen for expanded functionality. What makes this better are the charging dock and the RF to IR control adapters.
The Price: $400
The Verdict: This form factor, plus the included charging dock and the RF to IR blasters make this the best remote package Logitech has right now. We’ve been fans of their standard remotes for a while, but combining the keep-your-eyes-on-your-tv ability of those with the extendability of their full touchscreen units makes for a winner.
If you've played with the Harmony One you should know what this remote feels like. The number keys are on the bottom, the navigation keys are in the middle and the activity keys are near the top. The touchscreen is responsive enough, and can scroll through pages of various commands for different media console items—just like their previous remotes.
The charging dock is contoured exactly like the back of the remote, taking it in lovingly into its electric arms. Imagine getting into bathtub shaped exactly like your body—this is that, except without the water or the urge to pee.
Syncing with your computer works the same way as before, but Logitech STILL hasn’t managed to enable consolidating profiles so that you can have more than one remote on an account, and hasn’t come up with a way to export remote profiles to other accounts. That’s a huge pain in the ass if you have multiple Logitechs, and is probably our biggest gripe with their setup.
There is one included central RF to IR blaster, with two other IR blasters that can hook up to it for a total of three IR blasters. They're meant to be used in cabinets where the door is closed, or somehow out of IR line of sight, so you can literally point your remote at nothing (it's using RF) and it'll still propagate the command through to the IR blaster. This is pretty easy to set up—there's a wizard right on the remote—and you should be up and running in a few minutes. And there's very little RF delay, so you won't have to worry about that.
The upside is that this is probably our favorite universal remote package that Logitech has made, figuring in the charging dock and the RF to IR blasters. The downside is that the whole setup costs $400. If you’re shopping for your first universal remote, this will probably be your last. if you already own a cheaper Logitech in the sub $100 range, find a way to sell it and pick this up. [Logitech]
Best universal remote by Logitech yet
Allows extendability with touchscreen without sacrificing the usability of buttons
Price is a little high, but less than full touchscreen remotes