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Posted Mar 31st 2008 10:44AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: HDTV, Media PCs, Storage Okoro Media Systems has been offering up well-spec’d HTPCs for quite some time, but it has finally seen fit to jump on the flash-based storage bandwagon. The firm’s new ZX series of Extreme Digital Entertainment Systems gets going with the OMS-ZX100, which comes standard with a 32GB SSD (for the OS and such) and a 1TB HDD for media storage. Moreover, you’ll find a 3.0GHz Core 2 Extreme QX6850 processor, 3GB of DDR2 RAM, NVIDIA’s 256MB GeForce 8600 GT graphics card, Blu-ray / hd dvd playback and your choice of “any automotive color” on the chassis. ‘Tis a shame it costs $5,995 to even join the ZX100 club, but look to spend even more if you’re hankering for a built-in CableCARD tuner and WiFi adapter.

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Glow Brick

The Glow Brick has to be the next best thing to remote-controlled lighting. In fact, we’ll stick our neck out and say that it’s even better, because you don’t have to lift a finger to switch it on.

A strangely lovely phosphorescent light bulb is entombed in a clear acrylic brick, which lounges about by day, quietly soaking up solar energy, then takes centre stage by night.

At dusk, the light starts glowing all green and mysterious, showing an awesome staying power throughout the darkest hours. The overall effect is of a disembodied shining light bulb suspended in mid air, which, you’d have to agree, is not something you see every day.

On a functional level, it makes a handy, low-maintenance security light. On a frivolous level, it’s a jolly nice talking piece for people who like to talk in dark rooms.

You can have this for £19.95

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Posted Mar 31st 2008 2:18PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Handhelds Bookeen’s Cybook Gen3 e-book reader has been a long time coming, but now that it’s out in the wild we’re finally starting to get some reviews of the device, including this fairly thorough one from the folks at The Future of Things. Unfortunately for those looking forward to the reader, they found it to be quite a mixed bag. On the upside, they found the device to be thin, light, small and fast, with it also boasting solid battery life and, most importantly, a screen that’s “very comfortable” to read, even outdoors. They were also impressed with the Cybook’s RSS support, and the Mobipocket format used for e-books. On the downside, the page flip mechanism proved to be “cumbersome,” and they found that the current firmware left a lot to be desired, with them even going so far as to say that it felt like it was “rushed to the market too soon.” They were also somewhat disappointed by the lack of SDHC support, and a lack of wireless connectivity (be it 3G or WiFi). They also point out, however, that none of the e-book readers out there are perfect, so if you’re in the market for one you’ll just have to pick the trade-offs you’re willing to live with.

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I know what you’re all thinking. Here it’s nearly April, and Mother’s day is coming up, and where, exactly, does one go to buy radioactive isotopes? Maybe a glow-in-the-dark Tritium keychain for the kids? Or bit of certified genuine Trinitite–that would be glass that was created from the desert sand by the historic Trinity nuclear test explosion in 1945.The answer is United Nuclear, a website that sells the nuclear tidbits listed above, as well as a variety of other scientific curiosities like aerogel, magnetic ferro-fluid, levitation kits and samples of the kinds of chemicals that they don’t put into chemistry sets anymore.

If you have a passing familiarity with chemistry, and for example, are familiar with what you can do when you mix up aluminum dust with powdered iron oxide and light it, your reaction may range from “hey, cool!” to “oh my gosh!”

United Nuclear can also set you up with a neodymium magnet the size of can of peaches if you want. These things are STRONG–at first the warnings about having to plan your route through rooms with metal objects and computers and losing fingers are dire enough to bring smiles to kind of people who enjoy dangerous things, until you get the part where United Nuclear tells you about a small child who lost a hand when his father left two of them unattended.

As you look through the various “read this warning or die” labels on the site, you might be curious about who is selling this stuff. The owner of United Nuclear is Bob Lazar, who claims to have worked for the government at Sector S-4, which is of course, where the alien spaceships are being reverse-engineered. The lack of any evidence for his claims to have received degrees from MIT and Caltech is due to the government’s erasure of his identity.

Of course it is. In addition to his United Nuclear site has his own website at Boblazar.com, where he provides “recreated” details about his time studying the alien spacecraft.

UFOs aside, Bob Lazar’s other hobby these days is more closely aligned with items found in his current inventory–the annual Desert Blast that he holds out in the desert where like-minded individuals go off into the sands of New Mexico and blow stuff up. And by “like-minded individuals,” I mean any human male over the age of 36 months.

I don’t know about you, but geek-gift registry is going to be on United Nuclear from now on. After all, there’s only so many USB Rocket launchers one man can have.

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Verizon has the honor of being the first North American carrier to launch the blackberry Curve 8830, making available this 3G smartphone to the masses courtesy of Verizon’s EV-DO network. The 8830 is but a natural update to the 8310 found on GSM networks, featuring a native GPS receiver, a 2 megapixel camera, a microSDHC memory card slot (up to 8GB) and a 2.5mm headphone jack. There is only one color to choose from - silver, and it will feature a slightly customized version of RIM’s BlackBerry interface. There is no word on its release yet, but the 8830 wil sell for $270 with a 2-year plan.

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The iPod mini, when it was first released, obtained plenty of praises from just about every quarter and it still looks ain’t half bad today. Those who missed the boat and want a little retro action can purchase the 4GB ipod mini for $79 minus shipping and handling. Compare that to new 2GB Shuffles which retail for $69 or refurbished 4GB nanos that are currently going for $129 a piece. Perfect for those looking for an entry level mp3 player with a proven track record.

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Photoshop Express recently attracted my attention and I signed up. This was a very easy and short process. Include me in that group of digital photo snapping and sharing fanatics. Sharing photos has become the easy part - choosing where to share them is - well, not so easy. Researching the numerous photo sharing sites available on the internet is very time consuming.

Competition is rampant among these photo hosting sites. Kodak Gallery, Snapfish, Flickr, Photobucket, Shutterfly and Picasa are just a few popular drops in the bucket. I wish that there was a giant list of options that could be checked off that would lead to the perfect site for me. My requirements may not be the same as yours but here goes.

I’d rather not pay a subscription fee. Most photo sharing sites offer free albums but extra features will initiate a fee. Editing abilities and uploads to my blogs as well as other sites are huge time savers. For example, photos in Facebook, Photobucket and Picasa can be edited through Photoshop Express. Viewing options for my visitors are also important to me. Whether viewing as a private visitor or as a public viewer, slideshows and videos are fun. 

So, what else does Photoshop Express offer you and me? It may not mean a lot to some but the Flash Player 9 required to run Photoshop Express gives a smooth and good looking page. There are not an over abundance of features that confuse someone just getting started - but the quality of the features keep more experienced users happy. I can choose to display all or some of my photos to the public or to keep all or some of them private. Overall I like Photoshop Express.

Menus are not hard to navigate and some editing can be accomplished by simply placing your mouse over a photo. With a simple click on the photo you will see a long list including options from editing to emailing. Small editing projects are also possible. You can touch up areas that you don’t like such red-eye or a blemish. Change the overall hue of the photo, change areas to another color or change it to black and white. Editing should not scare anyone since the separate thumbnails will show the result of any changes made and you can always return to your original photo. My tip here is to give your changes a second or two to finish. At first I thought that I was doing something wrong and then realized that the screen was telling me that Photoshop Express was “working” and to give it a rest already.

Photoshop Express fills many of my requests. It is still in beta so maybe I will tell them about options that appeal to me. One thing I noticed is that when I upload a photo I am shown the size and date of the photo. Although I can resize it I would rather be able to specify the size rather than to choose a preset adjustment. I like to highlight particular areas of a photo with my choice of colors. I had great luck changing the colors of the screen of my cell phone but not so much with wings of a butterfly. The “Pop Color” feature could be a bit easier to use in my opinion.

Product [Adobe Photoshop Express]

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There is a new Suunto Core watch in town, and this one, like its predecessors, cater to folk who love the great outdoors, especially climbers, mountain bikers and other adventure sports enthusiasts. It allows you to track both your altitude and bearings while being smart enough to alert you of oncoming storms so you won’t be caught unawares. All this is made possible by Suunto’s own ‘ABC functionality’ mantra that includes an altimeter, barometer and compass. The compass itself is electronic, so there will be less chances of it malfunctioning compared to a standard model. The new Suunto Core watch comes in a choice of half a dozen colors and has different straps to choose from.

Press Release

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If you’re like me, you have no idea if you’re maintaining proper tire pressure in your car tires in between trips to the shop. This self-inflating tire, developed in the Czech Republic, takes this out of your hands by inflating automatically through a device called a peristaltic pump which inflates the tire as it turns, keeping it at a constant, safe pressure level. This technology, if adopted widely, will not only make the roads safer, but will have a positive environmental impact by way of savings on fuel (cars with under-inflated tires use more fuel), resulting in a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, and an increase in the lifespan of tires. Read more here.

Via smart stuff and gizmag

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In a move that’s stunned the market, Nokia has made an agressive bid for Apple for a whopping $159 billion. Alarmed by the rise of the iPhone, which is set to net Apple $3 billion this year and up to $45 billion next year according to market analyst Piper Jaffray, the giant Finnish phone maker has decided its best option is to buy Apple outright in a deal that makes Microsoft’s bid of $44 billion for Yahoo! seem like chicken feed. According to reports, Nokia intends to spin off Apple’s existing computer business, but keep its successful music and phone divisions. The plan is to ultimately incorporate ipod and iphone technology, the iTunes service, and Nokia’s famed high-end mobile phones into one super-phone that will single-handedly challenge the mobile phone market, mobile music market and the GPS market all at once. An insider at Nokia says the new super-phone, called the N-iPple, will feature the same user interface as the iPhone, together with many of the high tech innovations that Nokia’s N-Series is famed for. The insider claims the list will include: HSDPA aGPS 7 megapixel camera with auto-focus DVD quality 60fps video recording (similar to the LG Viewty’s)