Redrock Makes DSLR Video Serious

Thursday, April 30, 2009

So you bought an expensive DSLR with high definition video capabilities, but you can’t get over the inherent shakiness of your hands or the mediocre camera microphone. Redrock Micro would like you to slap a rig on it, Hollywood style. The camera attachments include bigger viewing screens and stainless steel rods for gripping. My personal favorite model includes a shoulder mount and a cage for strapping a shotgun microphone to your dome, because nothing says “professional” like a Frankensteinian camera set-up that’s physically attached to the head. Seriously, though, the ability to do a proper film shoot with a DSLR’s lens variety would be pretty cool, though you’d have to pack a lot of SD cards to get the job done. Pricing starts at $195 and goes all the way up to $2,445 for the proper cinema bundle

Cube Alarm Clock Isn’t Cruel Like Rubik’s

Because we’ve heard of alarm clocks that hide out of reach, pose math problems and shoot puzzle pieces into the air, the Cube Clock at first looks like another sadistic attempt to wake up its master through frantic use of the brain. Not so. The Cube only resembles the classic Rubik’s Cube puzzle in appearance only — not even in name, so perhaps the rights to “Rubik’s” weren’t secured. Just the top set of squares rotates, so there’s really nothing to solve here. On the bright side, this clock also displays date and temperature. Seems like a pretty benevolent gadget, actually.

VholdR ContourHD Records Straight From the Head

That indie nosebone + stalefish you’ve been working on is no good if you can’t save it for posterity. But who would actually want to record that video for you? Luckily, VholdR has the solution with its ContourHD helmet cam, apparently the world’s first wearable HD camera. Just strap it on to the safety helmet for your extreme sport of choice, and you’ve got 720p video at 30 frames per second or WVGA (858 x 480) at 60 frames per second. Mounts are included for goggles or flat surfaces, and dual lasers help set up the proper angle. The lens swivels 192 degrees and has a 135-degree viewing angle. For storage, there’s a 2 GB microSD card included, with a 2 GB card included. Pre-orders are open now for $280, shipping May 15 — just in time for skateboarding season

Is Microsoft Making an iPhone Rival? Probably

Word on the Wall Street Journal is that Microsoft is teaming up with Verizon to create an iPhone-like smartphone, complete with a touch screen and apps for sale at the Windows Marketplace. Reportedly, Microsoft will design the software and hardware, then hand the manufacturing off to a third party, kind of like Google does with its Android operating system. This isn’t a surprising rumor, but there’s a twist: USA Today reported that Verizon is in talks with Apple to reel in the iPhone. Could both of these unconfirmed stories pan out? Maybe, but get ready for yet another shocker: BusinessWeek says Verizon and Apple are actually working on an “iPhone lite” and a media pad that only includes Wi-Fi for making calls. With so many crazy rumors packed into such a short period of time, they can’t all pan out. Which one would you like to see the most

Sea-Doo Seascooter GTi Does Away With Swimming

It’s getting warmer out there. Time to make sure you can have a blast in the water with minimal effort. While Sea-Doo’s Seascooter GTi isn’t as cool as, say, a water-propelled jetpack, I can imagine the fun in motoring along underwater at 2.5 miles per hour. Scuba divers and snorkelers will probably get the best use out of this 18-pound contraption, but there’s nothing stopping you from taking the Seascooter for a joyride in the wading pool. It propels for two hours on a single charge, using a waterproof rechargable battery. Bouyancy is adjustable, and dive range is 100 feet. The price tag reads $400, so start saving now and you’ll be ready to rock by summertime

Sanyo Dual Cameras Ready to Roll

The Xacti series from Sanyo may look like regular camcorders, but they’re actually still/video hybrids, and they’re shipping right now. The flagship FH1 ($500) shoots 1080p video in H.264, and includes an 8-megapixel sensor for stills with a 10x lens and large memory buffers for better slow motion capture and burst mode. The waterproof WH1 (pictured, $400) only reaches 780p, but shoots 9-megapixel stills. At the same video resolution, the TH1 ($300) has an 8-megapixel camera, but a staggering 30x optical zoom. The CG1 ($200) rounds out the line looking different than others, with a skinny handle and vertical form. The models come in a variety of colors, which is either good or bad depending on how much you like that wicked shade of yellow seen above.

DBeat Portable DJ Console Taking Pre-Orders

Let’s see, a full-featured version of Ableton Live inside a 20-pound aluminum casing with a touch screen and a plethora of buttons and knobs? No, I’m not surprised by the $4,000 price tag. Still, you’ve got to admire Open Labs’ work here. The DBeat features a 12-inch touch screen and integrated trackball, plus drum pads, a DJ crossfader and an iPod-compatible cradle. On the software side, there’s Open Labs’ GURU beat maker and a proprietary virtual instrument host called Riff. Combine that with Ableton’s 14 GB of pre-loaded sounds and you’ve got a palette of 10,000 sounds to work with. USB turntables can be connected directly, and the DBeat is compatible with other software such as Reason and Traktor. About that price tag: Pre-order now and Open Labs will knock $500 off the sticker price. How does that sound?

P.U.M.A. by GM and Segway

Okay, so the Segway didn’t exactly change the way cities are built, as inventor Dean Kamen once suggested. After all, how many people need and can afford a $5,000 gyroscope scooter that you still have to stand in to ride? Now, GM and Segway are working on a reinvention, dubbed the Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility Project, or P.U.M.A., for now. With help from a lithium battery, the self-balancing two-wheeler nearly triples the speed of the original Segway at 35 miles per hour and seats two for a luxurious tours of the city — smells and all. Worried about accidents? The P.U.M.A. can apparently talk to surrounding vehicles to avoid collisions. There’s no street date in sight, but the vehicle is set to debut at the New York Auto Show this week. It’ll probably cost about a quarter of what you’d spend on a typical car

Acer All-In-Ones Shown Off

That’s it, slim and sexy all-in-ones, stroke my tech prediction ego. The latest pair to be strutted about comes from Acer. First, we’ve got the eMachines EZ1600 (pictured), in silver or black, with an 18.5-inch screen with up to 720p resolution, an Intel Atom N270 processor with 945GSE chipset, 2 slots of SO DIMM memory, up to 160 GB in hard drive space, DVD-RW, Wi-Fi and a card reader. The Acer Aspire Z5600 is more impressive, with a 24-inch multitouch screen and 1080p resolution. Other specs include 2 TB HDD, a DVD/Blu-ray writer combo drive, a TV tuner and a webcam. Will they stay inexpensive like most of Acer’s other goods? We’ll have to wait for that elusive pricing and availability announcement to find out.

USB Turntable Recorder

This is a new model MP3 format converter, which can be used to convert the older format music collection. The name of the device is Vestax Portable USB Turntable Recorder. You can use this device easily; just connect the device to your system via USB recorder.

Moreover, this device features a mono speaker and a headphone output unit, which lets you use the device as a record player. If you have 28,000 Yen ($300) in your pocket, you can buy it.

Steam Powered Charger Ready For Your iPod And Mobiles

Sunday, April 26, 2009

We have seen many models of phone charger in our blog, still this is a new model charger comes for iPod and mobile phone. This charger is made with some unique features, which can be used, in a small steam engine to create power to charge the device rather than using a traditional wall sockets and solar panels. This charger has been attached to Lego Technic Motor.


This steam engine is Jensen #75, which has the capability to get the Lego motor to turn. In this device, a 5V regulator has been attached to this, which is home to female USB connector. All you have to do is, just attach your USB chargeable device to the USB connector and get the steam engine moving.

Faceless LED Watch With Stylish Body

We have discussed about so many models of watches including LED type watches in our blog. Nonetheless, we hope, this is completely new product, which has been debuted in Tokyo Design Week 2008. It has come out with a body and without face. Therefore, it is called Faceless watch.

The name of the designer of this watch is Hiranao Tsuboi. This eye attracting watch works with LED digits built into the elegant black brushed-metal wristband. It is expected to be available soon.

Cassette Tape To Digital MP3

This is a new type converter used for converting tape cassette to MP3 format. The name of the device is Digital MP3 Converter MV-CM001U comes from Novac. The body of this device is made up of wooden box for ease use. All you have to record MP3 music form cassette is, just put any of your old cassette tape in and press the record button.

Once you finish this process, the recorded music will be saved in the formats MP3, WAV and WMA. This simple and user-friendly converter can definitely capture your mind.

High Speed Image Capture Technology From Fujits

Today Fujitsu has announced its latest development of the world’s first imaging technology. It is used in palm vein biometric authentication to operate while the palm is in motion. This new technology needs only one millisecond approximately to capture the given image and it can bring the same level of accuracy in authentication as last iteration of this technology.

The results of this device is extreme user friendly palm vein authentication system in which a person’s palm needs only to be passed over a sensor for authentication.

iMetaSearch Gives You Accurate Internet Search Results

If you are searching for an accurate internet search use iMetaSearch, which is a fast, reliable, and smart tool to fulfill your requirement. It has come out with more features and it includes effective performance to bring capable results. This tool is more capable to gather results for you from various search engines and establishes state-of-the-art techniques for intelligently indexing, clustering, and organizing your results.

Moreover, the tool has been designed to make request for results from multiple engines in parallel, perform deep searches into any or all engines, support intelligent indexing and clustering for relevant results, it can export searches and index words for further analysis, easy one click follow-up searches on any index word or phrase, one click updates of any search for any new results, and to allow to add new search engines or fix current ones.

New Professional 3D Production System Comes From Panasonic

One of the biggest High Definition Technology companies Panasonic Corporation has announced a professional 3D Full HD Production system. This device claims the first in the industry, consists of a twin-lens P2 professional camera recorder and a 3D Compatible High definition display.

Panasonic has decided to exhibit the concept of 3D system at its booth on NAB 2009, which is going to be held in Las Vegas today. This interesting 3D camera from Panasonic based on the actual and suiting P2 HPX170.

Ultra Compact Nano Flash Drive Comes From EagleTec

We know that you have been using the flash drives for a long time, but we don’t know that you might have use this type of flash drive. Because this is a Nano Flash Drive called EagleTec. This gadget offers FD Nano Disk USB Flash Drive, which is an ultra compact memory device with the storage capacity of 4GB to 8GB.

It is supposed to work with USB 1.1 and USB 2.0 Interface. This compact flash drive sizes just 9 x 15 x 6mm and weighs only 3 g. This device is available for just $22 or $33.

Sony Releases BrightEra And Short Focus Lens Projector

Sony once again has proved that it is one of the biggest rivals of Sanyo to offer short focus video projectors. Today Sony has released its latest data projectors called VPL-EX7 and VPL-EX70. These both models will work at the distance of 1.8m to project a 60” size worth screen with a 1024×768 resolution.

Although both models feature shot focal lens, yet VPL-EX70 is labeled as BrighEra with a 900:1 contrast ratio and a brightness of 2600 lumens. Another model VPL-EX7 has a 500:1 contrast ratio and 2000 lumens brightness.

Corega Ethernet 4 Ports USB Hub Shares Your Printer And Scanner In Network

Already we have seen so many models of USB hubs in our blog regularly. In such a way this is another model hub to be disclosed to you. This is perfect if you have some old IDE 4 Bays HDD enclosures you would like to share on a server and create a “mini” NAS. The name of the device is Corega NUHo4.

Nintendo's $19.99 MotionPlus Wiimote

Friday, April 24, 2009

REDMOND, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nintendo is setting the stage for a blockbuster summer with the announcement of two hotly anticipated product releases. The new Wii MotionPlus™ accessory will hit U.S. retailers on June 8, taking the motion-sensing controls of the popular Wii™ system to new levels of precision and performance. What’s more, these control enhancements will be on vibrant display when the Wii Sports Resort™ game launches on July 26, offering a beach-themed follow-up to the groundbreaking Wii Sports™ game.


Wii Sports comes packed with the Wii console. It grew into a worldwide phenomenon and continues to attract millions of new players to the world of video games. Each Wii Sports Resort game comes packed with a single Wii MotionPlus accessory.

When used with specially designed games, Wii MotionPlus tracks players’ movements in finer detail and with greater accuracy than ever before, building upon the innovative wireless function of the motion-sensing Wii Remote™ controller. Even the slightest twist of the wrist or turn of the body is replicated exactly on the TV screen, allowing users to become even more immersed in Wii game play. Designed for easy attachment to the Wii Remote controller, the Wii MotionPlus accessory will be offered at an MSRP of $19.99.

Wii Sports Resort takes the inclusive, fun and intuitive controls of the original Wii Sports to the next level, introducing a whole new set of entertaining and physically immersive activities. With the deep control enhancements of Wii MotionPlus, veteran Wii users and newcomers alike can enjoy unprecedented gaming precision as they cruise on a water scooter, duel with swords, throw a Frisbee® and much more. Wii Sports Resort and Wii MotionPlus will be offered together at an MSRP of $49.99.

“Wii MotionPlus represents a new evolution in video game control. The variety of fun games in Wii Sports Resort show off its incredible precision,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Developers around the world are busy working on new ways to incorporate Wii MotionPlus controls into inventive experiences for consumers.”

Remember that Wii features parental controls that let adults manage the content their children can access. For more information about this and other Wii features, visit Wii.com. For more information about Nintendo, visit www.Nintendo.com.

Japan's Waterproof, Solar Powered Cell Phone

One of the most distressing things (at least for those of us who need to be connected at all times) is having a cell phone battery die without a charger or power source nearby.

Japanese mobile carrier KDDI and Sharp plan to roll out a cell phone this summer that will be able to charge the battery using solar energy.

According to the press release, 10 minutes in the light will grant the user one minute of talk time or two hours of standby. Using just solar energy, the phone can be charged up to 80 percent of full battery capacity.

The phone, set to release this summer, is also waterproof. Sounds like something the passengers of Oceanic 815 could really appreciate… if there were cell phone towers on mysterious disappearing islands, that is.

Oracle buys Sun for $7 billion

Oracle Corp plans to enter the computer hardware market by buying Sun Microsystems Inc for more than $7 billion, swooping in after Sun’s talks with IBM fell apart. The announcement on Monday surprised many Oracle watchers, who believed the company can boost profitability at Sun’s software businesses but were unsure if it can be as successful with Sun’s hardware unit amid stiff competition against IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co, Dell Inc and new entrant Cisco Systems Inc. "It's an out-of-the-box, left-field type of a deal because Oracle is buying a predominantly hardware business," said Jefferies & Co analyst Ross MacMillan. "The push-pull of the deal is the uncertainty of the hardware business with the earnings accretion of the software business."

Oracle will pay $9.50 a share for Sun, which values the high-end server and software maker at about $7.06 billion, based on 743 million shares outstanding as of the end of its second fiscal quarter on December 28, according to Sun. Sun had previously rejected IBM’s offer to pay up to $9.40 a share, according to sources with knowledge of the matter. Shares of Sun jumped 35.7 percent to $9.08 in morning Nasdaq trading, while Oracle shares fell 3.7 percent to $18.36. Shares of IBM, which did not immediately return calls for comment, fell 1.8 percent to $99.49 on the NYSE. Oracle President Safra Catz said on a conference call that Oracle intends to make the hardware division profitable. Sun’s top-selling products are high-end servers and storage equipment.

How Big Is Your PC Display?

I remember when my 12-inch yellow monochrome CRT monitor was the pinnacle of desktop display technology. Alas, those memorable days are gone.

These days, most people use LCDs for their computer, and some still are using a venerable CRT monitor. The debates still rage on in regards to which technology provides a better image quality. However, when it comes down to enjoying games or movies, size is what counts.

The question of the day is: How big is your computer display?

Maybe you own a 30-inch monster. Maybe you own more than one of them! Let us know.

Image: courtesy of Popular Science.

Run Ethernet Over Your Coax TV Cable

This week D-Link announced a new product called the DXN-221, which allows users to run Ethernet over existing coax cabling throughout their homes.

The product is aimed at users who prefer to run hardwired networking through the home, primarily for speed and security. In this instance, running CAT6 cabling through the home, especially one that's not already pre-wired, could be both troublesome and ugly. Most homes however, have coax cabling wired throughout for TV use and for the most part, the bandwidth available goes largely untapped.

Still, there are those who insist on wired speeds and security. However, because you're using coax cabling, transfer speeds will be limited to roughly 225 Mbit/sec. Although this is theoretically faster than 100 Mbit/sec. Fast Ethernet, it's nowhere near gigabit Ethernet speeds.

We think most people would settle for 802.11n instead of plunking more money down to run cabling over a coaxial connection.

However, if you're still interested, D-Link is selling the DXN-221 kit directly for $156 but retail cost is $239.