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HandTalk, Phone for the Hearing-Impaired
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Design, Science,
Designers Bhargav Bhat, Hemant Sikaria, and Priya Narasimhan have designed HandTalk, a phone for the hearing impaired. The prototype glove uses the same gestures as does sign language, then translates them into audio, and plays back on a cell phone or other mobile device. Shown recently at the Carnegie Mellon University Center Expo, the HandTalk can only detect 32 words at this point, but its creators plan on expanding its vocabulary and integrating sensors and accelerometers to work with its flexor strips.
Read More 
| Crave
Our buds at gadget4all have a couple of new fun and useful things for the kids in your life. Their Kitty Hand-Pressing Torch has two white LEDs, is lightweight and portable, and is environmentally friendly with no batteries needed since you charge it by hand. It’s available for $11.00. The Bear Baby Bath Thermometer helps to measure the baby’s (or your) tub temperature and automatically turns on when it hits the water. It floats, too, and is available for $12.00.
(Thanks, Fanny)
Read More | gadget4all
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Panasonic Strada F-Class
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Corporate News, GPS, Misc. Tech, Transportation,
If you live in Japan, you can now check in on your home, control your appliances, and even lock your doors while in your car with Panasonic’s Strada F-Class. The device has a touchscreen with icons that say things such as “turn off the light.” Introduced this week, the Strada also works as GPS. Of course, you have to have a webcam and netlinking system. With a $3,400.00 price you could always get a couple of timers to do the same thing. Look for it to hit the market this June.
Read More | Post-Bulletin
Latest Gear Live Videos
We were happy to find out that the new Smart Car did well during its recent crash tests. The 8 foot car received the highest rating in both front-end and side impact testing. It received the second highest rating for rear crashes. Adrian Lund, president of the IIHS that conducted the test, said that a small car may be safer in congested urban areas, where crashes occur less often.
“All things being equal in safety, bigger and heavier is always better. But among the smallest cars, the engineers of the Smart did their homework and designed a high level of safety into a very small package,” Lund said. Looking at the results, it’s even a smaller package now.
Read More | CNN
The N5 is an updated version of the R4DS. The second generation storage device supports both Nintendo DS and Lite, needs no booting tool, has a card slot for Micro SD, FAT16 or 32, works by touchscreen or button with auto-detect. It supports rumble pak, memory pak, Moonshell, and has an open I/O interface. Perhaps the best feature is that you can load your cheat codes, not that we agree with that. The 2 x 0.8 x 0.3-inch N5 comes with a TF card reader and application CD and is available for $69.99.
(Thanks, Cassily)
Read More | vavolo
Oppo DV-980H upconverting universal DVD player
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech, Movies, Music, USB,
OPPO Digital has released their latest up-converting player for Standard DVDs. The DV-980H has a 1080p output, 7.1 channel audio with Dolby Digital Surround EX decoding, and optimized high-fidelity audio circuitry for Super Audio CD, DVD-Audio, HDCD and regular CDs. Add to that Kodak Picture CD for high resolution picture slide shows, a USB 2.0 interface, and the ability to play all versions of DivX video (including DivX 6) with standard playback of DivX media files. While it doesn’t support Blu-ray or the failed HD DVD, it certainly is a lot less expensive for $169.00.
(Thanks, Noe)
Read More | OPPO
Unboxing Live 035: Drobo and DroboShare
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Laptop, Networking, PC, Peripherals, Robots, Videocasts,
Drobo is billed as the “World’s first data storage robot.” We like to think of it as super, super simple data storage that also doubles as a fantastic backup destination. Backing up your data is both extremely boring, and excruciatingly essential. Apple has tried to spice things up in this area with their Time Machine technology in Leopard (which Drobo supports), and Windows Home Server offers easy backup for your Windows-based computers.
As you may recall, we got a full feature rundown of Drobo back at CES 2008, so check that out if you need a refresher, or in case you missed it. We were thoroughly impressed, and had to get our hands on one to bring you the scoop on what we think of the device after using it in the real world. While the review is soon to come, we knew you’d want to see the Drobo unboxed. Oh, and as a bonus, we also have the DroboShare as well. This add-on turns your Drobo into a NAS device, and can even pair two Drobos up together for the ultimate in small environment networked data storage.
Check out the video above for the full unboxing of the Drobo and DroboShare NAS device.
Here's how to get the show:[Download] - iPod-formatted H.264
[Download] - 720p HD
[Download] - 1080p MP4
Designer American Soda Machine
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech,
If you can afford your own home theater system or business, America Soda Machine will customize a vending machine for you. Use your logo, or ask them to put on your fave team, car, movie, or activity. They also have vintage ones for those who dig retro. With several makes and models, the reconditioned machines can be configured to work with cans or bottles, and you can charge for the privilege to help pay for its $2,495.00 plus shipping price tag.
(Thanks, Damon)
Read More | American Soda Machines
It’s been awhile since we heard from Tokyo Flash and see that they have another new watch to confuse us. Their Oberon S-Mode series has a stainless steel body with full face black mineral crystal lens. The blue LEDs are a bit simpler to read than some of their others, with the outer ring as the hour, the second showing minutes, and the inner one is minutes in groups of ten. Another button push and you get the date. At a size of 38 x 38 x 11 mm and a weight of 150g, the Oberon carries a price of ¥15,900 (~$159.25.)
Read More | Tokyo Flash
Multifunction GPS Bluetooth Rearview Mirror System
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: GPS, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Transportation, Wireless / WiFi,
The Multifunction GPS Bluetooth Rearview Mirror System can do almost everything except play the violin. With a reverse sensor system, the 3.35-inch TFT touchscreen is also an MP3 and MP4 player with built-in speaker, an E-book for when you are stuck in traffic, support for PDFs, and GPS with voice prompts and auto-reroute. With an SD/MMC card slot, it has 5 included games, a stylus pen, and runs on DC 9V-13V. Did we mention it also has hands-free Bluetooth capability and Caller ID? At a reported price of £145.00 (~$282.00,) you will never have to leave your garage to have fun.
Read More | MCD Electronics via Red Ferret Journel
