On Gear Live: Xiaomi 17 Review: The Compact Flagship That Forgot to Act Small

  • STICKY POST

Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!

If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!

iBike DuoNow that you are cycling your way to work, why not reward yourself with all the money you saved on fuel by treating your iPod nano to an iBikeConsole Duo? The waterproof device will not only play your tunes, it has wireless control on the grips with glove-friendly keys and a 3.5mm stereo speaker/headphone jack. Push the mode button and the gadget will keep track of your speed, trip length, and total distance. At a size of 117 x 62 x 26mm and a weight of .5 kg, the basic Duo is available for $76.00 but is customizable for those who take biking very seriously.

Read More | iBike Console Duo Product Page

FAXPHONE L90

Canon has introduced its FAXPHONE/Printer L90 that uses laser technology for both. Built for small businesses and home offices, it produces 13 cpm and 15 ppm in print mode. It also features an up to 33.6 Kbps Super G3 modem for a speed of about 3 seconds per page. Images have a 600x600 dpi print resolution in monochrome and the device has a 30-sheet auto-sheet feeder. The FAXPHONE, with its convenient 15 one-touch dials and 100 coded dials, will be out this month with a price of $199.99.

Read More | Canon

Advertisement

Bill Saffo, Michael Copps

Wilmington, North Carolina volunteered to be the very first U.S. market to change to digital-only television broadcasting. While the rest of us have to wait until February, the lucky city’s Mayor Bill Saffo and FCC’s Michael Copps pulled a pseudo switch to mark the event. More than 69,000 coupons for 37,500 households in the Wilmington market were requested. Those who didn’t purchase the ATCS tuners will see a crawl at the bottom of their screen with a toll-free number to get with the plan.

Mayor Saffo said, “If nobody calls, it doesn’t mean there wasn’t a problem. And if a thousand people call it doesn’t mean this wasn’t a success. Because success is ultimately going to be measured by what we’ve learned and can put in place to do next February.”

 

Read More | ABC News

Latest Gear Live Videos

Maria WebsterWatch out, Mascugeeks. There is a new Femgeek in town. Not long ago, we met Maria Webster. It is really refreshing to find other females who are geekily inclined, (not that we don’t adore our male counterparts,) so we chatted with the development engineer/webmistress about her new site .51 aka Geekspace for Women. The site, up since May, features what “geeky women are doing/building/making/hacking right now.” By the way, Maria came up with the name after reading that women are 51% of the population and may soon be taking over the Internet.

Read More | .51

Blu-ray DiscSamsung believes that Blu-ray will only last another 5 years and then will be replaced by another format or type of technology such as OLED. Andy Griffiths, Director of Consumer Affairs told Pocket-lint, “We will launch the OLED technology when it’s at a price that will be appealing to the consumer, unfortunately that’s not yet.”

Oddly enough, he may be right. We found out recently that Sony is rumored to be lowering the price of its BDP-S350 this month to make it a $300.00 purchase.

Read More | Pocket-lint

miniNote LaptopThey keep on getting cheaper. Based on a public Chinese low cost case mold,  HiVision’s miniNote Linux Laptop has a MIPS based processor, a SDHC card reader, Firefox browser support, Abiword processor, and Skype ability.  It also has WiFi, 1GB flash storage, Ethernet compatibility, 3 USB ports, and audio in and out. Of course, automatic software updates are included. The kicker is the fact that it will only cost you $98.00. Take that, Nick Negroponte.

Read More | techvideoblog

ezJam Guitar

If you are a fan of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, here is a guitar that will play both games. The ezJam Combo Guitar has a chrome strum bar, ezSpring whammy bar, and multi-axis tilt sensor. The Supra 10 fret keys allow for larger hands on 5 of the frets, while the kidlets can use the other five. With DC2 Dual Connect technology, it comes with a wireless receiver and neck strap. Available in October, pre-order yours in baby blue for $69.99.

 

Read More | ezGear

OLPC

OLPC has gotten together with Amazon to sell its products in the U.S. Beginning in late November until the end of 2008, you can purchase the XO laptops in a G1G1 (give one, get one) deal for $398.00. The group plans on launching its second generation in 2010 with a touchscreen and hopes that it will come closer to the $100.00 price they originally envisioned. We suspect that the problem with the first model will continue to limit sales as we little people are thinking, “Hmmm. Buy extra computer or fill gas tank?”

 

Read More | BBC

Sony VAIOOne step forward, two steps back. As soon as we start to complement Sony on their creativity, we read something like this that kills the mood. The company is recalling about 438,000 VAIOs (over 72,000 in the U.S.) as potential fire hazards. The problem seems to be occurring in their VGN-TZ100, VGN-TZ200, VGN-TZ300 and VGN-TZ2000 series. They say the problem is “irregularly positioned wires near the computer’s hinge and/or dislodged screw inside the hinge.”

Pretty scary, eh? Especially when you notice that the word “battery” isn’t mentioned.

Read More | Reuters

Rock BandRejoice, ye fans of backwards compatibility! Harmonix has just released the title update for that will allow players to export the first game’s song list into Rock Band 2 at their leisure. 55 of the songs are slated to have the ability to transfer over (“Run To The Hills”, “Paranoid”, and “Enter Sandman” are exempt) - you just pay 5 semolians, follow the instructions, and the songs are then burned to your HDD as any other DLC song would. Plus, you can also delete individual songs, if there are some you didn’t particularly care for. Personally, after being forced to play “In Bloom” into eternity during the first game, I’ll take that as a very welcome addition.

Rock Band is slated to have over 500 songs available for download and play by the year’s end, which is relatively unprecedented. Where they’re going from Rock Band 2 is anybody’s guess, but there have been some rumblings about a music creation system in the works (though Guitar Hero: World 2 seems to have that base covered already).


Advertisement