The Gadget Geek

Point of View debuts ExpressCard-accommodating Mobii PC netbook

It’s apparently been taking a wait and see approach until now, but Netherlands-based manufacturer Point of View has finally jumped into the netbook waters and, as you can see, it’s blended right in. That sameness, as you might have guessed, extends right down to the specs as well, including a 10.2-inch display, a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP or LInpus Linux for an OS and, somewhat more uniquely, an ExpressCard slot, which will hopefully become an increasingly standard option in the year ahead. No word on a release ’round here, expectedly, but folks in Europe can apparently pick one up now for a reasonable €280, or just under $400.

[Via Fudzilla]

Filed under: Laptops

Point of View debuts ExpressCard-accommodating Mobii PC netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holiday Video Game Gifts
Holiday Video Game Gifts
Mac OS X on Netbooks: What Works, What Doesn’t
Netbook hacking is becoming increasingly trendy — especially installing Mac OS X on the dinky things since Apple refuses to offer its own Mac netbook. Our friend Rob Beschizza at Boing Boing Gadgets slapped together a pretty useful chart (above)…

iriver’s Framee-M digiframe: only tolerable for Mickey enthusiasts

Man, it’s amazing the difference a single letter makes. Take the Framee-L, for example — a stately, classically styled digital photo frame that would do practically any coffee table proud. Now have a gander at the almost frightening Framee-M (above). iriver has evidently coerced Disney to afford it the luxury of producing this here digiframe, which — sad to say — looks downright shoddy from here. The unit will be made available in both Mickey and Minnie flavors, with each housing 1GB of internal storage space, a 3.5-inch 320 x 240 resolution display, SDHC expansion slot, a built-in clock and a multimedia player for good measure. It’s taking Japan by storm as we speak for ¥9,999 ($111).

[Via DAPReview, thanks Michael]

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays

iriver’s Framee-M digiframe: only tolerable for Mickey enthusiasts originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Dec 2008 10:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2008 Holiday Gift Guide
2008 Holiday Gift Guide
Fans Plan Silent Protest for Steve-less Macworld
Mac fans angry about a Steve-less Stevenote are going to be holding a “silent protest” at January’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco. You heard it right: Protesters, led by Mac fan Lesa Snider King (if she gets her way), are…



Best of Yanko Design 2008
With just a week left in the year we ve wrapped up our best of the year designs in one big post for your reading pleasure. 2008 has been an eventful and inspiring year, and it s hard to put all the top news in one place; still, if there s one Yanko …

Psion says it’s only going after those “profiting” from the term netbook

Psion, Psion. We hadn’t really heard from the British portable maker since the halcyon days of the Series5, but it’s back and making waves with a series of nastygrams asserting its trademark of the word “netbook.” Psion’s legal team followed up with jkOnTheRun, and according to them, it’s only going after those sites and companies “making a direct, financial profit from use of the ‘Netbook’ trademark.” (As opposed to profit in kind, we suppose — did you know our advertisers pay us in toaster waffles and aviator sunglasses? True story.) Psion says it’s mostly focused on retailers and manufacturers using the term netbook to sell machines, not “straight blogs” and other sites. Of course, that means next to nothing, since Psion says it’ll still go after those sites that have sponsored ads or for-profit links containing the word “netbook” — including automatically-placed ads and links like AdSense and Amazon affiliate ads that site owners typically have no control over. +10 weasel, dudes. Anyway, considering the widespread adoption of “netbook” in the past year with nary a peep from Psion, we’d say the term is pretty well generic and no longer a valid trademark at this point — we’ll see how it goes when it drags the first heavy-hitter using the term (like Intel) into court.

Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer and secret Asian netbook ODM, but he’s not your lawyer and this isn’t legal advice or analysis.

Filed under: Laptops

Psion says it’s only going after those “profiting” from the term netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Dec 2008 17:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Panasonic debuts password-protected whiteboards

While Panasonic’s two newest whiteboards lack those snazzy multitouch capabilities, they posses something only the true undercover FBI agent posing as a first grade teacher could appreciate. The film and steel boards look pretty traditional at first glance, but underneath of that plain jane facade is a highly advanced security system. You see, each board can accept passwords, which will in turn restrict the ability to transfer information from the board to USB flash memory. For those cleared for access, the whiteboards can transfer on-screen information to a PC via USB, though we suspect you’ll have to handle the encryption on your end. ‘Course, neither of these will run you cheap, but you know your underground supervisor won’t mind shelling out upwards of two large to make sure schematics to rule the world aren’t intercepted by meddling rivals.

Filed under: Displays, Misc. Gadgets

Panasonic debuts password-protected whiteboards originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Dec 2008 12:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Logitech Squeezebox Boom
Logitech Squeezebox Boom
Planet Waves DIY Kit Makes Your Wire Mess Managable
You know what I want for Christmas? Not an iPhone, not a 72-inch laser powered tyranno-vision TV, not even a pair of Star Wars themed underwear (Boba Fett went commando, baby!) No, what I want is for the back of…

Keepin’ it real fake, part CLXXIII: 8-bit Xbox 360 / PS3 consoles only serve to dash dreams

We’ve seen some pretty low tricks when it comes to giving what appears to be a gaming console to a junior, but we’re pleading — nay, insisting — that you don’t ever buy in on either of these in an attempt to pull the wool over a kiddo’s eyes. Straight from a shady warehouse in China comes Rodisson Technologies’ totally ridiculous Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 clones, both of which can only play 8-bit titles. The worst part, however, isn’t the complete lack of effort in knocking these systems off with any level of pride; rather, it’s the 10,000 item minimum order quantity. Thanks, but no thanks.

[Via technabob]

Read – RDC Xbox 360
Read – RDC PlayStation 3

Filed under: Gaming

Keepin’ it real fake, part CLXXIII: 8-bit Xbox 360 / PS3 consoles only serve to dash dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Dec 2008 04:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New nanotechnology augments vision, optic blasts not included

It wouldn’t be as much of an icebreaker as saying you have a bionic eye, but University of Colorado Hospital’s Jeffrey Olson has developed a procedure for improving eyesight that involves injecting nano-sized semiconductors called “quantum dots” into the retina. These dots stimulate electrical activity in working parts of the eye and slows degradation in the rest, and early tests on rats have been shown to successfully increase perception. Although intended for those with damaged vision, this might be just the thing for watching your neighbors’ HBO from the comforts of your windowsill — hey, we won’t judge you.

[Via New Scientist]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

New nanotechnology augments vision, optic blasts not included originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Dec 2008 00:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple MacBook Pro 2008
Apple MacBook Pro 2008

Virgin really, really wants you to keep saving up those frequent flyer miles

The ad above seems to be implying that we’ll all soon be able to put our frequent flyer miles toward one of Virgin Galactic’s super-expensive space tourist flights. Of course, it’s pretty vague, and we’re not going to get overly excited about it since we’ve barely ever saved up enough miles to get to Pittsburgh, but hey — anything that encourages us to believe we can achieve goals previously reserved for Moby and Sigourney Weaver is fine with us.

[Thanks, Brian]

Filed under: Transportation

Virgin really, really wants you to keep saving up those frequent flyer miles originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HP TouchSmart tx2z reviewed: multitouch could use some work
HP was pretty jazzed about delivering the first multitouch “consumer” convertible tablet, but in Laptop Mag’s point of view, that highly touted feature could use a bit of TLC. In fact, critics were pretty hard on the machine overall due to the multitouch not being “fast or responsive enough,” but considering the $300 premium, we can’t say such criticism is unjustified. Performance wise, everything was on par, and battery life was found to be respectable enough; at the end of the day, though, it only managed to score three out of five stars and couldn’t elicit the type of praise that makes you want to run out and pick one up on the double. However, if HP manages to improve the touch experience, we could be looking at a winner in the tablet world.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

HP TouchSmart tx2z reviewed: multitouch could use some work originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 21 Dec 2008 04:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some Dell Mini 9s said to be shipping with smaller batteries

It’s not clear exactly how widespread the problem is, but it looks like at least some Dell Mini 9s are shipping with smaller batteries than they should be — a situation that, you may remember, also plagued some Eee PCs a little ways back. According to jkkmobile, while the all the batteries are labeled a 32Wh, 4 cell batteries, a quick software test of their own Mini 9 revealed that the battery was in fact only 24Wh, which certainly cuts into the promised four-hour runtime a bit. Apparently, the folks on the MyDellMini forums were able to surmise that batteries with labels beginning in “CN” are the proper 32Wh models, while those that begin with “KR” are the smaller ones. Of course, there’s no way to check that until you actually get one in your hands, so we’re hoping Dell steps in to clear things up a bit.

[Via jkkmobile]

Filed under: Laptops

Some Dell Mini 9s said to be shipping with smaller batteries originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell Inspiron Mini 12 gets more netbook-y with Ubuntu, XP options

Dell’s Inspiron Mini 12 was already blurring the lines between netbooks and traditional laptop when it was shipping with Vista and Vista only, but it looks like Dell is intent on breaking down the walls between the two categories, with it now offering both Ubuntu and Windows XP on the, er… system. Expectedly, there’s no changes to be found on the hardware side of things, and you can get either of the new operating systems installed on both the 1.33GHz and 1.6GHz models, the former of which now starts at $499 with Ubuntu pre-installed. And, yes, you can still get Vista if you like — at no extra cost, no less.

[Thanks, TxdoHawk]

Filed under: Laptops

Dell Inspiron Mini 12 gets more netbook-y with Ubuntu, XP options originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Dec 2008 15:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Holiday Video Games 2008
Holiday Video Games 2008
Marantz Wireless iPod Dock Requires Many Wires
Marantz will be selling a wireless iPod dock in January of next year. The Bluetooth setup consists three parts: The dock itself, into which can be slid any iPod (although not the iPhone), a remote control, and a reciever, which…



Making Something Out of Nothing
In our cult of the new and the shiny, it’s sometimes refreshing to remember that it’s possible to make new things out of old things that look old. No, seriously, it’s possible. And Jan Korbes Garbage Architecture has many projects to prove it. Coming from the Gordon Matta-Clark school of …