Demron Clothing:

Demron Clothing:

Sure, radiation's not high on our personal list of threats, but that doesn't mean it's not on someone's, right? Well, to that end, Radiation Shield Technologies has developed a full line of radiation-defeating garments (the thyroid collar being our favorite). In fact, the company has just been awarded a patent for the nanotechnology which they say is the "world's first protective material designed for all types of chemical, biological, radiological and even nuclear incidents." The material, called Demron, is a nanopolymeric compound (which they call "liquid metal") fused between layers of fabric and concocted into gear which is lead-, toxin-, and PVC-free, and is capable of blocking gamma rays, X-rays and other nuclear emissions. The garments are currently used by NASA and various governments across this planet of ours, but they also seem to be commercially available for prices ranging from about $700 up to $6,500 for the nuclear blanket. Citizens of Megaton: rejoice!

Cyborg beetles commandeered:

Cyborg beetles commandeered:

Cyborg beetles commandeered for test flight, laser beams not (yet) included.

Remember that DARPA initiative from a few years back to create cyborg insects? With funding from the agency, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have managed to control a rhinoceros beetle via radio signals, demonstrated in a flight test shown on video at this week's IEEE MEMS 2009 conference. A module placed on the arthropod uses six electrodes affixed to the brain and muscles to commandeer its free will. The device weighs 1.3g -- much less than the 3g payload these guys can handle, and with enough wiggle room to attach sensors for surveillance. Ultimately, scientists say they want to use the beetle's own sensors -- namely, its eyes -- to capture intel and its own body energy to power the apparatus. Keep an eye on this one, we expect it to play a major role in the impending robots vs. humans war.

Projectiondesign debuts F32 1080p projector:

Projectiondesign debuts F32 1080p projector:

We're not quite sure what the folks at Projectiondesign consider to be a "harsh environment," but it seems a pretty safe bet that their new F32 projector should at least be able to hold up in even the dustiest conference rooms, and deliver a full 1080p image to boot. If that's a bit more than you need, the company has also just rolled out similar SXGA+ or WUXGA models, which boast 4100 or 3800 ANSI lumens, a 7,500:1 contrast ratio, and the usual full complement of ports, including dual HDMI inputs. Just don't plan on lugging any of 'em around too far, as they each weigh in at close to 30 pounds. Pricing, as you may have guessed, appears to be on a need to know basis, though all three are apparently shipping now.

Hitachi H001 with 3D display:

Hitachi H001 with 3D display:

So KDDI's latest lineup of new phones features the usual array of 8.1 megapixel cameras, wide VGA displays, one-seg TV tuners, and teleporters, but one particular handset stood out: Hitachi's Wooo H001. The dual-hinge flip's claim to fame -- well, besides the bizarre color scheme -- has to be the stereoscopic IPS display that presumably uses the same parallax barrier method shown off by the carrier late last year. The phone will happily serve up 3D-ified versions of various UI elements and mobile TV content, and when you start to get woozy (or Wooozy, as it were), just flip a switch and you're back to the reassuring flatness you're used to. It'll launch in three colors in April, and naturally, you'll have to be in Japan to get it.

URC's PSX-2 iPod dock:

URC's PSX-2 i Pod dock:

These days, it's pretty tough to find an iPod dock that differentiates itself from the crowd. Then again, Universal Remote Control isn't your average iPod accessory maker. Designed specifically for the custom install crowd (but aimed at anyone who appreciates tight home integration) is the PSX-2 Personal Server. Put simply, this doodad enables users to control their iPod like never before by providing users a method of "exploiting all of the iPod's features, including some obscure and rarely-used ones," with any ole IR remote. The device provides "hundreds of discrete IR codes that cover virtually every iPod function, and even functions that aren't available on the iPod itself, such as commands for each of the iPod's EQ settings and the ability to perform alpha searches." Sure, it'll set you back $399, but that's a small price to pay for giving your universal remote one more reason to hang around.

Cigarette lighter camera:

Cigarette lighter camera:

Sure, Lady Liberty and a bald eagle are great symbols of American freedom, but they're also perfect covers for keeping tabs on your friends. Ajoka's cigarette lighter video camera discreetly records 640 x 480 or QVGA in AVI format at 30 frames per second and supports microSD up to 8GB. It's got a lithium ion battery for 6 hours of filming and is charged via USB. Best of all, it's still a working lighter -- perfect for cheering up your favorite band's love ballads and simultaneously bootlegging the performance. Your local spy shop can order these wholesale for $150 apiece.

Apple vs. Palm: (the in-depth analysis)

Apple vs. Palm: (the in-depth analysis)

Apple and Palm kicked a lot of dirt at each other last week -- acting Apple CEO Tim Cook flatly told analysts that "We will not stand for people ripping off our IP" when asked specifically about competition like the Palm Pre, and Palm responded with a similarly-explicit "We have the tools necessary to defend ourselves." At issue, of course, is that the Pre employs a multitouch screen and gestures almost exactly like those made famous on the i Phone -- and if you'll recall, Steve Jobs introduced multitouch on the i Phone with a slide reading "Patented!" To top it all off, the past few days have seen a number of media outlets proclaim that Apple's been awarded a "multitouch patent" without so much as a shred of analysis, instead hyping up a supposed future conflict. That's just not how we play it, so we enlisted Mathew Gavronski, a patent attorney in the Chicago office of Michael Best & Friedrich, to help us clear up some of the confusion and misinformation that's out there -- read on for more.

PC Diagnostic Dice:

PC Diagnostic Dice:

IT support personnel have a difficult job. Constant phone calls and emails from people barely smart enough to operate their computers can grate on you after a while. Before too long, every support phone call sound the same. With the new PC Diagnostic Dice system, give your users the reassurance they need while maintaining your sanity. just a quik toss of a dice, and all the information you need is right there. Three dice describe the problem, the culprit and the solution. Now, your coversation is simplified:

"Hello, IT....[rolls dice]

HmmMM, sounds like you've got some spyware. It's no big deal, it'd a Windows problem, but we can install some anti-spyware and take care of it.Okay? Great...You're Welcome....I Love You Too..."

Samsung Soul:

Samsung Soul:

You lucky Europeans, Samsung has decided to launch their ‘flagship product’, the ‘Soul’ mobile phone on your very shores before letting it loose over the rest of the globe. Starting later this month, this little sucker will hit the shelves of cellphone retailers all over the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. Here’s the low-down on the Samsung ‘Soul’

* Quad-band HSDPA 7.2 Mbps
* 5 MP camera with auto-focus and 4x digital zoom
* 2.2 inch QVGA display
* Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity
* Plays mp3 and wma files
* 105.9 x 49.5 x 12.9 mm

The unit is available in three colours, Sterling Steel, Soul Gray and Platinum Silver and will retail for around 400 euros (US$630).

Samsung D980 TouchWiz:

Samsung D980 TouchWiz:

So you have only one mobile? That’s so 2007…! You need at least two mobiles. One for business and one for pleasure for instance. Samsung doesn’t think so and has been working on dual sim phones like the Samsung P240 and D880. But these two phones weren;t very sexy. But wait! Now there’s the Koreans have come up with the D980 TouchWiz. It’s a F480 TouchWiz with two sims but without 3G. Some things had to go to make room for the second sim. The specs: 2.6 inch QVGA touchscreen with so-called TouchWiz interface, 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus, MicroSD slot, FM Radio. The Samsung D980 weighs 117 grams and its dimensions are 97.5 x 55 x 16 mm. Availability and pricing are unknown at this moment.

Samsung Pixon M8800:

Samsung Pixon M8800:

As of now the Samung Pixon M8800 is available. Let’s refresh everyones memory. Piece de resistance is the 8 megapixel camera with autofocus. But let’s not forget the other features: 3.2 inch touch screen (240 x 400 pixels), quad-band HSDPA phone measuring 107.9 x 54.6 x 14.9mm and weighing 110 grams, GPS, FM radio, MicroSD slot, 200 MB internal memory, Bluetooth, virtual QWERTY keyboard and handwriting recognition.

Samsung P520 Armani:

Samsung P520 Armani:

Last week I was quite enthusiastic about the Samsung Armani after watching a short video review. After reading the extensive test of Mobile Review I have to change my opinion. You probably know I don’t like touchscreens on mobile phones because they don’t work well enough (yet). Watching the guys of Mobile Review struggling with the touchscreen of the Samsung Armani strengthens my opinion.

Samsung L310 Allure lady phone:

Samsung L310 Allure lady phone:

This week Samsung officially presented its latest lady phone: the Samsung L310 Allure. The most important part of a lady phone are its looks.

The other specs aren’t special nor important but we’ll tell you anyway. Samsung L310 Allure is a triband phone with GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, microSD slot, 2 megapixel camera and an MP3 player.

Samsung F400:

Samsung F400:

The Russian website Mobile-Review.com has made another nice and extensive review. This time they have tested the Samsung F400 which you can read here. We’ll give you the specs: The Samsung F400 is a dual slider just like the i450 and is aimed at music and video lovers. Sliding the phone down will reveal the keypad, sliding it up will uncover the nice Bang & Olufsen speakers. The F400 has a nice music player with music library and FM radio with RDS. The F400 supports multiple audio and video formats. It has a 3 megapixel camera and with 16,9 mm is quite thick.

Samsung Omnia SGH-i900:

Samsung Omnia SGH-i900:

The Samsung OMNIA is powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and comes packed with MS Office (PowerPoint, Excel, and Word). Even though the OMNIA is 100% touch screen, Samsung included an optical mouse for ease of navigation - the optical mouse is similar to what you’d find on laptops. Samsung OMNIA is possibly the best ever smartphone that Samsung has ever built. OMNIA is definitely a better name than SGH-i900, which means ?everything’ in Latin and ?wish’ in Arabic. The OMNIA is essentially everything that you can possibly wish for on a Windows Mobile 6.1 smart phone. It brings together high performance business content, high-end design mixed with a full bag of dynamic multimedia rich experience.? Samsung representative mispsoke earlier, and just now clarified that OMNIA DOES NOT HAVE CAPACITIVE technology.? I repeat, it DOES NOT HAVE CAPACITIVE technology.? Unfortunately, it’s the same old resistive touchscreen on every other smartphone on the market today.

The OMNIA also has a 5-megapixel CMOS camera with auto-focus (AF), face and smile detection and auto-panorama shot. OMNIA comes in 8 or 16GB memory configuration and additional storage can be added via extendable slot. Of course, a smart phone called OMNIA can’t go without having a GPS, including navigation and geo-tagging capabilities, so you’d never get lost wherever you are.

According to CNET Asia, “an orientation sensor is built into the OMNIA i900. When rotated, it does this fancy transition whereby the display shrinks and expands back to fill the screen in a different orientation. The 240 x 400 display does seem a little weird, but is not unheard of–we’ve seen it in the ASUS M930’s internal display. It makes sense, too, if you are to use it as a media player because the aspect ratio is much closer to the 16:9 aspect ratio commonly seen in movie files. To that end, the i900 also comes with a media application that supports DivX and Xvid out of the box.”

As I mentioned earlier, the OMNIA is primarily touch-based so it makes perfect sense for Samsung to include its patented TouchWiz user interface. The OMNIA is Samsung’s first ever Windows Mobile smart phone to feature TouchWiz. TouchWiz lets you personalize the home window with unique widgets. The high-resolution touch-sensitive screen uses intuitive tap, sweep, drag and drop operations as well as an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. It also facilitates easy and convenient calling and texting with a dedicated dome key for controlling communications.

The Samsung OMNIA is ultra-slim measuring 12.5mm and has a platinum look finish. Samsung added details such as elegant hairline patterns on the back of the phone to bring the “perfection in style.”

Geesung Choi, President of Samsung Telecommunication Business, said: “I am very excited to introduce Samsung , a mobile device that truly delivers the best possible features for today’s busy, connected consumer. Samsung demonstrates our vision for the Samsung mobile business, which is to provide premium phones for users who desire functionality, style, usability and entertainment in one innovative device. The mobile range will help users to be at the forefront of work and play and at the same time, to stay connected anytime, anywhere.”

The Samsung OMNIA will be unveiled at CommunicAsia, Singapore from June 17 to 20 and commercially launched in the Southeast Asian market starting from the same week. The phone will be available in the European market from July.

Motorola Prizm Gives Diet Advice:

Motorola Prizm Gives Diet Advice:

Motorola's new touchscreen Motoprizm in Korea that appears to be a takeoff on the Krave—albeit with a few tweaks. Oddly enough, word is that the device also gives daily diet and lifestyle suggestions.

Features:

•DMB support
•E-wallet function
•3.5mm headphone jack
•USB 2.0 connectivity
•Bluetooth 2.0
•Memory card slot
•2.8" 260k color TFT touchscreen at 240 x 400 resolution
•3 megapixel camera

Nokia E63:

Nokia E63:

Amazon is now listing Nokia's BlackBerry-ish QWERTY E63 phone as available for pre-order. The unlocked 3G phone can be reserved for $500, though there's no word on release date.

The E63, based on the E71, already dropped in Europe, so we expected it'd be making its way to North American shores at some point. In addition to the Wi-Fi, 3.5mm audio jack, and cloud storage we already knew it had, the E63 is also packing a 2 MP camera, Bluetooth, 3G, an FM radio (probably a receiver, not a transmitter, though that's not all that common either), and a memory card slot. Amazon doesn't provide a release date, but this is a good sign that the E63 is soon to see an American release.

iPhone Clone:

iPhone Clone:

Behold, the new ePhone. An iPhone clone so perfect, so uncannily identical, so curvaceously exact, that it's only one letter and a logo away from being the real McCoy. Until you turn it on.

Then you realize this is nothing more than yet another clone, even while it looks like a perfect, logo-less clone of the iPhone. The EPHONE M8 Dual Quad Band TV bar Phone Black is probably $160 too expensive:

E PHONE M8
Network: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
Languages: English,French,Portuguese ,Spanish,Deutsch ,Indonesia,Turkish , Russian ,Arabic,Persian
Display Size: 3.2 inch, 240×320 pixels
Screen: QVGA screen, 260K colors
Ringtones Type: Polyphonic (64 channels);Support mp3 ringtone: Music: Support MP3 background play,support equalizer;Built-in 3D stereo speaker
Video: 3GP / MP4, support to play in full screen, forward and pause
Camera: 1.3 Megapixel camera,support to shoot with sound
FM Radio: FM stereo,play outside without earphone
TV Function: TV supported (does this mean that I can put it on top of my TV or what?)
Internal Memory: Packed with 1GB TF card, support extend card
Data transfer: USB cable / Bluetooth
Connectivity: GPRS / WAP
Phonebook: Can store 500 phonebooks
Messaging: SMS, MMS

The Stone Grill Concept:

The Stone Grill Concept:

While there's nothing inherently flawed with grills as they are now, if you've ever seared meat on a hot stone, you've discovered there's more to meat than charcoal and propane.

The Pebbles Grill concept is sort of like a George Foreman reinterpreted with a net of blazing-hot rocks. Electric elements heat a series of "pebbles" to deliciously dangerous levels—as indicated by warning lights—before you fold the mesh-like grill over your food. We're betting that the resulting dish would come out polka dotted with scorch marks. But I for one have never turned down a piece of food that resembled a 1990s fashion staple.

Concept Electric Bike:

Concept Electric Bike:

This concept folding electric bike won a Merit prize in a bike design competition, but its practical use is probably limited. Why? Because you charge it at home by pedaling.

We suppose there's a case to be made for getting exercise at home, when you can wear lousy clothes and sweat all over them, then using the electric power to get you to work in your nice clothes. But what's the point of riding a bike to work then? Why not just pedal normally and convert your pedaling energy into forward movement instead of losing part of that energy when you're charging the battery, then losing part of it again when that gets converted to powering your bike?

In any case, it's an electric bike that you power by pedaling. Surprised?

Lumina Italia Ra Desk Lamp:

Lumina Italia Ra Desk Lamp:

I don't know about you, but in my opinion the Lumina Italia Ra fiber optic lamp is the world's most strikingly nerdilicious gadget to ever illuminate a desktop.

Designed by Ettore Cimini, the Ra features two fully adjustable steel and technopolymer arms that separately deliver and focus light from a 100W fluorescent bulb from the tip of their snake-like head using fiber optic cable. The light itself can be adjusted to taste via a built-in dimmer control.

On the downside, it appears that the lamps are custom made to order—which surely means that it is far, far out of most of our price ranges.

Energizer Solar Recharger:

Energizer Solar Recharger:

Energizer's Solar Recharger looks, at first glance, like a confused device. Is it an iPod battery extender? AA charger? Solar adapter? Well, it's all of these things, which is why it's awesome.

The heart of the gadget is a simple battery charger, intended for regular rechargeable AA and AAA batteries and primarily powered by an AC jack and assisted by a flip-out solar panel. A USB port is capable of providing power to a connected gadget, which allows the Solar Charger to also act as a sort of extended battery for virtually any USB-powered device, iPods included.

By choosing cheap semi-disposable rechargeable batteries as the guts of the device, Energizer will reportedly be able to keep the price down at a reasonable $50, 2 AAs included. Considering additional features like weatherproofing and a rotating solar panel, the Solar Charger could turn out to be a cheap, viable alternative to the endless droves of device-specific battery extenders and pricey solar chargers that are floating around for the time being. The official announcement is expected at CES 2009.

The USB Thumb Drive Bracelet:

The USB Thumb Drive Bracelet:

OK, who gave Brando the rhinestones?

With Valentine's Day a little over a month away, we're all scratching our heads as to how to get our loved ones jewelry that we can actually play with. Luckily, the $33 USB Thumb Drive Bracelet showed up just in time to ship from overseas. Hiding a discreet 8GB of fold-out USB flash storage behind two dazzling lines of glued-on "decorative crystals," your girlfriend will just think you're cheap. But you'll know the truth.

(Well, you are cheap, and the bracelet has a hidden USB drive).

DIY external iPhone keyboards:

DIY external iPhone keyboards:

That 360 Chatpad hack we saw back in November was certainly an impressive enough proof of concept, but if you want to get a bit more typing done with a bit less clutter, you'll no doubt be quite a bit more impressed with this latest mod by the very same Ralf Ackermann. This setup uses a Robotech Bluetooth module that's placed in a modified battery sleeve and connected to an unlocked iPhone (or iPod Touch) which, in turn, communicates with the keyboard using the Bluetooth SPP profile (a VNC server and a few other tricks also come into the picture). Of course, that's still a long ways from an officially supported solution, but if you're looking to give it a go, Ralf is promising to dish out the necessary schematics and source code soon.

Jaybird releases 2009 Bluetooth Stereo Claws:

Jaybird releases 2009 Bluetooth Stereo Claws:

Jaybird's just unleashed their products for 2009, with updates for their athlete-targeted A2DP Bluetooth Stereo Claws. The new ones (which look exactly the same as their previous models) feature apt-X audio compression, giving these puppies a high sound quality the company says will "rivaling wired" ones, plus new tips for sound isolation and a modified design to fit a wider range of ears. The company's also rolling out new metal-cased Tiger Eyes earbuds and over ear Acoustic Dens. We don't have any word on pricing for this stuff, but we'll get an up-close gander at them at CES and they should be available in April... when our Go-Go's-infused work outs should get a little more high def. Check out the other two products after the break.

Cowon S9 Curve 16GB:

Cowon S9 Curve 16GB:

The fun to look at but nightmare to touch Cowon S9 Curve that we thought was arriving in 2009 is now available at Amazon. If form over function is your thing, it's yours for $240.

For more on the Curve's iffy GUI, here's our own John Herrman:

Instead of building out from the user interfaces found in their larger PMPs, Cowon seems to have gone for something fresh. And by "fresh", I mean "variously lifted from popular PMP interfaces, including that one that you don't want to lift from, because everyone will call you on it immediately."

Like I said, form over function, for $240.

The Intel Convertible Classmate:

The Intel Convertible Classmate:

After playing with a prototype of Intel's Convertible Classmate, it more or less confirmed what I had suspected: there are some neat ideas at play, but there's a reason why it's aimed at schools.

From the outset, Intel's goal with the Classmate line was to create a cheap, durable laptop that could be useful in a classroom. As such, Intel gave the Classmate tablet an 8.9-inch touch panel, 1.6 GHz Atom processor, 802.11n wi-fi, 1 GB RAM, a 60 GB HDD (or up to 8 GB of flash storage), a days worth of battery life and a weight under three pounds

The computer itself is on par with most other net books in terms of build quality. Nothing feels super flimsy, the 1024x600 resolution screen is sharp, and when using it as a tablet, it sits comfortably in the hand. The keyboard and track pad are pretty decent sized, going toe to toe with the HP Mini or the MSI Wind in that regard. And it even has a web cam that can rotate to either face the user or look out in the other direction.

Messing around with some of the apps, it's clear Intel did more than slap a touchscreen on a XP laptop and call it a tablet—they went one step further, adding the necessary hardware and software enhancements to make it as simple to use as possible.

For example, the Convertible Classmate has a quick launch panel that's been optimized for use with the touchscreen, with big icons, and other touch friendly elements. And when the Classmate is folded into tablet mode, there's a dedicated button that brings up the quick launch screen.

And not only will they be making the hardware as capable as possible for the educational arena, but they'll be working with developers and OEM's directly to make sure everything is optimized for the Classmate. One specific company they're working with is Lego, whose Mindstorms kits are popular with educators.

Intel also put some thought into how kids would be using the Convertible Classmate specifically, and calibrated the touchscreen so that it wouldn't recognize palm contact when kids are writing with the stylus. They found that most kids write with the palm down on the table, and if they didn't adjust for that with the tablet, it would have caused many input problems.

But that also involved a trade off. Because they didn't want to increase the price and have to use a capacitive/multitouch panel to enable palm detection, they had to lower the sensitivity of the resistive touchscreen in addition to using software fixes. As a result, the screen requires a bit of a heavier press to get it to recognize your input, which from what I could tell, doesn't make it the most finger friendly.

Touchscreen issues aside, the presumable lack of consumer-centric touch app support, missing features like bluetooth and a pretty generic design will likely keep it entrenched in its educational niche. But considering that's exactly what they're gunning for, you can't exactly call that a bad thing.