Gadgets and Gizmos

Connecting the Offline world

2008-02-07T14:57:00.001+01:00

Shotcode technology promises to revolutionize the mobile internet:

"Today, businesses cannot get people to use their mobile phones to browse the internet. This is because typing in domain names on a phone is a time-consuming and frustrating process. ShotCodes change all of this, radically.

ShotCodes are offline web links. When captured by a mobile camera, ShotCodes instantly and effortlessly take users to any desired location on the internet.

ShotCodes are easy to make and can be tied to any web address. Businesses can make their own ShotCodes and add them to existing print media or turn them into brand new tools for sales and customer interaction. "

Pretty neat stuff! To get started use the download link or jump directly to the developers page and start creating your own shotcodes today!

A wireless rabbit for the home: Nabaztag

2008-01-27T13:29:00.000+01:00

Nabaztag is a wi-fi enabled plastic bunny that lives on your desk and connects to the Internet via an existing wireless network. Nabaztag can connect to the net, get useful information and provide it to you in a fun and friendly way in French or English - you can get your desktop rabbit to tell you the time, wake you up with your favourite MP3 track, read some news headlines from the internet, let you know that new email has arrived in your gmail account and give you a weather forecast. If you happen to have a two rabbits (or a friend with one), they can talk to each other over wi-fi and "get married".

The Nabaztag uses sound, lights and waggly ears to communicate to you when there are content alerts. The critter uses its Internet connection to tell you when you have a message, when news breaks, weather updates, travel news, etc.

Send a message to Nabaztag via a website while you're away - perhaps to leave a message for your partner... the message will be delivered over Broadband and wi-fi and your rabbit will read it in clear French or English.

The Nabaztag rabbit is cute too with his Flashing lights, wiggly ears, rabbit-shaped... and a hi-tech gadget factor. This is what your wi-fi was meant for! The image on the left shows you what mood Mixom currently is in. I can change the mood by twisting it's left ear. Useless but good fun!

A newer version, the 'Tag' is available at various internet outlets but I picked mine up at the local Apple store.

In summary, I was fairly impressed with the little chap - once you've got him set up correctly, he'll sit on your desk and keep you amused. Out of the box, Nabaztag required some setup - involving getting my PC to establish a direct connection to the Nabaztag.

To get the most of this wi-fi bunny, Violet, the French creators want you to sign up to the extra services available from Nabaztag.com because as after a while, you'll find the free services a little limited. Instead of a life-long contract (rabbit life that is) with Nabaztag.com I strongly suggest to look for third party applications that use the NabaztagAPI to create even more wicked applications for your internet bunny at no extra cost. After all, violet's business plan is a bit like skype charging per chat message.

Most of the interaction with Nabaztag takes place via the Nabaztag site, so it's a case of logging on to nabaztag.com, making some changes to your settings, then waiting a few moments while the information gets downloaded to your Nabaztag.

What I really do not like about this device is that there is no way to get it working without the nabaztag.com site. When nabaztag.com stops existing, all the bunnies will die too. This lemming-like situation makes me a little bit uncomfortable and feel that, violet.fr should at least supply some local proxy software for LAN use that works without the nabaztag.com site.

Nabaztag is a fun gadget, as long as you don't take it too seriously. If you have wi-fi, a sense of humour, and some euros left in your bank account, get one... and enjoy!

Mozy On-line Backup (2Gb)

2006-12-20T23:27:00.001+01:00

Nowadays we store our entire lives on the personal computer. Everything from music, entertainment, business data and online banking is stored in digital format on our PC. We vigorously make backups every week to an external disk drive to protect us from device failure but what most of us do not realise is that this backup method does not protect against fire and other natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes and flooding. Even though we all make backups; a fire would destroy both our data and backup drive. And this is where Mozy comes to the rescue.

Mozy is free, correction, absolutely free, off-site backup for up to 2GB. If you don't have many important files or pictures, 2GB may be plenty and will store most of your important data like passwords, e-mail (archive), passport copy, office documents, etc.

Scheduling a backup with Mozy is very easy and even novice users will be comfortable using it. Mozy can automatically backup your data in the background whenever you are connected to the internet. This way, your data is automatically backed-up while you are working on your computer! Mozy is set-and-forget backup software for your PC!

Your data is encrypted on Mozy's servers using either Mozy's own private key or your own passphrase. I highly recommend selecting your own passphrase so that only you have access to the data stored on Mozy's servers. Do not forget your password since Mozy will not be able to help you in case of password loss.

Conclusion: The free 2 Gigabyte of backup storage is a must have for your most important data. The program is intuuitive to use and even novice users will have less problems using mozy than say XDrive or Window's built-in backup program. Because of the limitations of current broadband internet connections the upload speed is rather slow so long files like video files will really take quite some time to transfer. On the other hand, this all happens in the background while you work so if you just leave it running, you'll be fine.

Get your free Mozy Backup here...

Designer home for cats

2006-10-19T12:21:00.000+02:00

Why must cat beds and scratching posts reveal their purpose at first glance? Those who like to surround themselves with unusual design will love the products from cat-interiors.de, a small yet high quality collection of “furniture showpieces” which can be combined perfectly with a modern living environment.

RONDO was designed as furniture for both action and rest. Cats can fulfill their desire to play, sharpen their claws on the special scratch covers, sleep and climb.

RONDO STAND (see image) can be easily erected anywhere. Thanks to the three different designs in felt, wicker and leather, it can be integrated into any sophisticated living environment. I ordered the leather version as it fits my interior best.

RONDO STAND cushions are available in four different colours. The scratch covers made from hard wearing needle felt are available in two colours. Replacements for worn cushions and scratch covers can be purchased individually at a later date. The cushion covers are machine washable at 40° C and suitable for tumble drying.

The standing base; made from brushed stainless steel is designed so that there is no danger of it tipping over, even when used by larger, heavy cats.

For more information and current prices, follow the article link. Got one at home? Share your experience in the comment section below!

Stealth parking technology

2006-10-10T20:47:00.000+02:00

I have been driving the SMART fortwo convertible for a couple of years now and the reason you did not see any reviews about this gadget is that it's got nothing going for it and that I am very dissapointed in the quality of materials used. It's slow, unstable, dangerous, small and it's just as much hassle to find a parking for a proper car as it is for a SMART. Until now...

Introducing SMART stealth parking technology. If you know where I can order mine, leave a comment!

Google Earth Tracks Flights

2006-04-15T16:31:00.000+02:00

Google Earth can give you the precise location of just about any commercial flight, almost in realtime. To get the flight information on just about any flight's progress, download Google Earth, then go to Aeroseek or FBOWeb to enter the carrier and flight number you're interested in. Once you've got it, click the Google Earth link to open that flight in Google Earth and see its exact location updated every few seconds.

Source (Wired Magazine)

Programmable Cocktail Dispenser

2006-04-06T10:23:00.000+02:00

The Lazy Drinker is a computer controlled bartender. The modified Igloo cooler can hold 16 of your favorite spirits and can mix up over 5000 drinks automatically. All controlled from your computer, with a database of all the possible drinks. Works on Windows PCs and MAC(in beta). Price: $750 or $550 for the Do-It-Yourself Kit.

The Lazy Drinker comes assembled in a cooler or as a do-it-yourself kit which can be installed in any manner you desire. Requiring only a Co2 tank and a PC with a serial port, the Lazydrinker can be set up anywhere: from a portable dispensing unit, to a bartop installed unit, to a refrigerator mounted unit, the possibilities are endless.

Trackstick: USB GPS data logger

2006-04-06T09:18:00.000+02:00

Now here is something cool to get this summer! While this may look like your run-of-the-mill USB drive (albeit a bit big) the TrackStick is actually far more useful, especially for the wanna-be spys among us.

The unit houses a GPS receiver and will autonomously keep track of its location including time, date, speed, direction and altitude and store this data in its memory. The recorded information can then be downloaded to your computer VIA the USB connection and be integrated with Mapquest, Google Earth, Google Maps or Virtual Earth to give you a visual plot of where the TrackStick has travelled. Most of the unit’s size can probably be attributed to the fact it runs on 2 AAA batteries which will power it for about 5 to 7 days of ‘typical operation’ which amounts to about 4,000 records.

Unfortunately the life of a spy does not come cheap. The Trackstick is available from ThinkGeek Computing for about $250 which will probably make you think twice about who to secretly plant this on.

Tag Heuer - bling bling watch!

2005-10-05T19:45:00.000+02:00

This is a gadget most ladies will like..

Tag Heuer designed the ultimate chique-tech wrist watch for women pairing jewelry and technology. The Diamond Fiction unique shape is set with 879 Top Wesselton (5,8 carats) , full cut, VS/SI (1.1mm) diamonds. 54 of the diamonds (3,8 carats) hide LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) that display the time in glowing red.

Press a button and some of the diamonds magically change color, illuminating the time in scintillating red diamond digital...

Available with red satin bracelet giving the timepiece a fiery hot and silky look that contrasts with the brilliance of multiple diamonds.

Tiptel Cyberbox 100

2005-06-05T01:52:00.000+02:00

What it is: The Tiptel cyberbox 100 is an easy to use switchbox that sits between your (DECT / 900 Mhz) home telephone, your plain old telephone system (POTS) and your broadband-connected PC or Laptop (sorry, no Mac for now.)

The Tiptel Cyberbox 100 allows you to call anyone on the internet for free using Skype VOIP software and make long-distance calls using your (wireless) home phone at rock-bottom Skype-out rates. If you use a cordless phone in combination with the Cyberbox you are not chained to your PC when making a telephone call.

Setting-up is a snap. Connect your (wireless) home phone to the phone connector on your Tiptel Cyberbox 100. If you have a regular telephone-line you can connect that to the line connector on the Tiptel Cyberbox 100. Connect the supplied USB cable to your personal computer running Skype and Tiptel-Manager and that's it! The whole process takes minutes to complete.

The first time you run Skype after installing the Tiptel manager, Skype will ask you if it is ok to allow Tiptel manager access to Skype. Make sure you select always allow this program to access Skype and you should be all set. It is a real pleasure to call using the Cyberbox. The sound quality is very good and the unit includes an artificial dial-tone for Skype calls so internet calls are very natural and intuitive to make.

Overall we are more than pleased with this product except for the following minor issues:

The unit does not work with multiple users on Windows XP! This is rather odd, considering Windows XP has been out for years. When two people are logged onto the system, the Tiptel cyberbox stops working altogether. Yes, you can still receive incoming land-line calls but the connection between the Skype and the Tiptel 100 is gone. This problem should be fixed in a future release of the Tiptel manager because it is very irritating and should be easy to fix.
The unit does not handle caller-id for Skype calls so every Skype call starts with the Hello?? Who's there? This could be a limitation in the Skype API but considering the Siemens unit does this we more or less expected it in the cyberbox.

Conclusion: It is fascinating to see how fast the international telecom world is changing. Less than a year ago we got Skype and used it with some silly headset that made us look like some call-center operator. Then came the VOIP Voice USB phone that added the telephone-call experience to your Skype calls and now the TipTel Cyberbox 100 adds wireless to the VOIP party and blends in perfectly with your existing home phone setup. We can highly recommend this product for home and home-based business and although it has some minor issues we hope these are resolved in a future firmware update. At 49 Euro this beauty will have paid itself back within 2 months on long distance savings alone.

Google Desktop Search

2005-04-16T13:05:00.000+02:00

The Google Desktop Search package has been out for quite some time now and considering its high-profile parent company, (Google) I find it downright astonishing that some people still have never installed or in some cases not even heard of the Google Desktop search engine.

In short, Google Desktop makes an index of all the files on your drive, HTML, email, documents and in combination with (mostly free) third party plug-ins, Google Desktop indexes practically every file type imaginable. It is like having a personal assistant watching over your shoulder the entire time.

Looking-up information with Google Desktop is a breeze. Just type whatever you are looking for and the results will pop-up in internet explorer split seconds later. When you use Google on the web it will also show you a link to the desktop search results on your PC, an extremely handy and powerful feature although it confuses some people into thinking all their documents have been transmitted to Google.com. Of course, this is not the case.

The product does not send back your indexed information over the internet but instead uses IE (Internet explorer) to offer its search service exclusively to the local users of the Laptop or Personal Computer. Technically speaking Google is running a web server on your PC that only allows local access. This is also where our problem with Google lies.

Googles desktop search product has had some serious security issues while in Beta and received a lot of media hype because of this. Using a carefully crafted URL it was possible to get information from a Google Desktop engine whilst being connected from another computer through the internet! Even though the potential hackers would not be able to access the documents directly they could potentially query their way through the document using the Google engine that normally should only be accessible to local users. This was a serious security hole and we suspect this might very well happen again in the future.

To block this and a lot of other types of internet attacks we suggest using a personal firewall. Windows XP Service Pack 2 (WinXP SP2) users will have their WinXP firewall enabled by default. Even if there would be a serious vulnerability in Google Desktop search, using a personal firewall makes it impossible for hackers to contact your local Google engine. We highly recommend users of Google Desktop search to install a personal firewall before installing Google desktop.

Be careful with installing Google Desktop search on multi-user PCs as well. Because Google indexes everything you do it can cause some embarrassing moments if one is not careful. You have been warned!

Conclusion: Google Desktop is a very powerful product and works exactly as advertised. Because of the nature of search engines we do not recommend using this product on public-terminals and shared PCs. If you are the only user on a PC and have installed a personal firewall you should be fine security-wise and youll find Google Desktop Search an invaluable tool in everyday computing.

AirScooter II, beam me up Scotty!

2005-04-16T11:52:00.000+02:00

Now this is something cool! The AirScooter II is a personal helicopter that weighs less than 140 kg. It doesn't require a pilot's license to fly it in the USA but I think getting permission in Europe will be a nightmare. A pair of rotors propels the AirScooter II, which its maker says is easier to fly than an ordinary helicopter.

The price tag for this incredible machine is yet to be determined, but current pricing estimates by AirScooter Corporation are under $50,000. Impressive, especially when compared to the price of most land-bound vehicles or small helicopters. Even more impressive when considering the substantial savings from having an aircraft engine that operates on gasoline instead of expensive aircraft fuel and the fact that just the licensing required to operate a conventional personal helicopter could cost about $50,000 alone!

Designed as a recreational vehicle, the AirScooter II looks like it would be easy to park at the mall. It's expected to be available this year.

Google Picasa 2

2005-04-12T23:47:00.000+02:00

Picasa 2, Google's image organizer that does not take .gif image files...

‘What kind of useless image organizer is this?’ is the first thing that popped my mind when I read the specifications. No .gif support for an image catalog program is like selling a car without wheels. Because of Picasa’s everyday low pricing (free) I decided to give it a go anyway and tested Picasa 2 in combination with Hello Picture sharing and the Picasa Blogger plug-in.

The Hello and Blogger plug-ins are free components designed for use in combination with Picasa 2. The quality of these so called plug-ins is not very good as they do not keep track of images posted on a site. Before I knew it I was out of web space because of left-over Hello Zombies. The solution: To use another program to clear up the mess Hello left on my web space. Hello!

For transferring pictures from your camera and organizing them on your PC, Picasa 2 does an excellent job. For most people this is all that they need. In that case, you'll love Picasa's timeline feature that basically is a chronological list of all the pictures in your folders. There’s red-eye reduction as well as some other basic photo editing tricks. Very handy, great fun too, but nothing new.

Overall I think Picasa is a nice program but...... It's lack of .gif image file support I find unforgivable for an image catalog program and if people want to use Picasa to share pictures with friends, look for other tools as Picasa's Hello and Blogger tools just don't cut it.

VOIPvoice CyberPhone K

2005-04-05T23:11:00.000+02:00

I was not expecting much when I bought my first Cyberphone for use with Skype. Within two weeks I bought four Cyberphone handsets for close friends. I must say that one of them was dead on arrival but the others worked just fine.

To use the cyberphone, you need to download a driver from www.voipvoice.com to make the keypad work with Skype. Then plug the phone into your computer’s USB port and use Skype with the CyberPhone K just as you would a normal telephone.

Dial SkypeOut numbers from the phone, and assign quick keys to your Skype contacts on Windows (only sound functionality on Mac OS X).

This is a perfect entry level phone. It is not wireless and you need to be near your computer to make calls but the sound quality is very good and overall I can highly recommend the Cyberphone K.

Casio GPS Pathfinder Watch. You are here...

2005-04-05T23:06:00.000+02:00

The idea of having a watch with a built in 8-channel GPS antenna (Global Positioning System) was so space-age in the year 2000 that I immediately bought it without thought. After all, even batman did not have a toy like this!

The GPS watch is really big, has a super-high geek factor and is a little complicated to use. You will need to read the manual before you know whats going on inside the watch. Once you have read the manual, the watch is easy to use nut you need to know a lot of little details before you can actually use all of its features.

Basically the watch tells you the time, date and location. Because there is no way to download maps from a PC, the only reading you will get is a numeric reading. The GPS watch can memorize 200 locations known as landmarks or waypoints.

To plan a trip, select your waypoints and start the GPS receiver. The display will show a circle with the word satellite. The first time you use the watch you need to set the area where the watch is otherwise it will be unable to find out where the satellites are.

Once a couple of satellites are found, the display will change and the watch will tell you the direction to the next waypoint. It can tell you what direction you are going and at what speed you are traveling. Pretty cool stuff considering this functionality would at least be the size of a shoebox in the cold-war era. I loved using it whilst skiing in France. I memorized several locations early in the week and the watch could tell me where I was in relation to say, the hotel or mountain-café.

The functionality of the watch and the resolution of its low-res LCD screen is in no way comparable to any pocket PC or Palm OS based navigator currently (2005) on the market but despite this limitation, five years later it is still a great watch although I must admit that I hardly ever use the GPS feature. The reason for not using the GPS anymore is that the Casio GPS watch only lasts four hours on a five Euro battery. The watch is purely a statement of anti-fashion. It is so ugly you start loving it.

The watch comes with a massive manual, a quick reference guide, and several little pamphlets explaining the preprogrammed landmarks, notes on the GPS functions, and directions on using the watchband. All printed documentation is scarier looking than it actually is, because everything comes in 10 languages. I counted only 32 English pages so that is doable.

This watch is highly recommended to all Casio Watch collectors and geeks alike. It is very seldom that a gadget still has its WoW factor after 5 years. Unfortunately Casio no longer sells this watch.

Casio Wrist Audio Player (mp3 watch)

2005-04-05T22:28:00.000+02:00

The first time I saw this watch on the internet in 2000 I immediately fell in love with it. Imagine, summer 2000, new millennium just started and a watch that can play your favorite mp3 tunes in digital stereo!

Just like my other Casio geek watches this one also had the cheap plastic design-look but that did not matter much as it was the first and only mp3 watch on the market. To get my hands on it I had to fork down a hefty 300 Euro because it was the only place in Amsterdam that sold it and back then.

As with all mp3 players, the digital circuitry provides, non-skip playback, even when the Wrist Audio Player is subjected to strong vibration or impact. A water-resistant design means you can wear your Wrist Audio Player when playing sports, dancing, challenging the great outdoors, or doing just about anything else.

The Wrist Audio Player has enough memory to store approximately 33 minutes of CD-level quality sound in the High Quality Mode, 44 minutes of near CD-level quality sound in the Medium Quality Mode, or 66 minutes of FM broadcast-level quality sound in the Low Quality Mode. This is certainly not acceptable in 2005 but in 2000 this limited capacity was not a problem at all.

Flashback Title scrolls through song titles and artists on the display, one character at a time. Title and name text must be input using software on your computer, and both letters and numbers can be used. Motion Graphic feature shows different display movements to match song playback Animated Motion Graphic characters that match each track are downloaded automatically to the Wrist Audio Player.

The character dances in one of 10 different styles, including the Twist for rock and other fast music, and the Wave for pops and other lively tempo tunes. The dance style is selected in accordance with the type of music that is playing. The watch has a built-in USB interface for data communication. It takes about 70 seconds to download one four-minute track. Approximately four hours of continuous playback. Basic timekeeping includes current time, alarm, stopwatch, and more.

Did I like the watch? Unbelievable but I did, for about a week until the headphone-adapter (the blob on the left side of the watch) got lost as this is a separate click-on part of the watch. It was impossible to order a replacement headphone adapter from Casio while with a design this faulty; they should have known people would want to order more adapters.

Furthermore, the supplied software for transferring the tracks from PC to mp3 watch, crashed frequently and a newer software version was never released. This is a problem with all Casio products that ship with software.

Despite its high price at the time I do recommend this watch to Casio gadget watch collectors. If you are looking for a nice portable mp3 player, look elsewhere. The Casio Wrist Audio Player is limited on memory and transferring files can me a total nightmare.

NASA World Wind

2005-04-03T18:51:00.000+02:00

This free-for all program is truly amazing! NASA World Wind is an interactive spinning globe. Using the wheel on your scroll-mouse you can zoom into any part of the world and the system will then download satellite images and project them onto the NASA World Wind globe. Users get to look-up any large city in the world and the globe will spin into position.

Programmers can create so-called third party plug-ins that to project custom data onto the spinning globe so the program can be used as a geo-mapping engine. This feature is what will make NASA World Wind a very useful tool for countless different applications in the future but for now, the spinning globe is already worth the download and shear fun to use.

The service is currently experiencing some growth problems. Downloading of images is notoriously slow and this part of the program needs a redesign. Ideally downloaded maps and satellite images should be shared over BitTorrent or some other Peer2Peer network to ease bandwidth requirements for the NASA World Wind image servers. Right now, all images are downloaded from a limited number of central servers and given the popularity of the program lately there is no-way this will ever be scalable without the clever use of some peer-2-peer network technology.

Conclusion: Get your copy of World Wind today. Do check if your PC and broadband connection are technically advanced enough. Otherwise, buy a new PC as the NASA World Wind application is some serious eyeball-popping material.

Skype VOIP telephony

2005-04-03T18:43:00.000+02:00

Just when you thought internet telephony was gone forever, Skype entered the voice over IP arena.

In short: Skype lets you talk over the internet for free to other Skype users. For a very small fee you can call non-Skype users on their regular telephone and for another low fee Skype gives you voicemail and a telephone number in a growing number of cities around the world.

Skype-out call rates to old-style telephones are extremely cheap at about 1/10th the price of the traditional telephone operators. In combination with a supported VOIP phone, you get the same call experience as a regular phone call at a fraction of the cost. If you want to try Skype first, a regular headset will do just fine but you will miss the telephone-like experience and miss out on ease use.

For a free program, Skype has a feature set is pretty impressive considering it contains no spyware or other forms of ad-serving rubbish. Sound quality of Skype telephone calls is one of the best on the market and often beats the quality of the regular phone network. Besides, conference calls are thrown in at no extra cost and the software is very good at finding a way out through corporate firewalls and other potential network nasties that could ruin your call experience.

Conclusion: An absolute must have product for international travelers and long distance callers alike. Get a proper USB style Skype phone for the most natural calling experience and get some Skype-Out credit to get you started. The USB-phone and Skype credit will pay itself back in no-time because of increased savings on long distance calls.

Sony Aibo ERS220A Entertainment Robot

2005-04-03T15:37:00.000+02:00

What was I thinking when I bought this 2150 Euro toy? My expectations of the Sony Aibo where high but they where not lived up to... Read why...

I bought my Sony Aibo ERS220A robot at Capi, the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport electronics store. When I got home I found out that robot was broken and could not hold its memory stick. Cost: 500 Euro (!) unless I could fax the proof of purchase. I had to send the robot to the French Aibo Clinic (sic!) to get its core CPU brick replaced.

Repairs and accessories are hideously expensive and Sony Aibo software is overpriced and lacking innovation. If you desperately want one anyway, get one on e-bay, order some pink memory sticks from Sony (copy protected, only Sony!) and load the open-source programs called dogs-life and disco Aibo.

Be careful with the pink Memory Sticks Sony uses in the Aibo entertainment robots. Sony copy protected these (16Mb!) memory sticks so they could charge you through the roof for storage. Format them once and they are no longer usable in Aibo and your 100$ memory stick becomes a useless 16Mb memory stick at the blink of an eye. Thank you Sony! Somehow I already expected this.

Conclusion: Seriously overpriced, gets truly boring after about a week or so. The best thing I got it to do was dance to the Madonna track called Vogue. At 2150 Euro (excluding, battery, software, bag and memory sticks) this is a rather expensive toy.