GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Plastic Logic’s electronic book reader is an ultra skinny, extra large device targeted at business users. And if you’re lucky enough to be at the All Things D conference, you’re getting one for free.

In a demo Wednesday at the ongoing at the Wall Street Journal’s conference in California, Plastic Logic showed a prototype device with an onscreen keyboard and an annotate feature, and said every attendee would be getting one. The company has been showing prototypes of its e-book reader for over 8 months since its debut at DemoFall last year, but has yet to announce a public ship date or pricing for its product.

The Plastic Logic e-reader, when it releases, will be a rival to Amazon’s broadsheet Kindle DX, which is expected to start shipping this summer.

Plastic Logic’s e-reader is 0.27 inches thick, significantly thinner than Amazon Kindle 2’s 0.33 inches, and has a 8.5 x 11 inch E Ink touchscreen display that makes it seem almost like a large notepad.

Because of its large screen size, the device is aimed at business users who will use it to view PDF files, Word documents, spreadsheets and even PowerPoint presentations. The device will include Wi-Fi and 3G capability and will initially be available in black and white, with more colors likely. It will also have its own online store for books and newspapers among other things. While users noticed a lag while turning pages, Plastic Logic has said it expects it to improve over time.

Laptop Mag has a hands-on with the Plastic Logic reader and says scribbling on the screen with a stylus was fairly responsive. Check out their gallery of photos.

Plastic Logic has yet to offer a release date for the device or how much it will cost.

Photo: Joanna Stern/Laptop Mag. Used by permission

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Intel’s fabrication plants can churn out hundreds of thousands of processor chips a day. But what does it take to handcraft a single 8-bit CPU and a computer? Give or take 18 months, about $1,000 and 1,253 pieces of wire.

Steve Chamberlin, a Belmont, California, videogame developer by day, set out on a quest to custom design and build his own 8-bit computer. The homebrew CPU would be called Big Mess of Wires or BMOW.Despite its name, it is a painstakingly created work of art.

“Computers can seem like complete black boxes. We understand what they do, but not how they do it, really,” says Chamberlin. “When I was finally able to mentally connect the dots all the way from the physics of a transistor up to a functioning computer, it was an incredible thrill.”

The 8-bit CPU and computer will be on display doing an interactive chess demo at the fourth annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, California, this weekend, May 30-31. It will be one of 600 exhibits of do-it-yourself technology, hacks, mods and just plain strange hobby projects at the faire, which is expected to draw 80,000 attendees.

The BMOW is closest in design to the MOS Technology 6502 processor used in the Apple II, Commodore 64 and early Atari videogame consoles.Chamberlin designed his CPU to have three 8-bit data registers, a 24-bit address size and 12 addressing modes. It took him about a year and a half from design to finish. Almost all the components come from the 1970s- and 1980s-era technology.

“Old ’80s vintage parts may not be very powerful, but they’re easy to work with and simple to understand,” he says. “They’re like the Volkswagen Beetles of computer hardware. Nobody argues they’re the best but we love them for their simplicity.”

To connect the parts, Chamberlin used wire wrapping instead of soldering. The technique involves taking a hollow, screwdriver-shaped tool and looping the wire through it to create a tight, secure connection. Wire wraps are seen as less prone to failures than soldered junctions but can take much longer to accomplish.Still, they offer one big advantage, says Chamberlin.

“Wire wrapping is changeable,” he says. “I can unwrap and start over if I make a mistake. It is is much harder to recover from a mistake if you solder.”

Chamberlin started with a a 127-inch Augat wire-wrap board with 2,832 gold wire-wrap posts that he purchased from eBay for $50. Eventually he used 1,253 pieces of wire to create 2,506 individually-wrapped connections, wrapping at the rate of almost 25 wires in an hour. “Its like a form of meditation,” he wrote on his blog. “Despite how long it takes to wrap, the wire-wrapping hasn’t really impacted my overall rate of progress. Design, debugging, and general procrastination consume the most time.”

The BMOW isn’t just a CPU. Chamberlin added a keyboard input, an LCD output that shows a strip of text, a USB connection, three-voice audio, and VGA video output to turn it into a functioning computer. The video circuitry, a UMC 70C171 color palette chip, was hard to come by, he says. When Chamberlin couldn’t find a source for it online, he went to a local electronics surplus warehouse and dug through a box of 20-year-old video cards. Two cards in there had the chip he needed, so he took one and repurposed it for his project.

The use of retro technology and parts is essential for a home hobbyist, says Chamberlin. Working with newer electronics technology can be difficult because a lot of modern parts are surface-mount chips instead of having through-hole pins. That requires a wave soldering oven, putting them out of reach of non-professionals.

After months of the CPU sitting naked on his desk, Chamberlin fashioned a case using a gutted X Terminal, a workstation popular in the early 1990s.

“Why did I do all this?” he says. “I don’t know. But it has been a lot of fun.”

Check out Steve Chamberlin’s log of how BMOW was built.

Photo: Wire wrapped 8-bit CPU/Steve Chamberlin

Posted under Gadget Reviews

And the winner is EcoVelo (Applause! Cheers!)

Online photo contests might not have the fancy award ceremonies of, say, the prestigious Webbies, but they do have the advantage of happening out in the open so you can check out all the entries. In the case of Princeton Tecs Got Lights On Bikes Photo Contest, 300 people submitted their snaps, and most of them are excellent.

The Flickr contest had one simple rule take a picture of a bike with lights on it. Above you see the Best Overall photo, named High Voltage, from the aforementioned EcoVelo. Notably, the bike looks, somewhat spookily, just like mine.

Of course, a contest wouldnt be a contest without prizes, and the Princeton competition has plenty. Ecovelo won a fixie, the Lager from SE, but the selection of giveaways is enough to keep the Gadget Lab stocked for a week at least. Go check out the group pool. Not only are there some great photos, there are some very nice rides in there, too.

Princeton Tec: Got Lights On Bikes Photo Contest [Flickr. Thanks, Keith!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

When we took a look at Griffin’s PowerBlock iPod and iPhone charger two weeks ago, we said it was “almost a no-brainer”. The PowerBlock is your usual USB wall-wart with one difference: a spare external battery. That this costs just $10 more than the official Apple charger is what makes it attractive. Griffin sent us one to look at. Here’s what we thought.

First, the brick is tiny, around the size of a cellphone charger. For me, over in Europe with our fancy-pants power outlets, this proved a little less exciting as I would have to carry a US travel adapter, too, but for US residents, the standard pair of flip-out prongs keeps things compact.

To use the charger you plug it in and hook up your gadget of choice via USB. This means you can power or charge pretty much anything. The spare battery pack is almostunnoticeableat first, distinguishable only by thematt finishwhich contrasts against theglossy coatingof the rest of the block. When the unit is hooked up to power, it trickle-charges the battery, Griffin claims three hours to fill it up, which is about right in my tests. Remember, though, that you won’t be using the battery all the time. You can therefore leave the pack on charge and grab it when you’re off on a long trip or have just forgotten to fully juice-up your iPod.

Pull the battery pack away and you’ll see the dock connector, which means it will only work with iPods and iPhones. The battery doesn’t get its power from here, though: The connector simply sits inside a plastic hole in the main body. Instead, it is held in place by a couple of magnets and charges via their connections. Neat.

The PowerBlock battery has a row of green LEDS along the front which light up when you plug the charger in, indicating the power level. When it’s giving succour to a nearly dead iPod, you can press the button on the front to see theremaining charge. It looks a lot like the battery indicator lights on a MacBook, in fact.

How much power do you get from a charge? Griffin says that the brick will give a full charge to a Nano, and half a charge to an iPhone or an iPod Touch, and this seems to be true. You can also just use theiPod as if it were plugged in, in which case, these are the officialnumbers:

4G Nano

24 hours music

6 hours video

iPhone 3G

1.5 hours Web Access

2 Hours Talk Time

I tried the 2G Nano and it charged to full in no time, just like being plugged in. There is a caveat, though. With aniPhone or almost any iPod, you just hook up the brick and carry on. The Touch and the Nano, however, have a problem: they have their headphone jacks on the bottom, next to the dock connector, which means that you can’t use headphones while charging. One more thing: You’ll need to bring your own iPod USB cable, as there is none in the box.

So, should you buy it? Yes. It costs $40, just $10 more than Apple’s own charger, and it has a spare battery which is so tiny and light you could keep it in your jeans pocket and not notice.If you’re in the market for a charger, then this is the one to buy. Seriously. It’s a no-brainer.

Product page [Griffin]
See Also:

Griffin PowerBlock Charger Packs a Spare

Posted under Gadget Reviews

UK police are on the verge of a a huge surveillance coup which will make 1984’s telescreens look as dumb and benevolent as a corner-store CCTV rig. Britain’s network of spy-cameras includes a fleet ofAutomatic Number Plate Recognition cams which read around 10 million license plates a day. These will soon be piped into one central computer which will compile and share this intelligence across the nation.

Remember: This isn’t being used to scan and log already suspect automobiles. It is recording the movements of every road user, whether a suspect, a criminal or an innocent traveller. Of course, these “innocent people have nothing to fear from the way we use it” Michael Fuller,Chief Constable of Kent, told the BBC.

Innocent people such as John Catt, for example. An anti-war demonstrator who has never been convicted of any crime, Catt was pulled by cops “threatened under the Terrorist Act” after his car was marked for surveillance by the system. Catt is over 65 years old.

Almost any “good enough” camera can be added to the network with a simple software upgrade, which means that millions of Britain’s legendary number of CCTV cams could be networked and log car registrations. Think about this for a second. Theorectically, any car could be tracked across the country. Not just by following it on the prolific CCTV network, but after the fact, just by typing the license plate number into a search engine. Are you scared yet?

Readers might like to check out a book by Charlie Stross, called the “Atrocity Archive” for an in depth look on just what a nationally networked camera system and some secret software sauce can do.

Camera grid to log number plates [BBC]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Microsoft may have been playing catchup to the iPod ever since it launched the Zune, but the Zune HD, which todaymaterializedfrom a rumor to a real product, looks to be a rather nice piece of iPod Touch-baiting hardware.

The new player has a 3.3-inch capacitive OLED touch screen at480 x 272 resolution, which will give some kind of multi-touch functionality,Wi-Fi, an HD radio (what?!) and “HD Video Out”, for which you will require an optional dock (and an optional HDTV). Also, see if any of this sounds familiar:

Enjoy your favorite websites with a full-featured web browser including tap to zoom technology, built-in accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.

<Cough> Safari <cough>. Will this be a mobile version of Internet Explorerer? We hope not. Of course, success will come down to the software, something that the Zune isn’t exactly famed for. There is, though, one real killer app — music streaming over Wi-Fi. The iPod Touch can do this with some third party apps, but it looks like the Zune HD will use the Zune Pass subscription service and let you stream any track you like, direct. It’s a shame there’s not a 3G radio in there, too. Wait… Could this mean there’s a Zune Phone coming?

Product page [Zune.net]

Press release [PR Newswire]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Canon’s 5D MkII is hot, hot, hot in the indie video world. Much cheaper than a similarly specced video camera and able to use pretty much any Canon lens made since the 1980s, it shoots some stunning footage.

The problem has been exposure control, or the lack of it. Up until now, you had to shoot in auto-exposure mode. It was possible to use exposure compensation to tweak the light, or to use exposure lock, but these were clunky workarounds. A new firmware update has been announced which will allow full manual control of the camera while shooting video. Here are the additions:

• Full aperture selection
• ISO speed: Auto, 100 6400 and H1
• Shutter speed: 1/30th 1/4000th second

Curiously, the update will not be available for download until June 2nd, which makes this perhaps the first time ever that we’ve seen a teaser for a firmware update.

Press release [DP Review]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

“Hello, iTalk?”

“Can I help you?”

“What day is it?”

“It’s Wednesday, you fool. Have you been drinking?”

This, up until the last line, is a genuine conversation between a man and a clock. The iTalk alarm clock, to be precise, a bedside robot which can be programmed by speech alone and asked moronic questions such as the one above.

In the video demonstration everything goes swimmingly, as you’d expect, although the human voice is a little disconcerting, being rather close to that of the Hooded Claw from Penelope Pitstop. Along with asking for a reminder of the day, you can set the alarm time, the alarm tone, ask the clock to read back the alarm time and also have the machine snooze (although hopefully for the last it will recognize the word “snzzeezzz” as correct, early morning input).

For when things go wrong, or when you get sick of the clock giving you examples instead of just shutting up and listening, there are regular buttons on the back. We laugh, but we suppose this could be handy, and the plain styling and big red numbers are certainly good looking enough. It would be even better if it hooked into your calendar to tell you what appointments the day may hold.

The iTalk will sell for $50, which is $50 more than the alarm clock you already have on your cellphone.

Product page [Neutrano. Thanks, Barry!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The Box Amp is a $30 kit from Critter and Guitari which will turn any old cardboard box into a guitar amplifier. You’ll need some basic soldering skills but once the hot-work is done, you’ll need nothing but a craft-knife to fashion an almost infinite array of enclosures.

The Box Amp consists of electronics, jack socket, nine-volt power supply and a speaker. The box acts as both a holder and to shape the sound, and the kit can be modded to run off a nine-volt battery for busking. We like the low-fi nature, and we also like that you can stick this bundle inside all kinds of cases to change the sound, from trash cans to mahogany boxes. Plus, if you’re going to go all Pete Townshend or Jimi Hendrix and start smashing up your gear, this is a lot cheaper to replace.

Product page [Critter and Guitari. Thanks, Eliot!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

iPod fan blog iLounge claims an insider has leaked details about Apple’s next iPod Nano. The publication says it’s received enough information to produce the above mock-up of the device.

iLounge’s source claims the fifth-generation iPod Nano screen will get widened to a 1.5:1 aspect ratio (up from 1.33:1). A major change will be the addition of a camera on the back, according to the source. Also, the click wheel will be slightly reduced in size and scooted downward on the device, the tipster said.

ETA? Between July and September. September is a good guess since it’s back-to-school season.

iLounge’s report corroborates an earlier rumor reported by HardMac claiming both the iPod Nano and the iPod Touch would gain cameras. We initially doubted the Nano would adopt a camera, but it’s worth noting iLounge has been correct with iPod rumors in the past, so now we’re a little less skeptical.

iPod nano 5G, Next-Gen iPhone Design Changes Revealed? [iLounge]

Illustration: iLounge

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Mac cloner Psystar has filed for bankruptcy, effectively stalling Apple’s legal case against the Florida-based startup.

Filed with the federal courts in Florida, the voluntary petition for bankruptcy protection temporarily puts Apple’s lawsuit on hold while the bankruptcy court begins proceedings.

Apple in July 2008 filed suit against Psystar alleging copyright, trademark and shrink-wrap license infringement. Psystar opened its Mac clone business in April, selling a PC hacked to run OS X Leopard.

Apple strictly forbids its operating system to be installed on anything but Apple products. The corporation alleges Psystar is violating the Mac OS X end-user agreement, which states, “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so. The corporation also alleges Psystar is committing copyright infringement by installing OS X on non-Apple hardware.

Psystar did not immediately respond to requests for comment. However, the bankruptcy petition suggests Psystar’s investors may have withdrawn from financially backing the company. The bankruptcy filing also implies that Psystar likely cannot afford a legal team to win its battle against Apple.

Winning the lawsuit would be a large victory for Apple, as it would set a legal precedent enabling the corporation to easily squash other existing Mac cloners.

The Florida court on June 5 will hold a hearing revealing Psystar’s equity creditors, meaning if there any large entities backing the Mac cloner (e.g., Microsoft), we’ll know who they are very soon.

Suggestion of Bankruptcy [PDF via MacObserver]

Image courtesy of Psystar

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Nokia launched its Ovi store featuring games, applications, podcasts and videos Monday to a rocky start as users faced problems accessing the store and downloading the programs.

“Shortly after launching the Ovi Store at 2 a.m. ET, we began experiencing extraordinarily high spikes of traffic that resulted in some performance issues for users accessing store.ovi.com and store.ovi.mobi,” said Eric John, head of product marketing for Nokia Ovi in a blog post. “We immediately began to address this issue by adding servers, which resulted in intermittent performance improvements. ”

The problems with Ovi’s launch do not bode well for Nokia, which has been struggling to better Apple’s app store offerings. Nokia has lagged other mobile platforms such as Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Google’s Android OS, both of which launched their own app stores months ago.

Ovi is seen as Nokia’s answer to Apple’s iTunes and iPhone app store as it consolidates free and paid content . The Ovi store can be accessed by about 50 million Nokia device owners worldwide including the soon-to-be launched N97 device. The store will have more than 20,000 titles at launch, said Nokia. Nokia customers can visit Ovi thorugh their phone’s browser to personalize and downloads services and programs.

“Ovi is open for business and we’ve stocked the shelves with both local and global content for a broad range of Nokia devices,” said Tero Ojanper, Executive Vice President, Nokia Services in a statement. “Ovi Store makes shopping for content and applications easy for feature phone and smartphone owners alike.”

But some Nokia fans aren’t pleased. Inability to access the Ovi store on launch isn’t the only trouble that users say they faced. Allaboutsymbian.com, a web site that follows Nokia closely, pointed out that the Ovi store does not offer a clear distinction between Java and native Symbian apps. The performance of the store client was also slow and the store did not have much content, said the site.

Despite these hiccups, the Ovi store won’t be immediately available in the U.S. AT&T, which sells some Nokia phones, has said it will offer access to Ovi to its customers only later this year. It may have turned out to be a good move as it will give Nokia time to sort out the bugs in the store.

Photo: Ovi store rendering on Nokia N97 (dekuwa/Flickr)

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Think you’re artistic? Try finger painting a magazine cover with your iPhone. Standing outside Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in Times Square, illustrator Jorge Colombo dabbed this week’s cover of The New Yorker with an iPhone app called Brushes. Its companion app Brushes Viewer captures every step of how Colombo composed the picture. (See video above.)

We love this stuff. In February, Wired.com compiled a gallery of illustrations made with the iPhone and iPod Touch. Check that out and submit your iPhone art to our Reddit widget.

Cover Story: Finger Painting [The New Yorker]

Brushes Download Link [iTunes]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

There are a fewitemsthat everyone should have in their toolkit, things so useful that there really is no excuse not to own them. Gaffer tape, or its residue-laying, brittle-ageing US counterpart, duct-tape, is one. Velcro is another. Now this diumvirate of utility is joined by a third object, a widget so simple that you could make your own in seconds, yet so versatile you couldn’t count its uses in a lifetime (well, maybe not in a dragonfly’s lifetime, at least).

It is the ball-bungee, and you can see it above. It consists of a hollow plastic ball and a length of elastic cord. With it you can hold almost any two items together. I came across them by way of the Strobist blog, and they are particularly suited to photography as there are no scratchy parts on them. You can secure flashes to poles, or even small comapct cameras to, well, anything. I wanted to make a couple to hold my umbrella to my light-stand, which is one of the “traditional” uses.

Yes, I said make. I figured that the ball bungee would make a great how-to post for theGadget Lab, being simple, cheap, quick and useful. Like always, I visited my local hardware emporium, only to find no plastic baubles and, shockingly, no elastic cord. There were, however, packs of ball-bungees in the garden section. The price? Just over 2 for a pack of four, or about US 70 apiece. At this price, it’s clearly useless to make your own. And as a generic product, there’s nomanufacturerspage to link to. You’ll just have to go visit your local hardware store.

Posted under Gadget Reviews

It’s almost impossible to decide what is best about the packaging of this toy gun. The West Bull-Puncher Sunset Riders is a celebration of international misunderstanding, an example of Chinglish at its very finest. That we found it on sale in the candy store at a multiplex cinema in Barcelona, Spain only adds to the absurdity of the product.

The first temptation is the promise of “unbelievable stimulation”, something obviously unsuited to the marketing of any children’s toy, let alone a death-spitting gun. Possibly put off, we are assured that we are “welcome to choose out product”, a blessed relief to be sure. Feeling more comfortable now, perhaps we should take a look at the back of the box?

Here we are shown the details, a set of features essential to any toy firearm: “Flash action”, of course, along with “trigger” and the innovative “turn”. Thankfully the box is open at the front so you can inspect the goods before purchase. Otherwise, who knows what might be inside, especially as the box warns “Specifications colours and contents may vary from illustrations.”?

Fantastic, I think you’ll all agree. In fact, almost as good as the movie we were on our way to see: Star Trek.

Photos: Jaume Muoz

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Oh Palm. If you’re going to badmouth potential customers in your secret documents, at least keep them, y’know, secret. The above statement is one of many juicy tidbits inside the Pre Business Launch Guide. a 22-page document “leaked in itsentirety” this weekend.

The document reveals Palm’s plans for domination of the business world, its traditional marketplace. Sample points taken from the manual:

• The device can be supported by existing IT infrastructure and will make many IT managers’ standards list.
• [Non-Palm] charging solutions may not work properly.
• Due to anticipated high demand, employee availability will delayed to first meet the needs of our customers.
• The sealed form factor of the device makes repairs challenging and the potential for damage is significant.
• Palm Pre Smokes the Competition

(This last point is to be delivered with a high-five)

Price plans are equallydetailed, running from $70 per month for 400 minutes (on a shared plan) or 450 minutes (individualplan), topping out at a reasonable $100 for the individual “Simply Everything” plan which includes unlimited talk time. Like the iPhone, you will have to buy some kind of data plan as “legacy plans” are prohibited.

In addition, corporate switchers coming from other carriers may be eligible for a $100 credit on service, which isn’t a bad way to tempt people across.

Also revealed are prices for accessories. The Touchstone and car-charger we have seen already, but now we know that the Premium Holster (a fashion disaster that could only be loved by the be-suited exec) will cost $32, the micro-USB travel charger will be $35, the Leather Pouch $40 and phone covers will start at $30.

There’s more. We already know about the official launch on June 6th, but there are a few other secret and exclusive events. On Friday 5th June, there will be a New York Executive Breakfast along with various Sprint promos in “10 Flagship Stores” and an invite-only “VIP Event”. On the 3rd, we’ll see a “Hollywood Event”.

And the statement in the title? That’s one of the best parts of the whole document. The text appears in big pink lettering on page 11 of the guide, which explains the the Pre is not for everyone. Titled “Sell the Palm Pre to the Right Customer”, theofficialline is that the Pre is “best suited for non-IT Centric business users.” That sounds to us like the Pre isn’t up to the job of being a proper business smartphone, and it’s for the exact same reason that the iPhone was a hopeless business phone on launch — web apps.

The Pre can’t run proper applications, instead using the WebOS, essentially a way to run web pages locally using javascript and CSS. Rememeber the iPhone’s web apps? This is the same kind of thing, albeit with local storage for offline use. Palm admits as much. Thequestionnairereads thus:

• Does your company have specific application requirements?
• Does your line of business require specific product features on mobile devices?
• If YES, then the Treo Pro is your best mobile device option

Yes. According to Palm, if you are a business customer, you should buy the Treo. The Pre, the much-hyped Palm-saviour, is not good enough for you. Full marks to Palm for being honest, but this is a somewhat suicidal statement given the company’s precarious position. It hurts me to do this as I’d love to see the Pre succeed, but I predict a big fat fail. The Pre is no more an iPhone killer than the Zune was an iPod killer. There will be a big bang on the opening weekend followed by a slow and quiet spiral into obscurity.

Sprint’s Pre business launch guide leaked in its entirety [Engadget]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Apple has finally approved the gorgeous-looking e-book reader, Eucalyptus, for the iTunes App Store. The application was previously banned for pornographic reasons: not because it contained objectionable material butbecause it could be used to download the Kama Sutra, an ancient text which acts as a manual for living a good and full life.

Whoever was on Approval Duty at Apple that day obviously saw the name “Kama Sutra” in the list of downloadable books and had such a knee-jerk reaction that they likely smashed in their own teeth, believing that the book is some kind of sex manual (it isn’t, although it does contain some sex advice — take a look at an issue of Cosmopolitan if you want some real, juicy sex talk). After the now familiar fuss, accompanied by blog posts and Twitter tweets, Apple has relented and allowed Eucalyptus into its inner sanctum of taste.

Eucalyptus costs $10 and has access to around 20,000 Project Gutenberg texts. As we said, it looks gorgeous, with proper hyphenation, a hand-rolled typesetting algorithm and a rather lovely page-turning animation (there’s a video on the website). The problem is that you can’t add your own books: It’s all public domain, which often, although not always, means old.

In other news, Apple issues official statement of outrage at the “filthy” Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Product page [Things Made Out of Other Things]
Product page [iTunes]

See Also:

E-Reader iPhone App Rejected Because Users Can Download Kama Sutra

Posted under Gadget Reviews

A surprise it isnt, but its nice to know that at the very least the iPhone is about to get a storage boost, doubling its internal flash memory to 32GB. Up until the euthanization of the 160GB iPod Classic, Apple could always be relied upon to increase drive size in iPods.

The rumors/leaks come from two independent sources, and both are the results of either incompetent slip-ups or a genius-level marketing strategy. First, T-Mobile Austria posted a placeholder on its site listing a iPhone 32GB starting at 0 (thats $0, for the mathematically challenged), and the blog Area Mobile was sharp enough to grab a screen shot.

Next up, Rogers. The much loved Canadian carrier has posted a list of upcoming handsets according to the Boy Genius Report. Heres therelevant line: # iPhone ETA: unknown (July/August), outright: not allowed, 3-year: TBD. Thats right folk: three years. This doesnt point to a 32GB model, but it at least offers some confirmation of an early Summer launch.

Finally, Vodafone Australia has issued an end-of-life notice for the 32GB iPhone. This could, of course, just means that the 16GB iPhone 3G is about to be replaced by a newer 16GB iPhone, but we agree with MacTalk.au that it looks like there will be a bigger model along soon.

And you know what else this means? The iPod Touch has always had double the capacity of the largest iPhone, which probably means a ridiculously large 64GB model is on the way.

Existence confirmed: 32 GB iPhone on T-Mobile will be available shortly [Area Mobile]

Rumour: 16GB iPhone Declared End of Life By Vodafone & Brightpoint [MacTalk]

More good news for Rogers customers: upcoming handset release details [Boy Genius Report]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

A Floppy RAID might sound like the title of a frustrating niche adult movie, but it isnt. Instead, it is a homebrew project by Daniel Blade Olson* which cobbles together five 3.5 floppy drives into a redundant disk array.

RAID means either extra speed or extra data security, but Olsons version offers neither. The setup gives a mere 3.9MB of usable space and runs at a speed that makes dialup look quick. Daniel says I was able to transfer DEVO Uncontrolable Urge.mp3 which is 3.6 MB in 32 seconds. Which is pretty good I think.

The project was ridiculously simple. Or at least, it was simple on a 500MHz Bondi Blue iMac. Attempting the same thing on a modern-day Dell machine running Windows XP was impossible. Olson grabbed a bunch of returned but functioning USB floppy drives from his place of work and simply hooked them up to the iMac: four into a USB hub and one directly to a USB port. OS Xs Disk Utility was used to make the RAID in about six minutes, and Daniel was good to go.

Why not bigger? I would have connected more units together, but I ran out of USB ports says Olson. And hes still going. Already built are a 2X speed floppy RAID ( It was able to transfer the same awesome DEVO song in just 16 seconds! KICK ASS!!!) and a Sony Memory Stick RAID.

Next up: A RAID made from 127 floppy drives.

USB Floppy Disk Striped RAID Under OS X [Ohlssonvox via Every Joe and Oh Gizmo!]

Photos: Daniel Olson

*Porn-star name: Daniel Blade Olson

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Lenovo has introduced a new netbook with a 12-inch display that will also be the first netbook device to include Nvidia’ s new graphics platform, Ion.

The IdeaPad S12 from Lenovo will have a 100 percent full-size keyboard, weigh about 3 pounds, run on Intel’s Atom processor, include up to 160 GB of storage and 1 GB of memory.

“Most 10-inch netbook models only have 89 percent sized keyboard in them and we have seen users complain about the keyboard size,” says Charles Farmer, consumer products marketing manager for Lenovo. “The 12-inch netbook gives users a more comfortable experience.”

Lenovo’s latest product speaks to the trend of netbooks getting bigger screens. The earliest Asus netbooks had a 7-inch screen. But recently it has made the move towards larger displays. About 95 percent of Asus’ netbook shipments have a 10-inch display, the company has said. Recently Samsung introduced its NC20 notebook with a 12-inch display and a VIA Nano CPU.

For Lenovo’s IdeaPad S12, the Nvidia Ion platform is expected to be a big draw. Intel’s Atom processor isn’t suited for high-definition video or gaming, which restricts netbooks to just email, word processing and web browsing. Nvidia is looking to change that with its Ion graphics platform targeted at netbooks.

“NVIDIA Ion graphics help deliver the same features found in premium PCs at a lower price points and new form factors,” says Rene Haas, general manager, notebook GPUs for Nvidia in a statement. “With enhanced graphics, the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 netbook is perfect for watching movies, playing popular games like Spore, flipping through vacation pictures or enhancing family videos.”

The IdeaPad S12 netbook will offer up to six hours of battery life and will have WiFi and 3G connectivity. It will be available in two colors, black and white. The netbook will start shipping in June and is priced at $449.

Lenovo also plans to introduce two new notebook models including the ultra-thin IdeaPad U350. The laptop weighs 3.5 pounds has a 13.3 inch display, and be available with either the Intel Core2Solo or the Pentium ultra low voltage processors. The U350 will also offer up to up to 8 GB memory and up to 500 GB of hard drive storage. The notebook will be available in July and will be priced starting at $649.

Photo: Lenovo IdeaPad S12/Lenovo

Posted under Gadget Reviews

A loaf of bread, a terrestrial globe, a plastic skeleton and a hamburger. Is there anything you cant send by mail?

Swedish artist Eric Ericson has for several years been sending the strangest objects to a post office on Rosa-Luxembourg-Strasse in Berlin, addressed to a Mr. Cheng. He didnt package the items, just sent them the way they were kind of like Wired’s long-running Return to Sender contest.

I wanted to see what was possible to send, and what would arrive, says Ericson, who has put all the items in a book, To Mr. Cheng, which has been published in Sweden.

Wired.com got curious and called Ericson.

Wired.com: What was the most difficult item to send?
Eric Ericson: Probably a mannequin that I sent in parts, it was kind of tricky. Sending a box of chocolate is much easier than sending a plastic skeleton. Food is easy; you just put it in a mailbox.

Wired.com: How did you get the idea?
Ericson: Ive always been sending things by mail, just for fun. I sent things that I found, that came to my mind, all kinds of stuff. In the beginning, I had no intention of making a book, but then I felt that I wanted to do something out of it.

Wired.com: You have previously published books of letters, for example one where you sent letters with odd ideas to authorities, like asking a Swedish municipality if it could host a North American Indian tribe. Why are you so fascinated by letters?
Ericson: Sending things is a fun way to communicate, and I love the seriousness in letters. I mean, you would never receive a lawsuit by e-mail. There is something about letters, especially nowadays when they are getting more and more rare, and were communicating in other ways instead.

Wired.com: You seem almost obsessed with the postal system.
Ericson: Yes almost, or at least very interested. Im very excited about logistics, about the fact that most of the stuff actually arrives. That it works. That you can pay 5.50 [Swedish] kronor [about 70 cents], put it in a mailbox, and the next day the letter arrives in Kiruna [the northernmost city in Sweden].

Just as with the postal system, I find it fascinating how the whole society works, that people go to work, pay their bills and go on vacation when they should. Were like ants in a large anthill and we carry out our tasks, even when we dont want to. We think were free, but were not. You cant escape society.

Posted under Gadget Reviews

This month, the Apple rumor volcano erupted with purported details of the next-generation iPhone. Various blogs claim receiving tips from informed sources about features in the highly anticipated handset, such as a magnetometer (digital compass), a video camera and a speedier processor.

Here, we round up every rumor that’s appeared about Apple’s next iPhone, which many are betting will be announced June 8 at the Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco. We’re also accompanying each rumor with a percentage rating for its probability to be true, as well as our analysis.

When WWDC arrives, we’ll present a report card showing which publications were correct and which were wrong. And of course, we’ll grade ourselves on our predictions, too.

With that said, here’s everything we’ve heard about the next iPhone:

Speedier processor and more RAM
Source: Daring Fireball; Apple iPhone Apps; MacRumors; WeiPhone
Probability: 95%
This is pretty obvious: Any hardware upgrade typically receives a performance boost. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has historically been one of the most accurate with Apple rumors, and his sources tell him the next iPhone will have a 600MHz processor (up from 400MHz). That would make the next iPhone 1.5 times as fast as the current one. Also, a recent job listing reveals that Apple is hiring a low-level iPhone programmer who is familiar with the ARMv7 Cortex mobile processor, which is much faster than the current iPhone’s ARMv6-based chip. As for memory, we’d expect Apple to increase RAM to complement the processor upgrade.

Magnetometer (digital compass)
Source: The Boy Genius Report; Daring Fireball; WeiPhone
Probability: 90%
A large amount of evidence indicates that the next iPhone will feature a magnetometer, a 3-axis compass that will greatly enhance its global positioning capabilities. Developers testing the iPhone 3.0 beta have found system files and screenshots referring to a magnetometer, which suggests the hardware feature will appear in the next iPhone.

Same industrial design as previous models
Source: WeiPhone; Daring Fireball
Probability: 90%
All the probable rumors suggest this will be an incremental upgrade, so we would not expect Apple to change much in the industrial design. That would mean the screen resolution should remain the same. Also, Apple would hesitate to change much about the overall form factor, as it would require iPhone application developers to dramatically change their apps just for the new phone.

Storage options increased: 16GB and 32GB
Source: Daring Fireball; Apple iPhone Apps
Probability: 80%
The current iPhones come in two models: 8GB and 16GB. Upping the storage to 16GB and 32GB is a small, incremental upgrade, which would allow Apple to maintain the price points for the handset.

$200 and $300 price points to be maintained
Source: Daring Fireball; Apple iPhone Apps
Probability: 75%
Apple’s iPhone 3G was a tremendous success, selling over 10 million units in 2008. Apple relies on hardware upgrades to boost sales numbers, and given the solid performance of the previous iPhone, the company has no strong incentive to reduce the handset’s costs.

Video-recording and editing capabilities
Source: Engadget; MacRumors; BusinessWeek
Probability: 70%
Some developers have published screen captures of a video interface discovered in iPhone 3.0 beta. A major complaint about the current iPhone is its inability to record video, so it would be surprising if Apple didn’t deliver this feature. We would give this rumor a higher rating if there were evidence of video-editing capabilities. Currently, we haven’t seen any.

Sleeker design
Source: Apple iPhone Apps
Probability: 60%
No solid evidence of this, but the traditional evolution of Apple products is they get slimmer and sleeker.

1.5 times the battery life of the current models
Probability: 60%
Source: Apple iPhone Apps
A major complaint about the iPhone 3G is its meager battery life. Therefore, Apple will most likely claim the next iPhone has improved battery life. We’ll have to test the next iPhone’s battery life to see if Apple’s claims are true.

OLED screen
Source: Apple iPhone Apps; Register Hardware
Probability: 20%
An obscure iPhone blog reported a rumor that the next iPhone will feature an OLED screen. However, this is unlikely as OLEDs are expensive and would likely drive the iPhone’s price points higher. Evidence of this feature is scant.

Glowing Apple logo on the back
Probability: 20%
Source: Apple iPhone Apps
Unnecessary. Rumor comes from an obscure blog with little cred.

Discontinuation of the metal band surrounding the edge of the device
Probability: 20%
Source: Apple iPhone Apps
No evidence of this. We’re not sure why Apple would choose to remove this band.

Rubber-tread backing
Probability: 15%
Source: Apple iPhone Apps
Unlikely, as it would be ugly, and Apple likes pretty things. Also, the rumor comes from the same obscure blog as the one above.

Built-in FM transmitter
Source: Apple iPhone Apps
Probability: 10%
We see no compelling reason for Apple to put this in the iPhone, as it is not a feature that users have been demanding, and it hasnt appeared in other iPods.

What are your bets? Add your predictions in the comments below.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

In this week’s episode of the Gadget Lab podcast, the gang gossips about the upcoming battle between Palm and Apple. Palms iPhone rival, the Palm Pre, is hitting stores June 6 just two days before Apples Worldwide Developer Conference, where many are expecting the next iPhone to be announced. We give our impressions of the Palm Pre and a rundown of some of the latest next-gen iPhone rumors.

We conclude the podcast with impressions of a car most of us will never be able to drive: the Aston Martin DB9 Volante, a $209,000 convertible. James Bond would probably love this thing.

This weeks podcast features Danny Dumas, Priya Ganapati and Brian Chen, with audio engineering by Fernando Cardoso.

If the embedded player above doesnt work, you can download the Gadget Lab podcast #75 MP3 file.

Use iTunes? Subscribe to the Gadget Lab Audio Podcast in iTunes. Do it now!

Like video? Aim your browser at the Gadget Lab Video Podcast available on iTunes and right here on the Gadget Lab blog.

Posted under Gadget Reviews

E-books are the ‘it’ gadget of the year.But picking an e-book reader is more difficult than choosing a brand of cereal or a bottle of shampoo. Every other week, a new reader is gussied up in the factories of Taiwan, ready to make its debut. At last count, we estimated at least 12 different e-book readers on the market or close to release.

How do you know which one is right for you?

All e-book readers promise to do one thing well: display text, especially for books. But there are a few more basic requirements: It must offer long battery life, be easy to carry, have a screen that doesn’t strain the eyes and can be easily read in all environments including bright sunlight. Fortunately, most e-book readers for sale today meet that basic criteria.

There are many devices to choose from, and there’s also a lot of homogeneity in looks, style and function. Almost all the e-book readers available are paperback-sized and sport a display sourced from E Ink, the Cambridge Massachusetts-based company.

So should you buy the $360 Amazon Kindle (after all, it’s the most widely known e-reader and is backed by the Amazon brand) or the $250 upstart Cool-er e-book reader launched just a week ago?

Read on for our guide on what you need to think about before buying an e-book reader, whether you want to read the latest book from the Twilight saga or Thank God It’s Monday, the current No. 2 bestseller on Amazon’s list.

Location: Whether you are in the lower 48 will determine how well the Amazon Kindle 2 and the upcoming Kindle DX will work for you. Both devices use Sprint’s EVDO network to offer wireless downloads of e-books and periodicals. But tough luck if you are in Alaska or the U.K.

International buyers might have a tough time getting their hands on the Kindle DX. Users have to trick Amazon into believing their billing address is associated with an address in the United States. Even if they get one, they’ll end up with a crippled device that allows only for transfer of e-books using USB.

In which case, it may be a better option to buy a cheaper device that only offers USB-based connectivity such as the Sony Reader, the Hanthe Foxit eSlick Reader or even the newly launched Cool-er. Some of the e-book readers are also country-specific. The BeBook is available largely in the Netherlands, the Fujitsu Flepia that promises a color screen will start shipping in a few weeks but only in Japan.

Access to content: This is probably the single most important factor to consider when you buy an e-book reader. Most e-book manufacturers have their own e-books store. And size matters here. The more publishers the manufacturers can ink deals with, the greater the chances that the book you want is available.

That’s where Amazon’s Kindle scores. As the biggest online retailer of books, Amazon has been able to leverage that relationship for the Kindle and its e-book store is probably the largest, with more than 285,000 books, according to Amazon.

But Sony is fast catching up. It announced a partnership with Google to bring about half-million classic books to its digital book store. Sony Readers can get those books for free. Sony had about 100,000 titles in its e-book store at the end of 2008.

Other e-book readers such as the iRex iLiad or the Hanlin eReader don’t have that kind of muscle and though these e-book owners can buy books from other online book stores, it doesn’t offer a smooth, integrated experience. Think buying music through iTunes for the iPod vs. buying music on iTunes for the SanDisk music player.

Formats supported: Almost all the e-book readers support HTML, Txt, MP3 and JPG. The battle of formats in the world of e-books is largely between the proprietary format that Amazon uses called .azw, a flavor of Mobipocket, and the open source ePub.Amazon’s Kindle does not support ePub; almost all other e-book readers do.

Why should you care? Many of the largest publishers have books available in the ePub format, including Google’s classic books. Because ePub is an open source format, it allows book designers to create better-formatted titles than Amazon’s proprietary file format. Also, if you don’t like DRM on your books, you have a better chance of finding DRM-free books in the ePub format than the .azw format. There’s speculation that Amazon might open up the Kindle to support ePub. But till that happens, you have to make the decision: Which side of the fence do you want to be on?

Going beyond just books: What do you want to use your e-book reader for? If the answer is just books, e-book readers such as the Cool-er start at $250. But the Cool-er won’t do much beyond books because it does not support magazines and periodicals. Like to read blogs or newspapers on your e-book reader? You’ll have to get Kindle 2 for that because Amazon lets users publish blogs to the Kindle. Thanks to its wireless connection, the Kindle also offers basic web surfing. Even better, would you like to hack your machine and make it run some cool applications? You’re better off choosing a lesser known e-book reader that runs the Linux operating system

Price and brand: What’s your budget and how important is the brand for you? In this recessionary economy, everyone’s watching their dollars. And while the Kindle is attractive, at $360 it isn’t cheap.If you’d like to save a few bucks, the Bookeen Cybook is an alternative priced at $350. Or go for the Cool-er at just $250. There are cheaper alternatives to the Kindle, but hey, it isn’t a Kindle. Can you live with that?

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

You’re probably already stuffed with iPhone rumors, but consider this dessert. Daring Fireball’s John Gruber has heard from “informed sources” that the next-generation iPhone will receive a significant processor upgrade, bumping the speed to 600MHz, which should make the new handset 1.5 times as fast as the current 400MHz iPhone CPU. He also claims receiving confirmation that the rumors about Apple implementing a magnetometer (digital compass) and a video camera into the next iPhone are true.

One last morsel: MacTalk reports that Vodafone has declared the current 16GB iPhone has been labeled “End of Life,” meaning new iPhones are on their way.

When? Gruber predicts the announcement will be made at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, which kicks off June 8, and the phone will hit stores in July. That’s a reasonable assumption, because Apple announced the current iPhone 3G at 2008’s WWDC. Also, Apple will likely have to hold WWDC sessions devoted to the new iPhone’s API, and the company would of course have to announce the product first.

Photo: Erik Veland/Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews