GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

SAN JOSE, CA Verizon on Tuesday announced details of its upcoming application store to a packed conference room of potential developers.

To entice developers, Verizon highlighted the simplicity of submitting and selling software through its app store, which is slated for an end-of-year launch. The company said it is not providing a software development kit, but rather open APIs for billing systems, location-aware features with other mobile platforms. That way, developers coding for Research In Motion’s BlackBerry World Store, for example, can simply embed Verizon’s APIs to sell their apps through the Verizon app store, thereby increasing exposure and profit potential.

Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless’s CEO, said Verizon’s goal is to “provide more mobile applications than anyone else.”

Its a new day,” McAdam said on Tuesday to developers at the Verizon Developer Community Conference in San Jose. “Our success is tied to you.

Some of Verizon’s tactics are clearly targeted at luring developers away from Apple’s App Store. For instance, Verizon promised approved apps would take only 14 days to launch after its date of submission. The move appears to address a persistent complaint regarding Apple’s App Store, whose approval policy is unclear and inconsistent, making some rejections appear arbitrary to developers. iPhone developers also often don’t know when their apps will actually launch after submission.

Borrowing from Apple’s App Store model, however, Verizon said its developers would receive 70 percent of each sale the same portion developers receive from the App Store.

Wired.com will be sitting in Verizon developer sessions throughout the day and update this post as more details emerge.

Photo: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

HP employees at the company’s headquarters in Palo Alto were in for a shock Tuesday morning as they found the message “Hazardous Products” painted on the roof of their office and Greenpeace activists squatting on top. The activists were protesting HP’s alleged backtracking on its commitment to eliminate toxic chemicals from its products by the end of the year.

Greenpeace activists climbed to the top of HP’s building and inked the slogan using non-toxic childrens finger-paint, said the organization. The message covers about 11,500 square feet, or the size of two and half basketball courts.

Based on the photos provided by Greenpeace, at least ten Greenpeace activists were seen sitting on the roof of the HP building. Greenpeace has had similar demonstrations against HP at its offices in China and Holland, it says.

Graffitis wasn’t all that HP employees had to put up with. They were also greeted by automated phone calls from Star Trek star William Shatner. Shatner’s pre-recorded message reportedly called upon HP to phase out toxic chemicals.

“HP continues to put hazardous products on the market,” said Greenpeace International Toxics Campaigner Casey Harrell in a statement. “Apple has led the sector in phasing out of these toxic chemicals. HP should be following Apples lead, instead of breaking its commitment and delaying action.”

According to Greenpeace, HP has postponed a commitment it made in 2007 to eliminate materials such as brominated flame retardants (BFRs) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastics from its computing products. Greenpeace regards the materials as toxic and has asked PC makers to offer products free of it. PVC and BFRs can release dioxin, a carcinogen, when burned, says Greenpeace.

HP has reportedly delayed its compliance by up to two years, from 2009 to 2011. The company ranks 14th in the quarterly Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics.

Greenpeace’s score card puts HP rivals such as Apple, Dell, Lenovo and Acer ahead in terms of compliance. Apples new computer products are virtually free of PVC and completely BFR free, said Greenpeace.

But how much will Greenpeace’s latest actions help HP move faster? Beyond bringing some attention to Greenpeace, we are not sure it helps much in getting HP to work on its manufacturing process.

See more photos from the Greenpeace protest.

Photo: Greenpeace activists protest on the roof of HP’s building/ Greenpeace

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Tail-Light, or TIE-Fighter? You decide.

In the olden days, bike lights were more about being seen than actually seeing. Incandescent bulbs and D-cells meant that youd be able to present the aspect of a bright-ish candle to other road-goers, but anything more powerful was specialized and expensive.

Today, with lithium cells and LEDs, were spoiled, and the Seat Stay Tail Light from Serfas is just the latest in a line of bouncy silicon face-huggers that quickly schloop onto your frame and beam out a bright beacon for up to 100 hours.

The Seat Stay Light has one central eye which throws out half a watt and is flanked by six smaller diodes. Power comes from a pair of CR 2032 button cells and in addition to the usual flashing and constant beams there is a strobe mode. Yes, in addition to resembling a TIE-Fighter, the lamp has a Knight Rider/Cylon mode. Clearly this is awesome.

Its sure not as pretty as the Knog Hipster-Cysts from down-under, but, hell, Knight Rider! $20.

Product page [Serfas via Urban Velo]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Summer is a great time to get out on two wheels. Sure, Summer means different things in different places here in Barcelona it means the afternoons are too hot to leave the house. In England it means rain, just like any other day. But it also means more outdoor sports, so maybe you should think about dusting off the bike, heading outside and burning some calories while enjoying the sun. Here are five gadgets that will make the trips even better.

Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Wired

Toe Clips

Unless youre just nipping out to the store, toe-clips and straps can make a huge change to your riding. The metal calipers keep the straps held open so your feet can easily slide in, and they also stop your feet from moving too far forward.

Essential on a fixed-gear where having a foot slip off the pedal could be disastrous, they also help stopping and accelerating by letting you apply upwards force on the pedal.

More important for occasional riders is that they keep you feet in the right place, placing the ball of the toes over the pedal. Most people just sit the centre of their soles on the platform which is inefficient and actually less comfortable. Buy some clips. Any brand will do to start, just ask your LBS (Local Bike Store).

Photo: J Ferguson/Flickr

Pump

Sure, you have a pump, but a) does it really work and b) do you use it? Its important to keep tires at the correct pressure to protect the rims of the wheels, to keep the bike rolling smoothly (under-pumped tires make for a sluggish ride) and to stop the inner-tubes themselves from being pinched and bursting.

Tires all have the recommended pressure written on the side-wall, and you should inflate accordingly using either a floor pump with a gauge, the kind you put your feet on a pump with two hands, or use a decent, compact hand pump and keep shoving in the air until the tire is hard. The advantage of a portable pump is that you can take it with you and fix punctures on the road. The one you see here is the Crank Brothers Power Pump Pro, a $38 device which can be switched between high-volume and high-pressure, and has a built-in pressure gauge. I have the baby brother of this model and it is sturdy, light and works great.

Product page [Crank Bros]

Water Bottle

You can either throw a bottle of mineral water in the bikes basket, wear a water-carrying backpack like the CamelBak or use a bottle-cage fixed to the frame. Whatever you choose, take something. Biking will often take you away from urban centers and you cant just visit a corner store when youre on a forest road. Hell, if youre feeling fancy, you can even hack your own holder.

Seat

The seat that came with your bike probably sucks. It will make you sweaty, put pressure on your perineum and generally make you sore. There are a few ways to go here. A noseless seat can be comfier as it doesnt press on the sensitive baby-maker, but a properly adjusted traditional-style saddle wont, either. You can go for a heavily padded, wide saddle, but this will still make you sweaty if it is made of plastic.

My choice is the Brooks. I have an old, sprung one on my Dutch city bike, and a new, unsprung one on my fixed. Both are extraordinarily comfortable, and better, both wick sweat away so even after a long ride in Summer heat you step away dry. Theyre not cheap a basic one costs around $70, but it will probably be the last saddle you ever need to buy (just pop the old plastic one back on when you sell the bike).

Product page [Brooks]

Computer

This certainly doesnt seem necessary, but once you start racking up the miles youll want to know just how many you did. A basic cyclometer, like Knogs NERD, will count the revolutions of the front wheel and use the data to calculate speed, distance and, combined with the clock, a whole lot of other useful info. Go for a wireless version which puts the terminal on the handlebars and the counter down on the bikes fork, where it is tripped once per revolution by a spoke-mounted magnet.

Higher end models get GPS, Bluetooth and altimeters, but you can get something simple like the Nerd for $50-$60. Its worth it the first time you can brag to your friends that you broke the speed limit under your own power.

Product page [Knog]
Photo: Leander Kahney/Wired

Posted under Gadget Reviews

If you have an oil or a jam-making thermometer, a specialist deep-fryer is uneccesary. You just dump a few bottles of oil into a big, heavy pot and throw it on a high flame, watching the temperature slowly climb. The trouble with this is that you need lots of oil, and its messy filtering it back into the bottles (when cold, of course).

So we actually like this mini-fryer from Deni, which sits on the countertop or can be stowed full, and best of all can fry with just a quart of oil (around one liter) thanks to its compact form and tall, narrow shape, meaning you dont need a huge investment in grease just to get started.

Theres also a frying basket, a magnetic safety cable (like the MacBook Mag Safe connectors) and a thermometer, which should on no account be trusted: use your own to double-check it. The fryer maxes out at a French-fry-browning 375F (190C) and costs a reasonable $45. Buy it now and enjoy the health benefits of quick-sealed, deep-fried, low-fat food. Can anyone say Mmmmm. Donuts?

Product page [Chefs Catalog via Oh Gizmo!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Ho ho ho! This little plastic iPod-shaped eggcup is called the eiPOTT. The Ei part means egg in German. The Pott part you can guess. Its actually a rather appropriate shape for an eggcup: The clickwheel holds the egg and the recessed screen takes either a generous dose of salt or the cracked remains of the bashed-in shell.

Whats more, while this looks like yet another concept design, its actually a real, shipping product, and as even Apple cant really claim that anyone would mistake this for a real media-player, its likely to remain on sale. At 7.50 ($10.60), it even carries a genuinely high, Apple-style price-tag.

A challenge: The first person to hack one of these into a real MP3 player wins a Gadget Lab Pat on the Back.

Product page [QED Design via Core77]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

James May, presenter of the show Top Gear, is planning to build a house entirely out of Lego bricks. No big deal, you say. Weve all done that. Mays is planning a little bigger, and is making a life-sized house out of the plastic bricks, including a staircase and a fully plumbed, working toilet.

Why? Because he can. Mays has another show called James Mays Toy Stories (the creative department was out playing Nerf the day the name was decided), which appears to be a kind of Top Gear for toys. Recently he built a garden from Plasticene (a non-drying Play-Do).

May has no idea how many bricks hell need, but is said to already have thousands. We have a feeling itll take a few more than that, but we wish him luck. When its done, May plans to live in the house for a couple of days to try it out.

Top Gear star to build Lego house [BBC. Thanks, Chuck!]

Photo: Mirko Macari/Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Boardy is a USB stick made from dead trees. Shrinking tech means that your only real physical limit to squeezing a USB drive into anything is the plug itself, and this time the Boardy folks squeezed the electronics into a sheet of paper.

The intended use is clear: schwag. That huge, foldable surface has advertising written all over it, or at least it will at the next trade show or convention you visit, so its likely that youll never have to buy one of your own. The paper, once the sponsors message is read (or ignored), is folded into a more compact and pluggable form, and midway through this transformation it looks, briefly, like a paper scorpion (above right).

We dig it, and in fact, whats not to like? You get a free pen-drive, an origami toy and, after you tear the stick from the ad, a stack of paper perfect for propping up a wobbly bar table. Also: scorpions!

Product page [Boardy Products. Thanks, Barry!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Ugobe’s cute little green monster, the Pleo, is a tenacious creature. Though Pleo’s parent company Ugobe shut down after filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, the little green dinosaur continues to survive — for now.

The robot is available at Amazon, Target.com and BestBuy.com through Senario, which claims to be the only distributor in the U.S. with Pleo stock. Pleo, which carried a list price of $350, retails for $158 on Amazon.

Wired.com has got a Pleo to give away to its readers. All you have to do is answer the question: What kind of features would you like to see in the Pleo?

Leave your answer in the comments and the Gadget Lab team will pick the best one as the winner. The commenter will get the Pleo shipped to him/her. Be sure to include a valid email address when you write your comment.

Photo: Pleo (tsukubajin/Flickr)

Posted under Gadget Reviews

With rumors piling up about a forthcoming Apple tablet, it appears more and more likely that such a device will emerge soon.

But what’s still unclear is how this gadget will set itself apart from Apple’s multimedia-savvy product line, including the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the scores of failed tablet PCs that have come and gone. Judging from the company’s past moves, we’re betting that Apple’s tablet will be a media-centric device, focused — at least in part — on shaking up the publishing industry.

Apple already has laid the groundwork to blow Amazon and other e-book makers out of the water with one key weapon: iTunes. Having served over 6 billion songs to date, the iTunes Store not only flipped the music industry on its head; it also turned mobile software into a lucrative industry, as proven by the booming success of the iPhone’s App Store, which recently surpassed 1.5 billion downloads. Apple has yet to enter the e-book market, and making books as easy to download as music and iPhone apps is the logical next step.

What can Apple do better with e-books? Give iTunes users the ability to download individual chapters from e-books, priced between a few cents to a few bucks each. It would be similar to how you can currently download individual song tracks from an album. It might even have the same earthshaking potential to transform an entire industry by refocusing it on the content people actually want instead of the bundles that publishers want them to buy.

College students would love this: Teachers rarely ever assign an entire textbook, so they would save hundreds of dollars by downloading only a few chapters of each textbook. And for Apple, a company already popular among the education sector, there’s even more money to milk from students, with the textbook industry worth an estimated $9.8 billion. All Apple has to do to secure the book publishers’ enthusiastic cooperation is to offer them a generous cut of the revenues, like the 70% it currently offers app developers.

Other than having the upper hand with digital distribution, an Apple tablet can compensate for other e-book readers’ shortcomings. In a previous story, Wired.com polled students on their interest in Amazon’s large-format Kindle DX reader. Several of them said they couldn’t imagine ditching textbooks for a Kindle DX, foreseeing challenges with tasks such as notetaking, highlighting and switching between books while writing essays. Assuming its computing powers and interface design are anything like the iPhone’s, a touchscreen tablet would make these student-oriented tasks as easy as a few swipes and taps far more pleasant than clunking around with the Kindle’s cheap buttons and sluggish interface. Plus, we would imagine students would be able to type their papers on the tablet.

Then there’s the obvious: an Apple tablet would have color, making it better for displaying magazine pages, which could also be purchased through the iTunes Store. It wouldn’t be saddled with a slow e-ink screen, so it could display video and browse the web with aplomb.

And for non-students, let’s not forget to mention the multitude of other tasks an Apple tablet will likely be able to perform if developers decide to code applications for it. Think along the lines of an interactive remote control to enhance the movie-viewing experience on your TV, or a music video player to accompany the tunes blasting from your stereo. Or, heck, even an album-cover display screen for you to gaze at while listening to music. (For more on an Apple tablet’s advantages versus current e-book readers, see Dylan Tweney’s story “Large-Screen Kindle Wont Mean Squat if Apple Tablet Arrives.”

There’s huge potential in a tablet if Apple can pull this off. The challenge lies in establishing the right partnerships. If Apple weaves e-books into the iTunes Store, will book publishers hop on board? Given Apple’s success in numbers, we think so.

As for a data provider, it would be even better if Apple could work with a carrier such as Verizon to subsidize the tablet, bringing it closer to $500 a more attractive price point for students. Because the device presumably would not feature a phone, the monthly plans could be priced significantly lower than an iPhone $30 to $40, perhaps, for an unlimited 3G internet connection.

What do you think an Apple tablet would need in order to be compelling? Add your thoughts in the comment section below.

Illustration of an imaginary iPhone tablet: Factoryjoe / Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The New York Times has investigated the reported suicide of an employee of Foxconn, which manufactures Apple’s iPhones in Taiwan. The most illuminating piece of the story is buried at the end, where the reporter discloses that a security officer threatened to “beat up” his translator if she persisted in questioning the victim’s family.

Foxconn is under fire for the death of Sun Danyong, a 25-year-old employee who reportedly jumped from a 12-story building after misplacing a prototype of the fourth-generation iPhone. Sun’s peers say they received e-mails from the victim, who complained Foxconn employees had beaten him, placed him in solitary confinement and searched his home for the missing iPhone.

Near the end of NY Times‘ piece, Sun’s father said he was still in shock that his son could leap from a building. But Sun’s brother said Sun had sent e-mails to his friends saying he “planned to do something big” to humiliate Foxconn.

Most disconcerting is a paragraph that illustrates the aggressive behavior of Chinese authorities:

Soon after, a security guard, who was joined by two men wearing Foxconn shirts, threatened to beat up a journalists translator if she persisted in asking the family questions. Foxconn officials later said the guard was not on their staff and might have been with the police bureau.

However, NY Times interviewed 15 Foxconn employees, and only one admitted to being forced to work overtime above the legal limit; the rest said they were well treated by the company.

Photo: Bert van Dilk/Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Amongst the real gadget gems in Sierra Club Green Homes 50 green Gadgets list, there are some hilariously under-thought items. For every solar-powered Nintendo Wii system, theres a Helios Solar Grill (the monstrosity above), which actually pipes heat from its parabolic sun-gatherer through to the grill on the other side, and manages to look like the kind of Jetson-junk inventions I drew as a kid.

Our favorite, though, has to be the Wind-Helmet Power Generator, a device so wilfully and impractically green that it is almost like the practice helmet Luke Skywalker wore in Star Wars, blinding the wearer to the obvious before them. The blurb:

The Wind-Helmet has a windmill in your helmet. Wind flows over the helmet, through the propeller in the rear, and stores energy in a set of rechargeable batteries for later use. Although there are a lot of power chargers out there, the Wind-Helmet allows for you generate power with something you will already be using. [emphasis added]

This is extraordinary. Lets take a look at the bike and consider what else you will already be using. Spinning wheels, perhaps? Wheels which have been used for decades to power the bikes lights, or even trickle-charge iPods? Wheels which can generate power either with a dynamo or an almost drag-free rare-earth magnet setup?

But, you know, a giant, Tron-style helmet with a bunch of fans and turbines inside, hooked up to a battery pack via a cable is much more efficient, dont you think? We have a couple of suggestions ourselves. What about a pump somehow operated by the turning wheels which would squeeze air into a pressure tank. It would then squirt out into a turbine and the energy produced then stored in batteries.

Or what about giant loops of cable buried beneath the road, and bikes loaded with magnets. Bike lanes could be painted in swooping zig-zags to make riders cross and double-cross the subterranean wires and power whole cities. Or perhaps that is a little impractical?

We kid, but there are a bunch of handy little widgets in the gallery, too. Did we mention the solar-powered Wii? Amazing.

50 Green Gadgets You Can Use To Help Save The Planet [Sierra Club. Thanks, Emma!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The Apple tablet rumors are coming so thick and fast now that the big surprise would be for Apple not to announce one. The austere and reliable Financial Times has just thrown into the game with an article which confirms a September release for the new oversized iPod Touch, a timing which ties in nicely to Apples yearly September iPod announcements.

The device will probably have a ten-inch screen and come without a cell connection. Somewhat bizarrely, the FT describes it as being pitched at rejuvenating sales of the multi-song music album. Its all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music, a source told the FT. How will this happen? Liner notes and artwork on the big 10-inch screen.

This attempt to turn back the business clock for the music industry is codenamed Cocktail, and will tempt consumers to buy albums rather than just picking the songs they like. Unfortunately, it seems to have escaped the music execs that people bought albums because it was the only way to get the tracks you wanted, unlike today where you can pick and choose, discarding the chaff.

The article also mentions book publishers, who have been in talks with Apple. This sounds great, and if Apple can manage the battery life issues then a color, hi-res screen could be a Kindle Killer. The FT ends with a statement that is indisputably true, given a high-resolution, 10-inch screen: Its going to be fabulous for watching movies.

Apple joins forces with record labels [Financial Times]

Paywall avoiding link to full article [Google]

Photo: nDevilTV/Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews

What happens if you take a vibrator, a bowl with holes drilled in it, a plate, and a bag of freshly microwaved popcorn? You get the Popcorn Sorter, invention number 14 from Zach Snyders and his Stupid Inventions buddies.

Its a simple idea, which would be both quieter and likely quicker done by hand. But it involves electricity and sex-toys, so we love it. Well, I love it. The Lady isnt so sure, although I think her claims that the guys are just trying to be funny are thinly-veiled attempts to stop me from raiding her night stand and pulling out my toolbox.

Product page [Stupid Inventions/YouTube. thanks, Zachary!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Ricoh has revealed its new compact GR III, successor to the GR II, and while oit offers some genuine improvements, overall its more of a small upgrade than a whole new model.

The three standout upgrades are the sensor, which is still a sensible 10 megapixels but has been redesigned and equipped with better noise reduction software. The lens, too, has been improved, and the fixed 28mm-equivalent focal length now opens all the way up to a focus-flattening 1.9, faster than the old 2.4. Finally, the camera now has a new auto-exposure mode: shutter-priority. For most of you, its probably more surprising that the previous camera didnt have this mode.

Other changes are smaller. The screen gets bumped from 2.7 to three inches, and the resolution jumps from 230,000 dots to 920,000.

And some things remain the same. The top ISO setting is still 1600, a little slow in these modern times, although likely something to do with the tiny sensor in the camera, a mere 45.72mm on the diagonal, or one third the diagonal length of a standard DSLR sensor. The camera will be available this autumn for a wallet-punching 530, or $870.

Product page [Ricoh]
Press release [DP Review]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

For each of the next four weeks, I’m awarding one Leatherman Freestyle CX to the Gadget Lab reader whose comment best contributes to this site.

The Freestyle CX (right) is one of the smallest tools Leatherman makes. It’s got a pair of pliers and a hard, 154CM stainless steel blade, and that’s about it. It fits nicely in your pocket, feels good in your hand and looks cool.

This week’s winner: Shlepzig, whose advice on fixed-gear and freewheel bikes is helpful, informed, nondogmatic and practical. It’s also long — longer even than the post, by Charlie Sorrel, to which it’s attached. Thanks, Shlepzig, for taking the time to share your knowledge with Gadget Lab’s readers! Special note to Shlepzig: If you read this note, send me an email at dtweney@wired.com so I can get the prize to you.

Now, here’s some background: We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to raise the level of discussion here, by deleting comments when they are spammy, excessively profane, or add nothing to the conversation. It’s been helping. For instance, the discussion on Brian X. Chen’s post about iPhone 3GS encryption is helpful and interesting.

But besides merely deleting comments, I also want to encourage the good comments. So when the Leatherman company donated four Freestyles for us to give away to Wired.com readers, I figured this was the way to do it.

What makes a good comment? It’s interesting. It adds something to the conversation. It’s on topic. It doesn’t have to be long, nor must it agree with the views of Gadget Lab. It doesn’t even have to be particularly polite, so long as it’s on topic.

If you see a comment on Gadget Lab that deserves recognition, let me know at dtweney [at] wired [dot] com. And in the meantime, keep those comments coming.

See Also: Gadget Lab’s Comment Policy

Posted under Gadget Reviews

We love gadgets — we really do. And that’s why, when a gadget fails to measure up to its promise, doesn’t work as you’d expect, is locked down with DRM or crippled with a terrible user interface or hobbled by a stanky-ass design, we get angry. We speak with the disappointed, crushed hearts of the gadget idealists we are: Why does this thing suck so bad?

Well, we’ve had it with crappy gadgets. Like our friends at Underwire, Autopia and Wired Science, we’re recruiting the help of a black hole to crush the worst gadgets into nothingness. Here’s a list of 10 gadgets — plus one bonus “gadget” — that deserve to be thrown beyond the event horizon, never to return.

We’ve probably only scratched the surface here, so feel free to nominate your own candidates for gadgets that should be thrown out of normal spacetime, below.

1. iPod/iPhone earbuds
The crummy earbuds included with every iPod or iPhone are ugly, don’t fit well, and deliver terrible sound. They’re a beacon for burglars (Hello! I’ve got an iPod in my pocket, and it’s right here!). And they don’t even last very long: within months of normal use, they often start developing painful buzzes.

2. CueCat
The most amazing thing about this infrared barcode reader, which did nothing but read special codes printed in magazines and then take you to a website, is that the company convinced so many publishers to distribute them. During the hei ght of the Cue::cat craze, hundreds of thousands were shipped to customers around the U.S. — including the half-million subscribers to Wired — whether they wanted them or not. They were ugly and almost totally useless, and most probably wound up in landfills within the year.

3. Sony MiniDisc
Sony’s come up with many annoying and proprietary formats in an ill-advised attempt to control their customers, but this was one of the worst. It combined a new physical media format with Sony’s annoying ATRAC file format, and of course had ridiculous restrictions on copying files. While MiniDiscs achieved some popularity with musicians for their ease of recording and editing live performances, most people gave this horrible format a justifiable pass.

4. Motorola RAZR
Everyone had this phone, and everybody hated it. So sexy, yet so crappy with everything it did: poor call quality, cheap buttons, bad software on every carrier.

Photo of Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC by Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com

5. Sony Vaio Series P Lifestyle PC
Screw this thing. Sure, it looks beautiful, and it’s meant for fashion-conscious people who want a stylish, amazingly portable PC. But its crummy keyboard, short (two-hour) battery life, squint-inducing 8.9-inch screen and high price tag make it the perfect device for — well, we don’t know anyone we would wish the Vaio Series P on.

6. HiPhone
There are a lot of crummy Chinese knockoffs of the iPhone. We bought this, called the HiPhone, for $118 plus $42 shipping, to see if it might be a budget-conscious consumer’s alternative to a pricey Apple handset. We were almost instantly sorry.

7. Apple’s Hockey-Puck Mouse
Everybody makes mistakes, and Apple, the king of industrial design, really screwed up on this one. The hockey-puck mouse, which Apple shipped with its tooty-fruity iMacs, was an ergonomic atrocity. You never knew if it was pointed the right way until the pointer started moving diagonally on your screen instead of straight across like you intended. And who could possibly find a circular mouse comfortable? Perfect peripheral for Cookie Monster, I suppose.

8. BlackBerry Storm

Photo of BlackBerry Storm by Jonathan Snyder / Wired.com

When RIM announced it was going to make a touchscreen phone, lots of Crackberry addicts were excited. Finally, they’d have a chance to use a BlackBerry with a touchscreen! Um, not so fast: The BlackBerry Storm has an oddball interface, with a touchscreen that “clicks” down (the whole thing physically moves) every time you press a button. It’s supposed to make the touchscreen experience more accurate and more tactile, but it just winds up slowing you down. And it feels weird besides.

9. Asus S101 Netbook
Yeah, yeah, we’ve seen the numbers about how many millions of netbooks people are buying. But seriously, how much junk are people willing to put up with? With a crummy trackpad, substandard keys and horrible build quality, this netbook disappointed us moe than most. While Asus may have lead the netbook revolution, this is one product that needs some serious work.

10. Simon
Did you ever have to play this game? That was one annoying gadget.

BONUS: AT&T Wireless
While not technically a gadget, it’s the network that supports one of our favorite gizmos, the iPhone. But good gravy, have you ever seen a carrier that was so good at providing service so badly? It’s infuriating enough 3G data speeds are slower than a stunned yak but AT&T seems to revel in giving its customers less than everyone else. Between crippling features that became standard on other devices years ago (MMS and tethering) and having notoriously spotty coverage — even in metropolitan areas — it’s a wonder why anyone would volunteer to sign away two years of their lives on service that borders on barely functional. We don’t want to destroy the network that powers our iDevices. But unless AT&T shapes up soon, we’ll have no choice but to crush it into a state of infinite mass and density for its own good. Think of it as the cellular equivalent of the ending of Old Yeller.

Top image: Artist’s rendering of a black hole from NASA

What gadgets would you throw into a black hole? Enter your nominations below, and vote on other readers’ suggestions right here. We’ve primed the pump with a few gadgets that didn’t make it into our top 10 list, mostly because the G-Lab crew didn’t all agree that they sucked. NOTE: Voting “up” means that yes, you agree it is a gadget and should be thrown into a black hole.

Show gadgets that are: hot | new | top-rated or submit your own prediction

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Posted under Gadget Reviews

Yet another rumor about Apple’s fabled touchscreen tablet has emerged, with sources claiming the product will hit stores in early 2010.

In its report, AppleInsider cites “people well-respected … for their striking accuracy in Apple’s internal affairs,” who claim a 10-inch, 3G-enabled tablet will turn up between January and March.

AppleInsider’s article conflicts with a rumor report posted by TheStreet’s Scott Moritz earlier this week, which stated an Apple tablet was due as soon as October this year. Moritz’s report also said the tablet would be subsidized by Verizon.

Wired.com has more faith in AppleInsider’s report, because a 2010 launch of this product would be more realistic. It’s unlikely Apple would release a tablet in October 2009, because it would cannibalize sales of MacBooks during back-to-school season when MacBooks tend to sell very well. Plus, Apple recently slashed MacBook prices, and the company would aim to capitalize on the move during back-to-school season without introducing a competitor into its own product line. Third, many rumor reports suggest a new iPod Touch is due in stores fall, and a tablet would likely cannibalize on sales of this product, too.

A January to March time frame would be a much wiser move for Apple. That’s because the Consumer Electronics Show the largest technology convention in the United States takes place January. Apple does not plan to attend the Macworld Expo trade show, also in January, nor does it plan to attend CES. So a tablet timed for a January announcement would be the perfect way for Apple to steal thunder from other tech companies showing off new gear at CES.

Also, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster laid out strong reasoning to believe an Apple tablet is arriving 2010:

“Between indications from our component contacts in Asia, recent patents relating to multi-touch sensitivity for more complex computing devices, comments from [chief operating officer] Tim Cook on the April 22 conference call, and Apples acquisition of PA Semi along with other recent chip-related hires, it is increasingly clear that Apple is investing more in its mobile-computing franchise, Munster said in a research statement issued to clients in May.

Lastly, we’re more skeptical about TheStreet’s October prediction given Moritz’s track record, which is notoriously spotty when it comes to Apple rumors. For example, in May, Moritz wrote a story titled “Tech Rumor of the Day: Apple,” which quoted an analyst who predicted AT&T would reduce prices for the iPhone’s monthly service plan. Not only did that not turn out to be true; it wasn’t a rumor at all just a prediction from an analyst.

Regardless, given the number of rumors floating around, and reports that Apple’s component suppliers in China are receiving orders for parts to build a tablet, an Apple tablet almost seems inevitable. With AppleInsider’s report, we’re placing more chips in the betting circle for a 2010 launch of this device.

Parody, mock-up illustration of an Apple tablet: Andy on Flickr/Flickr

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The new Google Maps feature Latitude, which debuted six months ago for several smartphones, has arrived for the iPhone. Well, sort of. It’s a web application made to work with the handset, rather than a downloadable, native app.

Wired.com covered Latitude in February, but here’s a quick recap of how it works: Google users have to opt in to use the Latitude feature and invite friends to join. Then, you and your Latitude-connected buddies can view each other’s locations on a map, denoted by personalized icons. That way, you can spot buddies nearby and send them a text, e-mail or IM to meet up.

Because Latitude is a web app, iPhone users must access the feature by visiting http://google.com/latitude in their Safari browsers. From there, they can create a shortcut to the web app on their Home screen by tapping the + icon, then selecting “Add to Home Screen” and “Add.”

The downside of Latitude for iPhone: It can’t run in the background. So each time you close the Safari app to open your e-mail, for example, you lose connection to the service. So much for real-time stalking your exes.

Google Latitude. Now for iPhone. [The Official Google Mobile Blog]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The Messenger Mirror is as about as simple as a gadget can get. Its a small, half-inch glass mirror hanging on the end of a six and a half inch wire. You attach it to your specs or shades and you have instant rear-view, wherever your head might be pointing, at the flick of an eye.

Its cheap, too, an important part of the design. Bruce, who makes them, came up with the mirror in response to the rather expensive solutions already out there. We like it, especially the simple homemade vibe it gives off. In crazy trafic when youre speeding between lanes, its very handy to know whats behind you, but not always so safe to turn your head. And bar-end mirrors just look dorky, so the head-mount is certainly our favorite way to go. US only, available now.

Product page [Messenger Mirror via Cyclelicious]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

The iPhone and iPod Touch, as previously noted, make great alarm clocks. Easy to set with the wheel-driven interface, a range of pleasant or downright nasty sounds and 100% reliability (as long as you havent turned the volume down). Just set, toss under your pillow and forget. You can even leave a romantic little note for your better half to read when he or she wakes up.

But like many of Apples built-in iPhone applications, it might be too simple. Thats where third party developers step in, adding music, nightstand clocks and more. Here are five of the best.

AlarmTunes

Like all the alarm apps, AlarmTunes (pictured above) needs to be left running to work. You can sleep the display but, unlike Apples own app, it cant run in the background. Once you remember this, AlarmTunes gives all sorts of features. The main one is the setting of music to wake you, like clock-radios of old. You can pick anything from your existing playlists, including podcasts (who wouldnt want to wake up next to Danny Dumas and the Gadget Lab podcast crew?)

Theres also a sleep mode which will fade out the music, multiple alarms and shake to snooze (a fantastic idea). The only problem is that it is ugly, and in the nightstand mode the screen is a little busy. Still, youll hopefully be asleep most of the time so this isnt a big problem, and it costs just $1.

Product page [iTunes]

Playlist Alarm Clock

Playlist Alarm Clock, another $1 application, goes in the opposite direction: It looks gorgeous but the interface is somewhat clunky, not what you want from an app you use when half asleep at either end of the day.

The retro-digital readout gives the time and tells you what music you are listening to, but when you come to change the settings things get confusing. Again, you can add any playlist or sing from the iPod library, but the options are layed out in a way only an accountant (a wide-awake, caffeine-charged accountant) could love, with buttons all over the place. Also, right now there is no screen dimming and no nightstand mode.

Product page [iTunes]

EasyWakeup

EasyWakeup has two distinguishing features. Its high price ($15) and its auto-detection. You set the tune you want to hear and the target time for waking up and then put the iPhone down on the mattress next to you. As you toss and turn or lay still, the app uses data from the accelerometer to track your sleep phases.

It then uses some algorithms (read: special sauce) to work out the best time to wake you. If the testimonials on the site are anything to go by, youll be getting up earlier, more refreshed and will be able to break your intimate relationship with the snooze button.

There are cheaper version which offer a bewildering range of subsets of the main apps functions, but itll send you to sleep studying them. Stick with the pro, or go elsewhere.

Product page [iTunes]

MusicAlarm

The simplest and cheapest of the bunch (its free), MusicAlarm lets you choose a track from your library to use as an alarm. Thats it. It looks a lot like Apples own alarm application, only instead of the built-in alarm tones you get a list of songs to choose from. Youll need to leave the app on (although sleeping the screen is fine), but apart from that it should just work. And did we mention its free? Download it today.

Product page [iTunes]

Music Alarm Clock

Yet another $1 clock, this one is probably the best looking of the bunch thanks to its lovely digital display an option to put the album artwork in the background. Its also dead simple to use: set the alarm, choose the song, done.

Product page [iTunes]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Are you one of those people who flies into a frothing rage if a guest (gasp!) squeezes the toothpaste in the middle? Do you lay the almost empty tube on the side of the sink and gently push the last of the minty gloop towards the opening, or even slice the tube open and scrub your toothbrush onto the newly-bared interior to mop up the last of the precious fluids?

Then you need to get out more. You also need the Toothpaste Squeezer, a $6 roller which both hangs the tube from your mirror with and in-built suction cup and at the same time uses a roller to gently compress the tube as you go, extracting the maximum value.

The hanging part actually looks more useful than the roller, which is destined to break soon enough. A better solution might be the slotted, key-shaped stick used to squeeze the last drop of oil-paint from a tube. Theyre so cheap as to be almost free, even in overpriced art supply stores, and they work. Just dont double-up, or youll have cadmium yellow teeth and breath that smells of linseed oil.

Product page [Gadget4all via Noquedan]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

You may not be old enough to remember the storage media of the past. It came in many shapes and sizes: tapes, vinyl discs and cassettes. But one thing that almost all of them had in common was sides. Half way through, the music would stop and youd have to get up, walk over to the machine and flip the record. Cassettes, latterly, got auto-reverse, but it was an ugly solution.

This disappeared (although the DVD still kinds has two sides, sometimes). Now, though, you can relive the frustration of manually choosing a side with the Split Stick, a pair of 2GB USB thumb drives in a single case. The gimmick is that you can keep your work and your personal life separate.

The $20 sticks are kind of cute, in a retro, double-sided way, but the actual sale and production process is also pretty neat. You place your order and your credit card is run. Then you wait. Once 200 units are ordered, production begins, your card is charged and the units will ship. Its a no-risk deal for Quirky, the company behind it, but theres a bonus for you, too: You can pick laser etched graphics for both sides of the stick.

Right now, just 35 units are pre-sold on this run. But the clock is running. Tick, tick, tick.

Product page [Quirky. Thanks, Nikki!]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Oh, and one more thing: Palm webOS 1.1 re-enables Palm media sync. Thats right you once again can have seamless access to your music, photos and videos from the current version of iTunes (8.2.1).

John Traynor

VP, Business Products

So states the official Palm blog post on the new Palm Pre WebOS 1.1 update, and if it isnt blatant baiting, we dont know what it is. Not only have the Pre engineers worked around the block Apple put in place to stop the Pre from syncing seamlessly with iTunes, but also Palms VP of business products uses Steve Jobs catch phrase to announce it.

This got me thinking about the real reasons for this cat-and-mouse game. While its certainly handy to have the Pre work just like an iPod when you plug it into iTunes, the third party solutions are far from clunky. We have a feeling that this is all about the PR. Its known that the Pre team contains a lot of ex-Apple engineers. It looks like the marketing department also has some Apple juice, and is capable of keeping the publicity ball in the air at all times.

Whats certain is that the only people being hurt in this slap-fest are the customers. Yes, iTunes 8.2.2 will block things again, and surely webOS 1.1.1 will fix it, but in between are a whole lot of innocent Pre owners who are scared to plug in their handsets lest the music stop working. Is that a good idea?

Palm webOS 1.1 enhances support for enterprise and beyond [Official Palm Blog]

Software update information for Palm Pre Sprint p100eww [Palm]

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Got a few grand to spare for a $3,000 phone? Yeah, we didn’t think so. Nobody does — and that’s a problem for the makers of luxury phones, such as Motorola, Bang & Olufson, LG and Vertu.

After years of chasing the ultra-wealthy with exclusive devices that carry designer logos and promise craftsmanship from materials such as sapphire and stainless steel, luxury phone makers are now pulling back.

“The culture has shifted away from conspicuous consumption, so if you are going to have a super expensive product this may not be the time for it,” says Avi Greengart, research director for consumer devices at Current Analysis.

Motorola has already gotten the memo. Earlier this week, the company reportedly canceled the Ivory E18, a device tentatively priced around $3,000.The phone had met with lack of interest from telecom carriers.Motorola declined to comment.

If that sounds like an obvious outcome, perhaps it shouldn’t. In the last few years, luxury phones had turned into an attractive new business, as designer houses rushed to get a foothold in the tech sector.Prada collaborated with LG to launch two LG Prada phones in Europe and Asia. Last September, Samsung launched the M75500 Night Effect phone, which carried the Emporio Armani insignia. A month later, Motorola offered a $2,000 phone, called the Aura, which was fashioned out of stainless steel and sported a 62-carat sapphire crystal lens. And then there’s Vertu, a company that makes true luxury phones, the cheapest of which costs about $6,000.

The recession put a spoke in those plans. And it’s not just the 401Ks of middle-class Americans that have been in peril. In Russia, many newly-minted billionaires saw their fortunes slip away with falling oil prices. By the first quarter this year,the U.S. economy had shrunk 5.5 percent. Even 50 Cent has complained about losing more than a few Benjamins on the stock market.

And just like that, the crystal dominoes started to fall. Last October, Bang & Olufsen, whose phones retailed in Europe for more than $1500,shuttered its cellphone business as it decided to trim its costs and get out of non-profitable ventures. Motorola is the latest to pull back its luxury line.

Luxury phones have never been a big phenomenon in North America, says Greengart. Their manufacturers have had better luck in emerging markets. But now even in those countries, where once 8 percent GDP growth seemed conservative, wealthy consumers are feeling the pinch.

“Super expensive, bling bling phones are big in markets where conspicuous consumption is a way to tell your countrymen you have arrived,” says Greengart. “But now, it’s a very different economy for everyone.”

Many of the troubles that the uber-expensive phones face are because they are created by companies whose main expertise is in targeting a mass market, says Frank Nuovo, former chief of design for Nokia and current head of Vertu.

“Ididn’t start this business to soak the phones in diamonds and jewels,” says Nuovo. “The concept is same as a fine watch or a fabulous car. To be a true luxury product, you have to look at making something that doesn’t have an 18-month shelf life.”

True luxury, as Nuovo defines it, doesn’t apply to a mere $2,000 phone: A Vertu device, soaked in platinum, can run up to $70,000. The company’s one-off phones, designed in collaboration with luxury jewels house Boucheron, cost even more.

Nuovo may have inadvertently hit on the real problem with luxury phones: Phones are still a very feature-driven products. They are products where the rapid advances in technology can rend older models obsolete very quickly.

“Phones aren’t like a handbag where the fundamental utility remains the same and the design changes all the time,” says Greengart.

But Nuovo isn’t convinced. “Take watches and cars,” he says. “They all run the same but everyone has a unique way of delivering them stylistically. We can do the same with phones.”

Despite the bumps on the road now, Nuovo says the luxury phones will bounce back and find an audience. “It is no different than a fine watch or a car,” he says. “If you take people who value something that is made extraordinarily well there will always be a group interested in it.”

Vertu is determined to prove that. It will launch its latest handset the Carbon Fibre Ascent Ti in August. The phone is made of high-gloss carbon fiber and has a sandblasted titanium surface. The price tag? $9,800.

Photo: Vertu

Posted under Gadget Reviews