GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

If you are struggling to keep up with all the twitter updates from your friends, there’s a little robot that can help you out.

The ‘Guardian Robot’ is an adorable machine that monitors your twitter feed for “happy” or “sad” updates from friends and then alerts you of the tweets by either raising its hand for a high-five or lowering its head, reports U.K. publication The Guardian. The robot that can sit on your desk will even tweet a reply on your behalf from its own twitter id @guardianrobot

The Guardian Robot is not as sophisticated as the Cybraphon, a musical band housed inside an antique wardrobe that we recently wrote about. The Cybraphon monitors its Facebook, Twitter and Flickr pages and plays music that reflects its online popularity at that moment.

But what makes the Guardian Robot interesting is how inexpensively it has been put together. It costs just over 60 ($70). It uses two servos–one to rotate the arm and another to raise or lower its head– and two microswitches. The body of the robot has been created out of a discarded Nintendo Wii Sports Resort game box.

All of this is connected to an Arduino board that powers and controls the switches. The Arduino, an open source single board microcontroller, is connected to a desktop via a USB. The board connects to an application written in the open source programming language, Processing 1.0.

The app polls Twitter every minute for tweets that match a specified criteria. When it finds a matching tweet it classifies it as a “happy” or sad one and directs the robot to the appropriate response.

For more details on the robot works or to see its actual code, check out The Guardian.

Photo: Guardian Robot/The Guardian

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Dell has reportedly been working on a smartphone for more than a year. But so far, the device has been a bit of a mythical beast often written about but never seen.

Now, the first blurry pictures have leaked. According to the fairly trustworthy mobile rumors site Boy Genius Report, the Dell smartphone will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, 3-megapixel auto focus camera with 8x digital zoom and 30 fps video shooting mode. It will also have GPS capability.

As Wired.com had reported in April, the phone will launch first in China and is expected to be available by the end of the year.

But from what little we can see of the Dell smartphone, we are not impressed. If this is indeed the form factor and design, it seems two years too late to the party. The slim brick-like look is reminiscent of the recently launched T-Mobile myTouch or for that matter every other touchscreen smartphone since the iPhone. And the specs aren’t hefty enough to make the device stand out. Unless Dell has some features in there that we don’t know about, this device is likely to face a tough battle for consumer attention.

Photo: Rumored Dell smartphone/Boy Genius Report

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The netbook stemmed from the need to offer a cheap, low powered computing solution for kids in classrooms. Now Dell has come out with an Atom powered portable aimed squarely at the academically minded. Reviewer Priya Ganapati explains:

The 2100’s most striking feature is the matte, rubber-like coating that envelops the netbook. Its grainy texture lets tiny, slippery fingers get a firm grip. It also repels dirt, grime and the occasional candy collision. When one Wired editor put it to the test by grinding a peanut M&M into the faade, we were able to brush the chocolate off with a quick swipe of a damp cloth.

The 10.1-inch display is bright and does well in both bright sunlight and under the harsh fluorescent lighting typically found in public school classrooms. And with the 80-GB hard drive there’s just enough storage space to toss in pictures, homework and maybe a Hannah Montana video or two.

Speaking of downloading Miss Montana, the Latitude 2100 also has a network-activity light built into the top of the lid. This small rectangle illuminates when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network or an ethernet connection. It also flickers (albeit weakly) when we browsed the net. The idea? Making sure kids are not surfing the internet when they should be working on a math problem.

Want to know more? Of course you do! Check out the full take on the Dell Latitude 2100 on our reviews site.

(Photo by Jon Snyder/ Wired.com)

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After Gizmodo’s Brian Lam posted the most eye-opening inside tip yet about Apple’s rumored tablet, DaringFireball’s John Gruber poopooed on Lam’s source because of one detail the ship date.

Im almost certain theres no tablet coming this year. Its a 2010 thing.

Based on his own piece of hearsay that the ship date is 2010 rather than this fall, Gruber continues to strip Lam’s source of credibility, pointing out the tipster doesn’t know which operating system the tablet runs.

Talk about a trivial pissing contest. If you’ve been following the Apple rumor game for some time, you’ll notice that often times “insiders” only provide selective pieces of information so they can’t be traced. We’re sure Lam’s source has a solid reason to withhold information about the OS.

As for ship date, it’s pretty common for tipsters to get those wrong. That’s also understandable, because an official ship date is among the final decisions for a company to make about a product, and it’s also easy to change. Lam’s source also makes it clear a fall release is just an educated guess.

We can speak from first-hand experience about tipsters being off on ship dates. In December, an Apple employee told Wired.com that a new Mac Mini would be announced at January 2009’s Macworld Expo conference. That announcement didn’t happen at Macworld, but Apple did indeed release a Mac Mini in March a mere two months later.

Here at Wired.com we’re placing our bets on an early 2010 launch of an Apple tablet, timed to coincide with the Consumer Electronics Show in January, to steal thunder from other companies making their announcements that month. But really, who cares about when? It’s not like we already have Apple tablets and we’re eager to know when we can upgrade to the next Apple tablet. We’re discussing a brand new product here, so the “When?” hardly even matters, especially if we’re talking about a difference of a few months.

It’s the “What?” that we all really care about. As in, what will this rumored tablet do? We call Lam’s rumor report the most eye-opening because it’s been the only one to provide information on the device’s potential purpose particularly, that one version of the tablet will be designed for education use (our guess: a book reader to compete with Amazon), and the other for “webcam” (perhaps video conferencing). Now that’s interesting.

Photo: Gadgets Guy/Flickr

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How do you turn a $1000 PC into a $30,000 machine without changing its innards? It a trick that calls for a good alchemist. So say hello to German company, Gaiser High End PCs. Gaiser offers bespoke PCs dipped in 24-carat gold for the bling-bling crowd.

The company’s Tricolor Gold PC, for instance, offer a choice of processors ranging from Intel Atom to Core 2 Duo, solid state drives and Blu-ray player but those are pedestrian details. The real value is in the use of white and yellow gold plating and crystals to create designs that push the price of the PC to a whopping 21,500 or $30,552.

Gaiser does have cheaper models but still prices start around $7,800. The gold-leaf and crystal motifs on its PCs are beautiful but you have to wonder, with the current economic environment, aren’t even the ultra-rich hurting?

[via Born Rich]

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Color us surprised. After hearing endless complaints about AT&T, especially in discussions of the iPhone, we had a hunch that the big A must be the most hated telecom company in the United States. A survey suggests otherwise.

Global marketing firm J.D. Power on Thursday released results of its wireless customer care survey, which graded telecom companies based on responses from 12,000 customers who contacted their carriers customer care department within the past year. Sprint received the lowest grade, scoring 704 out of 1,000 customer satisfaction points. AT&T scored slightly higher, with 730 points. Meanwhile, Verizon, Alltel and T-Mobile tied for first with 747 points.

The study rated customer satisfaction on how well wireless carriers could service their customers by phone, visits to a retail wireless store and on the web. (No, the firm did not poll AT&T customers about Apple’s ban of Google Voice apps for the iPhone.) That’s a small slice of what we consider to be “satisfaction” with a carrier, but too often we hear about AT&T iPhone customers complaining about spotty 3G network performance, dropped calls, poor quality, and the list goes on. (Here at Wired.com we’ve conducted two telecom studies of our own, and the numbers did not look pretty for AT&T.) We expected a lot of peeved AT&T customers to contact customer care to complain, only to be disappointed because most of these problems are network-related and thus not immediately resolvable.

Though the results are a little bland with three carriers tying for first, we find interesting the rather significant point difference between Sprint and the rest of the carriers, even AT&T. We just don’t often hear anyone talk about Sprint. Sprint customers out there: Is your experience really that bad?

Chart: J.D. Power

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Stock up on coasters. A new technology combines the coffee table with a universal remote so that people sitting around the table can tap on a screen to change the channel, turn up the volume or dim the lights.

CRISTAL (Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces) is a research project in user interface that attempts to create a natural way of connecting with devices. The system offers a streaming video view of the living room on a tabletop, so users can can walk up to it, see the layout of the room and interact with the TV or the photo frame.

“We wanted a social aspect to activities such as choosing what to watch on TV and we wanted to make the process easy and intuitive,” says Stacey Scott, assistant professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, and a member of the project. A demo of CRISTAL was shown at the Siggraph graphics conference earlier this month.

The idea isn’t completely novel. Microsoft showed off Surface, a multitouch display in 2008 that allows users to interact with it by using gestures.

Universal remotes have become popular in the last few years, but they are still difficult to use. Their greatest flaw, though, may be that they do not help quash those battles over who gets the remote. CRISTAL solves those problems, says Christian Mller-Tomfelde, an Australian researcher who is currently writing a book on research in tabletop displays.

“It is a clever use of the tabletop as a ‘world-in-miniature’ interface to control room elements,” he says.

Scott and researchers from the Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences have been working on the idea for less than a year. It started when Michael Haller, the head of the Media Interaction Lab at the university, found himself frustrated with different remotes for each device: TV, radio and DVD player.

“Every time you get a new device into the living room, you get a new remote with it,” says Scott. “And instead of difficult programmable universal remotes, this offers intuitive mapping of the different devices and home.”

CRISTAL uses a camera to capture the living room and all the devices in it, including lamps and digital picture frames. The captured video is displayed on the multi-touch coffee table. The video image of the device itself is the interface, so a sliding gesture on the image can turn up the volume of the TV, for instance. To watch a movie, drag an image of the movie cover and drop it on to the TV on the multitouch screen.

But it will be a few years before this remote is available at Best Buy. It could take five to 10 years before affordable multitouch tabletops can be created for consumers, says Mller-Tomfelde. “The investment to get such a coffee-table display into the living room is not to be underestimated, as we can see with Microsoft’s Surface technology,” he says.

Scott estimates that a tabletop remote such as CRISTAL could cost $10,000 to $15,000. But she is confident that the idea can become viable enough for consumer production in a few years, especially if it can be combined with Microsoft’s Surface product.

Check out a video demo of CRISTAL below.

Photo and video: Media Interaction Lab

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It’s not a hybrid and it’s not a cyclocross either. But Swobo’s Crosby is an undeniably awesome bike. Recently Wired.com senior editor and human powered transportation proponent Dylan Tweney took the two wheeler for a series of spins. His take? The beef-cake of a bike is equally at home on unpaved dirt paths or freshly laden asphalt roads. Additionally awesome is a wheel hub that lets you switch from single speed to fixie mode. From Dylan’s review:

As it comes from Swobo, the Crosby is set up with a Sram Torpedo hub, which can switch between freewheelin’ single-speed mode and hipster fixed-gear goodness with a few turns of a screw. Instead of pulling the whole wheel off and turning it around, as you do with flip-flop hubs, you just poke a narrow screwdriver in a hole at the axis of the hub, turn about seven times, and the hub assumes its new identity. Pretty cool! On the downside, there’s a bit more backlash in the fixed-gear mode than we’d like: The pedals have a few degrees of play before they engage the wheels. For that reason, and because we’re not pegged jeans-wearing hipsters, we rode the Crosby primarily in freewheel mode.

Of course this is just a small snippet. You can read the full write-up of the Swobo Crosby Bike over at our reviews site. Go ahead and check it out!

(Photo by Jon Snyder/ Wired.com)

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The Palm Pre has been regarded by reviewers and analysts as possibly the best challenger to Apple iPhone but Apple is still ahead. Pre users seem to be not as enthralled with their phone as iPhone users, according to a recent survey which took a closer look at the satisfaction levels of Palm Pre and iPhone users.

RBC Capital and ChangeWave Research found that 99 percent of the 200 iPhone3G S users surveyed between were “satisfied” with their phone. Of those 82 percent said they were “very satisfied” with the device.

A separate survey of 40 Pre owners showed that about 87 percent of them said they were “satisfied,” of which 45 percent said they were “very satisfied.”

Still its good news that Palm, says RBC. “It is the highest score ever recorded in our Palm satisfaction
surveys and above all other manufacturers except Apple and RIM,” wrote RBC analyst Mike Abramsky in a research report.

The Pre, launched June 6 exclusively on Sprint’s wireless network, is attracting new buyers. About 82 percent of Pre users surveyed were new to Palm, says RBC.

Check out the graphs to see what iPhone and Palm Pre users said they like and dislike about their phones.

[via Apple 2.0]

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Good news, everyone! If you’ve been stuck in a time loop using Windows XP, which is nearing eight years old, or Windows Vista, which is just annoying, you can finally break free: Windows 7 is almost here. Microsoft delivers a slickly designed, vastly improved OS that will warp you to the world of today. This upgrade is big, and it’s hugely recommended for Microsoft users.

When we say big, we mean really BIG so we’re not going to bombard you with an epic overview covering every single aspect. Rather, today we’ll guide you through an early look at some major new features and enhancements we tested in the almost-final version released last week. And in the weeks leading up to the Oct. 22 launch of Windows 7, we’ll continue posting our impressions, testing more features of the OS on various types of hardware.

We’ll start with interface, move on to performance and usability, and then we’ll conclude with the “funner” stuff. Let’s begin exploring, shall we?

Revamped Interface With Improved Presentation
Upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 will be like ditching your old Toyota Camry for a sexy, new Nissan GT-R. Everything from the typography to the icons, and from the toolbar to the windows, has been refined with some extra detail, polish and shadows. Finally, Microsoft creates a clean, modern look that competes with Apple’s finely designed Mac OS X Leopard.

To accompany the new look, there are three new features that make the Windows 7 interface pretty groovy: Aero Peek, Aero Snap and Aero Shake. They’re window-management tools, similar to Apple’s Expos in Mac OS X. Aero Peek is the most significant: When triggered, the feature displays outlines of all your open windows behind your active window; each outlined box contains a thumbnail previewing its corresponding window to help you choose.

Aero Snap (see screenshot above) is pretty cool, too: Drag a window to the right side of the screen, for example, and Aero Snap will automatically adjust the window into a rectangle that takes up the entire right side (same happens if you drag to the left). And Aero Shake is a cute feature: You click and hold onto a window and give it a shake, and any visible windows behind it will disappear (minimize, not close).

A major change appears in the main toolbar glued to the bottom of the screen. Rather than clutter the bottom of your screen with annoying rectangular tabs, your open applications are instead contained in a small square displaying only the icon of each active app. With AeroPeek activated, you can also preview thumbnails of the activity of apps by hovering over their corresponding taskbar icons. That’s certainly a welcome change now that many of us multitaskers enjoy running a multitude of apps at once

If Internet Explorer 8 is your browser of choice, there’s a bonus: Hovering your mouse over the Explorer icon, you’ll be able to preview all the tabs you have open in a stacked view, letting you go directly to the tab you wish to browse.

Then there’s the Start button at the bottom left corner — a feature Windows fans have grown to love. It’s very similar to the old one, functioning almost exactly the same. The main difference is the addition of a gradient to give it a fresher aesthetic. As for functions, a very useful addition to the Start menu is a search bar that instantly appears at the very bottom. This will make finding and launching files a snap.

Performance and Usability
You’ll immediately notice Windows 7 feels a lot faster than its predecessors, and that’s because memory management has been smartly re-engineered. In older versions of Windows, every application you have open is sucking up video memory, even if the windows are minimized. This isn’t the case in Windows 7: The only windows and apps using video memory are those visible on your screen. Windows users are accustomed to closing applications to boost performance, but that’s going to be unnecessary with Windows 7.

Smoother performance would be a waste if usability weren’t improved, too. Windows 7 won’t disappoint. Remember in Windows XP when you hooked up an external hard drive and it was unrecognized, requiring you to search the web to find that stupid effing software driver? Windows 7 includes up-to-date files, which should automatically recognize your device, and in most cases it’ll “just work.” If, for some reason, Windows 7 isn’t compatible with your attached device by default, it’ll search a database for you in an attempt to find a file to install.

Similarly, Windows 7 tries to streamline networking of peripherals, such as printers and scanners, with a feature called HomeGroup. Let’s say you’re running Windows 7 on computer B in your household, and computer A is the one hooked up to a printer in another room. If computer B is on the same network as computer A, Windows 7 will search for the printer driver on computer A and share it with computer B. The same networking feature will also allow you to share folders and files between networked computers. There’s a catch to this seamless networking: HomeGroup is an exclusive Windows 7 feature. So if your other machine is running the Mac OS, or Linux, then forget about it.

There are also some annoyances that will remind you, “This is still Windows.” When plugging in a thumb drive, for example, Windows will ask you what you want to do with it: Play audio, play a movie, or open the folder to view its files. It’s a thumb drive, for God’s sake: Recognize it and just open the damn folder! After receiving such notifications you can tell Windows 7 to automatically perform one of the aforementioned functions when a specific type of device is attached (see screenshot at right), but we wish the OS would just know what to do.

We also found the software-compatibility checker to be kind of lame. For example, when we downloaded TweetDeck, a .air file which requires Adobe Air, Windows 7 didn’t recognize the file extension and offered to do a search for compatible software. That search did not discover Adobe Air — a pretty popular format — so we were disappointed.

“Funner” Stuff

We were vastly entertained by the desktop backgrounds included with Windows 7. They’re freaky, bizarre, fascinating, disturbing and, in some odd way, beautiful at the same time. We’re speaking specifically of the wallpapers in the “Characters” section, illustrations that Microsoft collected from artists around the world. Take a gander at the screenshots above and below to see for yourself.

Microsoft improves on the entertainment experience, too. Windows Media Center gets a utilitarian makeover that looks a tad like Apple’s Front Row (and we’re not complaining). The revamped program makes it easy to browse your movies, photos, music and so on by tapping a few keys. Nice big thumbnails display previews of your media to make your collection look nice and perdy.

A feature we have yet to test (once we get the proper hardware) with Windows Media Center is the new media-streaming capability. If you have a Wi-Fi enabled TV, you’ll be able to seamlessly stream your Windows Media Center content onto the television set. This should make piracy a blast.

More to Come
We’ll continue exploring the intricacies of Windows 7 in the next few weeks. Coming up next: Windows 7 touchscreen support; an in-depth look at the Windows 7 Media Center, including NetFlix streaming; and tips on multitasking with Aero. Stay tuned.

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Apple is planning to hold a September keynote event, multiple music industry sources have told MediaMemo. To launch what? It’s time to start guessing.

The event will be held the week of Sept. 7, MediaMemo’s sources say. Apple declined to comment on the event.

Taking into account Apple’s past events, it’s easy to deduce that this event will likely revolve around upgrades for the iPod family. In previous years, Apple’s September events have each involved iTunes or iPods. We can expect this rumored keynote to carry a similar theme.

Will Apple simply introduce iPod Touch and Nano models including cameras? Or will the company also unveil its epically anticipated touchscreen tablet rumored for a fall release? Given today’s reports on the rumored tablet, we’re optimistic that this event will be epic especially if Steve Jobs, who recently returned from medical leave, emcees. Stay tuned: We’ll keep you plugged in.

Photo: 1happysnapper/Flickr

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Palm Pre users watch out. Palm may know a lot more about you than you would like to share.

Programmer Joey Hess found that Palm Pre’s operating system webOS sends his GPS location back to Palm every day. Hess also found code that sends Palm data on which WebOS apps he has used each day, and for how long he used each one.

“Since Palm has lawyers, they have a privacy policy, which covers their ass fairly well regarding all this without going into details or making clear that the above data is being uploaded,” wrote Hess on his blog.

In its defense, Palm says the data is used to offer better results to users. For instance when location based services are used, the Pre collects information to give users relevant local results in Google Maps, says Palm.

Palm takes privacy very seriously and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off, ” says Palm in a statement. “Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience.”

Palm actions triggers questions about consumer privacy and the extent to which handset makers developers are gathering and using data about buyers’ behavior. Still in this case, some of the concerns may be overblown, says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research.

“It was Sun CEO Scott McNealy who said in 1999 ‘You have zero privacy. Get over it‘,” says Golvin. “While that is certainly overstated it is also true. Consumers, in general are concerned about privacy but look at the number of people who are willing to give up every detail of their personal lives for the opportunity to win a big screen TV.”

Palm launched the Palm Pre on June 7 exclusively on the Sprint wireless network. Despite some criticism around its battery life and display, the phone has been appreciated for its sleek hardware and the webOS operating system. Palm built webOS from scratch for the Pre.

As with most phones and computers, the Pre reports back to Palm with data when an application crashes. But where Palm may have erred is in how it discloses to Pre users that it is collecting data. Individual apps on the iPhone, for instance, often check in with users asking for permission to use location. The iPhone itself has a setting that allows users to turn location services on or off.

“The question here is the level of granularity when it comes to seeking permission,” says Golvin. ” If the permission on part of the user is overarching, which seems to be the case with the Palm Pre, then it is a rather crude way of doing things.”

Palm, so far, is yet to respond to user concerns. The company is yet to spell out clearly how users can opt out of this data sharing service. The company has also not disclosed if it is sharing the information it collects with Sprint or other third parties.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

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Considering iPhones are made in China, and they’re already being counterfeited there, you would think that an authentic Apple iPhone would have been available in the country long ago. But it appears carrier China Unicom and Apple are just finally sealing the deal to begin selling iPhones in September.

The carrier has paid Apple 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) for 5 million iPhones, according to International Business Times. An 8GB model of the iPhone is estimated to sell for 2,400 yuan ($350), and a 16GB may be sold at 4,800 yuan ($700), said Yu Zaonan, general manager of the customer development department of China Unicom, in an interview with IBT. The report says China’s iPhones would work with the WCDMA-standard for 3G connectivity.

The report does not clarify whether Unicom would be selling the new iPhone 3GS, or if these are the previous 3G models. However, it’s likely the 8GB model is an iPhone 3G, since there is no 8GB iPhone 3GS.

Shortly after IBT published its report, China Unicom attempted to refute it by claiming IBT’s sources never commented on the iPhone. However, IBT said it had voice records of the interviews. Our interpretation: The company accidentally broke the news, which was supposed to be Apple’s job. Whoops!

Photo: Stuck in Customs/Flickr

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Wired.com’s good friend Brian Lam of Gizmodo tells the most riveting tale about the rumored Apple tablet yet, in which a “deep throat” of sorts spills the juicy details.

In summary:

• The tablet is described as a 10-inch version of the iPod Touch
• The product will come in two editions: One for webcam and the other for education use
• Pricing will be between $700 and $900
• It’s possible the screen will be used as a secondary touch pad for controlling Macs
• The project has been in development for four to six years
• A prototype was built around the end of 2008
• The product will likely launch this holiday season.

Yowza! An education device? That’s what I was pushing for in my opinion piece titled “How an Apple Tablet Could Pit iTunes Against Amazon.com.” We’re hoping what this source says is true!

Check out Lam’s post for a fun, intriguing read.

Image: Gizmodo

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Another analyst is stepping up to bat with his predictions on the rumored touchscreen tablet from Apple. Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research claims hearing the tablet will sport an 8- to 10-inch OLED screen and an ARM Holdings dual-core Core9x chipset. He believes the device will cost $900 and ship first quarter of 2010.

That differs a bit from past rumor reports where anonymous sources have told other publications that the rumored tablet would cost between $500 to $700 with subsidy from a carrier and ship as soon as fall of this year. (For our collection of earlier rumor reports, see the links below.) Particularly interesting is the idea of an OLED screen. Is it necessary? It would add to the product’s overall cost, but one could imagine it would help distinguish this rumored device from Apple’s iPod Touch.

Take this rumor with a grain of salt, like any Apple prediction provided by an analyst. (MacRumors’ Arnold Kim wrote an insightful post about analysts and rumor “research” back in 2007; it’s worth checking out.) Chowdhry, like many analysts, has often missed with his guesses. For instance, he predicted that by January 2009, Apple would sell iPhones for $150 at Costco. Stee-rike!

Still, nobody beats Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster when it comes to making ballsy, borderline crazy Apple predictions. Last week, Munster even made an estimate that this unconfirmed device would sell 2 million units, generating $1.2 billion in revenue. Getting a bit of a head start, isn’t he?

Apple To Offer $899 Tablet With OLED Screen? [Barron's]

Illustration of an imaginary iPhone tablet: Factoryjoe / Flickr

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Rumors around the upcoming Zune HD have flying fast in the last couple of weeks. And now it seems like official confirmation is not far away. Microsoft is expected to announce the pricing and the launch date for Zune HD tonight.

A leak from Amazon.com Tuesday pegged the 16 GB Zune HD player at $220 and the 32 GB version at $290. The Zune HD is expected to available starting September 8.

Zune HD has a 3.3-inch capacitive OLED screen with multi-touch functionality, Wi-Fi, HD radio and an internet browser. The device will also have HD video output capability. Much of the functionality has been provided by Nvidia’s Tegra system-on-a-chip, said some Microsoft executives at the GDGT launch party last week.

Tegra includes an 800-MHz ARM CPU, a high-definition video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor and an ultralow-power GeForce GPU in a single package. The different processors can be used together or independently while consuming very little power, said Nvidia. The company introduced the Tegra system in June and devices based on it, including media players, smartphones and netbooks, are expected be available to consumers by the end of the year.

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Apple’s secretive M.O. can get pretty annoying to us journalists, but we have to admit sometimes it makes things more fun. Take for example a report today claiming Apple shot a TV ad at Jax at the Tracks, a 1940s-style diner in Truckee, Calif. Jax at the Tracks owner Bud Haley told Truckee publication Sierra Sun that a scout found his restaurant for the shoot. No details on what the product was, of course. What could it be based on the setting?

The mom-and-pops diner suggests the ad could be targeted at a younger, hip generation with an appreciation for the obscure. But that doesn’t give away much, since Apple has always marketed its products for non-conformists. What type of gadget would be shown off at a diner? Probably not a MacBook, since that would be somewhat tacky at a diner. A touchscreen tablet, perhaps, where a geek could be showing off his vacation photos to his friends? Or maybe just the upcoming iPod Touch, which is rumored to feature a new camera? What are your guesses?

Photo of a scene from a diner (not Jax): ThomasHawk/Flickr

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The Backpack is an ingenious, gravity-secured shelf that sits on the rear stand of an iMac or an Apple Cinema display. The punched-aluminum platform pushes against the rear stand and a couple of clips reach around to grab the back, and the shelf just hangs there. And dont worry: Theres no metal-on-metal action. The clips are protected by non-scratch inserts.

This is clearly a home-makeable product, but we love the smooth lines and Apple-like finish to this commercial version, plus the design details (there is a scale on the slots where the clips attach so you can make sure you have it perfectly centered, for example). The product page, too, is like being at Apple.com, and even the price is a Cupertino-cloning $29.99, with a six-pack for $150.

Product page [Twelve South via Noquedanblogs]

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This story is so wonderfully pragmatic and stiff-upper-lipped that it could only come from sun-challenged England, the home of people who will go to a beach on a planned day trip even though the day turns out to be cold and wet.

Many Brits are holidaying in their own Isles this summer, caught between a devalued currency and a recession. But when they get to holiday camps and caravan parks and the heavens open, what do they do as the torrents lash their tents and chalets? The answer used to be play cards. Now there will be the internet. British Telecom is installing Wi-Fi hotspots in Pontins holiday parks, 77 Camping and Caravanning Club sites, along with sites in the once-popular holiday town of Skegness (motto: Its so bracing).

If you are already a BT customer, chances are youll get free access to the OpenZone hotspots. Others can pay, which may be worth it at any cost if youre stuck in a caravan with your parents, siblings and Aunt Flo (why does she make that horrible noise when she eats?). And Im not joking about this being done to cope with the notoriously fickle English weather. BT Openzone boss Chris Bruce had this to say in the official press release: Having the option to get online and stay entertained will provide a useful plan B if the weather does its worst.

Press release [BT]

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Is it possible to squeeze the line My cardiovascular fitness levels right up there with Lance into a rap and have it sound good? Amazingly, yes, as MC SpandX shows us in his wonderful hipster-baiting, fixie-dissing performance. Hilarious.

Video page [YouTube via Cyclelicious]

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Things are a little backwards on this one. We love the company, but we certainly dont love the product, a small, portable camera tripod. It starts with the name Digidudes. Then, the rather nasty plasticky look of these dudes further repels us, in the way that only a colorful, novelty keychain item can. It reminds us of the girl back in school who would constantly have to show how whacky and individual she was by hanging almost every keychain known to man off the back of her schoolbag.

Really, if you want a small, foldaway tripod, buy one of Jobys little Gorillapods and at least have something more useful. Still, the people behind Digidudes, Quirky, are an interesting bunch. The company takes pre-sale orders and then, when enough demand is generated, the production line is fired up. This allows small runs with a guaranteed sell-out, and brought us the, ahem, quirky Split Stick double-sided USB drive. Further, 30% of the cash goes to the people who helped design it, or influenced the design. But Digidudes? Cmon, guys. And sticking a Leica M8 on top isnt helping any either.

Product page [Quirky. Thanks, Nikki!]

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Do you remember your first Walkman? I do, although it was a personal stereo, not a real Walkman, and it came from Lloytron. Fast forward only, no rewind, but awesome all the same. I remember it as being tiny, but it was probably huge.

Over at Oobject, there is a gallery of 12 early Sony Walkmen (Walkmans?) A kid in our school had the one above, the TPS-12, way back in 1979 or shortly after. The orange button killed the music and activated a microphone, piping the sound into the headphones. This let you hold a conversation without taking of your phones. That this was in Sonys first Walkman shows some interesting considerations of the players social aspect, although it turned out to be a pointless gimmick.

I also had the yellow waterproof model when I got older. I dunked it in the sea and it worked fine. Go take a look at the gallery. You might spot an old friend, too.

12 Vintage Walkmans [Oobject via BBG]

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A judge has granted Mac cloner Psystar’s motion to dismiss its bankruptcy filing under the stipulation that the company could not file for bankruptcy again for six months, which would stall Apple’s lawsuit.

Psystar in May filed a voluntary petition for bankruptcy protection with the Florida courts. The move temporarily put Apple’s legal case on hold while the bankruptcy court began proceedings. Then Psystar moved to drop the bankruptcy saying it could not handle two cases simultaneously.

Judge William Alsup granted Psystar’s request to dismiss the bankruptcy filing under the condition that it could not file for bankruptcy a second time to continue to stall Apple’s lawsuit. (For a more detailed report written in legalese, see MacObserver’s article.)

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

Apple 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 and Apple are scheduled for a Jan. 11. 2010 trial unless a settlement on summary judgment is reached before that date.

Image: Psystar

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Zune HD, Microsoft’s answer to Apple iPod Touch, is likely to launch in less than a month and it promises to be much cheaper than its rival.

Amazon, which has started taking pre-orders for the device, has listed the 16 GB Zune HD player for $220 and the 32 GB version for $290. Compare that to $275 for the 16 GB iPod Touch and $370 for the 32 GB version. Microsoft is yet to confirm the pricing for Zune HD or the launch date.

Microsoft’s move will give Zune a real shot at catching up to its competitor. Since its launch in 2006, Zune has been struggling to make a dent in the iPod’s massive market share. According to research firm NPD, in the first half of the year Zune’s market share was about 2 percent compared to about 70 percent for the iPod.

But, clearly, Microsoft hasn’t given up on this battle. In May, the company announced a new version of the Zune media player called Zune HD. Zune HD has a 3.3-inch capacitive OLED screen with multi-touch functionality, Wi-Fi, HD radio and an Internet browser. The device will also have HD video output capability.

We got some hands on time with the device last week and our first impressions have been good. Zune HD’s crisp OLED screen and easy multi-touch interface has the potential to turn the player into a viable competitor to the iPod Touch.

Add to this the competitive pricing vs. the Touch, and it is likely to be Zune’s best chance for a comeback.

Photo: Dylan Tweney / Wired.com

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Unless youre suicidal, when you ride a fixed-gear bike, youll want to strap your feet in. Traditionally, this has been done by leather or fabric toe-straps, held open by metal cages, or more recently clip-less pedals, which (paradoxically) clip on to a special cleat in the sole of a cycling shoe.

Recently, another option has started to show up. Its a wide strap which uses Velcro to secure it to itself, and is stiff enough to remain open even when empty, allowing your feet to slide in. Advantages: lightweight, a good tight fit and works well with any regular shoes. Disadvantages: Very limited availability and therefore relatively high cost. One commercial example is the Brooklyn-made Hold Fast.

And what do we do here on Gadget Lab when we cant find or afford a piece of kit? We make our own. I paid a visit to the hardware store, spent less than 2, and maybe an hours worth of work (and several hours of laying in bed this morning planning). The result? FootBelts! (FeetBelts is already taken). Follow along and make your own.

First, the hardware. Youll need some kind of strap or webbing. I used strapping for ratchets. I figured that if its strong enough to tighten down a load on a truck, its good enough for my feet. It was also cheap, came in a bunch of bright colors and was available in the right size. As ever, dont worry too much about what Im using. I headed to the hardware store and poked around to see what looked good. You should do the same. I bought two meters for 1.80 (around $2.50).

The second ingredient is Velcro, and I have a lot left over from various projects. Buy it by the roll (its cheaper in bulk) and pick something the same width or narrower than your strapping. Finally, a needle and thread. A sewing machine is quicker, but I dont have one.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

Put a shoe on the pedal and measure how much strap youll need. There should be a good foot-width of overlap on the top, as this is where the Velcro will go. Mark, measure again and cut. At this stage I found out that my strapping likes to fray, but happily its made of plastic. A quick trip through a lighter flame sealed the ends.

Add Velcro

Part of the strip will be split to thread through the holes in the pedal. I stuck the (self-adhesive) Velcro first and cut through both together. You can do this, or cut separately. The idea is to make a Velcro sandwich, with hooks and loops that clamp onto each other. Its easier to see than to explain:

The second part of the sandwich is sewn on. This is fairly important for strength, as the seam will take a fair amount of stress. Im a messy but effective sewer when Im in a hurry, but this should hold, at least until I make it to a sewing machine.

Thats it. The sizes will depend on the size of your feet and pedals, as well as your material, but the actual setup is straightforward enough. Thread the forked part through the pedals from the outside and then up and over your foot. Stick them to the top of the wide strap and then fold the sewn flap over the top to secure.

Ride

I took them for a quick spin and they feel great. Ill need to do a longer trip to be sure, but I like them so far, and theyll work with softer summer shoes. Two weak points may be where the strap is split, and the sewn seam. Also, you should really sew the Velcro into place, not just leave it glued. Again, a sewing machine will help.

Good luck, and let us know if you make any of your own. Bonus points for innovations and outlandish colors.

Posted under Gadget Reviews