Toshiba adds faster Draft N Wi-Fi to this attractive if otherwise fairly conventional laptop. Just be sure you’ve got an 802.11n router to go along with it.

The JVC KD-BT-1 offers a hatful of features for its price. However, it can be tricky to master all the controls, and you'll need a seriously tricked-out phone to make the most of it.

Peter Gabriel is a human-rights champion, a global entrepreneur and a technology aficionado, not to mention the owner of lots of prized (and copyrighted) content, so it’s not surprising that he’s drawn to that cruel mistress, online music downloading. In search of fairness, Gabriel’s company We7 has launched an ad-supported free-download model, or, as they themselves put it:

With a passionate team, a breathtaking vision and the ‘pat.pending’ technology to ‘graft’ relevant advertising/messages to music and video downloads, we’re all set to create a music download revolution.

Jump for details and, oh yes, free samples.

I thought graft was for politicians and burn victims, but it also means 10 seconds of sponsorship at the beginning of every DRM-free 128-kilobit MP3, according to The Register. The report added that advertisers would pay We7 what sounds like an unreasonable £0.30 to £0.60 per download (that is, up to $1.20 per song) and that listeners could earn the right to skip the ad after listening to it a few times. How many times, exactly? Three, four or five.

While it’s unclear what kind of label support We7 has, the site has posted free samples, including tracks from Coolio, Dave Matthews Band and Hall & Oates, though not, strangely enough, from Mr. Gabriel himself. All songs are tagged with 10-second We7 promos. They’re not so bad. In fact they sound like radio station identifications. But let’s face it, if advertisers are really going to cover your $1 per song, they will most likely craft 10-second ads that shake you to your very core. – Wilson Rothman

About We7 [We7 via The Register]

Filed under: Transportation

Clogged highways and frustratingly waiting while your gas needle plummets to empty usually doesn't conjure up thoughts of green, but it seems like these very roads could become the source of a lot more energy. Several recent student designs have proposed that major roadways be retrofitted with various forms of wind energy collection devices, ranging from overhead turbines that collect energy from quickly-moving cars below to barrier panels (pictured after the jump) that harness the wind from closely passing vehicles moving in opposite directions. Ideally, the wind energy could then be sent back out to the grid to power nearby communities, light-rail transportation systems, or even intelligent billboards. Of course, most of these ideas are still in the research phase, and even if proven feasible, we can't imagine the up-front costs (or inconveniences of installing these things) to be minor, but we're sure that government subsidies should be able to to lend a helping hand.

Read - Barrier panel prototype
Read - Overhead turbine design

Continue reading Proposals would turn highways into wind farms

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Wearables

Pushing the envelope is what it's all about, and for companies cranking out Wiimote-like devices to make gaming and PC experiences more eventful, even that's not enough to satisfy a bevy of outfits with their eyes set on getting biofeedback into games. Companies such as Emotiv Systems, CyberLearning, and our old friend NeuroSky are all looking to take advantage of the public's current curiosity about thought-controlled (and influenced) gaming by offering up electrode-laced headsets that read a variety of brain impulses to effect gameplay. Essentially, these gel-free caps rely on technology such as electromyography (EMG), which records twitches and other muscular movements, and electrooculography (EOG), which measures changes in the retina, in order to change the way games are experienced. For instance, a nervous, uneasy GTA player would barely be able to aim at his / her enemies, while a daydreamer would have a hard time staying on course and reaching full speed while playing Gran Turismo. Unsurprisingly, said companies have noted that "finding their target markets" have been the most difficult aspect, and certain analysts rightfully question whether gamers would actually enjoy such "mentally taxing restrictions" on their games, but if all goes as planned, we should start seeing a few more options in the commercial brain-interface market before too long.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Peripherals

Hopefully that’ll be the last time we’re forced to write “mouse” three times in a headline, although the quality of these two mouse mods makes it completely worth it. First is the Steampunk mouse, which would look brilliant sitting next to your steampunk laptop and steampunk keyboard. You could even get your steampunk robot to help out with the construction, which took around 10 hours and only cost the creator Jake $5 to make. If you skip to the real — as opposed to steampunk roleplay — description you’ll see that it’s made up of an nameless laptop mouse and a “big jumble of bits and bobs from [Jake's] parts bin”, which tends to be the case with most steampunk efforts. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next mouse mod, the mouse mouse, was made using material found in a bin either. In this mod, noahw and canida over at instructibles stuffed a real, taxidermy mouse with the parts from a hacked computer travel mouse. Words cannot describe the combination of horror and awe at seeing the electrical guts of a real rodent being splayed for all to see. Now all that’s needed is a PC case modded into a burrow and a mousepad with fake droppings.

[Via MAKE; thanks, jiltedcitizen]

Read — The mouse mouse
Read — The Steampunk mouse

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Media PCs, Peripherals

We're hearing some fairly bold words from a startup company with a purported Wiimote killer, even though it's about as far from the gaming realm as it could possibly be. In what's likely a shameless attempt to link the WavIt 3D Media-PC Remote to the well-regarded Wiimote, ThinkOptics has reportedly "made a pointing system for the computer and TV that makes the Nintendo Wii's controller look downright primitive." Realistically, the Wavlt doesn't look much better than any other overachieving wireless pointing device, but it does hope to interact with TVs and HTPCs in order to make on-screen navigation a bit less painful. Additionally, the creator is looking to incorporate the motion-sensing device into home automation in order to raise and dim lights, crank up the furnace, or mute your youngster's blaring music from the living room. The controller supposedly utilizes both RF and infrared technologies, and although it can track minute twists, flips, and turns, it does lack both an accelerometer and built-in Bluetooth. Notably, the wand will rely on the 2.4GHz band as well as Zigbee's 802.15 protocol, and while no firm release date was set, official pricing information should be unveiled shortly. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Portable Audio

It’s not like we had anything personal against the 80s style boomboxes that lasted a good half hour or so on eight D-cell batteries, but tagging one along to a day at the beach wound up getting pretty costly in a hurry. Joining the hordes of other eco-friendly and multi-faceted camping / outdoor gear is the Wireless Outdoor Solar Speaker, which is quite likely to be overlooked as a simple thermos at first glance. Atop the canister sits a solar panel that soaks up energy and uses it to pump out tunes through its (understandably weak) five-watt speaker. Additionally, a complimentary wireless (albeit battery-powered) transceiver allows any music source with a 3.5-millimeter output to be beam music to the solar speaker from “up to 150 feet away.” Reportedly, the sun-lovin’ device will run UK-based chaps £99.95 ($199), but that’s assuming you can actually catch it in stock.

[Via PopGadget]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Brionvega has been making TVs for over 60 years now and some of its retro models are still available, albeit on the expensive side. The Italian company has just come out with the Alpha TV - which is still at the concept phase, so no prices, sorry - with a smidgen of retro styling (most of which is in the shiny remote control that is chunkier than Burt Reynold's moustache was - mmmmmm, dreamy) but which, on the whole, is very forward-looking.

The Brionvega was designed by V12 design, is available in orange, black and silver, has a built-in DVD player and comes in orange, black and silver. Although they say it's still just a concept (maaaaaaan), there are hopes that the thing will go on sale around September time. There's a couple more pics after the jump.

If these come in HD, I reckon there will be a very noisy clamor for them. – Ad Dugdale

Brionvega retrostyled TV is still a concept [New Launches]

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Misc. Gadgets

No doubt about it, vanilla inkjets seem to be garnering a whole lot of attention these days, and while the latest trick won’t yield circuits or OLED displays, it could make filmmakers who long for days past quite excited. Jesse England has apparently discovered a fairly easy to automate process to print video frames onto transparency film. After discovering the dimensions for both Super 8 and 16-millimeter film, he simply made a template, arranged the filmstrip using Adobe’s Premier and Photoshop, and printed it out on an everyday Epson inkjet. The noticeably manual task of punching out sprocket holes was still left to a hand-powered box cutter, but we’re sure there are less tedious solutions just waiting to be implemented. As expected, the actual video quality was deemed “terrible,” but the emotional impact was bittersweet indeed. Be sure to hit the read link for the whole low-down and to see a couple of video demonstrations to show you what the fuss is all about.

[Via BoingBoing]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

A US company has come up with a headset that reads your brainwaves - and they plan on marketing it to gamers. NeuroSky’s prototype measures a person’s baseline brain-wave activity, including signals that relate to concentration, relaxation and anxiety. So, if you’re playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour and you lose concentration, you could find your shot buried in the rough if you fail to keep your Zen-like concentration.

The company has already developed a version based on Star Wars. Don the Darth Vader helmet, which contains a sensor that reads the brain’s signals and, if you concentrate, your light saber remains illuminated. Start thinking about your girlfriend dressed as Princess Leia, with Danish Pastries over her - oops - and you lose the force, Luke. The headset is expected to go into production later this year and could cost as little as $20. – Ad Dugdale

[Yahoo via The Raw Feed]

Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM

Brought to you by the same folks crafting the m300, the m500 watch phone has just passed through the FCC, giving it an air of legitimacy that its predecessor may have been lacking. Of course, there's still a wide gap between FCC approval and making an appearance on store shelves -- but we're cautiously hopeful. Differences between the m500 and the earlier m300 look to be mostly cosmetic, with all buttons now having been moved to the sides to make room for a larger display up front. Now, we want to know: who'd put this on their wrists day in and day out?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

 

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We love the Kensington Contour Terrain's low price and subdued look, but we have concerns about its durability.

Although stylish and affordable for a 1080p projector, the Mitsubishi HC5000's black level failings prevent it from earning our recommendation.

Although stylish and affordable for a 1080p projector, the Mitsubishi HC5000’s black level failings prevent it from earning our recommendation.

The D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router is the fastest we’ve seen, but we’re still reluctant to recommend it as it’s based on an unfinished wireless spec.

The Brookstone Surround Sound Earbuds are inexpensive, comfortable, and do a decent job of offering an open audio experience. If you frequently suffer from listener fatigue, definitely consider these headphones.

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Peripherals

While actually picking locks is no large task these days, cracking into one's highly encrypted information in OS X could prove problematic if the culprit had something to hide. SubRosaSoft's USB key purportedly allows "law enforcement professionals to perform live forensics on Mac OS X systems," and once the software on the included drive is ran, it automatically extracts data from the Apple Keychain and system settings to "provide the examiner fast access to the suspect's critical information with as little interaction or trace as possible." The program then compiles the details into a database and stores it back on the drive's internal memory, which can supposedly be read back on Windows, Linux, or OS X machines at base. Before the devious ones in the crowd get too excited, though, we should probably warn you that interested consumers will be forced to "provide proof that they are a licensed law enforcement professional," and even then, it will run you anywhere between $399.95 to $499.95 depending on your exact profession. But hey, we're sure you know a private investigator or police officer who can hook you up, right?

[Via DragonSteelMods]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays

Since the medium-sized digiframe market is getting so crowded these days, it's leaving manufacturers with little choice but to spruce up their offerings or get left in the crowd. Thankfully for us all, Aluratek has decided to bolster its stance by throwing down a 10.5-inch digital photo frame that not only sports a sleek, classy design, but also ups the ante in the specs department. The 1,024 x 768 resolution seen here has definitely made an appearance on another (albeit larger) frame before, but it touts 256MB of built-in memory, USB 2.0, compatibility with CF, MS, SD, MMC, and xD flash cards, and support for JPEG, Motion JPEG, AVI, and MP3 file formats. Additionally, a bundled wireless remote allows you to control the still / video slideshows from afar, and the audio output enables users to crank things on the home stereo whilst utilizing the integrated display. Best of all, the pricetag isn't one to balk at, as the $199 Aluratek is asking for here isn't too greedy at all when compared to the (mostly lacking) competition.

[Via PopGadget]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals, Robots

Yeah, Wiimotes aren't the only motion-sensing game controllers that can be hacked for fruitless new uses. Take the new SIXAXIS Linux integration project, which, so far as we can tell, is an incredibly effective means for maneuvering small, custom robots in need of a good 3D controller for manipulating, um, a small flat plane. We have a feeling this won't be the last we've heard of this little project. Video after the break.

[Via QJ]

Continue reading SIXAXIS, Linux, robot... we're in.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Remember the most ridiculous Windows video ever? This doesn't compare to that, but it does have Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry shilling for Microsoft's "new" Windows 95 OS. There's gotta be more hilarity found in watching two people who have no idea how to use computers struggle with screensavers and the upgrade process, but we don't have 40 minutes to go through all four videos. But you might.

This isn't a "before they were famous" video, this is a "we really need some more cash for our gigantic mansion" video. The best part was that back then nerds were still nerds, and even the narrator calls them "propellerheads". Nice.

Three more after the jump.

– Jason Chen

Promotional Windows 95 Video Starring Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry [TrappedbyDogma]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Conference calling on PSTN is so pre-tech-burst, and Buffalo’s making quite sure you’re well aware of a VoIP alternative to dialing into those oft held (and frequently toned out) corporate calls. The BSKP-CU202/SV speakerphone boasts a unique, if not awkward design, boasts about its Skype support, and packs six total watts of power to belt out those brutal demands coming from the other end. Reportedly, no drivers are required for this gizmo to work, and it draws all the current it needs to operate from your PC’s USB port. Users should also enjoy the echo cancellation technology that’s built right in, and just in case you need to swap over to a private conversation, an integrated headphone jack is handily included on the rear. Look for this to hit corporate cubes in Japan soon for a modest ¥9,800 ($82), and feel free to click on through for a few more snaps.

[Via EverythingUSB]

Continue reading Buffalo’s BSKP-CU202/SV Skype phone does conference calling

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Sony really knows how to party. It wasn’t enough to have topless ladies at the God of War II European unveiling, they had to go and decapitate a goat and put it on display. Not only that, they invited visitors to stick their hands down the neck, grab out some intestines (not the goat’s own, they were procured elsewhere and shoved inside), and eat them. Fantastic.

Best yet, the entire thing was documented in their official PlayStation magazine, whose 80,000 print run has been recalled thanks to the stunt. Nice work Sony. Next time, just call it a day after you get the nude ladies. – Jason Chen

Slaughter: Horror at Sony’s depraved promotion stunt with decapitated goat [DailyMail]

Recently I got all excited about a pretty cool-looking networked 3.1 home theater system from JVC. Since it seems most of the innovative networked products are coming from brands that aren't as easy to find at Best Buy, and since JVC said it supported a wide range of file formats including DivX, I called it in to take a closer look.

Although setup was easy, and its picture and sound were about what you'd expect from a $1,000 home-theater-in-a-box from the pre-HD era, the networking and file management aspects of the machine (i.e., the hard part) were just not finished. Seriously, it needs more time in the QA oven before it will be anything like good eatin'. As JVC is learning, it's not enough to just meet the bare minimum of HDMI and DivX support.

WHAT'S GOOD

Like I said, on the HTIB front, the DD-3 isn't bad. Perhaps best suited for apartment dwellers, its shiny black surfaces, gunmetal trim and curved edges suggest that it wouldn't look totally out of place on a Star Destroyer either. I like the fact that everything, even the 120W sub, is powered through a single plug on the main unit. Though there are only three speaker boxes, the center actually has two surround speakers integrated into it, with a decent psychoacoustic rendering of 5.1. (I will add that it works best in tight quarters, and may not pass muster from the pickiest of surround-soundophiles.) Each of the four speakers gets 25W of juice.

Setup was easy, especially since there's no wireless option: just plug a (really long) Ethernet cable in, connect the unit and the three speakers to the subwoofer, and you are off and running. On the PC end, all it took was CyberLink Media Server 1.1 install disc, though I downloaded an update patch from CyberLink's website just to be safe.

On paper, the DD-3 is friendly to many file formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, JPEG, ASF, DivX, MPEG1 and MPEG2. It also supports a range of disc types and USB devices. In fact, I found the best way to playback files from the PC was to burn them to CD or DVD. I did not have as much luck getting them over the network.

WHAT'S BAD

•The DD-3 only supports "up to" HDMI 1.0, and video resolutions of 480i, 480p and 720p only. Also, it will only play DivX files up to 720x480 at 30 fps or 720x576 at 25 fps. So, nothing high-def at all in that department.

•In USB mode, it did not recognize a bus-powered 2.5-in. Seagate drive, though it did power it up and is fully compliant with USB 2.0. I discovered, in very fine print, that this is because it will not support USB volumes over 2GB. There's goes, basically, every USB hard-disk drive in existence. When I plugged in a 1GB Lexar USB thumbdrive, the DD-3 only recognized some of the media files stored on it. I even tried to move them around, in case a folder hierarchy was frustrating the software, but no dice.

•Totally random annoyance: when you're watching a DVD, say you momentarily switch to another source (Network, USB, Line or whatever) then go back to DVD. It forgets where it was and starts over, all the way back at the FBI warning.

•In my mind, the main event was the CyberLink Media Server software. Like Windows Media Connect, it serves up files for you to listen to, look at or watch at the receiver end. As you can see in the gallery, CyberLink's interface couldn't be simpler: just check the folders—My Music, My Videos, My Photos, etc.—that you want to access, then leave the app running. On the DD-3's screen, I could navigate to my PC, but when I clicked on the CyberLink option, all I got was a single folder of music. As I scrolled slowly through all of the artists, I found that it ended in the letter D. So not only did I not get all of the designated files, it even truncated the list of files that it would let me access. Since the CyberLink software only runs on Windows XP anyway, I'm thinking maybe Windows Media Connect would have been JVC's better option.

When I called customer support to discuss my troubles, I got through to someone quickly, but he was unable to help. He told me the product wasn't even listed in the database, and I had to show him the press release on JVC.com before he was convinced I wasn't deluded or just plain dumb. The support rep told me that someone will get back to me in the next day or two. If anything positive comes out of that call, I will report back. On the other hand, if you never hear me discuss this product again, well, maybe it's for the better. – Wilson Rothman