Gadgets Blog » Handhelds

The Sony Walkman Meets Its End

Dan Evans — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:13:13 +0000

It’s a bit odd to write about today’s gadget, a device that triggered a cultural revolution around the time I was born. Portable music may have been a 20th-century invention, but the advent of the MP3 and the iPod has spectacularly transformed how we think about music here in the 21st century. The idea of carrying a tape, or even a CD, around just to get our music fix seems archaic. I could listen to my iPod for 31 straight days and not hear the same song twice.

In an era before this technology, Sony’s compact device transformed the world, laying to rest the 8-track cassette and rendering the vinyl record a collector’s item. The Walkman was released in 1979, and as the design became more portable and sleek, sales continued to climb. Sony sold a staggering 220 million cassette tapes around the world in the three decades following its release.

But on Friday of last week, the last Walkman on Japanese soil rolled off the production line, bringing an end to its 30-year run. The advent of compact discs stole a considerable portion of the Walkman’s market share, leading to the updated Discman. According to Sony, there remains a strong market for the Walkman in other places in the world, but Japan’s rapid adoption of other technology has, sadly, rendered the tape deck obsolete.

Times have clearly changed, and in such a short while. The Walkman may be on its way out, but the future of audio still looks bright. With larger hard drives comes the ability to store higher-quality audio files. Formats like FLAC and Apple Lossless provide studio-perfect audio quality. The Walkman may have been the gadget of choice in the past, but audiophiles can rejoice that it has slowly gone away.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/daryl_mitchell/3561452868

Amazon Kindle vs. Barnes & Noble Nook: Price Wars

Dan Evans — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 17:28:54 +0000

Today’s top news story also makes for a great way to discuss a nifty gadget: the e-reader. On Monday of this week, Barnes & Noble proudly announced they would be cutting the price of their in-house gadget, the Nook, to the spectacularly low price of $149. It wasn’t available for all editions of the Nook, just those with only WiFi support (as opposed to the more luxurious model which boasts WiFi and 3G coverage). Scarcely hours later, Amazon.com struck back with a price cut of their own, knocking the Kindle down to $189. The result? A price war just before summer reading. But which one to buy?

The Kindle has stood as the favorite in the e-reader arena for some time now. Hitting the market before the Nook, it was one of the first devices to exist solely for the reading of electronic books, and made a sizable impression in the market. Lightweight and portable, with battery life lasting a staggering amount of time, the Kindle offered up a great way to take an electronic library on the go. Factor in how the device was tied to Amazon’s burgeoning online book empire, the availability of texts was an excellent addition to a serious reader’s gadgets.

The Nook, on the other hand, is the challenger in this fight. Barnes & Noble’s gadget offers up some features that improve upon the ideas found in the Kindle, and advantage it gained by being the latter of the two devices to be released onto the market. The Nook features a touch-screen instead of the bulky Kindle keyboard, and also enables the user to “lend” a book to another Nook user for up to two weeks. The better-looking of the two gadgets, the Nook is somewhat troubled by its slower loading speed and shorter battery life.

In the end, which device you choose really should depend on what books you’re planning on reading. Try perusing their respective e-book libraries (available at each company’s website) for titles you’re interested in reading. If one of the websites offers up a better selection of titles that suits your interest (and this primarily relates to less common titles), then by all means go with that gadget. However, it might be worth holding out just a bit longer before picking up a new e-reader. It’s likely that Amazon will release a new gadget within the next year or so, and tablet computers currently pose a big market threat to these gadgets.

Image Source: flickr.com/photos/43602175@N06/4069260433

Record That: Flip HD

colleen — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 14:33:50 +0000

After the holidays is the best time to buy yourself some expensive but much-coveted gadgets. These next few days before the holidays are over (which you could say is January 2nd) are crucial for shopping savings. From television screens to camcorders, don’t miss your chance to buy some quality items on the cheap. With New Years Eve coming up, you want to make sure you’ve got all of the documentation and festivity materials in order: the champagne, the champagne flutes, the hors d’oeurves to keep people from blacking out before midnight, the countdown clocks, party favors, noise-making machines etc.

You want all of that material to make the night great, but then also the cameras and camcorders to record the festivities for years to come, and for the people who might have a fuzzy memory come Monday. I recommend the new Digital Flip MinoHD, a compact handheld device that you can dance with, move around with, etc and still record all of the happenings! Get it on the cheap now at eCrater.com and other select stores with all of the post-holiday savings. Check it out here:

Pure Digital Flip MinoHD Black Camcorder Records 60 Minutes – F460B from eCrater.com: $142.00

Happy Holidays!

Seasonal Spotlight: Digital Breathalyzer?

colleen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:14:48 +0000

Admit it, you’ve always been a little curious about breathalyzers, and would like to experiment with them without the feds involved. Breathalyzer.net is here to help, with their newest gadget, the digital breathalyzer! Consider it a fun icebreaker, maybe, or just a way to make sure you or your party guests don’t pick up your keys when you’re well past the legal limit to drink. Take a little exhale on this puppy, and if you’re over the limit grab the next available taxi.

As quoted by Breathalyzer.net, “The new Alcohawk is the most popular consumer-oriented breathalyzer offered by Breathalyzer.net. It uses a highly-selective semiconductor sensor to provide reliable accuracy from 0.00 to .40% BAC. The three digit LED displays the exact BAC value, not just a range.” It is lightweight, and probably about the size of a deck of cards for convenient portability. FDA approved with 5 reusable, washable mouthpieces, the Alcohawk is ready to help you and your friends stay safe this New Year’s.

The Alcohawk ABI Digital Breathalyzer from Breathalyzer.net: $99.99

Shop for affordable breathalyzers at Smarter.com.

Samsung’s Blue Earth: A Green Lover’s Phone

gadgets — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:24:02 +0000

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics has launched Samsung Blue Earth, an eco-friendly mobile phone with full touch display and sophisticated multimedia appeal. It promises all the state of the art features while working hard to reduce the carbon footprint and saving the Earth. All this while sporting a good-looking face! Sounds like an ideal Miss World contestant, doesn’t it? The pretty, pebble shaped beauty is sure to make a green lover’s heart sing. It functions on very low power and is made of post consumer material extracted from water bottles, which helps lower fuel consumption and carbon emissions. It is devoid of harmful substances like Brominated Flame Retardants, Polyvinylchloride and Phthalate usually found in other gadgets. The Blue Earth has a fully functional solar panel on its back, which can be used to generate power for the phone to operate. It comes with a 5 star energy efficient charger to boot. A responsible “Eco mode” leaves you with the option of setting screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth to an energy-efficient mode with just a single, slick click. That’s not all! An “Eco Walk” function calculates the precise carbon dioxide reduction that you made happen by taking a walk instead of driving. It will even tell you how many trees you saved by walking. No kidding! If that’s not an incentive for your morning walk, I don’t know what is!

Now that they’ve managed to do all that, It is a given that it will come packaged to you in recycled paper and printed with soy ink.

Other features include:

Display: 16M WQVGA TFT LCD (3.0”)Capacitive Touch Screen
Camera: 3.2 Megapixel CMOS, Face Detection / Smile Shot / Photo EditorAudio: Audio Format Support (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA) /WMDRM, OMA DRM
Find Music (Music Recognition) / Music Equalizer; Stereo FM Radio with RDS; Bluetooth Stereo Headset (A2DP)Video: Video Format Support (H.263, WMV, MPEG4)
Connectivity: Bluetooth®v 2.1 / USB 2.0 HS / Wi-FiMemory: Internal Memory : 130MBExternal Memory : microSDHC™ (up to 16GB)Dimension: 108 x 53.6 x 14.2 mmWeight: 119 g
Battery: 1080 mAh

This environmentally conscious device will be on sale in Europe this October. I can’t wait for it to hit the stores in United States. This definitely sounds like my kind of phone!

Amazon’s Kindle 2 falls from $299 to $259: Time to buy?

gadgets — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:02:41 +0000

For all of you who have been eying this beauty for quite sometime, now might be the time to finally take the plunge. Kindle 2 has gone down further by $40! What’s the big deal, you say? Considering that it debuted at $400 a couple of years ago, i say “Yay!” It also now comes in an international version that will be available and can be used in over 100 countries using a built-in AT&T SIM card for $279. So you can download a book in US and read it in other parts of the world. The new model can be pre-ordered now at Amazon.com and it will get shipped on October 19. However the original Sprint Kindle is available immediately on sale at $259.

If you need a little rekindling of what Kindle is all about, let’s jog your memory: Slim: Just over 1/3 of an inch, as thin as most magazinesLightweight: At 10.2 ounces, lighter than a typical paperbackWireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle, anytime, anywhere; no monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots.

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Get books delivered in less than 60 seconds; no PC required. Wirelessly send, receive and read personal documents in a variety of formats such as Microsoft Word and PDF.

Paper-Like Display: The screen works using real ink and doesn’t use a backlight. Reads like real paper with no glare, even in bright sunlight.

Choose Text Size: Kindle lets readers customize their reading preference by providing six different text sizes.

Long Battery Life: 25% longer battery life; read for days without recharging. Kindle’s electronic ink display sips battery power so users can read for over two weeks with wireless turned off and up to four days on a single charge with wireless on.

Carry Your Library: Holds over 1,500 books in its tiny frame.Read-to-Me: With the new text-to-speech feature, Kindle can read every newspaper, magazine, blog, and book out loud to you, unless the book’s rights holder made the feature unavailable.Free Book Samples: Download and read first chapters for free before you decide to buy.

Large Selection: Over 350,000 books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs available. This includes new Releases and 104 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers. If you are a committed traveler, you would be happy to know that Lonely Planet travel guides have been recently added to the vast collection .Travelers can now pack as many Lonely Planet guides as they want into Kindle and download new guides wirelessly elsewhere in the world.

Low Book Prices: Most downloads will set you back $9.99, unless marked otherwise

Dictionary Lookup: Kindle comes with the New Oxford American Dictionary and over 250,000 definitions that appear instantly at the bottom of the page.

I don’t own a kindle yet. But I must admit I’m tempted!

Archos 5 Arrives, Time to End Our Love Affair with the iPod?

gadgets — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:25:24 +0000

Archos has released Archos 5 , a well stacked media player and internet tablet that has all the looks of a worthy opponent to the iPod touch . I know most of you are probably yawning by now. Yet another inane imitation that is sure to bite the dust, you say… Let’s play fair and see what’s on the table shall we?

Archos 5 comes with a powerful wi-fi for super fast web browsing allowing for full width, PC like viewing without shrinking or need for zooming . It runs on the open source android platform which is awesome for apps developers .Moreover, the Flash 9 supporting device not only enables you to watch videos on sites like YouTube but also is the only Android device that supports video formats in High Definition. So expect things to get really creative and very apps rich a la ipod pretty soon.

The Archos 5 will come already preloaded with several Android apps, like the eBuddy instant-messaging app, Twidroid for sending and receiving tweets, Craigsphone for posting or accessing classified ads, Thinksfree for viewing Microsoft Office files, Quickpedia, and many more. You can always download more apps from the Android Market or from Archos’s own AppsLib store.

The full email application lets you read, write, download, send attachments, and manage your contacts. You can also access content seamlessly from a variety of on-the-go , on demand services such as CinemaNow, Hulu , integrated Internet radio, music from sites like Pandora and Web TV widgets. You can schedule TV recordings from any channel on your cable or set-top box and watch it at a time and place of your choice. Then if you so choose, play back the digital content from ARCHOS 5 to your TV, all in HD quality, at 720p.

It comes with a Bluetooth, through which you can access the 3G connection of your mobile phone.

There are also some interesting accessories that you will be able to purchase on the side such as DVR station to record video or integrated GPS with TeleAtlas application. The TeleAtlas software provides all the usual GPS features plus an additional 3D Photo Realistic mode which is pretty neat. In the 3D mode the maps use multiple angles and zoom levels to portray the landmarks and streets as realistically as possible.

The slim, light weight model that ships with a DVR station adapter and a standard USB cable is available at 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities (with a MicroSD card slot) and a hard drive version with a choice of 160GB or 500GB.

Pricing is about $249.99 at the entry point. You can order from Amazon or the Archos website. Make sure though that you are ordering the latest model as quite confusingly the earlier model still on sale in different outlets is also called Archos5.

Ignore the Weird Name, Play the Zii Egg Game

gadgets — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:03:54 +0000

Zii LABS, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. announced the launch of Zii Egg, a handheld stem cell computer that runs on a platform called Plaszma. Of course the fact that Plaszma is open source lets the ever growing community of developers worldwide to get their creative juices churning providing them a new medium to build applications on.
Positioned to take on Apple’s iPod touch, this portable audio video handheld device, can also run on Android and comes with a price tag of $199. Its hardware has no doubt been built to impress with front and rear facing cameras, HD playback, 1080p video output, OpenGL ES support, X-Fi audio processing, 32GB of built-in memory and a full SD slot.

Full features and specifications include:

Capacitive 10-point multi-gesture touch display
3.5” 320 x 480 true-color display
X-Fi audio processing
Up to 32GB Internal Flash Storage
32MB NOR Flash (Linux kernel Boot ROM)
256MB Mobile DDR RAM
Supports 720p and 1080p HDTVs via HD cable
Composite video-out
Dual cameras for High Definition photos and movie capture
Forward facing VGA camera
Rear facing HD camera
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
Hardware GPS receiver
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Accelerometer
Ambient light sensor
SDHC slot (supports up to 32GB of external SDHC Card)
USB 2.0 Mini-B (MTP and Charging)
Universal Docking connector (USB, Audio)
Headphone socket, built-in speaker and microphone
Supports Plaszma OS and Zii Optimized Android
Light weight: 108g

Camping Gadgets for Summer

gadgets — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:29:14 +0000

Finally, summer’s here and the weather is great for playing and staying outdoors. Camping can be made even cooler if you’ve got the right gadgets to keep you cozy, clean and well-directed — unless you like roughing it, then all you’ll need is a backpack, a can of beans and a Swiss Army knife. But if you’re like me, you want a few conveniences without feeling weighed down by all kinds of junk.

I like to keep it as uncomplicated and compact as possible. But hey, maybe it’s your style to drag along the foldout cook top stove complete with waist-high counter and cutting board setup and bring extraneous items like tent decor and a welcome mat for outside the entrance. Seems like a lot of baggage, but whatever works for you.

Besides your tent, sleeping bag and backpack, here are some interesting gadgets to get you going:

Brunton Camping Combo Kit
From $94.19

Features a stove, lantern, spork eating utensil and canister stabilizer with three extended legs with rubber grips keep stove/lantern steady all in an ultra-compact, lightweight design. The 11,000-BTU burner boils 1 liter of water about 4 minutes and the lantern burns for 8.5 hours.

Swiss Army Victorinox 53203 Huntsman
From: $23.40

Because these classic gadgets come in handy more often than not, this model comes with large and small stainless steel blades, corkscrew, can opener, small and large screwdrivers, bottle opener, wire stripper, wood saw, reamer with sewing eye, multi-purpose hook, tweezers, toothpick, key ring and scissors. It’s 3.5 inches long when closed. It’s surprising how easily key items like corkscrews and can openers get forgotten. Keep this with your camping gear and you don’t have to worry.

Guide Gear Pop-up Room and Solar Shower

Okay, okay, so it’s not hardcore, but how cool is this? Easy to set up, made with 70 denier/190T polyester material, fiberglass pole frame and 5-gallon PVC Solar Shower. Bring your own water and the sun will do the rest. Feels great after a long hike, not to mention makes sharing a tent a bit easier on everyone’s noses.

Notebook Portable Flat-Folding BBQ: $24.99

We’ve seen the typical campsite grill *shudder* but lugging the full-size BBQ from home is just too bulky. This non-networking “notebook” looks like a ready solution. The compact, sturdy metal design comes with a built-in grill rack and uses charcoal or wood.

Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx GPS Receiver
From: $283.99

Hiking’s fun but getting lost isn’t. Something like this all-purpose upgradeable handheld locator can help with that. It has auto routing, turn-by-turn guidance and gives your bearings while you stand still. It lets you upload up your own digital maps for better reference, has a waterproof and a large, color TFT display for easy viewing, day or night. Up to 20 hours of battery life.

Image Source: Campist.com

Find at Smarter.com: Shop for more handheld GPS systems and portable BBQs.
Discounts on Swiss Army knives.