Snowbot

Snowbot
The Snowbot is the latest in USB peripherals that are hitting the market recently. From first site it reminds me of the battlestar galactica Cylon’s although I guess it could be renamed the Snowlon. That red or blue light that swishes from side to side is enough to scare the thiefs away from your PC.

Unfortunatly when the light goes on they will see it’s just a Snowbot and probably take it anyway. The Snowbot is USB powered which has several controls which can speed up the light, change it’s colour to red or blue and make a noise.

Via: ThinkGeek

Personal Robot from NEC – The R100

R100 Robot
Robots are becoming more popular more and more often. The R100 Personal Robot is the latest on the scene and it comes from NEC. It’s different, as you can see it does not look like the average robot that you see. Thats not a bad thing. The NEC R100 comes with 2 cameras in it which can recognise faces. The R100 has 100 phrases in it’s database and can use it’s microphone to catch the commands your voice gives it. What makes it handy also is that it can deliver email on your behalf.

Via: UberGizmo

Linksys CIT310

Linksys CIT310
The Linksys CIT310 is a VoIP phone which doubles up as a landline type phone also. Many phones that hit the market are commonly associated with Skype. The Linksys is different as it works with Yahoo’s messenger VoIP service. The built in software runs Microsoft Messenger and you can select a contact from on the phone which works over wi-fi.

Other features that the phone has is a colour LCD screen which displays contacts as well as weather reports and other services. The Linksys is a nice step forward for those who use Yahoo Messenger to talk. The cost of the handset is 79.99 dollars.

Via: Coolest-Gadgets

Epson Endeavor NJ1000

Epson Laptop
Epson have launched a low spec laptop which falls in to the budget laptop price range. The Endeavor NJ1000 features a 15 inch display, Celeron M 410 processor, 256Mb RAM, 40Gb drive and a CD rom. This will sell for around 550 dollars. The model is upgradable to a Core 2 Duo T5500 processor, a lot larger hard drive and a DVD burner. No price on that, but I can tell you it will be higher then 550 dollars 😉

Via: Engadget

20Q – It Reads Your Mind

20Q
20Q is a game that can read your mind. As the name suggests, it asks you 20 questions such as, “Is it heavier then a pound of butter?”, or “does it fit in an envelope?”. At the end of the 20Q it will guess what you have thought about and guess what… I’ve tried it and it works. This little ball will keep you entertained for hours while you think of the most strangest things like a bat, box, radiator and more. It will ask, and it will get it.

20Q is available from Firebox and at just 9.95 GBP it makes a great stocking filler for Christmas.

Isis

Isis
The Isis is a mind boggling game that might be worth way more then you actually pay for it… if you can get inside. Inside is uniquely coded key that will open one of several goldern pyramids hidden all over the UK. What makes this more cool is that the pyramids contain silver or gold coins worth thousands of pounds.

The Isis is the hardest puzzle to crack, or as the creators say “it’s virtually impossible to crack”. If that leads you on to thinking of actually cracking it one with a hammer, then dont bother. It’s tamper proof and any messing around will destroy it’s secret forever. Who would want to smash that masterpeice though??

The total prize fund is in the five figure range… so what are you waiting for? Go buy it now and crack this puzzle and earn some nice money in the process!

Buy it now from Firebox.

Playstation 3 Dissected

PS3 Board
Well someone had to do it now didnt they! Photographs of a PS3 innards have now been shown on the internet. Maybe it has happened before, but I just havent come accross it yet. One modder decided to upgrade his PS3 to 120Gb for the drive. Full details at the links below.

Via: Engadget Links: 1, 2

Kohjinsha SA1F00A ultra-portable

Kohjinsha SA1F00A
I came across the SA1F00A today at Engadget and it caught my attention right away. It’s an ultra portable laptop with a screen that’s just 7″. Impress’ PC have given it a full review and it seems the size of the thing was what impressed them most.

The processor is a 500MHz AMD Deode LX800 although it does still allow for 5 hours of battery power. It also has a built in 40GB HDD.

Via: Engadget

Toriton Plus: Water Surface as Music Controller II

The Toriton Plus uses water to control music. It uses 5 lasers to measure the water and create the sound. It is a prototype version and does not fully represent the final Toriton Plus.

USB Hub Mouse Mat

USB Mouse Mat
The problem I find these days is that I have so many USB devices that I need to plug in daily that I dont want to climb behind the PC to my USB hub and plug them in each time I need to do something. The USB Hub and Mouse mat helps solve this problem by providing 4 USB ports on the back of the mat to plug your devices in to. This is perfect for those sets of devices that only need to be temporarily used while you can leave the rest behind your PC.

The mouse mat has Blue LED’s to indicate when a port it in use. It requires no external power as it mimicks self power mode. It supports v 2.0 of USB and can work at 12M or 1.5Mbps.

Via: vTec

MTI Fuel Cell Prototypes Delivered – Mobion

Fuel Cell Mobion Mobion Fuel Cells
MTI have been working hard on Fuel Cell power. Fuel Cells can power portable devices for longer and do not require plugging in to recharge. To power a laptop for example, you just fill the cell with methanol and you are good to go for 2 to 10 times longer then the current rechargable batteries. The new prototypes were recently shipped to Samsung to integrate with small electronic devices such as mobile phones and other portable electronic devices.

Mobion power packs are based on direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) technology which they expect about 22% of portable devices will be using bu 2011.

What are the benefits?
As mentioned already, power can be supplied via a fuel cell for 2 – 10 times longer then current rechargeable batteries. Also there is no waiting time to charge the fuel cell. You just top it up and away you go. This will allow the frequent traveller to not have to worry about power cords and battery life on a plane for example.

Mobeon has a number of patents from recent research (85 to be exact) which have helped it acheive a mile stone in this technology.

“At the core of Mobion® technology is its unique approach to managing water that is produced by the chemical reaction at the cathode, and required for the chemical reaction at the anode. Traditional DMFCs rely on complex water management micro-plumbing, whereby water that is produced at the cathode is collected, re-routed and mixed with incoming methanol at the anode. The Mobion® technology architecture uses a proprietary approach which manages the water flow internal to the fuel cell without the need for this complex micro-plumbing.”

Samsung will be utilising mobion technology for feature rich mobile video and audio can be added. This will also include more powerful 3D, mobile satellite TV streaming video which will consume more power.

It seems like Fuel Cell technology has come a fair way since just a few months back when Toshiba unvelied their plans to work with it for powering laptops. Hopefully we will be seeing fuel cell technology hitting the market and powering our more powerful devices for even longer.

Via: MTI

Concrete Display

Concrete Display
A couple of engineers have managed to create a concrete screen which has fibre optics embedded in to it. These fibre optics act as pixels displaying the tiny dots of light which come together to make the picture you can see on the wall. A light source is needed which can be an LCD projector for example. With this in the equation it could be used to display video as anything thrown to the back will be displayed on the front. Check out the video and be amazed 🙂

Via: TechEBlog