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Gizmodo
In Brief
"Risk Management System" Wireless LAN Camera Helmet
SGI Japan, Daimei Corporation, and IP Techno Service have debuted two varieties of their "Risk Management System" products, which will be released in December. Both use a camera attached to a helmet for video and microphone to record audio, but the difference lies in the output. The "Risk Recorder" can store up to 2 hours of video locally (though up to 8 hours with CompactFlash card), and the "Risk Ranger" transmits signals via PHS or wireless LAN. The business-card sized unit is also a WWW server, and can transmit video using either Motion JPEG or MPEG-4 codecs. More »
"No, really. Just hit 'menu.'"
In Brief
Butane Burners and Rice Cookers
Japanese company Iwatani makes a variety of butane-powered, portable stoves and rice cookers that are quite fine looking, including this single-burner stainless steel model and this not-quite-as-swanky rice cooker. All models feature piezo-electric triggers for easy ignition. Mocoloco has a few more models. More »
In Brief
Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard Reviewed
I had been swearing up and down that I was going to buy the very first portable Bluetooth keyboard that came out to use with my Nokia and then, well, I sort of didn't. Mostly I just started carrying about my laptop all the time, which considering I hardly ever leave the house anymore became a lot more reasonable. But it's good to know that in general the Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard is a pretty solid product, with a generally positive review from Mobile Mag (although it only got an 81%, probably because of the $150 price). Looking at that picture of the Dell Axim PDA in landscape mode with the Stowaway, I'm thinking that's a combination I could get a lot of work done on. More »
In Brief
Hawking HWL 1 Detects Wi-Fi Strength, Direction
Hawking Technology is preparing to sell a new Wi-Fi finder next week that not only can discern wireless networking signals from other 2.4GHz broadcasts (like Bluetooth), but can also tell which directly they're coming from. The HWL 1 has a flip-up communicator look to it, and can display the signal strength with five integrated LEDs. It will retail for around $35, and will come with non-rechargeable lithium batteries (that they claim should work for about 2 years). More »
In Brief
Sony's LocationFree TV in Stores
Reader Scott Moody notes that he just picked up one of the 12-inch Sony Location Free Wi-Fi televisions at a local electronics retailer. Sony officially launched the product on October 15th, but that's the first confirmation I've heard of someone picking one up off the shelves. More »
In Brief
FidoBag
Both Google and Babelfish don't seem to want to translate Italian, but from what I can piece together, this furry bag from Samsung is one of two things: a really goofy research project for a motorized travel bag that knows its owner and responds to voice control; or a really goofy fake product Samsung is using in a viral marketing campaign. If you sprechen ze Italia ingles, feel free to confirm or correct my theory. In the meantime, I'm just going to pretend I never saw this. (Thanks, Garth!) More »
In Brief
Neonode N1 Launches Some More
So I think this is like the fourth time that we've reported that the Neonode N1 Smartphone is on sale, but maybe this one is the real one. I just don't know any more. The story this time is that customers in Neonode's native Sweden will be able to pick up the tiny smartphone on November 1st at noon. It's tiny, sure, but it's also been an incredible tease—they've been planning to release the unit since February 2003. More »
In Brief
Clear Choice Picture Belt
I like the idea behind the Clear Choice Picture Belt. As their Star Trek befonted website clearly illustrates, you can take a clean slate, and make it as dorky as you want it to be. The idea behind the belt is simple enough—it's a clear plastic strip with a buckle that you can insert various things into, like little pictures, coins, dirty needles, rare-earth magnets, whatever. 19 bucks plus shipping for something threatening to tear the very cool/lame continuum in two. More »
In Brief
iPod Photo First Impressions
PlaylistMag bought a couple of 60GB iPod Photos and have shared their first impressions. One striking thing they've discovered is that copying over photos from a camera using a flash memory card reader will not allow you to then view them on the iPod Photo—you'll have to import then via iTunes, since it uses a special thumbnail format to display them. That's not a huge deal to me, because I rarely need to offload extra camera data to a disc, but it pretty much kills the usefulness of the iPod Photo for mobile photographers. They also suspect—but have not tested—that the new units sync more slowly, as well. More »
In Brief
PalmOne Tungsten T5 Reviewed Some More
Reading this review of the PalmOne Tungsten T5 on BargainPDA is sort of painful, as the new flagship PDA from PalmOne is slowly taken down, notch by notch, from being a premier PDA worth consideration by anyone, to a half-baked device full of missing options and unpolished design decisions. That feeling is amplified by the fact that for non-Palm devotees, the T5 is the PalmOS unit to prove that there is still life in the slate PDA form-factor, and it really feels like PalmOne can't afford anything less than a home run with this one. More »
In Brief
Gizmodo Breaks 1 Million Unique Visitors for October
I don't check the stats all that much now compared to when I first started self-consciously editing Gizmodo, because I find it's a good way to needlessly obsess about something you don't really have that much control over in the first place. But I have been paying attention the last couple of weeks because we've been having especially good numbers and I wanted to try to figure out why. Here's what I discovered: I have no idea why, but we've hit 1 million unique visitors this month for the first time, and I think that bears mentioning. And I mean, I do know why, it's because you guys are reading and telling your friends and such, and so I'd just like to say that we really appreciate it and it's an unbelievable kick to know we're doing something right—whatever the hell that is. More »
In Brief
ConQwest 2004: Semacode, Teens, Bears
I'm not quite sure what's going here at the ConQwest 2004 game. It appears to involve Semacode scanning, high school girls, giant inflatable animal totems, and Dennis Crowley, one of the folks behind Dodgeball. (And really, I had you at high school girls, didn't I, sicko?) ConQwest sounds like a lot of fun, as competing teams of kids run around their cities scanning codes, wagering points, hefting floating bears as long as a bus from zone to zone, and ultimately winning (if they're lucky) a cash prize of $5,000 for their school. More »
In Brief
Philips Miravision TV Wins UK Award
Philips Miravision LCD television—the one that turns into a mirror when you turn it off—has been awarded the presumably-prestigious Most Innovative Gadget prize in the UK. I can only guess that it's prestigious, because someone wrote an article about it in The Guardian, and the Brits tell me that's good. All in all, it is a nice piece of hardware, although I can't imagine it's too much more complicated than an LCD panel behind a two-way mirror. More »
In Brief
Giro Helmets with TuneUps
Sports equipment manufacturer Giro has their 2005 line of products out, including a new line of snowboarding and ski helmets that accept optional 'TuneUps,' a set of integrated, padded headphones that clip right into the helmet. Even better, they have a split out version called the TuneUps II which allows you to connect not only an audio device, but a cell phone or walkie-talkie, as well. The only thing I'm not sure on is whether or not it has a built-in or in-line microphone (Update: It does have a mic). More »
In Brief
PSP Tidbits, Quotes
With all the Playstation Portable news floating around this week, I'll go ahead and post a couple little pieces of information that may be of interest to you. More »
