Gadgets
Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (31st July 2010)
July 31, 2010
As usual there’s been a lot happening in the world of technology and gadgets recently, so here’s a quick roundup of some of the notable and interesting news articles and reviews we’ve seen while browsing the web:
- New Amazon Kindle 3 Announced – Smaller, Cheaper & A UK-Based Version! – Amazon certainly aren't resting on their laurels when it comes to their Kindle ebook platform, in addition to their existing ebook reader devices, they've recently released iPhone, iPad and Android apps and now they're updating their hardware devices again – no doubt they want to further improve on their impressive sales figures where they have sold more ebooks than hardback physical books for the first time ever.
- New Amazon Kindle Cases Ready for Launch – That's right, not only have Amazon been working on releasing their new Kindle 3 ebook reader, but also they've got some stylish new cases to carry them around in!
T3 Gadget Awards 2010 Finalists Named – Vote For The Winners!
July 23, 2010
You may remember a while back we covered the nominees for the first round of voting for the T3 Gadget Awards 2010. Well, a record 300,000 of you cast your votes and subsequently the finalists for each of the 18 categories have been announced.
Now, I won’t bore you with a catalogue of each and every finalist, you can look over them all over at the T3 Gadget Awards voting page when you decide to cast your votes, however I will take a look at the highlights and possible upsets of this years technology Oscars.
The first category is the all-important ‘Innovation of the Year’, interestingly this year there are a great mix of backgrounds to the manufacturers of the nominees. Clearly, the Apple iPad has to be one of the favourites when you consider how it has pioneered the tablet computing market and arguably urged the swarms of other manufacturers to leap on the bandwagon with its phenomenal sales figures.
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WiFi Digital Bathroom Scales – Internet Connected Weigh-Ins!
July 19, 2010
Are you serious? WiFi Digital Bathroom Scales? Why on earth would anyone want those? Well, in this day and age it seems more and more devices are coming with WiFi connectivity. For example, there’s even some internet-connected cars being released.
Go back a number of years and tell someone that their clock should have wireless Internet connectivity and feed from Facebook and they would look at you as if you had spontaneously morphed into an elk. Another thing rife in the world right now is an obsession with health, fitness and complete and utter vanity. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to put WiFi internet connectivity in our bathroom scales. Perfect for the overweight nerd.
Continue reading »Modu 1 – The World’s Lightest Mobile Phone Comes To The UK
July 14, 2010
In a world full of complicated gadgets and overpriced smartphones with functionality not everyone needs, it’s quite refreshing to see a new phone come to the market that is designed to be completely different.
Rather than trying to pack as many features as is humanly possible in to a phone, the guys over at Modu have done just the opposite. They’ve created the world’s lightest mobile phone, called the Modu 1.
We’ve previously written about basic, easy to use mobile phones for those people who neither want or need all the functionality and complexity of a smartphone, however with the Modu 1 sporting just seven buttons and a 1.3″ OLED display, the Modu 1 mobile phone simply re-defines the term minimalist.
No frills or fancy features to be found here, but you can make calls and send text messages from it. The closest thing you’ll find to a feature is the built in MP3 player, which utilises the 2GB of internal memory and allows you to listen to some music on the go.
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Universal Remote Control For iPhone 3GS & 3G
July 11, 2010
There are many apps available for the iPhone 3GS, 3G or iPod Touch, which allow you to remotely control various devices or software, such as iTunes or Boxee. However, the iPhone Universal Remote Control differs slightly from the rest in that it provides a protective case which emits infra-red remote control technology to a variety of devices around the home, such as TV’s, DVD players, Stereo’s etc.
The case is simple, much like the usual protective cases you can buy for the iPhone so you won’t look a complete idiot using it for a start. Nor will you feel one, whilst everyone else fumbles for various remotes for various devices; you can sit back with your iPhone and quickly switch between the devices through a neat user interface on the free app, a necessity for use of the remote.
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Amazon Drops Kindle 2 Price To $189
June 29, 2010
Amazon has lowered the price of its best selling e-book reader, the Kindle 2, in response to the release of a Wi-Fi only version of the Barnes & Noble Nook, which now costs just $149 (£99).
Effective immediately, you can now pick up the Kindle 2 from Amazon’s website for just $189 (£125). That’s quite a bit cheaper than the previous price of $259.
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Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter – iPhone/iPad Remote Control Helicopter!
June 27, 2010
This week members of the UK press had the privilege to attend the official launch event for the AR.Drone, a remote control ‘quadricopter’– a coup for Britain, launching ahead of Parrot’s mother country, France.
Following the buzz from E3 2010 we eagerly awaited the presentation and – more importantly – our own chance to play with one!
Five years in the making, the Parrot AR Drone team are very proud of their latest creation and rightly so. By utilising on-board Wi-Fi the drones are controlled through networked iPhone and iPod Touch devices. What’s more, the drones are also capable of interacting with each other to allow multiplayer action.
Continue reading »Orange Power Wellies – Eco-Friendly Mobile Phone Charger (Glastonbury Festival)
June 20, 2010
Over the past couple of years there have been a great deal of innovation in eco-friendly electronics, carbon-neutral mobile phones, low power PCs, electric cars and all sorts of other products. Few have come in a form more bizarre than the new Orange Power Wellies!
With Glastonbury and the rest of festival season just around the corner, many camping enthusiasts will be rushing out to replace last year’s muddy wellies they can hardly be bothered to clean. Therefore, Orange has jumped at a chance to enter the market with an extremely original pair of wellington boots.
Continue reading »T3 Gadget Awards 2010 – Get Voting Now!
June 15, 2010
It’s that time of the year again folks, where we get to voice our views on the previous year’s gadgets and gizmos at the T3 Gadget Awards 2010. Last years gadget of the year went to the impressive, and still ‘Hero’ smartphone from HTC.
Other awards were scooped by Apple’s MacBook Pro in the most drop dead gorgeous gadget category and Google picked up the brand of the year award. So who’s in the running this time around?
Continue reading »Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (27/03/2010)
March 27, 2010
It’s the end of another busy week in technology here at Zath, here’s some highlights of the week from what we’ve covered and what some of our favourite other tech and gadget websites…
Sony BRAVIA Monolithic Design Concept – Interview With Takuya Kawagoi – we’re big fans of home entertainment systems here at Zath, so when we had the chance to interview the director of Sony Design Europe about their latest Monolithic Design Concept, it was a great opportunity to learn more about the design aspects of Sony’s latest BRAVIA HDTVs, Blu-Ray players and surround sound systems. Take a look at this exclusive interview, it’s packed with interesting stuff on how one of the biggest names in home entertainment systems approach the design process!
Contest: Win a Nokia X6 Smartphone with 1 Year “Comes with Music” Subscription – Over at Gadget Venue, the generous guys there are running a competition to win one of Nokia’s latest smartphones along with a year’s subscription to Nokia’s mobile music service, there’s four different ways to enter the competition and you’ve got until the end of 2nd April 2010 to get your entries in.
Continue reading »Dabs.com Live IT & Gadget Show 2010 Review (London)
March 18, 2010
Last weekend, I attended the Dabs IT & Gadget Show we recently brought you news of, at Wembley Stadium. It was definitely the biggest hoo-ha I’ve seen for an event that was only fairly mediocre, at best. I was forced to book my tickets for this a couple of months in advance because the organisers claimed that the event was in high demand. After doing so, I was then sent a follow-up email (a couple of weeks before the event) asking me to once again confirm my attendance for the event, as well as asking me how many tickets I would like (up to a maximum of four).
A couple of days before the event I received an email reminding me of the high number of attendees, asking me to bring along my ID, otherwise me and my guests would not be permitted entry. Finally, I was asked to print out the ticket to bring along with me. I took three friends along and we turned up at the door expecting a mad rush of people.
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Bundle Box Offers UK An Early iPad Release Date
March 14, 2010
Transatlantic shopping service Bundle Box have managed to secure a deal which will allow UK customers to get a fully legit Apple iPad before the official UK release date. Not only does it not cost any extra than it would if you waited for the official release, you actually save £30 on the predicted launch price due to the differences in retail price between the UK and USA.
So you may be thinking, well won’t I have to pay import/customs duty? Won’t that make the savings pretty much negligible? Well actually, no. Thanks to a ruling by UK customs it means the iPad won’t be subject to customs/import duty as BundleBox themselves have found, however please note that you’ll still be required to pay VAT on importing your Apple iPad into the country.
So it all sounds pretty good. Of course, there will be plenty of skeptics which will disregard the idea under the assumption there is a ‘catch’. As far as I can tell it is trustworthy and I can’t see why it wouldn’t be attractive to potential iPad buyers. In addition to the lower costs and early release, delivery is promised within 3 days of the US launch date. The pre-order of the Apple iPad in the US opened on Friday 12th March.
Continue reading »Wall Of Sound: The Biggest iPod Speaker In The World!
March 9, 2010
So when exactly could an iPod speaker be considered over the top? When the neighbours come knocking? When the police get called? Nope, now it seems there is a new benchmark – size.
Introducing the Wall Of Sound which dwarfs any personal speaker I have ever seen in my lifetime. Weighing in at 225 pounds and completely handmade, the Wall Of Sound can be purchased for mammoth price of $4,495.
Continue reading »Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (08/03/2010)
March 8, 2010
It’s the start of another week here on Zath, wow this year is really flying by, but at least it starting to get sunny here in the UK – anyway let’s have a quick look back at some of the interesting technology and gadget articles in the past week…
LG InTouch Max (GW620) Review – we’ve reviewed quite a few LG mobile phone handsets over the past couple of years and now we’ve had chance to take a proper look at LG’s first Android mobile phone, it’s perhaps not everything that you might have wanted if you’re looking to move from an iPhone, however if you’re looking for a good low priced Android handset, then this could be the one for you!
Google Buzz iPhone App Launched – well it didn’t take a long did it? You can now get an iPhone app that works as a software client for the latest social network; Google Buzz. I have an iPhone and have looked at the Google webpage app, but haven’t really used it. It’s good to see separate clients appearing for Google Buzz as it wasn’t until I started using clients with Twitter that I properly used that.
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Contour USB Diabetes Meter / Monitoring System
March 5, 2010
Diabetes affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide and is predicted by some to become one of, if not the biggest health issues of the 21st century. Up to now, many diabetics manage their blood glucose levels using some form of electronic reader.
They are then left up to their own devices to keep a note of any recurring trends which need to be addressed. This could mean that problems go unnoticed could cause further issues in the long term.
Thankfully, Bayer Diabetes Care have come up with a solution for simpler management of the condition. Their Contour USB Diabetes Meter accurately records up to 2000 readings of blood glucose levels and directly plugs into any PC via USB. It contains 500Mb of storage for all your personal diabetes records and information.
Continue reading »Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (01/03/2010)
March 1, 2010
It’s the start of another week and hopefully you’ve all had a great weekend, I thought we’d begin it with a quite look back at some of the best in hi-tech gadgets and technology blogging that I saw from last week…
Best 10 Free Android Apps For Your Mobile Phone – do you have an Android-based mobile phone? Or are you planning on getting one of the many that are going to be released this year such as Google’s Nexus One, LG GW620, one of the new HTC’s Desire, Legend, HD Mini or one of the many other Android phones that will be released this year? If so, you’ll definitely want to take a look at this list of some of the best free Android apps that are currently out there!
iPhone 4G To Include Front-Facing Camera – another day, another rumour about the upcoming new iPhone 4G mobile phone, this time it surrounds the possibility of a front-facing camera that would allow people to make video calls/conferencing including using Skype. Although that said, these kinds of rumours are just that and nothing might come from them, for instance I wrote about a similar rumour of the 3rd generation iPhone getting a front-facing camera nearly a year ago and then when Apple announced the iPhone 3GS, we were left feeling a little underwhelmed by it all.
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I Want One Of Those – 3 for 2 Gadget Sale
February 24, 2010
As 2010 seems to be rapidly moving forward, Christmas has faded into memory, although I’m sure I’m not alone in still recovering financially from it, so when I saw that I Want One Of Those (IWOOT) are currently running a new 3 for 2 promotional campaign on their site I thought this would be quite useful!
Obviously, here at Zath HQ we like our gadgets so anytime we can save some money when we buy our latest shiny toy, it’s always most welcome and once again IWOOT aren’t letting us down by giving us ways to pick up some cheap bargain gadgets, just like they have in the past in by running IWOOT free delivery promotions.
Continue reading »Etre Touchy Touchscreen Gloves – Use Your iPhone Out In The Cold!
February 22, 2010
In the last few months I have purchased a touchscreen phone as well as an iPod Touch, and what with the weather being so cold I have been faced with a small dilemma. If I wear gloves, I will be warm, but unfortunately this will restrict use of such touchscreen devices and mean I will most likely have to remove the gloves to send an SMS or make a call. Either that or I could be extremely cold meaning I would still not be able to use the devices properly anyway.
Thankfully, some rather novel gloves have appeared on the market which tackles such a dilemma. Etre’s Touchy Gloves are specifically designed for the use of touchscreen devices and therefore have 2 holes at the tip of the thumb and forefinger on either hand. This means you can sufficiently use your iPhone 3GS, Nexus One or other similar touchscreen devices whilst staying warm.
Continue reading »Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (20/02/2010)
February 20, 2010
It’s the end of another week in the online world of hi-tech gadgets and technology blogging and as usual there’s been a lot happening out there, so here’s a quick roundup of some of the stuff that we’ve found particularly interesting this week, let us know what you think to them too!
Linux Training Week on Zath – I’m sure we’ve all heard of Linux, but for me personally it’s not something I’ve ever seriously looked at because I always assumed it wasn’t worth the hassle of installation for something that wasn’t that worthwhile, well clearly I was wrong on that one! As you can see from this useful series of articles about the Ubuntu distribution of Linux – it’s easy to setup Ubuntu, it’s an easy to use the Ubuntu interface and there’s lots of software available for Linux.
Heineken Beer-Serving Robot of the Future – oh yes that’s right, in the future we won’t need to get up from the comfort of the sofa, instead the robots will bring the beer to us! This particular robot makes for a great novelty, but it does make you wonder about the potential of robots in the future.
Buy Walkie Talkie Watches? – admittedly walkie talkies aren’t exactly hi-tech these days or even that wanted by people now we all have modern mobile phones such as the iPhone 3GS and Nexus One, but these particular ones can be strapped on your wrist and would make for great free-to-use communication devices if you like to be out in the great outdoors or perhaps having a multi-car roadtrip given they have a range of up to 5km. I just wish I had some of these back when I was a kid!
Continue reading »Zath’s Technology & Gadget Roundup (12/02/2010)
February 12, 2010
Well it’s the end of another week and as always there’s been a lot going on in the world of technology and hi-tech gadgets, luckily some of our favourite websites have not let us down as they’ve covered some of them this week, here’s some of the stories that we liked most, along with a few of our favourites from Zath and the thoughts that come to mind from reading them!
O2 Testing 4G Mobile Broadband Network in the UK – the one thing that puts me off buying a mobile broadband device right now is the fact that I see such variable coverage and often poor download speeds when using my mobile phone, so news that we could be approaching a time of 4G mobile broadband coverage which would see much faster browsing and download speeds is a very promising thing, although I’m guessing it’s still a few years off just yet, so I’ll probably end up using the 3 Mobile Broadband voucher code to save £54 afterall, but there’s hope for the future!
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