This is an interesting little object. Plug this into your music player, PSP or similar portable multimedia type device and it will connect wirelessly to your Bluetooth phone. Then you can make and take calls through your music player's headphones using the Blueye's vaguely iPodish control panel. It's compatible with any headphones, supports Interactive Voice Control and
lets you record ringtones in real-time. The Blueye comes in three colours, red, white and black and costs £69.
...on White!
No, it's not a racist war, nor is it a backlash against the shiny-white generation of electronics (as far as I know) but a "shift which marks the company's official move into deign innovation."
Electrolux want you to be proud of your appliances, match them to your decor, and not hide them away in cellars or garages. I know a family who would repaint their kitchen annually if not more often - it was once even decorated red, cream & green *just* for Christmas! Imagine a blue fridge ruining the festive spirit - do you reckon Electrolux may eventually bring in snap-on fridge-fascias for such changeable families? [Sara Wallen]
See more designs at the Electrolux Image Bank
Time to do the little pink dance of joy as we present to you yet another piece of cerise tech. Readers whose lives are dedicated only to memorising my prose will remember those Inclosia leather laptops I stumbled upon a while back. Well, now's your chance to actually own a cow-hide clad latop all of your very own. Asus has just announced a leather S6 laptop that comes in pink, light, dark and white leather. They'll set you back between £1400 and £1700.
Asus Website
Better pics of the laptops on Bit Tech
Btw, there's a bit of a (civil) debate going on over at Catwalk Queen over the whole leather/fur thing, so head over there to share your views.
Goodmans, the company renowned for their reasonably-priced electrical goods, has been showing off some new products recently, including this star-shaped player which glows three different colours. The GMP31G2 comes in 128 256, 512MB and 1GB sizes and apparently has a 17-hour battery life. Aside from those colourful lights, there's not much by way of extras to talk about, but you can be sure that when the pricing is finally announced, it's not going to knock you over your overdraft limit.
Goodmans Site
Sleep masks are great for blocking out that extra bit of annoying illumination so you can sleep. This sound therapy eye mask takes it a step further, and blocks out those extra bits of annoying sounds as well. You can choose to play one of the five built-in, relaxing inducing sounds (babbling brook, white noise, chirping birds, ocean surf or country evening) or if you find the sounds of nature nerve wracking, you can plug your favourite audio device into the input jack and listen to whatever you'd like. -[Star C. Foster]
You know, I haven't really used a land-line in ages. And I think BT have picked up that I'm not alone.
"Everyone's using their mobiles! How do we get them back to using land-lines again?"
"Make it cheaper?"
"No, can't do that."
"OK, how about making wireless land-line handsets look like mobiles and hope they get confused?"
"Bingo!"
It's got a nice front panel for caller-ID, it answers on flip-up, copies all your contacts off your SIM card, sends and receive SMS messages, has a 64k colour screen inside, and even has polyphonic ringtones. Brilliant! Until you walk out the house with it by accident and try to use it in the city centre - doh. [Sara Wallen]
More Phones at Shiny
Yup, real sweeties, encoated in resin by The Candy Queen. Perfect for a young girl or a pink-girl's bedroom. I'm willing to bet anything that you'll know someone who is a pink-girl, they can be any age, always wearing at least one item that is pink, if not more, whose room is always adorned with fluffy pink things. Oh, and they tend to squeal a lot, especially when tickled.
Also available at Boutique To You (for the less-pink among us) are dimmers made out of miniature Minis, golf balls, dinosaurs, dolphins and space shuttles. [Sara Wallen]
Flushed with success from the last hilarious batch of The Ricky Gervais Show podcasts, the team has decided to charge for the next lot. It's unsurprising since the series has just got the Guinness World Record thanks to its 2.9 million downloads. Season 2 (yes, we're talking in US "seasons" now) will be available exclusively from Audible.co.uk and the iTunes music store, and you'll be able to catch the first episode on 28th February. It'll be £3.75 for the whole series or 95p a download. It's not entirely clear why the "season" is only going to be 4 shows when the last series was 12 - seems a bit stingey.
And if you haven't heard the original, hilarious, 12 shows, you can buy them from Audible for £2.75. My first response was to feel grumpy at being charged, but it's not really much to pay for 12 half hour shows of three people talking nonsense. Details from the press release after the cut.
Ladies (and one or two gents), I think we have a projector breakthrough! Instead of one very inefficient and expensive bulb, here we have a projector which takes its light from three long-life (10,000-hour) super-bright LEDs. The brightness isn't quite as high as your average projector - but this is new stuff and it's a dinky little thing, measuring only 128 x 85 x 53mm.
So now when walking into an unfamiliar meeting room to give a presentation, you no longer need to faff about with bizarre power connectors (it can run off its own battery - pictured) or temperamental office projectors that keep asking for filter cleaning - bring along this little beauty instead. [Sara Wallen]
(Even) More Projectors:
High-Definition, With DVD,
With Air Purifier, Wall-Mounted
Don't laugh too much, but there was a time I was a fan of the television show, Knight Rider. It was not so much because of the graces of David Hasselhoff, but rather because of K.I.T.T., the snarky car with the well-cultured voice that took care of all the driving and driving-related hassles.
Knight Rider has (thankfully) faded into the past, but could K.I.T.T.-like cars be in our future? Toyota has apparently developed IPS (Intelligent Parking Assist) technology that will steer your car into a spot to help make parallel parking easier. It's not entirely autonomous - the driver is still responsible for operating the brakes and keeping an eye out that the area is clear - but it's a start. I imagine the snarky, well-cultured voice feature will come later.
Disappointingly, it seems this technology is currently only available in Japan for the time being. A Shiny reader tells me that the IPA is availble in the UK on the top-of-the-line Primus for an extra £400. (Thanks, Gavin!)- [Star C. Foster]
This new U3 Smart Drive technology seems to do for you what my most geeky friends have already been doing with applications on their memory sticks for some time now! It does go a bit further, however - now Memorex are offering one with 2GB of space, a bit more can be done.
The idea is to plug your U3 smart drive into any Windows XP or 2000 PC, and off it goes, throwing all your settings at the PC. Suddenly it has your chosen wallpaper, you can open your own chosen mail and email client, office applications, games, instant-messaging, music, photos... Then, anything you do or save gets saved to the drive, so when you pull it out of the PC, all your settings, programs and files just come with you - leaving the PC just as you found it. This is supposed to remove the need to carry laptops around but I don't know - I like the idea of my own wee computer to lug about (only 'cos I don't have one and therefore want one)! [Sara Wallen]
According to Tech Digest, this week is National Tinnitus Week, which sounds to me like a singularly fabulous invention that leaves me wondering two things: is there some sort of special charity ribbon I can purchase? And when is National Sinusitis Week so that I can legitimately moan about my near-constant nasal anguish?
If you suffer from tinnitus thanks to too many nights spent with your head in the speaker stack of some dive bar you only have yourself to blame (as my mother would say) and should therefore go and beat yourself with birch twigs as penance. If, however, you acquired that ringing in your ears through no fault of your own, this Tinnitus Relaxer with Aromatherapy will apparently see you right. It's got seven relaxing sound selections including ocean, birdsong and spring rain, which are joined by a selection of aromatherapy beads to match your mood.
You can pick one up for £25 at www.rnidshop.com.
Find out more about Tinnitus at www.tinnitus.org.uk
Related: Goodsphere aromatherapy
Pentax's latest cameras are looking pretty slick. First up we have the 6MP T10 with 3x optical zoom and a
touch screen which lets you change all the settings and fiddle faddle with images straight away. Not a button in sight apparently.
The Optio 6MP M10 is the same but different, with a 3x zoom but fewer features to talk about, which is why I'll move swiftly on to the W10. This waterproof camera is also 6MP, with 3x zoom and a water resistant case that can also withstand dust, snow and sand. No prices yet, but in the meantime you can familiarise yourself with the press releases here.
It's sleek. It's black. It's a projector.
Funny, I've been singing praises of shiny black things lately as the market is now saturated with shiny white things - but you know, I think shiny-white would have been better for something likely to be hung from the ceiling (..some people are never happy, eh. Maybe I should just paint my ceiling black).
The good thing with these is you don't have to be super-rich for one of the futuristic-looking lovelies. The range goes from the IN72 which is good for current gaming, TV and DVD resolutions; though a mid-range IN74 onto the high-definition IN76. [Sara Wallen]
More projectors:
..avec DVD
..avec purification de l'air
..fixé au mur
I'm not sure whether to be intrigued or slightly worried - these pendants claim to use Sympathetic Resonance Technology (or SRT™, apparently a pioneering branch of quantum physics) to resonate at the ideal note at which your body should 'hum', and tune the wearer's body accordingly.
Now, I heard recently a rumour that 33Hz is the frequency that can induce orgasm in women. So, I do wonder what frequency these QLinks resonate at... Or of they can be adjusted.. amplified... erm, ahem. [Sara Wallen]
Read (via Chip Chick)
I was heartened to see so many Welsh people sending in entries to win tickets to the Smart Home Show. It's nice to know you're trying to get out and about every now and then - even if it is a day trip to Birmingham [relax - I'm from Shropshire for godssake]. Amongst those of you clever enough to spot that there are over 70 exhibitors at the show (which was all of you, I'm relieved to say), were these lucky winners who will be getting two free tickets in the post just as soon as I psyche myself up to leave the flat: Louise Mee (and an extra 5 points for the surname), Amanda Owen, Amy Weidenbaum (you get 10 points for than one), Katherine Bean (great first name, even better second. Have 20 points) and Helen Yendell (top marks to you for being the only Brummie entrant).
Well done to all of you. Aren't you clever!
No, don't nod off just yet - bear with me, the words "high definition" may not sound hugely thrilling, but if you like the idea of watching TV in ultra clear, high quality vision, HD is something you're going to have to start caring about (if you don't already). So if you want to see what all the fuss is about, you can now check out some High Def clips on Sky's HDTV website. Click on 'more to explore' and you'll find four snippets of
HDTV content which, provided you have a high spec computer and a decent
screen, will give you a fair insight as to how HDTV will look when it
launches.
According to HDTV UK, the videos are delivered in "glorious 1080i and were obviously chosen for their rich detail". It'll take a couple of minutes to download each file and you'll need Windows Media Player 10 to play them.
Related:
Sky's New High Def TV
Thanks to some lovely readers, there are two more female friendly portable hard drives to add to your list. The Freecom 60GB FHD-XS and the pink 30GB Skwarim from LaCie, which is certainly a bit different. If you want a bit more storage from the LaCie, you can always opt for the 60GB blue version.
Related:
Female Friendly hard drives
I'm not sure what to say about the Cat Paw from Bandai. It seems it's a back-scratch, a strange but sanitary way to shake hands, a reach extender and/or a cuddly toy with retractable claws. Use it to confuse your cat, or confuse your friends. It certainly confuses me. - [Star C. Foster]
Read (via Akihabara News)
Virago bags specialises in selling laptop bags for ladies, and this lovely green Bertotti Vintage Traveller bag has rather caught my fancy. The leather bag will hold up to a 15-inch laptop bag and comes with handy pockets for all your extras. The Canadian company now ships to the UK (and US), although expect to hand over $50 for the privilege. The bag itself will set you back $140.
More Notebook cases for women
Laptop bags on The Bag Lady
Laptop bags on Shiny Shiny
From: Adobe launches Creative Cloud with 20GB of added online storage and web apps