Posted Feb 9th 2008 8:01PM by Paul MillerFiled under: GPSIf you’ve bought a GPS unit in the past year or two there are decent odds it’s based on the SiRFstar III chipset, which has been about as good as it gets since it arrived on the scene a few years ago. Now there’s a new chip on the block, SiRFprima, which could have GPS aficionados kicking those SiRFstar III units to the curb. The unit boasts “industry leading” GPS performance, and is the first of its ilk to be able to work with GPS and Galileo signals simultaneously. InstantFixII — which promises 5 second start times — is built in as well, along with 3D acceleration for the fancy new maps hitting the scenes, and the capability to work with external devices like touch screens, DVD players, video cameras and so forth. (Read the full post about ‘SiRFprima GPS receiver platform boosts sensitivity, adds 3D acceleration’…)

Key Shaped Bottle Opener Keyring It looks like a key. It feels like a key. It’s attached to a keyring, so it must be a key. No. You’ve been fooled, and so will your chums with this authentic hardened steel key that’s also a hardened steel bottle opener. Or maybe it’s a bottle opener that’s also a key. See price Tags: Gadget, wi-fi, M4A, mobiles (Read the full post about ‘Key Shaped Bottle Opener Keyring’…)

…and quite literally at that too. Check out this newest broken-heart MP3 released especially for the upcoming season of hearts. Newman is releasing this funny little thing in China for Valentine’s. This is one of those very, very few times I wish I lived in the country. That is, if this MP3 player actually breaks into two. All we know for now is that this device uses the Ali M5667 chipset, allowing it to play both MP3 and WAV formats. via Tags: mobile phone, plasma, cameras, computers (Read the full post about ‘My MP3 Player is Broken-hearted’…)

USB Exercising mouse Connect your cyclist USB mouse to the USB port on your computer, and the faster you type, the faster he pedals! You can see your results on the bike’s screen (LCD). He also keeps record of your daily word count! System requirements: -IBM compatible PC with 133MHz or higher processor. -Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP -128MB of RAM (256 MB recommended) -100 MB of hard disc space USB 1.1 / 2.0 port CD-ROM and CD driver Tags: wireless, cellphone, gadgetry, ipod (Read the full post about ‘USB Exercising mouse’…)

Its hard to forget the death of Amp’d Mobile, it seemed like a drawn out death that came to a slow end. Eventually they did close their doors and the remaining customers were then sold to Prexar. You would have thought Amp’d was over, but it turns out the sale was not enough to cover their debts and who better to go after than the previous CEO and partners. The now closed and bankrupted company Amp’d has decided to sue former CEO Peter Adderton because he “refused to perform certain aspects of his employment” and “threatened to take action that would damage” the company. The lawsuit is seeking $1.15 million in payments made. (Read the full post about ‘Amp’d looking towards old CEO to repay debts’…)

Canalys have released some interesting research into sales of smartphones during the fourth quarter of 2007. Nokia remains at the top with 52.9% of the market, followed by Blackberry with 11.4% and then a new entry in the top 3 edging out Motorola is the iPhone with 6.5% of the worldwide market. 2007 was a good year for the Smartphone with 115 million shipped which equates to a 60% increase. The largest region by sales is Asia Pacific, where Nokia dominates with 50%, whereas in the USA where Nokia is traditionally weaker the iPhone had an impressive 28% market share. (Read the full post about ‘Smartphone growth continues to rise’…)

All of us attending lectures wish to possess such a device that would be able to store and reproduce the information given by professors. Of course it’s possible to use a simple voice recorder for this purpose, yet it will not help you much, because both aural and visual memories should be involved in the process of memorizing in order to ensure its high efficiency. But now you can stop worrying about this because Livescribe has just presented its new product. Pulse Smartpen represents a pen with embedded computer that captures handwriting and simultaneously records audio, synchronizing it to the writing. Users simply tap on the word to replay what was recorded while writing this word. (Read the full post about ‘All-in-one Pulse Smartpen: handwriting and audio recording’…)

Posted Feb 9th 2008 2:20AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Cellphones, GPS, TransportationSure, we’ve seen cellphones intermingle with traffic data before, but Nokia’s looking to up the ante in a big way by utilizing a large network of GPS-enabled handsets to actually predict traffic patterns and help you avoid congestion before you even leave for that afternoon appointment. In a recent trial involving 100 volunteer drivers (and an equal amount of N95s), the handset maker teamed up with UC Berkeley to test the effectiveness of using a device most people already own (read: cellphones) to beam out traffic data rather than installing permanent sensors in roadways. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia trial turns N95s into traffic sensing tools’…)

Are you bored this week-end? Why don’t you try some fun with your girlfriend. Like give her a 5.25″ floppy disk, your notebook and tell her that on the disk are some unseen before photos with her … Let’s see how she will handle this issue… Priceless Be aware to watch her closely. You don’t want to ruin your notebook… Tags: cable, gaming, M4A, AAC (Read the full post about ‘Week-end fun’…)

The Sydney Morning Herald reviews the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic and writes, “It’s one of the few phones to sport a standard 3.5-millimetre audio jack, giving you the freedom to use your own headphones such as noise-cancelling earbuds, and the only phone we know of with a bespoke audio processing chip to reproduce your music crisply and clearly. This also helps to keep the music playing smoothly while you carry out other tasks, such as sending text messages or using the two-megapixel camera.” Read more about the Nokia 5310 XpressMusic. Tags: hdtv, M4A, design, digital (Read the full post about ‘Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Review - The Sydney Morning Herald’…)