Posted Mar 1st 2008 5:41AM by Ryan BlockFiled under: Networking So IBM is apparently working like crazy on some next-gen communications technology that — ready to have your mind blown? — “uses light instead of wires to send information.” We know, this is some crazy future crap up in here, but check it out. Apparently this so-called light-based communications system is supposed to be ten times more power efficient than others in its class, and can transfer data at speeds far greater than our current 4Mbps token-ring networks and even the next-gen 10BASE2 Ethernet (as if!); if optical data communications are actually real, well, it’s just in time because we’ve been seriously maxing out our Tandy 1000 playing MUDs. (Read the full post about ‘IBM’s “green optical link” promises one second movie downloads’…)

Posted Feb 29th 2008 11:58PM by Ariel WaldmanFiled under: Features, Misc. GadgetsAriel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema. Previously on Movie Gadget Friday, we traveled across war-torn galaxies in the 1978 version of Battlestar Gallatica. Moving forward a few years to 1982, we’ll take a look inside the computational arcade culture of TRON. Saturated with neon suits and Pac-Man blips and bleeps, the sci-fi cult Disney film has achieved pop culture status over the years. The ENCOM Digitizing Molecular Laser Using a matter transform sequence and a grid matrix, the ENCOM Digitizing Laser is able to transport physical matter into a digital space. (Read the full post about ‘Movie Gadget Friday: TRON’…)

Posted Feb 29th 2008 11:36PM by Darren MurphFiled under: Wearables Oh sure, we’ve seen gadgets used as motivational tools before, but Sega Toys is apparently banking on you not being a hothead. Otherwise, you just might fling its Body Trainer headset from your dome as soon as you hear “please exercise a little bit harder” over your incessant panting. Nevertheless, those with oodles of self-control may actually benefit from having a personal trainer (of sorts) in their ear while working out, and by monitoring the wearer’s heartbeat via a sensor, it can blurt out messages at the appropriate time to help users through their session(s). Reportedly, this nifty exercise buddy is set to launch in Japan this April for ¥5,775 ($54), and whil (Read the full post about ‘Sega Toys’ Body Trainer headset coaxes you into working out’…)

USB Doorbell You can have this for ?49.99 Tags: M4A, technology, Gadget, pvp (Read the full post about ‘USB Doorbell’…)

Pocket-lint reviews the Nokia N82 and writes, “Like the Nokia N95, one of the main reasons to get the N82 is the 5 megapixel camera. Exactly the same as the N95 the only difference here is the inclusion of a Xenon flash, the same as the Samsung G800, and picture quality was good…The camera is more responsive than the first N95, comes with autofocus with a dedicated autofocus assist lamp, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture however it doesn’t have an optical zoom as found in the G800.” Read more about the Nokia N82. (Read the full post about ‘Nokia N82 Review - Pocket-lint’…)

Great news for myself and the other 400,000 Sky HD subscribers in the UK, with Sky adding three new HD channels to it’s line up, brining the number of total HD channels to 17, and access to 6,500 hours of HD programming.

In March we should expect to see Sky Sports 3 HD, FX HD and Sky Movies Premiere HD.

(Read the full post about ‘Sky HD adding Three New HD Channels’…)

For centuries, people were able to picture only a two-dimensional image when taking photo. Even today, the most expensive and powerful cameras still give us a clear and beautiful, but flat image. We can’t feel the depth in them, can’t say how far the objects are from the camera. People tried to bring the stereo effect to photography in many ways, from a stereo slides to 3D glasses, but it always required image to be taken with two lenses. However, something that thought to be impossible before, now is one step closer from being real - Stanford University engineers have made a lens system capable of capturing the distance of subjects within a snapshot! The whole system works differently from usual sensors work. (Read the full post about ‘Camera that shoots in 3D’…)

SEGA hosted a special event in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, where it showed off some of its big upcoming titles. The company gave Geek.com some hands on time with Condemned 2: Bloodsport, Viking: Battle for Asgard, and Superstars Tennis. Read on to find out how SEGA’s Superstars Tennis is stacking up.

It was the first time I got a chance to look at Superstars Tennis, and from the outside, I thought it was just a Wii Sports clone with SEGA characters. That’s the thing about a lot of videogames; it’s very different looking at a game compared to actually playing it.

Wii Sports has a tennis game; it’s true.

(Read the full post about ‘SEGA Sweet Celebration: Hands-on with Superstar Tennis’…)

Posted Feb 29th 2008 1:28PM by Nilay PatelFiled under: Features, Wireless, Storage Okay, so we’ve got our Time Capsule up and running here — we’ll be back with a full review once our full 516GB backup is completed, but here are some quick first impressions: You can definitely hear the disks spin up and access. It also sounds like there’s a fan in there, but there are no obvious vents for one and we can’t feel any air coming out, so the drives might just be that loud. The top is getting quite warm during the backup — we’ll see if it cools down once we stop hitting the drive this hard, but if there really isn’t a fan we’re a little concerned. Hope those server-grade hard drives like being cooked. (Read the full post about ‘Time Capsule first impressions’…)

Okay, so if you’ve been a Geek.com reader for a while now you know I am a fan of free services and products. Well, a new website will be launching on Monday which will help you get even more stuff free. Specifically, the website will allow you to search for free shipping deals on Amazon, eBay, and at over 500 other stores. The website is being launched by the same creators of DealLocker.com, the Secret Amazon Discount Tool, and TypoBuddy.com.

Freeshippingon.com will provide a search box to locate items on Amazon and eBay that offer free shipping.

(Read the full post about ‘FreeShippingOn will locate free shipping offers’…)