by Chris Ziegler, posted Apr 11th 2008 at 8:06AM
Our first thought when we heard the news that there was an NES emulator in the works for the Sidekick series of text machines was one of pure, unabashed elation. The classic Hiptop form factor is pretty much exactly what the doctor ordered for effective old-skool gaming, after all — and let’s be honest, any time Nintendo playtime comes to a new platform is cause for immediate and overindulgent celebration. Our second thought was, “wait, what?” It’s pretty unclear how the emulator would be loaded with legally-obtained ROMs and we have our doubts that Nintendo signed away the rights to any binaries, so we’re a little confused about the word that this would be officially offered through the Danger’s Software Catalog. (Read the full post about ‘Danger testing out an NES emulator for Sidekicks? Sadly, no.’…)

If you can afford the luxury TAG Heuer phone, there’s still another option, the CE168. It looks like the Nokia 8800 Luna. The case is embedded with blings and it comes with 2.0 inch display screen with 240×320 resolution, 1.3-megapixel, Bluetooth connectivity and support MP3 and MP4 playback. It is running on GSM 900 / 1800 MHz network. The CE168 luxury phone is going to cost you only $210.60. More pictures after the break. (Read the full post about ‘CE168 Affordable Luxury Phone’…)

When you were a kid, did your parents always hassle you about turning off the lights when you left a room? Well now that you have your own place, you probably understand exactly why they would tell you that. What’s more is that you also likely have a lot of gadgets around your desk that still use power even when you’re not using them. This is why Watt Stopper created the Isole IDP-3050.

This rather ordinary-looking power strip is designed to save power by shutting off gadgets when you aren’t around. The small wired box is actually a passive infrared sensor which will kill power to most of the outlets when you aren’t around.

Two of the outlets are not controlled by the sensor, which would be ideal for plugging in your PC.

(Read the full post about ‘This power strip turns off unused gadgets’…)

Lithium ion batteries are an ever shifting tradeoff between safety and capacity. Two li-ion derivatives, lithium-ion electrode and lithium iron phosphate are both less prone to go up in flames than the battery in your laptop right now, but while one is much safer, the other is just marginally less explosive and has a 30% power increase. Guess which one is going into production.

Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, has licensed its li-ion electrode tech to Tokyo based materials supplier Toda Kogyo, so the batteries should start showing up soon. The new approach is simple: Remove some of the volatile cobalt oxide in the electrodes and replacing it with manganese oxide.

(Read the full post about ‘New Battery Tech Gives 30% More Power and Lasts Twice As Long’…)

The Contexture Design Workshop offers an elegant solution for scalding hot takeaway beverages. The Coffee Cuff is a bracelet which doubles as an insulating holder for your cup of joe, and also means the ham-fisted will be less prone to crushing the cup. Handmade from reclaimed veneer, the bentwood cuffs come in various flavors of hardwood, including the birds eye maple model pictured above, and the fun-to-say benge (Try it: Benge. Benge. Benge. It’s hard not to smile, right?) It might help to swallow the high prices if you think of these not as coffee accessories but as high-end jewelry: The cuffs come in at $70 apiece. And because you carry them on your wrist, they’ll always be ready for service. (Read the full post about ‘Coffee Cuff Does Double-Duty As Jewelry’…)

This week at the Gartner Synposium/ITXPO 2008 held in Las Vegas, Xerox has shown off a prototype of a new piece of paper that is reusable.

Steve Hoover, VP of Xerox’s Research Center, gave a presentation and demonstrated how the paper worked. What he showed the audience was what looked like a normal piece of paper, but he then took out a UV LED torch. Holding the torch against the paper for a few seconds left a black mark. He also got a UV LED pen and drew a line on the paper as you would with a standard pen and paper.

A hot plate was also present on stage and Hoover took a marked piece of paper and placed it under the heat for a few seconds.

(Read the full post about ‘Xerox shows off reusable paper at ITXPO’…)

This is a trend that needs no introduction. The art of turning everything Lego is something that needs appreciation rather than a cliché appreciation. The studs on the oversized Lego brick act as controls for the player and you can also find a USB port and a headphone jack. It supports both MP3 and WMA file formats. The colors are pretty realistic enough to represent overgrown Lego bricks. Imagine fitting the giant blocks together and having a giant music system (just hypothesis). There still is a child in all of us.
[ Source ]

Tags: dvr, gps, technology, tech

Right when we thought that, the electric vehicle is the answer to cutting our rising fuel costs some new research finds the ultimate flaw in this new power source. There is no doubt that plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs) result in good fuel economy figures — GM is currently touting its PHEV-to be, the Volt, as getting 150MPG over all. However, a study published by Carnegie Mellon University and the Green Car Congress (GGC) suggests that if we do not make our power generation system less carbon intensive, PHEVs could have little benefit over regular hybrids (HEVs). Instead, they achieve these high numbers by supplementing the power produced by their gasoline engines with power taken from the grid.

(Read the full post about ‘Electric vehicles not really eco-friendly without clean power’…)

Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, IL, have managed to improve lithium-ion batteries to make them last longer, be more reliable and safer.

The improvements come from a change in the materials used to manufacture the battery. First of all, safety has been improved. Today’s lithium-ion batteries contain cobalt oxide electrodes, which when overheating occurs produces oxygen, reacts with the solvent in the battery and increases the overheating further; occasionally leading to the laptop fires we have all seen on YouTube.

(Read the full post about ‘Laptop batteries get more reliable, safer and 30% energy boost’…)

Though not nearly as sexy (or well-spec’d, for that matter) as Sony’s recently-unveiled HDR-TG1, AgfaPhoto’s DV-5000Z still manages to hold its own on paper. Measuring in at 4.7- x 2.75-inches (12- x 7-centimeters) and weighing just over 7-ounces (200-grams), this HD camcorder features a 5-megapixel Micron CMOS sensor, 2.5-inch flip-out LCD, 3x optical zoom and an SD / SDHC slot to store everything on. As for shooting capabilities, it’ll capture clips at 1,280 x 720 (using H.264 compression) and snag 16-bit stereo sound all the while. You’ll also find USB connectivity, a rechargeable Li-ion and video out, natch.

(Read the full post about ‘AgfaPhoto’s DV-5000Z SDHC camcorder shoots 720p’…)