Mini Candle & Torch Romantic fireside illumination and a torch in one. This mini lantern is a must-have camping accessory. You can have this for ?19.95 Tags: camera, computers, gps, AAC (Read the full post about ‘Mini Candle & Torch’…)

by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 25th 2008 at 11:51AMIt’s already hit Korea, but it looks like those of us that don’t live in the land of Samsung can now finally get our hands on the official, non beta Blue Wave 3 firmware update for the company’s fan-favorite YP-P2 PMP as well. Otherwise known as version 4.13, the update brings a whole host of improvements, including a decent batch of new GUI themes, a new fullscreen playback mode, a calculator, and some additional brightness and speed controls for video playback, among other things. Of course, as Samsung is wont to do, it’s already teasing us with its Blue Wave 4 update, which promises to take the player to even greater heights with customizable skins, Bluetooth-based games, subway maps, and voice recording, to name just a few improvements. (Read the full post about ‘Blue Wave 3 firmware update for Samsung P2 heads out of beta’…)

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 25th 2008 at 2:30PM It’s been a hot minute since we’ve seen a flashy new pen tablet from Genius, but the outfit is getting set to unload a new duo onto the market for artists looking to get their penmanship directly onto the LCD. The G-Pen M712 and M609 both arrive with Vista / Mac-compatible software, sport 4,000 LPI resolutions and come with rolling pads at the top for scrolling, zooming and adjusting volume. As for the M609, expect a screen size of 9- x 5.5-inches (wide) / 7.25- x 5.5-inches (standard) and 26 hot keys, while the M712 offers up a bit more real estate at 12- x 7.25-inches (wide) / 9.5- x 7.25-inches (standard) and includes 34 hot keys. (Read the full post about ‘Genius introduces G-Pen M712 / M609 pen tablets’…)

While there aren’t any Android handsets available in the market just yet, this has not stopped the folks at QuickOffice from writing a Microsoft Office compatible editing suite for the soon-to-be-released smartphone platform. QuickOffice for Android does pretty much what its desktop counterpart does - it supports Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents, edits documents from Google Docs, and can even remotely access documents on your computer with the help of technology from SoonR. Guess this piece of news makes waiting for the Android handset to be released this year all the more agonizing. (Read the full post about ‘MS Office Docs Edited on Android’…)

An acronym for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, ASIMO is improving its repertoire and is now dabbling in orchestral music. ASIMO shows off its musical acuity by conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) on May 13, 2008. It will serve as the conductor to the opening piece “Impossible Dream.” Aside from ASIMO though, the concert will also feature renowned cellist, Yo-Yo Ma. While I maintain that anything metal could never (at least based on current standards) correctly picture the passion that goes with music, I tip my hat to ASIMO, as Honda is doing this to increase awareness of Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s projects meant for children. (Read the full post about ‘ASIMO Improves Its Repertoire’…)

Silicon Alley Insider estimates that Google spends an average of over $7500 per employee per year on free food, assuming that each meal costs $30. That works out to over $72 million per year!

Is that worth it? Apart from considering how large their profit margins are and what a great perk does for employee morale, also consider this: given that a huge portion of Googlers make salaries north of $75k, a perk that costs 10% of that is easily worth it if those employees put in even 1 more hour of work per day.

Posted in Miscellaneous

Tags: audio, mobiles, hdtv, digital

It took a while, but now DSL is starting to compete with cable modem service on speed, as Qwest announces that they’ll be offering 12 and 20 Mbps DSL service in 23 markets. When you call up, just ask for Qwest Titanium, or Qwest Quantum, as the services will be dubbed.

Sorry, but will I know you’re drooling over this, you’ll have to wait closer to the end of the year if not early 2009, and you’ll need to be prepared to shell out $65/mo for the 12Mbps and $100/mo for 20. Hmm… perhaps cable may still win this speed war.

Posted in Networking & Internet

Tags: speaker, tech, pvp, video

It’s not exactly clear here, but either the ipod Observer and/or Engadget has a source that says the 2nd generation of the iphone will be a 3G phone and will have GPS, real GPS that is, and not the triangulation stuff they do with now with cell towers. It will be a bit thicker and could ship as early as July.

via The iPod Observer and Engadget.

Posted in Phones

Tags: game, consumer electronics, digital, digital