Iron Man is more than capable of hitting the skies at supersonic speeds, but that’s just in the movies. Other than having an overactive imagination being pre-requisite to owning a Marvel Comics character toy, it would help if the toy itself came with some sort of flight capability, never mind the fact that it stays in the sky for only a couple of seconds at most. The Rocket Iron Man is one of them, and it requires the user to pump it until maximum power, where pressing the launch button will see it fly sky high (maximum height of 40 feet), and it won’t fall victim to the forces of gravity in an undignified manner. Instead, it will eject a glide at maximum height in order to float down to the earth gently. (Read the full post about ‘Rocket Iron Man’…)

I’ve never heard of a company called Maplin before, but they certainly have produced an excellent laptop with their Minibook Ultra Portable Laptop.  (Yes, that is its official drawn-out name.) Maplin’s Minibook may not be the best laptop to use for doing some gaming on World of Warcraft, but it is certainly enough to check the email or to do a little net surfing. 

The features include a 32-bit processor, a 128MB DDR2 RAM, and 2 GB of flash memory.  It has Wi-Fi Connectivity, and even has an Ethernet port.  There is a seven inch screen with a 800 x 480 display, an SD memory card slot, as well as three USB ports.  As for the battery life, it has a 2200mAh battery that will last about three hours. 

This new notebook has a very low price of about £169.99 (around $330 US).  When I heard that price, I had one of those “too good to be true that it probably isn’t” flashbacks.  I mean, my cellular phone costs more than that. 

Perhaps this is a dawning of a new age, when laptops will be so inexpensive that you can purchase one for next to nothing.  However, you may only have a few features come with this price, but how much do you really need for surfing the net while you’re watching television or something?

(Read the full post about ‘Maplin’s new notebook: Too good to be true?’…)

Mozilla’s concept browser known as Aurora, is welcoming industry insiders and anyone with a penchant for programming to contribute new ideas in order to make Aurora blow people’s minds out of the water when it is finally released. Virtually anyone is able to put forward ideas, mockups or prototypes to the project, at least that is Mozilla’s stand at this point in time. I guess a concerted effort like this might be tedious to sift through the tons of ideas, but who knows - there could be a real gem buried deep within, waiting to be discovered. According to Mozilla, their goal is to “bring even more people to the table and provoke thought, facilitate discussion, and inspire future design directions for Firefox, the Mozilla project, and the Web as a whole.” If you’re interested, you can sign up here. (Read the full post about ‘Mozilla Labs Invites Contributions for Aurora Concept’…)

It’s supposed to be your "life in your pocket," not Apple’s. But a piece of code discovered in the iPhone operating system might keep you under Apple’s control. Jonathan Zdrianski, author of the book iPhone Open Application Development, discovered a URL hidden in iPhone’s CoreLocation that he believes the iPhone uses to check whether any apps on your phone match with those listed in a database of blacklisted applications. Presumably, that would allow Apple to remotely de-authorize those apps, or perhaps even delete them. "This suggests that the iphone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off," Zdrianski wrote. (Read the full post about ‘Secret URL May Allow Apple to Delete Your iPhone Apps Remotely’…)

GeTac E-100 Between sky-high gas prices and food shortages, it’s only a matter of time before we descend into a Mad Max-esque dystopia. Rather than panic, I’ve set myself to the vital task of finding doomsday ready gadgets before the big one hits. Today I take a look at the  GeTac E-100 ultra-rugged UMPC to see if it really has the DNA to be my choice for on-the-go post apocalyptic computing. GeTac clearly had utilitarian users in mind with the E-100, which makes for a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to function. On the bright side, this surprisingly light UMPC is military certified to withstand splashes of water, dust, humidity, shock, and even freezing temperatures. (Read the full post about ‘Review: Ruggedized UMPC Tough as Nails, Ugly as Sin’…)

Brando already has a pretty sizeable collection of HDD enclosures for you to purchase, but there is no harm in offering yet another choice. This time round we have the 3.5″ HDD enclosure with an LCD display, allowing you to monitor the finer details of a hard drive stored within (such as the temperature level, etc). To keep things cool, there is a 8cm cooling fan that ought to churn up a minimal amount of noise. Oh yeah, this enclosure comes with an temperature alarm system to alert you right before your hard drive spontaneously combusts in a ball of flames. You can pick one up for yourself for $85, but make sure the correct region type is picked before making a payment. (Read the full post about ‘3.5-inch HDD Enclosure with LCD Display’…)

Nikon and Sony launched new digital cameras within a day of one another. Sony introduced two new Cyber-shot cameras including the DSC-T700 and DSC-T77. The DSC-T700 is not only a digital camera, but it also doubles as a portable photo album thanks to its 4GB of internal memory. The camera includes a 3.5-inch Xtra Fine LCD screen with high contrast and wide-angle viewing. The camera is also small enough to fit in your pocket at slightly more than 5/8 of an inch thick. The DSC-T77 is Sony’s thinnest model at only 5/8 of an inch thick. The camera offers incredible picture resolution at 10 megapixels and a 3-inch, 16X9 touch panel LCD screen panel. The DSC-T77 features Smile Shutter and face detection technology. The DSC-700 will retail for about US$400 while the DSC-77 will retail for for US$300. Both cameras will be available beginning in late September. Nokia is also offering new additions to its Coolpix product line including the Coolpix S60, S610C and P6000 . All of the cameras include a new Scene Auto Selector mode which selects the correct scene for your shot for the best picture. The S60 sports a new touch-screen interface while the S610C offers the freedom of no wires with its wireless transfer technology. The S610C even includes a free subscription to Wayport, one of the nation’s largest WiFi providers, until August 31, 2011. The P6000 is Nikon’s newest flagship Coolpix camera and features built-in GPS technology. The built-in GPS enables photographers to mark their pictures with “geotags” so they know exactly where their photos were taking. The new Coolpix models will be launched beginning in September. Read more from the Sony and Nikon press release. Brian’s Opinion It’s probably no coincidence whatsoever that Sony and Nikon announced new cameras within a day of one another. Nikon gets major kudos for the innovations they have included in their latest Coolpix product line. Wireless is definitely the way to go when it comes to cameras. I would imagine that WiFi will probably be a standard feature of digital cameras in the future. What may be new to some people is the idea of “geotagging” photos. The nice thing about “geotagging” photos is that using the appropriate software you can literally place photos of your travels on a map. That has to be the ultimate way to keep track of yor journeys especially, if you are a global traveller. I’ve got to give some kudos to Sony as well for the idea of turning a digital camera into a pocket photo album. I can’t think of a better place to keep your photos. Of course, you may still want to back them up so they’re not lost. Tags: digital, technology, cable, tests (Read the full post about ‘Sony and Nikon offer new Coolpix and Cyber-shot cameras’…)

This is me, . . . weeell, on a really good hair day, with make-up and clothes (instead of the PJs I usually write in.) PosePrints made this up for me, to demonstrate their unique, personalized stationary. Usually, I scoff at look-alike characters, avatars and such, but I have to admit these gals captured something of the real me. Or else, I’m just flattered. The mother-daughter team created an easy to use website where you can design yourself step-by-step. Just click on the “design ” tab, and once you decide on a design you like, click “personalize this design with my pose” and you will be taken to the sketch page. Here, use the arrows to scan all of the available facial variables and accessories, and customize your person by clicking on specific features. (Read the full post about ‘PosePrints - Create yourself online’…)

You know it’s true, how many times did Jr. drop that pacifier and pop it right back into his mouth before you can catch him?  By nature, kids are just gross.  It’s best that we don’t know exactly where that pacifier has been, especially when they attempt to shove it into your mouth.  Well for those moments of horror when you actually find out where it has been, Pipila will be there to save the day.  It takes UV rays and will kill 99.9% of the germs on the pacifier. (Read the full post about ‘The Pipila UV Pacifier Cleaner because kids are gross’…)

ColorWare’s new custom color cases for the iPhone 3G highlight an interesting conundrum for iphone accessory makers: Cost. Back when the iPhone cost $400 (or $600), dropping another $200 or so on prettifying it didn’t seem so extravagant. But now the phone itself can be had for $200, or even free if you live in the right country, these mods cost more than the handset itself. Above you can see my beautiful color scheme of choice, courtesy of the ColorWare Design Studio page. The single biggest expense is the back case, at $150. Adding in a colored SIM card tray, button, earbuds, dock and frame takes the price up to $230. Clearly this is targeted at the tasteless rich. (Read the full post about ‘Custom Colors for IPhone Cost More Than the Phone Itself’…)