Electronic Toy World

Tomorrow, I’ll be tuned into Appletell’s live coverage of Macworld 2008 and the all-important Stevenote.  The Appletell team, our sister site, is aiming at live blogging, twittering, possible live audio feed, along with images and interviews etc. as the week goes on.  This will be Appletell’s finest hour and I hope you join me in experiencing the event via Appletell.

You can visit Appletell’s Macworld page here.  Their live coverage of Steve Job’s theatrics should start shortly before 9am PST.

Here’s to working EVDO cards, good cell reception and slow-talking speakers.

Read: [Appletell]

Posted Jan 14th 2008 10:01AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
We’ve heard plenty of these initiatives before, but with the likes of Microsoft pushing the tech, it might not be too long before we’re all pushing a super-connected shopping cart down the aisle. Microsoft’s aQuantive acquisition last year has the company looking to new ad venues, and apparently shopping carts are one of those. Microsoft has been working with a company called MediaCart which builds a cart-mounted computer that helps consumers navigate the store, and then checks them out when they’re done. Microsoft wants to bring video ads into the mix, and the companies will start testing out the carts in ShopRite markets in the second half of 2008. Shoppers can bring their list to the store with a swipe of their loyalty card, and RFID tracks their movements around the store to pinpoint advertisements and other useful information. That’s a whole lot of tech coming soon to a bum near you.

Posted Jan 14th 2008 12:48PM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Laptops Those looking for something a little less nostalgic than the Amiga OS to put on their OLPC XO may want to head over to the always handy OLPC News website, which now has not one but two step-by-step tutorials for installing Ubuntu on the little green laptop. As you might guess, however, neither option is exactly the most straightforward of OS installs, but they should be easy enough for anyone with a little Linux experience under their belt. Of course, given the OLPC’s somewhat limited capabilities, you’ll also need more than just the laptop and an Ubuntu CD to get things rolling — namely, a USB drive or SD card with at least 600MB of space and another computer running Linux — but we’re guessing those requirements won’t be much of a problem for anyone considering the move to a decidedly less kid-friendly OS.

[Image courtesy of moocapiean]

Posted Jan 14th 2008 10:23AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Transportation
Oh, what a tease! This here Sky Commuter prototype is the last remaining example of what could have been: after the company failed in the late 80’s and the plant was shut down, all other prototypes of this personal commuter craft were destroyed. The vehicle is registered with the FAA as a “VTOL” (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft, but the prototype can only hover to about 10 feet before losing stability. It’s going for $62,600, a virtual bargain, but you’d better move fast — the auction ends in an hour.

[Thanks, Ryan K and nvyseal]

GlobalPandora. Er…it looks as though some enterprising folk have opened the wonderful Pandora up to the world again. This comes hot on the heels of the announcement that the UK is to lose access to Pandora this week due to…gasp, guess what…a breakdown of talks with the ever stupid record industry. Of course I can’t test it until the cut-off comes tomorrow, but if it works as seems…well fabulous.

the box is open

Posted Jan 14th 2008 11:47AM by Donald Melanson
Filed under: Displays, HDTV While we doubt many will be lugging one of these around on their next business trip or outdoor adventure, Sony’s new line of Bravia B4000 LCD TVs does at least look to be portable enough to tote from room to room, a task made slightly easier by Sony’s thoughtful inclusion of a built-in handgrip. That somewhat distinct feature is apparently included on all of the models in the line (including 20, 23, and 26-inch varieties), each of which include virtual surround sound, Sony’s trademark “BRAVIA Engine,” dual HDMI ports, and integrated Freeview digital TV tuners. That last tidbit, of course, also means the sets are Europe-only for the time being, although that situation would seem to be only a slight hardware tweak away from being changed. No word on a price or release date just yet, but you will apparently be able to get each one in your choice of white or mocha colors.

[Via Stuff.tv]

Posted Jan 14th 2008 9:00AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Storage, Networking
The number one complaint about the Drobo is pretty obvious: getting the damn thing on your network without using a host computer. Well, consider that complaint sorted. Today Data Robotics is releasing a NAS upgrade for Drobo called the DroboShare, which will support:

• Gigabit Ethernet (yes!), static or dynamic IPs
• Auto-mounting SMB shares via Drobo Dashboard (supports SMB authentication)
• Dual USB 2.0 ports for two Drobos per DroboShare
• EXT3 file system support (officially!)
• Capacities up to 16TB (provided you feed it 4GB drives that won’t be out until, say, 2010)
• And possibly our favorite: email alerts, should a drive happen to crash, for example

It’s also worth noting that Drobo is still capable of switching between NAS and direct-attached modes if you decide you want to take your Drobo OFF the network (but why would you do a thing like that?). The biggest problem with this add-on? It’s $200, which brings the total cost of a DroboShare NAS rig to $700 — without drives. Still, we have a feeling for many a Drobo user — ourselves included — the value of the functionality will far outweigh the borderline unreasonable price tag.

Gallery: DroboShare makes your Drobo NAS — for a price

Posted Jan 14th 2008 5:17AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Cellphones
Mmmm, the LG Prada (AKA, LG-KE850) was just turned out in silver. 18 European countries including the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy will see the new version of LG’s touchscreen later this month. Besides the color change the phone now features a proper on-screen QWERTY, not just T9 — thank you LG! Really, that’s all we could hope for.

Gallery: LG’s silver Prada gets a new on-screen QWERTY

[Via Akihabara News]

Posted Jan 14th 2008 6:03AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Transportation
Hybrids are the rage at this year’s Detroit Auto Show. Center stage then is the $100,000 $80,000 Fisker Automotive plug-in hybrid set for delivery in 2009. California-based Fisker is the namesake of Danish-born Henrik Fisker, CEO and former BMW and Aston Martin designer. The Fisker Karma (pictured), can go up to 50 miles before the gas engine kicks in to charge the lithium-ion batteries. It features a 150mph top speed capable of reaching 60mph from a standstill in 5.8 seconds. Sharing the stage with Fisker is AFS Trinity Power Corporation and their 150mpg plug-in hybrid XH-150 SUV — that “XH” stands for Extreme Hybrid. Unlike traditional hybrids, the XH-150’s powertrain uses ultra-capacitors, not gas, for “fast” acceleration. The XH-150 goes from 0 to 60 in 6.9 seconds with a top highway speed of just 87mph. Instead of bringing the XH-150 to market, however, AFS Trinity is more focused on licensing their ultra-capacitor technology. Good idea too, after checking the ho-hum XH-150 just beyond the break.

[Via c|net News]

Read — Fisker Karma
Read — AFT Trinity unveils 150 MG XH SUV

Posted Jan 14th 2008 1:47AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Ah — dead, eerily-prescient, 20th century authors… they just can’t stop proving you right, can they? In a decidedly Orwellian turn, British authorities are considering a proposal to implant “machine-readable” RFID tags under the skin of some prison inmates as part of a plan to free up space in the country’s overcrowded prisons. Just like the nightmare world described in your favorite cautionary tales, the chips would enable authorities to track the location of implantees using satellite and radio-wave technology. The program would build off of the current ankle-tagging currently in place, and according to a official from the Ministry of Justice who finds the plan double-plus good, “All the options are on the table, and this is one we would like to pursue.” Of course, the controversial concept does have its detractors, Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, says that, “If the Home Office doesn’t understand why implanting a chip in someone is worse than an ankle bracelet, they don’t need a human-rights lawyer; they need a common-sense bypass.” Shortly following this statement, however, Shami was taken to an interrogation room and outfitted with a rat-hood, and all record of her existence was erased from state records.

[Via Slashdot]