Electronic Toy World

Everyone carries a keychain around, so why not make yours do more than hold your phone number just in case you get lost? The Key Chain Solar Charger is pretty self-explanatory - it provides additional juice wherever you go, as long as there is adequate sunlight in the vicinity. Meant to be an emergency power backup, it works best with any USB-charging device. Retailing for $22 a pop, you can also charge it from a power socket just before you head out on your travels.

Source: Red Ferret

Posted Mar 12th 2008 4:44PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Features, Laptops
We got a good long look at those new Gemstone Blue notebooks from Acer, the Aspire 6920 (16-inch) and 8920G (18.4-inch). We can’t say we’re crazy about the “CineTouch” controls to the left of the keyboard, and both laptops — while certainly thin for their class — are still bulky enough to make our chiropractor take pause. That said, Acer is certainly working a lot more design polish into its product, and the specs are, as ever, quite lovable. Hit up the read links below for official PR from Acer.

Gallery: Hands-on with Acer Aspire 6920 and 8920G

Read - Aspire 6920
Read - Aspire 8920G

Posted Mar 12th 2008 5:04PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Gaming
We’re not exactly clear on how Gibson’s legal team managed to license all those brand names and guitar designs to Activision for this many Guitar Hero games before realizing that the company maybe-sorta had a patent on the idea, but here we are: Activision filed a lawsuit yesterday asking the US District Court for Central California to invalidate a 1999 Gibson patent on “simulating a musical performance,” because apparently Gibson’s bugging them about it since January. Wait, just January? Seriously, people, you’d have thought this would’ve come up by now. Anyway, Activision says that Gibson is still a “good partner,” just that it “disagrees with the applicability of their patent and would like a legal determination on this.” We’re sure it would. Gibson’s patent apparently involves playing an instrument of some kind along with a pre-recorded concert while wearing what is described as a “3-D headset,” so there seems to be some overlap, but we’ll see what the court says — something tells us explaining Guitar Hero to the judge is going to be relatively amusing.

Update: On reading the patent, Gibson’s system is designed to be used with a “musical instrument” — and no matter what the Guitar Zeros have to say, we don’t think Guitar Hero controllers really qualify. It’ll definitely be interesting to see what the court has to say about that, no? [Thanks, Matt G.]

Disclaimer: Nilay’s a lawyer and a decent Guitar Hero player, but he’s not your lawyer, and none of this is legal advice or analysis.

Read - Article on lawsuit
Read - Gibson patent

Posted Mar 12th 2008 4:01PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Laptops
Acer’s never had an international press conference in New York before, but there’s a first time for everything, and the company used the occasion to launch the second generation Gemstone laptops. Coming in a special blue (”Gemstone Blue,” how wild), the new 16- and 18.4-inch machines feature 16:9 1080p screens, 1.5GHz Penryn processors, 512MB NVIDIA 9650m GS graphics, and those Blu-ray drives we heard about. The graphics chip is at the center of Acer’s new CineReal system, which offloads BD playback to the GPU and provides Dolby headphone output (and real 5.1 sound on the bigger model). Battery life is estimated at 2.5 hours on the 16-inch and three hours on the 18.4, but what’s really impressive here is the pricing: starting at $900 and up, with decently spec’d configs hitting around $1,700. Should be shipping in a month or so, according to Acer. Two more pics after the break.

Gallery: Acer unveils the second-gen Gemstone

Will robots take over the world in the future? It sure sounds like it. They might be docile servants for now, performing domestic tasks such as vacuuming our homes while clearing out gutters and cleaning swimming pools, but surely they will one day decipher the secrets of the human mind and take advantage of our weaknesses the more room and space we give them. Take the MindMentor for instance - this online robot psychologist is the first of its kind in the world, and clients will pay a minimal €4.95 per hour. Developed by a couple of Dutch psychologists who specialize in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), the system has gone through its baptism of fire with tests on 1,600 clients all over the world, and 47% of them have responded positively that they are satisfied after only one session. I wonder whether the troubles of these satisfied folks are too simple to solve, or the MindMentor is THAT good.

The RoboCoach in MindMentor will welcome you initially, asking you to loosen up. Once both of you are acquainted with one another, the RoboCoach will continue interacting with you, trying to analyze your problems while providing a workable solution. The two pyschologists who devised MindMentor said, “Some psychologists thought it was impossible - and some still think so - but it actually works. People solve their problems and attain their life goals with MindMentor’s help. Results from tests showed that MindMentor was able to solve the problems for 47% in just one session, a score that any real life psychologist would be proud of.”

MindMentor is not a lone ranger as it has several ‘colleagues’ to work with. It asks smart questions which address the unconscious mental resources of the client. His two colleagues are RoboRorschach who deals with projective testing while ProvoBot (an expert in provocative humor) will help provide a solution or new take on a situation within an hour’s time.

Source: Primidi

Sega Toys’ new Karada Trainer is an interesting plaything that looks like a normal pair of headphones, but when connected to an audio player, it will remind you of your current pace during a workout, and features the ability to monitor the wearer’s heartbeat courtesy of a sensor that clips onto the left earlobe. On the right side is a control module. Just make sure you key in essential personal information like your age, weight, and intensity level before you pound the pavement with this. The Karada Trainer retails for $56 and is a much cheaper alternative compared to Nike or Adidas’ solutions.

Source: New Launches

Posted Mar 12th 2008 2:13PM by Paul Miller Logitech’s diNovo Mini Bluetooth thumboard is finally ready to rock your living living room with its QWERTY keys, dashing looks, awkward translucent lid and unadulterated convenience. You can now pick it up from your favorite online retailer for about $150, and use it with your PC, PS3 or just for pretend.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

I found this product on another gadget blog the other day, and I found that the author was very critical of it.

Apparently, this author believed that the Coleman Ceiling Mounted-Fan was crossing a line when it comes to camping. The author went on to say that camping is about roughing it, and a ceiling mounted fan is too technological an accessory to be permitted on a “real” camping trip.

I have to agree that there probably is an envelope when it comes to things you should take on a camping trip, and the ceiling mounted fan probably pushes it. However, perhaps the question is not when “roughing it” begins, but when does it end?

After all, someone who takes an electric flashlight on a camping trip is taking a piece of technology with them to the campsite, and is no longer roughing it anymore. I suppose a gas-powered lantern would be a step up, but a gas-powered lamp is not exactly a product of nature. So who’s roughing it now?

So, if you’re willing to put a little something into your roughing it, then you can get the Colman Ceiling Mounted Fan for about $25. It operates on six D-size batteries and includes a light.

Source

Posted Mar 12th 2008 9:54AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Robots
Robots that assist in taking humans to their desired level of inebriation are far from new, but Chassis is just too darn likable to ignore. The beer pouring creature itself has actually doled out a few pints in its lifetime, but apparently, the latest spotting showed off a snazzy new paint job and a few additional lights. Heck, there’s even a built-in microphone and speaker for “audience interaction.” Best of all, however, is that the operator of this fellow can make it talk to party goers in the vicinity, and while we’re currently unsure of its marital status, we have all ideas that it’s a real hit with the ladies. Check out a few more snapshots in the read link below.

[Via UberReview]

Posted Mar 12th 2008 10:18AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
We’ve seen initiatives all over the globe created in an attempt to beat blindness, but researchers based at MIT are feeling fairly confident that their development is within a few years of being able to “restore partial sight to people who have slowly gone blind because of degenerative diseases of the retina.” The bio-electronic implant, which is about the size of a pencil eraser, would actually sit behind the retina at the back of the eyeball, and images would be transmitted to the brain “via a connector the width of a human hair.” As it stands, an FDA grant application is already in the works, and the scientists are hoping to have it implanted in an animal as early as this summer. Still, the solution only works for folks who “were once able to see and have partially intact optic nerve cells” — those who were blind from birth or suffer from glaucoma are unfortunately ineligible for the procedure.

[Thanks, Rusty]