Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Microsoft is touting two new LifeCam models which are uniquely designed to have a bendable attachment base. These new webcams which mold to any surface are the LifeCam VX-5000 and VX-500. In addition, Microsoft is also releasing the LifeChat LX-2000, a full-size headset which is bendable as well.

Both of these LifeCams are affordable, easy to use and come with individual features. The LifeCam VX-5000 which comes a colored ring around its front, which you can choose to have in either Cool Blue, Lucky Green or Fire Red. This LifeCam is equipped with Windows Live optimization as well as the latest version of the LifeCam software. Its features include; Windows LiveCall Button, LifeCam dashboard, advanced VGA optics with VGA sensor at 640 x 480 resolution, built-in unidirectional microphone, 3x digital zoom and pan and tilt features.

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Canon has added two new compact photo printers to its Selphy product line - the CP770 and CP760. Touting a fresh and unique design, both printers aim to give users an easier time when printing their precious photos even without using a computer.

Although both printers sport a small design, both are nonetheless rich in individual features. The CP770 is an ultra compact photo printer that answers your need for printing photos as quickly and as easy as possible, whether you’re at home or on the move. Touting an unusual new design, the CP770 comes with a basket-like storage bucket which can also accommodate several printer accessories such as paper, ink cartridge and power cord. The CP770 is also equipped with a 2.5-inch high definition LCD monitor. Retailing for $79.99, the CP770 will be available in apricot and crisp white color.

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For those looking to give their external hard drive a little camouflage within their home office, the Hardbox may be just what you need. We do mean it though when we say little, because while the drive itself has the appearance of a book, it still has two external LED lights. Though we cannot say for sure, it seems those LED’s would most likely draw some attention in the midst of those regular books on your shelf.

The drive is being offered up from Sarotech and has support for 3.5-inch SATA I or II hard drives with support for up to 1GB. The Hardbox comes with a built-in power supply and ships with “powerful backup software.” It offers up a USB connection, but seems to be missing one important item, a fan. However according to Sarotech the drive has an “advanced aluminum” case that keeps the drive operating at a cool temperature. Sadly the Hardbox is currently just available in the Korean market and is also a little on the expensive side at 315,000 KRW, around $300 US.

Product [Sarotech] Via [Oh Gizmo!]

The GBDisk RS1 series of Serial ATA (SATA)-compatible industrial silicon disks is the latest addition to TDK’s roster, which will be made available in June with up to 16GB capacities. High-speed, frequent data writing and maintaining data reliability come first with the GBDisk RS1 series. And because of that, it features single level cell (SLC) NAND Flash memory, and GBDriver RS1 SATA controllers for use in NAND Flash memory controller ICs.

It also offers complete power interruption tolerance, error correction, distributed data writing, and bad block management. Basically, these are new types of hard disks, coming in at the same size as current generation HDD’s (2.5-inches) that should offer fast start up, stringent shock resistance, and low power consumption. It’s been reported to be already Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL)-certified, and now if only they could bump up the storage a bit more than 16GB’s, then we’d all be happy. Or at least, those who need to use hard disks in industrial equipment.

As of now, pricing is unknown, but as earlier mentioned, production will start in June 2008.

Via [Tech On]

Remember that innovative Wi-Fi-enabled SD card aptly named the Eye-Fi? Well Eye-Fi, which is what the company is also called, must have been overwhelmed by the success of their product that they decided to add not just one new model, but three to the Eye-Fi SD card series. So, we now have the Eye-Fi Share, Eye-Fi Home and the Eye-Fi Explore.

Actually, there’s not too many differences with these three models. It is still the same Wi-Fi enabled SD card that was launched not so long ago. For instance, both the Eye-Fi Share and Eye-Fi Home are almost identical to the current Eye-Fi models in terms of features. However, Eye-Fi home is geared for users who want to sync their SD card to their PCs only. While the Eye-Fi share lets users to automatically sync their SD card to both their PCs and websites, such as Flickr.

On the other hand, the Eye-Fi Explore is more of a tie-up with Wayport, a major hotspot provider in the US. So, the Eye-Fi Share lets users to automatically upload their photos while connected anywhere there is a Wayport hotspot without the need to authenticate for each location. In addition, the Eye-Fi Share also allows geotagging and supports Skyhook’s Wi-Fi triangulation for GPS purposes.

The Eye-Fi Explore, Eye-Fi Share and the Eye-Fi Home are now available for $129, $99, and $79 respectively.

Via [Ubergizmo] Via [Gizmodo]

If you think your laptop bag has enough room in it for a gadget that will give you more USB ports than you’ll ever need, then you’ll be glad to set your sights upon Elecom’s newest little number. It’s a small USB hub that offers not three, not five, but a total of seven free USB ports for you to connect your other gadgets simultaneously. It measures only 23x144x23mm, and weighs 66g. Other than an external hard drive, iPod and digicam, I don’t know what else you’d want to plug in it. But if you want to get a feel of its 480Mbps transfer rate, then by all means, feel free.

Via [Akihabara News]

Sharp and Amimon, an emerging leader in semiconductor technology for wireless high-definition video, have combined their technology to bring wireless HDTV experience to users of Sharp’s LCD display units. Slated for a release in Japan soon, Sharp’s super-thin X-series LCD displays will be equipped with Amimon’s Wireless High Definition Interface (HDMI) 1080p wireless technology. For us users, this simply means that we would no longer have to connect any cables to our TVs since all the necessary wires and cables of the Sharp LCD displays will be tucked in a separate set-top box. 

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Sony has made available a slew of tiny USB flash drives in its Microvault product line, branding these babies as the USM-L. The drives measure in at 0.69 x 0.33 x 2.44-inches and weighing only around 0.32-ounces, who would think that the USM-L flash drives can store as much as 16GB of data? Well, that’s how flash drives are nowadays, the smaller they get, the larger their storage capacities are, and this is particularly true with the Sony USM-L flash drives.

As if the USM-L flash drives were not small enough, Sony even made use of the Click mechanism which makes it shorter when it is connected to your machines. This also enables Sony to do away with the common USB flash drive design that comes with a cap that you have to pull out to reveal the flash drive’s USB connector. With the USM-L, all you have to do is to slide out the flash drive’s body to reveal the USB connector. 

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It’s very seldom that we hear about Sony coming out with a flash drive product, although we know that it certainly has some data storage devices in its arsenal but these mostly belong to its proprietary Sony Memory stick duo series which are used for most Sony Ericsson mobile phone’s and the PSP. So, it is refreshing to hear about this new USB flash drive which belongs to Sony’s Microvault product line. The flash drive we’re talking about is the USM-LX high-speed USB flash drive.

The USM-LX gives a maximum read-out speed of 31Mb/s which is the USB flash drive standard, is simply fast enough to handle large files - that is store, transfer and share just about anything. Sony has also made some stride in improving this flash drive’s design by using what it calls a “Click mechanism”. This eliminates the need for a USB cap, since all you have to do to connect the USB to your machine is to slide out the flash drive’s body to reveal the USB connector. This adds some convenience to users as it makes the flash drive shorter when not in use.

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A woman is suing Best Buy for $50,000 after a Geek Squad employee admitted viewing, and later stealing the nude photos she had on her PC. He copied them to his flash drive, shared them with his fellow employees and put them on the hard drives of other customers. While employee, William E. Giffels fully admitted to viewing and copying the photos to his flash drive, he claimed they ended up on other computers computers solely by accident when he forgot to delete them from the drive before allowing other employees to use it to access the diagnostic tools he also had stored on it. 

There hasn’t been any comment from Best Buy yet, but one can assume Mr. Giffels will be seeking new employment soon. While he is clearly in the wrong for what he did, you have to wonder why anyone would hand over a computer for repair without removing such sensitive and private content? When you think about it it could have been much worse. What if he had copied her banking or credit card info instead? I think the lesson here is if you have to take your PC in for repair, make sure there’s nothing on it you wouldn’t want the whole world to see!

Read [The Consumerist]