Full FeedOddball Tech: Self-replicating nanobots to colonize Mars, tech makes us dumb, and robot doctors
Welcome back to the oddball tech stories of the week. We all know that robots are quite good at building cars (well, some cars), vacuuming, and serving tennis balls. Did you know that they could one day help us colonize Mars? Technology is good, however sometimes it makes us do dumb things. How dumb? How about stealing a computer from a jail? It actually gets dumber. Keep reading.
Gadgetell Review: SnapWords for the iPhone and iPod touch
SnapWords is a game by Magnetism Studios that is meant to be played by lots of people. It’s kind of like Taboo or Password. Get a word on the game and try to get someone on your team to guess the word. When your turn is over, hand your iPhone or iPod touch to the other team for their turn. Keep reading for the full review.
Gadgetell Review: The Tonium Pacemaker
The Tonium Pacemaker is a DJ tool that lets you make mixes using songs on its 60GB internal hard drive using a combination of buttons and a circular touchpad. Controlling tempos, effects like reverb, audio properties such as treble and bass are done via the circular touchpad through a series of gestures. While the Pacemaker does have a screen, it is not designed for video playback, but can act as a simple music player. The Tonium Pacemaker is available at Amazon for $499.99.
Google Blog Search gets new features including RSS feeds
A while ago, Google introduced a way to search blogs. The search excludes lots of other sites so you can easily find information published on blogs (whether they are on Google’s Blogger or not). The Goolge Blog Search just got a couple of new features to make it more useful.
Now you can have an RSS or Atom feed of any search that you conduct. Say you always want to know what the blogs are saying about NASA. Just put “NASA” in the Google Blog Search and you’ll see the option to subscribe to the results in the bottom of the left hand column.
If you’re an iGoogle fan, you can get an iGoogle gadget of your search. Why Google didn’t have these features before is kind of a mystery. This reminds me of when Google Reader didn’t have a search feature. Added functionality is always good when you can get it.
Read: [Google Blog]
RelatedGadgetell visits with TechVi to talk about the Pirate Bay sale
Gadgetell’s own JG Mason visited with Doug Aamoth from CrunchGear on Randall Bennett’s tech show, TechVi to talk about the latest Pirate Bay news. The company has been sold to a gaming company. Does this sale make any sense? What’s next from the Pirate Bay guys? Find out what JG and Doug had to say.
Panasonic’s iPod compatible HDTV, the VIERA X1 (with video)
iPod integration is absolutely everywhere and hooking up an iPod to a television is pretty much a trivial task. However, controlling the iPod may not be too easy from across the room using the iPod’s small screen. Panasonic has introduced its VIERA X1 LCD line of televisions at three different sizes, with a 26-inch, 31.5-inch, and 37-inch models. The VIERA X1 comes with a proprietary iPod dock that allows for control of the iPod on the television through an Apple approved user interface. You can see the UI in the video below.
U.K. lands new Panasonic Blu-ray HD recorders
Panasonic UK unveiled several new home theater components today. Two are Blu-ray Disc recorders that allow you to record HD content to Blu-ray discs. H.264 compression is being used to allow for up to 24 hours of HD content per disc.
The two models of Blu-ray disc recorders, the DMR-BS850 and the DMR-BS750, have two HD tuners to record two programs at the same time and include a feature called “Series Record,” similar to TiVo’s “Season Pass.” HD content can also be recorded from camcorders or digital cameras via SD cards or USB cable.
The main difference between the two models is hard drive size; the DMR-S850 has 500GB of space, while the DMR-S750 has 250GB. Panasonic also threw in a CD ripping feature that accesses gracenote to fill in track information. Apart from those unique features, these models also have BD-Live, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-Master Audio Essential and allows for 7.1 audio.
Blu-ray recordings are done in several modes with varying compression techniques. If AVCHD compression is used, the Blu-ray disc should be playable in many Blu-ray players. Choosing a more compressed format will yield a disc only playable on certain Blu-ray players.
The third product, the DMR-XS350, is a DVD player that can record HD content to its built in 250GB hard drive. However, you cannot archive HD recordings to Blu-ray discs. The DMR-XS350 records to DVDs in standard definition.
All models use Panasonic’s VIERA Link - if you have a Panasonic television and one of these players, you’ll be able to control both with one remote. They also have access to VIERA Cast, which accesses Panasonic’s servers which offer Internet content like YouTube videos or Picasa albums.
These products are available only in the U.K. They are pricey, though—the DMR-BS850 costs £1000, the smaller DMR-750 is £900, and the DVD-writing DMR-XS350 costs £700. Similar products will be released in Australia and France, but according to Panasonic UK, no plans on such a device exist for the United States. That’s too bad because it sounds like an interesting all-in-one solution.
Product Page: [HD Everything]
RelatedPalm advertises Pre in major newspaper, takes jabs at Apple and AT&T
Competition is integral for a healthy market, right? The Palm Pre is the latest and greatest super-smartphone released and is a serious competitor to the current king, the Apple iPhone. Palm isn’t hiding the fact they are gunning for Cupertino.
Take a look at this ad that ran in today’s Wall Street Journal. Here is an excerpt of the ad copy: “Your iPhone contract is up. Perfect timing. The Palm Pre does things the iPhone can’t. . . .”
Hands on with the EyeClops Mini Projector
The Jakks Pacific EyeClops Mini Projector is being marketed as a toy, but for $99, it’s worth a second look. Gadgetell got a chance to see the device in action. Is it worth getting as a second television or for video games?
HTC Hero: Hands on pics and video
You’ve read all about the HTC Hero yesterday, but how about some hands on impressions complete with photos and video? The HTC Hero is pretty thin, about the thickness of an iPhone. There has been all kinds of discussions about that 15 degree bend in the phone. Why did HTC go with this form factor? It’s about ergonomics.
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Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
