Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

While the old trick of bringing out a cute puppy to pick up a girl may still work wonders, modern technology is offering a whole lot more information for your next trip to the park.

SNIF Labs has created the SNIF tag a new intelligent kind of dog tag.  SNIF, which stands for Social Networking in Fur, offers two key functions.  One, you can monitor your dogs activities from afar.  So, if you have two pooches - you might be able to tell which one knocked over and broke your favorite vase while you were at work.  Or, you can find out if your dog walker really took Fido out to stretch his legs.

Via feature number two, you can enhance your own social life with help from your pet.  When your pup is out at the park and encounters other four legged friends, information made available by the dogs’ owners is exchanged via the tags.  Then, from home, social networking kicks in and new friendships of man and beast are forged.

All of the functions are accessible online - from seeing what your pet is up to at the moment to seeing what new friends they have made that day.  It’s like taking that butt sniffing they do and decoding it for us two legged companions…

Read [SNIF Labs]

While jango.com may not be the first website to marry music and social networking, it may be the first to marry a player into the mix so succinctly.

The site, still in beta and labeled as Social Internet Radio, is much like pandora.com in that you put in one artist or one song and a radio station will play a stream of songs similar in style to that song or artist.  But, unlike Pandora, which uses characteristics in the songs to create the radio stream, Jango uses the likes and dislikes of other Jango users to create its playlist.  The result is meant to be a stream of suggested songs you may like from a social network of people that love music.

So, while plugging in Frank Sinatra naturally produces a list of artists such as Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. and Harry Connick, Jr. for a user to select as additional favorite, it may also conjure up music from Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Nina Simone if other Frank Sinatra loving Jango users approve of these artist as well.  Similarly, if a big ‘ole group of folks love Sinatra and Dr. Dre , these seemingly unlike artists may end up on the same radio stream. Additionally, the more songs or artists a user adds, the more diverse the station selections.

The site originally launched in 2006 and is licensed with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and SoundExchange. The service is currently free and requires no downloads - a big plus for at work listening within companies that hold tight administrative controls over downloads.

Read [Jango]

The full sized Matias Folding Keyboard is a USB based product that folds in half making for easy packing and traveling with your laptop this holiday season.  For those that love the convenience and portability of a laptop but hate the hassle of the small keyboard, this is the answer.  Number crunchers will appreciate the calculator layout of the traditional keyboard, which is infinitely faster than hunting and pecking along the laptop lineup.

In its folded mode - it is small enough to fit in most laptop bags and comes complete with a carrying sleeve - to keep all those muffin crumbs in your bag from sneaking in between the keys.

Other only mildly exciting features include an enhanced number pad (meaning: they added a tab key), and advanced Fn keys (putting frequently used keys in easier reach like the arrow keys page up/down, delete, etc.) and volume controls.

Retailing for $59.95, the product is expected to begin shipping by mid-December with free shipping available on pre-orders placed now. No promises are made for delivery in time for holiday gift giving though they are expected to reach store shelves just in time.

Read [Matias]

Good things come in small packages and this holiday season UPS is going green in Northern California in order to get them to you.

The Petaluma, California branch of UPS has leased a fleet of 42 ZAP Xebra electric city cars and trucks to handle local small parcel deliveries.  The effort is meant to cut fuel costs during the busy holiday season and hopefully help to make the season a little more green with reduced automotive emissions.

In pure PR form, the ZAP CEO had this to say on his new UPS partner:

“This is the missing link for small package deliveries in congested areas,” said ZAP CEO Steve Schneider. “Packages go from the airplanes, to the tractor trailers, to the delivery vans, then to the drop-off nodes. From there the ZAP trucks make the final delivery to the consumer in a zero-emission vehicle that costs less to operate. It’s a perfect example of how green technology can help corporate America’s bottom line.”

UPS drivers of the ZAP trucks are meant to monitor their electricity usage in order to track how much the vehicles have saved the company in fuel costs.  The smaller size of the vehicles also makes it easier to dart in and around crowded city spots during the holiday crunch.

ZAP, which began working on automotive technologies in 1994, currently has 100,000 of its vehicles in 75 countries throughout the world.  They are currently developing a high performance SUV electronic car concept alongside Lotus Engineering called the ZAP-X.

Read [Zap World]

The Gibson Robot Guitar is set to hit store shelves on December 7, 2008. The guitar is touted as a revolution in guitar making: the first guitar with robot technology.  Sounds so cool – but what exactly does it mean?

“The story” on the Gibson website only hints at what it might do.

Since the dawn of the instrument, musicians have come to accept the guitar’s imperfections and lack of tonal precision as necessary evils. Onstage and off, guitarists have fought to stay in tune. Every music lover and performer has had to suffer through the show—halting, mood-killing atonal droning of a loudly amped guitar being brought into tune. And in the studio, or at home, imprecise intonation throws the guitar in and out of tune, up and down the neck, as the instrument requires tweaking with each season and at times with each string change.

It is, essentially, a self tuning guitar.

The tag line for the product is, “All you have to do it play,”  which would infer that the tuning and other time consuming upkeep takes care of itself.  It’s sort of like a self cleaning oven without all that stink.  The juicy details of how this is done and the other capabilities and implications are as of yet – unknown.

Special first run limited editions of the guitar will be available on December 7th in select locations throughout the US and Europe.  The regular old version (minus the fancy first edition title and probably more finely tuned by then) will follow in early 2008.

Now I just need to learn how to play the guitar in the next 23 days.

Read [Gibson]

While GPS may have solved the embarrassing problem of having to ask for directions, Microsoft has put the human touch back into asking for the information you need…well sort of.

Microsoft has just launched speech recognition options as a part of its new Live Search for Windows Mobile 5 and 6.  If you love to hear the sound of your own voice, feel free to ask away when searching for business listings and locations.

Here’s hoping it picks up on speech eccentricities better than my overnight carrier’s automated speech recognition technology (“No today – pick up the package today… no I can’t repeat it clearer!”).

Other brand new features include on-the-go helpers such as hours of operations for a business, local gas prices and synchronization with your GPS to truly localize your searches.

Read [EngadgetMobile]

Product: Piano Wizard
Price: $139.95 (software and midi cable); $199.95 with M-Audio 49e MIDI piano keyboard
Rating: Very Good - 8.0
Pros: Instant musical gratification, bright engaging colors, fun to use, visual learning, full piano functionality in a compact keyboard, great selection of songs for young and old
Cons: Takes a little trial and error to get comfortable with all of the features available, hard drive hogging files, mediocre graphics
Overall: A fun and affordable way to get even the youngest kids playing the piano and creating music.  The easy color coded learning makes getting comfortable with the basics less tedious for stubborn adults too.

Product -  Piano Wizard is a software system that works in conjunction with a midi keyboard that you can purchase with the software or use any piano keyboard that can plug into your computer.  Despite all the software, it is the color stickers that you place on the keys that is really the whole key (pardon the pun) to the learning experience here.  The early steps of learning to play are made simple by color coding the notes on the screen with the corresponding color coded keyboard keys. Colorful graphic backdrops like grazing dinosaurs, though static (and at time cheesy) make the learning more interesting.  For children that are not compelled to play by the interactive lesson style, Piano Wizard offers lessons cleverly disguised as games that get kids learning while they have fun playing.

Set Up - If you have Windows XP or the latest Mac OS, set up of the keyboard is a breeze.  Simple plug and play.  Installing the software is a no-brainer via the provided wizard, but if you plan on using this with young children, try setting it up during their nap time.  They most likely won’t have the patience for the download time.

Personal Experience - I have a two year old who, like most children, loves any excuse to make noise – pleasant or otherwise.  He immediately took to the Piano Wizard as it brought together many of his favorite activities at once, the aforementioned noisemaking, computer play, colors and games, music and playtime with mommy and daddy.  What is so nice about the Piano Wizard is the ability for it to grow with your child, with beginners, intermediate, transition and advanced levels.  It has many different elements that will keep them from getting bored as they grow up and discover new skills and abilities.  From the toddler years of colors and noise, to the early school years of “Look what I can do” and even through those harsh preteen years… though they are more likely to tell their friends about there newly acquired skills, rather than their lame parents.  Better yet, if you took piano as a kid and miss tickling the keys as I do, or always wanted to try, this is a great baby step into making music. 

Features - Piano Wizard comes with a good library of songs to choose from, and is seemingly always adding to their online library with songs from Herman’s Hermit to Coldplay, at prices cheaper than most sheet music will run you.

My only disappointment was that I had expected that the beginner’s stages to feature a play-along theme, but was sad to find the tune accompaniment was only visual. For the smallest of children, a karaoke style play along or an “I’ll play it then you play it back” styles are best for engaging them in play. 

All in all - my son is hooked.  After he got his first taste of the Piano Wizard, he dragged us back to the computer day after day instructing us to turn it on and play along with him.  He was an instant addict.  And it works out well for us too.  We can only watch Spongebob Squarepants so many times in one day… really.

Good for Grown-ups too - The Piano Wizard makes it easy for an adult (or quasi-adult) to learn just as well, though it probably won’t buy you any cool points if your buddies catch you pecking away at Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on your color coded keyboard.  Although, later on when you woo that lady you’ve had your eye on with the latest Franz Ferdinand tune, who’ll have the last laugh then?

Reuters had this great story and image I just had to share.  Japanese scientists from Waseda University in Tokyo demonstrated their biped robot WL-16RIII on Wednesday.  They are currently developing the two legged robot robotic chair to aid elderly and handicapped individuals climb dubious stairways.  While it may take 5 years to develop, since the current prototype is still slow, somewhat cumbersome with heavy loads, and requires the occupant to “hop up” on the nearly 4 foot high seat, the duo’s ultimate goal is to create greater mobility for those with physical limitations.

Think we can get one of this to get up the stairs at the Gadgetell headquarters?

Here’s one that had me saying “Ohhhh, cool!” 

I have to give credit to ThinkGeek for bringing this one to my attention (if you go to their site, also check out the caffeine molecule T-shirt too – very cool – very geeky – good stuff).  The very futuristic Bluetooth Laser Virtual Keyboard allows you to project a functioning keyboard onto any flat surface and click away (the actual tippity-tap sounds included) using your blue tooth enables PDA or cellphone, much like the one we showed you back in January but now you can get it too. Check out the features and product pricing and availability.

Product Features:

• Connects to PDAs Smartphones and Computers using Bluetooth
• Projects a full size keyboard onto any flat surface
• Allows the convenience of regular keyboard typing in a tiny form factor
• Rechargeable battery lasts for 120 minutes of continuous typing
• Tiny size only 3.5 inches high
• Compatible with Palm OS 5, PocketPC 2003, Windows Smartphone, Symbian OS, and Windows 2000/XP. Limited Mac OSX Support. Click here for compatibility details and product specifications

This super-cool, impress-your-friends, seems-like-a-trick-but-is- oh-so-real gadget is $179.99 and is currently on back order, though Think Geek says orders placed now should ship out by the end of April.

As I may have mentioned before, my son is way more tech savvy than I am already.  This is not that I am any slouch, mind you, he’s just advanced.  Yeah, he’ll be 2 next month.  But to keep my boy on the cutting edge in music, his favorite pastime, Fisher-Price is answering the high tech toddler call.  The toy-centric company has announced the release of the iTod (clever, eh?), the first mp3 player designed for the making–the-transition-to-the-potty age group.

The iTod is set to launch this summer for a whopping $78 bucks.  Anyone with a kid can tell you that, while clever, the iTod is most likely to become a brief distraction/toy only to fall to its ultimate usage: a very expensive teething/chew toy.  Parental note: They really should come up with a wireless headset, in all reality.  Kids hooded jackets aren’t allowed to have pull cords anymore, for fear a child will choke him or herself.  Headphone cords seem even more dangerous to me.

Perhaps, if it turns out the quality is decent at all on the iTod, all of us on a budget can pick one of these babies up for a fraction of the iPod price and start jamming out to Barney.  I love you, you love me…