Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Picture this, you’re on a subway, and some guy standing next to you is gripping the hand rail has a terrible odor.  Clearly, he did not apply his under-arm deodorant before he left for work.  The smell of this man caught your attention, but the sight of him draws you in more as this man has a video display on his armpit. 

Yes, this new concept method of advertising is actually being considered.  Guess what kind of company wants to use it!  That’s right, a deodorant company, specifically Right Guard. 

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Want to wow everyone with your next PowerPoint presentation?  Forget content, rent a fogscreen and you’ll be talked about for weeks.  A new YouTube video shows off the latest in fogscreen tech as FogScreen (the company) teamed up with GestureTek to create this really captivating display.

GestureTek brings the gesture recognition to the dry fog screen from FogScreen.  The result is a 3D interactive space that the companies call, “magical”.  I say cool.  Check this video:

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During Computex, Asus not only previewed its latest Eee PC line-up but some other forthcoming products as well. One of these products was a 42-inch Eee TV which Asus did not specifically highlight, yet it was seen by attendees on display near the Asustek booth. If you recall, this Eee TV was first seen sometime in January and rumored to be released in September.

Still, the lack of detailed information and specifications coming from Asus make us wonder whether Asus will market this TV as your usual LCD TV or something else more special. Not even the people manning the Asus booth were cooperative enough to leak out details about the Eee TV. And so we are left to ponder about it, albeit suspect other possible details until such time that Asus officially announces it.

Some observers found some USB ports and a LAN input on the TV, while others suspect that it would have web-browsing and email capability. Sadly, until the official announcement and release we can only admire this picture.

Via [Engadget]

Acer has just added two new families of LCD displays to their product line, the Business and also the Value series. Both series boast of Acer’s eColor Management technology, Adaptive Contrast Management, eDisplay management and are energy Star compliant. Although similar to each other when it comes to the presence of Acer’s proprietary technologies, the Business and Value LCD families also have various features which are unique to each series.

The B-series, which is available in various sizes, was designed for professionals who are looking for ergonomics, solidity and long-term productivity features in their LCD. Plus, these displays were developed to sustain extensive daily use. The B-series is available in various sizes including; the B173 and B193 which range from 17 to 24-inches in size, the 19-inch B193W, 20-inch B203W, 22-inch B223 and the 24-inch B243W. These professional looking LCDs sport an elegant black color as well as black bezel and base design. Other features of the B-series include an adjustable display and swivel angle, dual input interface, 5ms response time on all and contrast ratios ranging from 2000:1 to 3000:1. 

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In the hopes of recovering from its losing trend, Pioneer Corp. of Japan have announced they will stop producing plasma display panels (PDPs) and will resort to buying its requirements for the product from rival company, Panasonic.

In an issued official statement, Pioneer said that the company has judged that maintaining the cost competitiveness of PDPs against projected sales volumes will impede the company’s growth. What was once a strong contender in the electronics industry, Pioneer fell behind rival companies such as Panasonic’s Matsuhista and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co., as well as LG Electronics.

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Apple is now allowing anyone to recycle their no-longer-used mobile phone for free. Simply bring your mobile phone into any Apple retail location or complete the process online and ship the phone in. The phone recycling program will allow any brand phone to be turned in with no charge to the person, Apple will even pay the shipping costs for those being mailed in.

In addition to phone recycling, Apple will also accept any iPod for recycling. The iPod program is also free free, similar to the setup for the mobile phones. There is a program for CPU recycling, but in order to have your old computer or monitor recycled you have to purchase a new computer or monitor from Apple.

Via [textually.org]

We recently saw the great touchscreen Eee PC mod that was featured over on jkkmobile, and now it seems Asus may be making an official version. We have already seen the speculation that Asus is prepping the next version of the Eee to include a larger 8.9-inch display and with touchscreen ability added that could be the deciding factor for many, especially given the other choices that are becoming available such as the Cloudbook.

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Dell has made their new 24-inch 2408WFP monitor available. The new 24-incher is an Ultrasharp model that offers 1,900 x 1,200 resolution, a 178-degree viewing angle and a 1,300:1 contrast ratio as well as more ports than you can imagine. The available ports include HDMI, 2 DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, Composite, Component, S-Video, 1 USB upstream and 2 USB downstream. The 2408WFP is currently available and retails for $748.

Product [Dell] Via [Engadget]

Remember Woojin’s Tenbuno monitor back from November?  As a refresher, its a 19-inch display with 1280 x 1024 resolution with a tiny 8.4-inch display tacked on top (800 x 600).  The 19-inch display has a 700:1 contrast ratio with 8ms response time, and the 8.4-incher has 350:1 contrast and 10ms response - not great, but also not bad for such a little screen. 

Until now we had no idea when it was coming out, or if it was even headed for the market.  Now, AVING is reporting that it is set to ship in Korea sometime in May 2007.  No word on pricing or U.S. availability at this time.

Read [AVING]

Topping Dell’s CES 2007 bragging list is their Dell UltraSharp 27 in. LCD Display with TrueColor technology. Targeting the display at gamers and video editors, they claim it is “the first 27-inch display on the market to provide 92% color gamut coverage of the NTSC color space.” It has a max resolution of 1920x1200 WUXGA, a 1000:1 contrast ratio, an integrated 9-in-2 media card reader, four USB 2.0 ports and a three-year warranty. It’s currently available in the US for $1,399.

To pump some digital visual goodness into that display, Dell’s also announced the XPS 710 H2C, a desktop gaming system with dual hard drives, two-stage cooling, dual optical drives, dual processors and dual nerds a droolin’. It comes in a midnight black case and pre-overclocked. The H2C’s cooling system, called Black Ice, has a liquid-to-air heat exchanger (which they compare to a car’s radiator) and a fluid chiller with ceramic-based thermoelectric cooling (TEC) modules. The XPS 710 H2C Edition starts at (*gulp*) $5,499 and is currently available worldwide.

Yep, plan to plop down more than $6900 for the display and PC but it should prove to be a pretty dern good gaming setup (at least it better be for that price).

On the less expensive side of their announcements is the Dell E228WFP 22-inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor, featuring a 5 millisecond response time and 1680x1050 max resolution. It’s available now starting at $329.

Lastly is the Dell Home Media Suite, a hardware/software bundle that will basically allow customers to receive digital cable (including high-definition) and view or record it onto a PC. The yet-to-be-priced suite will be available in the US after Windows Vista is released later this month (theoretically).

The Home Media Suite will include:

• XPS 410 core 2 duo PC with 2GB memory, 1 terabyte RAID disk array and DVD/RW drive


• Creative Precision Monitor speakers


• Full suite of entertainment software


• Creative Live! Voice webcam


• 27-inch flat panel monitor


• Dell Photo All in One 966 printer


• Linksys 802.11 draft N band router


• Linksys powerline AV bridge


• Digital cable tuner for premium HD TV