Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Today we’ve got a guest post by Scott McGrath.  Scott has worked in the IT industry as a consultant and Sysadmin for 12 years, and has enjoyed communications gadgets since he got his Fisher Price telephone at 2 years of age.  Like what he said?  Hate what he said?  Go over to Scott’s blog at http://www.scamwagon.com and let him know.

Believe it or not, I’m in the market for a cordless phone.  Before you laugh, there’s actually plenty of reasons I maintain a land line, not the least of which is the fact that I have poor cell coverage at my home, and not the most of which is the fact that cellular usually can not hold a candle to the real deal PSTN or good VoIP line, in terms of quality.  Cordless phones still have life since some can pair to your cell phone so you don’t have to rush to find that tiny handheld when it rings.  If you’re a Skype user, you can be untethered with some cordless phones.

Continued after the break.

MORE »

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]

• New .tel domain opens up
• Sony’s Home beta temporarily shuts down for maintenance
• Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T temporarily free

To be at the movies and yet also in your pajamas and bunny slippers is the ultimate hi-tech entertainment experience for movie buffs everywhere. Home theater surround sound, however, can be cumbersome to wire and hang. The way around that is to single-enclose sound bars for mounting under flat panel TV screens. Proud as a peacock to be among the first, Definitive Technology displayed its best at CES, the Mythos SSA50, which is slated to go on sale next month.

MORE »

In what seems like an effort to fight off the Wii and it’s family friendly image, Sony has gone soft and announced its latest addition to the PS3, PlayStation Home.  During their announcement at the Game Developers Conference (GDC), they coined the term Game 3.0, conveniently inlcuding the same “3” that can be found in PS3.  Their new product, Home, is a community similar to your traditional MMORPG you hear so much about these days.  The 3D virtual world allows you to interact with other players around the world and fork over real money to Sony, of course.

Home will have 3D banner ads (like billboards) as well as offer you special promotions and what not.  You will be able to demo the latest games from developers (that probably pay a hefty sum) as well as watch movie trailers.  Conveniently however, you can also go Home in the game.  Your home is aparently designated an ad-free zone by Sony and is able to be customized however you’d like.  Throw up a poster on your wall, change the colors of your room.  These are bound to be some of the many ways to customize.

Another sweet feature of PlayStation Home is that you can go into an “achievement” area where you can admire your hard work and accomplishments in all of your other PS3 games.  You can also visit another hall and check out the “achievements” you haven’t gotten as well.

All in all, PlayStation Home seems like a great effort by Sony to take over the MMORPG space as well as the console war.  Head over to Gizmodo for some screenshots (along with the one above), and of course the NYTimes for more.

Read [NY Times]

• Sony’s Home beta temporarily shuts down for maintenance
• Sony giving away Qore Episode 7 for free
• Random Amazon game deals