We're all about conservation here at Gadgetbox. Just because we love our gadgets doesn't mean we want the world to go the hell in a handbasket for our fetish. So when we heard that we could save enough energy to power 60,000 households if merely 10% of the population unplugged our cellphones when they were done charging, we yanked that cable out of our Motorla so fast, our phone nearly flew across the room.
This brings up a bigger issue: design. Couldn't the cellphone makers have concocted a simple way for, say, the phone to shut itself off, or stop drawing power once it's reached a certain charge level? I realize the device's battery will still discharge if the device is left on, possibly creating a never-ending loop, but how about a sleep function, or at least some sort of power reduction? I leave my phone plugged in pretty consistently when I'm not out and about with it, to make sure that it always has a charge—as a result, I've very rarely had the battery die on me. But I don't want my habits to be responsible for excessive fuel consumption when I had the means of preventing it.
Manufacturers seem to be on top of this idea now, but it doesn't really do anything for all of today's phone owners. So remember to unplug once in a while.
[via Lifehacker]
With the amount of gross stuff your average pointing device accrues, you might be tempted to think that they hail from Germany. Get it? It's a play on—never mind. Anyway, IO Gear wants to buck the trend of nasty mice by introducing its bacteria-, germ-, and virus-free rodent.
Look, I know I'm a little paranoid about germs and the like, but even I'm not this paranoid. For one thing, I'm really the only one regularly using my mouse (as far as I know...perhaps the cat has been sneaking in while I'm out and logging on to internet dating sites). For another, doesn't it seem like the cure is potentially worth than the disease? IO Gear says that you should "not ingest the surface material of the device under any circumstances." What if I like to gnaw on my nano-particle coated mouse between meals?
Better still is this quote, from the same disclaimer: "This device does not eliminate the entire universe of bacteria or viruses." Holy crap, wouldn't that be the best mouse ever? When you make that one, IO Gear, let me know.
[via SCI FI Tech]
Let's talk to microwaves. Sorry, that was supposed to be "let's talk microwaves," but with Daewoo's forthcoming voice-activated microwave, I suppose that it's no big deal. Finally fulfilling the dream of geeks everywhere to be able to request their "tea, Earl Grey, hot," the Daewoo Voice Recognition Microwave can store up to 40 voice commands.
I'm not sure I like the idea that they're touting 95% accuracy for something that's cooking my food. Voice recognition has certainly improved, but my phone still tries to call the wrong person about a third of the time. If there's a 5-in-100 chance of it turning my dinner into radioactive goop, well, that's still kind of high for me.
Details are scarce on the model at the moment; we have no price, and it won't be arriving in stores until 2007. I don't know if I can wait that long though; I think I'll go start talking to my microwave, just to practice.
[via Born Rich]
I'm a fan of words, so I think electronic ink is about the coolest thing I've seen in ages. It provides for extremely high-contrast displays that finally make reading text a joy instead of a pain. The Sony Reader, due out in October for $350, is one of the first release pieces of hardware to use electronic ink to its full potential, and Gizmodo got their hands on one—color me jealous. In black and white.
One of the major benefits of electronic ink is no battery life is used while text is being displayed, only while it's being refreshed from another page. Thus, a single battery charge is reputed to last 7,500 page turns. And it's not just for text either; it can play back grayscale images in JPG and GIF format, making it a plausible platform for reading graphic novels (black and white ones, anyway).
Sony's also pushing their Connect store, which will allow you to buy DRMed book files from all the major publishers, but you can also load PDFs, RTF, plaintext, or an RSS feed (though there's no network connectivity, so you'll have to load them up via the USB port or the Memory Stick/SD slots). There's also a music player that supports MP3 and AAC, but I remain suspect: this thing's for reading, after all. It's in the name. Let's leave music to the MP3 players, shall we?
Stop. Really. I'm not kidding. I know miniaturization is all the rage, but you've gone too far. Who the heck is going to use the world's smallest cellphone—ants? I'm not talking world's thinnest, either, okay?
The Xun Chi 138 is just too small. It's so small, in fact, that they've had to ditch a keypad in favor of a touchscreen. At 2.64 inches long and 55 grams, it's the phone that you'll lose seconds after taking it out of the box. Or step on. Or lose, and then step on. Somehow, despite not finding room for a touchpad, they have stuffed in a 1.3 megapixel camera, which also makes it, I suppose, the world's smallest cameraphone. It also includes GPRS, an MP3 player, and handwriting recognition.
I really have nothing else to say about this except that if you do pick one up, please don't swallow it by accident.
[via OhGizmo]
It's frankly about time we saw an update to bulletproof vest technology. When I was younger, I thought bulletproof vests were just like, you know, vests—of the kind that you wore with a suit. Oh, those were the days.
But you know this vest means business because of its name: Dragon Skin armor. I mean, anybody who's ever played a little D&D in their day can vouch for the effectiveness of some Red Dragon Amor, kay? Though the Dragon Skin armor doesn't include heavy metal plates, the National Institute of Justice will be certifying the armor as resisting AK-47 rounds.
There's some dispute about how effective the Dragon Skin really is at stopping armor-piercing rounds, so it may not be a great choice to pack for your next trip to Iraq, despite it being flexible enough to easily fit into a carry-on.
[via Gizmodo]
I was trying to avoid plaguing you with the latest USB device, the USB Kitty who watches over your computer, but the Internet would not rest until I had told you all about it. Blast you, Internet—if only you didn't watch me wherever I go.
Look, there are any number of ways to secure your data. Take it from me. There's encryption, biometrics, keypad-enabled hard drives, you name it. But for those truly concerned about having the latest in surveillance and detection, consider, yes, the USB kitty. This little fellow plugs into a convenient USB port and includes integrated motion sensors that will inform you if anybody approaches your computer.
It will then try to get the interloper to leave by meowing, hissing, or playing music. It's enough to make you wonder whether Brando, the manufacturer, has ever encountered a real life cat. I'm pretty sure that should an intruder try to use my computer, our cat would purr and rub up against said intruder's leg. Though, I suppose the USB model has the virtue of being able to be unplugged. Oh, and it only costs $24.
[via Ubergizmo]
Skype may be the greatest thing since someone toasted slices of bread, but not everybody's quite so bully on it. Take, for example, the fine administration of San Jose State University. They're a little concern that Skype could be eating up their bandwidth, so they're banning it and other "grid-computing-like" applications. Neither are they first to do so: they're following in the footsteps University of California Santa Barbara and California State University Dominguez Hills.
In day-to-day usage, Skype isn't much of a bandwidth hog; the real trouble comes when your computer makes itself available as a "supernode," allowing Skype to route other calls over your connection. This can place a huge demand on your network connection, increasing by in some cases up to a gigabyte a month. Supernode mode can be disabled, but Skype doesn't provide a method for doing it via the program itself.
The ban does not affect dorms and residences, and reps from Skype parent eBay are en route to discuss with the university ways to handle the problem without banning the program entirely.
