Gadgets Mobile

Kodak, a household name when it comes to all things photography, has just announced an enhanced Digital Picture Frame portfolio which consists of three different digital photo frames, ranging from 7″ in size to 8″ and 10″ to suit just about every need there is for a casual living room accessory. Not only does Kodak claim that these will look both sleek and stylish, they also boast a range of features including the recently unveiled Quick Touch Border for easier image manipulation and maintenance. All it takes with Quick Touch Border is a slide or touch of the finger at the highlighted sections, as this will not result in a smudged screen which will interfere with photo viewing.

Check out what the press release has to say about the three photo frames released - the Easyshare M820, M1020 and P720.

The KODAK EASYSHARE M820 and M1020 Frames display crisp, vibrant images and video on 8-inch and 10-inch (diagonal) screens, respectively. Set up is a snap and with an illuminated Quick Touch Border and Kodak’s unique scrolling feature; you can easily scroll through your images with a simple slide action. Your favorite MP3 songs can be played through built-in speakers, bringing a special dimension to any picture slideshow. Enjoy any JPEG picture, most video types (MPEG 1 and 4) and MP3 music using all the popular memory card formats (CF, SD, MMC, xD and MS). Boasting 128MB of internal memory, the frames can store up to 300 pictures and even more pictures when using the two convenient memory card slots or by copying digital files from a digital still camera, home PC, or USB Jump Drive.

The KODAK EASYSHARE P720 Frame features a 7-inch (diagonal) high-quality viewing screen and Quick Touch Border. In addition to USB flash drive compatibility, the KODAK EASYSHARE P720 offers SD, MMC, xD, and MS card slots, plus an additional SD slot to configure your frame with the amount of memory you want. The frame is not limited to tabletop display thanks to a new sleek white cord design, which allows for easy and neat mounting to walls.

The Kodak Easyshare P720, M820 and M1020 will retail for $119.95, $179.95 and $229.95 respectively.

Press Release

Lately, I’ve been reading a ton about going “green.” We’ve recycled for years at my house, but most recently I started doing it the correct way, with the plastic and paper truly separated and left out for the recycle company to take away.

Of course, when it comes to electronics, that’s where I still need help. I have backup power supplies, laptops, desktops, printers, lights, and just about anything you can think of that’s electronic constantly running in my house. I guess that’s still going to be a work in progress.

As for my car, I drive a Toyota Camry, pre-hybrid days; and an SUV is my other car, so no chance of going “green” there.

In the spirit of going “green,” I jumped at the chance to give ANYCOM’s Bluetooth Solar Car-Kit a go. The package itself came with a sticker that said “GO GREEN!” on it, so that alone was a reason to take a second look. My favorite part, even before giving it a go, was the claim that it could charge itself using the embedded solar panel–no need to wrestle with more wires in my car.

The ANYCOM Bluetooth Solar Car-Kit is pretty straightforward in its implementation. It comes with a windshield mount, suction cups, and 3M tape (you can decide which method you want to use for mounting it), a car charger with USB cable (for those moments when you’re not charged up or there’s no sun), and a user manual written in 7 different languages.

For my test, I figured I’d mount it to the windshield using the provided suction cups, since the manual actually shows a picture for the “Recommended Installation Position.” I then took the Solar Car-Kit and placed it into the mount. Next, I turned the kit on by pressing the multi-function button / phone icon for 2 seconds. I was greeted with a booting tone and a flashing status LED. I then paired it with my iPhone, which required that I shut the Solar Car-Kit off again.

The mount is pretty straightforward

This is the preferred mounting spot. I tried it in other places, and the callers said that the voice quality did not change

The pairing process worked exactly as I had hoped with me shutting the Car-Kit off, then pressing and holding the multi-function button for 5 seconds. I heard two short beeps after the boot up tone, previously mentioned, and then searched for available devices through the Bluetooth interface on the iPhone. The iphone found the kit right away, and when I selected it, I entered in 0000 for the passkey. I then heard a beep letting me know that it was paired, and the iPhone interface also indicated that pairing was successful.

Next, I dialed a number. Seconds later I heard a confirmation tone right before the audible dialing and then moments later heard the person on the other end through the Car-Kit. The speaker quality was excellent, and the volume adjusted higher than I needed it, which is a huge plus for any car kit.

Notice that it was perfectly recognized by the iPhone

Features
The ANYCOM Bluetooth Solar Car-Kit has a bunch of cool features built-in. Most notably is the solar panel, which keeps the Car-Kit constantly charging as long as there is sun available. According to the manual, 3 hours of sunlight buys you 30 minutes of talk time, and the Car-Kit will continue to charge while you talk, too. If there’s no sun or you are paranoid, you can use the included USB cable and car charger and charge away from your cigarette lighter–a full charge takes 2 hours.

close-up of the solar panel, which is on the opposite side of the multi-function button

As for other features, it includes the usual feature set of a wireless car kit, but the execution of them is flawless. For example, you can redial the person you just dialed by just clicking the multi-function button. This is a great feature except that the button is so large that I found myself accidentally hitting it when raising the volume level at times. There’s also volume up and down buttons.

That’s it, button-wise, but those buttons do a lot. For example, to check the battery status hold the volume up and down buttons simultaneously and then release them. The battery status is indicated by the number of red flashes and a beeping sound. For example, out of the box, my unit beeped 3 times, indicating more than 5 hours of use was available. You can also check your Solar Power Charging Status by pressing the volume down button for 5 seconds when you turn the unit on. If it’s receiving enough sunlight, the battery status LED will glow red.

In addition to the above, you can mute your call (press the volume down button for 1 second), reject a call (press the multi-function button for one second when a call is coming in), answer call waiting (press the multi-function button for one second while on a call), voice dial, and more.

The only complaint I have about the Car-Kit is that while I was using it while driving on the highway, some callers complained of hearing noise. I moved the Car-Kit closer to my mouth, but it didn’t seem to alleviate the problem. Since they could still hear me, just with some background noise, I’m not going to fault the company, though some better noise cancellation (this one uses Echo-Cancellation and Noise Reduction) in a future version couldn’t hurt.

Overall, the fact that I really don’t have to think about charging the car kit and just have to remember to enable Bluetooth on my phone, is a HUGE plus. Also, because of its unique design, it can just as easily work as a hands-free kit outside of the car in conference rooms or for impromptu conference calls.

For that reason, as well as others, it has now become my preferred car kit, supplanting the Parrot MINIKIT and has also been awarded a Geek.com Pick.

You can read more about the ANYCOM Bluetooth Solar Car-Kit at Anycom.com.

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Fashion and technology often share a rather uneasy relationship with one another, but time and effort has proven that both parties are willing to move to an agreement. Mimoco, the Boston-based manufacturer of its Mimobot designer USB flash drives has just announced its new tokidoki Mimobot collection that is in line with the company’s goal of ‘bringing style and soul to personal tech devices’. This series holds the distinction of being the first fashion-oriented release from Mimoco, and could be the turning point where USB flash drives are transformed into everyday fashion accessories for the masses. I know that bling USB flash drives have been around for quite a while now, but most of the time they are out of reach from the masses due to expensive diamonds and other gems adorning the surface - not so with the tokidoki Mimobot.

According to Dan Ruby, Mimoco’s marketing and communications manager, “We’ve always felt that flash drives have the potential to allow individuals an entirely new way to display their personality, fashion sense, and creativity. After all, most people keep their very personal, very creative digital lives on USB flash drives, so why shouldn’t their design reflect the creativity inside the memory stick and of the individual?”

The tokidoki brand might be unheard of to some, but it has grown steadily over the past few years from its humble beginnings that stem from artist Simone Legno’s personal portfolio, having experienced a transformation into a trendsetting global brand that encompasses products ranging from toys to jewelry to hard-to-find women’s purses and bags.

These new tokidoki Mimobots will come preloaded with a range of selected tokidoki digital art, animations, and soundBytes. They will be available in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities, with (obviously) differing prices for each. You need not fret if you’re rocking to a Mac or Windows-based computer since the Mimobot range functions just fine on either. Pre-orders are already open, and shipping will begin this April 18th.

Press Release

If you have a soft spot for old records, then the Soundwagon Portable Record Player will definitely make your heart melt. Touted to be the smallest portable record player in the world, this officially licensed Volkswagen van will drive around the record as it plays your favorite retro tunes through an integrated speaker. Don’t expect too much from the speaker though, but it sure as heck will hypnotize you as those in the 1960s will be able to testify, although folks from that period had a little…er, herbal help. It will cost you $90 to own this retro flashback piece.

Pantone just had to release USB flash drives that come in a host of colors - 14 in total, to be exact. You will be able to choose from 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 4GB capacities, and these can be customized according to your whims and fancies (restricted to company names and logos). Prices start from $10.99 upwards. Guess you’ll have to whip out the color code table before placing an order for the color of your choice…

Remember the old standy, using lemon juice as ink in order to scribble down a secret message? Well, the Sonic Screwdriver allows you to relive those third grade memories of leaving secret messages for your friends minus the hassle of lemon-based invisible ink, since it holds an ultraviolet pen instead, where the message can be read only with a special UV light. Guess you will need at least a couple of these in order to use it effectively. The Sonic Screwdriver will retail for £9.99 and comes with sound effects, a spare standard ink nib and wipe.

In this day of MP3s, turntables have been given a modern update to keep up with the times while retaining that aura from the past. The Vestax Guber CM-02 USB Turntable is drop dead gorgeous, allowing you to convert all your old favorites from vinyl into MP3 format if you haven’t yet done so already. There is something about the glossy ipod-white color that graces the CM-02 which makes it all the more desirable. Prices vary from $233 to $499 depending on which side of the pond you’re at, so do the smart thing and look it up online for the best deals.

Apple has given us something for the weekend: a 2.1 update for Aperture. Normally a “point” update wouldn’t get a mention, but this one introduces a single feature that could be enough to wrest photographers away from its rival, Adobe’s Lightroom.

The feature is dodge and burn, and is not even real new feature, just an example plugin from Apple to showcase the new plugin support introduced in this release. This is big because now anybody can write image manipulation tools. Lightroom only supports export plugins. These additions mean that more can be achieved in Aperture without taking a trip to Photoshop. And all of those edits remain non-destructive. If you are shooting RAW (and if not, why not?) then your original files will never be touched.

The dodging and burning actually occurs in a new window, which pops up after Aperture has “prepared” the image. The first time takes a few seconds on a MacBook, but is no slower than opening the image in Photoshop. There are also settings to fade, saturate, sharpen, blur and add contrast. Very impressive stuff. This should have Adobe running to catch up.

Press release [Apple]

Television is coming to AT&T customers in just over a month, courtesy of the LG Vu (essentially an un-badged LG Prada) and MediaFLO. AT&T announced its intention to use the Qualcomm-owned service last year, but has apparently been waiting for both the network to support streaming TV and for a handset to watch it on. “[It’s] a brand new service on a brand new network, and two brand new devices.” said AT&T’s Mark Siegel

We wonder, though, if AT&T should bother. The kind of people comfortable viewing video on a handheld device are likely to be those already ignoring television in droves. There is plenty of online content, from video podcasts to YouTube, and it’s free. Bringing TV to mobiles seems to be a little backward: TV networks should be thinking about putting internet content onto the big screen in your living room.

AT&T plans MediaFlo mobile TV service for May [Reuters]
AT&T Selects Qualcomm’s MediaFLO USA [Qualcomm]
Photo: Phonescoop

Samsung has unleashed a set of classy and user-minded point-and-shoot cameras to augment their L-series line of digital cameras, the L210 (10.1 MP), L110 (8.2 MP), and L100 (8.2 MP). Besides the megapixel count, all three models share the same core specifications—a 2.5-inch LCD and 3x optical zoom. Interestingly, “ease of use” is the philosophy behind the latest Samsung additions. One helpful feature incorporated is the Function Description, which provides brief and easy to understand descriptions of the menu system—reducing the learning curve for new users. Another feature included is the Photo Help Guide, which offers users step-by-step tutorials, shown directly from the camera, on how to take better photos.

While they may be easy to use, Sammy is going all out with its new ‘L’ line of cameras, adding features such as a photo slide show function, auto macro, face detection, red eye correction, and a self portrait mode. The interesting tidbit about the self portrait mode is that the cameras use their face detection technology to remove the “guessing” when taking a self photo. They will not allow a picture to be taken when the subject’s face is out of center. For those with shaky hands, don’t fret. All three are equipped with an optical and digital image stabilizers that work in tandem to ensure clear, perfect shots—which should come extremely handy with the cameras’ SVGA quality video recording capability.

The Samsung L210, L110, and L100 is available now in silver, black, or red; with an MSRP of $269, $229, and $199 respectively.

Via [Samsung]

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