Uncategorized – Page 148

Dueling Space Marines Copter Set

Now this is a fun and interesting find that washed up on the Beach. These are two minature remote control copter packing marines that sport blasters and a thirst for each others destruction. You do battle with your foe by taking to the air and blasting your opponent. First hit, your enemy spins around from the virtual damage. Second hit they start to lose power. But the third hit takes them out for good as they crash (harmlessly) to the ground. Doing mortal combat with your enemy will set you back $49.99 for both copters, and you can find out more information here: ThinkGeek.

Aloha from the Beach,
greg

source: ThinkGeek

HTC Shift, More than a Pocket PC

Greg Chaffins

As the tide rolls out from the Beach I see another item of interest. The HTC Shift is now available in the states, and while HTC is probably best known for their Windows Mobile Devices (Pocket PCs), this is a nice fit between that and a standard laptop. The Shift runs Vista Business, but it also offers HTC's exclusive Snapvue, which offers access to email, SMS messages and more without requiring Vista to boot up. From a screenshot on the HTC site (www.htc.com), Snapvue reminds me very strongly of the HTC Touch Mobile screen, which is very concise and informative.

The price is not too cheap at $1499, but it does include a fingerprint reader, camera, 40g hard drive, mousepad with buttons and bluetooth and USB 2.0 connections. The data is handled by CDMAEVDO, and Sprint is supporting the device. The bigger screen could be a good option to the mobile crowd who find a typical convergence device with a small screen hard to read. With its 8x5x1 footprint carrying the Shift should be not be a problem, and it weighs less than 2 lbs. All things considered, this would be a very handy traveling companion.

Aloha from the Beach,
greg

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Bluetooth Frogpad – Portable One Handed Keyboard

Greg Chaffins

Something else has washed up on the Beach. Let's see, what is green (or blue), uses bluetooth, and you use it with one hand where normally you would need two? Why, the FrogPad iFrog, of course. These portable keyboards break the convention from the standard keyboard, making it easier to input data on the go. The wireless bluetooth connectivity offers a lot of freedom with your various devices, as long as they support the bluetooth Human Interface Device, which most mobile devices with bluetooth do. For more information you can check out frogpad at www.frogpad.com.

Apparently the Frogpad is gaining a lot of users of carputers (custom computers in cars) They are also gaining ground as a component in wearable computers setups, and I can see why. Of course, you may have to spend a little time learning the keyboard difference from your standard qwerty, but if you use the hunt and peck method it should be no problem to use.

Aloha from the Beach,
greg

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Another Electric Super Car – Lightning GT

Greg Chaffins

While the Tesla was probably the first electric supercar, hot on its heels we have Britain's Lightning GT with its own impressive numbers. It sports 700 hp, does 0-60 mph in about 4 seconds, goes 250 miles on a charge, and can fully recharge in about 10 minutes (given the right recharging station). The battery lifetime expectancy is 12 -15 years, with 15,000 charges. The new battery technology, Nanosafe's Li-ion cells using nano titanate structures instead of traditional graphite, may prove to be just as super as the car itself is.

With this kind of technology, you could pull in at a charge pump and "fill up" about as quick as a typical gas pump does now. So, I guess that makes an electric supercar more practical than ever.

Aloha from the Beach,
greg

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