NerdBeach

Spy Kite is a fun digital camera equipped kite

The Spy Kite is a kite that is unique for one interesting fact – it has an onboard remote controlled digital camera.  The theory is that you fly the kite, and when you press a button on the kite's handle it takes a picture.  Once you get the kite back down to earth (assuming you are a better kite flyer than I am on some days and actually get it off the ground ), you pull the camera off and hook it to a USB port on a standard computer for photo downloading.

The Spy Kite is designed like a delta wing kite (okay, I can fly this kind most of the time), and features fiberglass and ripstop material.  The kite has a limit of 80 feet in the air, no doubt in order to accommodate the range of the wireless remote built in to the handle.

For $57 you get the Spy Kite, remote, and the camera, so if it works it would be a pretty good deal.  And if you can't get it off the ground,  I would assume you could mount the camera somewhere and still take pictures remotely. Or at the very least grab some good pictures of a kite being dragged across the ground, all from the kite's perspective. 

Given the price, you should not expect the best picture quality nor a large picture capacity.  However, you probably would not want to strap a digital Nikon to a small kite in the first place, so it all makes sense, and could potentially be a lot of fun for the cost.

You can find the Spy Kite at Gadgetshop.

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Automotive 4 port USB Charger makes mobile device charging simple

USB charging devices seem to multiply every day, and so having a USB port handy  to charge from can make your device usage much easier.  The 4 port USB Hub and Charger plugs into an available 12v auto accessory port (cigarette lighter, if you will) and gives you 4 ports in a hub to connect through and charge from.  Plus, the 12v port is still available for other devices thanks to a pass-through design.

The charger supports high power output up to 2000 ma, so powering those bigger USB devices should not be a problem.  The device has its own internal changeable fuse in case there is a problem, avoiding issues with the car's electrical system.

The 4 port USB Hub and Charger costs $30, and you can find it at USB Fever.

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Solar Window Panes with USB Charging Ports

Have a room that has sunlight streaming in, casting shadows across the floor?  Well, Tokyo-based Nihon Telecommunication System Inc. thinks you should put that energy to work instead of just letting it lay there.

The company has developed window panes that not only generate power with an efficiency of 7 to 8%, it also cuts down on 90% of sunlight, making it easier to cool the room.  On a good day, the built in photo voltaic (PV) cells in the window panes can generate up to 70 watts of electricity per square meter of glass.  The company figures that this should be enough to charge a small PC or mobile device, and USB ports for charging are provided.

As with any kind of renewable power source there is a price, and Nihon has set an average  price of $1,900 per square meter.  But the demand is in place, and they expect expect to sell 10,000 window panes annually.  I can definitely imagine the window panes being used in select areas of a building as a "green" PR effort, but at that price I am not sure it would be practical elsewhere. 

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Jointech Reveals $99 Laptop

Could it be true, that an actual laptop is about to be released that will cost only $99 (and not only theorized)?  Well, Jointech is claiming so, and the JL7100 Mini Laptop is priced $99 at the Jointech website.

OF course, for that price there are some corners to be cut. The JL7100 runs on WinCE 5.0 instead of a bigger OS, and memory is only in the 64 MB range (those of you familiar with Pocket PCs probably understand this laptop by now).  The display measures 7 inches across, and sports a 800×400 resolution.  The laptop also features a VGA port and three USB ports.

The Jointech JL7100 website rates the notebook as having a four hour runtime per charge, and it weighs in at only 680g, including battery.  The installed software includes:

  • MS Word Viewer
  • MS Excel Viewer
  • MS Powerpoint Viewer
  • MSN Messenger
  • Media Player
  • Image Viewer
  • Wordpad
  • PDF Viewer
  • Calculator
  • Paint
  • Internet Explorer

Since it is WinCE 5.0 the software list is considerably shorter than a standard laptop, but the addition of Softmaker Office or similar could make the JL7100 a truly capable portable machine. Not to mention that users would find a WINCE based device to boot extremely fast as compared to a standard desktop OS, which would no doubt fit a busy lifestyle.

As a stand alone computer users will no doubt find serious shortcomings as compared to a regular laptop.  But as a netbook (notebook designed for mostly Internet usage and email) this low priced laptop has some serious potential.  Asus may need to start looking in the rear view mirror, and quickly.

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