Creative Xmod

Creative has introduced the Xmod Wireless PC Music Distribution System. It connects to the PC using USB and can play music through wireless speakers set up in different rooms. The system plays in Xtreme Fidelity whose sound quality is expected to be better than CD quality. It also includes a receiver which can connect to home theater or speaker system upto 100 feet away from the transmitter. A remote controller is also provided. The system with one X-Fi Wireless receiver costs $199.99 with additional wireless receivers for $99.99.





[via everythingusb]

Med minder

The med-minder is a device which can help absent minded patients to take their pills in time. It has four compartments for storing four different drugs. It sends audible alerts when it is time to take them. It automatically records the time of opening of the lids in its inbuilt memory and updates the data to a server and allows access to personal charts to determine if medicines are skipped or not taken in time. The med-minder is always connected to an AC outlet and a telephone and it dials a number to give the statistics daily once.



[via engadget]

USB Mini Fridge

Some of you like to have softdrinks while working with computer, isn't it? Does your cold drinks become warm because of the long intervals between sips? The USB powered mini fridge is for you people.. It only takes 5 minutes to the internal temperature to dip to 8.5 degrees. The device costs $33.

[via usb.brando]

Motorola RAZR 2

Motorola has announced the introduction of the new RAZR the RAZR2. Motorola has packed a host of new features into the new RAZR2, yet its thickness has been reduced by 2mm compared to the original RAZR. Its features include a 2" QVGA(320x240) external display with touch control music switches and a 2.2" QVGA internal display. Camera is 2MP with 8x zoom. The memory is expandable upto 2GB. Has a full HTML browser and supports stereo bluetooth headset. It is also possible to synchronize your music with Windows Media Player 11.

photo: our-picks

[via motorolalaunch]

HP e-book reader

HP showcased a new e-book reader in the 2007 HP Mobility Summit in Shanghai. It is an A4 page sized e-book reader with a novel interface, where you can flip through the pages with the touch of a button. The e-book reader works on top of Linux with some software developed by HP. It can also be used as a photobook by association with "Snapfish" - a photo website of HP. HP has not started production of the e-book reader, they say that it is only a prototype and more researches are going on. In the meanwhile you can get Sony's ebook for about $350.

[via pocket-lint]

iPod privacy screen

Do you want privacy when watching videos in your iPod? The privacy screen is for you. Once your iPod is fitted with this, only the person looking from the front of the screen can see videos.. anyone who looks from the sides see only a dark screen. It is the instinct of most people to peep into to see what another person is doing or reading, especially during journeys etc. It brings little surprise if a person sitting near in a bus asks for one of your ear pieces when you are laughing looking at your iPod screen. If your iPod is fitted with the privacy screen the person in your side cannot understand why you are laughing at a blank screen, and you can be in a world of entertainment of your own. This little gadget costs only $10.

[via coolest gadgets]

Magma ExpressBox

Serious PC gamers usually stick to using a desktop PC to play games rather than using a laptop, because a laptop cannot provide the graphic effects that a dedicated graphics card can produce. And these cards are too bulky to connect to a laptop. Now what if you need high end graphics performance in your laptop... Magma has introduced a device for attaching the desktop-only PCI express card to a laptop. Using this users can convert their laptop to powerful mobile workstations. ExpressBox uses the PCIExpress technology and has a no latency connectivity with a theoretical maximum of 250MBps in each direction. That is 2.5 times faster than the firewire800 and 4.1 times faster than USB2.0. The Magma ExpressBox comes in two sizes so as to fit cards upto 6.6" and 12.28" long. The ExpressBox can provide dedicated power and cooling to the PCI card inside. Magma ExpressBox support single-width videocards that require 55 watts or less. Double-wide ones that require auxiliary power will be compatible with the next gen ExpressBox which will be available soon.



[via Magma]

eCigarette

Many of the smokers are aware of the harmful effects of smoking. They want to escape from the effects of tar and smoke, but they just can't give up smoking. Now there is a reason for them to relax, thanks to eCigarette. The eCigarette looks like a cigarette and it gives the smoker enough nicotine he yearns for and some smoke. Then what the "e" stands for? The eCigarette is actually an electronic nicotine inhaler and for the real "smoking effect", it mixes some thick steam with it, avoiding the tarry cigarette smoke. For the visual effect, it has also got a glowing LED at its end. Smokers who want can get it at a price of $208.

[via uberreview]

The CHIMP

Here is another little gadget which can save you from the agony of hiding all the undesirable windows on your PC while your superior pats your shoulder.. This gagdet, called C.H.I.M.P is a little rear view mirror for your monitor. You can fit this conveniently on your monitor or table with its velcro. This can be a warning system as to when to alt-tab. You can know who all comes from your back looking into this convex mirror. It comes in black and white and you can buy it here. The name of the device stands for Chimp Has Invincible Monkey Powers... it will show you what is behind you like a loyal monkey.

StealthSwitch

Do you like playing games like solitaire in your office computer? Or do you do anything you are not supposed to do in your computer? You can probably judge if anyone is entering your cabin by monitoring their footsteps or sound etc. But closing all the windows and applications and cleaning the desktop is a big problem. The StealthSwitch is intended for you people.. This footswitch connects to your computer through a USB port. It has got a software which can hide your current window, all open windows or all the windows except the specified windows and also hide your taskbar with a single tap of the switch with your foot. The applications are not simply minimized, but they are made invisible and cannot be even found on the taskbar. Since the switch is placed under your desk, it can be kept away from the eyes of the intruders. After they go, everything can be restored by a single click of the switch again. StealthSwitch can also mute the sound, hide all the desktop icons and even password protect the restore function.

Source: StealthSwitch

Robo-exterminator

Do you find it hard it to keep away insects like termites from your house? Don't worry.. the robot will come to your help. The robo-exterminator is a tank-like robot which can find out their targets all by itself with the help of video and thermal imaging cameras. They can find out the nests and then shoot pesticides for the attack. The current version of the exterminator will be released this year. A shortcoming of this version is that it has got a long cable, but we can hope that it will vanish and the robo-exterminator will become wireless in the future.

(thru crave)

Portable printers from Sony

Sony is introducing two portable printers - the DPP-FP90 and the DPP-FP70. The printers are mainly aimed at taking prints from a digital camera without the intervention of a computer, as they have multi slots for card readers which are compatible with 24 types of cards. The printers can produce high resolution printouts in about 45 seconds. According to Sony circles, the printer will be introduced in Korea at first.

The printers use Sony's image processing engine called Bionz. The printers are provided with color LCD screens so that the photos can be viewed before taking printouts. The printers also provides us with facilities for editing the pictures before printing. Another notable feature is that we can write comments on the photos using the "superimpose" technique in the printer. There is an option to make a special coating in the photos which helps them to last for 100 years! The printer has got a nice carry handle also so that it can be carried like a small box.

Creative ZEN Stone

The mp3 player market competition is becoming tighter and tighter. The entry level mp3 player of the market leader iPod, the iPod Shuffle costs about $80. Creative is smashing into the flash mp3 player market with their new ZEN Stone. The 1 GB player can hold upto 250 songs and costs only $40, half of that of the Shuffle. The ZEN stone will operate upto 10 hours on a single charge while the Shuffle can operate upto 12 hours.

The Creative ZEN Stone comes in six eyecatching colors - black, white, blue, green, red and pink. Along with the ZEN Stone, the Creative TravelSound ZEN Stone also comes to the market. Priced at $39.99, the TravelSound can convert the Stone to a portable speaker system. The TravelSound ZEN Stone can play upto 20 hours using two AAA batteries. It comes in the colors black and white.

Wireless Power

Are you fed up with all those powercords which clutter your desk? Do you think about escaping to a world of wireless power transmission? Here is the happy news.. Scientists have taken a step towards it... A sheet of plastic invented by researchers in Japan can transfer power to devices on it or near it.A team of researchers at the University of Tokyo made the sheet of plastic, which is about 1mm thick and weighing 50 grams. It is capable of delivering 40 watts of power to devices which contain a special receiving coil. The base layer of the plastic consists of a layer of transistor featuring pentacene, an organic molecule whose electrical conductivity can be controlled. The top layers has a sensor to determine if any compatible device is nearby and some microelectromechanicalsystem switches can turn power on or off. The power is transmitted by means of a copper coil. When the sheet is plugged in, it can power devices such as LEDs provided with matching receiver coils. The researchers say that the transmission has an efficiency of 81.4% while the usual wired grid has the efficiency of 93%. The layers in the plastic are made by printing. The coils using screen printing and the switch and transistors using inkjet priters. So the plastic remains essentially thin and flexible. The image shows a table powering a light which is placed underwater.

Source: nature.com

Plus Deck Casette Converter

We all love music. We hear music from our computers, flash mp3 players, ipods etc. Nowadays no one really care about that good old casette players.. and probably you'll have in your home a collection of those audio casettes. Most of you don't care about them because of the difficulty to put it in a casette player, turn the side once one side is over etc or because u cannot edit it or it is not portable as an mp3 file. So even if those casettes contain some rare songs, they end up in the shelves.








Here comes a cool gadget to rennovate all those audio casettes. The Plus Deck Casette Converter can be used to play your audio casettes in a computer. The songs can be edited and can be converted into other formats and stored in the computer. Or the casette converter can be used simply as a casetter player. It is an easy method for you to archive all those old music collections and hear them at times. The casette converter can be conveniently inserted into a 5.25" internal drive bay in your computer. A CD with some audio tools also comes with the Casette converter.

Source: firebox.com

iPod in toilet

Are you a music lover? Are you an iPod fan? Do you take it wherever you go?
Then you might be really missing the cool gadget when you are at the toilet, right??
Sometimes you might have tried taking it to the toilet and have messed it up with water and all...
So here comes the gadget for you... the iCarta iPod Toilet Paper Holder.





By using this device you can avoid messing up with the earphones and all. The paper holder has got four integrated high performance moisture free speakers which provides exceptional sound quality. It also provides a charger to charge your iPod while playing. Its audio selector allows you to play iPod shuffle or other audio device. The integrated tissue holder can be folded as a stereo dock. To use all these features, you will have to provide a plugpoint in the toilet to insert the device.
Source:iCarta iPod Toilet Paper Holder.

GNU Radio

GNU Radio is a free software toolkit for learning about, building, and deploying Software defined radios, and is an official GNU project. Software radio is the technique of getting code as close to the antenna as possible. It turns radio hardware problems into software problems. The fundamental characteristic of software radio is that software defines the transmitted waveforms, and software demodulates the received waveforms. This is in contrast to most radios in which the processing is done with either analog circuitry or analog circuitry combined with digital chips.
They can be reconfigured "on-the-fly". It could be a cordless phone one minute, a cell phone the next, a wireless internet gadget the next and a GPS receiver another. They can be quickly and easily upgraded with enhanced features. In fact, the upgrade could be delivered over-the-air. They can talk and listen to multiple channels at the same.

Block Diagram

The ADC
This unit converts the output of the RF front end into digital waveform consisting of 0’s and 1’s. The analog-to-digital converter is the bridge between the physical world of continuous analog signals and the world of discrete digital samples manipulated by software.

RF Front End
Nyquist theorem tells us that, to avoid aliasing when converting from analog to digital, the ADC sampling frequency must be at least twice the maximum frequency of the signal of interest, in order to sustain all the spectrum information accurately and to avoid aliasing. Assuming we're dealing with low pass signals - signals where the bandwidth of interest goes from 0 to f_MAX, the Nyquist criterion states that our sampling frequency needs to be at least 2 × f<_MAX.

To deal with a large range of frequencies up to hundreds of megahertz, we can use the RF front end. The receive RF front end translates a range of frequencies appearing at its input (RF band) to a lower range at its output (IF band). If we choose a cable modem tuner module as our RF front end, it can translate a 6 MHz chunk of the spectrum centered between about 50 MHz and 800 MHz down to an output range centered at 5.75 MHz. So an ADC with a speed of about 20 MHz can be used conveniently.

Software
The digital signals which finally get into the computer are acted upon by the software. GNU Radio provides a library of signal processing blocks and the glue to tie it all together. In GNU Radio, the programmer builds a radio by creating a graph (as in graph theory) where the vertices are signal processing blocks and the edges represent the data flow between them. The signal processing blocks are implemented in C++. Conceptually, blocks process infinite streams of data flowing from their input ports to their output ports. Blocks' attributes include the number of input and output ports they have as well as the type of data that flows through each.

Some blocks have only output ports or input ports. These serve as data sources and sinks in the graph. There are sources that read from a file or ADC, and sinks that write to a file, digital-to-analog converter (DAC) or graphical display. About 100 blocks come with GNU Radio. As per our requirements we can build and implement new blocks in C. Graphs are constructed and run in Python.

Hardware
GNU Radio is reasonably hardware-independent. Today's commodity multi-gigahertz, super-scalar CPUs with single-cycle floating-point units mean that serious digital signal processing is possible on the desktop. A 3 GHz Pentium or Athlon can evaluate 3 billion floating-point FIR taps/s. We now can build, virtually all in software, communication systems unthinkable only a few years ago. A 1 or 2 GHz machine with at least 256 MB of RAM should suffice for the most complex operations which come in implementing the software radio.
We also need some way to connect the analog world to your computer. Low-cost options include built-in sound cards and audiophile quality 96 kHz, 24-bit, add-in cards. With either of these options, you are limited to processing relatively narrow band signals and need to use some kind of narrow-band RF front end. Another possible solution is an off-the-shelf, high-speed PCI analog-to-digital board. These are available in the 20M sample/sec range, but they are expensive, about the cost of a complete PC. For these high-speed boards, cable modem tuners make reasonable RF front ends.

Alternatively, Universal Software Radio Peripheral(USRP) developed by the software radio people can also be used. The USRP consists of a small motherboard containing up to four 12-bit 64M sample/sec ADCs, four 14-bit, 128M sample/sec DACs, a million gate-field programmable gate array (FPGA) and a programmable USB 2.0 controller. Each fully populated USRP motherboard supports four daughterboards, two for receive and two for transmit. RF front ends are implemented on the daughterboards.

Applications
A TiVO equivalent of radio capable of recording multiple stations at a time
Radio Astronomy
Software GPS
Distributed measurement of spectrum utilization
Amateur radio tranceiver
RFID detector/reader
GNU Radio comes with a complete HDTV transmitter and receiver, a spectrum analyzer, an oscilloscope, concurrent multichannel receiver and an ever-growing collection of modulators and demodulators.

Source: Exploring GNU Radio by Eric Blossom

The ultimate jeep

This is a dream jeep - the Daimler Chrysler concept Jeep Hurricane - the ultimate maneuverable machine.

There are two 5.7-liter HEMI engines in the vehicle, one each in the front and back. Both engines deliver 335 horsepower and 370 lb-ft of torque totaling 670 hp and 740 lb-ft of torque, really enough to get through any obstacles in the way. The vehicle is powerful to reach 0-60 in less than 5 seconds.

















The most striking feature of the jeep is its steering capabilities. The vehicle features a turn radius of absolutely zero, with skid steer capability and toe steer - the ability to turn both front and rear tires inward. In addition, the vehicle features two modes of automated four-wheel steering. The first is traditional with the rear tires turning in the opposite direction of the front to reduce the turning circle. The second mode is an innovation targeted to off-road drivers: the vehicle can turn all four wheels in the same direction for nimble crab steering. This allows the vehicle to move sideways without changing the direction the vehicle is pointing.

source: http://www.daimlerchrysler.com/dccom/0-5-470118-1-484820-1-0-0-0-0-0-36-479389-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html

Neo1973 with OpenMoko

Could not understand anything from the title, could you? Well, OpenMoko is an operating system platform based on linux for mobile phones and Neo1973 is a mobile phone based on the same. OpenMoko(Open Mobile Kommunikation) was announced by First International Computer(FIC) in 2006, and the first piece of hardware on which it will run is the FIC Neo1973.



The Neo1973 will have a 128 MB of RAM, 64 MB flash and an upgradable 64MB SD card. It features a 2.8" VGA touchscreen display. It also includes a GPS module attached to it, with its apis open to the world around. OpenMoko is designed to be customizable and so the Neo1973 will be containing only the basic feature set including a dialer, an email/text messaging client, phone book, media player and a software like apt-get in linux for installing new softwares/updates. More details about the phone and images at linuxdevices.com

apple tv

Everyone of us are familier with the cute gadget iPod from Apple. Its sleek design and smooth ui has conquered us. iTunes helps to manage online multimedia content which can be easily downloaded to iPods and home PCs. The system works very well for audio, but viewing video in the small screen of an iPod or a computer is not as pleasing an experience as viewing a movie in a high definition TV, sitting relaxed in a sofa. For those who want such an experience for videos from iTunes, here comes the Apple TV.



The contents from iTunes in an OS X or Windows computer can be viewed in a high definition television or enhanced definition television set using Apple TV as a mediator. It has the HDMI or component video connections to connect to the television. Connections to other computers can be made through Ethernet or wirelessly through IEEE 802.11b, g, n wireless protocols. Apple TV can sync automatically with the iTunes library and playlists and download the contents into its 40GB harddisk. After syncing, the Apple TV is not required to be connected to the computer to view the contents in a TV. It is also possible to show streaming video without saving it in the harddisk. The TV interface contains a nice menu which can be navigated using a remote provided by Apple for the full TV experience.

Apple TV is capable of connecting to iTunes directly and get free contents like podcasts, movie trailers and previews of iTunes music. A drawback is that all content types supported in iTunes are not supported by Apple TV. So care should be taken which all contents are selected to be synced or else it will result in an error message. Apple has worked on this problem to an extent that they have included an option "Export to Apple TV" in the latest Quicktime players to convert some of the unsupported formats to the supported ones.