Best New Technology

Straight from the Dept. of Who Knew? comes news that your iphone includes a moisture detector that tells you if the little slab of delight has been dangerously immersed in water, chicken soup, fruity cocktails, whatever.

So if you’re buying a used iPhone and the little indicator dot at the base of the headphone jack is anything but pristine white, you’ll want to ask the seller if he’s forgotten to mention any unfortunate swims.

How to tell if your iPhone has liquid damage [iPhone Atlas]

Kindle Sleeve

Kindle Travel

Kindle Slip

Kindle, the wireless reading device from Amazon is apparently selling like mad, and is currently out of stock. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones, what are you using to protect your precious little, coveted machine?

Waterfield, the maker of my still favorite laptop bag, the VertiGo, offers three options: the minimalist Slip case for $27 (which comes in a variety of colors), the more substantial Sleeve for $39 (with rear pocket and protective flap) and the Travel case for $49 (with additional pockets for the adapter and accessories). One thing I know for sure is that Waterfield bags hold up for a long time. My laptop bag still looks new and has retained its shape after over two years of being carried through airports and bad weather, having coffee spilled on it numerous times, and being stretched its its limit by over-stuffing.

Subscriptions to both Popgadget and Babygadget are available for your Kindle. When in stock, the Kindle itself sells for $399 at Amazon.

Related posts - more cases from Waterfield Designs:
Nintendo DS LIte Case from Waterfield
VertiGo gear/laptop bag from Waterfield

Posted Feb 20th 2008 8:11AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Misc. gadgets

var Oh boy, tonight’s the night. According to CNN sources, the US Navy plans to shoot down that failed satellite at 2230 ET from a ship west of Hawaii. The idea is to get a shot off as early as possible in case a second or third attempt is required. The $10 million missile fired from the USS Lake Erie will not carry a warhead. Instead, the 22,000mph impact on the school-bus sized satellite combined with the exploding hydrazine fuel tank should blast the satellite into bite-sized chunks expected to burn up in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, the timing of the launch — 5:30pm locally — means that our naked eyes won’t likely be treated to much of a show. That’s what observatories are for.

The Music Light concept is a light show device that measures certain sound frequencies in order to keep the crowd entertained. This concept takes the action up a notch as it is able to visualize sound by moving light pulses up and down, rippling and shifting colors simultaneously. As for the wearer, it probably won’t affect him/her that much since most people won’t bother staring at their cord, but the benefit targets passers-by more than anybody else.

Posted Feb 20th 2008 4:01AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Gaming

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nintendo plans to begin shipping it’s Wii Fit with weight and motion sensing Balance Board in May. Nintendo will also make good on a new online gaming service dubbed WiiWare. Right, that homebrew happy gaming service which should result in vast quantities of cheap and innovative content.

Ricoh has dropped two new digital cameras called the aluminum R8 and R50. The R8 comes with a 10 megapixel camera, 1/2.3-inch CCD covered with a 7.1x optical zoom lens, the back has a 2.7-inch LCD with CCD-shift image stabilization and smooth imaging engine III processing on the inside. Both should drop in Japan in March for about $460 and $280 for the R50 featuring a 10 megapixel sensor, processing engine, and stabilization with a 5X optical zoom.
[Source]

In the UK, Vodafone and Orange have got together to share cellphone mast sites, promising better coverage for customers of both companies. Orange CEO Toma Alexander spins it thus:

This deal will see our two companies work together to ensure our customers benefit from better, deeper and faster mobile coverage in more places, with fewer mast-sites across the country. It will be better for our customers, better for our businesses and better for the environment.

This is something so obviously good for the consumer that we wonder why it wasn’t done before. Wait. It wasn’t done before because coverage is used as a marketing tool. Notice that the companies are sharing mast sites, not the masts themselves.

With the UK populace increasingly fearful of the cellular signals frying their children’s brains, it’s almost impossible to erect new masts today. Teaming up is a way for Orange and Vodafone to increase coverage without the negative publicity currently garnered from improving infrastructure. Nicely spun, though.

Press release [Vodafone via the Reg]

Posted Feb 19th 2008 9:02PM by Nilay Patel
Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Doesn’t look like there’s going to be any glory in death for HD DVD — we’ve just received confirmation that GameStop is no longer accepting HD DVD movies as trade-ins, and several GameStops have apparently already stopped taking the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive as well. We’re also hearing that the 360 hd dvd drive will no longer be accepted at any GameStop as of tomorrow, and that there’s a major price cut in the works — which makes sense, but we’ll see what happens. For now, though, it looks like HD DVD fans jumping ship may have to resort to eBay — or start peddling discs out the back of their cars.

[Thanks, Mark]

US researchers have stumbled upon a method to use lasers to analyze our breath, helping detect diseases such as asthma and cancer. This technique has been christened ‘cavity-enhanced direct optical frequency comb spectroscopy’ - what a mouthful. It seems that the breath molecules which we breathe out can actually show whether we’re ill or not - for example, excess methylamine can be used to detect liver and kidney disease, while ammonia on the breath could be a possible signal for renal failure and elevated acetone levels in the breath point toward diabetes. Well, I’m all for such tests since I’d hate being probed and poked all over the body just to diagnose a particular disease.

If you like a liquid-cooled, oversized, overclocked, loud-as-a-harrier-jet, game-scorching PC tower, then Asus’ new Nova P22 is not for you. At 9 in x 7.2 in x 2 in, it’s a little longer and wider than a mac mini, in an aesthetically pleasing not-square chassis. Inside: a 1.8-GHz Core 2 Duo chip, an adequate Intel GMA 3000 graphics processor, 1 GB of ram, and a 160-GB hard drive. Almost enough oomph to run Vista — but not Doom. That’s OK, though, because the Nova was designed for your living room, not your game lair. Essentially it acts as a media streamer. We grabbed a DVI to HDMI cable, jacked it into our TV, and were using the Nova to pull movies off our home network within minutes of hitting the swank, touch-sensitive power button. Gaming be damned — we’re watching leaked HD footage of Iron Man instead. —Nate Ralph

WIRED: Decent price for the form factor. Media savvy as advertised. Analog and digital audio outs. Small and quiet. Sleek black finish is purty. 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.0 hardwired beneath its tiny carapace. Looks a lot like a Wii, if that does anything for you.

TIRED: Accidental shutdowns courtesy of the touchy power button. Strictly DVI video outputs, and this is an HDMI world. Built-in pencil holder (!) is useless if you stand the machine upright. Onboard “hi-fi” speakers could barely fill a small closet with sound. Cord management is tricky since all the inputs are on the back. Slightly underwhelming stats aren’t much good for tasks beyond media playing and sharing.

Price/Maker: $899, asus.com