Best New Technology

by Ryan Block, posted May 30th 2008 at 7:24PM

It struck us the other day as we were going over some back posts that since the launch of the ASUS Eee PC (and the numerous products that have followed, from the MSI Wind to the HP Mini-Note), to the best of our knowledge we’ve all yet to have any normalized, agreed-upon name for these kinds of devices. Yes, they’re technically “ultraportables” (which we usually define as being any relatively small laptop and under four pounds), but to say an Eee PC is in the same class as, say, the Lenovo X300, the VAIO TZ, or the macbook air would be kind of misleading.

We’ve heard “low-cost ultraportable” and “laptop-lite” used to describe these kinds of machines, but it seems best to let you decide: leave your best suggestion for what we all should all call this emerging product category, and we’ll put it up to vote next week. We’ll officially be throwing “netbook” into the ring. (Intel may have initially coined the term, but that we don’t think it should necessarily have to refer only to Intel-based products.)

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Filed under: Laptops

Wired Senior Editor Nick Thompson sent us a line about his demo on the Today show this morning:

Whoops! I dropped a RAZR2 on the floor of the Today show this morning, trying to demonstrate durability, and the battery popped out. Highly embarrassing.

That phone still works after I popped the battery back in, and I’d still enter it in a bash-off with pride. It had survived countless thwackings and poundings—and even a few practice drops on the Today floor. It just chose Matt Lauer’s arrival as the time to act up.

I guess I’m just glad I didn’t try to demonstrate the durability of the phone next to it on the set: my wife’s iphone.

Blockbuster is about to launch a pilot test of its in-store kiosks for downloading movies into portable media devices. Sounds cool? Even cooler is the fact that downloading one movie would only take a customer two minutes. And we’re not talking here of short half an hour movies but movies for rent in all their full-length glory.

No less than Blockbuster’s Chairman and CEO James Keyes will be the one to demo the pilot kiosk during Blockbuster’s shareholder meeting. But don’t get too excited about this uber cool service yet folks, because the in-store kiosks only contain a few titles of movies, as Blockbuster is still negotiating with major studios regarding the possibility of including their movie titles into Blockbuster’s in-store kiosks database.

The in-store kiosks was Blockbuster’s way of responding to consumers’ demand for a broader service when it comes to providing their entertainment needs anytime, and anywhere they want. Although the pilot in-store kiosks are currently capable of downloading movies for two minutes, Blockbuster doesn’t want to rest on its laurels and is even aiming for a reduced downloading time to possibly within 30 seconds. Blockbuster is earmarking the same experience that consumers get when transacting with ATM machines. Future plans for this in-store kiosks would be the inclusion of game downloading service.

As for the pricing details, Blockbuster is looking at a possible $10 monthly subscription fee.

Read [Hollywood Reporter]

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A UK theme park has decided to ban PDAs from May 25th until June 1st. Their explanation for it is that they want to encourage families to fully connect with each other.
Anyone caught with a PDA in the park will be asked to leave it in a specially designated “PDA Drop Off Zone”. 

Russell Barnes, Divisional Director for the Alton Towers Resort explains; “What we have here is the ultimate short break location where every member of the family can unwind and
have fun. We feel it’s so iportant for parents and kids to focus on nothing more than having the best possible time, we are prepared to take drastic action to ensure that parents really
leave their work behind!”

The goal is admirable, but can you imagine something like this being introduced at DisneyWorld or Six Flags? It wouldn’t probably go over like a lead balloon. I can hear the screams
of discrimination and rights violations already. There’s also safety to consider. These days most people who use PDA’s have Smartphones, those ultra popular phone/PDA hybrids.
If you ban them, you take away people’s phones as well-and as any mom can tell you, a cell phone can be a lifesaver when you’re trying to keep track of your kids in a bustling theme
park. Alton Towers seems pretty dedicated to the idea thought. They say if the experiment goes over well the ban will become permanent.

Read[Crunchgear]

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Two things immediately sprang to mind when I saw this new invention: “Why didn’t I think of that?” and “Where was this when I was in high school?”

From what I know, these Wordlocks are the first combination locks that allow you to set your combination using words rather than numbers. If you’re like me, and can’t remember a number sequence, these are for you. With a variety of products from padlocks (great for lockers, toolboxes, etc.), bike locks and TSA recognized luggage locks, you’ll never need to remember a number combination again.

by Donald Melanson, posted May 30th 2008 at 2:19PM

We haven’t heard much about iRiver’s shiny new Spinn PMP since it was unveiled at CES earlier this year, but Crave has now turned up a couple of fresh new details on the device, including word of the all important release date. That’ll apparently come sometime in August (in the UK, at least), although there’s unfortunately still no word on prices. Otherwise, Crave has confirmed that the player will still be arriving in 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB varieties, and that it’ll be shipping with built-in DAB radio in the UK, as well as built-in Bluetooth and a dedicated (but unspecified) 3D acceleration chip to spice up the interface a bit. In case you missed ‘em the first time around, you can find our shots of the device (under glass) here.

[Thanks, Alsyl]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

by Darren Murph, posted May 30th 2008 at 12:53PM

Not much else to say beyond the title of this one — MWeston has recently confirmed over at the GP32X boards that Bluetooth will indeed be included on the forthcoming Pandora mega-emulator. He noted that BT was added because of an exceptional deal they landed and to “make competing devices look that much less interesting.” Right, so what exactly is this bundle of awesomeness competing against exactly?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

The first installment of the episodic Penny Arcade game, “On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness,” has broken the three-day sales record for an initial offering on Xbox Live Arcade by earning $330,000 over that time. The previous record holder was Worms HD.

The sales figures for the game proves that arcade download offerings do not need to have small price points to be successful, as the game clocks in at $20, much more than the typical $5 to $10 price for other games on the service.

The success of the game certainly draws heavily from the strong fanbase the comic has among gamers, bringing the colorful art style and notorious Penny Arcade humor into a solid RPG experience.

Read more at Kotaku

You never know which zoned out person today could just snatch your kid away at a busy mall, so it is always better to prevent something from happening than to look for a cure. The Link Child Locator concept device ought to be manufactured soonest possible, as it is capable of letting you track down your kid within a 100 foot radius - perfect for moms who already have a hard enough time trying to get the week’s groceries while managing her bunch of little ones at a local store. The child will wear one of the bracelets, while the parent will wear the other in order to view the direction and distance of the child at a glance. Definitely not something to wear when you’re playing hide and seek. Other than pixie magic, I guess this will rely on some sort of GPS signal if it were to be developed.

Focal from Japan announced its new iBoom HiFi iPod Dock that functions with a wide range of iPods, ranging from the obsolete mini to the touch. Japan is a pretty huge consumer of the iPod after all, so it makes sense for this to be released there in the first place. Other than playing back your favorite tunes, this iBoom iPod dock also doubles up as a charger when your ipod is docked within. Features include a couple of speakers, a single 3″ woofer and one tweeter. The Apple remote works just fine with this 2kg unit, and it won’t take up too much space in your tiny Tokyo apartment, measuring 300mm × 190mm × 240mm. Expect to fork out a pretty pricey $300 for this.