Motorazr Maxx V6 Ferrari Challenge Mobile Phone - Fast Talking

A Ferrari model launched in 2007 with just six cylinders? Heaven forbid. The V6 Ferrari Challenger is a phone, after all! Partnering with Motorola to bring out a flashy limited edition of the MotoRAZR MAXX, the V6 has the iconic prancing horse shield on the front and Ferrari emblazoned across the back, and even turns on with the sound of a Ferrari Formula 1 engine revving! For the rare tifosi actually concerned with the specs on this baby, it's loaded with a two megapixel camera, VGA webcam for video telephony, and HS-DPA/EDGE/GPRS support.

DETAILS

Specially created by Motorola exclusively for Ferrari, the phone boasts 105 grams of fast, easy-to-use, cutting-edge technology. Thanks to dual mode UMTS and multiband GSM, the Ferrari Challenge Mobile Phone has virtually worldwide coverage. HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Racket Access) technology also gives it Ferrari-fast surfing, data transfer and download speeds too. Blisteringly fast connections and limitless mobility too: download music and video clips, send emails or follow the Grands Prix on TV where and when you want. The MOTORAZR MAXX V6 Ferrari Challenge also has a 2.0 mexapixel camera with an 8x digital zoom and flash for brilliant high-resolution photos and top quality video footage. A fabulous mobile phone and an elegant declaration of your passion for the Prancing Horse all in one. You can also choose from a vast range of ring tones and screensavers, all dedicated to the Ferrari F430 and to the Ferrari Challenge USA Pirelli Trophy. Even the phone's shell-style cover features the Scuderia Ferrari logo on its front and the Ferrari name on the back. The switching on and off sound reproduces the unmistakable roar of the Ferrari F1 engine.

This Special Edition also includes a very handy red leather phone holder featuring the Prancing Horse logo.

Source: http://www.ferraristore.com

Price: $633 (approx)

Olympus SP-550 UZ - Digital Delight!

Invested in a compact digital camera recently? Here's the perfect ingredient for a case of complete gear envy - the Olympus SP-550 UZ torches a camera sized hole in the competition's meagre 8-12x zooms by releasing the world's first wide 18x optical zoom on a compact digital camera. That's a full 28-504mm (35mm equivalent) focal length with Dual-Image stabilisation (high sensitivity ISO 5000 combined with CCD-based mechanical image stabiliser) to protect against blurring. Also on the list is a 7.1 megapixel CCD, a 2.5 inch 230,000 pixel LCD, and 15fps high-burst rate (at1.2 megapixel resolution) - though it's still left to be seen how good the optics are in the real world.

18X WIDE-ANGLE ZOOM

The 18x super-telephoto zoom brings you closer to the action than any other compact digital camera on the market, and at the same time, the wide-angle lens allows more in your frame. The SP-550's 100x total zoom capability is perfect for indoor shooting, landscapes and group shots.

15FPS & PRE-CAPTURE

With a burst rate of up to 15fps, you can freeze moments in time to get the shot you want. And the new Pre-Capture technology works as soon as the focus is locked, it automatically archives five frames in the camera's buffer memory prior to the shutter release. You'll capture the perfect shot even if your reaction time is slow.

FULL MANUAL EXPOSURE CONTROL

The SP-550 is as versatile as you want it to be. It allows advanced creative control, yet it's easy enough for any family member to point-and-shoot beautiful images.

Source: http://www.olympusamerica.com

Price: $500 (estimated)

Roboquad - The latest from the WoWee robot stable

WowWee’s new robot, which appeared this year, is called Roboquad and amused people crawling around on its four legs. The robot comes with infra-red sensors and apparently it can be used as guard since it is able to scan for sounds and movements, up to 10 feet away. The manufacturer is claiming that the robot should also be able to identify objects of different sizes, move around furniture and detect the edge of doorways.

The Robotsrule site has a summary of the robot’s features:

• It can identify motion at a distance of about 10 feet. Once identified it can pursue the moving object
• It is a four legged robot with a chassis that is designed to move easily in any direction
• The Roboquad’s main theme is fast movement in nearly any ground based direction and it is capable of 3 speeds of movement
• The Roboquad is react quickly to it’s environment
• It has a strange little head that can sweeps the room with a tightly focused infrared beam
• The Roboquad can even identify the sizes of objects
• It is sensitive enough to detect the fine details in it’s environment like the edges of doorways
• It is expected to hit store shelves in fall of this year (2007) and to retail for a little above $100

Now if you consider the price of those LEGO Mindstorms out there I would not be surprised if the sales for this toy were large, and the best part is that you will not need to assemble tiny parts before starting with the fun!

Via: T3 (video) and Robotsrule

Fancy a Cellular Book?

Telecom Italia and Polymer Vision have finally come to an agreement to develop the Cellular Book together. This unique device might look like some form of cellphone at the first glance, but it is actually a mobile device that comes with a rollable display which enables you to read various personal information, newspapers, and even electronic books. Dubbed the Cellular Book, it comes with a special Polymer Vision rollable display technology which offers readability that rivals that of printed paper under bright light.

This terminal will first be presented to the world at the 3GSM World Congress that will be held in Barcelona, Spain, next week so drop by if you’re in the vicinity. Unfortunately, the technology might be able to expand a display which is larger than the handset itself, but the lack of a backlight greatly diminishes its usability. Hopefully future iterations will see a change for the better. I like the idea of having a personal reader device that has a decent amount of reading space, unlike most of the other e-book readers that are available on the market.

It is also revealed that later versions will incorporate color and a moving image capable display. In the meantime, those who pick up the Cellular Book will be able to receive books and entire newspapers delivered via TIM’s mobile network. These information are stored inside the Cellular Book’s internal memory itself, with capacities that start from 4GB upwards. Additional capabilities include the ability to download and play music, audiobooks, and podcasts. There is no word on pricing or availability at press time.

Source: Ubergizmo

Taser C2 delivers shocking surprise

You can never be too safe these days when walking around, which is why it is prudent to get this Taser C2 for the lady in your life. It looks like a shaver at first glance, but when one’s eyes glaze over the lightning flash symbol, it definitely spells trouble. The Taser C2 is touted to be the next wave in citizen defense, enabling you to stop a threat that is up to 15 feet away to keep you and your family safe. In case you are assaulted, the C2 can also be used as a contact stun device to repel the assailant.

Additional features include an Anti-Felon ID system that deters misuse as it performs a computer background check on the would-be purchaser beforehand, while the integrated LED light at the bottom works great as an impromptu torchlight in emergencies. The lithium power magazine is good for 50 firings, so be prepared to use it wisely instead of recording a home video edition of Jackass which will be uploaded later onto YouTube. The Taser C2 retails for $300, while the model with a laser targeting system will set you back by an additional $50. Laws in certain states in the U.S. prohibit the sale of the Taser C2. Shipping will begin this April.

One of the misgivings I’ve always had is the fact that the assailant could easily knock the Taser C2 out of the victim’s hands and turn the tables on the victim instead. Perhaps future iterations would include a biometric reader of some sort that activates the taser only when the fingerprint matches.

Source: Ubergizmo

Fully Working Miniature Brass Steam Engine

I’ve not seen one of these in ages, a fully working minature steam engine (and I’ve never seen a model engine with so much shiny brass).

The classic Locomobile is works like a real steam engine but is 1/8 the size. You fill the boiler with water, light a dry spirit tablet and when the boiler is hot enough the steam powers the engine (and the all important whistle).

This is one of those toys that as well as being fun and educational is also a pretty good investment IMO (though bear in mind I have a shed full of 2000 AD comics that I thought would be worth something one day (Sylvestor Stallone (Judge Dredd) has a lot to answer for)). You can get the Classic Working Steam Engine Locomobile for $549.95 from Hammacher.

BMW Inflatable Bubble Tent

Could this be the way BMW drivers go camping in the future (actually have BMW drivers even heard of camping), the BMW inflatable bubble tent.

The unique item attaches to the back end of the car, allowing campers to make use of the inside of the car, and is inflated is by a low-voltage fan hooked up to the car’s cigarette lighter. All-in, the Air Camper can accommodate two people.

Credit to Winding Road & Get Outdoors.

The Apple iPod Nano - Redefining Style!

Apple unleashes its latest Ipod the “IPod nano” which is much thinner than the Ipod mini and packs more mp3s in it. Ipod nano is a flash based player that is thinner than a standard pencil thus making it the thinnest mp3 music player around.

A thinner design. Five stylish colors. A brighter display. Up to 24 hours of battery life. Just about the only thing that hasn’t changed is the name. In 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models starting at $149, iPod nano puts up to 2,000 songs in your pocket.

Your music says a lot about you. So should your iPod nano. A super-slim design says you always have room for music — up to 2,000 songs, in fact. Durable anodized aluminum says you won’t let the rough and tumble of everyday life ruin your groove. And one of five colors says whatever you want. Choose your hue and make a statement.

There is peculiar change in the latest Ipod model when compared to others it has its earphone jack located on the bottom of the device rather in the top like the other models.

There is also a new version of iTunes available that allows you to change the randomness of your shuffles.

The Blackberry Pearl - Style Redefined

Ask most who're moving up the corporate ladder what the most bittersweet perk of their job is, and chances are the response isn't going to be travel, the deadlines or even the pressures of staying in the rat race. Corporates have found a necessary evil they just love to hate - their Blackberry! Always on, having a BlackBerry means never having to say "Sorry. I didn't see your e-mail". Does that spell doom for families and vacations in your dictionary? Sure does in mine.

One thing BlackBerrys have never been accused of htough, is being stylish or fun. They are, to put it bluntly, bulky bricks that work. But think again with the BlackBerry Pearl. Repudiating common smartphones aesthetic, the Pearl radiates style, piano-black finish, chrome side bezels and all. At under 100gm, and half an inch thick, the Pearl is like two iPod nanos stacked together, or a closed RAZR - the thinnest of the smartphones yet.


Features: Voice Activated Dialing. Bluetooth® support. Built-in speakerphone. Quad- band support .Voicemail attachment playback .1 Save time and simplify your voice communications. The BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8100™ smartphone makes advanced phone features easy to use. Just say the word!
Email and Text Messaging (SMS and MMS): Your messages on the go Features: Push- technology. Multiple email account management, Group messaging. Attachment viewing. Helpful setup wizard directly on your smartphone. Sure Type® keyboard with QWERTY layout. 64 MB flash memory. Manage your messages when and where you want to. The BlackBerry Pearl gives you the full BlackBerry experience. So you can do the things you have to do-and more of the things you want to do.
Camera: Just snap and send Features: 1.3 megapixel. Built - in flash. 5x digital zoom. Expandable memory via micro SD card. 2 Picture this: with the BlackBerry Pearl, you can take photos and send them to family and friends via email, MMS or BlackBerry Messenger. And share the moment right away.
Media Player: The fun goes with you Features: Audio and video playback in a variety of popular formats. 3 Expandable memory via micro SD card 2 . Large, ultra - bright, high-resolution display. Enjoy vivid color and rich sound when listening to music or watching video clips. Kick back and relax!
Instant Messaging: Take instant messaging (IM) on the road Features: Popular instant messaging communities supported, including Yahoo®! Messenger and Google Talk™. Take instant messaging (IM) on the road, and sign in when you want- not just when you're at your desk. So you can keep the conversation going.
Organizer : Stay on top of your day Features: Integrated address book for phone and email. Calender. Memo pad. Task list. Desktop synchronization. Keep your meetings and personal appointments straight with a single, up-to-date organizer. And stay on top of your life!
Browser: The web-where and when you need it Features: Pearl-like trackball navigation system. Bookmarks. Fast performance. Get what you need from the web quickly and easily. Whether you're finding an answer or making a reservation, now you can do it faster.

Rating: 8/10

URL: http://www.blackberrypearl.com

VAIO VGN-UX17GP - A Class Apart

Ask yourself this: Should computing products suit your lifestyle, or should you alter your lifestyle to suit your computing products? More often than not, the blasted machine forces the latter. Wouldn’t you rather have the Windows you’re used to and its myriad connectivity options, instead of some stunted operating system when you’re traveling? Or be able to carry your complete mailbox or your movies with you, without having to compress or decide what you’ll carry with you every trip.

A computing impracticality, eh? Not any more, with the first truly pocketable device to run a full install of Microsoft Windows XP – the Sony VAIO VGN-UX17GP. No scrimping here – you get a fully working Windows XP Professional installation, with full support for all Windows XP compatible applications (not Table Edition, so handwriting recognition is missing). Expect a few gasps as you whip out this machine in public – the diminutive size misleads most people to mistake it for a handheld gaming console. When you boot it up, the 4.5 inch (diagonal) widescreen display springs to life as you take in (with awe) that Windows can be starting up on something this tiny.

The screen’s fine – 1,024 x 600 pixels resolution does mean most users will be in for a lot of squinting – icons and text are tiny, though Sony has provided a zoom button to zoom into parts of the screen as required. The display isn’t really meant for hours of poring over spreadsheets, though you can, if necessary. It suits the occasional e-mail/web surfing.

Video however, rocks on this display, which redeems it in part. Plus, the display is touch sensitive, letting you use your finger or the stylus to navigate around like you would with a mouse.

Inside, the UX includes a 1.2 GHz Intel Core Solo processor, 512MB of DDR2 memory, a 30GB hard drive and Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics, which are adequate to run almost anything you throw at it, including the odd game. If you’re not doing anything intensive, you get two and a half odd hours of battery life – and as little as one and a half hours if you’re giving it a serious stick.

The VAIO UX is equipped with two MOTION EYE cameras, making it easy to communicate through images instead of just words. Wherever you take your VAIO UX, if there’s a scene you like, you can take snapshots or shoot movie clips and store them on the hard disk drive. It’s literally a huge album of pictures and videos that you can always carry around with you. And if you have an Internet connection you can email those images to friends and family, or upload them to your blog for the whole world to see. Naturally, you’d have a story to tell for each image, and VAIO UX makes it easy to input text with its built-in keyboard. When the need to communicate is immediate, you can count on its Bluetoo

th® technology for real-time mobile communication like VoIP for video chatting. As they say, “wish you were here”, and if go-anywhere communication is what you want, the VAIO UX is where you can find your solution.

Is this the famed laptop killer then? Not yet – while the UX is great for web browsing and viewing movies, or storing/editing pictures on the move – it has its share of quirks – including a mildly prohibitive cost of just under $2200 (Rs. 1 Lakh). Good things have always come in small packages, and this certainly is the shape of things to come.

Rating: 7/10

URL: http://vaio-online.sony.com/prod_info/vgn-ux17gp

Apple iPhone

Apple Computer has just introduced its much hyped iPhone at MacWorld 2007. True to its word, the iPhone combines three products: the iPod, a mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, Web browsing, searching, and maps; into one small and lightweight handheld device.

The iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting users control it with just their fingers. According to Apple, iPhone ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what users can do on their mobile phones.

Launching the iPhone, Steve Jobs, Chief Executive Officer, Apple, said, "iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone. We are all born with the ultimate pointing device - our fingers - and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse."

iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows users to make calls by simply pointing at a name or number. It syncs all of the contacts from any PC, Mac, or Internet service such as Yahoo!, and one can easily construct a favorites list for the most frequently made calls, and easily merge calls together to create conference calls.

It has Visual Voicemail that lets users look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without listening to the prior messages. This service also enables users to immediately randomly access those messages that interest them most.

iPhone includes an SMS application with a full QWERTY soft keyboard to easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. It also has an elegant touch keyboard, which makes typing messages a much easier task. iPhone also includes a calendar application that allows calendars to be automatically synced with users' PCs or Macs.

The phone features a 2-megapixel camera and a photo management application, wherein users can browse their photo library, which can be easily synced from their PC or Mac,

iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone that features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. Besides, it is a wide-screen iPod with touch controls that let music lovers "touch" their music by easily scrolling through entire lists of songs, artists, albums, and playlists with a flick of the finger.



It has a 3.5-inch wide-screen display that offers the ultimate way to watch TV shows and movies on a pocketable device, with touch controls for play-pause, chapter forward-backward, and volume. iPhone plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods, and will soon enjoy watching on their widescreen televisions using the new Apple TV.

iPhone lets users enjoy all their iPod content, including music, audiobooks, audio podcasts, video podcasts, music videos, television shows, and movies. It syncs content from a user's iTunes library on his/her PC or Mac, and can play any music or video content they have purchased from the online iTunes store.

Moreover, Yahoo! Mail is offering a new free "push" IMAP email service to all iPhone users that automatically pushes new email to a user's iPhone, and can be set up by simply entering the Yahoo! name and password. iPhone will also work with most industry standard IMAP and POP based email services, such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail, and most ISP mail services.

iPhone also features the most advanced and fun-to-use Web browser on a portable device with a version of its award-winning Safari Web browser. Users can see any Web page the way it was designed to be seen, and then easily zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on iPhone's multi-touch display with their fingers. The Safari Web browser also includes built-in Google Search and Yahoo! Search so that users can instantly search for information on their iPhone just like they do on their computer.

iPhone also includes Google Maps, featuring Google's groundbreaking maps service and iPhone's amazing maps application, offering the best maps experience by far on any pocket device. Users can view maps, satellite images, traffic information, and get directions, all from iPhone's remarkable and easy-to-use touch interface.

It employs advanced built-in sensors - an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, and an ambient light sensor - that automatically enhance the user experience and extend battery life. Its built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a Web page, or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.

Meanwhile, iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 (Rs 22,210 approx) and an 8GB model for $599 (Rs 26,661 approx), and will work with either a PC or Mac.

Nokia N91 - 8 GB

Now before you skip this one thinking its just a re-do of an older model, keep in mind that the space we are talking about compares with an iPod. The new Nokia N91 - 8 GB is an evolutionary update made to the original N91 mobile music haven. While the colour scheme has seen a complete revamp, the internal hard disk that provides storage for music and other media files has been boosted to 8 GB, double the original 4 GB. The bluetooth system has also been updated to add A2DP stereo support so that the N91 can be used with the new wireless stereo headphones that are starting to trickle into the market. The N91's size has remained unchanged but its weight has gone up five grams. No word yet on pricing though.