Cool toys and Gadgets

Section: Computers, Software / Applications, Reviews, Web, Downloads

We all know how important it is to back up your data, and what can happen if you don’t.  Twice this year, I’ve had computer failures, first a dead hard drive, and then a fried motherboard.  Fortunately, since I back up my data regularly, the damage was minimal.  So yes, backing up your data is crucial, but it can also be a hassle. 

Microsoft Vista has a built in back up tool, but it doesn’t always do the job well.  It doesn’t allow you to really pick and choose what you want to back up, and it backs up a lot of junk you really don’t need, like all the built in software that came with your system, which no one needs a back up of! 

Fortunately Siber Systems has come to the rescue with GoodSync.  This marvelous program automatically backs up your data and syncs it between laptops, servers, desktops, and portable drives, all with just a few clicks!  Continued after the break.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed the program, open it, and choose the drives you want to sync, like your C: drive and a flash drive.  Click the Analyze button and Goodsync will show you the directories and files on both drives.  Simply choose the files you want to sync, click Sync and GoodSync does the work for you.  Your data is now backed up. Goodsync also offers an auto setting that allows you to schedule regular synchronization jobs so that your data back ups are always current.  And since GoodSync is bidirectional, it’s easy to restore the data you’ve backed up should you ever need to.

Goodsync is also great for syncing data between your laptop and desktop, so when you travel you’ll always have your data at your fingertips.  Goodsync is fast and doesn’t take up much memory.  In addition to PCs, servers, and portable drives, it also syncs to Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices, making it a snap to move files between your cell or PDA and your desktop.  Click here for a full list of Goodsyncs key features.

Goodsync is available here. You can download a free trial or Goodsync Pro for just $29.95.  It runs on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista and is also available for XP and Vista 64bit systems.  I’ve been using it for about 2 weeks now and it’s been flawless.  No slowdowns, hangs, or stability issues. It is truly a useful and quality product!

Read [Goodsync]

Full Story » | Written by Sue Walsh for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, HDTV, Computers, Desktops, Laptops, Gadgets / Other, Gaming, Console

Now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us, it’s time we enjoy those gadgets that we bought, whether it be a brand new HDTV, gaming system, MP3 player, or computer.  Of course for us techie people, we like to see how this year compares with previous years in terms of money spent.  With the economy in a slump, experts predicted this shopping season to be down, but Cyber Monday managed to persuade many consumers to open their wallets, punch in their credit card number, and eagerly await their arrival of their new gadget(s).

Statistically speaking, last year on Cyber Monday had bought in $733 million in revenue, and this year bought in a 15% increase - an astonishing $846 million spent, stated ComScore in a report.  This came as a relief to many retail stores because sales had dropped by 2% or $12 billion from November 1 to Cyber Monday of this year as compared to last year. 

Gian Fulgoni, Chairman of ComScore, had this to say about why Cyber Monday prospered:

“With Cyber Monday promotions beginning in earnest over the Thanksgiving weekend, consumers have finally begun to open their wallets, setting off a streak of four consecutive days of extremely strong growth.  This is an extremely encouraging development for retailers, and we can but hope that their aggressive discounting has still left room for profits.“

A bit of bad news - when retails formally announce their profits, it is expected to overall be down from last year, even though Black Friday and Cyber Monday both did exceptionally well In addition, it could be the overall worst holiday season in terms of profit in decades.  I noticed, and you might have as well, there are many more commercials and advertisements with deals in effort to promote the holiday season.  Also, holiday music that usually starts after Thanksgiving, I was hearing it on the radio a week before Thanksgiving, probably in efforts to make people spend more.

Cyber Monday has become especially big in the last few years because Americans are finding they can get as good as and in some cases better deals than on Black Friday.  All they have to do is click a buttons buttons, type in a few numbers, and let the website and its employees do the rest. 

Now, the big question that remains is how well will retailers do in the coming weeks.  Of course, it was nice to see this big shopping spree from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, but I don’t think customers are ready to splurge yet with the state of this economy. 

Read [Los Angeles Times]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Section: Audio, Web, Websites

Piracy is a massive problem in the music industry as it is getting easier and easier to get your music free off the Internet.  Obviously the music industry is trying to keep up, and the people at Bopaboo (what a weird name!) think they have come up with a solution: second hand music.  But not any old music, oh no, you can now buy used digital music.  “How on earth does this work?“ I hear you cry, and that is exactly what I thought, but let me first explain the idea behind this and what is supposed to happen. 

The theory is that people will go onto the website and tell people that they have digital music to sell, and Bopaboo puts a price on it.  Then someone comes along who wants that music cheap and buys the second hand digital music off them and the seller gets 80% of the profits with Bopaboo stashing the other 20% for themselves.

This is (in theory) a great idea, if you buy music digitally which is awful/boring you can sell it to someone who wants it: you sell it legally and they get cheap music.  It is a way to get people out of the habit of downloading illegally, you get money for your old music and everyone gets a good deal without feeling bad.  However as I am sure you have noticed right from the start there are some massive problems with this, and ones that will probably make this completely flawed.

Here is a small quote from the terms and conditions:

“You will delete any remaining copies of the Used Published Item that may exist in your possession, custody or control” and goes on to say that “...you agree to indemnify and defend bopaboo against any and all claims arising out of any transaction in which you are the seller”.

To be honest this is ridiculous, firstly they are expecting people to be honest and secondly they are using the general public as a legal backup: I don’t think that will hold up in court.  Firstly, they will have an overload of music for sale as people copy illegal music again and again so they can upload more and thus get more money, and noone is really going to delete any remaining copies, are they?  You will find a lot of people buying off it: it is a good idea for cheap music, but the idea that people will sell it is one that just won’t work.

All in all if 50% of users aren’t downloading illegally it is progress, but it is by no means the miracle that it promises to be.  Unfortunately I cannot see a day where music will be safe from pirates, but at least this is a step, however small, in the right direction.

Source [Gizmodo]
[Bopaboo]

Full Story » | Written by Christian Milsom for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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The HP Mini 1000 was first announced back in October, but now you can get the mini laptops with an added feature: mobile broadband. This opens up many connection opportunities for those who need Internet access on the go.

In case you need a refresher, the HP Mini 1000 is a very small netbook that features a 10.2-inch BrightView display, a large keyboard and weighs just a tad over 2 pounds. It also features a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and a webcam.

Apparently, now you can activate the WWAN on the Mini 1000 by using the HP Connection Manager 1.1. This makes it so a single connection can be made for all HP Minis and Notebooks. Pretty simple stuff. Plus, it supports GSM and CDMA networks. You can start adding the mobile broadband option starting today for an added $199 on top of the standard Mini 1000 cost.

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Live TV on iphone! Where I can sign up? It’s around the corner accordingly, the Livestation on Iphone will be coolest Iphone apps, future of mobile TV once it gets out of beta mode. For now, get a load of the demo where LiveStation chief executive Matteo Berlucci introduces the app in this video interview (starts at 1:54).

Click here to view the embedded video.

Livestation is a web service offers free live streaming International news to your desktops with contents from providers such as BBC, CNN, Al Jazerra, World News and France 24. An IPhone client echoes the web service is still in development according to the company but it will also support Ipod ITouch.

The shortcoming; which is somewhat concerning and a deal breaker, is lacks of 3G network support. According to the developer, 3G version is not on the plan and will not be supported. The apps once approved by Apple will be only available on WI-Fi network. Bummer!

[via Livestation]

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If you were a big fan of Charlie Brown growing up or just have a fondness for all things Snoopy, or maybe your kid does, you’ll be delighted to hear Kokuyo has just announced three new items just in time for Christmas: the Snoopy Mouse, Snoopy Mouse Pad and Four Port USB Hub.

Coming on December 22, Peanuts lovers will be able to get their hands on these three new items. The Snoopy Four-Port USB Hub is small and is available in two colors and shows off Snoopy and Woodstock. The Snoopy Mouse, on the other hand, is available in blue and features an optical 800 dpi resolution.

Lastly, the Snoopy Mouse pad is available in a vibrant pink and sports an ergonomic design with a gel pad for a comfortable experience for your wrists and an anti-skid surface on the back. You can get all three starting on December 22 with the Mouse costing $16.50, the Mouse Pad costing $16.99 and the USB Port costing nearly $25.

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Phil Clandillon saw a recent post about sparebots, and was moved to show his own work.

Asked about his technique to make the animation, he responded with great detail and technical clarity:

It was a very DIY operation. I've been doing these interactive flyers for around 6 years in my spare time for Sancho Panza, who are a house music sound system / promoter (most famous for their annual stage at Notting Hill Carnival) over here in London, UK. I typically make the flyers over the course of one or two evenings so that quality can be a bit variable, but the dancing electronic parts man turned out well. In 2006 the theme for the year's flyers was that Matt and Jim from Sancho would send me a piece of music, and I would base the flyer on it. The February tune was "Over and Over" by Hot Chip which is a repetitive electro-pop number. I had the idea for the dancing man made from components based on this.

The process of realising it went something like this:

I dug around in the drawers at home for all the electronics bits I could find (also a work colleague at the time helped out by donating some more vintage bits, such as those used for the head and legs) and made up the character on a piece of bread board.

I then need to photograph him in the various "frames" in order to create the animation. The biggest challenge was mounting the camera so it pointed down at the breadboard and so it didn't move around between shots. Also lighting was a problem as the character need to be reasonably evenly lit so he wouldn't throw shadows.

I used a combination of an open frame from a filing rack (think a cube with no sides), and a plywood wine rack with a seven inch reggae record stuck over one of the holes. The type of seven inch with the middle taken out turned out to be exactly the right size to poke the camera lens through. I used two pillowcases and three desk lamps to make a rudimentary light tent. I then moved the character gradually through his dance moves, taking a photo at each step. One problem was that pressing the camera's shutter button caused the camera to move, putting the animation out of alignment, so I used the camera's self timer instead, resetting it for each shot.

I then made the final adjustments to the characters position by layering up the frames in Photoshop, before animating the result in Flash.

I have a website but it's a bit out of date at the mo (shoemaker's shoes and all that) - you can see more e-flyers in my archive. Interestingly the artwork for the website is also created from electronics. I had a friend who can solder better than me help me make up an LED logo of the tag I used to spray when doing graffitti as a kid. I then took it out on the street in London and photographed it in a variety of locations. These photos went on to form the backdrop for the website (my gf is standing out of shot holding a 9V battery on the end of two wires!).

Phil and colleague Steve Milbourne also recently did this Excel spreadsheet ASCII music video for AC/DC from a few weeks ago.

We're a digital creative team and we're very inspired by the maker scene, so a lot of our ideas involve getting our hands dirty with hardware and software. We're also daily readers of the Make: Blog!

Thanks Phil. Keep up the great work!

How are you changing the way you look at the things in your life? When you look at a pile of junk, what do you imagine? What do you make when nobody is looking? Pass along your ideas in the comments, and add photos to the Make Flickr pool!

Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Arts | Digg this!

The Sanyo R227 Internet Radio was announced in October for release in Canada, but we just learned the device will be available for US customers very soon. This is great news for those looking for more ways to access their favorite Internet radio stations while not hunkered over their computers.

The R227 connects to the Internet by means of a Wi-Fi module or an Ethernet connection. It can also access wireless networks that are secure by entering in a passkey. You can search for radio stations online from all over the world to pinpoint the tunes you want to hear.

Since there are no fees, this device makes for a comparable alternative to satellite radio stations. It supports all sorts of formats including AIFF, MP3, AAC, WMA and WAV. Plus, with 8 pre-set stations, you can keep track of your favorites. And for those times a Wi-Fi signal or an Internet connection in general is not available, the device includes a digital FM stereo receiver and you can connect an MP3 player to it for output over a home theater system. Other features include the ability to share music over a network, an alarm clock, a web interface, and two speakers with 2W RMS. You will be able to get your hands on Sanyo R227 Internet Radio in January for $169.99.

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Section: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Web, Web Apps, Websites

Genius.  Why trust the ability of the pizza franchise worker to jot down your order correctly when you can simply SMS your order in and be assured you get mushrooms and meatballs, not anchovies and steak tartar?  Apparently one out of five of us already are and this has forced Papa Johns, pizza purveyor, to start to focus on their new mobile site.

The mobile site is now optimized for the iPhone (boy, what isn’t these days?) and brings pizza, coupons, and directions all in one spot.  Papa John says $1 million in sales has come from mobile devices so far so there is considerable excitement from the Papa Johns team:

“As these devices are getting more powerful browsers, we’re able to take advantage and offer upgraded features and better designs,” said Richard Wise, vice president of operations at wiseOutlook, the company that developed Papa John’s mobile ordering service.

Convenience is big in the pizza business and this trend shows a good application of our devices and technology to advance it even more.

Source [Intomobile]

 

 

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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