cooltech

Lady gamers, hold on to your hats, or at least your ears. SteelSeries has introduced a new line of full-size headsets with you in mind.  The SteelSeries iron.lady Siberia headset is designed with specifications and a soundscape for long hours of gaming, providing comfort every minute of the way.

The iron.lady Siberia headset is not limited to the gaming application, but can be used with your favorite MP3-player, handheld gaming device or practically any other kind of portable digital device. The pink headset is designed to appeal to the growing numbers of female gamers.

Women currently make up 40 percent of the gaming population and will appreciate the fact that the iron.lady Siberia headset was developed in cooperation with professional gamers.

The specialized headset also comes in SteelSeries signature black and white.  Availability should be during the last quarter of this year at a suggested retail price of $79.99. 

The iron.lady Siberia headsets will be used by the women’s team previously known as Les Seules, now a part of the leading E-Sports organization, Meet Your Makers

The photographic theme continues with a look at the new Pentax Optio E60. Pentax does not get the attention that Nikon and Canon do, but they certainly deserve their slice of the pie. Pentax has produced good quality cameras for more than 55 years.  The company introduced their Asahiflex camera in 1952. Pentax actually started as a lens producing company in 1919, getting its start in the photography industry much like Nikon.

Fast forward to 2008; Pentax brings the Optio E60 to market providing consumers with a 10.1 megapixel camera in a compact case.  It would be fair to ask; where are things going from here?  Point and shoot cameras with 10.1 megapixels and a 32mm to 96mm (35mm equivalent) lens were unheard of just a few years ago. In terms of digital sensors, they are encroaching on what was once the territory of pro cameras only.

The PENTAX Optio E60 offers the user a number of shooting modes including Face Recognition, Auto Picture, Digital Shake Reduction and Green Mode.  The Green Mode sets sensitivity, exposure and other parameters. The Optio E60 offers an Image Recovery function to retrieve accidentally-erased images. It also allows for time and date imprinting on images based on world time; all of this in a compact package.

Toss a couple of AA-rechargeable batteries in for money-saving convenience.  The Optio E60 will hit the market this October.

Consumers are finding a growing number of sophisticated digital SLR’s available from a number of leading manufacturers.  Most of these makers produced film cameras only 5 years ago. Now their consumer level cameras have surpassed the original pro-level cameras.

One of the undisputed leaders in the consumer and professional market is Canon.  The Canon Rebel series of cameras have been a big success for the company since they entered the digital marketplace.  Although Canon calls the newest entry in the Rebel series an ‘entry-level’ camera, one look at it’s features reveals a camera that would have been considered ‘pro-level’ just a few years ago.

The Canon EOS Rebel XS has a list of features that anyone graduating from a point-and-shoot camera would be proud to own.  How about image stabilization in the lens? A 10.1 megapixel CMOS sensor?  A 3 frames per second continuous JPEG burst rate?  And, it even has live-view; a feature I wish my Nikon D-200 had. One look into the 2.5″ LCD screen will allow the user to focus and compose their shot.

The EOS Rebel XS even features hardware and software-based dust removal technology. Did they call this ‘entry-level’?  The kit lens features built-in optical image stabilization. Users, who formally had to tolerate blurry pictures with their point-and-shoot cameras, now have a powerful ally to help assure them clear pictures.  

Controls on the new EOS Rebel XS are large and easy to use.  Other features include easy-to-see operating panel indications such as ISO settings visible through the viewfinder and Canon Speedlite controls through the camera LCD menu.  The camera also incorporates a Canon feature called Auto Lighting Optimizer which locates dark areas in an image and adjusts the brightness and contrast to improve the overall image.

Do you ever shoot fast action? Insert a good quality memory card into the EOS Rebel XS and take advantage of the continuous JPEG burst rate which allows users to continuously shoot a scene until the memory card is at capacity.  With a couple of gigabyte memory card, you can capture that fast moving photo just like the pros.

Canon has also introduced the latest model in the EX series of Speedlite flashes: the Canon Speedlite 430EX II. Canon has increased the recycling speed of the 430EX II by 20% over it’s predecessor. A nice feature, that pros have come to appreciate, is a metal mounting foot which increases the strength and durability of a shoe-mounted flash. The new unit will allow users to control flash functions and input settings using the Rebel XS’s LCD monitor.  The flash will have an estimated retail price that is nearly half the retail price of the Rebel XS. That pricing puts it on a par with the top of the line Nikon flash unit, which is a pro-level device.

The Canon Rebel XS is expected to be available at retailers starting next month. In kit form, it will come with a EF-S18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens. This should make for a very versatile DSLR for those new to ‘through-the-lens’ digital cameras as well as advanced amateurs.  It would even make a good back-up camera for the pro who needs a light second camera. 

The newer SONY Bravia line is nothing new; it was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show last January in Las Vegas. Whenever I look at one though, I find that it is such a neat product, that I thought it was worth another mention.

To start with, you can watch select streaming Internet video on the Bravia. Gives the average tech aficionado a hint of things to come. The 19-inch KDL-19M4000 unit features a 1440 x 900 progressive screen resolution. That’s a lot of pixels. Besides the 19″ ‘M-series’. there are three other models that also offer high-definition picture quality at an attractive price.

Watch a Blu-ray disc, check out the video you shot on your SONY digital video cam or listen to surround sound audio via an AV receiver. A touch of a button on your remote activates all of these external components. The 19″ model also includes an HDMI, component and PC input.  Who said that 19″ TV’s were passe’?  This one provides a multitude of uses for every home.

The other available sizes in the ‘M-series’ are 26, 32, and 37 inch models.  They have features like BRAVIA Internet Video Link, Digital Media Port, DLNA compatibility and USB input.  Owners can purchase additional external modules which expand functionality even more. One of the first modules available is the BRAVIA Internet Video Link module.  This will allow for viewing of select streaming Internet video, including high-definition content.  All models are available now.

This is the third article I have written on this topic recently and it seems like everyone is jumping on the robot bandwagon.  Robots, which have been popular in Japan for years, are making a major leap over the Pacific and landing on store shelves across America. Indeed, everyone from Disney to Sony to Hasbro is piling on to capture an emerging market that is taking many forms.

One of the real hot areas of robot exploitation is combining music with animatronics. I wrote about Sony’s Rolly, the egg-shaped robot capable of choreography.  Why listen to music when there is so much more entertainment potential available?  That seems to be the premise behind Tiger Electronics and Hasbro’s A.M.P.; hot on the heels of Rolly.  A.M.P. stands for Automated Music Personality.

SEGA Toys in Japan is part of the team distributing this new robot with it’s big introduction and demonstration occurring at the Tokyo Toy Show over the next couple of days. (June 19-22)

The 29″ tall robot can use any MP3 player as it’s motivation to start moving. The maker claims that this robot has ‘attitude’, which should make it popular with a lot of consumers. The AMP robot features Dynamic Balancing Technology, which allows the robot to balance ‘in a manner that seems to defy gravity’.  Can you say ‘Segway’.

Music comes from a 5″ mid-range speaker and two high output tweeters. The option of bass boost is available by touching the boost button. While the A.M.P. bot looks like a waiter holding a couple of plates, it actually has user-controlled touch-pads at the end of each arm.  Use the left touch pad to add music effects and the right touch pad to control the audio.

With the release of the Disney-PIXAR movie WALL-E on June 27th, movie-goers will once again be focused on robots. The release of A.M.P. in the U.S. in October will find anxious consumers willing to pay the estimated $500 retail price.

Watch for A.M.P. bot at select retailers. With 12 watts of stereo sound, 49 LED lights that blink to the music and an infrared  tracking system, A.M.P. will be a rolling, dancing fun-bot for those ready for some entertainment. Choose his Dance, Track, Drive modes to keep him moving or put him in Park and just chill. A.M.P.’s unique gyro technology keeps him upright while moving, and when in Park, he deploys his kickstand to keep from falling.  Who ever said that your music just has to sit there?

On June 10th, HP introduced 16 new notebook models designed with new materials and software features at their ‘Connecting Your World’ event. The consumer models feature the sleek new liquid-metallic HP Imprint 2 surface design.  The HP Elitebook business series notebooks feature a durable, aircraft-inspired look.

The new HP Pavilion notebook consumer-focused notebooks have the innovative HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection feature which detects when the notebook has been dropped, and during the fall, automatically stops the hard drive from spinning, helping to prevent the loss of files and data.

Buyers of the consumer series also have the option of a high-speed eSATA interface for backing up data to external storage drives. Accessories for the new notebooks include the HP xb4 Notebook Media Docking Station and HP Bluetooth(R) Stereo Headphones with active noise cancellation.

For the working professional on the go, the new Elitebook series notebooks include a protective coating of anodized aluminum on the palm-rest surface that is six times more scratch-resistant than that used in previous notebooks. EliteBook also includes HP QuickLook 2 software. HP has set a goal to remove any mercury from their notebook screens in the next two years.  Mercury is commonly found in notebook screens and florescent style light bulbs.

For the busy business person on the go, a new product for the iPhone makes keeping a schedule easy and convenient. RemindYou by Make Your Day Media is an application for the Apple iPhone that helps users keep appointments and review their schedules.

When an iPhone user unlocks their iPhone, the default earth view image is replaced with a view of their RemindYou schedule. The application syncs with iCal, Outlook, or Entourage so that the user gets a lock screen schedule, that is up to date, every time they use their iPhone. Time management just got easier.

In my last posting, I talked about the iPhone’s new GPS capabilities. Now you can keep track of your schedule and location all at once. This is the perfect tool for the salesperson or executive on the go.

The RemindYou application can show over a dozen appointments up to six weeks away.  It can be set up in a 24 hour format and uses little battery power. Make Your Day Media offers a free 14 day trial of the RemindYou app. 

Make Your Day Media foresees additional software development for the iPhone that will enhance the iPhone’s utilitarian capabilities.

The next version of the popular iPhone is only a day away.  The new phone is expected to have additional features produced by third-party vendors.  It is also expected to take advantage of advanced GPS and have 3G capabilities. So much speculating, but the original version was so good and this one is improved. The possibilities are endless.

The smart phone concept has come a long way and the 2nd generation iPhone aims to please. Speculation is that the new version will have a top connection speed of 7.2 MB/s.  Window’s Media content is rumored to be supported in this version also. Some anticipate longer battery life. Just think how long you could surf the Internet.

Some have speculated that the new iPhone will be slightly thicker than the original. My experience with 2nd gen products is that the opposite is true.  We will see.

The regular great features are there, like touching a name or number in your address book or call log to dail,  Choose to listen to voicemails just as you do your e-mails, in no particular order. Synch your address book/phone book from your PC or Mac with your iPhone. No prob.

Check movie schedules or train schedules. Choose from 600 web apps. You can use your iPhone with most e-mail standards and take it with you around the world.

Skyworks is believed to be the manufacturer of three new chipsets for the new iPhone.                                                                                 

There are also rumors with this next iPhone that pricing may be even more attractive with AT&T offering to offset the cost with commitment to a longer service plan. Just another day and we will know speculation from reality.

It’s all about security these days when important personal information resides on your computer hard drive.  Short of sticking your computer in a safe, there are easier means to achieving a ‘hardware’ solution to locking your personal information down. That’s where the Edgetech Corp. DiskGO Guardian comes in.

Okay, I’m beginning to realize that we really have moved into the age of robots. It was one thing to watch the robot on Lost in Space back in the sixties and laugh at the moving can with flexi-arms.  Now things are real. I mean, look at the progression of robot products in the consumer market. 

It began with robots that would vacuum your carpet and mow you lawn. We then began to see advanced animatronics coming out of Japan that were really like the robots we saw in science fiction movies.  Now, in the fall, we will see the WALL-E robot hit the store shelves in conjunction with the release of the Disney movie of the same name. But it doesn’t end there; check out Rolly from Sony.

Your MP3’s were never like this before.  An egg-shaped robot that moves to your music.

Rolly is a more sophisticated device than one might expect upon first appearance. It is amazing to watch, with it’s moving end caps (that move like arms) and the lights and precise movements. But it allows it’s owner to program it’s choreography to exacting routines. It’s really a fully programmable music player.

Using the Rolly Choreographer software, the user can create their own choreography for their favorite songs and preview the results on their PC, or the software will create the moves automatically. The personalized routine can then be uploaded to the Rolly Go forum to share with others.  This is the creative angle that will create a niche following for Rolly.  As an example of artificial intelligence, the Rolly is an interesting advance. 

Rolly became available to the buying public in Japan last Fall.  My guess is that Americans will fall into two schools of thought on this product; you love it or you hate it.   There is no doubt that the Japanese really like their robots.  Just check out Youtube. (btw, there are some good Rolly videos on Youtube as well).  Look at the Rolly ‘big brother’ , Miuro that has been available in Japan since 2006.  It doesn’t even have the flapping arms, but it moves to the music also.  Those attributes seem to make people in Japan laugh and can produce some level of amusement.

The price might take you back. The current suggested retail price is $399.00, which is what you can buy it for at SONY Style stores.  Since I see this product as being a hit with teens, I think SONY may need to rethink their pricing model. There is no doubt that some sophisticated electronics exist in the Rolly, but what’s new about that?