Coolest Bluetooth Headset Yet

More of a Handset than a Headset - very cool, retro handmade kit Sold on EBay.

It was made by: Pokia.com.

Quickly, pour fuel in my Ear!

Christian Lindholm gives us a brief glimpse of what kind of tech we’ll be seeing in the future:

Fuel-cell powered Headsets.

Very, very interesting, but it raises two questions -

1 - How hot would it get?
Where do the exhaust gasses go?

2 - Do we really want to burn more hydrocarbons?

Of course the electricity that we currently use to charge our electronics is often generated by hydrocarbons (and in the UK we’re not building any more nuclear plants - mainly gas-fired) - but their scale means that they are much more efficient than this new tech (I assume.)

Maybe they run on Bio-fuels, who knows…

While we’re on the subject of charging - SplashPower sounds very interesting.

[update]

InfoSync has another article on FuelCells in mobile devices - It seems that Methanol is the fuel.

New Apple Hardware

New G5s are out - all dual proc.s up to dual 2.5GHz.

mmmm, liquid cooling…

Airport Express is not a train to Gatwick, but a mini Airport Extreme extender and allows a quick wireless hook-up between iTunes and ordinary audio hardware.

Interesting combination of features - but I personally would want some way of controlling the music and having a display showing the music meta-data - like the Slim SqueezeBox.

As for little wifi boxes this is a lot cheaper (but not 802.11g and it doesn’t have that Apple well-designed-ness. )

In other news

Unusually, Using mobile while driving saves one man’s life.

RSS feeds from Ofcom - for UK übergeeks.

BT is testing getting rid of the switched network, and going all IP.

Series 60 Tips

Christian Lindholm posts some shortcuts and tips for Nokia Phones that you may not know.

MacSkinz

Very funky:
MacSkinz

I.C.E.!

In Car Electronics don’t come much better than this:

A Mac installed into a car - with a suitably high level of fit & finish (as befits a car-mac!)

I was half-dreaming of doing something similar with my old Pismo powerbook - nice to see it can be done well. He even put an Ethernet switch in there - LAN parties on the move!

Fantasy Gadget List

I (like many geeks) have a fantasy-gadget list that I always have in my head - things that anyone can easily live without, but you’d buy instantly in a gluttonous consumer-therapy binge if you won the lottery tomorrow:

Here’s a snapshot of my list:

SkyPlus - a PVR that works with the UK’s digital broadcasting near-monopoly.
A Scanner with a Document Feeder - for easier Paper to PDF
A SpeedTrap Detector - for the car. The UK is riddled with Gatsos.
A DAB digital radio tuner for my computer - alas there is none that works with OS X (as far as I know.)
A SqueezeBox - Wireless Audio Streaming to normal Hi-Fi devices.
New head unit for my car - One that works with the Mini’s steering wheel controls and allows a connection to 1st Gen iPods.
Bluetooth Handsfree Kit for my car - my headset works, but is fiddly to get in the ear.
Optical In/Out for my G4 Server (which holds my music) - £70 seems a bit steep for a slight improvement in audio out.

a G5 of course!

Rince Out!

Just drifting off to sleep on Boxing Day night, listening to Fabio and GrooveRider on Radio 1. Great Drum & Bass. Grooverider mentions that he has just got a G5. He calls it the Rolls-Royce of computers - he also mentioned that it used to take him about a month to make a tune. Now it takes just over a day.

Nice.

You know you want one.

20″ iMac

Apple have updated the iMac - there is now a 20″ 1.25GHz version available.

Sony PSP Concept Shots

The Reg has an article about Sony showing off conceptual pictures of their forthcoming handheld device - the PSP.

Series 90

Nokia has announced their replacement for the Communicator (The Big Brick that opens like a book, but has always had more features than any other GSM phone.)

The replacement isn’t a phone - but a platform: Series 90.

Series 60 is already a big hit - Nokia’s recent “SmartPhones” (7650, 7600 , 6600, 3650 & 3660 - link) have all been Series 60 devices.

Series 90 expands on Series 60 and is a bit more PDA-like (and UIQ-like) in it’s UI. It also has a bigger screen. See here for the Register’s article / recycled Press Release.

It looks like Bill Gates was right to fear Symbian.

Here’s the First Series 90 Device:

The 7770

Nice Timing

It seems it’s true - G4 ibooks

New iBooks on horizon?

According to This page we could be seeing G4 iBooks today. Of course any Mac rumour has to be taken with a pyramid of salt - but it’s not inconceivable - The iBook is next on the update cycle - we’ve had new Powerbooks, the G5, new iPods and a new iMac since the iBook went 14″ this Spring.

Plus the Apple Store is currently down (a seemingly import augur for mac-soothsayers.)

Or maybe it’s just broken because everyone’s trying to check to see if their Panther order has shipped

P900

Well - SonyEricsson have finally released the p900 - my p800 is now officially yesterday’s bulky phone For a good comparison to the p800 and a list of nice improvements see here

Cordless Phones

I went home at the weekend and noticed that my mother had bought a new cordless DECT phone. The interesting thing about this phone was that it could send SMS text messages. (for a similar, but not identical phone see here)

About three years ago I had the same idea I was wondering if anyone would ever implement it. I think it’s cool that they have.

Now we just need the DECT handset manufacturers to realise that Bluetooth (or TCP/IP over Ethernet) and SyncML would be good features in a cordless phone. Then you could sync your house phone with you central Contacts Database (usually an Address Book application on a Personal Computer - but could be on the net.)

Remember kids - Open Standards and Interoperability are good
Re-inventing the wheel and proprietary systems are bad.

Autumn - ’tis the season for new phones

Two new phones that have been on the horizon for a long time have finally seen the light of day:

The Treo 600	And the N-Gage

Soon surely it must be SonyEricsson’s turn - with the P900.

Nokia - what are they on?

Nokia have announced new “imaging” products:

• The 7600
• The Kaleidoscope I
• The Medallion I
• The Medallion II
• The Image Frame SU-4
• The Image Frame SU-7

More

replacing the iPod battery

My iPod is one of the 1st generation - a mere 5GB
The Battery life is now quite bad - about two hours playing or overnight on standby.
More