Energy costs are slowly but surely rising, no thanks to demands from growing populations in India and China while the rest of the industrialized world continue to clamor for more. Alternative power is still far away from being mainstream, but it is heartening to see companies like Devotec come up with the Solar Charger kit that can store ample energy to juice up your cell phone twice over before a recharge is required. Tipping the scales at less than 80 grams, the Solar Charger’s solar panel will be able to charge its integrated 1800mAh battery whenever it has access to sunlight, or can draw power from a power outlet or USB connection during the night. Each £19.99 purchase comes with tips for older and current Nokia phones, Sony Ericsson, Motorola/Blackberry/mini USB and Samsung models in addition to a DC 5V tip for PSPs and a plethora of digital cameras. iPods are also not left out of the picture with the Solar Charger. Continue Reading

Popularity: 9% [?]

Many years back, the only gadget you’d think was essential to everyday life was the humble cell phone. Fast forward a decade or so, and here we are folks who cannot leave their homes without the aforementioned cell phone (or smartphone), an iPod or portable media player of choice, a handheld console (DS Lite or PSP), and perhaps even a PDA. The issue of power then comes in, and it isn’t always the case where you will be able to be in the vicinity of a power outlet. Enter the PowerCube 600 that is capable of pumping out 600 watts of power, relying on the sun to provide you with electricity thanks to its internal batteries. Unfortunately, this isn’t exactly pocket-sized and is more suitable for homes who want to pay less for their monthly power bill, as it weighs a massive 2,000 pounds. Best to leave this sitting in your garden, I’d say.

 Source: Gadget Venue

Popularity: 24% [?]

Going green seems to be the in thing these days (it has been for quite a while already, apparently), but seriously - will sunlight do a whole lot of good when it comes to charging your dead devices? Looks like it with the help of the Multifunction Digital Solar Charger.

The Multifunctional Digital Solar Charger is applicable to many digital products such as cell phones, digital cameras, DV, MP3, MP4 and so on. It also provide 2 LED Light, UV money checker and FM Radio function.

Well, that sounds like a whole lot of functions crammed into a single device. I’m still not too sure about dropping $45.99 for one of these though. How about you?

Product Page via TRFJ

Popularity: 31% [?]

For a flashy yet useful GPS system you need to look at the Dash Express.  Utilizing neat plug-ins like MyDash, allows you to customize your experience with the GPS system so that you get what you need at your fingertips.

With two-way connectivity, Dash taps into Yahoo! Local search, among other choices, and allows you to find the location of almost anything.  Most GPS systems come pre-loaded with static locations marked up but you can customize what you are looking for with this setup.

Dash Express also will work to get all the information off the Dash Driver Network and match it up with other sources of data to give you the most up-to-date and accurate feel for what’s coming up ahead as you drive.  Traffic conditions can rapidly change and the Dash will let you know quickly so you can re-route.

This also has a neat feature called Send2Car that allows you or someone you contact to send an address straight to your Dash from any computer.  Two-way connectivity certainly makes this product stand out from the rest.

Technorati Tags: gps,gadget review,dash express

Popularity: 39% [?]

This week has been a very significant one in the format wars as news came from Toshiba that it will stop making HD-DVD players and devices. This means the format war between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is pretty much over, and Blu-ray has been declared the winner. Thank goodness because as you all know high-definition televisions and players will be big sellers this year as we get closer to the DTV transition and the last thing we need is a format war. Now we can focus on buying our Blu-ray discs and players without much worry. But what about those of you who already chose HD-DVD players and bought a bunch of $30 DVDs? Unfortunately, if you bought an HD-DVD player in the last week, you might be out of luck as Toshiba issued a statement saying they wouldn’t be giving any refunds or sweeteners to HD-DVD buyers according to  SMH Australia.“They [customers] understood that there were two competing formats and understood that one of them would probably prevail … so they made the decision to go with HD DVD.”

Hey but at least you can round out your movie collection by buying HD DVD movies for half the price over at  Amazon who’s trying to get rid of them for a low price. The question is would you want to. Prices of Blu-ray players have actually gone up as Ben Patterson notes on
  his post here. He says the Sony BDP-S300 has a $399 compared to the $299 price it had a few months ago, and the Samsung BD-P1400 is also $399 compared to the $270 price it had in December. Obviously, you’re in good shape if you have a Playstation 3, but if you don’t, you might want to hold off on buying that high-definition player until prices go down.  Do tell us where you stand?

Popularity: 44% [?]

I envy the Japanese as they always get the best and coolest stuff first before the rest of the world, and sometimes those of us living across the Pacific also never get to see these hit our shores. Sony’s XDV-D500 portable TV could be yet another one, recently released and is capable of supporting 1-Seg recording for up to 10 hours. You get a mobile BRAVIA engine for enhanced TV picture on its 3″ 432 x 240 resolution display. Choose from two colors - white and black. The Sony XDV-D500 is tipped to be released on April 10th this year for approximately $355 after conversion.

Source: AVing

Popularity: 37% [?]

If things get much too warm (or cold) for your comfort, be it at home or at the office, there is always the C2 Climate Control that will help you out. This nifty little desktop companion features a patented, energy-efficient thermal technology that is capable of delivering either heating or cooling from a single unit. It sips 1.5 amps of AC current, which amounts to 10% of the energy used by a typical space heater. Works best when placed 18″ from the user, the C2 is more than capable of increasing air temperature by 32 degrees while lowering it by eight for those sweltering summers. A touchpad is available for you to control the fan’s direction and speed. Thank heavens for the removable filter - sure beats buying a new C2 each time it clogs up. The C2 Climate Control retails for $280 a pop. Continue Reading

Popularity: 20% [?]

 Our batteries should last longer and Panasonic has decided to prove this point by  making a longer lasting AA battery called EVOLTA.  Panasonic entered the EVOLTA battery into the Guinness Book of World Records and claim the longest lasting AA battery cell category.

They were recognized as such based on data obtained from discharge tests that were conducted on these EVOLTA batteries by Panasonic.  A change in the battery structure and other materials has made this an innovation we all could benefit from, considering all our lovely gadgets and gizmos happen to need power to keep them going.

Panasonic announces that the alkaline batteries will be good for both low and high current drain applications.  This could really up the ante for other companies to improve their products.  Will the batteries cost more?  Only about $5.40 for a 4-pack, not much more than competitors.  You’ll see this battery available later this year in the US.

Technorati Tags: panasonic,evolta,batteries,guinness

Source: tmcnet.com

Popularity: 61% [?]

I’m sure you’ve done your fair share of online shopping, eviting, and facebooking this month. I love the holidays, but they are the busiest time of the year for me. This season is also the busiest time for identity thieves and hackers looking for the next victim. Anyway, I won’t preach to the choir about how you’re supposed to protect your PC from malware, but I will do this: I will give away two Zone Alarm Security Suites ($50 value) courtesy of Zone Alarm, so you can practice safe cybering this coming year. How does that sound?

The suite includes antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and anti-phishing, identity theft protection and much more. So you can protect your computer,  and keep it healthy and malware-free all year long. All you have to do is send us an email telling us why you or someone you know really, really needs the Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite. Best answer wins. Good Luck!

Also check out Techie Diva’s Holiday Gadget Picks list on Zone Alarm’s site. Those are just some of the things, we really, really want for Christmas.

Popularity: 7% [?]

A company called Reactrix has taken mall floors to a new level.  I noticed a neat setup at our mall while holiday shopping.  On the floor was a mat or pad with a projected video game on it.

If you placed your foot near an asteroid on the mat, it would explode.  Then after playing the game a bit it showed a few commercial ads but they were interactive, too.

Coca-Cola, Visa and Sprint have already grabbed this idea up and are utilizing it in their marketing plans.  This interactive advertising is a great idea and I can see it in more widespread use in the future.  Reactrix claims measured recall is very high with an average of 55% and a high of 72%.  Aided recall was averaged at 86% with a high of 99%.  Nice job, Reactrix!

You can see video demos on the site of what I experienced.

Popularity: 9% [?]