This Bluetooth GPS Receiver works over Bluetooth, which means as long as you have a Bluetooth capable device—cell phone, PDA, or laptop—you can get GPS data anywhere. With the right software installed on those mobile devices, you can even use this combination as a navigation system. The BS4100 itself has 16 hours of battery life, 3 LEDs to indicate its status, and can be powered by a USB port. It even comes with a car charger and a skid-proof pad so you can mount it on your dashboard. There’s no pricing information on their site, so you’ll have to email in for a quote. Product Page [RoyalDigital via Navigadget] → Read More
Business Week’s Olga Kharif wrote yesterday about several cellcos that are prepping at-home services. For a flat-monthly rate, this new functionality will allow users to synch their mobiles with their landlines in order to send and receive calls without depleting cellular minutes. T-Mobile is currently testing a service in Oregon that utilizes a wireless router. As this image from the Samsung T709 indicates, the T-Mobile router presumably allows users to route calls through Wi-Fi. AT&T on the other hand is preparing two options. One will direct calls through Internet telephony, while the other will route calls to their landline, which seems to defeat the point of the service. If users are required to maintain a landline in order to receive calls on it, it wouldn’t be any more cost effective than just eating wireless minutes. T-Mobile’s Trial Balloon [Business Week] Image [Engadget] → Read More
If you’re trying to incorporate two products into one, a USB hub and a Bluetooth dongle makes sense in all temperatures, but a security camera and a heater only makes sense in Alaska. The camera has a 1/3″ color CCD image sensor, and can withstand temperatures down to -40°F. The heater is useless in more temperate climates like Texas, unless you’re mounting this inside your freezer to keep your meat safe. Available now for $399, but needs a 24VAC, 50W power supply which is sold separately for $19. Outdoor Surveillance Camera Built to Withstand the Cold [SmartHome via Uber Gizmo] → Read More
We reported last month that blog search engine Technorati had raised $7.6 million in Series C funding in June from previous investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Mobius Venture Capital. Today’s PE Wire now says that Series C funding has hit $10.52 million. The previous investment left many mystified about the implications, today’s news really begs the question of where Technorati is going. Now three years old, the site just released a major upgrade. We said last time that we assumed this round was done at a flat or down valuation. This may be a bet for the long haul and it may be an attempt to kick the site into action so it can raise more revenue. It’s hard to say, but today’s news that the round C funding was almost 50% larger than previously reported certainly makes things all the more interesting to watch. → Read More
Although this actually a three-port USB hub instead of a four-port one (one’s used to provide power), we’ll forgive the mislabeling since it also functions as a Bluetooth 1.2 dongle. Instead of having to spend $19 on a Bluetooth dongle to connect your cell phone or Bluetooth headset, just grab one of these at the same price. Consider the hub as a bonus. USB Bluetooth Hub [Brando via i4u] → Read More
The only feature on this phone that’s important is the fact that it’s a Hello Kitty phone. All the other stuff, like the 130×130 resolution, 32-chord ringtones and, well, that’s about it. There’s not much to do with the phone other than to ogle the kitty, which is just fine with Hello Kitty enthusiasts. The phone will be on sale, most likely in Japan, starting this month. But if you’re really into Hello Kitty, you’re already used to importing all your goods from there anyway. The BenQ-Siemens AL26 Hello Kitty Phone Coming This Month [Mobile Tech Review] → Read More
Google announced this morning that businesses will be able to add coupons to their listings on Google Local for free. The service is available for businesses in US, UK, Canada, China and Japan. Businesses can enter coupon offerings, expiration dates and participating locations through the Google Local site and Google will send them a confirmation and PIN number by snail mail. The system is being seeded with coupons from direct marketing company Valpak. Apparently users will print the coupons on paper. It would be nice if there was a mobile tie in like Cellfire offers. The primary problem with Cellfire is the relatively limited coupons available, presumably this won’t be an issue with Google. An Adsense tie in appears to be the next move on the way, with ads being sold that point to coupons. All of these are very logical ways for Google to leverage Google Local, almost predictable. I guess when you’re the market leader you don’t have to make what you do too exciting, it just has to keep on working. I know I use Google Local all the time, so this I don’t mean to sound like I don’t welcome this. It will be interesting to see if Yahoo or Ask follow suit and feel any imperative to do something really interesting. → Read More
We may not know much about fashion, but we know that wearing a 320×240 LCD as your belt buckle doesn’t quite fit the standard definition of “fashionable”. For those who disagree, the Egokast fits directly onto your belt and supports MPEG-4/AVI/JPEG/BMP/MP3/WMA files and has comes with a 512MB SD memory card for storage. It lasts four to five hours, which is just long enough for you to get your ass beaten on the subway. And the price? $289. Yeah. We’re not buying one of these either. Product Page [Egokast via Uber gizmo] → Read More
It could be just iPod fatigue, but this YP-K5 from Samsung looks much better, classier, and dare we say it, sexier than the iPod Nano. The player has a pixel-type icon display and supports MP3/WMA/ASF, plus even the open source nerd supported OGG. It’s available in 1GB, 2GB and 4GB sizes. Even with that extra bulk from the integrated speaker, which we probably wouldn’t need most of the time, the YP-K5 still looks quite thin. It’s only offered in Korea right now, but if this finds its way to the US we’ll let you know. YP-K5 the DAP with integrated speakers [Akihabara News] → Read More
Palm announced today the Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition. The system is powered by the new TomTom NAVIGATOR 6 software that features voice navigation and turn-by-turn directions. Meanwhile, a new SiRFstarIII Bluetooth enabled GPS receiver handles all that meddlesome satellite communication. It is compatible with Treo 650, 700w and 700p devices. I’ve always wondered why GPS hasn’t been embraced by more developers. I know it’s sneaking its way into more-and-more devices, but instead of crappy camera phones, GPS would have been a much more appropriate feature to intergrate. Hopefully it soon becomes more prolific. Palm Announces New Bluetooth GPS with TomTom for Treo Smartphones [Palm News] → Read More
Three online video startups announced a partnership this morning that will allow users to edit their videos on Eyespot and publish with a single click to Blip.tv and Veoh. This sounds like a smart move for all involved as editing and remixing ups the ante on features for video sharing. Partnering with another startup already providing the service may make more sense that building it into an existing feature set. Hopefully the partnership will mean a deep integration between Eyespot and the other companies; more than a distribution partnership, a technology partnership would be really interesting. New York City’s Blip.tv was selected to provide the underlying technology for CNN’s user generated video section, CNN Exchange, launched last month. San Diego based Veoh provides 10 minute flash previews of long videos that can be downloaded in their full length through the company’s peer to peer desktop client. The company announced an undisclosed amount of funding from Shelter Capital Partners last week and has also received funds from Spark Catial, the Torante Company and Time Warner. San Diego’s Eyespot allows drag and drop video editing online and positions its site as a community for remixing videos uploaded for that purpose. Competitor JumpCut offers similar functionality and has a small promotional partnership with Fox Atomic, an arm of Twentieth Century Fox. The company has received angel funding from Michael Robertson, the man behind MP3.com, Gizmo Project, Ajax Launch and countless other projects. Eyespot currently limits file upload to 50 MB and it will be interesting to see if when these partnerships take form that limit is lifted for Blip and Veoh users. The prospect of contributors to CNN’s Exchange being able to quickly edit their submissions before submitting them is interesting, though CNN may be more interested in unedited footage. This is a smart move that will help each of these companies offer a fundamentally compelling feature that the big sites simply hosting video do not. → Read More
Social networking concepts are coming to the fore in a pair of fairly bold moves by two major software companies. Apple and Microsoft are both trying their hand at building communities in different ways – Microsoft for its XBox 360 and PC gaming arm and Apple in its efforts to build community into the latest OS X, Leopard. Microsoft got the ball rolling with its XNA programming framework for making XBox games aimed at amateur and student programmers. The product, called XNA Game Studio Express, costs $99 per year and allows you to compile code to run on PCs and the 360 as well as share your work with others in the same network. Most games will probably never make it into the wild, but Microsoft expects some games to reach shelves. Like a farm team, the Studio Express model gains lots of Microsoft goodwill while giving a generation of programmers access to the APIs that make Xbox such a compelling platform. Apple is also following suit – sort of – by adding social networking features and Wikis to their new OS version, Leopard. The features include team logins, a Wiki server, and improvements to iChat for enchanced sharing and web meetings. There are also rumors of very interesting new improvements to iTunes: Apple recently sent out a survey asking for information on the following details: * The ability to view a friend’s wish list, with permission * The ability to view what a friend is currently listening to, with permission * The ability to view a friend’s playlist, with permission * The ability to view a friend’s recent purchases, with permission * The ability to view a friend’s favorite artists, with permission → Read More
Sirius has produced its first fully-portable satellite radio receiver, and it is a gem. The Sirius Stiletto 100 hosts a bigger screen and an easy-to-use click wheel, putting the device in league with the more premium players. The pocket sized the player allows users to store up to 100 hours of music (MP3/WMAs), stream audio via WiFi connectivity and, you know, listen to Sirius content.. For $399.99, the Stiletto 100 might be a better option than the iPod. Sirius Stiletto 100 – FOUND[orbitcast] → Read More
QuickerTek has released a WiFi Transceiver that will allegedly double the signal strength of a MacBook Pro. Although that is a respectable gain, the transceiver utilizes an AC adapter which effectively limits portability. Adapters are the bane of laptop users, and the fact that this device utilizes one makes it a bit undesirable. Now if you thought that the fact that it’s powered by a clunky adapter is bad, the $200 price tag will add insult to injury. QuickerTek WiFi transceiver[ubergizmo] → Read More
This is all pure conjecture, which is the best kind, but according to Bokardo, a site that covers social networking sites, Apple may be making a play in that space when Leopard hits the streets. The most interesting idea is the Wiki server that will be embedded in Leopard, allowing teams to create and share live documents. → Read More
More on Blackberry’s Pearl which is set for release by T-Mobile on September 28th. Nothing new and amazing here, just more fodder for blackberry fanboyz, but with enough effort it might be possible to glean the chipsets used in the new Blackberry and reverse engineer your own in your garage. Or you can just stare at the pictures. Mmmm… BlackBerry Pearl internal photos [BlackberryCool] → Read More
Some highlights from yesterday’s posts. Dell Recalls 4.1 Million Fire-Prone Notebook Batteries Shuttle Launches X100 Razer Pro|Type iPod/Zune Dockable Keyboards Seagate to Supply 60GB and 120GB Drives for iPods? Cavalcade of CrunchGear Stars – You! Homebrew XBox Apps: The YouTube of Games → Read More
UK/Prague-based AllPeers is a Firefox extension that will allow for group P2P file sharing using the browser. A persistent buddy list in a sidebar is created. Files can be shared with those buddies by dragging a file, folder or URL into their name. It’s just as easy to share the file with multiple people. The core technology is based on bittorent. We’ve followed Allpeers through the initial rumors, first public screenshots and their March venture funding by Mangrove Capital and Index Ventures. They’ve kept quiet recently, saying they’ve been making small changes to their interface and big changes to their infrastructure to handle scaling issues at launch. I’ve been testing the product with co-founder Matthew Gertner – this is going to be a very popular application. Very large (video) files transfered in my tests without difficulty, including after repeatedly shutting down the browser mid-transfer. Like other bittorent clients, the transfer picked back up again after relaunch. The company won’t say when they are launching, but they’ve been bleeding in beta users for a few weeks and the date is clearly not that far away. They’ve also said they’ll allow me to give 50 300 immediate access accounts away immediately – these are first come, first serve in the comments. Just give me the email address you want to use, in the comment. A potential competitor in this space is Zapr, which we recently covered. Zapr is handling file sharing via a stand alone client. AllPeers says they’ll have a non-browser client as well, later this year. → Read More
Motorola’s latest clamshell the W220 has gotten FCC approval. The phone is intended as a base level device, so its features are somewhat lacking. Nevertheless, it will sport an FM receiver and a wap 2.0 browser. Perhaps I’m just falling for a gimmick, but I find something aesthetically pleasing about its modest exterior. I wonder if its retro-esque design will, like the RAZR, help to cultivate a new trend in cell phone appearances. Nah. Probably not, but, for now at least, I wouldn’t mind. The W220 is expected to drop in Q3 2006, but no details have yet emerged on pricing or carriers. FCC Approves Motorola W220 Cell Phone [MobileWhack] → Read More
M-Audio is now offering its Session software for Windows PCs in a stand-alone configuration, bundled with the low-cost Micro interface. Before, it was only available as a package with M-Audio’s more-expensive FastTrack USB audio interface, but now the $49 software can be used on its own, and using the ASIO (audio streaming in/out) driver lets you input your sources using the M-Audio Micro USB interface. Session is designed to be easy to use, and lets you make music right away without a steep learning curve. It ships with 3.5GB of loops and instrumental content, and you can drag-and-drop those tracks onto Session’s timeline along with those you’ve created using the included Micro USB interface. Keep in mind that M-Audio is part of the same company that makes Digidesign Pro Tools, the standard of the professional audio industry. Perhaps the consumer audio company has learned a thing or two from its mighty pro brother…? M-Audio Site → Read More
