Its Electronica

Do you think it is hard to imagine a jump rope that actually doesn’t have a rope? Well, for $60 the dream can become a reality.

The Ropeless Jump Rope is a high-tech rope, that comes with a small LCD screen to display different types of information, and believe it or not, it even has a “talking” mode that says how good (or bad) is your progress.

About the details on the LCD screen, it informs you about the number of calories burned, the exercise time, and last but not least, the number of jumps.

Product Page

Every once in a while, somebody takes two of my favorite things and manages to combine them together in happy unity. Case in point: Electric Arts (EA) new advancements in Nerf and Wiimote technology.

EA plans to release this Nerf/Wiimote combo in tandem with a new game called Nerf N-Strike. This contraption that you see to your left doesn’t yet have an official name, but it is a Nerf shooter as well as a Wiimote for first person shooter games.

EA has been working with well-known toy company Hasbro on many products. These two companies have been developing video game versions of its most popular games, including Yahtzee, Trivial Pursuit, Operation, and Monopoly Here and Now: World Edition.

Now I will finally be able to literally shoot something when I play Wii games, and I don’t have to worry about cracking the TV screen. I wonder if this blaster shoots Nerf disks or suction cup darts, because it would be cool to have the darts stick to your television screen.

I can’t help but wonder what kind of game Nerf N-Strike will be. If this product is targeted to the younger crowd, then “get ready for some family-friendly bloodless action!” I guess we’ll have to wait and see, as no release date or price has been set.

Source

BusinessWeek has a fine profile of the Czech entrepreneur who accidentally became a key figure in the unlocked iPhone market. Pavel Zaboj runs Bladox, a small company that makes the Turbo SIM, a SIM card that allows handsets to be used on multiple networks.

Turns out Turbo SIM is an easy way to break an iPhone from AT&T’s stranglehold — the card makes the iphone think it’s still connected to AT&T while you blithely use whatever network is handy. Ever since jalbreakers figured that out, Bladox has been getting thousands more orders than usual, is struggling to keep up with demand and has watched Turbo SIMs command ridiculous premium on eBay.

Zaboj says he’s never marketed to iPhone unlockers and frankly sounds a little stressed by the whole thing, offering this summation of the adventure:

Please, no more talk about iPhones. I honestly couldn’t care less anymore

iPhone’s Reluctant Gray Marketer [BusinessWeek]

Create your own hotspot with the Sprint PHS300 Personal Hotspot USB device. Developed by Cradlepoint, this nifty little gizmo automatically starts an EV-DO to WiFi hotspot right in your pocket - all you need to do is plug in your Sprint EV-DO card to the USB port and voila, you open the doors to welcome up to four simultaneous clients via WiFi. An 1,800mAh battery will definitely go some distance before requiring a recharge, although there are no official figures yet. Sounds like the perfect device to carry around in next year’s edition of CES instead of paying through the nose for a hotel connection.

Posted Feb 13th 2008 3:20AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Laptops

Acer’s little low-cost laptop plans just emerged from the rumor closet. Chairman J.T. Wang says they’ll launch a cheap-o, 7- to 9-inch laptop in Q2 or Q3 of 2008. That puts the world’s number 3 computer maker in direct competition with the Eee PC and CloudBook in the burgeoning low-end laptop market. However, Acer should really re-think their expected price point of “around $470.” After all, Dell’s full, 15.4-inch laptops start at just $499.

While official details have not been announced on the Danger acquisition, Om Malik is speculating that Microsoft paid $500 million. Further speculation is that early investors got modest returns on the sale, but the later stage investors made out “like bandits.” Om Malik is also noted as saying:

The deal’s big sticker price is intriguing — leading me to believe that Microsoft wants to pull an Xbox on its mobile phone business.

Could this mean Microsoft is preparing to offer up some real competition with Android?

Via [CNET]

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Warren Ellis, the smoking, drinking curmudgeon and comic book writing gadget-freak just took delivery of a Nokia N95:

Today, my new Nokia N95 8GB was delivered. About an hour after Nokia announced the N96 16GB. Ha ha ha, you juustoleipa-sucking b******s.

Quoting anything else will be difficult. If you don’t like the F-word, don’t click the link. If you want an hilarious and succinct review of the Nokia flagship, go now. You’ll also find out what juustoleipa is.

N95 8GB [Warren Ellis]

Here is a phone that offers excellent imaging capabilities, navigation and advanced sharing features and it was introed at the MWC 2008- The Nokia 6220 Classic. The features on this one include a 5-megapixel camera with Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, A-GPS functionality, HSDPA connection, integrated TV-out feature via Bluetooth, 2.2-inch display. It comes loaded with the new Nokia Maps 2.0 application plus the A-GPS functionality allows photos to be ‘geotagged’. The pre-loaded WidSets service brings web content directly to the device via widgets. The phone includes Internet browser, email, music player, and FM radio with RDS and up to 8 GB of memory.
The Nokia 6220 classic enables Adaptive Multi Rate - Wideband speech coding technology, giving a more natural sound to human voice in phone calls. The phone is expected to start shipping in the 3rd quarter of 2008 in selected markets for around 325 euros or $475.
[Source]

Here’s yet another portable media player that comes with hook, line and sinker that all you need to actually do is bother about the price. The iRiver X20 comes with 8GB of flash memory and a 22 hour battery life - perfect for those on long haul flights. A microSD memory card slot is there for expansion purposes just in case 8GB doesn’t quite cut it for you. It would be nice to see an improvement on the 2.2″ display though, as you can’t really spend too many hours staring at it. Would you drop $130 for this or take the tried-and-true iPod path instead?

Yes, we’re ramping up to Valentine’s Day. Yes, I’m sure you’re sick of me talking about all the great gifts you can buy for Valentine’s Day. Well, too bad - there are too many Valentine’s Day themed gadgets and gadget accessories to not write about them! You’ll have to suffer through a few more days.

I saw this adorable laptop bag over at Techie Diva today: the Mobile Edge CuteBug Hipster vertical messenger bag. This pink and burgundy bag comes with the following features:

* Fits 14.1″ laptops
* Superior padding for computer protection
* Removable matching neoprene laptop sleeve
* Interior zippered pockets
* Exterior rear zippered pocket
* Removable soft padding for shoulder strap
* Interior ID pocket
* Accessorized with “Lucky Seven” dice

Also on the Mobile Edge website, it shows two other color options (green and black) that will be available soon. I like the fact that you can take the laptop sleve out so you can use it as a functional messenger bag for those times when you do not want to take your laptop with you. And the “Lucky Seven” dice accessory adds a nice, whimsical touch to the vintage advertisement-adorned bag. Now to the technical bits: the laptop compartment measures 14.5″ x 10″ x 1.8″ and the exterior dimensions are 14.5 x 10.5 x 2.8. Pick one up today for $69.99.

[Mobile Edge via Techie Diva]