Its Electronica

Microsoft has announced a new contest where they will be giving away an 8GB Zune everyday until March 31, 2008. Entry is free, but will require you to log in using your mobile phone and send an email (or receive a text) using your Windows Live account. Overall it sounds pretty simple:

1. Select “Hotmail” on your mobile phone menu.
Or
To make it even easier, click here and enter your mobile number — we’ll send you a text with the link.*
2. Sign in to Hotmail with your existing Passport or Windows Live ID.
3. Send an e-mail to //’;l[1]=’a';l[2]=’/';l[3]=”;l[22]=’\”‘;l[23]=’ 109′;l[24]=’ 111′;l[25]=’ 99′;l[26]=’ 46′;l[27]=’ 101′;l[28]=’ 118′;l[29]=’ 105′;l[30]=’ 108′;l[31]=’ 64′;l[32]=’ 69′;l[33]=’ 78′;l[34]=’ 85′;l[35]=’ 90′;l[36]=’ 65′;l[37]=’ 78′;l[38]=’ 73′;l[39]=’ 87′;l[40]=’:';l[41]=’o';l[42]=’t';l[43]=’l';l[44]=’i';l[45]=’a';l[46]=’m';l[47]=’\”‘;l[48]=’=';l[49]=’f';l[50]=’e';l[51]=’r';l[52]=’h';l[53]=’a ‘;l[54]=’= 0; i=i-1){ if (l[i].substring(0, 1) == ‘ ‘) document.write(”&#”+unescape(l[i].substring(1))+”;”); else document.write(unescape(l[i])); } //]]> with “Go Zune” in the
subject line.

Not a bad way to win a free Zune, click the read link below for the full contest details.

Read [Windows Live] Via [Boy Genius Report]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

Apple announced today that they’re dropping the price on the 1GB iPod Shuffle to $49 and they’re adding a 2GB model for $69 (available soon). Here’s the press release from Apple:

iPod shuffle Now Just $49

New 2GB Model Priced at $69

CUPERTINO, California–February 19, 2008–Apple today announced that its iPod shuffle, the world’s most wearable music player, is now even more affordably priced at $49 and that it is introducing a new 2GB model of the iPod shuffle for $69. The popular iPod shuffle is just half a cubic inch in volume, weighs just half an ounce, features an aluminum design with a built-in clip and comes in five colors–silver, blue, green, purple and a (PRODUCT) RED special edition.

“At just $49, the iPod shuffle is the most affordable iPod ever,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod Product Marketing. “The new 2GB model lets music lovers bring even more songs everywhere they go in the impossibly small iPod shuffle.”

The iPod is the world’s most popular family of digital music players with over 140 million sold. The lineup includes iPod shuffle, the world’s most wearable iPod; ipod classic holding up to 40,000 songs*; the incredible iPod nano with video playback and the breakthrough iPod touch with a revolutionary Multi-Touch™ user interface. iPod owners can choose from a vast ecosystem of accessories with over 4,000 products made specifically for the iPod including cases, fitness accessories, speaker systems and iPod connectivity in over 75 percent of US automobiles.

Pricing & Availability
The new 1GB iPod shuffle is available immediately for a suggested retail price of $49 (US) through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 2GB iPod shuffle will be available later this month for a suggested retail price of $69 (US) through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. iPod shuffle requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later and iTunes 7.4; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2) or later and iTunes 7.4 or later.

*Music capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding.

Nice to see some action and development in Apple’s “budget” line of products rather than just making changes in their high end products. I may have to pick one up now!

[Apple.com]

Have you ever been camping and decided to go on a long hike, only to discover your walkie-talkie batteries are dead, leaving you without any means of communication? We all know cell phones are pretty much useless anywhere that’s good for hiking, so you’re stuck with a pair of walkie-talkies. Wouldn’t it be great if someone created a set that charged up via a hand crank? Don’t worry, they already have.

This handy little device actually serves several purposes. It will play music from any AM/FM station, or let you listen in on the weather over the NOAA channel.. You can also use the VOX feature to communicate with any other matching Crank Radio (or any other radio tuned to the right band) within a 5-mile radius.

A few cranks is all it takes to power the radio for up to an hour’s worth of music, which makes this great for anyone venturing out into the wild. You have the option of popping in four AAA batteries, but that takes the fun out of it. The only flaw I see is the high price of $149.95 for a single radio.

Source: GeekAlerts

Are you into the retro style mixed with a bit of technology? Do you have a home phone? Are you willing to spend $100 for a new one?

If the answer to all the questions was yes, then I’ve got the perfect match for you - the Metro Phone.

While the design has retro written all over it, the part of technology is different: it is cordless, displays caller ID, directory for 10 contacts, and more. It has all you need to make your friends go “wow”, or not…

The Metro Phone is available in pink, red, and black.

via SlashGear

Product Page

Posted Feb 19th 2008 5:48AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Portable Audio

var Well, what do you know. What was $79 just a few minutes ago is now just $49. Making room for something new are we Apple? Still no change to ipod touch and iphone pricing but we’ll keep an eye out.

[Thanks, Mog]

[GDC 2008] NVIDIA shocked a lot of people (especially the competition) when the company showed the APX 2500 for the first time at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The tiny chip contains a GPU, a video processor (VP) and a CPU.

There is a reason why the APX 2500 contains all these components: it allows NVIDIA to control the entire flow of data between the GPU, Video Processor and CPU. Earlier handheld GPUs were sometimes paired with a slow CPU, a slow bus or worse: both.

TV-capable phones in Japan has just surpassed the 20 million mark despite being launched less than a couple of years ago. That’s roughly 16% of the population watching TV on their cell phones, never mind the fact that other devices which rely on 1Seg technology like laptops, portable media players, car navigation systems and electronic dictionaries are also in the market. Guess with much traveling being done on the train each day, the PSP and DS library of games aren’t enough just yet to satisfy the ever-hunger entertainment appetite within. Would you like to have a 1Seg-equivalent service proliferate society Stateside?

If you were wondering just where all those “missing” iphone’s were, we have the answer. Abroad. The estimated million-plus gap between handsets sold and official contracts signed is due the to smuggling of the Stupendabrick to foreign shores, most notably China. The New York Times’ David Barboza offers some details on this rampant gray market.

The phones come in to China via flight attendants or groups of tourists, and the going rate for a smuggled unit is around $30. Unlocking and adding Chinese language software costs the buyer around $25. The most ironic part, though, is the handset cost, which ranges from $400 to $600. This the same or cheaper than an official 8GB iPhone in Europe. Is it any wonder nobody outside of the US (and China) is buying them?

After China Ships Out iPhones, Smugglers Make It a Return Trip [NYT via DF]

Elonex of Britain has released its One laptop that retails for a mere £99. Powered by Linux, this laptop offers all standard creature comforts like a 3-hour battery life, WiFi connectivity, and a flash-based hard drive, all crammed into a hard-wearing case that tips the scales at less than 1kg. Most people will immediately spot parallels with the OLPC project and the Asus Eee, but so far the Elonex One seems to be the cheapest option among all the above mentioned. You’ll be contributing to society if you pick one up, since Elonex has pledged to donate one One laptop to underprivileged children for every 100 laptops sold.

Posted Feb 19th 2008 2:35AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Transportation

Remember that elusive WhiteStar we first got wind of earlier this month? Apparently, Tesla Motors is doing its best to round up a quarter-billion dollars over the next two years in order to produce the aforementioned electric sedan. Reportedly, the firm is deciding between Albuquerque, New Mexico or the East Bay area in California to construct its plant, and if all goes to plan, it’ll use that facility to crank out the 2010 luxury sports sedan. As expected, concrete details are scant at the moment, but we are hearing that it hopes to launch the WhiteStar for around “half the price of its roadster,” which currently retails in the US for a shade under $100,000.