Its Electronica

With an overall positive review, Walt Mossberg claims the X300 is “a solid, innovative laptop that will be perfect for many mobile PC users.” Making the obvious comparison to its rival, the X300 seems to have a little more to offer feature wise as compared to the MacBook Air, with a few downfalls coming from the operating system and battery life.

“I believe that both the Mac operating system and the software that comes with it are superior to the Windows operating system and built-in software offered on the ThinkPad.”

I have to agree with him on the OS, but this is just a matter of preference and we will also have our personal reasons for which OS we prefer. Mossberg goes on to mention the battery life, which was only slightly less on the X300. The X300 battery life lasted 3 hours and 5 minutes, which is about 24 minutes less than that of the MacBook Air when running similar services. The battery testing was done with the power-saving features turned off, the screen set to be as bright as can be with Wi-Fi turned on and music playing on repeat.

The X300 does have some notable extras over the Air that include an ethernet port, 3 USB ports, internal DVD drive and a removable battery, but that does come with a little more weight. Depending on the configuration of the X300 it can be as much as 3.5-pounds where the macbook air comes in at 3-pounds even. A few other options that are available with the X300 are wireless USB, WiMAX, WWAN access and GPS.

Mossberg ends his review with a statement of praise, claiming the ThinkPad X300 is “a notable engineering accomplishment” and would be “perfect for many mobile PC users” assuming they do not mind the price, which will run up to about $3000.

Read [All Things Digital]

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Toshiba T400BL 4GB mp3 player

Hold out the palm of your hand and accept the freedom to experience your music, your photos, and your video everywhere you go. Toshibas T400 Gigabeat#174 portable media player delivers 4GB of storage space#32#151#32a 1,000 song or 4,000 photo capacity#32#151#32in a sophisticated brushed black metal alloy body. The 2.4 LCD screen gives you an ideal viewing area for both navegating your audio and video collection#32#151#32with the aid of the PlusPadtrade#32#151#32and viewing your favorite photos and video. Sixteen hours of audio and 5 hours of video playback battery life mean that your new T400 will keep up with your demand for the ultimate in audio and video experience.

Technorati Tags: Toshiba

If you’re a fan of Super Mario Bros then this is the keychain for you.

This nifty little handheld gizmo is preloaded with six classic sounds from the greatest side-scroller in history. Simply press a button and you’ll be transported back to the Mushroom Kingdom faster than you can say ‘Mamma mia, dezza King Koopa widda da Princess Toadstool.’ There are six incredibly evocative sounds, including, Big, Coin, 1Up, Jump, Start and Ouch.

Available from Firebox for £7.95 (~$15).

T-Equalizer T-Shirt

As The Beat Goes On…..The T-Equalizer is a shirt with a built in graphic equalizer panel that is sound sensitive. As the music beats, the shirts equalizer lights up to the beat of the music. Great for concerts, raves, parties etc.The T-Equalizer is made from 100% cotton. It has a fully functional EL (Electro Luminenscence) panel with a battery pack that snuggles discretely into a pocket inside the shirt. The end result is an awesome sound sensitive music T-Shirt that commands attention.Each frequency of music will activate a different equalizer bar, just like the equalizer on your home stereo!Features Size Guide (chest width):Small: 42.5cm Medium: 45cmLarge: 47.5cmPlease select your size in the dropdown box above

Technorati Tags: Toys 4 Boys

Posted Feb 23rd 2008 9:52AM by Joshua Topolsky

Tired of the air not doing enough for you? Well, a new project called Green Freedom — headed up by researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory — seeks to improve air’s contribution to our planet. The new technology would provide a method of extracting CO2 from the air and then converting the gas into fuel for cars or airplanes — thus sucking out toxins from our atmosphere while creating a renewable energy source. The process uses a form of electrochemical separation to siphon juice out of the typically poisonous gas, yet has a low environmental impact with a small waste-stream output. The plan calls for the use of existing plants, which will stem the need to build new facilities, enabling the environmental footprint to remain relatively small. Clearly, it’s not being put into general practice yet, but it’s a hopeful taste of things to come.

[Via Inhabitat]

Posted Feb 22nd 2008 11:57PM by Ryan Block
Filed under: cellphones

With seven days left in the month to announce the iphone SDK, BusinessWeek is reporting that they’ve got it from a reliable source that it’s going to be late by between a week to three. Yes, it would absolutely suck — but there’s always Ziphone.

Posted Feb 23rd 2008 6:04AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. gadgets

When talking menus just aren’t futuristic enough, we reckon Teraoka’s Deli Touch pen — which strongly reeks of LeapFrog’s Tag — is the next best thing. The system works with barcode-laden menus and enables customers to simply swipe their choices and have them beamed directly to the kitchen. Besides hastening the order process and keeping the interaction between customer and waiter / waitress at a minimum, the device may also give you a solid reason to skimp on the tip — not that we’d recommend such a thing, of course. Unfortunately, we’ve no idea if this setup is built to play nice with picky eaters and their laundry list of special requests, so we’d probably recommend steering clear unless you’re totally cool with the standard fare.

[Via PopGadget]

Unfortunately, as we are getting older, so does our eyes. This means that even if you have a healthy eyes and a good clear vision now, that won’t last forever. Old people that need to read something need to carry a different pair of glasses - one for reading, one for main use. Technologies try to help people to step over these problems, from contact lenses to a laser surgery. This solution is the most unusual and high-tech one.

Vuzix SightMate looks just like a virtual reality glasses. However, it has only one “eye”, and is made to help people with eyesight problems read comfortably. It is magnifying all that is in front of you, to make the image clear and readable. This gadget uses a combination of edge detection, contrast enhancement and optical zoom to help those with Glaucoma and Diabetic Retinopathy diagnosis. The worst side of this gadget is a very narrow field of usage - it can be used only when sitting down, because it impairs your peripheral vision very bad. Nevertheless, it greatly improves reading, so choose for yourself.

Nowadays, technologies can help almost every handicapped person to live a full life. If you want to improve your reading experience, if the poor vision makes you unable to read your favorite books, and you are not afraid of looking like a cyborg - this gadget can be interesting for you. However… Everything nice in this gadget can be forgotten looking at its huge price tag of 3499 dollars - a very big price for upgraded glasses. You can get a laser eye surgery nearly at this cost and forget about poor vision at all, or buy these high-tech glasses that you will need to carry all the way around you. Choose what is most appropriate for you.

Posted Feb 23rd 2008 3:27AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: GPS, Transportation, Wireless

And you thought puttering around the intarwebz on your EDGE-capable iphone was bad — just think of trying to find anything on the ‘net while accidentally moseying through a dodgy part of town. Nevertheless, BMW is gearing up to offer “unrestricted access” to the web as an option in any new 2008 vehicle, but alas, it’s only for European clients at the moment. Of course, BMW’s no stranger to letting bits and pieces of the web into its motorcars, but this creation will let you catch up on the latest gadget news and pre-order the latest Elmo doll from the comfort of your heated seat. Sadly, the service is only available to front seat passengers when the car is in park (it’s for the best, we know), but your kiddos can surf into all sorts of bizarre chatrooms while seated in the rear. Nothing like a predator tailing you on the autobahn!

Crap Inventions

You can have this for ?7.95