Its Electronica

Elvis Duck

You can have this for ?6.95

The modern day equivalent of the baby “brag book,” the pint-sized digital photo viewers that can be worn on a keychain, have come a long way since their introduction. The new Digital Foci Pocket Album holds upto 74 digital photos, with 8 MB internal flash memory; has up to 9 hours of battery life; can run automatic slideshows or scoll photos manually, has an LCD contrast adjustable for choosing the best viewing angle; and includes sofware to convert JPG and BMG images from your computer to the Pocket Album. (That means you’ll still need to help Grandma set it up.)

Still, it is one of the easier digital photo albums I’ve tired — the software automatically resizes for optimal storage and display on the digital keychain. At $29.99, it makes a perfect Mother’s Day gift, but I’d still preload it for her with family photos; conveniently, those naked baby butt photos of you will never see the light of day.

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If this thing has more than ten minutes of battery life, it could be the best UMPC yet. The Willcom D4 weighs only 470g (1lb), comes with a gig of RAM, Bluetooth EDR, WiFi, a two Megapixel camera, a 5″, 1024×600 touch screen, a 40GB hard drive and runs on a 1.33GHz Intel ATOM Z520 chipset.

The keyboard slides out from underneath the LED backlit screen, which means that in tablet mode this looks more like a PSP than a miniature PC. The D4 will be on sale in Japan from June for ¥130,000 (around $1300), and will be able to run Windows Vista Home Premium. Of course, any self-resecting gadget lover will wipe that immediately and load this up with XP or Ubuntu Linux. And about that battery life. The specs says that this aspect is still being measured. An extra, bulk battery pack is mentioned several times, so don’t get your hopes too high.

Press release [Sharp via Akihabara News]

Google has joined forces with charities, conservationists and non-governmental organizations to help raise awareness of endangered species around the world.

The new initiative is part of the Google Earth Outreach program, which aims to help non-profit and public benefit organizations to get the word out about what they do and make the public more aware. In this instance, Google Earth will have a new layer added that will offer users written, video and audio information on endangered species in different parts of the world.

The new layer has been made possible through the use of information already available through the ARKive project. The not-for-profit organization Wildscreen started the ARKive initiative, which aims to bring together the scattered knowledge of our endangered species. Now the ARKive layer will be available through Google Earth and Maps, hopefully opening the information up to more people than ever before.

Sir David Attenborough, well-known British wildlife broadcaster for the BBC, attended the Google headquarters in London to launch the ARKive layer late last week. He said:

Google has come together with Wildscreen, who have this unique distillation of images of the natural world, so that any one of us can go to a particular area on the globe and see what lives there … Google can take you to parts of the world where you can actually see a flock of flamingos and know whether they are there, or whether they are on the way out. For me this is an extraordinary day, I’m thrilled to be here at this particular moment - when Google, Wildscreen, and its ARKive project, come together to put a weapon of unparalleled value into the hands of all of us who care about the natural world.

Read more at Telegraph.co.uk and the ARKive press release

Matthew’s Opinion

Google Earth is a great application that provides a wealth of information to viewers. That information pool keeps growing and helping everyone to understand the world a little better. When it first came out everyone just used it to look up where they lived and other places they knew of. Now you can use it like an encyclopaedia, looking up interesting destinations and being provided with detailed information on a range of topics.

Adding information on endangered species to Google Earth will hopefully make everyone more aware of just what is disappearing from the planet. It should also lead to more work being done, and more aid being made available to save what might otherwise be lost.

LG Electronics recently announced the global launch of the third LG Black Label Series handset.

The design heritage of the LG Black Label Series will continue on to the third handset boasting its smart technology with the latest and sophisticated features including the slimmest 5MP camera.

Similar to the previous LG Black Label Series handsets, the latest model also carries a product concept derived from today’s trend leaders. This new concept of ‘Style that Lasts’ reflects the timeless and elegant design of the phone enhanced by stylish materials such as carbon fiber and tempered glass.

The phone will be unveiled on April 24th starting from Europe and on to the rest of the world, and the product name of the third LG Black Label Series model will be revealed at the official launch.

As you may have heard, though many people don’t seem to be giving it much attention, this year marks the 25th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. Now, thanks to a partnership between Michael Jackson, Epic/Legacy Records, Big Stage, and YouTube you will be able to star in your very own Thriller video. You heard me correctly–thanks to technology you can replace Michael Jackson with a 3D version of yourself.

To put yourself into your own Thriller video you need the latest version of Flash and three-close up photos of yourself taking with a digital camera. The video starring you is automatically created after you have uploaded the pictures. You can access the special “My Thriller Video” by going to the Michael Jackson website and registering for a free account.

For those children of the 80’s or those who simply remember how popular Thriller was this will be a nice nostalgic journey. I must admit I would have loved to have switched places with Michael Jackson back in the 80’s, but not so much now. Now, putting myself in a Thriller video is probably as close as I want to get to becoming like Michael Jackson.

Read more from the joint press release.

In a move that’s sure to get the attention of Apple’s lawyers, one company has started advertising a new $400 Hackintosh dubbed the “OpenMac.” Mind you, it’s not the desktop’s name that’s likely to cause trouble, but rather the fact that Psystar (the company selling the machine) is claiming it will ship with a fully compatible version of Leopard.

This is apparently accomplished with the help of an EFI emulator and a few drivers.

Says Psystar:

With the EFI V8 emulator it is possible to install Leopard’s kernel straight from the DVD that you purchased at the Apple store barring the addition of a few drivers to ensure that everything boots and runs smoothly.

Now, it’s clear the company is trying to market the OpenMac as a cheaper, more expandable alternative to a real Mac, which is great. But Apple’s End User License Agreement is pretty clear about where it’s OS can appear: that would be Apple-branded hardware exclusively. And while it’s one thing to do a little tinkering on your own, I suppose it’s quite another for a company to do it for you — and potentially make a profit off of it.

Note: Psystar is at least making people pay for certified copies of Leopard.

[Psystar via MacRumors]

Now this is definitely a special projector by all accounts, as it is capable of projecting content loaded onto a microSD memory card, hence its relatively compact size. While you won’t get full HD images plastered on your wall, at least you don’t have to break a shoulder carrying it around. If you don’t have any media on your microSD card, fret not. It is capable of accepting a standard RCA input from a game console, DVD player or an equivalent. Powered by a quartet of AA batteries, the microSD Memory Card Projector retails for $197 each and is capable of projecting images up to 40″ x 33″. No idea why the memory card shown here looks more like a regular SD card though.

In the “is this really necessary” department, you’ll find the Ziszor handheld paper shredder. Everything in this day and age gets miniaturized, huh? The perfect use of this gadget for those on-the-go execs who need to shred ATM receipts or perhaps those guys in the West Wing who only seem to get information via little pieces of paper which they promptly eat. Kidding. But if they had a Ziszor, no more indigestion.

The Ziszor is 10″ long and weighs less than 1.5lbs, nice and light. It also has an attachable plastic bag to catch all those little shreddings. Is that a word? Runs on 4 AA batteries which is probably where a lot of the weight lies. You can snag a Ziszor from their site currently on sale for $40.

Gimme!

More info from the manufacturer

Price: $39.95 (current offer)
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Posted in Gizmo of the Day, Home Automation, Miscellaneous

SD card 64MB
This memory storage device is as small as a postage stamp; however licking it won't give you that extra memory boost.

You can have this for ?4.99