Developages - Development and Technology Blog

For some time now, Dynamism has been a leading importer of Japanese gear like notebooks and cell phones. The company has often delved a bit further into the larger world of gadgetry, but until this point, it’s been little more than dipping its toes in the water.

Over the holiday weekend, however, the company announced the launch of Gizmine, an online retail storefront devoted to some of the cooler gadgets and gizmos it’s come across.

The new site features almost 500 products at present, including watches, speakers, cameras, toys, video games, and robots. Gizmine plans to expand to twice that by next year.

“All our most of [the products] are things that nobody has seen before and are often hilarious or…not exactly must-have but definitely want-to-have,” said Dynamism CEO Douglas Krone. “Basically, we are trying to bring that overwhelming blast feeling that comes with shopping in Tokyo online in a fun way.”

A quick trip to the site’s front page reveals a colorful cross section of weird products that will no doubt soon be on a few of our gift lists this year.

Original post by Brian Heater

Amazon may have missed the boat a bit by failing to introduce the Kindle’s second rev before the holiday season, but such a misstep seems to have had zero effect on the company’s popular, Oprah-endorsed ebook reader. Customers looking to pick up a new unit from the site in time for the holidays are out of luck.

Amazon now lists the Kindle’s shipping date as 11 to 13 weeks (though, gift-wrap, for the record, is still available). Amazon adds,

Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out. Please ORDER KINDLE NOW to reserve your place in line. We prioritize orders on a first come, first served basis. This item will arrive after December 24. Note that Kindles cannot currently be sold or shipped to customers living outside of the U.S.

Amazon still has listings for used units via third party sources. The used items, however, begin at $519.99–that’s up from a $359 new retail price.

Original post by Brian Heater

Want to join in on the RFID fun, but not feeling the whole having a chip implanted in your skin thing? The folks at Alcatel-Lucent want to bring you all of the fun of Radio-frequency identification, without the hassle of invasive surgery with Tikitag. The device acts as a way to anchor Websites to real world objects through the magic of RFID.

We were first introduced to the Tikitag a month or so back, during a press event. Alcatel-Lucent happily sent us a unit to check out, which, unfortunately, was a bit late in arriving, thanks to mailing delays. The Tikitag unit itself is a small, lightweight plastic box roughly the size of a deck of cards. The box has a USB cord that plugs into your PC and a little green light that flashes when the box is plugged in.

The box also ships with a pack of ten tags–little circular stickers with a long serial number on the front and RFID circuitry on the rear. To get started, go on to Tikitag’s site, create a user account, and then plug the box into your PC.

Each of the tags can be associated with a Website or other features like phone numbers accessible through Skype. Users associate the tags through the Tikitag site. The association process is fairly straight forward, though I found that that the site had a bit of trouble recognizing when I was holding a tag up to the box.

Once a tag is associated with, say, a site, holding it up to the box will automatically bring your browser to the specified URL. That’s pretty much it. Tikitag suggests various consumer applications for the device like associating a child’s toy with a pertinent Website, but really, the use of this device seems fairly limited, at best–how swiping an object passed the scanner trumps the fairly simple act of bookmarking a site in a browser is beyond me.

If, however, the concept is intriguing enough to you to warrant purchase, you can pick one up from Amazon for $50.

Original post by Brian Heater

Amazon missed the boat a bit when it pushed back the second iteration of its popular e-book reader. The Kindle’s new model, coupled with a beaming endorsement from Oprah, could have made the device the big hit of the holiday season. The company, however, opted to push it back in order to issue “last minute changes” to the gadget’s software.

According to TechCrunch, the new device is set to hit shelves in early Q1. The device is set to be thinner and longer than the original, with fixes to a number of button issues that plagued its predecessor.

A student version with a bigger screen is also set to drop the first half of next year, according to the site.

Original post by Brian Heater

When I posted a hands-on review of the new Buddha Machine 2 yesterday, I noted that something is inevitably lost in the translation. It’s just really tough to convey the magic of the player in a couple paragraphs. Fortunately, there always seems to be a video camera nearby.

We shot a quick hands-on video of the ambient-noise-generating box in action. Check it out, after the jump.

Original post by Brian Heater

Every so often a gadget comes around that manages to transcend the cheap plastic frame in which it’s encased. The first Buddha Machine was one such device. Created by a little -known Chinese company called F̅, the ambient-musical-loop-playing gadget proved a bit of a surprise hit, garnering a writeup in the New York Times and a compilation record of remixes, and eventually went on to sell an impressive 50,000 units.

Last week, Christiaan Virant and Zhang Jian, the duo behind F̅, announced the release of the second-gen Buddha Machine. Save for the three new color selections (burgundy, gray, and brown), the second incarnation of the box looks nearly identical to its predecessor–something along the lines of a cheap transistor radio you might pick up in Chinatown.

The gadget is roughly the size of a pack of cigarettes with a large speaker monopolizing the front. There are two dials on the top of the box, with a 3.5-mm headphone jack between them. A single button and a power light sit on one side. The rear of the device opens up accept two AA batteries.

The Buddha Box 2 features nine new ambient sound loops. The new selection is noticeably more diverse than those of its predecessor–a welcome change. One of my biggest issues with the first incarnation of the box was its relatively limited aural palate. The selections on number 2 should fit a wider range of ambient-suitable scenarios. For further variation, the box also includes a wheel that bends the loops’ pitch, to help you tailor the sound perfectly to its surroundings.

On a whole, the changes to the device aren′t really major. But let’s face it, the first version of the box wasn′t really broken anyway. If you purchased the first incarnation, all you get with the second-generation is a couple of new sounds and the option of pitch bending, but if you’re a fan, it might be worth the $25 price tag.

For those unfamiliar with the device, you can check out some sound samples at FM3’s site. It’s hard to really express the appeal and therapeutic nature of the box beyond that, but if you find the concept intriguing, you don’t have much to lose by picking one up.

Original post by Brian Heater

Are you a 3D designer/modeler? If you’re longing to see your creations made manifest, Shapeways–an online service, currently in public beta–is where you should be. Upload your model, and the Shapeways “prints” it into an object, then ships it to you.

Objects are printed from a variety of polymer-based materials–right now, colors are limited to cream, white, clear and most recently, black, but more Shapeways plans to add materials periodically. And pricing is determined by the amount of material your model requires; it’s not terribly cheap, but that’s understandable, considering the utter futuristic coolness of what you’re getting.

The company’s site is much more than just a place to order models: It features numerous tutorials for designers, forums, and a gallery of design work that’s a blast to peruse.

And if you’re fascinated by this whole idea (like me) but aren’t a CAD expert, Shapeways offers two design templates. With the candle holder, you can choose the material, the words, and whether they spiral or wrap horizontally (our creation, at left, cost around $90, including shipping). There’s also a customizable fruit-bowl design.

To get an idea of how 3D printing actually works, check out Shapeway’s video, after the jump.

Original post by Carol Mangis

Optoma today announced that the Pico mPK-101,which the company claims is the world’s smallest DLP projector, will be going on sale on December 15th–just in time for you to fill up a stocking full of tiny projectors.

The Pico PK-101 weighs 4 oz. and measures 2 x 4.1x 0.7-inches. The micro-portable DLP will be available through Amazon and Best Buy.com, for a suggested $399.

Original post by Brian Heater

Haven’t you heard? Tiny projectors are the cool new thing in the world of consumer electronics, and while everyone can’t be the world’s smallest (which, of course, isn’t to say that everyone can’t call themselves the world’s smallest), it seems like everyone is bringing out their very own tiny projector

3M, the Minnesota-based company behind such household necessities as Scotch Tape and Post-it notes, showed off their very own version, last night at the CES Unveiled event in Manhattan. The MPr𛈆 weighs in under a pound and, as pictured, fits fairly well in the palm of one’s hand.

The projector should give you images up to 50-inches–though last night in the reasonably well-lit surrounds, it was hard to see much of anything. The projector as tended to get pretty hot while it was playing as well. The device features a rechargeable lithium ion battery, which should give you about 60 minutes in one go–about two-thirds of a short movie.

The best part of the projector is that, unlike a lot of the other products we′ve seen in this space, the MPro110 is actually available for sale You can pick it up for $359.

Original post by Brian Heater

This elegant timepiece may not offer as much practical ‘geek′ as we have come to expect from the latest feature-laden Casios. However, the Equinox Watch, conceived by the Portuguese designer Nuno Teixeira, will certainly keep you on time… in a celestial sort of way.

The watch functions by representing the exact time when the sun is positioned directly over the equator, says Tuvie. The two opposite dials were designed to display the Sun, representing the hours, and the Earth showing minutes.

The Equinox Watch appears to be a pure concept. Its movement also remains somewhat of a mystery. Is it quartz or is it more like those sliding paper calendars from the fifties? Does it use batteries, and if so, what kind? One thing is clear: it has buttons and looks mighty cool!

Want to drool over some more ingenious timepieces? Check out PC Mag’s recent review of the 10 Geeky Digital Watches.

Original post by Steven Volynets

Keian Japan’s photo frame plans not just to replace your boring digital photo frame, but also your printer AND your audio player. The Keian Japan P71-A2-JP is a box-like contraption with a 7-inch 480 x 234 display. It has a card slot that can support up to 32GB of SDHC cards and memory sticks, and a USB connector which brings up the possibility, like what Akihabara News observed, of connecting an external hard drive to it.

Every time you have a friend over who sees the picture on the screen and wants a copy of it, you can print it directly through the built-in printer that has a 300dpi resolution and churns out 100 x 150 mm sized photos. And, while you’re viewing slideshows, you can take advantage of the MP3 file support and listen to some music. Talk about all-in-one.

Original post by Mariella Moon

Don’t have $250 for a Wii? Well, maybe you can afford the next best thing: The Jakks Pacific UltiMotion Swing Zone Sports.

The UltiMotion Swing Zone Sports, whose controllers use the same type of technology the Wii remote uses, comes with baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, and football games. What distinguishes UltiMotion Swing Zone from the Wii is that the game controllers look like real sports equipment. For example, when playing baseball on the UltiMotion, you snap the controller inside the baseball bat provided. This makes it feel like you′re really playing that game.

The UltiMotion Swing Zone Sports includes a game console with an AV cable, game controller and five controller accessories. It can play up to two players at a time. To play simply insert two AAA batteries for the game controller and four AA batteries for the game console and let the fun begin.

The UltiMotion Swing Zone Sports sells for $69.96, at Walmart and other retailers.

Original post by Gearlog

Panasonic today confirmed plans to purchase fellow Japanese electronics manufacturer, Sanyo.

The acquisition, which is being valued at around $8.8 billion, would create the largest consumer electronics company in that country, surpassing Hitachi and becoming number two in the world, behind General Electric.

“Adverse business conditions are making it difficult for us to achieve the kind of growth we have been striving for,” Panasonic President Fumio Ohtsubo told Reuters at a news conference. “We need a new growth engine within our group.”

Original post by Brian Heater

Share music, video or photos with anyone, anywhere with the miShare: This smart little device lets you transfer music, video or photos without the use of a computer or a cable.

This is the device I have been waiting for. It was so frustrating to have to get to a computer just to a copy a song from a friend onto my iPod; now I don′t have to.

The miShare makes the process of sharing files easier than ever before. To transfer files, connect both iPods to the miShare; click the on-switch to music, video or photos; click the only button on the device; and let the transferring begin.

The miShare works with all mini, nano, 3G, 4G, Video (5G), and Classic (6G) iPod models. Unfortunately this nifty gadget doesn’t currently work with the iPod Touch or iPhone, but the company is working on it.

The miShare is $99 and can be purchased directly from the manufacturer. Start sharing your favorite files with a friend now.

[Via Yahoo Tech].

Original post by Gearlog

Palit Multimedia has announced that it will begin shipments of its first HD 4870 X2 card next week.

Palit claims its Revolution 700 Deluxe will be the most powerful single graphics card on the planet, given that the card is built around the Radeon HD 4870 X2 architecture. Palit also claims its card will be the first custom Radeon HD 4870 X2 card on the market.

According to a Palit spokesman, the card will be priced at about $500 and will ship next week. It includes 2 Gbytes of GDDR-5 memory on board. While it is overclocked, Palit did not release the actual clock speeds. “Engineering has not settled on a shipping clock but it will be at least 750 MHz on the core and 3,800 MHz (DDR) for the memory,” a Palit spokesman said.

According to Palit, the selling point of the card is the cooling system. Palit combined two pulse-width modulated low-noise fans with four heat pipes, which the company claims will adequately cool the card. As most cooling solutions do, the fan is sped up or slowed down, depending on the load put on the card.

Palit also claimed that its Revolution 700 Deluxe supports DisplayPort, HDMI, Dual-link DVI, and D-Sub (VGA), a first.

AMD boasted that the Radeon HD 4870 Ͳ architecture was the fastest card in the world when it was announced in September. Since then, ATI’s reference design has been reviewed, and an MSI version card has been stacked up against a CrossFire implementation as well as a GeForce GTX 260.

Original post by Mark Hachman