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As I write this, my dog Henry, a daschund, is happily chewing his “Pig in a Blanket,” a rubber treat dispenser. I stuffed one of his favorite biscuits into the bottom of the pig and Henry is going “hog-wild.” (Sorry.)

What’s more, the plastic piggie is “wrapped” in bacon and gives off the scent of one of dog’s favorite foods, so Henry will be busy for a long time to come. $9.99 from Fat Cat and Bamboo Pets, who have make some of the most creative and playful dog (and cat) toys.

Original post by Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

Filed under: Cellphones

Hardware fanatics, listen up — a golden egg has been laid in the form of the Samsung I7110. Arriving with a slightly sleeker design than on the earlier spotted i7110c, this Symbian ₨-based candybar has been revealed to the world today in London. Specs wise, you’re looking at a luscious 2.6-inch AMOLED display, FM radio / transmitter , GPS navigation (with geotagging functionality), an accelerometer, “3D graphics,” Bluetooth 2.0, HSDPA and WiFi. Additionally, it packs a 5-megapixel camera (with Auto Focus and a LED flash), robust multimedia player (DivX support included), 50MB of internal memory, a microSDHC slot, video recording, 11-hours of talk time and a 12.9-millimeter thin body. Price remains a mystery, but those in Russia will be the first in the know when it launches there next month. As for everyone else? Patience.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We’ve had iriver’s SPINN laying around the Engadget HQ for a little while, and figure we′ve finally fiddled with the player enough to write down some impressions. If you′re looking for the one liner, here it is: we′re blown away by the beauty of the hardware, but the barebones player software, lack of an “ecosystem,” and hefty price really hurt its chances with the mainstream. Full thoughts after the break.

Continue reading iriver SPINN review

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

It’s been a long wait since we first saw iriver hint at the SPINN way back at CES in January, but the flash player is finally shipping — just a few days late. Our full hands-on impressions are on the way, but there’s no denying that iriver has caught our eye with this distinctive player. 3.3-inch OLED touchscreen, unique spin controls and that traditional iriver eye for design make this thing potentially worth the hefty $250 (4GB) and $290 (8GB) asking prices — though we have a few issues with long-term usability we’ll need to hash out. It’ll be available at iriverinc.com, Amazon.com, J&R and B&H online stores, though iriver’s seems to be the only one with it live just yet.

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

We’ve seen some fairly fascinating things at CEATEC this year, but this one could be the biggest game-changer of ‘em all, if you′ll allow us just one buzzword. The LED-backlit 52-incher you see above comes attached to a not-at-all convenient solar floor panel which presumably provides at least some of the energy required to power this thing. We’ve no clue how close the design is to being viable for the commercial realm, but we’d say Sharp’s definitely headed in the right direction here.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. Pricing for Sharp’s sexiest, freshest and altogether loveliest HDTVs has arrived. As stated at CEATEC in Japan, the 65-inch LC-65X̿U-S will sell for a whopping ¥1.28 million ($12,225), while the 52-inch LC-52X̿U-S goes for ¥980,000 ($9,243). We’d expect those figures to be a touch lower whenever they come stateside, but rest assured, you’ll be breaking into the piggy bank if either of these is to be your next set.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

Look out, tweens — Philips has a new line of LCD TVs aimed squarely at your wall / bedroom pedestal. Introduced over in Italy, the Flavors family will initially consist of a 22-, 32- and 42-inch set, the latter of which packs a 1080p panel, 30,000:1 contrast ratio, 5-millisecond response time, 500 cd/m2 brightness and a pair of HDMI ports. The concept here is pretty easy to grasp — each set comes bundled with two interchangeable frames which are reportedly held up by good ole magnetism, and if two just aren’t enough, more can certainly be ordered. Currently, Philips simply has a placeholder page up for the new crew, so we’ll just let you simmer on the prices for now: they’ll be €549 ($803), €799 ($1,168) and €1,199 ($1,754) in order of mention.

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Displays, HDTV, Home Entertainment

We still haven’t been able to shake the ViewSonic dragon from our memory, but we’re attempting to move on with our lives by directing our attention (however briefly) to the N2201w. This so-called “3-in-1″ LCD TV packs a 22-inch 1,680 x 1,050 resolution panel, a 5-millisecond response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio and a built-in NTSC / ATSC / QAM TV tuner. You’ll also find an integrated DVD player and an HDMI port, and just to prove it really is multifaceted, there’s a PC input to boot. No telling if the picture quality is anything to write home about, but the $429 price tag sure is palatable.

[Via CEPro]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Storage

If you’ll notice, HP isn’t using just any SSD drive to hit 24 hours of insanity with the EliteBook 6930p — it’s all about that Intel 80GB SSD, which has new optimizations to boost speed and apparently energy usage over current flash drives. Well, Intel also picked today to get all official about the drive itself, and it’s clear those improvements and Intel′s brand name come at a price: the 2.5-inch 80GB “X25-M” drive will retail for $595 when it hits this week. There’s also a 3.5-inch version, the X18-M, but we’re less clear on infos there. PC Per put the 2.5-incher through its paces, albeit with a slightly dated firmware version, and came away impressed, calling it the “top performing storage solution” period. We want.

Read - Intel releases pricing, details on solid-state drives
Read - PC Per’s Intel X25-M 80GB SSD review

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Original post by Paul Miller

Filed under: Peripherals

As if a keyboard split down the middle wasn’t enough, Kinesis has now rolled out a pair of new accessories that promise to make its Freestyle keyboards, including the Solo (pictured above), even more ergonomic — or, if you desire, even less so. Those include the Freestyle V3 accessory, which clips onto the base of the keyboard and gives you three different slope settings, and the Freestyle Ascent Multi-tent, which’ll let you independently set each keying module in ten degree increments all the way up to 90 degrees, and lock ‘em in at the desired distance apart from one another. If that sounds like the solution your wrists have been looking for, you can apparently grab both of ‘em now, with the V3 running $25 and the Ascent setting you back a hefty $200 — the Solo keyboard itself demands an even $100.

[Via BIOS]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Although DISH Network’s previous quarter wasn′t anything to write home about, it sounds like the satcaster (EchoStar, technically) isn′t going to allow its set-top line to grow stale in the process. During the recent Team Summit in Nashville, Tennessee, DISH’s CEO Charlie Ergen reiterated that it would be beaming out “more than 100 national HD channels″ by the end of 2008, and he also made mention that the EchoStar 11 satellite would lift off in July. Most interesting, however, was all the talk about the new STBs. The forthcoming ViP 722 will be the first HD DVR from the outfit with loads of Sling technology built in — not too shocking considering the recent acquisition. Additionally, the box is said to feature an all new interface and the ability to browse to (select) websites, double as a SlingCatcher and even handle Clip &amp Sling duties. There′s plenty more where this came from, so be sure and hit the read link when you’ve got some spare time for reading.

[Via GizmoLovers]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

The folks at Xerox has been working on their “erasable paper″ idea for some time now, but it looks like they′ve been making some real progress as of late, with them now even going so far as to say that they hope to have an actual product available sometime next year. The paper itself, however, appears to still use the same basic technology they′ve been working on all along — namely, a coating of photosensitive chemicals that turn white when hit by ultraviolet light or react to product text when scanned specific wavelength of light. The text can then be erased on command by feeding it through a special printer, or left to disappear on its own over a period of 24 hours. On the downside, the paper is apparently useless if it’s been folded or wrinkled, or written on with a pen. No word on an expected price for the paper or printer just yet, unfortunateyl, but Xerox seems to be betting that the savings in paper (and consequential environmental benefits) will be enough to offset whatever premium they′ll likely cost.

[Via The Inquirer, image courtesy of Xerox / Greig Reekie]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Storage

Here’s a novel idea: rather than stressing over the choice between solar or hydroelectric power sources to keep that green data center running, just build the thing near a community pool. Apparently that’s exactly what’s happening in Uitikon, Switzerland, as an IBM-built center erected for GIB-Services AG is using its excess heat to warm a local swimming pool. Put simply, the warmth emitted by the computers will be piped through a heat exchanger to boost the temperature of water used in the neighboring pool, and while the town had to cover some of the equipment costs to make it come together, it’ll reap the oh-so-steamy benefits for free.

[Via FashionFunky, thanks Yash]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Here’s a curious one. Straight out of JVC’s Japanese laboratory comes the Publio TX-700, which was seemingly created to be used in stores to play back video files and promotional stills depending on what type of sale was ongoing. Still, we see a fair bit more potential in this 7-inch gizmo. It does look a tad bulky — we’ll give you that — but it manages to feature MPEG1/2, MP3, JPEG and BMP format support, an SD expansion slot, built-in stereo speakers, USB 2.0 connectivity and a programmable on / off setting. Unfortunately, we’re left wondering what the screen resolution, price and availability dates are, but feel free to ask the owner of the next retail establishment you find one in where he / she managed to procure it from.

[Via AkihabaraNews]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Transportation

Sure, we’ve seen cellphones intermingle with traffic data before, but Nokia’s looking to up the ante in a big way by utilizing a large network of GPS-enabled handsets to actually predict traffic patterns and help you avoid congestion before you even leave for that afternoon appointment. In a recent trial involving 100 volunteer drivers (and an equal amount of ỗs), the handset maker teamed up with UC Berkeley to test the effectiveness of using a device most people already own (read: cellphones) to beam out traffic data rather than installing permanent sensors in roadways. Eventually, Nokia hopes to expand the experiment to over 1,000 folks, and just in case you privacy junkies can already feel your heart racing, you can rest assured that all “personal identifying information” was stripped before being sent back for analysis.

Read - Nokia turns people into traffic sensors
Read - Video: Nokia test drives traffic monitoring system

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Original post by Darren Murph