InsanityTech - Software & Hardware

Business cards with video footage

tinkutza — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:09:08 +0000

Well now, what do we have here? It seems that advertising is going up a step at a time. The new thing for promoting your business seems to be business cards with video footage on them. rCard Multimedia has created a concept called EDG. Just a little bit thicker than an average business card, this baby comes with an LCD screen, a speaker and video playback controls.

This kind of promoting works well when words aren’t enough and you pull out the business card and show your client the product in action. Using a mini-USB the giver can upload videos on the card and the receiver can download additional PR content. For me, this concept does it. Like they say, images speak louder than words, and if this kind of business cards “sell” products, than we will see it everywhere.

From $17.50 to $29, you must be sure that your product is worth buying when giving away a card like this.

X-ray Vision, not just a superpower anymore

tinkutza — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:21:49 +0000

This thingy is for all of us that wanted to have superpowers like superman or just wanted to see beneath the clothes of girls. Oh no, wait! That was me. In case I am not alone in this, then you would definitely love this contraption.

In the David Steele catalog it appears that the secret of X-ray vision has been discovered. This X-ray Vision Camera Lens can be attached to almost any camcorder and works like and infrared filter. It is based on the fact that most clothing can allow light and infrared light to pass through the fabric, and this light is reflected back through the clothing. And what we see is the reflected normal light mixed with the infrared light, and the lens can filter the normal light out. This way the clothes will look transparent or semi-transparent.

I for one, would find this fun for about a day or two, then I would start to go out with girls and see how underneath the clothes feels like. And for a couple of days of fun, $199 is a bit too much for me. Over and out!

Music flowing like water, literally

tinkutza — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:39:04 +0000

I know many of us have thought about the music we listen to as being cool, or heart-warming or whatever, but did you ever see music as running like tap water? If not, and I haven’t also, some crazier people did and they made it happen. The concept is named Music Flow, and it’s the brainchild of Yanko Design.

To play music you turn the faucet knob, and the music starts flowing into headphones that are connected to the spigot. Furthermore, if you pinch the headphone cable, the music stops. But wait, there’s more. The remote "looks like waves" and controls the player without the faucet knob and the faucet knob is actually also a disguised speaker. The spigot has a battery inside that you charge before you attach it to a wall or whatever.

It seems that each item will be sold separately. Me, I prefer a plain-old music player.

Verizon put out Samsung Omnia

tinkutza — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 09:39:54 +0000

It’s time to get busy making the X-mass list. Who cares if you got one month until then, you can never be too prepared. And I know some of you out there want what’s the best in mobile phones, so we got for you Samsung Omnia. Packing a 3.2” touch screen display and Windows Mobile 6.1, from what birdies told me in different reviews, it seems we are in for one of the best phones out there.

Let’s see what else we got under the hood. Well to start, we got the TouchWiz, that allows us users to tune and customize the phone the way we want it with widgets. You get one-touch access to the applications you use most. The keyboard is an on-screen QWERTY.

If this isn’t enough for you to add this baby on the X-mass list, here is some more for y’all: Opera 9.5 Mobile Browser support, a 5 megapixel camera with digital zoom and LED flash, video recording capability, stereo Bluetooth connectivity and Wi-Fi support. The retail price is $249.99 and a $70 mail-in rebate and agreeing to a 2-year contract. Not sure about adding this to my shopping list, but on my wish list, I definitely will add.

Xerox EverFlat Paper

tinkutza — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:24:16 +0000

Now we all know that Xerox is a household name. They don’t need to come up with anything new to let us know that they are boss when it comes to printing, paper technology and other stuff. But, they decided that all this wasn’t enough and the big brains there at Xerox came up with the EverFlat Paper. Wasn’t paper already flat? Well you are missing the point if you are asking this question. The idea behind this is for books and photos to lay completely flat so they would look better for us mere mortals. This means that pages will bend, bow or arc no more.

Along with the EverFlat paper, Xerox came out with four new photo paper products. The first one on our list is Xerox PhotoPix. It’s a -cut, tabloid-sized sheet that creates one 8″ x 10″, one 5″ x 7″ and four wallet-size high-gloss photos. It’s very easy on our pockets, as you can print up to 6 photos on one paper and it is also perforated in the center so it can be folded and placed into a conventional envelope.

Next up is the SportsPix, a letter-sized, pre-cut sheet that simplifies the process of printing on-demand trading cards. From one SportsPix sheet you get two double-sided cards, both matching size and thickness.

Third is the FunFlip, which is similar to an origami, but with photos. It all starts as a letter-sized sheet that folds into a 3″ x 3″ square, and then can unfold to display four different images. It can be used to create unique product presentations or invitations or whatever your mind can think of. The sky is the limit.

AccordianPix is the last on the list. It’s application that is folded into a free-standing, panorama of eight images. It comes with no additional finishing.

All this being said, let’s give it up to Xerox for reminding us again why they rule.

Computer Data Protection with Self Destruct Capability

tinkutza — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 14:31:01 +0000

This thing right here is so far the only real data protection system for computers. Absolute Software, its maker, is the top of the pile when it comes to computer theft recovery, data protection and secure asset tracking solutions. Their service is not free, but not expensive either. It’s only £60 per laptop and you get a whole list of services: a security policy adhered by every staff member, authorization for the right staff members, the possibility to know exactly how many devices are used by the organization, accountability needed to retrieve devices from those employees leaving the organization, and tracking, which enables tracking and recovering lost or stolen computers, with the option to self-destruct sensitive data stored on them.

The service goes by the name of ComputraceOne and even if it may sound like a little James Bond-ish, I am sure that some people will actually find it very useful. The ComputraceOne is loaded on the hard drive and in the BIOS. If on the stolen laptop the hard drive is replaced of formatted, the C1 Agent from the BIOS will start rebuilding the files needed for controlling the hardware from the Monitoring Centre server, making it impossible to remove the service without a special password. I don’t have any use for it, as I don’t work in the military or something like that, but I am sure there are lost of people that will find this a life and job saver.

Sony tested their new FED Display

tinkutza — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:23:03 +0000

Just when you thought there is nothing cooler than playing Grand Turismo 5 on a Sony Bravia HDTV, Sony comes to outdo themselves. Very interesting, i have to say, and i very hard to be made curious.
It seems that Sony built something they call Nano-Spindt FED/Field Emissions Display (wish they would have given it a shorter name). This display features a frame rate of 240fps, four times the maximum rate of the Grand Turismo 5. The screen that the game was played on was a 19"-er. And now for the technical part. More than 10.000 electron sources, also known as nano-spindt emitter, per pixcel make you lose sense of reality while watching. Each time a fluorescent substance is exposed to the electrons from the emitters, light is produced.
I have to say i am impressed and i am looking forward to seeing one of these babies in stores so i can enjoy playing Mario.

Kingston’s DataTraveler 150

tinkutza — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:05:37 +0000

We are reporting again from the Useless Isle. Today we present you the DataTraveler 150s from Kingston. Now why would anyone want one of these is something that is as mysterious as women. But i guess somebody will surelly slam me for being an ass.
Here are the facts: it comes in two sizes, a 32GB and a 64GB size and this becomes the biggest offspring of the DataTraveler line. Good for them. With a five-year warranty and functionality on Windows, OS X and Linux a price of $132 and $177 for the larger one, i still say there are as useful as a condom when you are alone on the moon. Over and out!

3D Display Mini Notebooks

tinkutza — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:54:04 +0000

It seems i have to join the mini notebook frenzy parade because i am risking of becoming irrelevant, or uncool. So i will give you people some news from the world of small laptops. I give you, the NetBook3D. This litle thing that was created by iArt3D from Taiwan, enables 3d imaging on your netbook so you won’t have to wear those 3D glasses.
This technology works by combining the stereoscopic capability of the netbook with a special-built software and a film applied on the computer screen. If you have been dreaming all your life for something like this, you can get the $79 7-inch NetBook3D kit for the Eee Pc. Inside the box there is also a 3D lens, Auto3D Maker SE CD, the the Auto3D Player SE & DEMO CD, a 6 x 4 inches i-Magic Frame for 3D pictures, a 4 x 3 inches i-Magic Viewer, and the Hardware Security Dongle.
That is all folks from the Useless Gadgets Isle.

HP’s new Pavilion X16 1040us

tinkutza — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 21:35:39 +0000

If you want a portable entertainment system and also a powerful computing system? Look no further, because HP has just the thing for you, the new Pavilion X16-1040us laptop.
For a starting price of $1,274.99, HP has in store for us the MediaSmart technology, which is mainly quick access to pictures, music and video and also to online services. Also if you want to play a DVD you will benefit from the upscalling capability of watching standard definition videos in high definition.
This baby works with Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit operating system with Service Pack 1 and has a 2.26GHz with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 engine. For all you butter fingers out there, HP has a pretty neat system that locks the hard drive in case of an accidental hit or drop. If you want to see a movie on a large screen, there is a HDMI port so you can connect the laptop to an external TV with High Definition support.
Under the hood there are also 4GB of system memory, a fingerprint reader, 320GB hard drive space, 10/100/1000GB Ethernet LAN, built-in triple bass subwoofer, an Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT card with 2302MB total graphics memory, an ExpressCard/54 slot, a 5-in-1 card reader, and built-in web camera with microphone, Blutooth and Wi-Fi. And above all, it looks very stylish.