For $349 you can stick two lumps of wood to your ears. To be fair it is high quality wood from the finest Japanese Hokkaido cherry tree. Fortunately the wood conceals some pretty good sounding headphones tucked away in them.

The ATH-ESW9 Sovereign Wood Headphones have “42mm neodymium magnet drivers encased in fiberglass, a gold plated mini plug and a sensitivity of 103dB” and will be available from October 19th.

Via [Gizmodo]

Written by Chris Marshall for Gadgetell, 2007. |
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Filed under Portable Audio, Accessories, Audio / Video.

According to EngadgetMobile, Verizon is getting ready to launch four new phones: Samsung Juke, BlackBerry Pearl, LG Venus and LG Voyager, all at the same time. With these new phone additions, it is sure to make some people consider Verizon for their new phones. Let’s see what these new phones are all about.

Beginning with the far left phone, the Samsung Juke. This baby is set to feature 2GB of storage, A2DP Bluetooth and a 1.3 megapixel camera. No word on the Juke’s price. The next phone up is the Pearl, which received a lot of rumor beginning in August. The Pearl boasts a 2 megapixel camera, A2DP Bluetooth and a 3.5mm audio jack. As with the Juke, no word on pricing.

The next two phones are probably the more impressive phones. The Venus, also known as the LG VX8800, and it sports miniSD expansion, A2DP Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera (as with the Juke), some pretty cool touchscreen capabilities, and vibration feedback.

Finally, we have the big one, the LG Voyager, or the VX10000, this phone boasts a large touchscreen, along with a slider that reveals a QWERTY keyboard and yet another decently sized screen. These two screens are QVGA screens, it features an impressive full HTML browser, microSD expansion, 2 megapixel camera, A2DP and built-in stereo speakers. This obviously looks to be one of the most expensive and best phones Verizon has to offer.

Expect these phones to be available sometime in the near future.

Via [EngadgetMobile]

Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell, 2007. |
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Filed under Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video, Communications, Smartphones, Audio / Video, Mobile, Cellular Providers.

Cars and modifications have existed side by side for years now, but Ford has taken the relationship to a new level thanks to Nokia and the N series kit that they have developed.

• The rear passenger seats both have access to N800 Internet browsers
• N800 is added to the center console.
• All the N800s have the ability to stream audio to the car’s stereo system
• Internet connectivity is also provided via an on board N95

I have no doubt at all that we will see more and more of these in car kits emerge over the next couple of months. As for me, I ride a Harley so I am mulling over what could be done for the Road King Classic!

Via [Gizmodo]

Written by Chris Marshall for Gadgetell, 2007. |
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Filed under Transportation, Communications, Gadgets / Other, Accessories.

Impressively the iPhone Dev Team have already issued instructions on how to downgrade your iPhone from 1.1.1 to 1.0.2:

It won’t downgrade your baseband, meaning so far you can’t re-unlock an iPhone that’s been 1.1.1-ified, but it’s still 1.0.2 in all its third-party application glory.

As you would expect they are working away on a way to downgrade the firmware so that you can unlock the iPhone again, and at the rate they are going there is every chance they will have achieved that before you read this!

Via [Engadget]

Written by Chris Marshall for Gadgetell, 2007. |
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Filed under Apple, Cellphones, Communications, Smartphones, Mobile.

As with many aspects of the web the concept of streaming and watching TV content around the world is a lot easier in theory that in reality:

• A lot of content is illegal
• Picture quality of streamed video can be a problem
• Some broadcasters allow users to pay to download content, but downloading can be slow.
• Streamed files typically do not remain saved on your hard drive.

The article on the BBC is a good read as it manages to point out the pluses and the minuses:

“One of the challenges is that the internet really isn’t set up to deliver high resolution video, and so it needs assistance, help and support to enable it to do so,” said Phill Robinson of CacheLogic.

“There are basically two exabytes of traffic that flow over the internet. We have got to that level of traffic growth over the last 20 years. It’s going to rise and quadruple over the years to eight exabytes.

That is a huge amount of traffic. but it does depend on the content providers playing ball:

Traditional broadcasters and movie studios have been comparably slow in putting their content on the internet because of the problems associated with making money.

The answer? “To combine the two in a hybrid network,” Mr Robinson said. “So we have a new generation of P2P technology with a new generation of cache technology that work together to blend the bandwidth from the caches as well as the peers.”

Via [BBC]

Written by Chris Marshall for Gadgetell, 2007. |
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Filed under Web.

Joost has gone to version 1, and while somehow staying in beta, has added some cool new updates. While the release is still buggy enough to be <1.0, the beta tag should warn any naysayers.

The most evident change is the modified UI of the channel/show selection. In the past, you would have menus that you would drill down into, much like the iPod UI. Now, you have large icon that you can select, and also drag and drop to create “your channel.”

I honestly have loved the growth of Joost since I first started using it in its early beta stage. The selection of channels has increased tenfold since the service’s inception. Also, the service is now more usable with lower speed connections; it attempts to restart disconnected streams.

However, the number one thing I love about Joost is the full screen mode. It detects the external monitor I am currently using with my MacBook, and starts the application on that monitor; a nice touch.

If you are a current beta tester of Joost, you can download this latest update of Joost right now.

Download [Joost] via [DownloadSquad]

Written by Indraneel Purohit for Gadgetell, 2007. |
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Filed under Computers, Online Music/Video, Software, Audio / Video, Content.

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Robots

Remember that GigaPan camera system from earlier this year? The one that made taking ridiculously large panoramic shots — like the one of Dublin Castle above — a lesson in simplicity? Yeah, well that very system is now being used to add detailed, wide-angle images to Google Earth thanks to collaboration between the search giant and Carnegie Mellon University. Additionally, we’ve now learned that Charmed Labs in Austin, TX will be manufacturing the mechanical devices and selling them for $300 apiece. But before the public gets their hands on ‘em, the firm is producing 300 systems “for people who will provide them with feedback.” Ah, the perfect excuse for a new widescreen monitor, no?

[Thanks, David]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

We’ve already seen Sony’s first shameless attempt to court the YouTube crowd with the NSC-GC1 5 megapixel web-corder, but a quick look through the instruction manual reveals specs for another model, the NSC-GC3, which apparently cuts shooting time down from 2 hours to just 29 minutes. We’re not certain if that’s because of higher resolution or less memory, but either way, expect the GC3 to make an appearance soon.

[Thanks, maxmasa31]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras

Canon’s PowerShot SD870 (also known as the IXUS 860 IS in some parts of the world) isn’t exactly the sort of camera that offers a lot of surprises, but the folks at PhotographyBLOG decided to check it out nonetheless, and they apparently found quite a bit to like about it. Calling it the “best IXUS model that we’ve reviewed,” they found the camera delivered consistently solid images, although as is often the case, they recommend staying away form the highest ISO settings. They were also especially impressed by the cameras small size and larger than usual 3-inch LCD, as well as its 28mm wide-angle lens. On the downside, that small size and big screen comes at the expense of an optical viewfinder, and they found that the camera dragged a bit in the continuous shooting mode. Those factors seem to have been far from deal-breakers, however, with PhotographyBLOG bestowing an impressive 4.5 out of 5 rating on the camera.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays, Home Entertainment, Household, Portable Audio

DigitalLife is all about the tweens today, and Nickelodeon isn’t about to be left out in the cold — the venerable network has paired up with Imation to release an array of brightly-colored gear for the budding young geek. In addition to a line of pretty-decent DAPs, it’s a pretty broad array of stuff you’d be mortified to own if you’re not 7, including Dora / Diego and SpongeBob-branded cameras in resolutions from VGA to 3.0 megapixels, a Dora the Explorer portable CD player, a SpongeBob 15-inch LCD TV and progressive-scan DVD player, and a whack-SpongeBob-to-snooze alarm clock. The best of the bunch appears to be the $100 7-inch picture frame, however, which has a pretty decent-looking screen. Check it all out — along with some hands-on shots — in the gallery.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!