Thursday, October 23, 2008

Motorola Aura: The Phone that Thinks It's a Watch [Cellphones]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/427641019/motorola-aura-the-phone-that-thinks-its-a-watch

Love it or hate it, you have to respect Motorola for loosening the reins of design and announcing the premium Aura handset. (UPDATE: we knew it created déjà vu for some reason!) Inspired by high end watches, the phone's switch blade design alone is driven by over 200 parts—130 of them ball bearings used to open the handset up to an estimated 100,000 times before failure.

The display is the product of fine crafting as well. Just 1.55-inches in diameter, this "word's first" circular cellphone screen features 16 million colors and 300 dpi clarity, plus it's coated with 62-carat sapphire crystal to prevent scratching.

Internally, the phone is quad band with GPRS and EDGE featuring 7.3 hours of talk time, 2GB of internal memory, AGPS and 2MP camera. And when it goes on sale December 4th, it'll carry the hefty pricetag of $2,000 (which, to be fair, is actually far less than a premium watch). See more pretty pictures over at Motorola's site. [Motorola]


Read More...

NYC Buses Testing Digital Ads That Change Depending on Location [GPS]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/427798075/nyc-buses-testing-digital-ads-that-change-depending-on-location

Creative marketing minds have developed a plan to use GPS to deliver neighborhood-specific digital advertising on the side of buses in NYC. Apparently, the ads run like TV commercials and they have begun airing on a single Manhattan route with expansion to 200 buses planned for Q1 of next year. Obviously, targeted advertising is the name of the game, so I wouldn't be surprised to find GPS systems like this one popping up in major cities across the country in the very near future. [WCBSTV]


Read More...

Hands On Casio's EX-FH20, the "Budget" Super-Slow-Mo Cam [Digital Cameras]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/427943781/hands-on-casios-ex+fh20-the-budget-super+slow+mo-cam

Maybe you didn't even realize that the hallowed Exilim EX-F1 super-slow-mo cam got a little brother, the new $600 EX-FH20. We finally got to check it out today and it's definitely a winner. Slightly slimmer than it's pricier counterpart, it also has a cleaner UI making it easier for a novice to use. 1000fps slo-mo video looked great, and the 40fps burst mode worked well, prerecording images in order to capture the perfect moment, even if you have a slow trigger finger. It even has a slight bump in the megapixel department, 9.1MP to the EX-F1's 6.0MP. The EX-FH20 is just hitting stores, so check the gallery to see how it measures up to the EX-F1. And of course stay tuned for our full review.


Read More...

Hands On Asus Eee S101, Just as Slim and Air-y in Person [NetBooks]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/427993913/hands-on-asus-eee-s101-just-as-slim-and-air+y-in-person

We took a look at Asus's Eee S101 today, and as predicted, it's the prettiest looking netbook we've seen since the birth of the category.

It's 2.2 lbs., extremely light and thin, and the chrome finish on the trackpad area is much better looking than the generic plastic of similar models. The 10.2-inch matte screen is compact without straining your eyes, and the keyboard feels bigger than the original Eee's (that or my fingers have gotten smaller to accommodate this segment of the PC industry). The only thing painfully tacky in the S101 is a Swarovski crystal accent on the hinge, but it isn't very obvious until you glance at it.

At $700, it's not exactly cheap for an Atom-powered laptop running Windows XP off of a 16GB SSD, and that's the only configuration you can order up. Still, in addition to its good looks, it's got more inputs than a new MacBook: 3 USBs, a 4-in-1 card reader and VGA video out. It'll arrive in copper brown and graphite; too bad that the champagne paint job, in the Continental's opinion the best suited to accompany the Swarovski accents, won't make it to the US. [Asus]


Read More...

DroboApps Make Your Drobo Smarter and More Useful [Storage]

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/428061981/droboapps-make-your-drobo-smarter-and-more-useful

If you have a Drobo, the storage robot that takes care of your hard drives so you don't have to worry about reliability—or so they say—you will be interested in the new applications for the platform. Called DroboApps, they will convert your Drobo into a web server, an iTunes media server, a BitTorrent client, or an FTP server. [Drobo via CrunchGear]


Read More...