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27. May 2009

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Welcome to itechlife, a blog dedicated to all things Apple, Digi cameras, Gadgets, Handhelds, HD and Entertainment. If that's not enough we have some great articles on Mobiles, News and Videos together with Networking, Media and Laptops. Check it out and thanks for visiting.

Music Within The Reach

26. February 2009

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By end of 1990 a huge change came in the world of music. It is during this time music lovers started downloading music from the Internet using the MP3 format. This changed the way we collect, listen to and distribute music forever. Today millions of music lovers are using their personal computers to download their favorite music’s into MP3 players. MP3 player sales expected a jump from $126 million in 1999 to $1.25 billion by the end of 2002. ETC music developed MusicTeller - an ATM like machine that delivers music files instead of money. ETC’s MusicTeller will also include Windows Media (WMA) and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) music files, all of which are compatible on MP3 players. ETC music hopes to cash on the release of this MusicTeller. They look forward to develop a network of MusicTellers. Then a whole group of audience not owning a Personal computer will be introduced to these MP3 files. He audience will learn step by step the proper usage of this MusicTeller. One will learn about MP3 file formats. How to play music and can easily download them from their local supermarkets. Isn’t that music really within the reach of the masses?

Video: The Holy Grail of Music Gaming

12. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- This year's Consumer Electronics Show saw the unveiling of the first ready-for-primetime music game that involves real instruments, rather than plastic ones. We captured some footage of Disney Star Guitarist so you can see how the game... LAS VEGAS -- This year's Consumer Electronics Show saw the unveiling of the first ready-for-primetime music game that involves real instruments, rather than plastic ones. We captured some footage of Disney Star Guitarist so you can see how the game is played. Check it out: See Also: Finally, Guitar Hero for Actual Guitar 'Guitar Hero' For Real Guitars Guitar Praise: Guitar Hero for Christian Music Guitar Hero Robot Plays Videogame With Electronic Precision Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Retro Appliance: Ultrasonic Carwash for Humans

11. February 2009

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One year before I dropped onto this earth, Sanyo was demonstrating this astonishing human washing machine at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, in 1970 AD. The Ultrasonic Bath is a giant, six foot high contraption into which the victim... One year before I dropped onto this earth, Sanyo was demonstrating this astonishing human washing machine at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, in 1970 AD. The Ultrasonic Bath is a giant, six foot high contraption into which the victim must climb (yes, using a ladder). Once settled into place, the lucky user will be bombarded by various cycles, much like a carwash -- pulsing water jets, a rain of plastic golf balls ("massage") and an ultrasonically stimulated mist of steam. After this, air-jets will dry your moistest parts and then the body is disinfected with infrared and ultraviolet rays. Stunning. The entire cycle lasted 15 minutes and all the while voyeurs at the show could peek through the plexiglass plate on the side, something doubtless intended to be removed from a production model. Alas, the production model never was. Perhaps it was because nobody could fit a tub the size of a mobile-suit robot into their bathroom (especially in cramped Tokyo) or perhaps it was the cost -- subsequent industrial versions for sprucing up oldsters in retirement homes went for $50,000. Ultrasonic Bath: Human washing machine [Pink Tentacle via Neatorama] Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Creepy MIT ‘Tofu’ Robot Has OLED Eyes, Mimics Disney Cartoons

11. February 2009

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A graduate student in the famed MIT Media Lab has created a robot that uses circular OLED displays as eyes, enabling new ways to research human-robot social behavior. The new bot, called TOFU due to its stretchy and bouncy actions,... A graduate student in the famed MIT Media Lab has created a robot that uses circular OLED displays as eyes, enabling new ways to research human-robot social behavior. The new bot, called TOFU due to its stretchy and bouncy actions, was based on animation techniques from Disney's 2D cartoons from the 1950s. If you remember the cartoons of the time, you'll notice that the "squash and stretch," "secondary motions," and eye rolls shown by the robot are quite accurate. According to the robot's creator, this type of motion is usually not used in other bots. TOFU is made out of a combination of elastic materials and the vibrant colors and brightness available in the OLED displays will enable the creators to offer more lifelike expressions. It would be especially interesting if the MIT students add an angry look to such a seemingly nice character. TOFU's jumbly, bumbly personality also resembles that of the Keepon child-development dancing robot. Keepon gained wide notoriety two years ago when its creator, Marek Michalowski from Carnegie Mellon University, released a video of the bot dancing to Spoon's I Turn My Camera On. The Keepon is used to study human-bot relations and behaviors including eye-contact, joint attention, touching, emotion, and imitation. Check out the video after the jump. -- Photos: ryan.wistort/flickr Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Video: The Holy Grail of Music Gaming

10. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- This year's Consumer Electronics Show saw the unveiling of the first ready-for-primetime music game that involves real instruments, rather than plastic ones. We captured some footage of Disney Star Guitarist so you can see how the game... LAS VEGAS -- This year's Consumer Electronics Show saw the unveiling of the first ready-for-primetime music game that involves real instruments, rather than plastic ones. We captured some footage of Disney Star Guitarist so you can see how the game is played. Check it out: See Also: Finally, Guitar Hero for Actual Guitar 'Guitar Hero' For Real Guitars Guitar Praise: Guitar Hero for Christian Music Guitar Hero Robot Plays Videogame With Electronic Precision Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

New WebOS Is Palm’s Secret Sauce

9. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- With its new Palm Pre phone announced earlier today, troubled phone maker Palm has clearly put itself back into the game. The spotlight is clearly on the slick hardware but Palm is betting its secret sauce, its... LAS VEGAS -- With its new Palm Pre phone announced earlier today, troubled phone maker Palm has clearly put itself back into the game. The spotlight is clearly on the slick hardware but Palm is betting its secret sauce, its newly created operating system, WebOS, will give the Pre an edge over competitors. "We created a new platform from the ground up," said Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm at CES 2009. "It is going to redefine the center of your access point to the Internet." A key feature of WebOS is the Palm Synergy, which brings different information from calendars, contacts and instant messaging applications into a single screen. WebOS links contacts together so if the same contact is listed in Outlook, Google and Facebook accounts, it recognizes that they are the same person and links them together into one listing. There's also combined messaging, which allows you to see who's active in a buddy list and start a conversation with just one touch, instead of having to fire up the IM application seperately. The OS treats every application as a "card", a new term that Palm has introduced with the Pre. Cards or individual applications are stacked up like a deck on the main screen and can be scrolled through. WebOS also comes with global search-- any search string typed on the phone searches through contacts, applications and other information repositories on the device. The OS also offers to search the Internet, all in a seamless way. While Palm has said the WebOS is developer friendly, it hasn't commented about how applications written for WebOS will be compatible with Palm OS 5. Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Samsung Memoir: First 8MP Camera Phone in the US

8. February 2009

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Is this a camera or a phone? The answer is, of course, both, although it certainly looks more like the former. Samsung's new 8 megapixel Memoir is to be carried by T-Mobile, and is the touchscreen successor to the Samsung... Is this a camera or a phone? The answer is, of course, both, although it certainly looks more like the former. Samsung's new 8 megapixel Memoir is to be carried by T-Mobile, and is the touchscreen successor to the Samsung Behold, itself a passable 5MP shooter. In fact, apart from its sleek good looks and three million extra pixels, the T929 (Memoir) isn't much different from the T919 (Behold). It uses the same TouchWiz interface and also has a Xenon flash (not really a flash -- more of a flashlight), a 16x digital zoom (like all digital zooms, best avoided) and an autofocus lens. The camera/phone also comes with a rather splendid piece of marketing bunk:With the 8-megapixel Samsung Memoir, T-Mobile customers can capture and share little slices of life in all their vibrant brilliance.Oh, yes. Slices of brilliance. Press release [Gizmodo] Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

$55K Baldwin High Roller Would Make Liberace Blush

8. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- One of the more whimsical items on display at this year's CES is this Baldwin High Roller piano. With reflective keys and a poker-oriented theme, this one-of-a-kind baby grand piano was hand-painted and had its decals applied... LAS VEGAS -- One of the more whimsical items on display at this year's CES is this Baldwin High Roller piano. With reflective keys and a poker-oriented theme, this one-of-a-kind baby grand piano was hand-painted and had its decals applied by a human, which accounts for some of its exorbitant price: $55,000. That's a lot of green, but somehow, we can imagine one of Las Vegas's wealthier denizens picking it up as a tasteful addition to their desert mansion. Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Dell’s New Notebooks Take Design Seriously

7. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- Dell doesn't have a booth here at CES, but the company staked out a floor at the trendy Palms casino to make several product announcements -- and to try to win a few style points. The stodgy... LAS VEGAS -- Dell doesn't have a booth here at CES, but the company staked out a floor at the trendy Palms casino to make several product announcements -- and to try to win a few style points. The stodgy PC maker from Round Rock, Texas has been known for years for its workhorse PCs and notebooks -- functional, economical, generally reliable, and butt-ugly. But in the last year, the company has been working hard to change that perception. For instance, its compact Studio Hybrid PC has a sleek look and can be modded with replaceable outer sleeves, so you can color it (red, black, bamboo) to suit your decor. And its line of Studio laptops, which can be customized with any one of more than 100 different artistic designs, has been selling well. This week, the company rolled out two new laptops, the Studio XPS 16 (shown above with Dell's head design guy, Ed Boyd) and the Studio XPS 13, that continue the trend of wrapping computers in cutting-edge cases made out of interesting materials. And the company announced a mysterious "luxury brand" called Adamo, which so far seems to be little more than a slim black notebook (or the chassis of a notebook) in the hands of a supermodel.The XPS 16 and XPS 13 are notebooks with, respectively, 16-inch and 13-inch screens. Both have distinctive multi-toned exteriors in differing shades of black, gray, and charcoal gray, and both include leather trim along the back (hinge) edge of the top lid. While tastes may differ -- and some may find the inclusion of animal skin a bit abhorrent -- these notebooks have a classy, refined look that's a world away from Dell's earlier work. Both laptops are available now, starting at $1,200. As for Adamo, very little is known. Dell hired a model to show off the notebook, but no one was allowed to touch it and Dell representatives didn't turn it on. They also did not release any specifications. So for now, Adamo is little more than a pipe dream. Read on for more pictures of Dell's new products. Dell's Studio XPS 13 notebook. Photo courtesy of Dell The 16-inch Studio XPS 16. Photo courtesy of Dell The Studio XPS 16 has a slim profile and a glowing power connector in the hinge that resembles those on some high-end, slim Sony Vaio notebooks. Photo courtesy of Dell Dell acknowledged its laptops' homely past with this display, which showed the stylistic progression of laptops from 2005 to 2008. Photo: Dylan Tweney/Wired.com Dell's suite at the Palm casino was bedecked with laptop art available for installation on current laptop models. Some of the artists commissioned to create art for Dell, including graffiti artists Mike Ming and Tristan Eaton, were in the suite, painting giant canvases and printing original designs on T-shirts. Photo: Dylan Tweney/Wired.com Top photo: Dylan Tweney/Wired.com Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

OQO OLED Notebook Is A Luminous Beauty

6. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- Even as inexpensive netbooks have caught the attention of most gadget enthusiasts, their richer cousins from the mobile internet devices (MIDs) category have faded into the background. But at CES 2009, OQO's smallest PC sporting a OLED... LAS VEGAS -- Even as inexpensive netbooks have caught the attention of most gadget enthusiasts, their richer cousins from the mobile internet devices (MIDs) category have faded into the background. But at CES 2009, OQO's smallest PC sporting a OLED (organic light-emitting diode, an alternative technology to LCD) display took centerstage. What really sets the device apart is its luminous, crisp screen. OQO claims its the world's first PC with integrated active matrix OLED display. The little American beauty called OQO model 2+ is based on the 1.86GHz Intel Atom processor, has 2GB RAM and a Qualcomm chip to support 3G worldwide. The device offers up to 3.5 hours of battery life, has an integrated touchscreen and runs Windows XP or Vista operating system. Other key features includes 60GB to 120 GB hard disk drive storage, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and 5-inch display. The device weighs 1 pound with standard battery. This is the second version of the OQO PC. The model 2+ will be available in the first half of 2009 with two versions priced at $1000 and $1500 respectively. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

OQO OLED Notebook Is A Luminous Beauty

6. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- Even as inexpensive netbooks have caught the attention of most gadget enthusiasts, their richer cousins from the mobile internet devices (MIDs) category have faded into the background. But at CES 2009, OQO's smallest PC sporting a OLED... LAS VEGAS -- Even as inexpensive netbooks have caught the attention of most gadget enthusiasts, their richer cousins from the mobile internet devices (MIDs) category have faded into the background. But at CES 2009, OQO's smallest PC sporting a OLED (organic light-emitting diode, an alternative technology to LCD) display took centerstage. What really sets the device apart is its luminous, crisp screen. OQO claims its the world's first PC with integrated active matrix OLED display. The little American beauty called OQO model 2+ is based on the 1.86GHz Intel Atom processor, has 2GB RAM and a Qualcomm chip to support 3G worldwide. The device offers up to 3.5 hours of battery life, has an integrated touchscreen and runs Windows XP or Vista operating system. Other key features includes 60GB to 120 GB hard disk drive storage, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity and 5-inch display. The device weighs 1 pound with standard battery. This is the second version of the OQO PC. The model 2+ will be available in the first half of 2009 with two versions priced at $1000 and $1500 respectively. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Hands-On With Samsung’s Mom-Friendly Camera

6. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- You, Gadget Lab reader, are a nerd. We mean that in a good way. Example: your digital photos are all uploaded from your camera daily, whereupon you categorize and organazize them, keywords and all. You know you... LAS VEGAS -- You, Gadget Lab reader, are a nerd. We mean that in a good way. Example: your digital photos are all uploaded from your camera daily, whereupon you categorize and organazize them, keywords and all. You know you do. Your mother, by contrast, never lets her camera near a computer. Slideshows consist of crowding around the rear LCD display, and she starts deleting old pictures when the memory gets low. Samsung's TL100, announced at CES 2009, is for her. First, the 12.2 megapixel camera comes in a purse-friendly 16.6mm (0.65") thick, has a big 2.7" screen for viewing and has the usual face detection and image stabilization. What's new, though, is the Smart Auto, which detects exactly what you are snapping and picks the exposure mode. Shoot people and it switches to portrait mode. Shoot a landscape and you get, yes, landscape mode. Neat, especially as mom probably never takes the camera off auto. Further, there are Smart Albums for in-camera storage, a feature which groups similar images and videos. It won't let you show all the pictures which have a grandchild in them, but it narrows the selection based on color, filetype or date. Basic but useful, and no keywording required. Price and availability are both CES standard: Unannounced, but expect it at around $250. Press release [Samsung] Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Powermat Puts a Price Tag On Its Wireless Charging Mat

5. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- For the past three years, every CES show has dangled the promise of wireless charging products. But we haven't seen these power chargers become widely available. This year Powermat says it is closer than ever to the... LAS VEGAS -- For the past three years, every CES show has dangled the promise of wireless charging products. But we haven't seen these power chargers become widely available. This year Powermat says it is closer than ever to the finish line. At CES 2009, the company announced a line of products for home, travel and work use that could charge from three to four devices on a single mat. The Powermat can charge iPods, iPhone, other mobile phones and even a laptop. Powermat uses the principle of magnetic induction to deliver wireless power. Users plug in their Powermat to an electrical outlet and can then place their devices on the mat to charge--which means there are two parts to the system, the mat and the magnetic cases/docks that are attached behind each device. In its true sense the Powermats aren't completely wireless since the device just goes on a mat that is plugged in. Think of it as a better-looking Power Squid. But when Powermat's technology is built into kitchen countertops and walls, it could potentially be more true to its name. The mats in white and black finish are priced at $100 and the cases/docks for each individual device will cost $30. Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

Video: Wireless Power Energizes Many Devices

3. February 2009

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LAS VEGAS -- When will ugly power cables become a relic of the past? Not today, but a company at Consumer Electronics Show this week demonstrated some major progress toward achieving the dream of wireless power. Powermat's wireless power system,... LAS VEGAS -- When will ugly power cables become a relic of the past? Not today, but a company at Consumer Electronics Show this week demonstrated some major progress toward achieving the dream of wireless power. Powermat's wireless power system, which goes by the same name as the company, isn't exactly wireless. More precisely, the mat has a single power cord to connect to an outlet, and by placing gadgets on the mat, you can charge them -- regardless of their voltage. We won't be tossing our cables in the recycling bin any time soon, but Powermat's offering is still very impressive nonetheless. In this episode of Gadget Lab video, I speak with Powermat president Ron Ferber, who provides an in-depth explanation of how his company's technology works. (Spoiler: No, it's not magic, but it sure looks like it.) For more video from Wired.com, go to www.wired.com/video. For more up-to-the-minute news from the floor of CES 2009, visit www.wired.com/ces. Video: Producer - Annaliza Savage. Camera - John Ross. Editor - Michael Lennon / Wired.com Source[Wired Gadget Lab]

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Music Within The Reach

Video: The Holy Grail of Music Gaming

Retro Appliance: Ultrasonic Carwash for Humans

Creepy MIT ‘Tofu’ Robot Has OLED Eyes, Mimics Disney Cartoons

Video: The Holy Grail of Music Gaming

New WebOS Is Palm’s Secret Sauce

Samsung Memoir: First 8MP Camera Phone in the US

$55K Baldwin High Roller Would Make Liberace Blush

Dell’s New Notebooks Take Design Seriously

OQO OLED Notebook Is A Luminous Beauty

OQO OLED Notebook Is A Luminous Beauty

Hands-On With Samsung’s Mom-Friendly Camera

Powermat Puts a Price Tag On Its Wireless Charging Mat

Video: Wireless Power Energizes Many Devices

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