I haven't review in details all news from the CES 2008 that closed its doors on Thursday but it seems the Global Energy problem contributes to have better ideas regarding the way we can power our IT stuff.

One company, Green Plug, has identified a significant contributor to the high cost of battery-powered consumer electronics products, wasted energy and unnecessary toxic waste. A typical home or office has a dozen or more power transformers that convert between 90V and 254V wall power to device-specific DC power. Every adapter is physically unique and therefore is thrown away every time a device is replaced.

Green Plug comes with a better idea.

Creating a standardize power supply which can be used by all Green Plug^TM compliant devices utilize uniform cables and connectors; so, you never have to worry about finding the right adapter for your laptop, DV camera, cell phone or power tool.

Let's hope they will be able to convinced enough partners to have a real impact on the market and we'll have soon all our electronic devices using a single and unique type of power supply.

Tags: 2008, adaptor, art, ATT, blog, cable, camera, ces, electricity, energy, find, fon, Gadgets, global, global power efficiency, green, ia, im, Impact, lan, laptop, nomadcom.net, phone, power, power adaptor, review, supply, web, wp, www

2 years after Sanyo launched its Eneloop batteries, Duracell announces the introduction, on US market, of nickel metal hydride (NiMH) Pre-Charged Rechargeable batteries.

Designed specifically for use in high-drain gadgets including digital cameras, portable gaming devices and MP3 players, Pre-Charged Rechargeable batteries eliminate the need to charge cells before using them for the first time. In addition, these new batteries retains power for up to 365 days while not in use.

Street price: 13 USD for a pack of 4 

Tags: 2007, ATT, batteries, blog, camera, ces, design, digital, duracell, eneloop, Gadgets, im, lan, launch, nickel metal hydride, nimh, nomadcom.net, portable, power, pre charged, rechargeable, sanyo, space, wp, www

One of my first question was about how to send Twitter updates using Skype instead of anything else as I did not want to install an additional application with a single dedicated purpose.

Apparently I'm not alone in that situation and I found today a "how to" to post updates on Twitter using Skype chat tool

Quote

Here’s a little secret which no one seems to know about. There is a Skype robot which will post to your Twitter account.

1. Add twitter4skype as a contact.
2. Type the following as a chat message (be sure to do a FULL return for each line):
   /account
   yourtwitteraccountname
   yourtwitteraccountpassword
3. The system should return: twitter4skype Registration complete!
4. The next time you write a chat message to twitter4skype, the entry will appear as a Tweet on your account.

Give it a try and let me know how it works out.

Update: Some have reported they have not been successful on their first try to make this work. The issue usually is identified with the returns. On a Mac, make sure you press alt + return after each line. Also make sure there is a return after the last line. Once this is fixed, everything seems to “automagically” work.

Unquote

Source: PacificIT  

Tags: 2007, account, art, blog, ces, Gadgets, how to, im, install, Internet World, ITU, lan, mobile, Mobile Communications, nomadcom.net, nyt, password, pda, post, press, skype, skype4twitter, space, tweet, twit, Twitter, twittering, update, wp, www

I found yesterday an ad about another product made to shield your face (or at least the face of these "beautiful people")… this make me laugh as I'm not sure how they will convinced large amount of users to apply them.

• The first spray is the"expertise 3P" made by Clarins which protects skin from the ageing effects of Artificial Electromagnetic Waves (sic!). The Magnetic Defense Complex (Rhodiola Rosea + Thermus Thermophillus) – Reinforces skin's resistance to the harmful effects of Artificial Electromagnetic Waves.

  Apparently it's a large frequency spectrum product as they do not precise the frequency range which is concerned but it works according Clarins on artificial radio waves…but will certainly not refrain your cellphone to warm your brain cells…as the lotion seems to be done for facial usage only.

• The second spray intends to guarantee your privacy while facing photographer. Blur anti-photography spray and its highly reflective nanoparticles reflect the flashbulbs of peeping and stalking photographers. They blind camera sensors and whiten part of the image.

  The description speaks for itself, but I wonder if both can be used together as our friends "The Stars" may become totally addicted to both lotions.

  If not, they may use an older product, widely available and invented more that Century ago which surely protect from both paparazzi and electromagnetic waves. The Aluminium foil

Sources : We Make Money not Art, Clarins, Snoops

Tags: 2007, arc, art, artificial, blog, bulb, camera, cellphone, ces, Clarins, Electromagnetic Waves, expertise 3P, flash, Fun, Gadgets, HP, ia, ict, im, King, lan, Magnetic Defense Complex, money, nomadcom.net, phone, photo, photographers, Photography, plugin, press, privacy, protection skin effects, Rhodiola Rosea, space, Thermus Thermophillus, uk, USA, usage, user, wordpress, wp, www, XP

Sanyo will release next month its first USB charger specially made for their Eneloop "ready to use" upon purchase rechargeable batteries.

The charging time is approximately 280 minutes for two AA size and 120 minutes for two AAA size batteries. The charging speed is doubled when users charge only one battery at a time.

 
The cable of the USB charger can be rolled up and stored within after use.
Dimensions : 93mm x 47mm x 17.5mm for 48g.

Eneloop are Ni-MH rechargeable batteries that can be used like a dry cell battery – ‘immediately after purchase" and later recharged up to 1000 times.

Sources : Ubergizmo, Sanyo

Tags: 2007, arc, ATT, batteries, blog, cable, ces, charger, ecological, eneloop, Gadgets, Great Ideas, ia, im, lan, LED, minutes, nomadcom.net, rechargeable, recyclable, release, sanyo, space, usb, user, wp, www

Kingston® adds to its DataTraveler® drive family an USB 2.0 drive (1GB, 2GB, 4GB ?) with an onboard expansion slot able to read SD, SDHC, MMC & MMCplus cards named DataTraveler Reader. With an aditional adapter it will also be possible to read miniSD, microSD, RS-MMC, MMCmobile™ and MMCmicro™ cards.

The drive will appear as two separate partitions: one for built-in storage on USB drive and a second one for the expansion slot.

1GB and 2GB drives will be available later this month with a US price of 19.99 & 34.99 respectively. A 4GB is also expected in Q2.

Source: Engadget

Tags: 2007, all in one, art, blog, card, card reader, datatraveler, datatraveler reader, flash, Gadgets, Great Ideas, im, King, kingston, lan, mobile, Nomad Tools, nomadcom.net, reader, space, storage, Travel, traveler, usb, usb drive, wp, www, XP

Will Sanyo revolutionize the way we use batteries on electronic devices ? Today, by chance I found a place selling Eneloop batteries and bought few packs. 

Eneloop are Ni-MH rechargeable batteries… nothing very new till here.

The difference ? They are sold fully charged so you can buy and use them immediately.

Then once the power is gone, instead of throwing them away returning them to your preferred shop for recycling, you can simply recharge them as any Ni-MH or Cad-Ni rechargeable batteries.

En Resumé : eneloop is a combination of a rechargeable and a disposable battery.

• Ready for immediate use
• Low self-discharge
• environment friendly
• universal applications (actually available in AA & AAA size)
• higher performances (up to 4 times more powerful than Alkaline batteries)
• Recyclable package

Technical specs :

AA   : 2000 mAh (min. 1900 mAh)
AAA : 800 mAh (min. 750 mAh) 
Charging cycles : 1000
Price : 500 THB (14.25 USD for 4)
Storage Energy loss : after 6 month 10%, after a year 15%
Charging time : depending on the charger. Sanyo says 250 mins for 2 AA batteries

 

So now it's testing time, but I already like the idea of having batteries that offer advantages of both disposable and rechargeable ones.

Source : Sanyo 

Tags: 2007, ATT, batteries, blog, ces, charger, CTU, ecological, eneloop, energy, fon, Gadgets, Great Ideas, ia, im, lan, nomadcom.net, power, rechargeable, recyclable, sanyo, space, storage, wp, www

Today, following Steve Jobs presentation during Mac World 2007, all technical blogs were speaking about the long expected Apple iPhone.

Will this iPhone be so different than all others ?

Will Apple have a similar success like with iPods ?

Will it be THE new must to have gimick ?

A Quick Overview 

• 3.5 inches, 480×320 display
• Input method : multi-touch
• OS : Mac OS X "slim version"
• Storage 4 or 8 GB
• WAN : Quad-Band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
• Wifi 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.0
• Built-in camera 2.0 mega pixel
• Size : 115 x 61 x 11.6mm / Weight 135 grs
• Battery :Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing – Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Pros:

• All-in-One Ipod-Camera-Phone
• Wide 3.5'' screen
• Using fingers on screen instead of stylus is rather a good idea
• Great design… as usual
• Safari browser + widgets
• Rich text email client
• Predictive input keyboard
• Hard Disk 4 or 8 GB
• Automatic display configuration change (portrait to landscape)
• Video Player
  

Cons

• Not a smartphone, impossible to add software
• No memory extension slot 
• Impossible to remove the battery (with so few autonomy is pity)
• Not UMTS nor HSPDA
• Price (499 or 599 USD for 2 year contract with the mobile network operator – USA)
• No wireless (wifi nor GPRS/EDGE) iTunes Store downloads 
• No WiFi syncing to your host machine.
• No tactile feedback when strocking keyboard 
• No MS Office, MS Exchange,  Lotus Domino support
• Only available in 2007 Q3 in USA &  2008 in Europe & Asia.

Some links that speaks about the iPhone:

• Ubergizmo
• Le Blog Gadget
• Engadget + Keynote
• Presse-Citron
• Daily Tech

Some report from guys who could briefly play with it:

• Brian Lam Gizmodo
• David Pogue New York Times

Mac World 2007 Keynote and full technical specs

Latest News
CBS News iPhone demo via Presse-Citron 

Now let's wait until the moment we will be able to play with a real one… and see if Steve Jobs was right or not when he said "Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone".

 

Tags: 2007, 2008, 802.11, apple, arc, art, asia, ATT, blog, camera, ces, configuration, design, europe, event, fon, Gadgets, gsm, hard disk, HP, ia, ict, im, iphone, ipod, ITU, keyboard, King, lan, LED, live, memory, mobile, Mobile Communications, network, new york times, nomadcom.net, nyt, pda, phone, press, screen, smartphone, space, storage, technology, telecom, Telecommunications, touch, USA, video, wifi, wireless, world, wp, www, XP

That's it, holidays are over and everyone is back to work… today oh surprise, lots of sites announce the soon release of lots of new ultra-mobile computers. 

Interesting enough is the wide selection of operating system proposed (Vista, Windows Mobile, Linux). I wonder which solution will emerge and if the most chosen one will be the most convenient one for frequent travelers.

What are your prognostics ? 

 

Sony Vaio UX

• CPU 1.3 GHz Intel Solo Core U1500
• 4.5 inch 1024×600 display
• 1 GB Ram
• 32 GB solid state disk
• Bluetooth 2.0, USB 2.0, Firewire, CompactFlash & Memory Stick Duo slots
• Integrated 802.11 b/g
• WAN specifications unknown
• OS : Windows Vista
• Price :  3860 USD !

Source : jkOntheRun

OQO Model 02

• 1.5GHz VIA C7M ULV processor (also available with 1.2GHz)
• 60GB hard drive, shock-mounted with active drop detection (also available with 30GB)
• 1GB DDR2 SDRAM (also available with 512MB)
• Dimensions: 5.6" x 3.3" x 1.0"
• Weight: 1.0 lb
• 5 inch, 800 X 480 displayscrolling
• Embedded EV-DO WWAN (optional) for Sprint
• Integrated WiFi 802.11a/b/g
• Bluetooth® 2.0, USB 2.0
• OS : Windows Vista
• Price : from 1500 USD

Source : OQO

HTC X-7500 Athena

• CPU: Intel XScale, 624 МHz
• 5 inches, 640×480 TFT display
• 128 MB RAM 256 MB ROM
• Hard Disk: 8 GB
• Bluetooth 2.0, MiniSD slot,GPS-receiver
• Integrated cameras: main 2 Mp or 3 Mp
• WAN : GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA
• Dimensions: 133,1x97x20 mm (plus 4 mm keyboard)
• Weight: 350 g.
• O/S Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition
• Price : about 1700 USD

Source : HTC.ru 

 and there are more to follow such Nokia N800, which is apparently only equipped with 802.11 b/g 

Tags: 2007, 24, 802.11, blog, camera, ces, computer, computers, flash, Gadgets, gsm, hard disk, HP, htc, ia, im, keyboard, lan, memory, mobile, Mobile Communications, model 02, n800, nokia, nomadcom.net, oqo, phone, release, sony, space, Travel, traveler, ultra-mobile, usb, ux1xn, VGN UX1XN, vista, wifi, windows, windows vista, wp, www

In the Quest for the "perfect" smartphone, I have just received my new HTC 620 which may replace my actual Dopod 818Pro (HTC Prophet).

Basic comparison

Communications

• Prophet : 4-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Wifi 802.11b/g, bluetooth, IrDa
• S620 : 4-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE, Wifi 802.11b/g, bluetooth

Size

• Prophet : 108x58x18.2mm, screen 2.8'' 320×240, 65000 colors
• S620 : 111.5×62.5×12.8mm, screen 2.4'' QVGA

Processor / Memory / Battery

• Prophet : TI OMAP 850 200 MHz, ROM/RAM 128/64 MB, SD Card slot, Battery 1200 mAh
• S620 : TI OMAP 850 200 MHz, ROM/RAM 128/64 MB, MicroSD slot, Battery 970 mAh. 

Input Method

• Prophet : Handwritten recognition on tactile screen
• S620 : full 37 keys QWERTY keyboard with backlight

Operating System

• Prophet : Windows Mobile 5.1.195 (build 1487.2.0.0)
• S620 : Windows Mobile 5.1.342 (build 15097.3.0.1) with Direct Push Technology. 

First feeling using S620 after 9 months with Prophet

• S620 is slightly lighter and thiner than Prophet  
• Wifi link establishment is lots faster than with Prophet
• S620 uses WM5 software for smartphone, while Prophet uses WM5 software for Pocket PC.
• S620 uses the same ActiveSync version but cannot synchronize files (perhaps to test again with a MicroSD card inserted).
• Typing method lots faster with keyboard than with handwritting recognition
• S620 does not have predictive text input.

More will  follow based on day-to-day experiences but fell free to participate with questions & experiences.

Tags: 24, 802.11, art, asia, ATT, blog, C720, card, ces, communication, CTU, dopod, europe, fon, free, Gadgets, gap, gsm, htc, ia, ict, im, iso, keyboard, lan, light, map, memory, mobile, Mobile Communications, nomadcom.net, paris, pda, phone, prophet, S620, screen, smartphone, space, technology, telecom, Telecommunications, wifi, windows, WM5, wp, www, XP