Thursday, March 12, 2009
In World of Warcraft: The Undermine, you will be adventuring to the homeland of the Goblins. The future new expansion to be released in last quarter of 2010!
New continent: Kezan; New playable race: Goblins; New class: Barbarian; and much, much more!
"A popular possibility for the next expansion after Wrath of the Lich King is either The Undermine or an entire great sea expansion, with The Undermine being one area of the expansion. Undermine is the center of goblin civilization."
*~*~*
20 months after acquiring Internet phone services startup GrandCentral for around $50 million, Google's finally re-packaged its technology into a Google-branded product. It's called Google Voice and it launches today.
Google Voice is currently only available to GrandCentral subsribers. But when it opens to the general public in a few weeks, here's what Google Voice will do:
Will Google Voice make money? Charging for international calls, it already earns enough to pay for itself, GrandCentral cofounder and Google product manager Vincent Paquet told the New York Times.
Eventually the service could compete with Skype. But not yet, says RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.
"Skype is light years ahead in terms of video, simultaneous chat and voice, and the installed base is huge," Sandler told the Times. "I don't think they have anything to worry about."
*~*~*
A team of MIT scientists have invented a new battery technology that is able to recharge in mere seconds. Best of all, this breakthrough simply enhances traditional lithium batteries - the kind found throughout all manner of rechargeable tech, from mobile phones and MP3 players, up to electric cars - so there's a much better chance of it actually reaching our pockets in the near future.
The MIT boffins discovered that changes to the surface of the lithium iron phosphate electrode allowed it to absorb ions 100 times faster than normal. The upshot: ultra-fast charging.
The report of their findings was published in Nature. "The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," it concluded.
Finally, we'll be able to crack a shiny new mobile out of its box and play with it straight away without having to wait forever for the battery to charge up. Fantastic.
*~*~*
Dell today unveiled the company's first all-in-one PC to bear the Studio badge. The Studio One 19 is more consciously fashionable than the XPS One and has the same basic "hanging" design concept as the iMac. Like the Studio Hybrid, though, Dell lets users customize the Studio One's colors (here the outer frame and wireless input devices). It centers on an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 ratio, 1366x768 resolution that optionally supports multi-touch input for media playback as well as image, music and video editing.
New continent: Kezan; New playable race: Goblins; New class: Barbarian; and much, much more!
"A popular possibility for the next expansion after Wrath of the Lich King is either The Undermine or an entire great sea expansion, with The Undermine being one area of the expansion. Undermine is the center of goblin civilization."
*~*~*
20 months after acquiring Internet phone services startup GrandCentral for around $50 million, Google's finally re-packaged its technology into a Google-branded product. It's called Google Voice and it launches today.
Google Voice is currently only available to GrandCentral subsribers. But when it opens to the general public in a few weeks, here's what Google Voice will do:
Will Google Voice make money? Charging for international calls, it already earns enough to pay for itself, GrandCentral cofounder and Google product manager Vincent Paquet told the New York Times.
Eventually the service could compete with Skype. But not yet, says RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.
"Skype is light years ahead in terms of video, simultaneous chat and voice, and the installed base is huge," Sandler told the Times. "I don't think they have anything to worry about."
*~*~*
A team of MIT scientists have invented a new battery technology that is able to recharge in mere seconds. Best of all, this breakthrough simply enhances traditional lithium batteries - the kind found throughout all manner of rechargeable tech, from mobile phones and MP3 players, up to electric cars - so there's a much better chance of it actually reaching our pockets in the near future.
The MIT boffins discovered that changes to the surface of the lithium iron phosphate electrode allowed it to absorb ions 100 times faster than normal. The upshot: ultra-fast charging.
The report of their findings was published in Nature. "The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," it concluded.
Finally, we'll be able to crack a shiny new mobile out of its box and play with it straight away without having to wait forever for the battery to charge up. Fantastic.
*~*~*
Dell today unveiled the company's first all-in-one PC to bear the Studio badge. The Studio One 19 is more consciously fashionable than the XPS One and has the same basic "hanging" design concept as the iMac. Like the Studio Hybrid, though, Dell lets users customize the Studio One's colors (here the outer frame and wireless input devices). It centers on an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 ratio, 1366x768 resolution that optionally supports multi-touch input for media playback as well as image, music and video editing.
Labels: battery charger, Dell, google, skype, Studio One 19, WoW
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
A breathalyzer keychain...There are three different levels when you breath into the gadget. It also has a flashlight function for when you're stumbling around in the dark. It takes only 5 seconds to give you either a green (under .02%), yellow (.02% to .05%) or red (over .05%) light which indicates your relative condition to drive a car. Green means "good to go" yellow is "stop drinking" and the red light is for "How in the world are you still standing?" Want it? Sourcing Map is selling the breathalyzer key chain for under $6.
The warning attached is, "All breath alcohol testers are only a guide to your actual blood alcohol concentration (BAC) as there is no safe levels of alcohol consumption before driving."
*~*~*
And the next unreal gadget to read about is from La Crosse Technology. It is a battery charger that claims it can give back life to dead batteries. The claim is "the La Crosse has an uncanny ability to recycle and rejuvenate your NiMH cells, bringing back to life those batteries you formerly would have discarded." This Alpha Power Battery Charger is more expensive than the key chain, La Crosse is selling it for under $80.
*~*~*
And head over to the Web Urbanist to see a list of their 10 Great Geek Gadgets from the Past & Future. It shows the evolution of these gadgets too which is pretty interesting.
Labels: battery charger, breathalyzer, Gadgets, web urbanist
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