Bleeding Edge TV 275: The EeeStick motion game controllers from Asus

Posted by Nate True Categories: Gizmatic, Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Video Games, Videocasts, Videos

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At the Asus booth during Computex 2008, we had the pleasure of looking at their new EeeStick video gaming controllers. Similar to the Nintendo Wii‘s Wii Remote and Nunchuk, aiming and player movement is controlled by swinging the right controller around and moving the left thumbstick.

Sunrise Kuo of Asus showed us a demo of the controllers in action. When they’re ready in July or August, they will be packaged with the Asus EeePC 901 or EeePC 1000 models.

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Bleeding Edge TV 274: A Look Into the Future with HP’s Phil McKinney

Posted by Nate True Categories: Full Episodes, Features, Handhelds, Household, Internet, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Science, Software, Videocasts, Videos

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At HP’s Connecting Your World 2008 event in Berlin, Germany, we caught up with the CTO of HP’s Public Systems Group, Phil McKinney, who had some very interesting things to say about where HP believes the future will take us.

Phil talked with us about what’s coming in the future of technology - everything from wearable computing to a very advanced “avatar” that is programmed to make decisions just like you would, only you can send it to a meeting while you get to go play video games. We look forward to seeing what the future holds. Thanks Phil!

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Bleeding Edge TV 256: Retrevo gadget comparisons - product research on speed

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, CES, CES 2008, Features, Internet, Misc. Tech, Podcasts, Videocasts

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Retrevo.com presents a unique take on gadget comparison shopping. By spidering a veritable avalanche of shopping comparison sites, they compile a near-comprehensive snapshot of just about every gadget they can, including feature sets, average reviews and price points. They plot these into neat regression charts that outline a given gadgets “value” as determined by its number of features plotted against its price. They’re also able to sort things into cost points like “high end”, “mid range” and “budget” and make comparisons based on these facts. Since their spider is constantly compiling and recompiling new data points, they’re able to recategorize a given gadget as its prices change and as more reviews become available.

The site is engineering to be a definitive way to get a good look at a given gadget’s feature sets and your value for your dollar. Since they bring in quick access to reviews from all over the net and include product manual searching and archiving, this becomes a pretty useful tool for techphiles.

Take a look at our video to learn a bit more about the service and how it works.

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CES 2008 Video: ZPower silver-zinc battery power outshines the rest?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, CES, CES 2008, Design, Features, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Science, Videocasts

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While power technologies tend to be less glamourous than gadgets consumers shouldn’t forget the impact and importance of having solid battery technologies in the slim and trim electronic toys and tools they buy. ZPower was pleased to show off their new Silver-Zinc batteries at CES – potentially a revolutionary new product. These new batteries can be interchanged with Lithium Ion batteries but offer more power for longer periods all while reducing the environmental impact. Available soon from a yet-to-be-named laptop manufacturer.

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CES 2008 Video: Simulscribe voicemail-to-text service invites you to “F>CK Voicemail”

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, Cell Phones, CES, CES 2008, Features, Internet, Misc. Tech, Podcasts, Videocasts

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With colorful t-shirts reading “F>CK Voicemail,” Simulscribe uses the call forwarding option on your cell phone to push voicemail to their automatic transcription service. It’s been around for awhile and costs $10 a month for 40 voicemails or $30 a month for the unlimited service. The service apparently has an accuracy rate of about 95%, but we’ll have to test that to see how it holds up. This is different than many voicemail retrieval services which call and log into your voicemail system using your PIN number. Those solutions feature a delay of between 5-30 minutes, whereas forwarding like Simulscribe is nearly instant.

If the transcription fails or doesn’t get things quite right, you can log in through your phone or have the voicemail audio emailed to you as a WAV as well. They also offer a 35 cent per message service if you don’t want to subscribe to a plan.

Check the video to see their cheerleader-esque spokesgirl. She’s FUN! Meanwhile, I’ll likely be trying this service out over the next week or two and post my review here.

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CES 2008 Video: Belkin’s new KVM, Rockstar, and more

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, Accessories, Apple, CES, CES 2008, Features, Home Entertainment, Household, Misc. Tech, Music, Peripherals, Podcasts, Portable Audio / Video, Videocasts

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At Pepcom’s Digital Experience, we had a chance to interview Belkin and get an up close and personal look at all the new peripherals they introduced at CES this year. Take a look at the video to see their 4-way, USB- and audio-enabled KVM switch, available this summer for $169. Additionally, they demoed an intelligent surge protector with six individually controlled outlets and two always-on outlets. Add to this a wireless on/off switch to activate or kill the six outlets and you have a nifty device to help kill the phantom power drain that’s so prevalent in today’s chargers and adapters when they’re not in use.

We also check out a few cool iPhone and iPod peripherals and the Rockstar—a five way minijack (headphone) splitter, available for $39.95 this summer.

And finally, we take a quick look at the N52te gamer “WASD replacement” pad. With a bunch of programmable macro options, an integrated scroll wheel and just enough buttons to get things done in TF2, it’s going on sale this month for $69.99 with a first look in the video.

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CES 2008 Video: EcoNEW pays you to recycle used gadgets

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Features, Household, Internet, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Videocasts

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EcoNEW is a recycling and trade-in program for used electronics and computers. At CES, they gave us the details on how their hardware recycling program works. Just head on over to the EcoNEW website, and enter info about the product you want recycled, for which you will be given a trade-in value. Then, just print the pre-paid shipping label and send the item to NEW. Later, you will receive a gift card of the trade-in value, to be used at a participating retailer. The disposed device will be safely recycled, or refurbished for future use. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

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CES 2008 Video: Sparky gets tasered / Taser MP3 player

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, CES, CES 2008, Features, Misc. Tech, Podcasts, Videocasts

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When going to CES one expects a rough week involving countless interviews, hour after hour of writing, and defending oneself from PR reps from round the world. One thing you don’t expect is to get the living daylights shocked out of you. First and foremost, watch the video above for a chance to see me get tasered. After all, it’s hard to pass up an opportunity to see some poor sot get tasered - particularly when they signed themself up for it (full waiver and everything).

Oh yeah, a bit of background - we didn’t go for the ‘shock treatment’ but rather went to check out Tasers new MPH or Music Playing Holster. With this faux-leather device one can carry their original, pink, or leopard skin taser in style and listen to 1GB of tunes at the same time. It doesn’t fully make sense to us, but the Taser company claims this makes it an ideal exercise companion for those jogs through the seedy underbelly of your favorite big city.

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Bleeding Edge TV 139: Celestron VistaPix Spotting Scope

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, Cameras, CES, CES 2007, Features, Misc. Tech, Storage, Videocasts

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Celestron, makers of the SkyScout, give us a look at their VistaPix spotting scope. This thing is maxed out, so if you are looking for a great scope for when you are out in nature, this one has 24x optical zoom and 144x digital zoom. Even better, it has an integrated camera, so you can capture what you are seeing. It has an SD slot that allows for expanded memory above it’s built-in 32 MB, a USB port, and a direct to TV output. You can pick one up for $479 USD, great for the lovers of the outdoors

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Bleeding Edge TV 131: Celestron SkyScout Demo’d

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Gizmatic, Short Bytes, CES, CES 2007, Design, Features, GPS, Misc. Tech, Toys, Videocasts

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We speak with Celestron about their SkyScout product, an awesome tool used for stargazing that identifies stars, constellations, and planets by way of GPS and gravitational magnets. Great for beginners and pros alike. We love the concept here, and think the SkyScout is genious, as it even incorporates games and trivia once it thinks you have your astronomical bearings down. Seriously, lots of fun to be had here. Check the video for the full scoop.

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