The Gadgets Page

O’Neill is really going all the way with their gear for skiers. They have a jacket that can control your iPod and your telephone. When you receive a call on your phone, the iPod transmission is interrupted and you can answer your call. The jacket (and the backpack) has a microphone built in to its left hand collar. You hear the call through your iPod earbuds and talk into your clothing. It’s so James Bond I want it, even though I don’t ski or snowboard at all.

• O’Neill – h2.series

The solar backpack can keep your iPod and phone charged via USB connections. It also has a microphone in one of its straps and a headphone jack on the other. You can control your iPod with the cool controls on the other strap. Very convenient. There is also a strap that can hold your snowboard on your back for transport. They have another backpack in the series that isn’t solar powered. There’s also room for a shovel. I guess snowboarders need to carry shovels for some reason.

On another note, their website is really well designed. It’s a Flash-based design, but it’s not irritatingly animated. I really enjoyed browsing through it to find out how the products work. The only thing it was missing was a big “Buy Me” button somewhere. The only question they left unanswered was, “How do I wash the jacket when it starts smelling like March snow?” Maybe they don’t have stinky March snow where they come from.

Unfortunately, when I went to the O’Neill online shop, I was unable to find the h2.series jacket or backpacks. I don’t know if it’s because their online shop wasn’t nearly as helpful as their website or if it’s not available yet. Because of this, I have no idea of the cost of these products. For all I know, only James Bond can afford them…

Via: Hautegear – O’Neill solar bag

A local CompUSA had the iPod nano in stock last weekend, so I got my first look at one in person. A few first impressions:

• This thing is thin and small, much moreso than I imagined. It’s as thin as the iPod Shuffle, and only a bit wider. It would easily fit in a pocket.
• The black finish is beautiful, as is the tiny color screen—the screen is very sharp and readable, and the tiny thumbnails of album covers are recognizable.
• The clickwheel and buttons are easy to use. I personally prefer the moving wheel on my ancient iPod, but it’s hard to imagine a better interface for something this tiny.
• The headphone connector is on the bottom of the unit, which seems odd, but won’t be a major inconvenience.
• The dock connector on the bottom should work with many of the existing iPod accessories, but the nano’s size might make it fit poorly (or look silly) in some docks. Make Magazine tested a few accessories and reports on what works and what doesn’t.

We’ll have a full review when one of us gives into temptation and buys one. In the meantime, Time magazine has an interesting article on the development of the nano. Apple certainly made a bold decision to discontinue the iPod mini and focus on the new nano, but I’m sure it will pay off.

The i.Tech Virtual Bluetooth Keyboard is an interesting idea: A small device the size of a pack of gum projects a laser image of a standard keyboard onto any flat surface. You type by touching the surface at the image of the key you want. Does it work? Yes. Is it practical? That depends a lot on your needs. Our review puts it to the test.

(Continue Reading…)

A local CompUSA had the iPod nano in stock last weekend, so I got my first look at one in person. A few first impressions:

• This thing is thin and small, much moreso than I imagined. It’s as thin as the iPod Shuffle, and only a bit wider. It would easily fit in a pocket.
• The black finish is beautiful, as is the tiny color screen—the screen is very sharp and readable, and the tiny thumbnails of album covers are recognizable.
• The clickwheel and buttons are easy to use. I personally prefer the moving wheel on my ancient iPod, but it’s hard to imagine a better interface for something this tiny.
• The headphone connector is on the bottom of the unit, which seems odd, but won’t be a major inconvenience.
• The dock connector on the bottom should work with many of the existing iPod accessories, but the nano’s size might make it fit poorly (or look silly) in some docks. Make Magazine tested a few accessories and reports on what works and what doesn’t.

We’ll have a full review when one of us gives into temptation and buys one. In the meantime, Time magazine has an interesting article on the development of the nano. Apple certainly made a bold decision to discontinue the iPod mini and focus on the new nano, but I’m sure it will pay off.

Apple’s new Mighty Mouse has gotten huge press for being the first two (actually three) button mouse from Apple ever. Does it live up to the hype? We’ve had ours since the day they hit the shelves, and it’s time to report.

(Continue Reading…)

This watch (Casio – LA11WB1A) was around when I worked at K-Mart in the late Eighties. I remember selling one to a nurse who wanted a practical watch that would do everything she needed during her busy day. This one more than filled her bill. All she really needed was the seconds displayed. Casio is still making it in three designs: black (pictured), silver and gold. It’s nearly the perfect digital watch.

Features:

• Time and seconds displayed
• Date
• Stopwatch
• Alarm
• Pre-set countdown timers (1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 30 minute timers)
• Hourly chime

Tragically Missing Features:

• Light
• Date displayed on different screen instead of with the time
• Cleaner face design (remove the black and writing, leaving more room for the digital screen and maybe a date)

This would be my watch of choice if it had a light. I could overlook the pre-set timers and the lack of the date displayed with the time, but I need to be able to see what time it is when it’s dark. I actually owned the gold version when I was in high school. I broke two bands before I finally lost it to the third band (fell off my arm unnoticed and lost forever).

In my search for the perfect digital women’s watch, Casio has come out ahead of all the other brands. This watch has been gracing the arms of women all over the nation for twenty years. What do they expect us to do at night?

After looking on the Internet for it, I realized that the medium isn’t ready for watch shopping yet. I can’t tell the size of the watch from the tiny thumbnails that they provide. Las Vegas sports much more shopping opportunities than I have in Salt Lake City, so I was hopeful for the Labor Day weekend. Maybe I would find my watch.

Here is what I want:

• A beautiful watch
• Women’s watch
• Digital
• Metal case and band
• Time and Date on the display at the same time
• Stopwatch
• Countdown Timer
• Light
• I would also like Dual Time, but I’m willing to give that up

I want a watch that is pretty, feminine and useful. Those sparkly watch hands on my Citizen EcoDrive are pretty, but they don’t tell me much information. I want more from my wrist-top computer. I want it to be useful AND good looking, and I’m willing to drop a lot of money on this purchase.

That’s why I was hopeful for Las Vegas. They have so many luxury and designer stores there. I was sure that TAG Heuer or Tissot would have what I was looking for. I just needed to find it.

After looking at every watch store in the Las Vegas area, we came up worse than empty. I was crabby with so many of the clerks, but the snooty lady at the biggest watch shop was the only one who deserved it.

“I don’t think this Nike looks good enough to be a dress watch.” I said reluctantly. It was only $80 and I could have bought it for fun, but it wasn’t any better than the $7 watch on my wrist.

I saw the clerk roll her eyes. She said in a thick accent, which I suspected was fake, “If you want a nice dress watch, you won’t find it in digital. Buy a Citizen.”

“I have a Citizen. It takes me an extra five seconds to tell time with it. I want digital with a nice metal band.”

“What you want is too big for a women’s watch.”

“This watch is digital and it’s small.” I held up the $7 Armitron. It has all the functions that I want. It’s just ugly. It looks like a sport watch. “If they just put the innards of this into a nice watch, then I would have what I want.”

“If you want a dress watch, you need to buy a nice brand. I have one with a stopwatch.”

“You do? It’s a digital?”

“No, it’s not a digital. It’s an analog stopwatch.”

I didn’t say anything else. I realized that the woman is used to selling watches to fat old women who are more interested in how many diamonds are on the face. It’s a shame, too. I was willing to drop a load if I could only find what I wanted. I’ll probably end up buying a Suunto. If it has to be ugly at least it can tell me the temperature and predict the weather.

JVC is first out of the gate with a hard disk based camcorder that records in the MPEG-2 format of DVD. No tape, no mini-DVDs, and up to 24 hours of recording at a time. But as everyone who buys a camcorder finds out, the devil is always in the details: How fast and easy is it to export the video and create a DVD, and how much is it really going to cost in extra peripherals and software to do it? We put this camera to the test. (Continue Reading…)

I currently use a Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard, which I reviewed in June. At the time, I noted that the ergonomic keyboard fad appeared to be over—it’s rare that I see one of the split keyboard designs in stores.

Apparently I was wrong, because Microsoft has announced a new ergonomic keyboard. The Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000—I just love Microsoft’s down-to-earth naming style—will be available this month and features a split-key design along with improved “curves and arcs.” It also includes the zoom slider featured on the Digital Media Pro keyboard, which I just realized I haven’t used since installing mine three months ago.

I’m also pleased to report that despite costing $65, this is not a wireless keyboard. I’m not a fan of wireless keyboards—as far as I’m concerned it’s just one more battery to replace—and lately all of the high-end keyboards have been available only in wireless models.

Since I’m a keyboard nerd, I’ll be sure to take a closer look at this keyboard when it arrives in stores.

[via Engadget]

Apple introduced the ipod nano today. It’s an updated version of the iPod mini with 2GB or 4GB of flash-memory storage. It’s basically a smaller, thinner version of the iPod mini, complete with a color screen. It goes for $199 or $249 depending on the size, and best of all, it comes in black.

No technical revolution here, but Apple’s iPods do tend to drive the rest of the MP3 player market, so expect to see lots of thin, white and black music players in a store near you soon.

They also announced an iTunes phone, for what that’s worth. My Treo 650 can play hundreds of songs already, so I’m not too excited about that one.