Gadget Lab Hardware News and Reviews

MiFi Update Adds Movie and Music Streaming

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Today Novatel, the people behind the miraculous little MiFi personal hotspot, announced Novadrive, a cloud storage service for MiFi owners. Boring. What it didn’t announce is way better: an update to the MiFi which adds media streaming to the iPod Touch or any other connected device.

The update, demoed at the CTIA show and which will be available for many current MiFi models, lets users stream music and movies over Wi-Fi via the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) protocol to any DLNA-equipped device, including TV-sets. This combines with a not often mentioned feature of the MiFi, its microSD card slot. Load up a 32GB card with movies and media and you have just doubled the capacity of your iPhone, and as the MiFi acts as a USB mass storage device when plugged into a computer, even iTunes-haters can load it up.

The MiFi gets better and better, not just for connectivity but for extra tweaks like this. And with the launch of the Wi-Fi-only iPad in little over a week, having your own internet connection is starting to look quite attractive.

Next-Gen MiFis Stream Videos and Music to iPhone and iPod Touch [Laptop Mag]

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Neat Hack: Binder-Clip Cable-Keepers

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This one is more for the life-hacking crowd than the gadget-loving crowd, but the simplicity, ingenuity and plain good-looks of this little cable management hack make it worth showing off. It also plays right into my cable-tidying obsession, meaning I couldn’t not post it.

This binder-clip cable-saver comes from David Rudolf Bakker in the Netherlands, and is something you could replicate right now just by rummaging in the junk drawer. The clips clamp onto the edge of your desk and you thread power, ethernet and USB cables through the fold-back loops by disconnecting them temporarily from the clip body. That’s it: your cable will never escape down the back of the desk again, and will instead be held patiently at the ready to be plugged into you notebook. Those wire loops are even big enough that the cable itself won’t snag as it is pulled through.

I don’t have any clips, having given up on paper some years ago, but I do have cables. Lots and lots of snaky, tangled cables. I shall visit the stationery store today.

No more USB cables behind your desk for losses [Lifehacking via Lifehacker]

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8-Bit Hanger Brings Mouse Pointer Into Your Home

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My mother told me that it’s rude to point. Then again, we’re English, so pretty much everything is considered to be rude or inconsiderate to somebody. As a nation, we are uptight except when drunk. The 8-Bit Hanger, then, should never be sold in Blighty, as these pixelated pointy fingers would be the equivalent of shouting filthy abuse at your own parents.

In more balanced parts of the world, though, these cute little hooks are the perfect retro-styled hanger for pretty much any part of the house, from bags of onions in the kitchen to towels in the bathroom. The MDF and acrylic hangers come equipped with a permanently attached screw and measure 3 x 2.8 x 0.6-inches.

Actually, maybe these should be brought to England, and lined up in hallways across the nation as the perfect security device: Any well brought-up burglar would drop his swag-bag immediately upon seeing them and cower in shame at the mean accusatory tone of these jagged digits. $20 each.

8-Bit Hanger [Meninos via Noquedanblogs]

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Guitarbud Hooks Axe to iPhone

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The Guitarbud from PRS is little more than a cable that takes the output from the jack of an electric guitar and splits it to headphones and an iPhone. But this simple accessory, if done right, could offer almost endless possibilities for guitarists.

It all depends on which app you pump the sound into. The built-in voice-memo recorder will do if all you want is to record your music and mail it off to friends, but there turns out to be a slew of purpose-made guitar apps in the iTunes Store, from multi-track recorders to PRS’ own JamAmp software which lets you play along, via an amp-simulator, with backing tracks. In short, if you are a guitarist and you have an iPhone, you should probably have something like a Guitarbud.

Something like the Guitarbud, but not the actual Guitarbud itself. The problem start with the price: $30 for a splitter cable is clearly too much. Then there is the quality. Buyer reviews over at the Musician’s Friend store are almost unanimously bad, citing poor build quality (”it feels like it’s the $2 cord that you get when you buy a cheap guitar package”), crackling, non-shielded audio and problems getting anything other than a weak signal into the phone.

It’s a shame, as the possibilities are exciting, especially with the added power and size of the upcoming iPad. Based on the reviews, we’d hold off right now, and maybe even concoct our own solution from better hardware. But the idea of this little widget is enough to make me think about taking up the guitar again.

Guitarbud [PRS via Mac OSx86]

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Preview: Instapaper Pro for iPad

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Instapaper Pro, our favorite read-later iPhone application here at Gadget Lab, will be available for the iPad on day one. Over at the Instapaper blog, developer Marco Arment has posted screenshots and a great explanation of the problems facing developers without access to an actual, physical iPad.

Instapaper Pro for iPad will be a universal app, a bundle containing code for both the iPad and iPhone. This means that, if the app makes it through Apple’s approval channels, current Instapaper users will never have to see a pixel-doubled version, which “sucked, and it was completely unusable by my standards,” according to Arment.

Being a simple reading application, there aren’t many differences in the interface, which is mostly just text and pictures after all. Arment was wary of making changes without being able to see them in action: “I didn’t want to commit to any huge risks because I don’t have an iPad to test them on,” he says.

The one big change is the horizontal folder view, above. All it does is expose the folders into which your articles are organized (you knew Instapaper has folders, right?), but it looks to be a lot easier and more obvious to use.

Arment plans on making more tweaks when he has an iPad in his hands, but we’re very pleased he decided to go ahead with making an untested Instapaper available at launch. We feel exactly the same way as him about the app: “an iPad without native Instapaper Pro is not a device I want to own.”

Preview: Instapaper on iPad [Instapaper Blog]

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EcoCHARGE Wall-Wart: Slim On Power, Slim On Looks

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I’ll admit it: I’m obsessed with power cables and wall-warts of all kinds. Maybe its because nobody made a good one yet, so nowhere can I buy a power-brick that will fit neatly into a strip without crowding out others, that will charge USB devices and switch off when it isn’t needed. I shall keep looking until I find it.

The EcoCHARGE gets pretty close. Its narrow body slots in between bigger, greedier bricks and its tail trails away to either a mini or micro USB plug. A hatch on the block itself swings aside to allow a full-sized USB cable to be plugged in. The “Eco” part of the name comes from the device’s low power draw, and the fact that it switches off completely once charging has done, eliminating vampire draw like AT&T’s Zero Charger. Well, almost. Weirdly, the indicator LED appears to activate when the unit is *not* charging: “When the LED is off, the EcoCHARGE is active”. Still, it wins by pulling one tenth the power of an Energy Star compliant charger.

The EcoCHARGE costs $30 for both mini or micro USB flavors, with an iPhone/iPod version coming in April. Given that you can just plug your iPhone into the USB port, this future iPhone-specific version seems less useful.

EcoCHARGE [Ventev. Thanks, Anna!]

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Sprint, HTC Unveil First 4G Android Phone

htc-evo-glAndroid superfactory HTC’s latest smartphone is a 4G device designed just for Sprint. The phone called HTV Evo is a feature-packed gadget that will have the distinction of being the first phone offered for a 4G network in the U.S.

The Evo has a 4.3-inch touchscreen, two cameras, GPS navigation, HDMI output and mobile hotspot capability. It will run Google’s Android 2.1 operating system and HTC’s custom user interface called the Sense.

Sprint claims its 4G network can offer download speeds up to 10 times faster than current 3G networks, allowing the Evo to be blazing fast when it comes to data access.

Over the last few years, Sprint has been building out its 4G network and the company’s 4G wireless services is available in 27 cities in the U.S., though that doesn’t include most major hubs like San Francisco and New York.  Sprint has said it will expand its 4G network in a big way this year.

Sprint and HTC haven’t announced pricing for the Evo but device is expected to launch this summer.

Like the Nexus One, another HTC designed phone for Google, the Evo will use a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It will have a 8-megapixel auto-focus camera with HD-capable video camcorder and a forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera. (See a list of detailed specifications on Sprint’s site.)

Evo’s mobile hotspot functionality will also allow up to eight Wi-Fi enabled devices to share the network. The phone will also support Adobe Flash and will have a “custom” web browser, says Sprint.

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Portable LED Display Offers Laptop Users a Secondary Monitor

medlFor laptop users, having dual screens on the road is almost impossible unless they are willing to lug one of Lenovo’s hefty notebooks around.

Now, a Hong Kong-based company MEDL technology is showing a 13-inch lightweight, portable LED display that can be used as a secondary monitor to add digital real estate.

The LED display, simply named “The Panel,” weighs about 2.2 lbs and connects to a PC or a Mac through a USB cable. The screen has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and claims up to five hours of battery life.

The Panel is not limited for use just with laptops, says MEDL. It can connect to phones and gaming consoles such as the Xbox 360 or Sony PlayStation 3–anything that has a USB port.

MEDL is showing The Panel at the ongoing DEMO Spring conference.

As laptops become more popular among users than desktops, the idea of having dual displays for mobile devices is catching on. Last year, Lenovo introduced a $5000 dual-screen laptop that weighed about 11 lbs and combined a 17-inch display and a 11-inch screen in a single box.

MEDL’s LED screen could be an alternative to the Lenovo monster, though MEDL is yet to announce pricing or availability for the product.

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Roundup: Steve Jobs’ Terse Replies to Fan Mail

Normally as quiet and retiring as a geek at the Homecoming dance, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been on an unusual e-mail spree in the weeks leading up to the iPad launch, according to multiple reports.

By our count, Jobs has sent at least four e-mails to eager Apple nerds asking about issues such as iPad tethering, future MacBook upgrades, open e-books and Picasa photo syncing.

On Tuesday morning, Cult of Mac posted an e-mail exchange between Jobs and an Apple customer inquiring about whether the iPad would support open (i.e., non-DRM) e-books. Like his past e-mails, Jobs’ reply was terse:

Yep.

Sent from my iPad

Jobs has been known to occasionally respond to e-mails from customers similar to the way a celebrity musician or movie star might write back to fan mail. Though extremely concise, his e-mails offer a tiny window into the workings of the famously secretive corporation.

This is also the first published e-mail from Jobs with the “Sent from my iPad” signature.

Continue Reading “Roundup: Steve Jobs’ Terse Replies to Fan Mail” »

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Phone Halo Helps You Track Lost Keys, Wallet

phonehalo1Finding a way to keep track of your keys, wallet or phone is one of those frustrating tasks of life for which there’s no dearth of as-seen-of-TV solutions.

Here’s another product but one that’s embraces the Web 2.0 era.

Tech company Phone Halo debuted a hardware dongle that promises to help you keep track of your stuff through Google maps on your phone.

A $70 “eraser-sized device” Phone Halo has Bluetooth and GPS capability and supports Blackberry, Android and the iPhone. The company showed the device at the ongoing DEMO Spring conference.

The Halo charges via USB and has a battery life of about a week, says the company.

But here’s the problem. The device has a range of only 30 feet or 10 meters so it’s best for use across a room or two. It won’t be handy if you forgot your phone outdoors or have already left the location. There’s an option to lock the phone remotely but with most major phone makers including Motorola with Moto Blur and Apple with Mobile Me offering locator services for your phone, Halo is not particularly useful.

Phone Halo says users can specify a radius so that if the object and the attached Halo hardware moves beyond it, the Halo dongle will beep to alert you. Or you can all the hardware by pressing a button so it beeps. Users can also open up the Halo phone app and see the last location of the object.

And since everything has to have a social component these days, the Phone Halo lets you post a Google map of where you Halo’d object last was seen on Facebook or Twitter.

It’s all rather gimmicky and pedestrian. There are plenty of key locator services out there starting at $30 and almost provide the same service. Except for the ability to post to twitter, there’s little that sets Phone Halo apart. But isn’t tweeting a big deal these days?

Check out the demo video to see Phone Halo at work

Photo: Phone Halo

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