» Gadgets

Gadgets For The Global Traveller

Guest Contributor — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 06:06:58 +0000

If you are packing your bags and heading off to sunny climes or snow covered slopes this Christmas, you do not have to travel without the benefit of technology.

Out in the Sticks

Taking a touring holiday has never been easier with the array of gadgets and gizmos available for the modern tourist. From the modern functionality of techno maps to the Earthmate hand held GPS, which allows you to plot your position anywhere on the earth even when you do not have a cell phone signal. If you are out on the trail, but still want to stay in touch, you need to have the ability to charge up your phone without trying to find an electrical outlet. Solar Technology has developed a range of chargers for your Smartphone that use a solar powered panel to make sure you’re always in touch in a green world.

Travel gadgets make life on the road a pleasure and you don’t want to leave home without browsing through your App store to see what phone gadgets can make your life easier while you travel the world. From translation tools, maps and GPS to handy guides about what to order in a foreign restaurant and how to find a taxi in Timbuktu, your Smartphone is your virtual guide to a real world of adventure and excitement.

Automobile Attachments

One of the best new devices is a travel router, which helps you plan your trip without the frustration of massive maps and local travel information. This is a great addition to any road trip and especially important if you’re on a motoring holiday and want to avoid road works, traffic and travel delays.

A universal power adaptor is also a great gift for people who are heading off on a motoring holiday. It is slim line and can be used on planes as well as any type of vehicle. If you need power in a hurry and do not want to have to search for an electronic store this is the perfect gadget.

Lugging Luggage

If you’re expecting delays, and long airport waits, or even a 3-mile walk through your destination city, you don’t want to have to struggle with your luggage. The Walkin Bag is a luxury, high-tech take on the wheelie bag. It is ultra strong and has the benefit of unfolding into a handy seat that will comfortably take the weight of an adult male.

The modern traveller is not one who is afraid of the unknown, but international safety and security has become a point to ponder these days. If you want to make sure that your hotel room is extra safe, you can install the mobile Travel Door Alarm to any door, which will alert you with sound and an LED to any possible intrusion, even the turn down service!

You can stay safe on the road in the air and at your destination wherever you travel this Christmas.

If you are driving or walking, stay safe at Christmas with these helpful tips from Vroomvroomvroom.co.uk.

New Toyota Concept Car Works as a Smartphone

Guest Contributor — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 07:58:56 +0000

Toyota president, Akio Toyoda helped launch a new smartphone concept car at the Tokyo Auto Show. Toyoda called the car a “smartphone on four wheels.” The car, which is known as the Fun-Vii, has touch screen door panels that allow the driver to connect with other people. Toyota is also working with the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design to create a transparent touch screen on car windows. This new technology would allow passengers to interact with the world outside of the automobile, while they are inside the car. These recent advances are a response to consumers’ increasing interest in the most technologically advanced cars.

Ford MyKey

It isn’t just Toyota that is trying to make their cars more tech-friendly. Ford’s MyKey system allows parents to limit their teenager’s ability to reach top speeds. It also allows you set a maximum volume on the stereo and can block incoming text messages and phone calls while the car is running. We’ve had hands-free cellphone technology for quite a few years now but expect the range of options to only increase in the coming years. The Ford MyKey system can also deactivate the stereo until the passengers in the front seats have put their seatbelt on; it can also give audio warnings that your gas tank is starting to run low.

The Smartphone Car

This new Toyota concept car is the first to turn a portion of the vehicle into a mobile device and the company’s recent work with the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design will move these technologies ahead further. The Fun-Vii has no potential release date yet but there has been much buzz surrounding the car since its launch.

Japanese Auto Industry Still Struggling

These new technologies are helping put the Japanese auto industry back on the map. Japanese automakers have been struggling since earthquakes and tsunamis hit the country earlier this year. Production was cut due to problems with obtaining auto parts but it looks like things are almost back on track again. Toyoda told reporters at the Tokyo Auto Show that the tsunami had caused him and the country much distress but that he still wanted to move forward with these new vehicles.

The Fun-Vii

The Fun-Vii definitely looks like a car from the future. It is 13-feet-long and has three seats. The exteriors are completely blank but you can adjust the visuals that you want to appear on the car – wirelessly and in real time. It’s a gaming console, a communication centre, and even a blank canvas, for art and design. The launch video sometimes feels like a scene from Tron but it’s pretty amazing that you can change colors on the vehicle within seconds. With the Fun-Vii you won’t need to choose what color of car you want because you can easily change it.

The Fun-Vii does not have a launch date but I would expect some of these technologies to start making their way into new cars in the coming years. Companies like Toyota and Ford are committed to pushing the limits of automobile technologies and the Fun-Vii is another step in that direction.

(Video for imbed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PWq541Q95so)

To get more information about automobiles and car insurance please visit http://www.completeinsurance.ca.

Desktop Gadgets for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users

siddharth — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:00:35 +0000

Are you a gadget freak?? Do you use Windows 7 or Windows Vista on your laptop or PC?? If the answer to both these questions is ‘yes’, then we are here to get you acquainted with some handy gadgets, which give you details about the CPU, battery and GPU. Here’s the list:

1. Intel Core Series Gadget-Version 2.4

This gadget informs you about the individual usage of processor cores.

Download

2. Top Five Gadget-Version 1.0

This gadget tells you about the top 5 processes using your memory, and the top 5 processes using your processor.

Download

3. NVIDIA GPU Temp- Version 2.0

This device tells you the temperature of your graphic card.

Download

4. GPU Observer Gadget-Version 3.6

This device gives information of FAN, load, Temperature, clock speed of your Graphics Card.

Download

5. Power Status Gadget- Version 1.1

This device tells you how much battery is remaining of your PC/laptop.

Download

THE ALL NEW PEN DRIVE REMINDER!!

ketki — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 05:56:43 +0000

Additional external thumb drives take up the life of your laptop’s battery and adds up to the load of your desktop. So, a utility that will nag you to remove the attached thumb drives is created. A pen drive reminder uses balloon pop-ups in the system tray notification area which constantly reminds you to remove the extra USB drives.

To set up your pen drive reminder to auto run, follow these steps:

1. SILENT MODE: It pops up a notification every time you try to shut down restart or log-off your P.C. without removing the external drive.

2. ALARM MODE: This mode will send notifications in specified time-intervals.

3. COUNTDOWN MODE: With this, you can set a countdown for the number of reminder notifications to pop-up.

Pen Drive reminder can be downloaded from here.

Apple has cut down prices on Older Macs when new Macs are released

Shubham Puranik — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:00:14 +0000

To lay ground for the new systems by Apple ,they have started cutting down prices on the previous generation of Macs by as much as $850.In an e-mail sent to retailers, schools, and other partners supplied directly by Apple, the company launched end-of-life pricing for the older systems, Apple Insider reported. “Our Mac Book family has been updated and all current stock of Mac Book and Mac Book Pros need to be sold,” the e-mail said, according to the Mac enthusiast site. “All current in-store computers are on a first-come, first-served basis.”Apple Insider posted a “Mac Price Guide” that lists the reduced prices of previous-generation Macs available through such retailers as Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN).com, Mac Mall, Mac Connection, B&H, Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), and Club Mac. The guide shows prices on Mac Books, Mac Book Pros, Mac Book Airs, and Mac Minis dropping from about $100 to as much as $850.This cut down in price indicates a tough competition in the market for others.

New version of iGoogle page for Android and iPhone platforms by Google

Shubham Puranik — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 15:20:13 +0000

Google has come up with a new version of its iGoogle page for the Android and iPhone platforms. New features include the ability to access more of your tabs and improved gadget support for interacting with your content.The features that Google would like to mention about this new version of iGoogle are no doubt the speed(which every Google release promises),the new tabbed view which lines up your content in a way that is easy to rifle through quickly to find exactly what you want.iGoogle now supports more gadgets(those requiring flash will not work).

Dan Zivkovic and Zhen Wang, Software Engineers, Google mobile team, write, “One of our favorite new features is the in-line display of articles for feed-based gadgets. That means you can read article summaries without leaving the page. You can also rearrange gadget order or keep your favorite gadgets open for your next visit. None of these changes will mess up the layout of gadgets on your desktop computer, so feel free to play around and tune your mobile experience. “

Keypad shortcuts and Auto-Complete Features in Gmail of Android & iPhone :latest by Google

Shubham Puranik — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:19:04 +0000

On Wedneday the web Giant Google has added two new and captivating features to the mobile version of Gmail. It includes faster address auto-complete and keyboard shortcuts for Android and iPhones.

Google had released the new version of Gmail for Apple’s iPhone and Android-powered devices in the month of April.With this new release the mobile users will also enjoy the features that the desktop users have been enjoying for years.According to a post at the Google mobile blog: “The number one improvement is faster address auto-completion. This means that as you start typing the first few letters of your friend or colleague’s name or email address, the Gmail for mobile will instantly display the possible contacts.”Google has always been known for adding features that enhances speed and accuracy ,and this is an example to it.To check out Gmail for mobile, visit gmail.com in your mobile browser. This version of Gmail for mobile supports the following: “iPhone/iPod Touch OS 2.2.1 or above,” as well as all Android-powered devices, and is available for US English only. To make it easy to access your Gmail account, try creating a home screen link.This feature is available only in the English version of Gmail.

Google has always been known for adding features that enhances speed and accuracy ,and this is an example to it.To check out Gmail for mobile, visit gmail.com in your mobile browser. This version of Gmail for mobile supports the following: “iPhone/iPod Touch OS 2.2.1 or above,” as well as all Android-powered devices, and is available for US English only. To make it easy to access your Gmail account, try creating a home screen link.

This feature is available only in the English version of Gmail.< ><-->

Apple launches its World Wide Developers Conference[WWDC] with all fresh release

nic — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 23:55:55 +0000

Just 2 days after the release of the Palm (PALM), a solid Smartphone, Apple came up with the latest incarnation of its own category killer, the iPhone 3G S,it will be in stores lately this month. This version sports a faster processor, longer battery life, video recording, and a digital compass. It also comes with higher memory capacity than previous models.

Along with this Apple also released refreshed versions of its notebooks Along with the usual speed increases, the newer 13-inch and 15-inch models cost less and include SD card slots. The entire line is also using the same non-removable battery technology found in the MacBook AIR and the 17-inch model of the MacBook Pro.Listed below are the new announcements:

New iPhone hardware
New iPhone software
Extended preview of new operating system

INQ introducing Twitter Phones

nic — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 16:02:32 +0000

The UK based cell phone maker INQ will very soon be coming up with its ‘social networking phones’ The Twitter phone .its is the same company that introduced the Twitter phone.The device lets users tweet on the go without having to pay the high prices of smartphone like the iPhone and BlackBerry. According to Reuters, the Twitter phone will cost carriers less than $140.INQ Chief Executive Frank Meehan said “This can really help open up and drive Twitter use on mobile when usage becomes part of your data package like on the PC,”

Microsoft willing to make gadgets to run Windows

nic — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:57:12 +0000

Microsoft has come up with the latest version of its operating system for gadgets called WINDOWS EMBEDDED CE. There are a billion of devices in the world like industrial robots, medical test equipment and digital signs that are using versions of Windows CE.MICROSOFT has still not touched the consumer’s gadgets section including media players, navigation systems, digital picture frames and digital televisions,and so they find a big opportunity in it, says Kevin Dallas, general manager of Microsoft’s Windows Embedded business. these devices are rapidly being networked and connected to internet.Windows Embedded comes with a license fee charged by Microsoft for every device shipped with the operating system, typically $3 to $15, depending on the volume which includes it costs manufacturers, known as O.E.M.’s, less to design software for Windows Embedded than for other operating systems.To facilitate device makers to design more attractive user interface, they allow designers to use existing Microsoft tools, such as its Expressions Web design software and Visual Studio programming environment, to make the menus, buttons and other features of a device.