First off, thanks to Peter Rojas who penned a great missive about the new Palm Foleo project to the folks at Palm. They’ve developed this new Foleo direction, and well, it doesn’t seem to be the right one. Peter (his article is here over at Engadget by the way).

Well, here’s the neat part, they are listening!

This is obviously important in a number of ways. First of course, they don’t want to alienate the people that use their products, but secondly, they’re obviously aware at this point, that the chilly reception for the Foleo, may indicate that their direction may not be the right one to go.

I wrote a bit about the Foleo system’s release a while back. It does seem to provide a bit of additional utility to the Treo line, however, the main accomplishment is simply a bigger screen, more memory, and a full sized keyboard.

Peter notes that obviously the iPhone is the new target for the Palm group. This is so true it hurts, and a true bit of evoloution from that level seems to be the only thing that will put it head and shoulders above the iPhone (or simply put, the same features coupled with a better price point).

I only have one additional note to add to his work, which is; PLEASE PLEASE add a 5 Megapixel or better camera too! I’ve been looking and looking, but very few bother to do this. It seems that the Nokia N95 seems to be the only phone that can be wedged into the US market that has this capacity. Let’s face it, if it can take REAL pictures, the utility of this thing goes through the roof. Read the rest of this entry »

Solid Alliance, long the purveyor of quirky USB gadgets, has now unveiled a garage that hooks up to your USB port. Inside the garage contains a car that can be controlled, albeit not with your everyday remote control. Instead, it uses a special desktop program where your arrow keys are the primary mode of navigation. Whenever the car runs out of juice, it can be placed back in the garage for charging (it takes 10 minutes to achieve a full charge). There is a 1 meter radius in terms of range, and this nifty gadget definitely helps kill off the afternoon boredom at the office. The USB RC Car with garage will retail for $30 when it is released this September in Japan.

Source: New Launches

Here’s another of lose useless funny office gadgets, the Cubicaller, the cubicle doorbell.

No longer will your colleagues have to manually knock on your cubicle wall, now they can announce their arrival with one of the following sounds.

• Chirping birds
• Old car horn
• “Ding-Dong” doorbell
• Sprong
• Fading laser
• Knocking on door
• Fog horn
• Big band
• “Quack-Quack”
• Ring tone
• Cat meowing
• Chimes

It’s fastened on using Velcro so can be removed at night to prevent the office cleaner from pinching it. The CubiCaller is available at TG for $11.99.

Most offices are nothing but dreary places, so why not spruce it up with some flowers? This USB-powered Mini Greenhouse allows you to do exactly that without dirtying your workplace. Each purchase comes with a packet of marigold seeds to get you started along with some artificial soil. Included software must be installed on your Windows-based computer, enabling you to monitor the growth rate of your plants in a scientific manner. The artificial sun lamp (with an adjustable height, I might add) works great if you plan on growing these plants in some dark, dank basement where sunlight is as scarce as hair on a bald man’s head. The Mini Greenhouse measures 9″ x 6.5″ x 6.5″ and retails for $19.99 each.

Source: Everything USB

It’s portable, it’s hot, and it’s British. The Lay-Z-Spa is perfect for the on the go swinger who wants to take a soak anywhere. The 240 gallon spa has enough room for 4 to 5 people, can inflate in about 10 minutes and fill in about an hour and a half.

The uniquely designed pumping system combines a 2,000 watt heater with a a 600 watt blower, to raise the water temperature about 4 degrees an hour. So, on average, the Lay-Z-Spa can be hot and ready in about a day. Also included in the suitcase sized blower/heater mechanism is a filter assembly which cleans and filters the water as it’s heated.

Optional accessories include the starter chemical kit, replacement chamber, either a blue vinyl or white inflatible spa cover, and even aroma therapy oils to add to the water for ultimate relaxation.

And should users suffer a puncture, it’s easily repaired with a vinyl repair kit.

For around $600US, the Lay-Z-Spa makes a perfect addition to any apartment with a balcony or a homeowner who doesn’t wish to go all out with an expensive hot tub. And the RV Camping crowd can bring it along to ease the knots from those long summer road trips.

Video here.

Bio-SnapON from M2Sys is a complete fingerprint recognition system that is easily and instantly integrated with any third party software package, doing away with the need for development work of any sort. In layman’s terms, it can replace any external barcode or magstripe device with biometric identification while substituting fingerprint for an application username and password. Bio-SnapON is definitely ideal for the following situations:

No word on pricing as you have to contact the staff at M2Sys yourself if you plan to implement it in your organization.

Product Page

Fujitsu Computer Systems recently announced that it will sell the LifeBook U810 mini convertible computer for $999 when it hits store shelves sometime next month. Weighing a mere 1.56lb, you definitely won’t find it a hassle to carry it around on your business dealings. The Fujitsu LifeBook U810 holds the distinction of being the first tablet of its kind that comes with touchscreen capability and the ability to convert from a clamshell form factor to that of a UMPC size in a flash. Other competitors in this market include the OQO Model 2 and the FlipStart by Vulcan Portals, but Fujitsu clearly thinks that its offering is the best of the three (which company doesn’t?).

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember the Whoopee Cushion that has caused countless embarrassing moments to it’s victims in the past? Well, as technology progresses, it makes sense that practical jokes get along with the times as well. The Radio Controlled Whoopee Cushion updates this old gag by letting you control just when your victim will experience a red face at the press of a button. The RF wireless remote has a working range of up to 50 feet and retails for $10 from X-treme Geek. While it may be fun, it might not earn you those brownie points that eventually translate to a pay raise at the end of the year so use this with extreme caution.

Product Page via Technabob