New Gadgets

Buffalo is set to drop their latest 3D-enabled external Blu-ray writer ‘BP3D-PI6U2-BK’ for the Japanese market.

This new external drive is equipped with a USB 2.0 connection interface and comes bundled with CyberLink’s PowerDVD 9 software which enables Blu-ray 3D playback as well as 2D to 3D conversion of DVD movies. In terms of performance, the drive provides write speeds of 6x for BD-R (SL/DL), 2x for BD-RE (SL/DL), 8x for DVD-R/+R and DVD+RW, 6x for DVD-R/+R DL and DVD-RW, 5x for DVD-RAM and 24x for CD-R/-RW. The Buffalo BP3D-PI6U2-BK will become available in Japan later this month for around $338.

Steve Jobs announced smaller and thinner iPods today at Apple’s Fall Music Event. With smaller, new designs for the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and a thinner, more powerful iPod Touch, Apple is poised to hit the entertainment market in music, movies and gaming like never before. And just in time for the Holidays.

Let’s start with the iPod shuffle. As if it couldn’t get smaller, it does. And the best part is, Apple has brought back buttons along with voiceover to make navigation of songs easier. The Shuffle is a tad larger than your thumb, has a clip, and has over 15 hours of battery life. In 5 colors (Blue, Pink, Green, Yellow, and Silver), the Shuffle will sell for $49 for 8GB.

The biggest change has come in the iPod Nano, which is now 46% smaller and is multi-touch. That means that Apple has dumped the control wheel and gone to complete touch navigation. It’s slightly larger than the Shuffle, which shows how small it really has become. Apple has dropped the video camera feature but has brought in a clip to make it easier to wear (which is great for athletes and runners) , has an FM Radio, Nike Pedometer, and 24 hours of battery life. Comes in seven colors (the same colors as the shuffle plus black and red) and starts at $149.

Lastly, is the new iPod Touch, which has Apple’s blazing A4 processor and Apple’s pioneering HD Retina display with four times more pixels and an ultra sharp 326 ppi and 24-bit color. The iPod also sports the 3-axis gyro control and Apple also announced GAME CENTER, a social networking vehicle which will allow players to take on each other via WiFi in cyberspace playing a wide variety of games including a new game from Epic Games called Project Sword, and action packed RPG adventure with action happening in real time.

Additionally, the Touch will be able to take advantage of dual cameras and FaceTime with which it can communicate to iPhone 4 users and iPod Touch users over WiFi Video conferencing. And the latest iTunes has a great new social network called PING which enables fans to listen to new music from friends playlists, comment socially about it and download them on the spot. The iPod will also enjoy high dynamic range photography and HD video and be able to edit courtesy of the iMovie App.

The new iPod Touch goes on sale next week, just in time for Christmas for $229 / 8GB, $299/32GB and $399/64GB. With gaming, music, and HD movies, the new iPod Touch is going to be a hot item come Christmas.

The good people at Philips and O’Neill have come together to develop a bunch of new durable headphones that have been tested on the toughest O’Neill team riders including Matthews, Enderud and Jones.

These super durable headphones will target those who live their live on the extreme edge, and will be hitting the IFA 2010 showfloor with a bang. The Stretch as seen above will be the toughest of the lot, where it has been inspired by the heavy-duty materials of wetsuits, hence being impact as well as crack-resistant. Made out of TR55LX, this material boasts a surface hardness that is six-times greater than the polycarbonate which sees action in many other headphones. Descriptions of the other models are available in the extended post.

The Snug is a stylish flat-folding pair of headphones which is touted to deliver a flawless fit and incredible sound. Hopefully it lives up to its product description! As for The Covert, this model aims to be like its namesake, bearing a discreet bud that is deceptively powerful, coupled with iPhone controls. The Specked will feature a trio of striking coloured earbuds that are tough and stylish, bearing tangle-free cords for longer listening experiences.

Creative has announced a new low price wireless speaker for a whole home audio system at IFA 2010. The new speaker is called the D220W and it ships with the Sound Blaster Wireless transmitter that plugs into a USB port for streaming from your computer.

The USB transmitter works with both Mac and Windows computers and streams high quality wireless music up to 100 feet from the computer. The D220W works with iTunes and any other digital music service on your computer. It can also stream audio from video sites like Hulu and YouTube.

The D220W is a sound bar style speaker with a glossy black case and Euro style. The transmitter included with the D220W is compatible with any of the other Creative wireless speakers or headphones. The D220W and its wireless transmitter will ship in Q4 in the US for $169.99. The transmitter alone is $69.99.

Le Arc Touch Mouse, she is real. There are two unique bits to this thing: The ability to bend the mouse up when in use, and the touch strip that replaces a traditional scroll wheel. It costs $70.

I’ve only gotten to play around with it for a day, but so far it’s actually a pretty good mouse for a “compact” or “travel” mouse. It’s similar to the original Arc Mouse in that it’s curved and small and is meant for travelers who must have a mouse, no matter where they are. It has a small magnetic area on the back so you can attach your USB dongle.

When you want to pack up and go home, just bend the end of the mouse up so it flattens out. While you’re down there, avoid looking straight into the blue light.

The touch strip

The most interesting bit is the touch strip, which is completely touch sensitive, and mimics a scroll wheel quite well. Flick up to scroll fast, or smoothly go up to scroll up slowly. Just like a normal wheel, after you flick, you can put your finger down on the strip again to stop the scrolling. Oh, and the best part is that there’s a little speaker inside the mouse that reproduces the scroll clicking sound! It’s not only functionally useful, it’s super cool.

You can also program the buttons—there are three areas—to act as buttons, say, for middle clicking, or page up, or navigating back, or activating the Windows 7 flip. Basically, use it as a customizable button.

The left and right mouse buttons are pretty standard, even if they’re kind of tough to depress unless you click near the tip.

So far, the Arc Touch Mouse shows promise as both a travel mouse and a mouse you’d use every day, because of the cool touch functions. We’ll see if that holds true. The mouse ships in early December.

For those of you out there who would love to have a headset that does not leave you tethered to your desk can check out the Logitech Wireless Headset H760, as this wireless device allows you to pace around the room while carrying out a VoIP conversation with someone else on your computer.

Thanks to its plug-and-play wireless functionality, you can now move within a 40 feet radius from your computer, but that figure will vary greatly, depending on the layout of the building you’re in. We’re guessing that it ought to be powerful enough to cater for small apartments and homes. Delivering a comfortable user experience thanks to its behind-the-head design, the Logitech Wireless Headset H760 will feature a built-in equalizer that enhances sound for voice, music and movies and a noise-canceling microphone, alongside quick-access audio controls for added convenience. It will retail for $99.99 a pop.

RIM has just announced a new product in their accessory line, the HS-700 Bluetooth headset. It’s an innocuous little Bluetooth headset with a nice leather finish, but what makes it special is that you can launch into actions using only your voice. Using voice alone, you can start a call, mute a call, redial, call the last person to call you, swap between calls, or pair to another phone.

Instead of having to press the side of it to answer, you can just say “answer” or “ignore” out loud – it’ll even tell you who’s calling after pairing up with your BlackBerry’s address book and figuring out some text-to-voice translation. For non-BlackBerrys, it’ll still say the phone number of the incoming call.The HS-700 Bluetooth headset even plugs into GPS mapping on your BlackBerry to provide turn-by-turn directions, right in your ear. Volume controls are entirely automated based on ambient noise, which I would be wary about trusting, but will have to try out to know for sure.

If you’re interested, the BlackBerry HS-700 Bluetooth headset is listed in BlackBerry’s online store as Coming Soon for a steep $129.99.

We’ve all lost a high-tech gadget or two to that most low-tech of the natural elements: water.  Always miles ahead of us stateside folk, who have alternately used hair dryers and bowls of quick rice to dry out our devices, the Japanese have implemented the Dryer Box, a sort of clothes dryer for drowned gadgets.

The copy-machine-sized boxes have found homes in several of Tokyo’s Yodobashi Camera retail outlets, and promise that, if they don’t resurrect, they don’t collect. If your phone is among the lucky ones (which will have to do with whether or not the electronics have shorted), you’ll owe 1,000 yen (around $12). And that, dear readers, is a small price to pay when you can avoid telling your friends that you totally forgot your phone was in your pocket when you jumped in the lake.

For developers, being able to make a bit of cash from your app after the user has downloaded it is wondrous — especially if the initial app download was free. Nothing like being able to, you know, pay rent, or eat.

While the iPhone has supported the idea of In-App purchase for a bit over a year now, Android has yet to adopt it.

A few third-parties have manually integrated their own payment system into their apps — but everyone reinventing the wheel for their own use is a bad idea. Not only is it a ton of leg work, but it puts the responsibility of handling the customer’s sensitive financial data in the laps of developers.

Enter Paypal.

Today, Paypal is announcing Mobile Payments Library for Android — which is exactly what it sounds like: a library for Android developers to use to integrate Paypal payments into their app. Customers get to make transactions without ever leaving the app, while developers get to accept payments without having to handle credit card info. And of course, Paypal gets their customary cut. Everyone wins.

Is it the best possible solution? Not really; it’s another third-party brought into the mix, requiring customers to have yet another account. With that said, it’s about as good as it gets until Google gets around to bringing proper In-App purchase support to the platform

You can find more information about the new library at Paypal’s freakishly-short-URL’d X.com

Sony Ericsson produces a list of innovative and attractive smartphones. But the appearance of the C series with the Cybershot feature made the best impression ever. These smartphones are totally not only for the calling use but specifically for the photo shooting. One of the most interesting models of this series is Sony Ericsson C905.Thus the most important thing for these devices is to keep them in a proper condition.

But it’s so hard especially if we take into the account the fact most of the time we keep the phone together with heavy and firm accessories which make scratches all the time. Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson didn’t provide its best series smartphone Sony Ericsson C905 with a better protection opportunities.

But, instead Invisible Shields did. This is a company which only produces skin covers for the smartphones , but also for mp3 players, cameras and other devices. This world-known brand offers a list of full coverage skins which help to protect the device from all of the sides.

The best thing about this company products is that they are irreplaceable. Why? It’s simply you will not want to exchange your only .2mm thick, invisible, scratch-resistant and light skin cover with something else, will you?

The Invisible Shields stand out amongst its competitor gaining the trust of its customers for years. To keep itself updated the company tries to make newer models of the skin covers with the appearance of the newer models of various devices.

Plus, the company provides lifetime and money back guarantee. Here are a few photos from the Cell Phone Cover installation we tested on Sony Ericsson C905: