New Gadgets

iGrill is the first cooking Thermometer & App for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad.

iGrill is set to revolutionize the way we cook & grill today by enabling you to multitask between your grill and guests with the peace of mind that your food is perfectly cooked, at target temperature and safe for consumption.

iGrill communicates with your iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad via a secure, long-range Bluetooth connection. Ideal kitchen gadget for you high tech kitchen.

We don’t have clock radios anymore, we have audio systems. Witness the Yamaha  TXS-140 Desktop Audio System, which wakes you gradually.

Coming in a range of earth-inspired colors, the TSX-140 works with an iPod Touch and the iPhone. It can also play MP3 and WMA files stores on a USB flash drive. Oh, and it has an AM/FM radio.

What makes it special is the InteliAlarm, which wakes you with the audio source of your choice. It starts by filtering out uncomfortable high frequencies, then gradually restores the full audio spectrum. Finally, it beeps, to tell you to get the heck out of bed. It’s all gentle and stress-free. Until the beeping. You can pick one up for a list price of $399.95. Is it too late for a Black Friday deal?

I first encountered the Mikey at CES 2009, and the first version was a handy microphone made to plug into the charging port end of an iPod.

They have since come out with the Mikey 2.0, which is made for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I happen to have the latter, and I found that Mikey 2.0 works as well as the original.

For those who are not aware, the iPod Touch comes with a voice recorder, but an external mic is required for earlier generations of it. Unfortunately, the Voice recording app is pretty poor and records in mono. Fortunately, Blue Microphones has a free App known as Blue FiRe, which can record audio in CD quality, and is very easy to use.

For some reason, Mikey 2.0 is more curvaceous and less angular than its predecessor, and it can bend in 7 angle adjustments “for any environment”. I’m not sure how many angles the first version could do, but the 3 gain settings have been effectively passed on to version 2.0.

All in all, Mikey 2.0 is a very advanced external microphone, and if you are looking for something to record lectures, concerts, voice memos, interviews, or audio journaling, you should get it. It is available on Amazon for an affordable price of $73.39.

Despite the fact that such popular products from Apple, as iPhone or player iPod Touch, has no problems coping with video playback, but sometimes you want to watch interesting videos with friends, so this miniature projector from Honlai Technology will help you.

This gadget is a docking station for Apple phones and players. It also has audio and video inputs, allowing connection of various devices. The projected image size of 15-37 inches (0,5-1,5 m) has a resolution of 640×480 pixels, brightness of 10-15 lumens and contrast ratio of 200:1. The sound is played through the built-in 2 Watt speakers.
This quality is of course difficult to compare with those that provide the home theater, but it is still better than the small screen of mobile devices.
Dimensions of this gadget are 76x102x54 mm.

Over a month the world is waiting for a new iPhone, a mobile phone from Apple that has conquered the world. It became clear that in order to keep the already gained popularity, the company needed some kind of novelty.

As always happens before the output of some new devices from Apple, the Internet is full of rumors and all sorts of predictions, 90% of which is ultimately proved to be wrong.

First version struck me as somewhat implausible. This version was: simple 4-gig. memory with less capacious battery, no video support, no 3G. Other version was powerful 32-gig. memory, 3G support, more capacious battery.

Also there is information that the first (4 gig) one will be sold freely, without being tied to a particular operator and the second (32 gig). – only with the reference to the operator (AT & T in the U.S.), but buyers would have the opportunity to buy it cheaper signing a contract for 2 years.

Innovations

A week ago, a very popular blog reported: the new iPhone besides supporting 3G, will also have GPS. First it was reported that the phone will have the same design as the previous one. But just today it has released information that the new model will be 2,5 mm. thinner than the first. By the way the size of the screen has also changed.

Yesterday a non-official, but very popular, Appleinsider wrote that the second-generation iPhone will weigh 30-40 grams less than the first (158 grams against 120-130 grams). They also reported that the diagonal of the new device will be only 2.8 inches (instead of 3.5 inches).

What or whom to believe is not yet clear. Let’s wait and see.

The day of the release

Here, there are few options, though we don’t know when exactly the release of this novelty will take place. It may happen at the WWDC conference, which will be held in San Francisco.

But it is already known that Apple has ordered the production of a new phone at the Foxconn Company, which has produced its first version. Recently this information appeared in Commercial Times Chinese newspaper. In addition, the Chinese newspaper wrote that according to the terms of the contract not less than 3,000,000 units from 25,000,000 must be delivered.

3G version of the iPhone

In late April, the network has started spreading a rumor that the French mobile operator Orange France Telecom has started testing iPhone’s support for 3G. A few days ago, the same news was published on the American AT & T.

The name of the new model

First it was just Macbok then it became Macbook Pro, then Macbook Air. First it was just an iPod then it turned into iPod Mini, iPod Shuffle, iPod Touch, etc.

For example, the best option seems to be iPhone 3G (due to the introduction of support for standard 3G). Names iPhone Black, iPhone White, iPhone Red (if it will be several options for different colors) are also possible (why not). For a version with improved functionality and features the most realistic seem to be iPhone Pro or iPhone Max names. iPhone Shuffle supposedly should be called a simpler version.

How much it will cost?

Fortune magazine a few days ago reported that the new version of the iPhone can be bought $200 cheaper than the current condition of signing contracts with the operator AT & T. It turns out that the new iPhone with 8 gig. memory can be bought for $199, the new iPhone with 16 gig. for $299 (but if you take it at current prices).

As for the rest everything is still unknown. Most likely, prices will remain the same, in different countries the prices are different depending on the operator and new models, which will be released.

This is not all…

Every day too many different rumors and unconfirmed information appear in the internet until the release of the new iPhone which makes all of its fans eagerly wait for that great event.

Despite the relatively large 3.5-inch screen of iPhone or iPod Touch player, not more than two people can watch videos at the same time. However, with a compact projector Mili Pro from BeamBox you can easily transform the abovementioned gadgets into a home theater, with a maximum image size of 70 inches (178 cm) diagonally.

Of course, as with the other mini-projectors, the image quality will suffer greatly, therefore, to obtain a clear and bright video you will have to confine with 30-40 inches (76-101 cm).

Mili Pro provides a resolution of 640×480 pixels and brightness of 10 lumens (what else do you want from this baby?), has two tiny dynamics, as well as VGA and AV connectors, so that it can connect to almost any external video source or a personal computer.

The device has a stylish design in the form of folding beds and allows charging the iPhone and iPod Touch batteries. Sales projector Mili Pro will come to the market in September 2009, and it will cost a little less than $ 300.

Microsoft today officially announced Zune HD, rumors about which had recently been posted on all significant sites and blogs. And it seems that Microsoft is preparing the competitor for the iPod Touch, since the new player will be equipped not only with touch screen technology “multitouch”, but the web browser.

So, Zune HD will exactly be equipped with OLED screen with a diagonal of 3.3 inches (8.4 cm) with a 16:9 ratio and resolution of 480 × 272 pixels. As I wrote above, it will have touch screen technology multitouch.

The combination of HD letters in the name of the player can put you on the idea that it would support the video format 720p. Well, the things are a bit more complicated. Obviously, the screen resolution cannot play the video in HD, but when you connect to your TV … Yes, the player will be able to give a picture in HD, but only on the external screen with a special docking station, which is sold separately.

Basically the same applies to HD radio. Zune HD supports HD radio, which should give the opportunity to listen to best quality music, while receiving detailed information about the song and artist.

Wi-Fi support has always been one of the Zune company’s «chips» (how this all worked is another question), but in a new player, this opportunity will be in more demand. Zune HD will initially have a mobile browser based on Internet Explorer.

Zune HD sale is scheduled for «early autumn» which means that in the upcoming months we can expect technical details and first images of new user interface. Unfortunately, all this is the official information from Microsoft.