by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 5:10PM
Frighteningly enough, this isn’t the first (or second) time that we’ve seen scientists pat themselves on the back for creating a mind-reading machine, but a dedicated team from Carnegie Mellon has just announced a computer that “has been trained to read people’s minds by looking at scans of their brains as they thought about specific words.” In a completely unsurprising move, gurus familiar with the development are suggesting that the breakthrough could be used to better understand how the brain organizes knowledge, and eventually, treat language disorders and learning disabilities more effectively. That’s all gravy from here, but when this stuff starts passing as evidence in court, you’ll know it’s time to seriously investigate a relocation to Mars.

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

Do you have more room for another one of ‘em budget handycams? Adding to our choices of small and compact budget cams are not not just one but three models from RCA’s Small Wonder video camera product line. All three RCA handycams are not only packed with good features but more importantly they come in affordable prices as well, with two of them retailing for under a $100.

First up we have the EZ210 or the Small Wonder Traveler. This splash resistant handy cam boast of a 2.4-inch color LCD screen with high-visibility even when on a well-lighted environment at 320×240 resolution. It’s got a 2GB SD card which is good enough for one hour of near-DVD quality video recording. If 2GB is not enough for your needs, you can always upgrade up to 8GB SD card.

Next we have the EZ205 or the Small Wonder Summer with a 1.5-inch flip-out LCD screen for self-recording. This baby is loaded with a 1GB microSD card for a good 30 minutes of recording time if you prefer near-DVD quality or two hours if your recording with the intention of uploading your videos to YouTube and other web-sharing sites. You can also expand this capacity with up to 8GB of microSD card.

And finally we have the EZ200 otherwise known as the Small Wonder MyLife with basically the same features as the EZ205. The only difference is that it only lets you record videos in HQ mode rather than in near-DVD quality.

The RCA EZ210, EZ205 and EZ200 retail for $149.99, $99.99 and $89.99 respectively. All handycams will be available at Amazon just in time for summer.

Read [News.com]

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I almost let this amazing HDTV slip past me, as the new Sony W4100 series are the U.S equivalent of the European W4000 model. The Sony Bravia W4100 series was announced at this years CES in January, and replaces the extremely popular W3000, of which I am the proud owner of.

The Sony W4100 models are available in three sizes from the 40-inch Sony KDL-40W4100, and 46-inch KDL-46W4100, to the largest 52-inch Sony KDL-52W4100. These LCD HDTV models are all 1080p Full HD offering the highest HD resolution, and all look very impressive. The previous W3000 models were seen as some of the best HDTVs available, so I am looking forward to the new W4100’s with very high expectations.

Along with offering a 1080p LCD screen, the Sony Bravia W4100 models now feature 24p (great for true blu-ray) and MotionFlow 120Hz high frame rate technology which dramatically enhances viewing by increasing the frame rate ,which provides smooth judder free viewing while preserving the sharpness of the image, which is often lost in high motion scenes due to motion blur.

The high resolution and high frame rate screen of the W4100 series is also enhanced by Sony’s new Bravia Engine 2 which dramatically improves image quality by enhancing the colors and details, while reducing noise and much more depending on the input source and video content. Also new the the W4100 is the Advanced Contrast Enhancer circuit (ACE) which uses real time image processing to automatically adjust backlight levels and contrast to provide deeper blacks in dark scenes and better contrast (a very high 30,000:1 dynamic ratio) while retaining all the fine details found in dark scenes.

The Sony W4100’s look amazing with their piano black gloss finish and subtle highlighting, and are also packed with the latest features to bring you the very best in HD viewing. Connection features are also very impressive and future proof, and include 4x HDMI 1.3 inputs, 2x component, PC input and USB photo viewer. Also featured is an enhanced XMB user interface, BRAVIA Sync and DMe.

Sony Bravia W4100

• Sony KDL-40W4100 | 40-Inch, $1,899.
• Sony KDL-46W4100 | 46-Inch.
• Sony KDL-52W4100 | 52-Inch.

by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 4:01PM
First things first: considering the huge amount of press garnered by a recent position art scam, this here could indeed be just another spoof to get your hopes up. That being said, we’re pretty sure no one with any level of decency would do such a vile thing on Easter Sunday, which is precisely when the above bunny was purportedly created from waltzing about with a Magellan GPS and a digital camera. The artist himself admits that what you see above is a slightly cleaned-up version of the actual path, but we’re told that any edits that occurred had no huge bearing on the outcome of the piece. You be the judge.

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Filed under: GPS

by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 1:16PM
There’s honestly not a lot of mind-blowing material in the video posted up after the jump, but it definitely delivers as advertised. You see, you’ve got Creative’s Flip Video-combating Vado cheapcorder all wrapped up, and over the course of 317 seconds, it manages to slip outside of its shell and get handled. Initial impressions are dished out too (hint: they’re surprisingly positive), so don’t skip out on hitting the read link while your cursor is down in the general vicinity.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras

Yahoo’s Messenger software has been around the block a few times, and the new beta version (version 9) of the software adds some new social features.  While the overall look and feel of the app remains very much the same, users can now invite contacts on AOL, Gmail, Orkut, Hotmail, Myspace, and others to connect through to the Yahoo service.  The new beta version will also sport slightly larger emotions, so you can “express yourself with more oomph.” Also present are the ability to play games with your contacts, right inside Yahoo Messenger.  The status bar is split into two sections: one for availability, one for a place to share a link or thought.

The full version for Windows is due out in Q3 of this year, with a Mac version coming later into the year.

Read [Yahoo] via [WebWare]

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by Darren Murph, posted May 31st 2008 at 11:50AM
Wait, you did name your guppy Dory, right? Whatever your household fish is named, you can certainly give it a fresh purpose in life with the RhythmFish — if it were more than a mere concept, of course. The setup surrounds your fish with webcams and monitors its movements via sensors in order to translate all of that data and put forth a visual interpretation. In all honestly, it’s probably just some sort of randomizer hooked up to a Windows 95 screen saver, but a boy can dream, can’t he?

[Via OhGizmo]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 31st 2008 at 12:24PM
A retailer taking pre-orders for phones that haven’t even been announced is considered business as usual, but there’s something just a little out of the ordinary with Horizon Wireless’ listing for the alleged touchscreen superphone outta Waterloo, the BlackBerry 9500 “Thunder” — it’s accompanied by a somewhat believable picture of the thing. Extreme blur always adds a healthy dose of credibility (we kid), but more importantly, the picture shows no telltale signs of being a render and looks essentially like what everyone’s expecting it to look like. blackberry addicts who’ve been desperately fighting the urge to go to the dark side, consider this your shot of willpower for the day.

[Thanks, Yasim M.]

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Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds

FROM APPLETELL - With all the WDDC rumors flying around Worldwide Developers Conference 2008, it has become tough to keep track of them all.  Here is a list of recent rumors, and details on their credibility. 1.  3G iphone - Is the Pope Catholic?  I think that it is safe to say that… MORE »

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Nope that’s not a portable GPS unit. In fact, its the latest portable media player offering from iRiver, dubbed the P.ple P10. First introduced at CES 2008, the P10 was expected to release Q1 2008, but iRiver was a little late in their delivery. Regardless, the company has now officially launched their iPod Touch rival in two forms: The iRiver P10 Standard ($328) and Pro ($398). Spec-wise, both models sport a 600MHz processor running a stripped down version of Windows CE, 4-inch TFT touch screen, 800×480 pixel resolution, e-book reader, and a 33GB hard drive. Both models also support PDF, Word and Excel files, and can playback Flash, MPEG, WMA, XivD, MP3, and WAV file formats. However, the P10 Pro adds an electronic dictionary (in English, Chinese, and Japanese) and a DMB digital TV tuner that’s only usable in Korea (so, I doubt this will make it Stateside).

Interestingly, the device has no physical buttons beyond the power and volume controls. It also utilizes a flash based UI that allows users to rearrange and organize the menu as they desire. But in all honestly, the top horizontal menu sure bares a strong resemblance to the ipod’s own, but being able to customize the main menu screen will surely be a welcomed feature. Now, if we can only get rid of that stylus…

Product [iRiver P10] Read [AVING]

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