Targus has not forgotten about the Mac population with its new Chill Mat that does more than just look pretty, sitting down on the table. This mesh-top device also helps tilt your Mac to a more ergonomic position so that your fingers and hands won’t suffer at the end of a long day at work. Definitely designed to complement a Mac. Features include dual USB-powered fans that not only keeps your Mac running cooly, it also helps your knees remain chilled. For $50, you will be able to use the Targus Chill Mat with MacBooks of up to 17″ in size.

Maybe this will help shorten those long lines at the checkout counter. UCLA engineers say they have designed a bar code reader using a new imaging technique that is nearly a thousand times faster than the devices currently in use.

The new technique can produce one-dimensional bar codes with a frame rate on the order of 25 million frames per second, say the researchers.

Bar codes are big in retail for management of inventory but also used in other areas such as mail distribution. They are traditionally read by optically scanning the code’s alternating light and dark bars and then using a computer program to convert the resulting image into digital form.

Conventional bar code readers use either a laser beam for scanning or have a digital camera take a picture which is then recognized by the computer. Both methods limit the image-acquisition speed to less than 1,000 frames per second, say UCLA researchers.

Instead their scanner reads bar codes at a frame rate of 25 MHz, which is about 1,000 times faster than current technology. Typical camera-based bar code readers also require many optical-to-electrical converters  to capture the image as an array of pixel.

The UCLA developed scanner maps its image as a single pixel and is free of mechanically moving parts. It works by mapping the one-dimensional bar code image onto the spectrum of an ultrashort laser pulse. This is further mapped into an amplitude-modulated waveform, which is then captured with a single optical-to-electrical converter.

But till your favorite store gets this bar code reader— which may be a while— it is back to standing in those lines.

UCLA News Release

Photo: (Tom Loth/Flickr)

Is there nothing Lego cannot build? Guess not, as some hardcore Lego fans have managed to come up with an actual working electronic V8 engine that was created entirely from Lego Technic pieces. It took the inventor approximately half a year to come up with this, but I must say, the result is stunning to say the least. Good thing it doesn’t need any grease to run as things could get really messy from there onwards.

Samsung Pixon which is an 8 megapixel camera phone which we might have already seen before as the Bresson. The Pixon’s camera has auto focus, face detection and geotagging. A 3.2 inch touchscreen will help you visualize and manage all those pictures.
[Source]

The Handheld Aquarium by Sega Toys could best be described as a Virtual Pet, which haven’t been popular since the early nineties. In fact, I think that is when Sega Toys peaked with their Sega Saturn.

The full color graphics are certainly better than anything the Tamigotchi had back in the day. In this case, the user gets to take care of a fish, or some other marine animal like a dolphin.

The underwater pet will grow, and there is an extra bonus as well, because the virtual pet’s space will somehow expand. I am assuming this is a virtual expansion, because there is a tiny screen on this handheld aquarium.

The user, or virtual pet owner, also has the option of playing three different mini games with their pet, and hopefully isn’t punished too hard if they fail in their responsibility. If you are wondering what I mean by that, just picture a little kid picking up their Handheld Aquarium only to find that their virtual aquatic friend is floating on his or her back. Yeah, that’s a pretty gruesome image, and the little tyke may never watch Finding Nemo again.

The Handheld Aquarium is available at the Japan Trend Shop for $59.

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Synaptics has announced new gestures to join its expanding portfolio of gesture recognition capabilities, with the ChiralRotate and Two-Finger Flick taking the limelight. Just in case Synaptics rings a bell, that’s because its TouchPads are often found in popular notebook brands as well as peripheral keyboards, and in light of Apple’s multi-touch capability on its iphone and ipod touch, it makes perfect sense for Synaptics to do something about the situation and shore up their portfolio. For the uninitiated, ChiralRotate allows users to move one finger in a circular motion to rotate images and graphics within applications, quickly and easily while Two-Finger Flick enables users, depending on the application, to either use two fingers to flick horizontally to navigate back-and-forth through images, documents and objects, or to flick vertically to minimize and maximize an application.

Windows users would be pleased to note that ChiralRotate and Two-Finger Flick are 100% compatible with hundreds of Microsoft Windows applications. I can see that grin on your face - is your finger already itching to perform a few flicks? It would be interesting to see just how much easier life on a TouchPad is with the incorporation of both motions, as to whether both (or one) will be a novelty after a while remains to be seen. One thing that you cannot deny though, is the usability testing that Synaptics have put both gestures through in order to bring the very best to consumers and users alike. The ChiralMotion gesture, in fact, has gone through multiple usability tests that proved Synaptics’ theory that continuous circular movement of the finger on the TouchPad is the most desirable, natural gesture for users to perform.

Would be nice to see notebooks include much larger touchpads in the future though if the ChiralMotion and Two-Finger Flick gestures are to be enjoyed at its optimal level. Let’s face the facts – touchpads these days aren’t up to snuff when it comes to real estate space allocated for it.

Press Release

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I have to say, sometimes people scare me, or in this case specifically some parents scare me.  I keep waiting to listen to the news to hear about a child sent to school in a giant roll of bubble wrap.  There are just some parents that see danger lurking around every corner even with the smallest of things.  One thing I never ever even considered dangerous was a dimmer switch.  I mean seriously, who finds a dimmer switch dangerous?!   At first I prayed that the Electro Puff Lamp Dimmer was just a bizarre concept design, but no such luck.

Someone actually paid to have it manufactured and some crazy parents I’m sure are snatching them up.  The switch works by you gently tapping it and it will change the light to a different level of brightness.  The puff is made from recycled carpet fiber and conductive yarns.  It also is stain-resistant and antimicrobial, which is good since this is meant for people with kids.  It’s safe for ages 8 and up and you can pick it up at the MoMA Store for $35.

Source: OhGizmo

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The Critter Cruiser and Hamtrack is a tatty, plastic update of the game my childhood neighbor and I used to play with his own pet hamster (which he named, with a beautiful nerd irony beyond his years, “Ham Tyler”). The Cruiser is a hamster exercise wheel slotted into a car. The hamster carries out his traditional futile scamperings to move the car along the accompanying Hamtrack, thus providing entertainment for humans, frustration for nearby cats and complete humiliation for the rodent.

Good, clean fun, certainly, but nothing compared to my friend’s homemade hamster game. Ham Tyler would stand in the back of an RC truck, front paws on the rollbar, and we’d send him speeding around the living room. Ham seemed happy with the game — he never jumped out. We even kitted him out with a crash helmet: the smaller half of a yellow plastic Kinder Surprise egg was pushed firmly onto his noggin. And they say children are cruel. £35 ($63).

Product page [Firebox]

With everyone making a conscious effort to go green these days, have you ever paused to consider doing so with your chargers for multiple devices as well? Brando has an option with the Multi-Function Digital Mobile Solar Charger, relying on the power of the sun to keep your most commonly used gizmos all juiced up. This gadget features an intelligent automatic voltage regulation technology that is able to monitor the discharge voltage and current. Inside you will find integrated large-capacity rechargeable lithium polymer batteries that are not only durable but cost-effective. The Multi-Function Digital Mobile Solar Charger is perfect for keeping devices such as digital cameras, MP3 players, cell phones, DS Lites and PSPs juiced up no matter where you are, all for $69.

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by Chris Ziegler, posted Sep 29th 2008 at 3:50PM
Rumors are coming fast and furious today citing unnamed tipsters that Apple is hard at work hammering out a CDMA iPhone for its friends at Verizon to be announced and released next year, the carrier it had initially approached about carrying the device back in 2005. Way we see it, though, 2009 ain’t 2005; Apple’s wielding boatloads more power in the wireless biz than it was before the first model launched, the industry’s economics have changed, and technology roadmaps have been rewritten.

So why isn’t this happening, exactly? First, Apple appears to be having no trouble finding enough customers (carriers, that is) to keep iPhone 3G production at a nice clip. Second, CDMA represents a minute fraction of the world’s mobile customer base that GSM / UMTS does — no matter how big Verizon, Sprint, Telus, Bell, KDDI au, and the remaining CDMA stalwarts may be. Third, CDMA is a dying technology that will be finished off in the early part of the next decade as networks make the migration to LTE and other 4G platforms. Fourth, we have to believe Apple would sooner pour its engineering efforts into advancing the iPhone platform in the same direction as the world’s networks than divert considerable resources to busting out a one-off special.

Might this mythical CDMA iphone yet exist? Yeah, Verizon’s a huge carrier, and yes, stranger things have happened — but until Steve and Ivan get on stage together at Macworld 2009, we’re not buying it.

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Filed under: cellphones, Handhelds