Watered Down Television
Portable Televisions aren’t really portable until you can take them everywhere, well they’re getting closer in Japan.
Panasonic’s new ME550 and ME650 portable TV’s are now available and are now waterproof. Not only do you get a 5 inch LCD display and larger speakers than old models, you can also take the TV with you to the pool, that’s the real upgrade. No price and no US availability, but not a bad idea over all.
Portable Potential
Blu Ray is slowly popularizing itself in the home entertainment market today and could very soon become mainstream (most people are just waiting for the price tag to go down).
In anticipation of suck a day Panasonic has released the first portable Blu Ray player, the Panasonic DMP-B15. At $800 the player matches the pricing of the disks, but I guess that’s to be expected. If you’re investing in Blu Ray already odds are your desperate for portability. With an 8.9 inch LCD display the size of the device is nothing to sneer at, but Blu Ray is all about picture to begin with. The player comes packaged with its own remote.
I know I don’t have the cash to invest in any Blu Ray at the moment, but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate the picture quality and technological progression. Just like DVD’s, one day the prices will come down.
Manual Carrier
Digital cameras are often built for size, pocket size that is, but what about picture quality and add ons? What about photography for photography’s sake? What if you want a picture of a lifetime rather than a picture of a birthday party?
Well, for those still looking to digital to be as good as film there are a plethora of digital options, all with extendable lenses and a less than miniscule weight. In that respect, when a great big digital camera is not quite pocket sized, there’s the spider holster.
The holster attaches to the photographers hip and the camera’s base slides into the stainless steel/ aluminum holster. No more heavy bags (accept for all the accessories) and no more fumbling with neck straps when it’s time to shoot. Slide the camera out from where it sits comfortably near your center of gravity and go. Maybe now lugging larger cameras will become less of a hassle and take over from cell phones and miniatures in popularity.
Everything Transformed
The newest style taking over the gadget market is actually a resurrected retro style of some popularity. Yes, the transformer is back, and more useful than ever.
To start with there’s the transforming Ravage flash drive. How cool is that? It’s not a mini car but a real gadget that is “more than meets the eye”. The flash drive begins in a semi normal flash drive rectangle shape and becomes a wild cat. It’s expensive ($43) for a mere 2 GB but hey it’s a transformer. The drive will be released in September.
Also on the market is the transforming mouse. That’s right, if you still use a mouse rather than a track pad your can choose from two different dinosaur designs and bring even more fun to your desk. $59.99 for either one, again they ship in September.
Finally the transforming USB hub (this one transforms twice) cannot only hold up to four transforming USB flash drives but can transform itself. Whether you want it to look like a real transformer robot or sit in disguise as a laptop this hub takes you back to the actual toys. It doesn’t fold up into its own working gadget but to a fake gadget, just like the toys do, and attempts to disguise the working hub. It also looks like it can play mini cassette tapes, weird. Comes out in September.
Play Music
Lego has really hit the ground running with it’s digitized products recently. From mini speakers to cell phones the brick look just never gets old.
Now there are two new brick modeled gadgets on the market. The lego MP3 player and the lego boombox. With 2 GB storage and color display the MP3 players are pretty cute (especially with a $39.99 price tag). They look just like you could have put them together all by yourself.
The boombox on the other hand isn’t quite as builder friendly, as it’s designed to look like a singular brick in and of itself (though a rather large one). It plays both the radio and CD’s and has a digital clock. Priced at $39.99 as well the only decision you’ll have to make is whether you need your music to travel with you or not.
A Globe in the Palm of Your Hand
It’s all about portability, function, and style when it comes to gadgets today and Moixa’s sphere is just what the doctor ordered.
With a planned release sometime next year the description at least presents an interactive display about the size and shape of a baseball. The sphere can also fold flat and comes with net connections and a multi touch surface. Moixa totally has me on board.
Forget the iPhone this looks way more fun.
Summer Sounds
Portable speakers are always fun but lets not forget the wonderfulness that accompanies speakers that are both portable and wireless.
The Sony Ericsson Bluetooth speaker is just what the doctor ordered before summer starts. To begin with the speaker streams music from most Sony bluetooth cell phones (which people carry with them anyway) , convenient. Sony cell phones can also be used as remotes to control volume and change tracks. The speaker runs on AA batteries and is water resistant. What else do you need at the beach?
Speaking Small
Lets be honest, some portable speakers aren’t all that portable. Well, the X mini has a new design, and new features, and remains pretty mini, and pretty portable.
The X mini II is slightly larger than the original X mini, but with features to match. It can be charged through a USB connector cable, can boost volume of laptops, MP3 players, and phones, and (if you get your hands on more than one you can chain them together to get especially pumped sound.
With a small globe esque design the X mini II is backpack friendly, which is exactly what a portable speaker should be.
Theme Song
Life is better with background music, that’s one of the reasons movies are so entertaining. Well here’s a new step towards your own life soundtrack or theme song (without carrying a boom box around on your shoulder).
ThinkGeek’s personal soundtrack shirt is now real and available to order. The shirt started as an April Fool’s Joke earlier this year but got such a positive response it’s now a real product. The shirt has a velcro speaker attached to the front which runs on AA batteries. Upload a few of your favorite songs or plug in an MP3 player and your all set to make your statement.
The shirt comes with a wired remote for song selection and volume control, as well as removable parts so that you can throw the T shirt in to wash on the gentle cycle. Does it get any easier than that?
All About the Money
We all know change is compact, but we also know how easily it can disappear from even the deepest pockets. That’s why Lacie’s new CurrenKey coin shaped flash drive is such a mixed blessing.
All portable flash drives are relatively travel sized and the CurrenKey even more so. It’s portable, looks cool, comes in bronze or silver, 4 GB or 8 GB respectively. Priced at $20 and $30 it’s a nice price for that storage capacity. I still recommend caution, you don’t want to go handing out your work files as a tip, but hey, a flash drive like this can make anyone feel like a secret agent.
