device

Well, you made it through another April Fool's without being convinced your mother-in-law was moving in, your wife left with the mailman, or the Pittsburgh Pirates were Vegas' pick for the 2009 World Series. However, there were some pretty nifty ... jokes played this year, and we'll go over a few of them here. Some are simply ridiculous. For instance, it's unlikely Toshiba will fool anyone with its Petbook K9, which it calls the world's very first notebook for canines (and I don't doubt it). The tech giant's tag line for its goofy new device? "Playing fetch is so last year." It sure sounds like a ... (view more)

Adaptive Sound Technologies (AST) has now released a new tabletop device that induces sleep through the soothing sounds of nature. Dubbed 'Ecotones,' it measures sleeping patterns in terms of how long it takes a person to fall asleep, how often a ... person tosses and turns at night, and similar. The Sleep Machine That Never Sleeps What sets Ecotones apart from the dozens of similar products on the market is its responsiveness to disturbing noises and its ability to camouflage them without missing a beat. If a person sets their Ecotones to thunderstorms, for example, the pitter-patter of ... (view more)

Apple's new 3G iPhone has now become the best-selling mobile handset of any kind in the United States. Meanwhile, the original iPhone has earned the title of the 'most reliable' smartphone. The iPhone 3G snatched the top spot away from Motorola's ... RAZR, which had been the best selling phone for three full years. NPD, the group which produces the regular rankings, says this shows buyers are now much more interested in a phone's features than its look. That could be because people want better value as the economy slows. (Source: latimes.com ) Before anyone gets carried away, it's worth bearing ... (view more)

The popularity of the Apple iPod has produced some of the most innovative complimentary gadgets the world has ever seen. At a recent consumer electronics show in Berlin, onlookers were enthralled with the latest iPod sidekick that is sure to take ... personal entertainment to a whole new level. Meet the Optoma Pico Projector. The Optoma Pico Projector is not big and bulky like common projectors, but it does all of the same features and more. Think of it as a pocket projector. With its dimensions (2 by 4.1 by 0.7 inches) and a weight of about 4.2 ounces, the device looks more like a cell phone ... (view more)

Fans of the BlackBerry will be pleased to hear that a brand-new flip version of the popular device is now available. The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 is Waterloo, Canada-based Research in Motion's (RIM) first foray into the flip sector of the ... cellphone market. RIM first announced the Flip 8220 in September, but failed to release any conclusive details about its ultimate release date. In fact, the company only ball-parked a late fall launch; thankfully for the many BlackBerry fans anticipating the device's release it appears to be ahead of schedule and should be available in stores today. Like ... (view more)

You are walking along, listening to the sounds of nature when all of a sudden you feel a slight rub or a tap on your inner thigh coming from inside one of your pant pockets. Don't worry. You are probably not the victim of a pickpocket. It's only ... your mobile phone informing you of an incoming call. Microsoft Research is currently working on mobile phone settings that are a little more "hands on" than previous features used for identifying an incoming call. Among the traditional "silent" and "vibrate" modes will be two new additional methods of transmitting information: moving a small ball or ... (view more)

Research In Motion (RIM), creators of the popular BlackBerry mobile device, are launching a more direct challenge to cell phone producers. The firm's newest model includes a flip-down keyboard, making it the first BlackBerry in the traditional phone ... shape. Previously, the BlackBerry had been available only as a flat-one piece device. Marketed primarily as a way to access emails wirelessly, its telephone functions had been seen as of secondary importance. For this reason it's generally been viewed as a business tool rather than a consumer device. The new BlackBerry Pearl is the first flip-down ... (view more)

DeviceIOView DeviceIOView allows you to watch the data transfer between a software or service and a device driver. For each call to a device driver, valuable information is displayed, including handle, Control Code, number of input bytes, number of ... output bytes, the name of the device handle, and all the input/output bytes. http://www.nirsoft.net Desktop Takeover Add plain photos to your desktop wallpaper with drag-and-drop ease. It's very easy to use, so there's no need for lengthy editing. Multiple desktop support means anybody's system can be 'taken over'. http://www.desktoptakeover.com ... (view more)

Researchers have discovered that the ancient Greeks used a primitive 'computer' to set the dates of the Olympic Games. Historians already knew that the first games, held in 776BC, were scheduled to begin on the full moon closest to the summer ... solstice. But until know they hadn't worked out how the Greeks managed to perform the complex and detailed calculations needed to work out that date. The answer lies in a mechanical brass calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism, found in a shipwreck in 1901. It had a series of bronze wheels and dials, and dates from around 100 BC. Experts said it ... (view more)

Microsoft has reportedly developed a small plug-in device that can be used by investigators to quickly extract forensic data from computers that may have been used in crimes. The Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) is a USB "thumb ... drive" that Microsoft quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies last June. The COFEE device contains 150 commands that dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's Internet activity and data stored in the computer. COFEE lets the investigator scan for evidence on ... (view more)