The Buffalo WLI-UC-GN is possibly the smallest WiFi USB device on the market right now. The size of the USB device is 33mm x 16mm x 8mm. The price of the device is expected to be ¥2,100. The device is able to connect to the Internet at a 802.11n standard up to 150 Mbps. The WLI-UC-GN beats the title of the smallest USB WiFi device from its predecessor, the WLI-UC-G300N.
The WLI-UC-GN can be used to take other devices online via WiFi such as the Nintendo Wii, the Nintendo DS, or the Sony PSP. It will be available in Japan by early February. No word on whether the U.S. will be seeing the device anytime soon.
[via Softpedia]
Oregon Scientific is based in Portland and specializes in making tabletop dislays. Oregon Scientific has recently built the RMR500 Eco Clima Control, a new type of tabletop weather display. The RMR500 Eco Clima Control has integrated solar panels. The RMR500 is able to report the temparature and humidity in four different locations. The Eco Clima Control is able to work for 3 months with just 8 hours of charging. The Eco Clima Control will retail for $99 this spring.
[via Gadget Review]
There are some interestingly erotic Japanese-made devices and gadgets, but there are certainly a good number of home & lifestyle products out there too. This is proven by these oppai pillows which are in the shape of a woman’s breasts. Who knew that the manufacturing company that put these together would take human bodies built for comfort and sell them in a box.
[via Tokyo Times]
Canon is introducing the PowerShot A480 digital camera to the market to replace the A470. The A480 is 25% smaller than the A470 and has 10 megapixel picture quality. The A480 has a simple one button layout at the top. The LCD size is 2.5″. Motion and face detection is built-in. The A480 uses the Canon DIGIC III processor.
The A480 will come in silver, red, blue, or black. It has a 3.3x Canon optical zoom and has 15 preset shooting modes.
“Whether you’re 7 years old or 70, the PowerShot A480 offers a great-value way to discover the fun of taking pictures,” stated Mogens Jensen, Head of Canon Consumer Imaging at Europe. “This camera brings Canon’s unrivalled image quality to its widest audience yet.”
The phone is available in Europe, but no word on whether it’ll be released in the U.S. yet. The retail price is about £129.00 (US$189)
[via DPreview]
Most standard TVs have a 4:3 ratio and wide-screen TVs have about a 16:9. This leaves black borders left at the top and bottom when watching certain movies. This is something that Philips wants to eliminate by unveiling the world’s first 21:9 LCD TV. The TV looks sleek has measures 56″ diagonally. Movies that are in the 2.39:1 format will take up the entire screen. Most traditional TVs will try to compensate by distorting the picture to fill the screen, but it loses the scope of the original video.
What about TV broadcasts and game consoles? Their regular 16:9 aspect ratio is able to adapt to the fill the 21:9 screen.
“With our unique Cinema 21:9 we have developed a television which takes you as close to the experience that you enjoy at the cinema as you can get without buying a ticket. We believe that to really become absorbed in watching a film at home consumers are looking for a real cinematic viewing experience, so we have launched the world’s first cinema-proportioned TV screen perfectly complemented by our immersive Ambilight technology,” stated Des Power, SVP of Marketing Television for Philip Consumer Lifestyle. “Philips new Cinema 21:9 takes enjoying movies at home to an entirely new level, the advantages over a traditional 16:9 ratio
screen in side by side comparisons are truly striking.”
The Cinema 21:9 LCD TV will be available in the spring of 2009. More product specs will be arriving by the end of February 2009.
Eizo is very well known for their specialized monitor products. Now they have introduced two new FlexScan LCD monitors. The two monitors expected to cover 95% of Adobe RGB and 92% of NTSC color space. The FlexScan 2242W-H and the FlexScan S2232W-E are both 22″. The S2242W-H has a 1920×1200 resolution and the S2232W-E has a 1680×1050 resolution.
Both monitors have a 1,200:1 contract ratio and a 12ms black-to-white response time. Both have VGA and HDCP-capable DVI port, but not HDMI. Each have two USB ports and built-in 0.5W speakers. The monitors are expected to retail in Japan for ¥69,800/¥62,800 ($780/$700)
Hello, Newman! Newman is best known for creating devices that resemble already existing products. The latest victim is a product that resembles a pink iPod nano. The product is called the Manman A1. It looks like a blatant copy of the Apple-made product. The only difference is that the song controls are on play/next/previous buttons rather than being controlled by the spin-wheel.
Newman claims that this product has a Smart Touch UI with a cover flow system. The screen size is estimated to be about 2″. The ManMan A1 has a RockChip RK2705 medi chip which makes it possible to play multiple video files. The ManMan A1 will be available in China by the end of the month. It’ll be avialable in pink & blue.
[via MP4Nation]
Barack Obama, the first African American to be elected as President-elect of America has won the hearts of many of America’s citizens and even those from Kenya. Barack’s father Barack Sr. was born in the Nyanza Province of Kenya. Mi-Fone (BVI) Limited of Kenya has designed a phone for all the Obama fans out there, but it is only available in Kenya.
This is one of the cheaper phones that Mi-Fone has manufactured. But there is a big Obama logo on the back to show people how patriotic you are. There is also an O on the main button. Perhaps it’s time for Obama to switch from his Blackberry.
United Airlines stated that they will be offering Wi-Fi to passengers on some flights between New York and California by the second half of this year. The service will be called Gogo and will be provided by Aircell LLC. Gogo provides a similar service for American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Virgin America, and Air Canada.
United has 13 Boeing 757 planes that fly between JFK airport in New York and LA International/San Francisco International. The in-flight WiFi will cost roughly $12.95. In-flight WiFi has been talked about for quite some time now, but rolling out the technology took longer than planned. American Airlines first started testing the service in the middle of 2007.
Southwest Airlines already has Wi-Fi rolled out for some of their planes provided by Row 44 at a speed of 30 Mbps using satellite systems. Row 44 uses the Hughes satellite network and is also working with Alaska Airlines. Row 44 is a privately funded company.
The Pentagon in Washington D.C. has decided to go green. Clean Technica has it that the Department of Defense has decided to install 4,000 LED fixtures to illuminate Wedge 5 of the governmental building. The company working on this project is called Cree and the LEDs will reduce power consumption by about 22%.
The Department of Energy reported that LED lights saved USA 8.7 trillion watt hours in 2007. The cost is about $380 per fixture. Installing the LEDs was written about in Title III of a Department of Defense program: “promote creation and strengthening of domestic industrial capabilities to support national security needs.”
The LED program is expected to pay for itself within four years.
[via Clean Technica]