End User

PeeWee PC to Introduce Kids as Young as 2-3 to Computers

When did you get your first computer? If you are reading this there is no way that it was as early as the two little girls to the right. San Jose, CA based PeeWee PC is aiming to change that with their new line of Windows based laptops for children ranging from the pre-kindergarten age group, through upper elementary school aged kids.

The laptops come in two versions, a pivot laptop for $599 and a standard configured power laptop for $499. Both are billed as spill and drop-resistant, and have a carry handle, a 10-inch display, a 6-cell/5-hr Li-ion battery, 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, two USB 2.0 ports, a 60GB HDD, 1.3 megapixel camera, Ethernet, WiFi, Windows XP Home and a proprietary security software suite. They also come with age-specific software and games, as well as age-appropriate desktop themes. The long and short of it is that these are pretty beefy machines, and they should be for a price that could fetch a nice Netbook.

In reading about these though I have to wonder when is it really appropriate to introduce children to the realities and at a certain level, the responsibilities of fully functional computers? I mean we are not talking leapfrog play machines here. A few testimonials on the PeeWee PC site note that some parents are, and are being advised to introduce their kids to computers as early as the age of two, as in the number after one. I know that most parents are interested in giving their kids as big a head start in life as possible, but as I look past the shelf full of books to my left and the sunny afternoon springtime day winding down out the window behind it, I can't help but wonder whether a little more time being free of the mechanical paradigm built into technology might not be a good thing for kids. I'm no parent though, and if I were I'd probably be too busy rolling around on the floor with my kids to give much thought to questions like this, but as I see those two little girls above sitting at their play kitchen table, in their play kitchen marveling at their all too real computer, I have to wonder.

Anyway, that's just my 2-cents. Those interested in the PeeWee PC can check out the full specs for their two laptops as well as desktop models and other items as well here.

--Tom Milnes

Brighten Up Your Computing with the Colorful Luxeed U5 Keyboard

Pretty much everyone tap-tap-a-tapping away at a keyboard has noticed how the standard black, silver and blue colors that have dominated personal computing over the years have been challenged recently. On the PC end of things Dell has led the way recently with its splashy Design Studio laptop models, while Apple broke the color barrier ahead of the curve with the iMac, iBook and AlumaMax. But this has been all on the outside. Unfortunately there has been far less color on the inside of things, where the majority of us have the most contact with our boxes. Sure there is the Optimus Maximus and other OLED models, but we need more, much more. Thankfully, Korean peripheral manufacturer Luxeed's color-changing desktop keyboard from a few years back is getting an update in '09.

The new version, seen in the upper right corner, is the Luxeed U5. Not nearly as flashy as the previous model, which came off as a total sci-fi immersion experience straight out of the firing room of the Deathstar, or perhaps the equally phantasmagorical experience of a dance floor of a "Saturday Night Fever" era discotheque, but the new model still manages to liven things up. It features colorful, programmable and patterned LED buttons, and maybe most importantly is compatible with Macs, as well as Linux and Windows based PCs. Pretty nice. My only qualm is that I can't order a laptop with this configuration. Now if Luxeed could bust into that market, look out!

Unfortunately Luxeed's translated Korean site is pretty limited and limp, but Technabob.com reports that the the U5 is available for pre-order in Korea now for the equivalent of $77. It should eventually be available in all markets, but there is no news on that as of yet.

--Tom Milnes

T-Mobile Cameo Digiframe Price Drop in Time for Mother's Day

I've never owned a digiframe. Personally it's a novelty that just never clicked with me, and correspondingly I have an external drive that is packed to the gills with images of friends and family, and vacations and trips I've taken. That leads me to Mom.

The eventual question that comes from her is what's going on, and where are the pictures? I tell her that I'm going/have been here and there and am doing X, Y and Z. Most of this is pretty much Latin to her, but pictures, those are universal. I've tried sending her digital copies and links to sites where she can view them, but that's never going to be terribly successful with founding members like herself of  pre-computer generation. I vaguely recall a glimmer of hope when I heard last year of T-Mobile's network integrated Cameo Digiframe. It's basically a frame with a phone number that updates with images and picture messages that you send it, or via memory card. Then I saw the price: $100 for the hardware and $9.99/month for the line. Uh, no. My Mom doesn't even have a cell phone for emergencies. But wait, just in time for Mother's Day it would seem that T-Mobile has gotten the hint.

According to a post on Engadget this morning, T-Mobile has dropped its prices to $40 for the frame and a monthly fee of $1.99. Now that's a little bit different, now isn't it. For a measly $24/year Mom can be clued in visually everything that is going on with me or anyone else for that matter. Who knows, after she vicariously becomes an expert in wireless technology she may even break down and accept a cell phone for the glove compartment. All kidding aside this is actually a pretty cool and affordable idea for anyone, especially Moms, who want to effortlessly keep up with other's lives.

A few things about the Cameo. It unfortunately is only available through a physical visit to a T-Mobile store, but there are no contract obligations, it comes with unlimited message capability, can hold up to 500 standard sized images, allows for the blocking of individual senders and does not take up one of your allowed accounts if you have a family plan. All in all pretty nice. Mom is going to like it and I think I may too since I may just get one for myself as well.

Want to read more about T-Mobile's Cameo Digiframe? ZDNet did a nice review of it yesterday. Check it out for more details.

--Tom Milnes

Genius G-Shot HD520 Camcorder Delivers 720p for $140

Do you recall those nostalgic days of Norman Rockwell like memories captured forever by Dad with that ever-present camera of his? Yeah, me neither. Back in the olden days I remember home video, of any kind, much less HD recording was simply too expensive for most people to dive into. Well, things have definitely changed since then. In fact consumer HD camcorders are fast becoming down right cheap. A few weeks ago I noted a few variants made in the form of clutch purses, aimed at women by DXG priced right at $130. And now another low cost manufacturer, Genius, is doing something very similar, but in pistol grip form with their G-Shot HD520 Camcorder.

As with every model in this new low-end high-end class of HD camcorder, we are not talking top of the line quality here, but for the price--$140 in the case of the HD520--we are talking a pretty good bargain for most folks in the market. The selling point of the HD520 feature wise are its ability to take 720p footage as well as capture 11 megapixel still shots. That's not too shabby for the cost of a fairly tame night on the town for two. Sounds like every new, and newly poor parent's dream; a cheap tool to capture the memories. That isn't much of a Norman Rockwell attitude, but it is realistic.

Check out the HD520s key features below. You can also check out a little more detail at its product page on the Genius site and can read the camcorder's press release via a posting on Engadget.

Key Features:

• 5MP digital video camera, record at (30fps/1280 x 720P) and output to HD TV via the included HDMI cable
• Maximum image resolution up to 11 MP by interpolation.
• 5X digital zoom, allows you to zoom in and out during video recording
• Face Detection, track and detect faces accurately.
• The ALC chip can sense sound from various distances.
• 2.5" LTPS color display.
• EIS prevents any hand shaking when taking videos.
• Supports high-capacity SD card up to 8GB.
• Motion Detection.
• Li-ion rechargeable battery.

--Tom Milnes

New Flip UltraHD Pocket-sized Camcorders Get Official

Back in 2005, my wife and I went on our three-week honeymoon to Paris with a third wheel--our newly purchased Canon Optura 30 camcorder (as well as a stack of MiniDV tapes). The first few days, we dutifully lugged around the Optura (which was certainly smaller than competing models of that time period) and succumbed to the touristy siren song of videographing our movements through the city. But we soon started leaving the camcorder in the apartment as we headed out for our daily adventures as it was just too bulky, and thus our honeymoon seems very short based on video evidence.

If only we'd had the Flip camcorder then (as we do now)--the small little box that doesn't look at all like a video recorder with the curious flip-out USB connector--things could have been different... and maybe we would have gotten some video of the Eiffel Tower, which we visited in the waning days of the honeymoon. I purchased the MinoHD, Flip's first high-def camcorder, before last Christmas and have been loving its 720p resolution as well as its easy pocketability (and thus having it more readily available for impromptu shoots).

And now Flip has added a second HD-capable model to its lineup with the official announcement (after leaks started appearing this last weekend) of the Flip UltraHD Camcorder. It has the same body as the original Ultra, which is bulkier than the more svelte MinoHD largely because of its rechargeable AA battery pack, which can be replaced with standard AA batteries if you're running low on power while on the go. And it offers similar video specs to its high-def brethren, including a 1280 x 720 respolution, 30 frames per second (fps), an average bit rate of 9.0Mbps and 2x digital zoom.

But the UltraHD adds a larger LCD viewing screen (2 inches compared to the MinoHD's 1.5-incher) and more storage capacity (doubling to 8 GB for 120 minutes of video capture). However, its biggest new feature is the HDMI port for video output, enabling you to connect it directly to an HDTV for viewing footage without first having to transfer and massage video through the included FlipShare software. Oh, and it's $30 than the MinoHD (you pay extra for the svelte).

A number of gadgetosphere destinations have some samples already up, including Gizmodo, Engadget and Boing Boing Gadgets, and CNet also just posted its positive 4-star review. Additionally, Camcorderinfo offers some good side-by-side photos contrasting the UltraHD with the MinoHD. The Flip UltraHD comes in black and white and is available for ordering now.

--Agen G.N. Schmitz

Share 3G Connections for Less with LevelOne's MobilSpot Portable Router

With so many options for Internet connectivity, even on the road, not the least of which being your own 3G card, the concept of portable routers and hotspots has always escaped me. Mostly it's the price. Often close to the $200 price range, it's easy to pass on these, especially when they may actually be rarely used. But what about when it is not just you hoping to get online away from home? Yeah, that's a little different, but again what about the price issue? German network peripherals manufacturer LevelOne may be getting us a little closer to moving beyond that issue with their MobilSpot Portable Wireless Hotspot.

The MobilSpot is a multifunction 3G Wireless Router that allows users to access the Internet using a 3G USB or Card Bus modem. Users can share an Internet connection or create a private network over the LAN ports or the built-in 11b/g wireless access point. This isn't a new technology at all, but the unit's $150 price tag makes it a more reasonable purchase. Adding to the reasonable nature of the MobilSpot is that by most reports its auto-switching 3G backup functionality allows it to serve as a decent home wireless router, especially for those stuck with a dicey wired connection. So overall not groundbreaking, but not too bad for under $200 when you also expect the need to share out a connection.

Click here for full MobilSpot details, or see the key specs below.

Features

• 1-port 10/100Mbps Ethernet switch with Autonegotiation and MDI/MDI-X support
• 1-port 10/100Mbps WAN interface offers autofallback for a redundant internet connection
• 802.11b/g compliant Wireless Access Point
• Features robust double Firewall protection
• Provides WPA-PSK, WPA2-PSK and TKIP/AES Wireless encryption support
• Supports VPN pass-through of PPTP, L2TP and IPSec secured data connections
• Supports USB and Card Bus Port for 3G modem

--Tom Milnes

Microsoft Tellme Voice Recognition for Windows Mobile Phones

This morning Microsoft announced that Tellme, a voice recognition technology developed by Microsoft subsidiary Tellme, will be included with Windows Mobile phones 6.5 and higher. An attempt to nibble at Apple's market share by out conveniencing the iPhone, Tellme will allow users with Windows Mobile phones 6.5 and higher to verbally send texts, make calls and perform Web searches. The selling point that Microsoft is pursuing here is two-fold. The first is that voice recognition is more efficient than touchscreen technology. According to the press release for the service,

"In a head to head comparison, it's clear why people prefer voice over touch. For example, it requires four touches and more than 20 keystrokes to find a business with the Apple iPhone, while it only takes one button push and one verbal command to find the same business with Tellme. Tellme's research shows similar results for other tasks, such as making calls, sending text messages and searching for content like traffic, movies, news and sports."

The research referred to is connected to the Live Search application on Sprint Instinct phones, and a more general independent study, both of which are noted later in the press release. The second pillar of Tellme that Microsoft is crowing about is that the functionality will be free via the Windows Marketplace for Mobile store, as well as to mobile operators and carriers to "embed 'on-device' for a voice experience right out of the box."

So, will Microsoft make any headway in pulling more users over to the Windows Mobile platform? We'll see about that. Although not everyone is, or wants to be an iPhone user, it is hard to see the platform's popularity, or that of touch technology in general, dipping anytime in the near future. And if voice recognition were to become the next big thing just imagine how fast you would develop a dread of the human-to-phone mini conversations that would soon fill the air of shared spaces, especially in lieu of texting? Oh how we would all long for the silent, slow sliding of fingers across the quaint old iPhone if that were to come to pass.

Tellme debuts with Windows Mobile 6.5 in the fall. Until then check out a video below of Tellme in action.

--Tom Milnes

LaCie DataShare Turns Old SD and MicroSD into a USB Flash Drive

In these days of tens of gigabytes, and maybe in the not so distant future, terabyte portable memory storage capacity, if you've been a consumer in the electronics market for little more than a few years it's pretty much guaranteed that you have a desk drawer, Zip-Lock baggie or maybe even a pile dedicated to old, small capacity SD and/or MicroSD. With these leftovers from last year's purchase seeming so small in storage capacity and so many devices utilizing USB connectivity, the temptation is to just toss them, or at the least ignore them until you just can't find them. But determined to put yet another inexpensive USB gadget in your hands the folks over at LaCie want you to recycle them instead by using their new DataShare device.

The DataShare is a two-piece storage device that lets you create a USB flash drive out of SD and MicroSD cards. Part of their red/white, ying/yang marketing is that you can use one side of the DataShare for personal files and the other for sharing. This seems a little bit of a weak selling point, but they needed another bullet so I'll give them this. The ability to recycle older memory cards is pretty cool though, especially at the the low cost of $9.99. There aren't to many specs to read on this, just put the cards in either side and use, but you can read more about the DataShare here.

--Tom Milnes

Lenovo and RIM's 'ConstantConnect' Links ThinkPads and BlackBerrys

Finally something the BlackBerry is good for. Just kidding of course. The Blackberry does a lot of good things, but according to an Engadget post this afternoon the latest bit of goodness is ConstantConnect.

A joint bit of functionality between select ThinkPad models and possibly equally select BlackBerrys, ConstantConnect allows for a convenient sync between your ThinkPad and Blackberry in cases where you have limited connectivity to the Internet, or when you are just not willing to pay for it. Lenova PR describes this as a "seamless, integrated email experience," which plays itself out in one of two scenarios. First, there is the situation where you don't have a connection to the Internet for your laptop, but you do have a signal for your BlackBerry. Just type up you email via Outlook on your computer as you would normally and send. The mail is transferred to your BlackBerry and sent. The second scenario is where you have no usable signal for either devices, for example on an airplane or in a severely dead zone. Here you also compose your mail as before and send. In this case, this is stored on your ConstantConnect card. As you finish, place your laptop into sleep mode, for example as you ready yourself for landing. There is no need to open up your computer again to sync with your mail server. As a signal becomes available to your BlackBerry your ConstantConnect card will make a bluetooth connection to your BlackBerry and the stored mail will be sent through the BlackBerry. Also, in this scenario email received by the BlackBerry will also be copied to the card to be synced to Outlook when it is started up again.

As far as pricing goes, Engadget says it's a "$149 option from select business partners and through Lenovo.com." This has yet to be confirmed on the Lenovo site though. Also, there is no news yet as to whether the functionality is limited to enterprise e-mail and what ThinkPad and BlackBerry models can take advantage of the functionality. Regardless, it sounds like it could be an option for the frequent, yet budget minded business traveler.

--Tom Milnes

Wacom Intuos 4 Tablets Ramp Up Productivity and Design Sexiness

Five years after Wacom's introduction of the Intuos3 digital drawing tablet line, digital graphics professionals can rejoice now that its successor has finally dropped with the Intuos4 lineup, which definitely ramps up the modern industrial design sexiness over its predecessor. But more than just industrial design chops that's just begging for awards, the Intuos4 also adds some serious technology to help with both creativity and productivity--including 2,048 pressure levels on the drawing area (making it twice as responsive as the Intuos3), ExpressKeys that can be configured for your favorite shortcuts, and an iPod-like Touch Ring that can control up to four different functions in an application (it's preset to control auto scroll/zoom, cycle layers, brush size, and canvas rotation). Additionally, it's now designed to be ambidextrous--just flip the tablet 180 degrees and the controls automatically reorient themselves. The Intuos4 line includes four sizes:

• Small with 6.2 x 3.9-inch drawing area (12.2 x 8.2-inch tablet dimension)

• Medium with 8.8 x 5.5-inch drawing area (14.6 x 10-inch tablet dimension)

• Large with 12.8 x 8-inch drawing area (18.7 x 12.6-inch tablet dimension)

• Extra-large with 24.5 x 18.2-inch drawing (24.5 x 18.2-inch tablet dimension)area

If you're not sure what size to go for, Wacom has a handy page that breaks down which size is best for which users. For some unboxing porn, check out this blog entry by Ko Maruyama at ninja crayon. And for some positive hands-on reviews, check out PC Magazine, Computerworld and CNet.

--Agen G.N. Schmitz