Is the Apple iPad "magical"?

Today was 2010's first iDay- the announcement of a new or updated Apple product, predictably following months, or in this case years of feverish speculation. Steve Jobs gave the gathered press the first glimpse of the super-tablet himself, proudly declaring the new iPad not just revolutionary, but magical. It is undeniably sleek, beautiful, and impressive to look at but is it necessary, especially for people already toting around iPhones or iPod Touches, along with a MacBook or a MacBook Air?

Here are the specs:

-9.7" LED backlit, fully multi-touch display, with IPS technology (IPS provides wide viewing angles and good color reproduction, important for a tablet that you may use both laptop-style, and as a media player). There's also a special fingerprint-resistant coating, obviously good for a screen with a touch interface.

-Up to 10 hour battery life for video, music, and wifi surfing.

-Half an inch thick, weighs 1.5 lbs, 9.5" high, 7.5" wide.

-Wifi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G through AT&T (yay, not). Assisted GPS on 3G models only.

-On-screen keyboard only- but wide enough, apparently for something approaching touch-typing. Jobs typed with all his fingers, not just thumbs during the demo. There's also an optional hardware keyboard which also charges the iPad.

-The iPad will run all current iPhone/iPod Touch applications, plus have its own iPad-only apps.

-The iPad is an advanced e-book reader, using the iBooks app for reading and the iBookstore app for browsing and buying books. iBookstore has licensing deals with some of the biggest publishers so book selection should quickly get competitive with the Amazon Kindle's, plus iBook supports the EPUB standard, which offers thousands of free books. The best part? The Amazon Kindle and BN Nook use low-powered e-ink displays which are easy on the eyes and give great battery life, but they are not backlit or in color. The iPad is both, and while battery life is sure to be less than the Kindle's, 10 hours is still really, really good.

-iWork, Apple's answer to MS Office will be available for the iPad. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote (Apple's versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) will be $9.99 each, a great price for a full featured app.

What are the advantages of the iPad over the iPhone or iPod Touch? The screen, obviously is almost three times the size, a huge improvement for web surfing, watching videos and viewing photos, email, and working on documents. The on-screen keyboard, which will surely elicit much discussion, won't please everybody, but will surely be more comfortable for typing longer docs and emails, and there is the optional hardware keyboard.

LG's Lotus Gets Elite

LG and Sprint are continuing their partnership with the release of the successor to the stylish Lotus phone. The LG Lotus Elite has all the looks of the original Lotus, but has stepped it up a notch with a few exclusive features.

One of the new features on the Elite is the 2.4-inch external touchscreen that allows users to easily navigate all their pertinent information without having to open the phone. The screen has a 320x240 resolution which makes for a vibrant phone experience. Other features include the new three dedicated shortcut keys for social networking, email, and text. The social networking button, dubbed Social can be mapped to a person's favorite social network.

Sony Wants You! $10,000 Scholarship up for Grabs

Contrary to popular belief, there are more than a few girl gamers out there, serving up their own brand of pwnage with a smile. When it comes to game development, women continue to be an underrepresented segment of the industry. Sony Online Entertainment is doing their part to remedy the situation with the G.I.R.L. scholarship.

The G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) program was created to affect how women are portrayed in video games. And there's no better way to change the machine than to work from within. In conjunction with the program there is also a scholarship was created with the express purpose of recruiting into the fields of video game production and design.

Cast Your Vote for Computer Engineer Barbie

Now that geeks are considered sexy, we techies are finally being appreciated for our sparkling intellect, and almost obsessional love of tech. In my mind, we were always sexy, but it just took mainstream society awhile to catch on. Now one of our most treasured mainstream childhood icons might be getting in on the geek sexy angle.

Mattel creator of the iconic Barbie doll is asking people to vote on the dolls next career. Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has had over 120 careers. She's been an astronaut, a rock star, and a veterinarian. Hey, she has to pay off the mortgage for that dream house and Ferrari somehow.

Listed among the possible careers is computer engineer. I can think of no better way to show the next generation the coolness of tech than presenting some lucky youngster with a shiny ne "Computer Engineer" Barbie. Please lend your vote and let's initiate Barbie into our ultra-cool society of tech.

The results on the voting will be available on February 12. So vote and keep your fingers crossed.

Via CrunchGear

Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System

Any expectant mother can tell you, it's never to early to start communicating with your child. Besides having extended conversations while baby is in-utero, music has been proven to assist with positive fetal development including displaying "advanced intelligence, coordination, and learning abilities."

Nuvo Group's new device helps deliver soothing sound to your baby with the Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System. Kind of like a speaker system for your unborn bundle of joy, Ritmo is a lightweight belt that fits comfortably around mommy-to-be's tummy. The belt has four built-in speakers that utilized patented Safe&Sound Technology to make sure that the sound level is perfectly safe for baby's ears. The belt also comes with a controller used to plug in an mp3 player.

Free shipping on December 17!

Not that we want you to postpone your holiday shopping any more than you already have, gulp. But this is just a friendly reminder that Thursday, December 17, is Free Shipping Day!

Free Shipping Day is, duh, the day when online merchants, some 700 of them, will ship your orders for free and vow to get them delivered by December 24.

Thanks to Consumer Reports, which kindly provides details here.

Belkin Swivel Hub lets your USB cables stay away from general cable mess

Ah finally, here comes a USB hub that's sensibility personified. Belkin's Swivel Hub could have been just another ordinary 4-port USB hub if not for its ingenious swivel head. The hub can be rotated around its connector to let you position your gadgets comfortably, thereby creating the additional advantage of allowing access to the other USB ports on your PC.

Hear ye all, and take a lesson in sense and simplicity hereforth. Available from Belkin at $29.95.

Via The Red Ferret.

AViiQ's laptop stand is the most portable ever--and gorgeous too

The AViiQ laptop stand is the most portable I've ever seen--and also the most gorgeous. At 12 3/4" long, unfolded and supporting your laptop, the AViiQ laptop stand is only a little bigger than a sheet of paper. Folded, it's not much bigger than a No.10 envelope and weighs just 5.5 oz, so it fits easily into your laptop bag or even just a laptop sleeve.

I'm a veteran laptop traveler and for years carried a (relatively) lightweight plastic laptop stand that kept the thing from sliding off my lap and folded to provide a decent typing angle. But the fold didn't change its outer dimensions--bigger than my laptop's footprint, which dictated which bags I could carry. The AViiQ laptop stand, said to fit laptops up to 17", is a dream by comparison.

The AViiQ folks, like other laptop stand makers, claim their laptop stand will dissipate heat and prolong battery life. I can't evaluate that claim, but I can tell you that the 12% slope the AViiQ laptop stand achieves is, as they claim, the perfect typing angle. I was actually kinda startled by how much it improved typing ease. All of a sudden I can race along almost as quickly on my less-than-optimum laptop keyboard as I can on the classic IBM keyboard I use with my desktop.

And did I mention gorgeous? The AViiQ laptop stand is a tech beauty worthy of Apple. The stand is four lightweight plates made of Hylite, a composite of aluminum sheets bonded to a polypropylene core. The material is milled to be both flexible and rigid. AViiQ says that in testing the stand was folded more than 5000 times and showed no wear.

With all that perfection, you knew there was some bad news coming, right? Here it is: the price. $80.

Reebok's new Easytone shoe: Does it really tone muscles?

Reebok recently started selling a walking shoe, called Easytone, that is supposed to tone your leg and butt muscles while you walk.

And the buzz machine swung into action. The Easytone shoe has made a huge splash--TV appearances, newspaper and magazine articles, buzz, buzz, buzz.

If the shoe fits, does it really firm up those muscles? Does the Easytone shoe work?

Dan Ariely is James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University is skeptical. He points out that the scientific evidence is thin. Reports of Easytone effectiveness may, he speculates, may be due to the placebo effect. (Placebos are inert pills or any item that can't possibly be of direct medical benefit, but still makes people get better.)

The placebo effect is enormously important in medicine. When a new drug is tested on people and turns out to be effective, a notable number of people in the control group, who received a sham pill rather than the real thing, always get better too.

As it turns out, the placebo effect contributes heavily to the positive effects of exercise too. When people are told (falsely) that a particular activity is good exercise, many of them believe it so strongly that they lose weight and body fat and their blood pressure even goes down. Which has me wondering how I can convince myself that reading in bed, sleeping late, and taking long hot showers will make me thinner.

Turn A Window Into a Garden

The Windowfarms project turns your window into an urban farm, using inexpensive and recyclable parts. The results are a "curtain" for any window that is also a year-round, high-yield, vertical, hydroponic, modular, low-energy, edible garden. The open designs are free to download and easy to implement. The project also encourages the community to innovate and share improvements.

Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray started this project in February, 2009 during their artist's residency in New York's Eyebeam Art and Technology Center. Their mission is to encourage sustainable solutions that can be implemented today by anyone. Recently, Riley presented developments of Windowfarms at the New York chapter of http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotnyc/04.nov.2009/Dorkbot.

Diamond Weather Station

So, it's officially winter and, therefore, as important as ever to keep a close eye on the forecast. Now you can do it with style!

Sparkling away with dozens of Swarovski Crystals™, the Diamond Weather Station from Oregon Scientific adds a bit of glamour to the world of otherwise… shall we say… 'conservative' electronic weather forecasters. The crystals light up brightly in one of three different patterns / colors – red sun, blue cloud, or green rain – to clue you in to what to expect from the sky in the coming hours.

This beautiful unit Features a remote sensor to transmit outdoor temperature to the display and a digital clock that auto-syncs with the Naval atomic clock for precision time. A quick wave of your hand over the top of the unit switches the display between time, indoor temperature, and outdoor temperature, or you can put it in an automatic mode.

But wait! We've saved the best feature for last… If you utter the enclosed incantation while waving your hand over the unit, you can change the weather to… well… okay… not really on this one. You can still be prepared and be stylish, though.

Video game controller ornaments make for a true geek's Christmas

How to veer Santa away from giving you those girly gifts (like hair curlers, eek!) and bring on the really useful ones (like gadgets, yum!) instead? Well, let why not let the tree scream for your cause this Christmas? So, get plentiful of these acrylic gaming ornaments designed by Dave Rollins, and we bet your decoration will be the talk of the geek town. They are sold together as a set of seven and contain laser cut-out versions of Wii, N64, Xbox 360, Dreamcast, NES, PS2 and Sega Genesis controllers. That said, calling this "geek-chic" would only be an understatement.

The ornaments are available in six different colors and are currently selling on Etsy and Digits’ Ponoko for $25.

Via Slippery Brick.

S&J's Incredible, Non-edible Speakers

Computer peripheral manufacturer, S&J Co., Ltd, proves that sometimes to get great sound you have to break a few eggs. Their new line of ultra portable speakers are egg-shaped and awesome hence their name, Eggy.

The little speakers pack decent sound thanks to their 2W output and digital amps. They're USB-powered so there's no need to worry about batteries. The coolest thing about these speakers is that the magnetically lock. Once you're done using them, just put them together and you've got a shiny egg that can be easily slipped into a bag or pocket. These speakers would be an awesome peripheral for all those netbooks and laptops out there.

No word yet on price or availability, but they will be showing at this year's CES, so hopefully there will be more information in January.

Via Coolest Gadgets

Denim jeans protect you from snakebite

You've always loved your jeans, and now here's another reason: denim protects you from snakebite.

Of course, to be fully protected, you may need to give up those skinny jeans that show off your, um assets. Go shopping instead for something like the technology breakthrough fabric invented in the 18th century but still beloved in the 21st: Armor-like heavyweight denim fashioned into Mom jeans.

Ed Hardy's Tatted Up Tech

If you like tattoos, but don't want to go through the pain of getting a permanent piece of art added your decidedly risk-adverse frame, you can go the Ed Hardy route. Unless you've been living under a rock for the past several years, you know that the distinctive designs of Ed Hardy have become one of the mainstays of urban fashion gracing shirts, hoodies, and sneakers.

Now the skulls, roses, and daggers are going techie with the introduction of the Ed Hardy USB Drive. The Limited Edition tech is retractable, Mac and PC-compatible, comes decked out in a colorful Tiger motif with the charming message "Love Kills".

The keys have a capacity of 1, 4, and 8GB retailing for $32, $52, and $78 respectively on Amazon.com. At those prices, you're obviously paying for the privilege of owning something considered to be couture. Makes you long for the days when tats were cool because they drove your parents nuts.

Via Gizmodo

The new PBS NewsHour: Pick and choose the news to use

The PBS NewsHour is undergoing major remodeling. That's good news for US newshounds who need more than a flood of celebrity gossip followed by 20-second snippets of real news but don't have time to watch an hour-long broadcast every evening.

The NewsHour has beefed up its online presence in a major way and also embraced podcasts, RSS feeds, Facebook, and Twitter. Even if you don't own a TV, you can keep up with the NewsHour's in-depth treatment of the day's news automagically.

Listen to interviews with movers and shakers and the smart folks who analyze their moves and shakes, Paul Solman's lucid explanations of what's up (and down!) in the financial world, international news from all over, plus thoughtful looks at current issues like health care reform, the environment, the arts....life, the universe, and everything.

There's way more here than the NewsHour folks are able to cram into their daily hour on TV, but it's served cafeteria-style, so you can pick and choose just what news you can use. And there are extras like special material for teachers to bring to their classrooms.

Gravida Nurse Puts Prenatal Education in the Palm of Your Hand

The Gravida Nurse Prenatal Education Device is a great gift for first time mothers. Instead of spending a small fortune on parenting books, expectant mothers can turn to this handy gadget. The device is a small handheld device that features helpful articles focused on providing good prenatal care for both baby and mom.

There are also voices recordings and pictures to help reinforce the information. Everything can be accessed via the large touchscreen. There's also a slot for a memory card and it can be hooked up to a computer via USB. No word on if additional information can be added to the Gravida using these means.

The Gravida Nurse is small, cute, helpful and going for $22.65

Via UberGizmo

Holiday card snailmailed for free from Google

A free holiday postcard, and snailmailed free too! We keep reading that Google has more money than it knows what to do with, and here's further evidence. Not that I'm complaining.

So, go here, write your 255-character message, add the recipient's address, pick out your card from a selection of six, and Google says it will do the rest: stamp it, snailmail it, the whole deal. Thanks, Google.

Limit 1, US only, no naughty content. Google says the supply is not endless despite its riches, so better not tarry. If you want to send more than one--a couple of the designs are particularly nice--you can download and print Google holiday cards and mail them yourself.

Beaba BabyCook: Easy on Baby's Stomach and Parent's Wallets

I don't have to tell you that having a baby can be expensive. The food, the clothes, the toy, not to mention the seemingly unending need for diapers can drain even the most solid of finances. This new gadget from Beaba might be the must have gift this holiday for parents with toddler-aged children.

Leave it to the French to make an awesome food-based gizmo. The Beaba Babycook is a handy device that makes baby food right before your eyes. The Babycook is a food-processor, stove, steamer, and defroster all in one. The device is simple enough to use. Take those peas, peaches, or beets into the cooking basket. The process starts by steaming your raw materials for 15 minutes, sealing all the nutrients and flavors in place. After the freshly steamed food is blended and pureed into yummy and healthy food ready for baby's sensitive stomach.

The Babycook makes up to two and a half cups of food per use. It also comes with a spatula, bowl, and containers for freezing servings so food can be prepared in advance. Thanks to the gadget's defrost function, there will never be a long wait to defrost precooked food and there's no worry of over-nulking it in the microwave. There's also a recipe booklet just to give parents some inspiration when preparing their baby's meal.

BPA-tested, Parents with kids from six months to two years will be using this thing constantly.Luckily, the : 11 x 5½ x 8-inch device doesn't take up too much counter space. And to make things even more convenient, everything included with the Babycook is dishwasher-friendly.

Video of the Beaba Babycook in action

Via Coolest Gadgets

Harlequin Brings Romance to the World of Gaming

What can you say about romance novels? If you've read one plot involving heaving bosoms, rippling pectorals, and furtive sighs with a physical attraction fueled by dislike which eventually turns into lust and love, you've read them all. The question is, would you play a game based on the same premise?

Leading romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises has teamed up with casual game producer Big Fish Games to create Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire. I could spend a good half hour making jokes about the title alone, but I digress. The game is a mash-up of a romance novel and you guessed it, a hidden objects game. Based on the Harlequin mini-series "The Royal House of Karedes", premise is simple:

Allie`s on a quest to find some breaking news in the Kingdom of Adamas, but must now choose between her friend`s well-being and true love! The bachelor Prince of Aristo is the most enchanting man she has ever met, but she must fend off his charming advances long enough to figure out what is going on. Help Allie find valuable clues in Harlequin Presents: Hidden Object of Desire, an exciting Hidden Object game.

Smart Baby Case Diasterproof and Travel-ready

Traveling with a baby can be challenging. You need to make sure there's a solid supply of diapers and food as well as lug around that bulky stroller. Sure it comes in handy when you're transporting your little one, but it becomes the instrument of the devil when it encounters some stairs. It's even worse with the initial setup. I've seen too many parents struggle with getting the blasted thing set up while trying to comfort a crying infant. Whew!

Luggage company Samsonite, held a competition a few months back looking for designers that could design a better way for parents to transport their children. One such concept came from Iranian designer Pouyan Mokhtarani. Called the Smart Baby Case, the design is a hard case pod that borrows design cues from the humble egg, a shape already familiar to a child. The case would keep baby safe and comfortable while the parents navigate the hustle and bustle of pedestrian traffic or get to safety in the case of an emergency.

Samsung's Trill Makes Beautiful Music

Samsung recently unveiled the Trill, a mid-level phone for those that want more than your basic no-frills device, but don't need all the bells and whistles that come with most smartphones. The Trill is a cute little slider that will appeal to all the music lovers out there. The phone's curved shape is inspired by the rounded figure of the violin.

Powered by Bang & Olufsen’s high-powered audio tech called ICEpower will deliver crystal clear sound. According to the website, "You’re not listening to a playlist, you’re taking in a performance." We'll have to snag a review device and be the judge of that for ourselves. In addition to the quality sound, the Trill comes with a one touch Music Access button for easy access to your music. There's also 1GB of memory to store all your favorite tunes and a microSD card slot that can handle up to 32GB.

Top Ten--er, Nine--Best Tech Ideas for 2009

Yet another year-end Top Ten list, this time a Top Ten list--Top Nine list, actually--of 2009 tech ideas that get a gold star from David Pogue, technology columnist for the New York Times.

I have experience with a couple of his choices and think they are indeed worth recommending.

One is the cute trick found only on WebOS phones, at the moment the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi. The phones can collect. consolidate, and color-code data from various calendars and Facebook events, all on a single calendar, plus also data from your contact and messaging lists. At last a way to bring together much of your data, online and off, into something like a genuine personal information manager for your phone. And you hardly have to exert yourself at all; the process is mostly automagic.

The other fine tool is Readability, a marvel of a bookmarklet for your browser toolbar that nearly always can figure out what text you want from any old Web page and make it simple, handsome, and free of surrounding clutter. You don't have to use the Select command, and the result is readable--and easy to copy, mail, and/or save to your hard drive. The Readability folks are calling it an experiment, so don't expect perfection. But they are attentive to your needs. I had a problem using Readability on particular pages, dropped them a note, and in their update they fixed the problem. The only response to that is: Wow.

The Times site is free, but requires registration. Happy New Year! We certainly need one.

Babies: The Latest and Greatest Gaming Peripheral

Babies are cute and marketable. Which is why Nintendo in its infinite wisdom has decided to put a Wiimote inside a baby. Not a real one mind you, that would be too messy and cause a media crapstorm. In addition to boxing gloves, a football, and of course guns of various shapes and sizes, now you can add baby to the list of unnecessary Wii accessories.

The doll is part of a limited edition package for "Baby and Me". The game is a simulator, letting players go through the joys of parenthood without actually having one of their own. Using the balance board, devoted parents must attend to the needs of their darling baby girl including feeding, burping, and yes, diaper changes. So what's the Wiimote-packed doll for? When baby is upset, it cries through the speaker in the Wiimote, alerting parents that it's time to get off their lazy butts and onto the balance board. It also giggles and gurgles in approval of your servitude.

Apparently this game hits stores on November 10. You won't find me clamoring for this "game", but it would definitely make a cool gift for a kid this holiday season.

Via Kotaku

Renault Concept Spa and Car in One

Ah the spa, where all troubles, worries, stressors are meticulously pampered away with facials, scrubs, and messages. Usually a trip to the spa costs a pretty penny, but if French automaker Renault has its way, soon you won't have to go farther than your car to get that spoiled rotten feeling.

Renault has joined forces with cosmetics maker Biotherm to create the Zoe Z.E. electric car concept. The car is sporting a climate control system that is similar to a spa. In lieu of using air conditioning which can be hard on the skin, the Zoe keeps the air inside the car cool and hydrated, preventing the skin from drying out.

The car also deals with outside toxicity levels by shutting the car's air vents when the built-in toxicity sensor detects one too many free radicals. But it just wouldn't be a spa without soothing scents, so the car has been set up to diffuse essential oils created by Biotherm to keep the driver calm no matter what time of the day, using three different scents to take care of morning, noon, and night.

Flare Dress Has Techie Flair

After the gorgeous Galaxy Dress, I've been keeping my eyes open for more awesomely fabulous fashionable tech. Lo and behold, there's the Flare Dress from Dutch designer Stijn Ossevoort. The dress in itself is lovely, a light and breezy number perfect for a spring day. What makes this frock a talking point is the dandelion detailing.

When a breeze hits the dress, the dandelions come to life, glowing in all their gentle LED glory. That's right the Flair dress is a wind-activated number that lights up in a pattern of lights when the wind or a human blows on it. A whimsical affair, I can't wait to see what other innovative designs will come from this talented designer.

Via Born Rich

Kind Reminder Gives Comfort to Alzheimer's Patients

It's never easy caring for someone with Alzheimer's. It can be a devastating experiences watching a loved one slip in and out of lucidity. One can only imagine the confusion, anger, and fear a person affected by the disease experiences during these moments. A daughter of an Alzheimer's sufferer wanted to lend some comfort to her parent and created this ingenious device.

The Kind Reminder is a recorder that can be worn around the neck as a necklace or just kept close by. When the patient has a moment of disorientation, they can press the button on the recorder and the voice of their caretaker will play. The website says the product is designed for people with early to mid-stage Alzheimer's or memory loss related to age.

Green Tech: Green jobs outlook, hope or hype?

Is the promise of green jobs all hype, or are more and more green jobs on the way in the US? Popular Mechanics has just published an extensive report on green jobs that is mostly optimistic.

At the moment, green jobs account for a minuscule proportion of US jobs--just under half of 1%. But between 1998 and 2007, green jobs grew at a rate of 9.1% annually , compared with overall job growth of 3.7%. That initial burst may help cushion job green job decline during the current recession, experts hope.

Among the green jobs growing fastest, Popular Mechanics reports, are fuel cell engineers, smart-grid engineers, green architects and builders, and energy auditors. A few states have taken the lead in green job growth. In Oregon, for example, green jobs are already 1% of total Oregon jobs, the highest in the nation. Other states on the move are Idaho, California, Colorado, Minnesota, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Maine.

Samsung Presents the "Diva Collection"

2010 marks the year of the Diva...phone that is. Samsung has announced that two new phones will be hitting the market and they "will satisfy every woman’s fascination and desire for mobile phones." Named the Diva and the Diva Folder now called the Samsung Olivia, both phones are decked out with quilted back covers, because nothing says haute couture like quilts.

The dynamic duo also come with some unique features including a "Beauty Effect", a retouching function that makes photos "flawlessly beautiful. There's also the "Lomo Effect" that makes makes plain pics look like works of art (umm, okay). The phones also have a wish list, etiquette mode, and security features like "SOS Message" and "Fake Call" to save ladies for those uncomfortable bad date situations.

Sony Vaio P is Pocket Friendly

Though netbooks couldn't get any smaller? Guess again. Sony just released the Sony Vaio P in Korea. The 1.3 lbs. netbook has an eight inch display and is small enough to fit in your pocket. There are currently two models, the VGN-P35LK and VGN-P33LK.

The VGN-P35LK is available in Gold, Green, Black, White, and Red. It features a 64GB SSD and an Intel Atom Processor. The VGN-P33LK has a 80GB HDD and 2GB of DDR2 memory and is available in black or white. Both models will have an integrated webcam, Windows 7, and Bluetooth capability.

No word on whether or not these minis will make it stateside.

Via AVING USA