Now you can power your cell phone and your iPod with only the power of the sun.  This solar cell phone and iPod charger comes with a mini USB cable, 2 iPod adaptors and 5 cell phone adaptors which will work with most Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Siemens and Blackberry cell phones.  You can go from empty to a full charge in less than 3 hours on most cell phones and iPods assuming you have the advantage of direct sunlight.  Even if it’s a cloudy day, you can still generate a charge, but it will take a little longer.  As an avid camper, I think this solar cell phone and iPod charger would be a handy item to keep in the car.  On many camping trips, I’ve ended up with a dead Blackberry and had to leave it in the running car to charge.   Who can afford that with the price of gas?  And my husband loves to take his iPod along on camping trips, so we could both use it.  This solar powered charger is made by Soldius1 and it sells for around $90. 

Anyone who has suddenly and seemingly without warning filled their flash drive to capacity at precisely the most inconvenient moment in time will appreciate this gadget.  It’s the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II Plus and it features an external capacity indicator to let you know just exactly how much storage space remains.  This memory stick is available in several sizes ranging from 512MB to 8GB, and it has advanced security options which allow users to create password protected areas within the flash drive.  Compatible with Windows XP, Vista and Mac, the Lexar JumpDrive Secure II Plus is sleek in design and the capacity meter even shows a reading when the device is unplugged from your computer.  So, the next time you’re uploading oodles of photos, and you suddenly get that dreaded error message that your flash drive is full, consider a memory stick that offers a constant reminder of storage capacity.

For all of you out there who absolutely detest mowing the lawn, I may have just found the greatest thing since the riding lawn mower.  The LB 3500 robotic lawn mower made by Kyodo America is the world’s first Bluetooth compatible home robotic device, which means that it can be completely controlled through any Bluetooth supporting gadget.  Users can even program the mower to begin mowing the lawn at a specific time.  When lawn mowing time rolls around, the robotic lawn mower comes out of it charging station, mows your yard, and then quietly returns to its station.  According to Kyodo America’s website, the LB3500 is powered by 2 lithium-ion batteries and will mow up to 35,000 square feet on a single charge.  For those worried about this smart mower eating up their flowers, it’s equipped with a sensor for avoiding that very problem.  And, its equipped with built-in security alarm, which is something you’ll definitely need, because your neighbors are going to be very jealous! 

Just when you think you’ve seen everything, well you haven’t. Made by Sega, this 15-inch woman robot is actually being marketed in Japan as a friendly companion for lonely guys. Known as EMA, Eternal Maiden Actualization, this battery-powered robot diva can distribute business cards, dance and even pucker up for a kiss. Sega expects to sell 10,000 EMA robots in the next year, priced at $175 each. In addition, Sega seems quite optimistic about the demand for artificial intelligence, predicting multi-billion dollar demand in coming years. I think this is a nifty gadget, but I’m still wondering what happened to the old idea of getting a dog?

Beyond geocaching and all the fun you can have with GPS trackers, business owners are increasingly turning to GPS units as security devices for expensive equipment and cargo. After purchasing a GPS tracker, business owners typically must pay an activation fee in addition to monthly service fees for continued tracking service whether they need it or not, which is sometimes more than they want to invest in GPS tracking. As an alternative to ongoing fees, a new GPS tracking device, known as the GAT , or Global Asset Tracker, requires no monthly service or activation fees until it is actually needed. Made by TrackingtheWorld, Inc., a Burlingame, CA firm, the GAT can be remotely activated via a pre-installed SIM card and holds a single charge for up to 3 years. In the news, GPS trackers have recently been credited with foiling the efforts of thieves. On April 28, The Dallas Morning News reported that GPS tracking led to the recover y of 2 air conditioning units valued at $2,000 each. Theft of air conditioning units is rapidly increasing due to the escalating value of brass as scrap.

This nifty USB2 Bridge can take the headache out of attaching miscellaneous devices (old hard drives, compact flash cards) to your PC.

One thing the iPhone has lacked though is games, and a good way to play them, since touchscreens are just, well, irritating for that sort of thing. Not any longer though. Soon, you’ll be able to play your emulators and Apple-sponsored games with full game-pad glory with the iControlPad, which also acts as a protective case for your “Precious”.

via TopIphoneNews.

Boy, things have sure changed since my clock radio, which featured a wood-grained exterior and my choice of the radio, a cassette tape of my choosing, or bodily-organ-dissolving-alarm-sound-from-hell (which I sometimes set accidentally).

Behold, the iHome iPod Clock Radio. Now you can spend all night (and be late to work the next morning too) figuring out which one of 10,000 songs to choose as your alarm.

Macs are cool. Another little company wants to make its own to sell. Fair play or a violation of license agreements?

The line between legitimate market leverage and having a monopoly is a hazy one. Historically, at least in the computer business, the U.S. Courts have not always favored the original company when a clone appears. In fact, IBM lost the fight battling the world’s first third party clone company, Compaq, when it reverse engineered IBM’s BIOS chip and made its own Personal Computers (PC), paving the way for Gateway, DELL, and PC world domination.

Back in the 1990s, Apple Computer did allow another company to produce Macintosh clones running its operating system — Power Computing. But recently, despite changing the Mac’s architecture to Intel and thus making its operating system capable of running on most of the world’s PCs, its policy has been to lock the operating system to its own computers, with one exception, the Axiotron Modbook.

Now, a Florida-based company Psystar is defying the Apple OS’s license agreement by offering its own computers bundled with OS X Leopard. But it has neither reverse engineered like Compaq, nor become an official third party like Axiotron.

Apple likely forged an agreement with Axiotron because it felt it could offer a better Mac tablet than it could (for now, anyway). There is some benefit to having more OS X Leopard users out there. But why would it want to allow a clone that is, well… ugly?

Via The New York Times

I’m way behind though, I’m still playing GTA Liberty City Stories on my Sony PSP.