8 posts tagged “smart phone”
3M Micro Professional Projector
Pocket Projector
Link: 3M MPro
From 3M, the Micro Professional Projector (model MPro110) is a pocket projector for people on the road who need a handy projector to display pictures, slideshows and presentations. With dimensions of 4.5" x 2" x 0.9" and weighing 5.6 ounces, the palm-size MPro110 can easily fit into your pocket, handbag or briefcase. It supports resolutions from VGA up to WXGA (1280 x 768), image size from 6" to 50" (diagonal), VGA and RCA Video inputs. VGA and RCA video cables and an RCA adapter are included.
The projector supports video only. Presumably if your presentation includes sound, that can be played and heard directly from your source device, such as your laptop, PDA, or cellphone.
On the body of the projector is an on/off switch and a focus wheel. It uses a rechargeable Lithium ion battery with a battery life of 40 to 60 minutes. An AC adapter is included which, when connected, automatically recharges the battery.
12 Days of GizWiz
Dick reminds Leo about Paul Minshall's "12 Days of GizWiz" video, which will be played in the next recording session. You can watch the video now in the Episode 722 blog post, or go directly to Paul's blog.
The projector supports video only. Presumably if your presentation includes sound, that can be played and heard directly from your source device, such as your laptop, PDA, or cellphone.
On the body of the projector is an on/off switch and a focus wheel. It uses a rechargeable Lithium ion battery with a battery life of 40 to 60 minutes. An AC adapter is included which, when connected, automatically recharges the battery.
12 Days of GizWiz
Dick reminds Leo about Paul Minshall's "12 Days of GizWiz" video, which will be played in the next recording session. You can watch the video now in the Episode 722 blog post, or go directly to Paul's blog.
CartStoppers for the Troops
Dennis Wright from Manchester, England (who last wrote in Episode 606) warns against the perils of listening to DGW by commuting drivers. Dennis was listening to Episode 704 while driving and the ridiculous picture painted by Leo of Dick and Leo entertaining the troops by showing them the CartStopper (Episode 701) intended for mums cracked him up, giving him an uncomfortably close brush with the hereafter. He thinks that Dane, while editing the shows (although it should be Tony Wang doing it now), should include appropriate warnings against uproarious funny moments.
Skipping Christmas?
Dick and Leo should have enough pre-recorded shows to cover most of the holiday season before Leo comes back from France, and are considering skipping the Christmas and Christmas Eve shows. Dane reminds them that this would break the neat round episode numbering. Dick and Leo think they might just put in short episodes for those days with Christmas messages.
Listen to Episode 724
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Dennis Wright from Manchester, England (who last wrote in Episode 606) warns against the perils of listening to DGW by commuting drivers. Dennis was listening to Episode 704 while driving and the ridiculous picture painted by Leo of Dick and Leo entertaining the troops by showing them the CartStopper (Episode 701) intended for mums cracked him up, giving him an uncomfortably close brush with the hereafter. He thinks that Dane, while editing the shows (although it should be Tony Wang doing it now), should include appropriate warnings against uproarious funny moments.
Skipping Christmas?
Dick and Leo should have enough pre-recorded shows to cover most of the holiday season before Leo comes back from France, and are considering skipping the Christmas and Christmas Eve shows. Dane reminds them that this would break the neat round episode numbering. Dick and Leo think they might just put in short episodes for those days with Christmas messages.
Listen to Episode 724
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
T-Mobile G1
Smartphone
Link: T-Mobile G1
As hinted at in Episode 673 and last week, Dick and Leo finally talk about T-Mobile's G1. Made by HTC, the G1 is the first phone featuring Google's open-source smartphone operating system Android.
It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet. Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".
Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces. At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button). To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.
On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button. For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.
The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen. It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste"). It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.
Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone. You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.
The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube. If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application. Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them. The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk. Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based. Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge. The phone also has its own music player software.
At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.
Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes. Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them. Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.
Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.
One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site. In fact it is already operational. Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference. Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.
Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.
Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.
Listen to Episode 686
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
It has bluetooth, wifi, GPS (though not turn-by-turn), 512 MB built-in memory, although it has an microSD card slot and comes with a 1GB card; a back-lit qwerty keyboard (which is revealed by sliding out the screen) and a replaceable battery; a 3.2MP camera, but like the iPhone, it does not shoot video, and like the iPhone it does not support Flash on the internet. Unlike the iPhone, it supports voice dialling and "cut and paste".
Physically, it weighs just under 6 ounces. At the bottom is a panel of buttons: a big Menu button, underneath which at the centre is a trackball (for navigation and as a select button). To the left of the trackball are the "Call/Send" button and the "Home" button; to the right of the trackball are the "Back" and "Hangup/Power" buttons.
On the left hand side of the phone is a Volume toggle, and on the right hand side the camera button. For the earphones, unfortunately it's a microUSB connection and you'll need an adapter for your 3.5mm jack earphones.
The display is 3.2 inches at 480 x 320 resolution, with a capacitive touch-screen. It does not support multi-touch, but does support long presses (through which you get a context menu including "cut and paste"). It has an accelerometer and is supposed to adjust itself to Portrait/Landscape mode, at least when the qwerty keyboard is open.
Since Android is open-source, many applications are expected to come out supporting the platform, and will not be filtered as in the case of the iPhone. You can access the apps from the Android "Market", and Google will tell you in relation to each app what types of access the app may have on the phone - such as communications, your location and your personal information.
The phone comes with the standard Google apps, such as Gmail, Contacts, Calendar, and like the iPhone, offers a mobile version of YouTube. If you don't use Gmail, there is another mail application. Unfortunately, this other mail app cannot open attachments (which Gmail can by HTML conversion), nor save them. The IM app supports major instant messengers such as AIM, Windows Live, Yahoo and of course Google Talk. Like Google's desktop browser the Chrome, the Android browser is WebKit-based. Another app that comes with the phone is AmazonMP3, with access to Amazon's DRM-free mp3 downloads - which only works with Wifi, and not 3G or Edge. The phone also has its own music player software.
At the moment, the phone is available in T-Mobile stores only in cities which has T-Mobile's 3G coverage.
Favourite Episodes
In Episode 679, Dick and Leo were asked if they had a list of their 20 favourite/funniest episodes. Ludwik Trammer of gizwizsearch can answer for them. Search queries on his site show which episodes are most frequently accessed - 182 Titanium Spork, 465 Electron Echo Piano, 462 MP4 Watch, and of course 282 Toothpick Bird.
Ludwik also tells us that the accumulative length of all the DGW shows now exceeds 7 days.
One More Thing
Ludwik is going to introduce a new feature on his site. In fact it is already operational. Just go to his site and see if you can spot the difference. Otherwise, just wait for an announcement through Dick and Leo in tomorrow's recording session, or in next week's episodes.
Video Podcasts To Wait
The last time Leo talked about video podcasts (with hopes of getting DGW on video) was Episode 671. Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, Leo has decided to be a little more prudent, and maybe putting that on hold, although he may still put out a weekly "best of" video podcast.
Second Longest Episode
At 31:03, today's show is the second longest episode, just 12 seconds short of Episode 634, the Lexmark X9575 Professional.
Listen to Episode 686
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Instinct
Touch-Screen SmartPhone
Link: Samsung Instinct
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
Sprint doesn't have the iPhone but it offers the Samsung Instinct, another touchscreen smartphone. Features include turn-by-turn GPS, live TV on Sprint's fast and extensive 3G coverage, voice dialing, java applications and haptic response on the touch screen. Comes with a 2GB microSD card for storage.
No Letters from Leo
Leo again doesn't have a letter to read, and invites letters from listeners again. What good is that if Leo doesn't read his emails?
Phone Rental
Kerry Lutz writes in again to report a story from the San Francisco Chronicle from a couple of years ago about a widow who had been renting a rotary phone for 42 years. She spent about $14,000 over the years just for the rental. Dick suggests we all check our parents' phone bill.
Exorbitant Rates
Leo uses a business calling card when he travels, and learns a hard lesson. He's been charged operator-assisted call rates for his calls to Roz Savage's satellite phone (3 times a week), about $10 a minute and $400 a show.
More Exorbitant Rates
A guest of a tenant of a unit in Dick's building was locked out of the apartment, called a locksmith in, and was charged $666 for the service.
More GizWizBiz Gadgets
Dick has sold out his GizWizBiz Caps, but has more merchandise on offer, which he self-deprecatingly calls Giz Wiz Garbage. These include the Clip Hanger (see Episode 549), the folding LED lighted ball pen, and the LED Ice Cube.
Listen to Episode 622
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
No Letters from Leo
Leo again doesn't have a letter to read, and invites letters from listeners again. What good is that if Leo doesn't read his emails?
Phone Rental
Kerry Lutz writes in again to report a story from the San Francisco Chronicle from a couple of years ago about a widow who had been renting a rotary phone for 42 years. She spent about $14,000 over the years just for the rental. Dick suggests we all check our parents' phone bill.
Exorbitant Rates
Leo uses a business calling card when he travels, and learns a hard lesson. He's been charged operator-assisted call rates for his calls to Roz Savage's satellite phone (3 times a week), about $10 a minute and $400 a show.
More Exorbitant Rates
A guest of a tenant of a unit in Dick's building was locked out of the apartment, called a locksmith in, and was charged $666 for the service.
More GizWizBiz Gadgets
Dick has sold out his GizWizBiz Caps, but has more merchandise on offer, which he self-deprecatingly calls Giz Wiz Garbage. These include the Clip Hanger (see Episode 549), the folding LED lighted ball pen, and the LED Ice Cube.
Listen to Episode 622
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
iPhone 3G
Smartphone
Link: Apple
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
No one except Leo believed that he would be able to hold off buying the new iPhone 3G for long, and true to form, by Saturday he had got himself a white-back 16GB iPhone 3G. The main new hardware features includes 3G and GPS, and improved speakers. There is no 3G coverage in Petaluma for Leo, and there are no turn-by-turn directions for the GPS. According to Leo, what makes the new iPhone is the version 2 software, and the new App Store.
Leo talks about some of the new apps, including the iPhone app from Omnifocus, the Enigmo game, Aqua Forest, location-based Loopt, a New York Times app, Pandora, and AOL Radio.
But still no voice dialing, and no cut and paste.
TWiTLive Viewership
Since Leo's coverage of the iPhone 3G launch, viewership of TWiTLive has gone up about 30%.
DGW in Order
Opher Banarie finally figures out how to listen to his DGW in the correct order (earliest first) on his new iPod (see Episode 609). From the Main Menu, select Podcasts, scroll to DGW, and just press the centre button. Other listeners have also written in with the same tip, including Sue Watkins and Jacob.
Listen to Episode 617
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Leo talks about some of the new apps, including the iPhone app from Omnifocus, the Enigmo game, Aqua Forest, location-based Loopt, a New York Times app, Pandora, and AOL Radio.
But still no voice dialing, and no cut and paste.
TWiTLive Viewership
Since Leo's coverage of the iPhone 3G launch, viewership of TWiTLive has gone up about 30%.
DGW in Order
Opher Banarie finally figures out how to listen to his DGW in the correct order (earliest first) on his new iPod (see Episode 609). From the Main Menu, select Podcasts, scroll to DGW, and just press the centre button. Other listeners have also written in with the same tip, including Sue Watkins and Jacob.
Listen to Episode 617
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
LG Voyager
Cellphone
Link: Verizon
Dick follows up his coverage of the V (Episode 9) and the enV (Episode 219) with the LG Voyager. Carried by Verizon in the US, the Voyager has touch screen controls, like the iPhone, and it opens up revealing a Qwerty keyboard. 2MP camera and camcorder, microSD slot, bluetooth capable.
You can subscribe to Vcasts and even TV broadcasts (with a built-in TV antenna). It can also do web browsing, and utilises Verizon's fast 3G wireless.
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Mike Kunkel, who previously corrected Leo about the PSOne in Episode 409, writes in about another vintage game gadget, the Nintendo Virtual Boy, which Leo thought in Episode 450 was a hood you put on a Game Boy. Mike explains what it was.
Listen to Episode 478
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up
You can subscribe to Vcasts and even TV broadcasts (with a built-in TV antenna). It can also do web browsing, and utilises Verizon's fast 3G wireless.
Nintendo Virtual Boy
Listen to Episode 478
Go to TWiT
Read Dick's Write-Up
The T-Mobile Dash
Smartphone
Link: T-Mobile
Turn-The-Tables-Tuesday
Made by HTC as the Excalibur, this smartphone runs Windows Mobile 5, with wi-fi, bluetooth, qwerty keyboard, 1.3 MP camera, and has a microSD slot. It's called The Dash in the States and available on T-Mobile.
A Virtual Dick's Gadget Warehouse
David Knighton, aka Boss Melnitz, a netizen in Second Life, has built a virtual Dick's Gadget Warehouse on Second Life.
Podlinez
A listener Mark Hizon has written in about Podlinez. You can dial a number to listen to a podcast. The most popular podcast on podline at the moment is TWiT. The number for DGW is 415-376 7224.
Leo Rising
Mark Hizon also asked if Leo played Uncle Charlie on the film Phoenix Rising. Leo was asked by the The Screen Savers assistant director Miriam Schalit to appear on the film, after TechTV stopped.
Mad Minute
Spotlight On Someone, Chick.
Listen to Episode 197
Go to TWiT
The Giz Wiz Home Page
Logitech Quickcam UltraVision
Webcam
Link: Logitech
The Quickcam Ultravision has a new glass lens design (5-lens system), delivers twice the image clarity, HD video (960x720 pixels), 1.3MP stills. With Logitech's standard Right Light Technology and Video Effects.
Watch Dick's video demo of the Quickcam Ultra Vision on MySpaceTV - with Logitech's Video Effects.
Another Portmanteau Invention - The Spugar
Kyle Sprik from Adelaide, Australia listened from his O2 Smartphone. He enjoyed the Spork (Episode 182). It reminded him of his own earlier invention - a spoon made of sugar that stirs and dissolves into the coffee, called the Spugar. It even alliterates with the spork and his own name!
Mad Minute
Alfred E Neuman's New Year Resolutions.
Slingbox
TV Streaming Device
Link: Sling Media
Watch your favourite TV programme on your computer wherever you like. Anything available at home can be streamed to your laptop using the Slingbox. It comes with a remote control, but everything can be controlled via the software interface as well. A Mac version is coming soon.
