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Nokia Speakerphone Will Offer Portability
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Smartphones, Misc. Tech, Transportation,
Nokia has a new speakerphone that works in and out of the car. The HF-300 features up to 20 hours of talk time, and will work with any number of Nokia mobile gadgets that support Bluetooth 1.1 and handsfree profile 1.0 and higher. Clip it to your visor or set it on its rubber feet and talk up to 20 hours. The lightweight 80g speakerphone runs on batteries, shuts off after 5 minutes of inactivity, has illuminated keys, and features an LED to let you know when you are running out of juice. Expect to see the HF-300 in Q3 for ~EUR90 (~$123.00.) Take that, you idiots who continue to use your cell phones while driving.
Gallery: Nokia Speakerphone Will Offer Portability
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Vacation Inexpensively By Volunteering
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Editorial, Smart Home, Transportation,
Thinking about this summer’s vacation? Now it is possible to head for some exotic place that won’t cost you a fortune to stay once you get there. The gimmick here is Charity Guide, a not-for-profit online organization that offers public service projects to those who want to make the most of their unused days this year, instead of just going to Disney World. Choose dates and time, and volunteer for such projects as creating a tree nursery in Equador, saving sea turtles in Thailand, or curtailing vanishing wetlands in Brazil.
In most instances you will receive room and board in exchange for you not only visiting a foreign country, but by helping them to help themselves. Check them out for even smaller contributions you can make by offering an iota of time that you might otherwise spend growling about the effects of global warming by building a solar oven or patronizing green hotels.
Read More 
| Charity Guide
Gallery: Vacation Inexpensively By Volunteering
Heart Rate Monitor is Like Second Skin
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Wearables, Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation,
Next week, the first Wearable Technologies Congress will be held in Munich. Some of the items include jackets that protect against extreme heat or cold and a solar shopping bag similar to the Solar Beach Tote we recently showed you. What really attracted our attention was the German beurer GmbH Beltless Heart Rate Monitor. Based on the impressive science known as plethysmography, a sensor measures light reflected by the bloodstream through your finger artery. We think it would be novel if we knew we were going to have a heart attack before we actually biked it up that steep hill ahead.
Gallery: Heart Rate Monitor is Like Second Skin
Meet the RoboCop of Russia
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation,
Russia will now be able to keep up with their bad guys with the aid of R Bot 001 AKA Robokopa. Now on the streets of Perm, which is just outside of Moscow, he will primarily be used to record actions of offenders such as those who have had a little too much to drink. It then quotes the citizen the appropriate law that it is breaking in a monotone that would probably make anyone think she/he had just seen the equivalent of a pink elephant in her/his drunken state.
The giant egg-shaped Robocop weighs 250 kg and costs the department $10,000.00 per bot. By the way, the force reports that not all the bugs have been worked out as yet, for when it was recently surrounded by several small children attempting to look into its cameras, it threatened them. It seems to us that they could just get a real police officer to do the same thing for a lot less rubles.
Read More | Russian Federal Release (translated)
Gallery: Meet the RoboCop of Russia
ASUS to Release A696 GPS PDA
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: GPS, Transportation, Wireless / WiFi,
ASUS has unveiled its A696 GPS PDA, which features a QuickNav button that helps you find the way home with a Destinator Tech. routing engine. It also has an anti-glare 3.4-inch touchscreen, and 802.11 b/g wireless and Bluetooth 2.0 capability for enhanced data rate. The ultra-slim A696 comes in stainless steel, runs on Windows Mobile 5.0, and will be able to get you out of that unfamiliar neck of the woods, without having to ask an available gas station, in about 2 weeks, provided you pay the ransom of ~$400.00.
Read More | Pocket-lint
Gallery: ASUS to Release A696 GPS PDA
Parking Meter Reads Itself
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Smartphones, Design, Internet, Misc. Tech, Transportation,
Suppose you are in the midst of a romantic meal and somewhere between the Merlot and the Camembert, you forget about the parking meter. Not to worry, in certain areas of Canada a Photo Violation Meter is being tested that will remind you to toss in another coin via your cell phone. Developed by Photo Violation Technologies Corporation, the gadget will also allow you to pay the coinage so that you don’t have to leave in the midst of the Beef Wellington. If you have turned your phone off, the meter will also let you pay the fine, assuming you have any money left after paying for the Crème Broulette and tip.
Read More | Gearfuse
Gallery: Parking Meter Reads Itself
Power Pedal Legs Walk Away from Disaster
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation,
Talk about power-walking! Matsushita, in cooperation with Ritsumeikan University, has devised a robotic rescue exoskeleton just in time for the upcoming hurricane season. The Power Pedal Legs can lift and separate someone who cannot walk for her/himself at a power of up to 7 times that of a human and carry them to the closest rescue point in one of 6 directions. They can also be used for those who have trouble getting around on their own because of medical reasons. Available in August in Japan, the legs will set you back ¥20 million (~$162,000.00.)
Read More | Daily Tech
Gallery: Power Pedal Legs Walk Away from Disaster
Aquada Goes From the Road to the Water
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Design, Transportation,
Who wouldn’t want one of these? Push a button on the Aquada and go from land to water via a boat ramp, the beach, or a slipway. The wheels automatically rise in less than twelve seconds and the UK based Gibbs claims that it will head out for over 30 mph and can tow a water skier. Although the Aquada has been around a couple of years, Gibbs announced that their multi-purpose vehicle is already available overseas for $200,000 and will be heading into mass production next year to become available in the first half of 2009 in the U.S. for under $100,000.
Read More | Gibbs A
Gallery: Aquada Goes From the Road to the Water
NYPD’s New Segway to Crime Fighting
Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Misc. Tech, Transportation,
There seems to be two schools of thought regarding the 2-wheeled “personal transporter” known as the Segway—a convenient vehicle for getting around town or a vehicle for the attention-starved. Well, in New York you can now say it’s a vehicle for fighting crime. Twenty-five New York cops have been trained and have started using 10 Segways in parks and beaches including Coney Island, Central Park, Prospect Park and more, with Yankee and Shea Stadiums to come. The Segways won’t be used in the actual streets of NY, as—quite ironically—they fail certain safety standards, and therefore cannot be registered legally in the state. New York joins over 200 police agencies around the country that employ the Segway.
Read More | New York Daily News
Gallery: NYPD’s New Segway to Crime Fighting
Dualis Power Suit Descends on Tokyo
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation,
Nissan has created a Dualis Power Suit based on its SUV car of the same name. Dreamed up by anime creator/designer Shoji Kawamori, the 11 foot-plus bot has already been featured on talk shows in Japan. It will be hanging out at various locations in Tokyo through mid-June and at the Sony building in Ginza towards the end of July. Here it is at a gas station. Tell me, why aren’t these people paying attention?
Read More | Pink Tentacle
