Toys & Gadgets

Last year we were caught off-guard by our readers’ demand for a holiday gift list, so we promised to build one early from then on. Last night, we used the “Uber10” gift list premiere as an excuse to throw the 2007 “Uber10” Party in San Francisco. We thank everyone who attended (or did their best to attend) to make this an incredible evening.

We would like to thank L’Atelier for hosting the party, StrategicLee for handling the PR, Sandrine S. for the interior design and Chris Kent for the press release editing.

Go to ubergizmo.com/uber10 to see the coolest -affordable- gadgets gifts of 2007. There are a couple of party photos in the full post.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Verizon Wireless customers, you may want to sit down for this one. Samsung’s oh-so-sexy SGH-F700, which is currently thrilling quite a few Vodafone customers, could be headed to The Network — and soon. According to Phone Arena, the Verizon variant of the F700 will be dubbed the SCH-U940, but actual details beyond that are scant. We are told that the unit will boast a 440 x 240 resolution touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard and a two-megapixel camera, but beyond that we’re left to wonder. No worries though, as the phone will reportedly be landing “in a few months,” so keep your eyes peeled, cool?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

iSkin has further expanded the iPod accessory market with its Cerulean F1+TX stereo Bluetooth device, making it one of the handful of companies that offer a premium quality Bluetooth 2.0 solution. The Cerulean F1 and TX were sold separately previously, but iSkin is making both available in a single package this time for a wireless iPod experience. It is compatible even with the recently released iPod Classic, nano, Touch, and iPhone. You can also use it with the WiFi killing Leopard OS thanks to the latter’s A2DP support. The Cerulean F1 is capable of bonding with a TX-equipped iPod and can be connected to a compatible cellphone simultaneously for greater flexibility. The F1 comes with basic music controls including volume adjustment, track cycling and pause playback. You can pick up the Cerulean F1+TX online for $189.99.

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NYTimes.com, the most visited newspaper site in the US, has just launched its Dot Earth blog that focuses on the growing human impact on our planet’s health. This new online community allows folk like you and I to discover and discuss ways people are, and are not, shaping human affairs to put a cap to environmental damage. Dot Earth aims to create an international forum for the exchange of ideas and intellectual discourse concerning problems and potential solutions, exploring relevant scientific, social, political and economic issues in the process. Head on there and start reading, perhaps you’ll feel guilty about hankering after that gas-guzzling Hummer and settle for a Prius instead in your next vehicle purchase.

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Voiceserve has placed a date to its VoiceSIM 2.0 card - December 1st, 2007 to be exact. This announcement was made with anticipation of the mad holiday season rush, and benefits users with free roaming in more than 120 countries and virtual local numbers from 29 worldwide locations. Both Voiceserve and Voipswitch registered users will be able to call forward from their VoIP, mobile and fixed numbers to the VoiceSIM, essentially keeping you connected to everyone anytime, anywhere. Not only that, VoiceSIM 2.0 aims to lower exorbitant phone bills associated with roaming calls. This service from UK-based Voiceserve will target European, Middle Eastern and African phone customers with VoIP and Pay As You Go services.

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Saitek aims to take on gaming mice from Logitech and Microsoft with its Cyborg mouse, but the design looks too unorthodox to be comfortable. Still, momma told me never to judge a book by its cover, so it remains to be seen whether this 3,200 DPI laser mouse has what it takes to topple the best. Features include an adjustable shell for different hand sizes, a weight system, a 4-way scroll wheel with adjustable speed, two programmable buttons, and a set of media controls. This Windows-based device does not yet have any release date or official price tag attached to it, but Amazon UK has already plonked down a retail price of £40 ($83) when it hits there on January 11th next year.

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Applied DNA Sciences and Printcolor have come to an agreement, with the latter agreeing to use APDN’s SigNature DNA Markers as part of its recently launched spectraCRYPT line of security inks. Printcolor believes that SigNature DNA is currently best solution for definitive forensic product authentication, being able to create highly secure, covert or overt, specialized indelible inks that are impossible for counterfeiters to replicate, re-engineer or copy digitally. I wonder how such technology will affect the end users in the long run, but as we all know, no matter how secure something is, chances are it will be hacked or broken by a teenager from Eastern Europe in due time.

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V7 from Ingram Micro has just released the NAV740 and NAV730 GPS navigation systems. Both of these units are extremely portable, with a SiRFStar III GPS chipset inside and a 400MHz processor to run everything. It comes with an SD memory card slot that holds an SD card featuring maps of all 50 US states as well as the ability to play both audio and video formats. The main difference between the two are the screen sizes - the 740 comes with a 4.3″ touchscreen display while the 730 is smaller at 3.5″ (also a touchscreen). The 730 and 740 will retail for $199 and $299 respectively.

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Features, Peripherals, Wireless, Networking

You may have seen the Eye-Fi, launched this week, nearly a year and a half since we first heard about it. If you’re just catching up on the news, it’s basically a WiFi-enabled SD card (and accompanying web service) used to transparently and wirelessly transfer photos from your camera to your computer and/or a variety of photo sharing sites. Sounds like a great idea in theory, it turns out that the Eye-Fi is, in its current release, an answer seeking a question. Read on.

Continue reading Eye-Fi hands-on, impressions

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Asus has just unveiled the HR-0205T Optical Disc Drive that caters to the hardcore entertainment fan, featuring high definition movie playback, multi-functionality and quiet operations. The Asus HR-0205T Optical Disc Drive operates at a mere 23.7dB for DVD playback while HD DVD playback stands at 21.1dB - significantly lower than leading competing models. It supports 2.4X HD DVD ROM/2.4X HD DVD ROM(DL)/2.4X HD DVD-R Read, 5X DVD±R/ 5X DVD+RW/ 5X DVD-RW/ 5X DVD±R (DL), 15X CD-R/ 15X CD-RW; and 15X DVD-ROM/ 15X CD-ROM Read formats, enabling the user to support virtually any type of disc media. In additon, the HR-0205T can use a PATA-SATA adaptor for high-speed and stable read capabilities. No word on pricing though.

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