360 DEGREES Weblog

Record HDTV to your Mac or stream it to your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with the EyeTV HD ($200). This USB box sports component video and RCA audio inputs on the back, and connects to a cable- or satellite set-top box for your recording pleasure. An IR blaster takes care of the controls, while a $5 app lets you control and watch live TV over 3G or Wi-Fi, and a special dual-format capture feature saves your favorite shows in both iPad and iPhone formats simultaneously — but be warned, that amount of video can eat up storage faster than Kobayashi downs hot dogs, so you’d better plan on picking up that home server if you’re wanting to archive all those Golden Girls reruns.

What’s the one thing external hard drives have been missing all these years? If you answered “a screen,” perhaps the Western Digital My Passport Studio ($150-$200) is for you. Available in 320, 500, and 640GB capacities, these sleek silver drives feature both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces, Time Machine support for the Mac users out there, and a super-crazy, e-paper “label” on the outside that lets you know details like remaining capacity, whether the drive is locked, and, to help with drive organization, a personalized label to help you keep track of its contents. Although, honestly, if you’re having problems keeping track of all your external drives, perhaps you should cut down on the porn torrenting.

Aiming to be the ultimate pocket cam for interviews, YouTube videos, and more, the Ion Twin Video ($TBA; Q2 2010) lets you record both what you see and your reaction to it. It pulls off this feat by packing two cameras — facing opposite directions — into its compact body, as well as a stereo microphone, live editing features that let you swap the picture being recorded, split the screen, or do PIP recording, and SDHC-compliant storage.

Imagine a computer that was so simple even a complete novice could use it out of the box. A computer with a low-powered, low performance and low-priced CPU, the Sempron LE-1250 (or maybe even an Intel Atom). Imagine that it comes in a small box with a tiny (by today’s standards) 19-inch monitor and cheap dime-store keyboard.

What would you do if you had a warehouse full of these machines, all less capable than the cheapest netbook? If it was me, I’d hire a trusted public figure and try to sell the lot to the only demographic that would buy them — old people who have never used a computer before. Better, I’d charge $735 or $890. After all, they all trust the lovely British TV presenter Valerie Singleton, right? Well, guess what? Somebody beat me to it.

The two simplicITy Suite computers are cheap-o boxes with the above mentioned processors, and either wired or wireless keyboard or mouse depending on whether you opt for the 100 or the 200 model. Available in the UK, both run Linux Mint and Eldy, a simple desktop environment which offers the bare basics of email, web browsing and chat. Eldy (and Linux, of course) are both free. In fact, visit the Eldy site (tagline: “Easy computer for our seniors”) and you’ll learn that it can be installed on any PC.

Now, we know that some oldsters can be scared of computers, usually because they think they might “break something”. And we’re all for anything that gets more people on the web (and hopefully reading Gadget Lab). But taking a bunch of extremely low-spec commodity PC boxes, loading them up with free software and hawking them to pensioners seems rather cynical given the high price tag.

The features of the software are nice enough (as they would be if Eldy were loaded onto that old PC you have in the basement). Old folk can browse the web, check weather and Skype the kids, but we can’t help thinking it’s all a little patronizing. Aiming a computer OS at seniors, especially when put onto overpriced hardware, smacks at best of do-goodism and at worse of cashing in on the uninformed. What is wrong with a cheap old PC running Ubuntu? Stick the relevant icons on the desktop, make ‘em big and off you go. It’s free, a helluva lot prettier than the Windows 95-alike Eldy, and when grandma is no longer scared of the web-browser, there’s whole lot more under the hood.

Thanks WIRED

I’d like to make a comment about how in this day and age of modern technology and electronics it’s sometimes nice to just sit back and listen to an old-fashioned radio, but this USB stick AM/FM tuner is pretty much useless without a laptop, so forget that idea. It does however allow you to record radio broadcasts with its included software to be later enjoyed on your MP3 player, and since the flash drive doesn’t even include any storage space, I guess that’s pretty much it… Price TBD.

While tech fiends are anxiously awaiting web tablets made by Apple and TechCrunch, a recently-launched French touchpad device could become the darling of culinary geeks. Made specifically for kitchen use, QOOQ is a touchscreen tablet that aims to coach and assist both beginning and experienced cooks.

For EUR 349, the device comes loaded with 500 interactive recipes and 10 instructional videos. Customers can add their own recipes and—for a monthly fee of EUR 12.95—get access to a further 2,000 recipes and 500 video, with 50 new recipes added every month. Membership also includes unlimited access to a culinary guide that covers everything from wine pairing to chopping techniques. Spillproof and wifi-enabled, QOOQ was developed entirely to be used in the kitchen. Placed flat on a countertop, it rests on ‘claws’ that keep it safely elevated from crumbs and damp prep areas. It can also stand upright, for easier reading and for use as a digital picture frame (the device is multi-purpose: it also includes a radio and a weather station).

QOOQ’s founders hope to encourage people to rediscover the pleasure of cooking, while making their lives simpler with features like intuitive menu planning tools and automated grocery lists. QOOQ’s interface and recipes are currently only available in French—for anyone in food publishing in other parts of the world, this could be a natural fit.

TomTom has been on a mission to keep itself relevant as smartphones increasingly start to overstep on its territory, and the GO I-90 is another move in its counteroffensive plan. Capable of slotting into the double DIN slot usually reserved for in-car radio / music players, its big selling point is that it integrates into your dashboard yet is still capable of being moved around like a discrete nav unit. You wouldn’t be left decrying the loss of your radio either, with the GO I-90 sporting FM (with RDS support) and AM reception, USB support for MP3 players including iPods, and a promised compatibility with an “extensive” list of phones for handsfree calling — unfortunately, the poorly worded PR makes no mention of Bluetooth so we’re not sure how they’ll pull that off. Throw in a guarantee to receive the latest maps, TomTom’s Map Share for crowdsourced routes, and a Help-Me! emergency menu, and you get a pretty comprehensive product. Shame about that €599 (about $893) sticker then. Available in Europe in December.

Remember the Barnes and Noble dual-display ebook reader spotted in concept form last week?  There’s obviously something in the water, as Spring Design have just announced an ebook reader, the Alex, with both a 6-inch E Ink panel and a 3.5-inch color touchscreen, based on Google’s Android platform and with integrated 3G and WiFi.

The touchscreen can be used to browse the web and grab clippings, which can then be viewed on the e-ink panel.  Spring Design have also developed what they call Link Notes, a hybrid of traditional ebooks, clippings, multimedia and user notes.  As for production possibilities, the company claim to be in discussion with “selected strategic partners” and “major content” providers, with a release expected by the end of 2009.

Storage is via SD card, and there’s a headphones socket and full smartphone functionality.  Spring Design call the dual-display system Duet Navigator, and as well as being used to pull up related photos, news articles, media content and more, it will also aid in annotation and searches by offering an on-screen keyboard.

We’re swiftly coming into the golden age of eBooks. For those of us that have been reading them on our PDAs and smartphones for years, it seems like it’s taken quite awhile to get to this point. All of a sudden, eReaders are popping up all over the place, with the Kindle 2, Sony’s eReader and others. So now, just as everyone has  gotten used to eBooks, we are going to start seeing vooks. What is a vook? It merges eBooks and videos into a complete story. While you read the book, you can watch embedded videos that enhance the story. Right now there are only 4 titles to choose from, a workout book, cooking book, romance and thriller. They can be read on your computer or your iPhone. What do you think, will this new format take off? I think it could work for text books, DIY type books and non-fiction, but for fiction, I think the embedded videos might be distracting.

Vook

Sonos’ wireless home audio system is great for convenient, hiss-free streaming, but it’s pretty pricey. The S5 changes that (a little), by incorporating a receiver and speaker into one unit—compared to the $350 ZP90 which requires separate powered-speakers.
The ZonePlayer S5 will be $400 on November 10, and gives you an all-in-one option to extend your Sonos music network into a new room. It looks a little like the Bose SoundLink on the outside, and inside has a 5-driver speaker system consisting of two tweeters, two 3-inch mids, and a 3.5-inch sub.

You can control the S5 using the Sonos CR200 touchscreen controller, or via free apps for the iPhone/iPod touch and Mac or PC