cool electronic gadgets

Kodak's new ultraslim Playful HD Pocket Camcorder

I love CES. So many new announcements for new toys. And this one is great for those loving to capture the moment with a pocket video camera. Kodak is adding two new HD cameras to it’s line of great pocket camcorders.

The first is a very slim PlayFul, which will sport the usual autofocus and image stabilizaiton, but also smart face tracking and full 1080p HD video. And the dedicated SHARE button sends video directly to media sites like Facebook, Youtube and Flickr via USB and your PC. It’s available in silver, blue-silver, purple-silver and blue-black.

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CES Wednesday is generally a time when the big companies do their big press conferences, and it would appear that ASUS was a day early. Here they announced three new products including two Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” tablets, a Windows tablet, and the MeMO smartphone.

The first Honeycomb tablet is the Eee Pad Transformer that can be transformed into a notebook via an optional docking station with full QWERTY. It also has a 10.1 inch, 1280 x 800 touchscreen display, 2.1 megapixel front-facing camera, 5 megapixel rear camera, and mini-HDMI port for full 1080p playback.

The Slider Android tablet has about the same specs as the Transformer, but it has a slide-out camera with QWERTY keyboard. Check after the jump for the last two mobile devices.

As for the Windows-powered Eee Slate, it has a 12.1 inch screen with an Intel Core i5 processor. It also has two USB ports, mini-HDMI port, wireless-n connectivity, SD card reader, support for Flash, and a 2 Megapixel dual webcam.

As for the Eee Pad MeMO, it is a 7-inch Honeycomb device with a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip. Even though my Source calls it a phone, I have heard that the user interfaces with a stylus.

The prices are just ranges right now, and I am guessing the higher price is the one with the most memory. The Transformer is between $399 to $699, the Slider is $499 to $799, the Eee Slate costs between $999 and $1,099, and the MeMO is $499 and $699.

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Just when you though Asus had already had a big day with announcing four tablets, they have now created the WHDI-based WAVI, the very first wireless PC-to-TV gaming package.

Asus teamed up with Amimon to create this service that allows the user to wirelessly connect a desktop PC to a television with 3D content. The end result is playing 3D PC video games and/or movies on any 3D capable HDTV.

According to Amimon, the WHDI standard used by the Asus WAVI is capable of delivering the highest image quality, which is uncompressed 1080p/60Hz HD video, from up to 100 feet away, through walls, and can support multiple wireless links, so you can stream from one source to multiple TVs. The standard utilizes a 40MHz channel in the 5GHz unlicensed band.

As for controlling the unit itself, it is maintained via virtual USB link for controlling the PC from a distance rather than the television.

By the way, did I mention that Asus is also working on a Wavi Xtion system with two Wavi boxes and a camera that looks like a Kinect for operating a PC with gestures.

As much as I would, could, and probably should write about that, I think we have covered enough about Asus for one day.

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I realize that CES is a time to talk about technological advancements, and I never thought I would bring up the subject of earplugs when it comes to the biggest consumer electronics convention of the year.

Hey, CES doesn’t officially start until Wednesday, and these earplugs are worthy of being on display at CES unveiled.

These ETY Plugs have won a design award at CES this year, and they are designed to block out the harmful decibels, but keeps music and speech intact.

I had a chance to talk with Mark D. Karnes, the Managing Director of Etymotic Research Inc., and he said that the U.S. military has earplugs, but most do not use them. As a result, there are a lot of soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with permanent hearing loss.

Not only is it designed for men in uniform, but created for musicians so that they can hear their own instrument as well as their blend with others.

I don’t seem to have a price for these from their site, but I’m guessing they are cheaper than the cost of losing your hearing. According to my Source, they are “low cost” and come in both standard and large.

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We all know that talking on your phone while driving is a definite no-no, and unless you have a hands-free kit with you, doing so will only endanger your life as well as that of others on the road. Why take the risk when you can always do your part in being a law-abiding citizen (and treasuring your life as well as that of others) with the BlueAnt S3 Speakerphone? This latest release from BlueAnt Wireless comes in the form of a visor-mounted car speakerphone which will draw upon the company’s extensive experience with voice-control features, such as voice answer/ignore, caller name announce and text-message readout, all without breaking the bank – sweet words in these economically challenging times, eh?

The S3 will definitely not tarnish BlueAnt’s heritage of delivering products with superior voice quality, outstanding wind, road and background noise reduction and superior call clarity. To make matters more enticing, the new BlueAnt S3 will come with a useful auto reconnection function that makes sure the device is more than ready to handle the user’s voice commands without sacrificing battery life. It does so by reconnecting the speakerphone to the driver’s phone automatically courtesy of built-in vibration sensor.

The S3 was specifically designed for drivers who want a fully featured, value-priced speakerphone that boasts simple voice prompts, where it will be able to utilize text-to-speech technology which reads out text messages via a free, downloadable application. Not only that, the S3 is capable of announcing the caller’s name from a list of up to 2,000 mobile phone contacts whenever the phone rings.

A bunch of other standard features on the BlueAnt S3 Speakerphone will comprise of true multipoint technology for connecting and conducting calls on two mobile phones simultaneously and A2DP for audio streaming of music, podcasts and turn-by-turn directions from a GPS navigation application. It offers up to to 20 hours of talk time; and 600 hours on standby, where $79.99 will net you the S3 in the first quarter of the year alongside a two-year replacement warranty. What you see above is the S3 Compact just for reference’s sake.

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49.99 for iPhone and iPad is something that couch potatoes who thrive on iDevices might have been waiting for, as this pretty interesting gizmo can be plugged into the iPhone or iPad’s headphone socket, giving you instant control over the TV, stereo system, Sky/digibox, DVD player or virtually any other device that receives its command from IR signals. Boasting a range of up to 30 feet, it ought to be more than enough for just about any kind of living room unless you live in a palatial mansion, that is. The RedEye Mini doesn’t need batteries since it acts as a parasite to your iDevice when connected, resulting in one less charger to tote around on your travels. With its online IR code database, you can even gain control of devices even if you don’t have the original remote to hand. Could this be perfect to pull off another Gizmodo-like TV prank at this year’s CES?

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Fujifilm wants to keep innovation flowing with the FinePix XP30, where this latest addition to the FinePix range will sport GPS capability, with the company touting it to be the first in the world for an outdoor compact camera. How about its performance, you ask? Well, the Fujifilm FinePix XP30 will come with a 14.2-megapixel sensor alongside CCD-shift image stabilization, a 5x optical zoom, fact detection and automatic panorama functionality among others. Sounds like a pretty good deal to us, considering all you need to fork out is $239.95 from next month onwards, while the non-GPS version (FinePix XP200) is $40 cheaper just in case you need a techy yet useful gift for the coming Valentine’s. Not only does it have GPS capability, it is also pretty tough being waterproof up to 5 meters, dust proof and sandproof while shrugging off drops of up to 1.5m.

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