Maxtor and Sentry Group Fire Rsistant Cabinets for hard drives

As much as I would like to say that I am one of those persons who takes out their hard drives everyday and makes certain that it is safe from all harm, I’m not. I would imagine that there are some people who will even remove their hard drives and put it in a safe every night.

Fortunately, Maxtor has teamed up with Sentry Group to create a new level of security that is simply incredible. All these drives can withstand a day under water and 1550 degrees. So if your beach house is set on fire and then falls into the ocean, you have a day to fish your hard drive out.

The FIRE-SAFE Waterproof Hard Drives are designed to protect from fire and water damage. Available in both 80GB and 160GB, just to plug it in.

The FIRE-SAFE Waterproof Data Storage Chest is for those who want to store their devices such as MP3 Players, digital cameras, even CDs and DVDs.

The FIRE-SAFE Water-Resistant Safes are built for USB connectivity and stores your hard drive. There is also space for about 72 CD’s and DVDs.

If you want some extra space for your disks, you might want to use the FIRE-SAFE Waterproof CD/DVD file can organize 100 disks.

If you want to find a place to buy them, check out their site. You might end up paying quite a bit, though.

Touch Screen Cell Phone Watch

The Touchscreen Cell Phone Wristwatch has a great feature set considering it’s small size. Of course you can make and receive calls (dial by pulling the tiny included stylus from the side of the watch and tapping the numbers on the screen) but you can also play MP3 files, watch movies, store hundreds of phone numbers and send SMS messages and enter schedules or notes with basic handwriting recognition.

Unlike the iPhone you won’t need to change contracts to use the iMobile, it comes to SIM but you will need a SIM card from either T-Mobile or AT&T/Cingular to be able to use it. So you can use your normal phone by day but then switch the SIM and go to full geek mode with the mobile watch.

You can buy the iMobile for $249.99, it is in stock now but I’ve noticed before with gadgets like this they tend to sell out quite fast.

Mini Phone Based Ghetto Blaster

Now ain’t this a hoot - a built-in MP3 playing boombox that comes in the form factor of a mini slider cellphone. You can even opt to pop in your SIM card into the back of the Mini Boombox Cell Phone, whereby any incoming calls will result in it ringing, with the option for the phone to read aloud the numbers of incoming calls using voice synthesis.

Features of the Mini Boombox GSM Cell Phone are as follows:

Mini cell phone features a sliding keypad and built in boombox for playing MP3 music files

Quad-band unlocked GSM Phone (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), GPRS Speed for Data

Powerful Amplified Speakers

Sends SMS and MMS messages. Supports SMS group sending

Can play back MP3 music files and display Movie Files

Supports MP3 or MIDI based ringtones

WAP Browser

Built-In Speakerphone

Optionally reads the numbers of incoming calls with voice synthesis

Built in 256MB Memory expandable up to 4GB

Transfer files via USB

Better Blogging software from MicroSoft

We’re all used to bashing Microsoft. Security holes, unstable software, monopolistic tendencies - you can point fingers in all those directions. But if you’ve been watching for the past few years you’ll see that things have been changing. Developers are much more in contact with the community via blogs. Stability is much improved over the bad old days (if you think XP is unstable, you’re too young to remember Windows 3.1…) MS Products are even starting to play nicely with non-MS software.

Which brings me to the Windows Live product suite. Specifically Windows Live Writer. It’s really rather good.

Live writer is a desktop blogging application - think of it as an HTML editor, customised for use with Blogging engines. So what makes it so neat? For starters, it offers you a WISYWIG view of your post-to-be. That’s trickier than it sounds, because to do that it has to connect to your blog, download your specific styles and blog layout template then offer you an editing view based around a single post. It also has standard HTML editing functions such as table and style editing and a preview function to show the post as it will appear on the blog.

Dealing with images is easy - just drag and drop them from wherever they live on the PC into your post. They’ll get uploaded along with the post. I think that’s the killer feature for me, I can upload an image and the text in one hit from one place without navigating a sometimes painful web UI.

Spell checking? Integrated and automatic.

When you install it you get the choice of creating your own blog on Live spaces - fair enough if you don’t already have one. If you already have a blog (say, CG for example ) it asks you for your login details. Then it connects, downloads its styles and you’re away.

The really cool (and most unexpected) thing is that it supports a variety of non-MS blogging engines. The list includes Wordpress, Blogger and of course Live spaces amongst others.

Give it a go. I’ll certainly be using it more in the future (assuming this inaugural post makes it up to the blog intact that is!).

Microsoft Word will create audio from words

In the never ending quest for Microsoft Office to become more popular, they will release a plug-in that will transform the content inside Office 2007 files into audio. This new feature will be available at no cost, and will come in a shape of “Save as Daisy” function available in Word files.

In the geek world, Daisy is also known as Digital Accessible Information System, which basically are XML files that offer the possibility to be read by “speech synthesizers”. SourceForge is also collaborating in the creation of the new plug-in that is suppose to become available next year (2008). In case you are wondering, the digital narration service is specially used by different kind of people that have different kinds of “problems”, such as people with visual disability, or people that have the Parkinson’s disease.

Duracell power for Laptops

If you’re anything like me, you tend to carry around a multitude of gadgets. Naturally, when any of these goes dead while I’m away from an outlet, I tend to go into a panic. I try my best to keep them all charged up, but sometimes you just can’t help it. That’s why it’s handy to have some backup power for your gadgets.

Duracell has recently launched their PowerSource Mobile 100 unit which promises to provide more than a little extra juice to your portable devices. It features two USB ports and a single AC outlet which will let you power just about anything. This little guy isn’t like some other solutions that only powers your cell phone for an hour or so. This particular gadget will power a laptop for up to two hours, a cell phone for 18 hours (that’s talk time) or an MP3 player for up to 96 hours of play time.

Obviously, not all devices are created equally, so you’ll have to take those times with a grain of salt. One thing is for sure though, you’ll get plenty of juice out of this guy. It does however come with a heafty price tag. While it will set you back $140, it will definitely show its worth the first time your laptop dies on the road.

IN Focus In 1 Gaming Projector

When I first saw the InFocus IN1 Gaming Projector, I thought it reminded me of a droid extra in Star Wars. Specifically, that little one that patrolled the halls of the Death Star, and ran the other way when Chewie roared at it. (What was the point of that scene, anyway?)

There may not be any wheels under the InFocus IN1 Gaming Projector, but if you had one, believe me, it wouldn’t be going anywhere. This has to be one of the first times I’ve ever seen a projector specifically targeted at the gaming audience, but it probably won’t be the last time.

The InFocus IN1 Gaming Projector has got to be the ultimate for gamers. It boasts that it can turn your normal gaming experience into an entirely new reality as it projects a 640 x 480 screen in a one hundred inch diagonal. According to the specs, it’s maximum is 210 inches. Not only is the vision good, but the speakers are also very kicking with their dynamic sound.

The InFocus IN1 Gaming Projector is so targeted for gamers that it comes with Wii and Xbox cables, and ads for it mention: “Oh yeah, it can also do television or DVDs if you want”.

Other specs include a contrast ratio of 1500:1 and a brightness of 500 Max ANSI lumens. It is capable of SDTV, EDTV, HDTV, NTSC, PAL, and SECAM. It is powered by DLP Texas Instruments Technology and is only available on Woot. It is going to be hard to resist the urge to buy this.

Philips Digital Frame Alarm Clock

Every once in a while, you will find some new product that really does it all. The latest to top my list is the Philips AJL308, which is a 7-inch picture frame, alarm clock, radio, as well as an MP3 Player.

It appears to do all these jobs quite well. As a picture frame, for example, you can upload pics from the SD/MMC slot, and I can only assume from the USB slot. That’s right, it has a USB slot, and you can even use it to upload video clips from your computer.

As an alarm clock, you can program the Philips AJL308 to wake you to your favorite FM station or MP3 music. It also has a gentle wake mode that gradually increases the volume of your music as you groggily wake up.

The FM radio has 20 presets, and I believe that I’ve already discussed the advantages of the MP3 Player. What I haven’t discussed is the fact that the picture frame has a large time readout as well as some Vista-like calendar things going on as well.

I have to admit, the Philips Digital Picture Frame/Alarm Clock/FM Radio/MP3 Player looks like quite a deal for your money. I believe it is available at Amazon for about $130, but I have heard that it really isn’t supposed to be. Therefore, you might have to wait a little while before you see the Philips AJL308 in stores. However, it looks like a gadget that is well worth the wait!