Clarion’s overhead monitor

A home theater for your car? Clarion’s overhead monitor combines all the comforts of a home system right in the back seat of your car. The 15.4″ WXGA color TFT-LCD monitor comes with adjustable tint, color and brightness and a built in DVD player. It also comes with a built-in transmitter for wireless headphones and a handy remote.

The TFT active matrix LCD monitor reproduces vivid colors and provides clear, crisp viewing of your favorite DVDs. It’s simple to install on the roof of your car and provides that much needed entertainment for your kids on those long road trips or just when mom and dad need a little break. MSRP $1,000.

R1 Bluetooth Handsfree Kit

Voice Technologies brings us the R1 Bluetooth Handsfree Kit. It is a good option that fits neatly in your car. It is packed with features like dual microphone noise cancellation, a powerful 3-Watt speaker visor mount, mini USB power adapter, wall adapter and car charger adapter.

And for those of you on the phone quite a bit while in the car there is the 30 hour talk time or 800 hour standby time that is possible with a single charge! The manufacturers have yet to announce a release date or price for this handy gadget. Stay tuned.

Eclipse AVN726E DVD GPS

The Eclipse AVN726E is a powerful tool that features well designed maps that come with elevation data as well as 3D buildings. The company has added some nice features to this product as well, including USB and iPod integration (though you do have to purchase a cable to do this) and DVD/DivX playback. It also features Bluetooth hands free calling, a feature becoming more popularly sought.

On the downside, if you hope to add traffic data to the device for navigation needs, it will require the Sirius satellite radio to be used. Still, this device is a nice, hands free calling tool that tells you where to go using audio and visual elements.

Waze helps Motorists Tind Their Way

We are all aware that many motorists have gotten a big boost with the help of GPS devices and it looks like they are in for more aid as waze, Inc. unveils a new platform for creating and maintaining live maps in the United States. As we all know navigation is easier if you know where you are going and with these new guides, you can get to your destination faster and with lesser fuel consumption to boot.

“waze is a network of drivers who work together to save time - everyone contributes and everyone benefits. By aggregating the status of all connected wazers, such as GPS traces and active reporting of speed traps or road hazards, we can build and share back a real-time or ‘live’ map which reflects the current state of the roads, finds the best route and guides the waze members though it in their daily driving.”

The application, already widely used in Israel, will open to the general public in the coming months.

Red Light Camera Detector

For those who have ever received a ticket in the mail for running a red light, this next product is for you. Yes, they have the technology to take your picture, and now you have the technology to beat it.

The Right Light Camera Detector is exactly what it says it is: a device that detects red lights. I realize that it bears a strong resemblance to a GPS device, but it won’t help you get to where you want to go unless you are willing to run a few red lights along the way. It does have a GPS chip that will compare your automobile’s location with that of an internal database of up to 6,000 red light and speed camera locations.

You might ask if this is worth $200, and so am I.

Pantech IM-U540L Cellphone

Pantech released a new cellphone to the market yesterday, it is codenamed IM-U540L and will become available in Korea thanks to LG Telecom.



The Pantech IM-U540L is also known as Sportive and in terms of specifications it comes with a 3-megapixel camera, a 3-inch touchscreen, bluetooth, GPS, and also TV via DMB.

The latest Pantech cellphone will become available in red, blue, and silver.

Toshiba NB300 and NB305 netbooks

Toshiba today announced the official launch of their new netbooks codenamed NB300 and NB305 which will make use of the Intel Pine Tral processor with an Atom at 1.66GHz.



One of the best details of these netbooks is the battery life, according to Toshiba they can handle from 9 to 11 hours of working non-stop. As for the weight, it is close to 2.6 pounds with the small 6-cell battery.

In terms of storage capacity there is a 250GB hard-drive, and the other known features include Windows 7 Apps like a media controller, RealTime for finding data in a visual timeline, and a bulletin board. The Toshiba NB300 will cost $350 while the NB305 is priced at $400.

LG UX 310 Helix Cell Phone Review–Goofy Looking But Great Function

When I first saw the LG UX 310 Helix, I had to admit, I laughed at it.  The one I saw was a bright orange in color, a stubby little flip phone that looked better suited for warning hunters in the woods than making and receiving calls.

But I got a surprise when I started trying the thing out, and discovered how many different features this phone packed.



The LG UX 310 Helix is a flip phone with built in speakerphone, voice dialing, a phone book with capacity for a thousand entries, a set of available games, a 1.3 megapixel camera, calculator, calendar with to-do list, and a battery with three hundred minutes of talk time.

You can see what I mean.  There’s plenty to like about this phone–three hundred minutes isn’t the kind of capacity you see every day, and that thousand name phone book isn’t standard either.  It may not be the prettiest phone you’ll see, but it’s definitely got the function to take care of business, and some fun besides.

Toshiba Qosmio X505 Series

Toshiba introduced a new gaming laptoop named Qosmio X505 and is powered by an Intel Core i7 processor. In order to make it a real gaming laptop, it has a huge screen that measures 18.4-inches, and there are two models available:

- X505-Q830 boasting 4GB of DDR3 memory, plus 320GB on the hard-drive, and a resolution of 1680×945 pixels.
- X505-Q850 comes with 6GB of memory RAM, a 64GB Solid Stata Drive, and a full HD display of 1920×1080 pixels.

Both models come with a blu-ray combo drive, a keyboard with numeric keypad, a webcamera, stereo speakers, WiFi, Bluetooth, VGA outputs, HDMI, 3 USB ports, and all the rest.

These new Qosmio X505 series have a 12-cell battery and provide 3 hours and 18 minutes of battery life.

Gesture-recognition technology applied to mobile phones

How would you like dial a number for a cellular phone without even touching the phone? This is apparently the tech from researchers at Ishikawa Komuro Laboratory in Tokyo, which is sort of like Project Natal for your phone.

It works by putting a camera on the cell that can shoot at 154 frames per second, and is capable of somehow recognizing the user’s finger. In all honesty, I was hoping that you could just use your finger to control your phone, not use it as a Wiimote! We’ll see if this technology takes off.

There’s a video after the jump.



Review: Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 Webcam

Microsoft recently unveiled its new series of LifeCam webcams. The Whack received the LifeCam VX-5000 for review. The VX-5000 offers convenience and is portable enough not to interfere with your work. The striking thing about the VX-5000 is the bendable base, making it easy to place it on a desktop monitor or fix it to a laptop. The camera is available three different colors: blue, green and red (we received the blue one for review).

Setting up the camera was a breeze. The installation of the bundled software went smoothly and the webcam was up and running within 10 minutes of opening the package. However, it took considerably more time to open the package itself.



Even at that resolution, it falls short of some cell phone camera images, but then again this is not your everyday high-end webcam. The software bundled with the camera allows you to add all sorts of goofy stuff to your video conversation (you know what I’m talking about — stupid fish!).

When logged in to the Windows Live messenger, clicking the button on top of the camera starts a Windows Live Call: it loads your contact list, and you have to select one to start a conversation with. There’s a unidirectional, noise-canceling mic on the Lifecam VX-5000. As can be expected, the webcam is optimized for Windows Live but works pretty well with others like Yahoo! IM and Skype. In low-light conditions, the video was less than desirable quality, but once you switched on the lights, the quality was pretty good.

For some reason, the default resolution for still photos was set to 640×480 (VGA), but you can easily change this to 1.3 megapixels.

The Photo Swap feature lets you share photos with whoever you are conversing with. There’s also support for one-touch blogging - a feature I did not try because I don’t have a Windows Live Spaces account. The microphone built into the LifeCam VX-5000 works pretty decently. However, I could not find any place where this can be over-ridden with another microphone.

The Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 is easily a nice-to-have accessory, being in the mid-range of both price and features. Priced at US $49.99, it is actually available for around $37 on Amazon and other online retailers.

Sony Cybershot DSC-TX1 and WX1

Sony has unveiled their new Cybershot DSC-TX1 and WX1 digital cameras, complete with their very own Exmor R high-sensitivity CMOS sensors.

Both models use Carl Zeiss lenses, and can capture continuous burst shooting at 10 frames per second and can capture 30 frames per second high-definition video. The Sony Cyber-shot WX1 is a 10.2 mega-pixel model with 5x optical zoom and 2.7 inch LCD screen, while the TX1 comes short with 4x optical zoom.

Both models are available online. The TX1 retails for $380, and the WX1 for a little cheaper at $350.

Canon PowerShot SX10 IS

The Canon PowerShot SX10 IS, is a great camera that will do wonders for your abilities to take photographs. This is because the IS at the end of the name stands for image stabilization. It is also a camera that has a lot of great features and allow s for professional quality photographs.



The camera has great 10x digital zoom as well as a built in flash that will aid in picture taking. The camera has 10 megapixels and is able to take shots at night and during the day. It is great for doing all kinds of shots at any time.

Clarifi iPhone Case with Macro Lens

The iPhone has been dedicated in providing entertainment. But like most mobile phones, you always look for one that has a camera. While the iPhone does not really have one by default, there are add-ons you could turn to so that you can snap shots with your iPhone. Such a gadget is the Clarifi iPhone Case with Macro Lens which can help you in taking close-up macro photo shots.

The Clarifi iPhone Case with Macro Lens makes blurry photos of secret documents a thing of the past. Simply slide the built-in lens over your iPhone’s camera and take crystal clear shots of business cards, documents or any other close-up item.

Then you can use those photos with some cool free iPhone apps like Snappr which scans barcodes in stores to find you the best prices, or Evernote which takes photos you shoot and creates a searchable picture database from any text in the photo.

Price: $24.99

Brando Telescope Helps You Zoom in on Your iPhone

Have you ever wanted to get a clearer picture out of your iPhone? Well, that sucks, you have to wait until Apple decides to boost up the measly 1.3MP camera the iPhone has on board.

But, if you just so happen to want an extra 6x Zoom on your iPhone then this product is definitely for you.

As you can see above, all you do is snap the $19 Brando Telescope onto the back of your iPhone and now you have an iTelescope.

Not to mention you look like a complete n00b. Want one? Here.