It looks like companies are busy trying to turn the humble coffee table into something way more interesting. Despite there already being other options and designs being worked on, Digital Touch seems confident in its T3-B table, which is a coffee table sized unit that has a built-in 26-inch LCD, as well as Wi-Fi, allowing users to browse, select and interact with various options on screen. The inclusion of an orientation switch should be fairly useful, as it allows you to view your content from any side of the table. The table can also be hooked up with an optional receipt printer, credit card reader and TV tuner, making it perfect for settings such as a hotel environment or restaurant. The T3-B is currently featured in a handful of the top 100 venues in the US, so if you’re ever in one of those posh areas, keep an eye out for such a table.

It looks like Google has placed further commitment to its online app store business, as it has just officially announced the Google Apps Marketplace. This is targeted at customers who are currently using the Google Apps service, and the apps featured in the Google Apps Marketplace will be able to integrate well it, making things less disjointed within companies. Installed apps, with administrator approval, will be able to interact with calendar, email, documents and contact data, providing a productivity boost. Another benefit of this centralized system is that users won’t have to remember passwords for various accounts, nor worry about the hassle of syncing and sharing data. Currently there are already more than 50 companies selling applications in the Google Apps Marketplace. It looks like we’ve taken one more small step into the world of cloud computing. Video after the jump.

Official announcement.

Continue Reading "Google Opens The Google Apps Marketplace"

The name K-Tcouh X90+ will probably make you think that it’s a typo; after all, shouldn’t it be “K-Touch”? Regardless of whether it’s a knockoff or not, this phone sports a touchscreen display, with a rotating keypad, dual cameras, dual-SIM, FM tuner, and analog TV. That certainly doesn’t look too bad, does it? The screen can be rotated, unveiling its hidden keypad. This phone is currently going for $138.99, and yes, it’s a knockoff of the K-Touch X90, which is going for a cool $200. Would you be willing to get a knockoff in order to save $60?

OWC has launched its OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro mini 1TB portable drive, claimed to be the first ever 2.5-inch 1TB drive that ships with a quad interface. It sports eSATA, USB 2.0, and FireWire 400/800 connectivity on the body of its brushed aluminum, fanless enclosure. The drive inside is rated at 5200RPM, and will be bundled with Intech Speedtools, Prosoft Engineering Data backup and Carbon Copy Cloner. If you’re serious about carrying about huge amounts of data with you, then you’ll probably be more than willing to shell out the $299.99 to pick up one of these.

Product page.

If you needed additional information to convince you that eBooks are getting more and more popular, just check out the latest stats from Mobclix, a mobile device advertising agency. Now it seems that the number of eBook apps have outnumbered games for the first time, with 27,000 eBook apps compared to 25,400 games. The number of new eBook apps introduced over the last month also outnumbers that of games, at 158 versus 71. With the advent of the iPad, do you think that the gap will be further widened, or will the large screen of the iPad help increase the popularity of games in the App Store?

Looks like Samsung really wants consumers to take 3D TVs seriously, as the Korean company is currently offering a free starter kit when users purchase a 3D TV and 3D Blu-ray player/home theater system together. The starter kit seems to be quite generous in content, as it offers a 3D version of the animated movie ‘Monsters and Aliens’, along with 2 pairs of 3D specs (which should cost about $350 on their own). Samsung’s 3D TVs are currently available stateside, but you’ll certainly want to check with your reseller about the latest promotions before making a purchase.

Despite Apple once again teaming up with AT&T for the iPad’s data plan, Verizon doesn’t seem to be discouraged, especially once you take a peek at the leaked memo to its staff that’s going around the Internet. Bringing up points that AT&T’s network is “overloaded”, and that the 3G version of the iPad will cost more, the carrier is aiming to persuade users to get the Wi-Fi version of the iPad and pair it up with a device like MiFi. Of course, what the memo fails to mention is that Verizon MiFi costs you $60 a month, which is twice as much that AT&T charges for its unlimited iPad plan, so you’ll be paying more in the long run. What do you think? Are you planning to purchase an iPad with an AT&T 3G plan, or go along with Verizon’s suggestion?

It’s been a long time coming, but the Pentax 645D medium format DSLR has finally been unveiled by the company. The 645D, the first digital version of the company’s 645 medium format camera system, will feature some juicy specs, such as a 40-megapixel sensor, 44 x 33 CCD sensor, 921k pixel 3-inch LCD and is compatible with existing 645 system lenses. Unfortunately for everybody who doesn’t live in Japan, the camera is initially only available there, and will be going for ¥850,000 ($9,400) in May 2010.

Press release.

You might remember the Great Long Brother for its rather interesting name, or the fact that it tried to sue Apple over the iPad’s design. Now it seems that the relationship between the two companies aren’t going to get any better as the Chinese manufacturer has given its P88, the device in the center of the storm, a UI makeover. A quick glance in the P88’s direction will give you the impression that it’s running OS X, though in reality it’s still powered by Microsoft’s Windows 7, albeit skinned very well to look like OS X. It’ll be interesting to see if this affects Great Long Brother’s legal case against Apple’s iPad.

After getting off work, what most people would like to do nowadays is to go for their ‘happy hour’, wherever it may be. If your way of relaxing is having a couple of beers with your mates, then the Happy Hour Watch might come in handy, as it’s certainly geared towards that. Aside from telling the time, the most useful feature of this watch will have to be its bottle-opening buckle, which should help remove the annoyance that keeps your lips away from your favorite beverage. Just to spice things up a little, the watch face only has one hour marker, and if you guessed that it’s at the 5-O’clock mark, you’re right! It’ll set you back $49.95 though, so the choice is yours.

If you’re trying to think of new ways to get from point A to point B, the Odyssey Water Vehicle 2008 might be a solution in the future. This concept vehicle uses a battery-powered electric motor to move it through the water. It’s eco-friendly too, as it’s batteries can be recharged by connecting it to a power source or by activating the wind turbine sails. The use of a catamaran-style hull also helps to reduce drag and also power requirements. We’re not sure why the concept has the figure ‘2008’ in its name, though, as we’ve already lived through 2008 and didn’t see any of these in the nearby ponds.

Despite the release of Windows 7, there are still many users out there who are clinging on desperately to Windows XP. Now it seems that it may not be Microsoft who will force users to ditch the venerable OS, rather hard drive manufacturers. A recent report indicates that manufacturers are looking to move away from the ancient 512 byte sector size, which has been around for ages now, to a 4K sector size. By doing so, they’ll be able to offer about 7-11% more data on the disk, as there is less wasted space where data cannot be stored due to the area dedicated to storing error codes.

Modern operating systems such as Windows 7, Vista, OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and all versions of the Linux kernel released after September 2009 are 4K aware, so there shouldn’t be a problem, but for operating systems older than that, it might be an issue. Advanced format drives should still be able to cope with Windows XP via emulation, but despite there being a minimal performance hit when reading from the drive, it’s possible that there might be a 10% performance dip when data is being written. So it looks like XP has taken another small step to that big operating system heaven in the sky.

It sure seems like tech, or at least cute lights, are making headways into the fashion industry. After the recent wired dress that lights up, next we’ve got three-inch heels that light up. It kind of feels like those sneakers we had back when we were kids that would flash red whenever you took a step, guess the idea is all grown up now, huh? Maybe it will help people avoid stepping on each others’ toes when you’re at the clubs. Hopefully they made this to be powered kinetically, powered by your footsteps or something.

Are you still having trouble with your BlackBerry’s BIS and BES connections? Some users are apparently still having problems, and it seems to be affecting devices on Wi-Fi. According to the complaints, data will work occasionally when it’s connected to Wi-Fi, but will not work when Wi-Fi is disconnected. There isn’t any official word on this issue yet from RIM, but hopefully it gets sorted out soon.