Love Gadgets? Love the Web?

Technology moves on with incredible pace and manufacturers try to tempt us into the use of new gadgets that will supposedly help us in our every day lives.

From internet enabled fridges that scan your items as you remove them, to animated talking Skype creatures which act as a microphone and speaker whose mouth moves in line with the audio output. Obviously some of these are fads, some are useful and some almost definitely not that helpful albeit fun to use. This, the first in a series of quarterly articles, aims to highlight 4 or 5 of those gadgets that ‘may’ be worthwhile investing in and in return may make life or business a little easier.


Eye-Fi wireless SD Card

Developed by Eye-fi this SD card is intended for use in digital cameras. Put the card into your PC, configure with your username and password for up to 17 photography based web sites and it automatically sends a hi-res picture to the sites from your digital camera (assuming you are in a wi-fi enabled area). It also sends a back up to your PC for archive purposes.

http://www.eye.fi/


Freeview on your Mobile Phone

Although not a new concept (and not really web related), the LG HB620T mobile phone is the first to integrate a full blown freeview tuner into the phone. Previously manufacturers have opted for the more compressed DVB-H (digital video broadcasting – handheld) for mobile devices and not the full blown DVB-T (digital video broadcasting – terrestrial) that you get in your freeview box. Being a mobile phone, the screen size is small but initial reports state the picture quality is more than acceptable. As well as the TV reception, it sports the usual Bluetooth, 2MP camera and HSDPA high speed data access. It’s currently only available in Germany.

http://de.lgmobile.com/web/web.common.Main.laf


Pogo

We are used to “normal” browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer, but AT&T are currently beta testing a new browser called Pogo. With a docking station similar to OSX and 3D page selection seen in Vista, it looks like a refreshing, new and novel way of browsing the web. There are no tabs anymore, but images of the pages instead alongside the ability to have multiple home pages. It’s in beta release at the moment, but take a look at the demo.

http://www.pogobrowser.com/demo.html


Internet Radio in a Radio

Internet radio stations are very prolific and numbers are increasing daily due to low costs of transmission and falling hardware prices. Most major players have internet streams of their live stations (Virgin Radio, BBC Radio1) as well as hundreds of foreign, internet only, news, talk, specialist stations you would never have heard of. The Acoustic Energy wi-fi Internet Radio gives you immediate access to over 5000 radio stations without turning on your PC. As long as you have a wi-fi connection you are away. Although not the prettiest looking device in the world, the audio quality is better than most other internet radios and similarly, the price isn’t the cheapest.

http://www.acoustic-energy.co.uk/product_range/wifi_radio/WiFi.asp

Steve Furminger, Head of Digital