GadgetReview

File this under wacky; it’s a WiFi lamp from Onda Communications.  In other words someone took a 70s looking bedside light and stuffed it with a router, at least that’s what I’m picking up.  According to a snapshot of the product manual it’s designed to work with Power Line technology, which transmits data over your home’s electrical wires.

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In a few years just about every cell phone on the market will have WiFi, at least that’s my guess.  But before that time arrives folks who are still rocking old school handsets with SIM card slots will want the SMIFi.  Just like the Eye-Fi SD cards, the SMIFi adds WiFi to any phone sporting a SIM card slot.  …Continue reading: SMIFi SIM Card Adds WiFi To Any SIM Card Carrying Phone

Netgear has teamed up with Ericsson to produce what seems to be a home MiFi router.  Sure, that explanation is a bit counterintuitive to the term MiFi, since it implies ‘mobile  WiFi’, but bear with me.  The MBRN3300E is your usual home router, but instead of connecting to a wired connection it dials up the Internet via 3G.  It’s a shame that it doesn’t sport both the ability to connect via 3G and via an at home modem, but as I’m reading the press release it only seems to indicate the former of the two.

Much like some of Netgear’s other routers you can setup multiple SSIDs for restricted guest access in addition to monitor your broadband usage via a built-in meter, connect to the network with the push of a button, connect up to 4 additional devices via Ethernet, WiFi N connectivity, turn the WiFi and 3G off with a physical switch and includes an optional car adapter.

No word on a price or launch date.

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Coming soon, or so the current word goes, is one of the most frighteningly preposterous gadget chargers I’ve seen in some time–it’s no solar power device.  No wind generator, no magnet, nor even Tesla coil.  It isn’t even a lightning rod.

No, today I’m talking about the Airnergy, a device that will recharge your gadgets with–get this–AMBIENT WI-FI SIGNALS.

It actually turns Wi-Fi energy, found at any Wi-Fi hotspot, into electrical energy.  As long as this is in range of a Wi-Fi signal, it’s making juice, plain and simple.  RCA, the folks behind the Airnergy, ran a demonstration at CES in which they charged a Blackberry with a third of its battery left to full charge in just an hour and a half.

But this isn’t the end–oh no.  RCA wants to make a version that’s small enough to fit INSIDE a cell phone battery, meaning that the device would continually recharge whereever it was near enough to receive a Wi-Fi signal.

Amazing, and yet kind of scary, the Airnergy isn’t on shelves yet, but is set to cost just $40 bucks whne it is released.

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Just in time for CES, Lenovo is readying a new smartbook called the Skylight, a refination on the netbook concept.  It weighs less than two pounds and features its own specialized interface to make getting online faster and easier than ever before.

This little dynamo offers up ten solid hours of battery life, along with a host of sweet tech specs including a 1 GHz ARM CPU, a graphics processor, integrated GPS, Bluetooth connectivity and, not surprisingly, wi-fi and mobile broadband.

Skylights will be available starting at $499, which already makes me look at it askance.  I can buy a pretty sweet laptop for that kind of money–do they really think extended battery life is going to make that big a difference?  And as for the “custom interface”, my current laptop connects to the internet pretty smoothly, and it’s just a old Dell Latitude.  Sure, we’re all sort of looking to the streaming media concept to be the new form of movie delivery, too, but I don’t see any provision to play your old DVDs on the Skylight.

Excuse me if I find myself unconvinced that this smartbook is going to be the next big thing when it lacks the versatility of other options.  All it looks like from here is a neutered laptop.

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Qualcomm just yesterday introduced a whole new brand of Lenovo gadget that’ll blow your mind open.  Check this out.

It’s called the smartbook, and it combines all the best features of a smart phone and a netbook.  Slimmer than most smart phones and able to fit in the palm of a hand, it offers not only a QWERTY keyboard but also a “full-size screen”.  It’s powered by a Qualcomm chipset platform that has, for some reason, been dubbed Snapdragon and will run a series of different applications including Flash, Adobe and AT&T’s mobile broadband.

It’s interesting to note, however, that this may not be the end of the smartbook line but only the beginning.  Word is that everybody from Asus to Toshiba is planning to launch their own smartbook.  But do people, especially in a bad economy like this, really want or even need another portable computer when they already have laptops, netbooks and smartphones to choose from?  Is there anyone who’s saying “I love my netbook but I wish it were smaller!” or “I love my smartphone but I wish it had more features!” who isn’t just buying the next step in either direction?

Name and price are still being kept quiet on this new model as the product will officially launch this January at the Consumer Electronics Show.

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It’s a shame, because Emobile’s Pocket WiFi 3G Router (i.e. MiFi) sure is pretty, but won’t be coming to the States or Europe any time soon.  But for those of you residing in Japan you can grab one for 5,980 yen if you sign a 2-year contract and you’ll be able to connect up to 5 WiFi enabled devices to the portable router enabling high speed Internet access any where you roam.  Battery time is up to 4 hours and it includes a microSD card slot (bit torrent server?).

[via iSmashphone]

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And there’s yet another competitor throwing its hat into the steadily crowding e-reader arena (we get any more hats in there and we could open up a millenery shop!), but it’s not exactly from a source you’d expect.

Creative Labs is taking a run at the market, with a unit they’re calling the Zii MediaBook.  Now, this actually has some pretty choice add-ons with it, like a touchscreen, text to speech functionality (it will READ you a book) and an SD slot, plus, it will be “Internet-enabled”, though no one’s sure if it means 3G or WiFi.

Also on the unsure list are the Zii’s release date, its price structure and any content delivery methods, (pictures of the device were also in short supply) though word is Creative’s in talks with several different providers, and not just for books, either.  This could be one to watch…or Creative Labs could think better of it and stay out altogether.

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Available next month, GM’s AutoNet will let you literally install a WiFi hotspot in your car.  The unit plus installation will cost $500 and there will be a monthly charge of $30 for a 1GB cap.  There is also a 5GB cap offered but no price is known as of now.

The range will last up to a radius of 150 feet away from you car and would be great for camping, tailgating, and beyond.  You could even have traveling video game competitions in your SUV while you drive from Inglewood to Compton.  Anybody like this product?

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So remember just yesterday, when I was getting all poingy happy about the half e-reader / half netbook hybrid?  Well, I think I may have just beat that level of awesome but in a totally different direction.  Today I’m talking about the Kohjinsha PA, a combination netbook and tablet PC.

No, seriously–this sucker has a 4.8″ WSVGA touchscreen, 1.33GHz Atom CPU, 512 meg of RAM and a 32 GB SDD.  The battery is slated to run for 7.5 hours, and it even comes with an SD slot and a 1.3 MP webcam, all in a netsurfing portable tablet PC.

I am profoundly impressed by this, even though my chances of ever using such a device are so slim as to approach zero.  I draw like a cat with a pen in its mouth after ingesting large quantities of peyote, so a tablet PC to me is almost less than useless. But still, I’m impressed–and the price is pretty impressive too.

If you want one of these bad boys, you’ll have to shell out a whopping $758 in Japan.  Preorders are going on, and the prices range between $867 and $921.

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