The Gadgets Page

The creators of tough phones, Sonim Technologies, challenged Dan Simmons of the BBC to see if he could break their phone.

I love the look of shock on their faces when the LCD screen actually breaks. Unbreakable is a mighty big claim, so it’s no surprise that Dan was able to prove them wrong. In the end, Sonim phones are tougher than normal phones, but the moniker of unbreakable is a little bit of a stretch.

Here is a quick clip from the CES 2010 keynote where Steve Ballmer of Microsoft shows off three “Slate PC” gadgets.

With all the rumors of an Apple device coming out soon, it looks like Microsoft is trying to get the jump on that market. One of the rumors suggested that this supposed Apple device might be called an iSlate, so it’s no coincidence that Steve rushed to claim the Slate PC name.

Wouldn’t it be funny if all of those rumors were just a misinformation feed from Apple to distract everyone from their upcoming secret? What if they were only trying to negotiate a publishing contract with magazines and book publishers and were merely announcing that this January instead of a slate/tablet/ebook reader/giant iPod Touch?

All I know is that those Slate PCs that Ballmer was so proud of look an awful lot like the Photoshopped mock ups that have been floating around with Apple logos on them.

Microsoft might think they have a jump on Apple, but I suspect Steve Jobs has far more in the hopper than they realize.

The most brilliant way to make me to stop for a moment and actually WATCH a Samsung television was to show off video art.

It was easy to miss, but along the side wall of Samsung’s booth at CES this year, they displayed gorgeous video art. My favorite was “Desire Has No History,” which is a quote by the famous photographer, Susan Sontag. You can see it here:

The vision of three beautiful and active gadgets being ground down to nothing is striking, but the reversal of the video is brilliant. It’s as if the gadgets were being made before my eyes instead of torn down.

Here is a clip from Mike and Matt’s favorite video, “Life as a flower to be near you.”

The description of the video was interesting:

The woman making the cake represents the expression of love. The man eating the cake represents the act of receiving love. The spinning cake (which was filmed over a 4-week time span) represents the progression of love.

That was an interesting concept, but the look on the face of the man haunts me even now. He looked so incredibly SAD to receive that cake.

Samsung did a brilliant job of getting me to stop and look at their televisions. I usually don’t write about the myriad of TV choices, so I would usually just rush past their booth on the way to something a little more interesting to me. These art installations were enough to attract my attention.

It was so loud on the show floor that the actual audio for both of these videos was unusable, so I added some music that was similar to what was playing. The music credit is Altean Twilight from Royalty Free Music.

Sharper Image isn’t really a company that I think of when someone mentions a beautiful clock, but this year, they did an excellent job of creating an iPhone dock that grabbed my attention.

I didn’t get a chance to play with the dock much, but it does have speakers.

It looks like there are controls at the top to control your music.

This dock isn’t available on the Sharper Image website yet and they didn’t have an estimate on the price yet. The people at the booth weren’t able to tell me what app the iPhone was running, either. I’m a clock app junkie and it looked completely new to me, so maybe Sharper Image has an app that they will make available as well.

I’m looking forward to seeing this in the real world soon!

It had been a long day and the thought of a massage sounded so relaxing. At CES Unveiled I walked past the Inada Massage Chairs table. They had two chairs lying prone. There was a bit of a line to try one out, but I thought it might be fun to try it myself.

I walked up to the guy in the chair nearest to me.

“You don’t look very relaxed,” I said to him jokingly.

“I’m not,” he replied.

I decided I didn’t need to give them a try after all.

At CES Unveiled, I walked past the Logitech table and thought to myself, “Same Old, Same Old.” It’s not really fair to Logitech, actually. They have made perfectly cromulent computer mice for years. Without them, many of us would be lost.

When I inched closer to their table, they had an array of colorful wireless mice on the table.

I’ve seen these mice at the stores in Salt Lake City and I never once considered buying one, not even the blue one with the squiggles design. It’s my style and it matches the skin I have on my laptop.

I realized that I gave up on wireless mice over three years ago. I had a wireless mouse from Logitech that I loved. It used AA batteries and they lasted FOREVER. When that poor mouse finally died, I tried to replace it, but by then, Logitech had moved on to rechargeable mice and I had a world of hurt with them. I also switched to the Mac, and some of the features of that rechargeable mouse didn’t carry over to the new platform.

In the end, it was easier to use the Mighty Mouse that came with my Mac and I’ve never had to replace it. The short cord plugs into my keyboard and hasn’t ever gotten in my way.

Sorry, Logitech. I love that blue mouse. It’s adorable and would match my laptop perfectly, but I just can’t bring myself to buy it.

• Playing trivia at Buffalo Wild Wings. We made 52nd Nationally. Yeah! http://twitpic.com/xg68h #

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• #CES is TINY this year. The convention floor has so many empty spots and no exhibits at the Sands this year. Worried for the industry. 🙁 #
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For me, the best design winner of CES Unveiled was definitely Sensia by Pure.

When I saw the Sensia, I didn’t actually care WHAT it did. I liked the design so much that I wanted to know more. Unfortunately, the more didn’t impress me much. It is a wi-fi enabled radio. So it can play FM radio as well as all the Internet radio stations that you love. It can also connect to Facebook, Twitter, weather and plethora of other Internet features.

What is DOESN’T do is more important. It doesn’t dock with your iPod. It doesn’t show videos on that gorgeous five inch screen. It doesn’t go portable without the optional ChargePAK.

It’s a shame that such beautiful design work was wasted with this crippled inner workings. Of course, Pure could add those features in the future, but for now, the Sensia just doesn’t live up to its lovely design.

Here is a walkthrough video from stuff.tv:

The MSI Wind has long been a favorite for the netbook Hackintosh crowd. So much so, that it was rumored that MSI furtively released drivers to aid in the process. Installing Mac OSX on a netbook technically breaks your user agreement, so do so at your own risk. Here is a how-to for making a MSI Wind a Hackintosh.

• Paul’s complete guide to installing OSX Leopard on your MSI Wind / Advent 4211 – Netbooks @ MoDaCo

Last month, they unveiled the MSI U135 and were showcasing it at CES this year. Here is a snapshot of it.

Here is a photo of the details for the MSI Wind U135:

Hopefully, the U135 will still be a great option for those people who prefer their portable computers to be a bit more portable.

Here is a video showing how to Hackintosh a MSI Wind U100: