THE NEWS IN PRINT

Just when everyone believed that we are in the age of plastics, a few surprises have sprung up in the form of wooden computer accessories. Maybe it’s all coming back! There might be a few more protests from pro-environmentalists for the use of wood when plastic is readily available and widely accepted.

Dealing with mice has been a favourite topic on this blog, and we will start with a wooden mouse (we like to call it ping pong mouse), designed by a Japanese firm Jupiter. It does not resemble the traditional computer mouse in any angle. This mouse looks like a ping pong ball but in wood and hence the pseudo name. A well matched mouse stand is also provided with this mouse.

To move the cursor, which is of course the basic function of a mouse, adjusting the tilt of the ping pong mouse moves the cursor for you. Looks very complicated to me and it would take quite some time to master this mouse.

Why do we need a new methodology of a mouse when we have one that is simple and user-friendly? Only the Japanese can answer this question.

The ping pong mouse carries a hefty price tag of £120. A collector might be more interested in this product rather than a user.

Here’s another accessory, more on the traditional lines, a USB drive with a wood frame. The wooden body is made of Cedar and once again, trouble can brew from those you-know-who. Capacity on this USB drive is 1GB and is priced at £31.

The mouse revolution has now brought in yet another mouse that can perform another unusual function. This time around, Asus has aimed at heart patients and have launched a mouse that can measure heart pulses along with other normal functions. Heart touching, really.

The Asus Vit W1 Laser Wireless Mouse looks very much like any other mouse you might have come across. It has a pulse sensor under its skin and constantly reads pulse rates. These rates are transmitted onto the computer it’s attached to, and a pre-installed software analyzes the pulse rate and informs the user if he/she requires medical help by displaying appropriate emoticon.

The pulse mouse has five buttons on it and a mini USB receiver to communicate with the PC. It can offer a best sensitivity of 1200 dpi, and offers 30-foot wireless range.

I can see this mouse extensively being used by people who deal with stocks online and dear O’ dear, things are not looking too good in the stock market either. On a serious note, this could be a utilitarian gadget for those of us who are glued to our systems day in and day out. There isn’t anything wrong in knowing our pulse rate, is there?

Pricing information is not available as of now.

In the recent past, tons of innovations have been performed on mice and the end doesn’t seem to be nearing. The latest gig is a mouse integrated with a fingerprint reader for securing important documents and passwords.

Firstly, the Biometrics mouse provides access to Windows operating system after successful verification of the registered fingerprints.

The automatic form filler on websites which is normally used for storing usernames and passwords is also controlled by the mouse.

A partition on your hard disk can also be used to hide confidential data. This data would only be accessible to a user whose fingerprints have accesses enabled on it.

Data can also be protected by encrypting/decrypting them on the HDD, which can be controlled biometrically.

This is a very neat gadget to have for people who share their PCs with other users. Price isn’t sky high at £60.

The alien-like concept as seen in the picture is the one to drool over for quite some time. Surely, the concept must have been picked up from some galactic movie. The conceptualized wireless webcam makes a great showpiece wherever it’s placed.

This webcam offers unparalleled flexibility with its tri-legged base concept for the camera angles. The design consists of a ball and socket joint (similar to your shoulder joints) which connects the base with the camera. The base portion will take care of the vertical adjustments while the ball and socket arrangement will provide the camera angles as required.

This concept is touted as a wireless camera through Bluetooth technology. This would require a recharge after every certain number of days based on usage just like your cell phone.

The hassle of charging various devices is alarming. It starts with your cell phone, Bluetooth device for you cell phone, portable camera and so on. With an addition of charging a web camera, users would end up doing more work than required.

Other details like the resolution, frames per second haven’t been revealed by the company yet. We will post updates on this camera as it comes in.

via Ubergizmo

Supposedly gadgets are for men and cosmetic for women. It will turn out to be an interesting combination if both are fused together.

Samsung has cashed in on the opportunity to attract women with their concept of a sophisticated compact hard drive. The concept has been unearthed by Joongoo Lee and he says that he was inspired by ladies make-up compact found at the bottom of most hand bags.

The concept is a 2.5” hard drive with a particularly feminine touch. Its black designer looks might well be confused for a make-up compact.

Making concepts into a reality is Samsung’s strength. This diva gadget will certainly initiate a new found interest in ladies and could start a revolution of women’s gadgets. Who Knows!

This is a strange one, really; a gadget to keep track of your typing speed. Why would anybody need to know their typing speed?

I type pretty quick and as fast enough to translate the thoughts in my mind to text on the screen. Maybe I could use this gizmo to find my brain speed.

The USB speedometer plugs into the USB port and keeps track of keystroke speed, word speed and counts the number of words as well. Counting the number of words can be alternatively achieved by using a text editor like MS Word though.

It carries a price tag of £19.95.

As the store selling this product puts it across - Great for anyone who wants to improve their touch-typing speed skills, it’s also a must-have for writers or journalists who need to keep track of their word-count or train themselves to be speedy and efficient at the keyboard.

For me, this speedometer will go in my book as one of the weirdest gadgets I have come across.

This is a strange one, really; a gadget to keep track of your typing speed. Why would anybody need to know their typing speed?

I type pretty quick and as fast enough to translate the thoughts in my mind to text on the screen. Maybe I could use this gizmo to find my brain speed.

The USB speedometer plugs into the USB port and keeps track of keystroke speed, word speed and counts the number of words as well. Counting the number of words can be alternatively achieved by using a text editor like MS Word though.

As the store selling this product puts it across - Great for anyone who wants to improve their touch-typing speed skills, it’s also a must-have for writers or journalists who need to keep track of their word-count or train themselves to be speedy and efficient at the keyboard.

For me, this speedometer will go in my book as one of the weirdest gadgets I have come across.

All enterprise mobile solutions like Blackberry, HTC, among others have provided the option of directly printing onto a network printer. The much hyped iPhone has disappointed all its groupies so far in this regard. Neither did the original iPhone carry any component to print wirelessly nor does the latest 3G model. There is wide speculation that an upgrade in the iPhone operating system could carry wireless printing capability.

Currently, iPhone users transfer files-to-be-printed onto a computer to run the print job. It’s a tad annoying to transfer files off multiple machines to accomplish a simple task of taking a printout.

An analysis conducted on the iPhone 2.0 operating system source code reveals the presence of an empty printer directory. Experts are speculating that the new upgrade 2.0.1 will possess direct wireless printing capabilities.

Japanese based Thanko has yet again introduced a gadget which performs an unimaginable action. This time, it’s a mouse with a cooler fan integrated inside. The vents are located on the top as shown in the figure.

The idea as I can picturise is to reduce sweating on fingers and palms while working for longer times.
The air from the cooler can be controlled through the two buttons provided on the side of the mouse.

Earlier this year, Thanko had released a mouse with an integrated hand warmer. The thinking behind warmer and cooler on mice could have originated from different weather conditions. If its summer, mouse with cooler could be ideal while in winters, hand warmer mouse would be more than handy.

The cooler mouse is available in Japan as of now and carries a price tag of £10.

Hear me straight, we are going through a Mouse Revolution and the chances are good for great alternatives over the ones that we use presently. First it was Canon with its flip mouse and later came the finger mouse. Now, the giant, Microsoft has stepped in the ring with the Arc Mouse.

The Arc Mouse after-all is a mouse at the end of the day and works off frequencies, meaning cordless. Except for the innovative design, there is nothing extra this mouse offers unlike the others which we have seen earlier.

The design is fancy and futuristic. The meat part of the mouse has been carved out to give it an arch shape. The design makes it portable by allowing the rear end to fold up and hence enhance the mobility factor.

Looks can be deceiving but what counts is the practicality of this cursor mover. Users may need to adjust to its tall design although direct disadvantages with the height are not glaring pictorially. The carved out portion in this mouse carries a big question mark though! Does it impede the movement of mouse? This answer will be best answered when the Arc Mouse gets introduced in the market later this year. The estimated price on this fancy figurine is around £25.

See more pictures here.