Gadget news

The first Demo 07 pitch today: DARTdevices. The company makes a technology that allows data and apps on mobile and fixed devices to sync up. So if you have a laptop, a camera, a phone, and a PDA, you can share the laptop-connected printer among all of them, automatically sync pictures, and even run the same games.

Users can add devices to their "crew" of devices even if they don't have DART software in them yet. That's the magic part. Cute demo tidbit:the presenter says, "If you think true mobile interoperability will happen only … Read more

With Super Bowl Sunday just days away, plenty of tech blogs are highlighting the party gadgetry that they're recommending for the big event. Here at Crave, we're going to ask you: what are your recommendations for the ultimate Super Bowl party gadget? You can go with the obvious (um, an HDTV), the supplementary (a margarita mixer), or the downright ridiculous (does anybody out there make a Peyton Manning USB bobblehead?) Yes, it has to be a real gadget. Leave your picks in the comments.

We'll post your suggestions on Friday, so that you can spend Saturday waiting … Read more

Sail-World just called attention to the fact that l' Hydroptère is on the brink of breaking the record for the world's fastest sailboat.

L'Hydroptère reached 47.2 knots on January 25, according to the log on its Web site. The absolute sailing speed record for 500 meters is 48.7 knots. L'Hydroptère also achieved an acceleration of 14 knots in 6 seconds.

The boat has been in development for several years on the principle that a sailboat's hull should not float on the water, but fly above it supported by &… Read more

Sci-fi time at Demo 07: call in to Qtech's ReQall, speak your ideas and to-do lists, and the service then does smart things with them. For example, if you save a task for a particular date, ReQall will feed it to you when you call in on that future day.

It also does speech-to-text conversion, and can e-mail you your notes, or put them on a desktop widget.

Pretty cool idea. For me, it depends on the speech-to-text quality. Can't wait to try it out.

No, the Japanese "I'm a Mac" ads do not include Hello Kitty, Pikachu, or anything with tentacles. But they're quite funny in their own right, if only because I have absolutely no idea what the actors are saying in them but can still pretty much grasp the message that they're trying to convey. It's interesting, too, to see how the Japanese ads are much more reliant on physical expressions and gags, whereas the British Mac ads that Candace blogged here a few days ago are all about the wit (not surprisingly).

Additionally, I am … Read more

PALM DESERT, CA -- There are nearly 70 companies launching new products at the Demo 07 conference, which starts tomorrow. I arrived at the show a few hours ago, and I've been poring through the conference materials trying to plan my attack. I'll have a video crew with me, and Erica Ogg, another CNET blogger, is here too. We hope to shoot some cool demos and interviews, and we'll write up the most promising new products.

We can't cover every company, so we're going to focus on the ones below first. They look like the … Read more

Apple's iPod Shuffle music player is now available in four new colors. The previously available silver Shuffle has now been joined by pink, green, blue, and orange models. Furthermore, iLounge reported that each Shuffle model will be packaged with the same improved earbuds that have been shipping with other iPod models for the past several months. (To date, the silver Shuffle model was shipped with Apple's older earbuds.)

Other than the color choices and headphone upgrade, it's the same entry-level second-generation iPod Shuffle that debuted in November: capacity remains at 1GB, and the price is still $79. … Read more

This morning, despite subzero temperatures and a wicked wind chill, a crowd of press, special guests, and Windows Vista beta testers from around the world showed up in Manhattan's post-industrial West Chelsea neighborhood to watch a rather unusual spectacle: a troupe of aerial dancers on the side of the Terminal Building, clad in spandex bodysuits, bouncing around on bungee cords, and forming the Vista and Office 2007 logos. It's all part of the massive Vista launch festivities that are going on all day in NYC leading up to the operating system's consumer debut tomorrow.

Not exactly what … Read more

The Brits now have their own version of those funny Apple commercials pitting Mac against PC.

The commercials, which can be viewed on Apple's U.K. Web site, follow the same scenario as the American versions. The only strange thing is that instead of Bill Gates, "PC" bears a striking resemblance to Al Gore.

Come on now. Everyone who has seen An Inconvenient Truth knows that Gore is an Apple man.