LG Voyager in Titanium
(Credit: Verizon Wireless)Verizon and LG have brandished a new color for its popular Voyager, this time in Titanium. This "lustrous titanium finish" is poised to make the LG Voyager a showcase for a couple of new Verizon services, namely V Cast Music with Rhapsody and Visual Voice Mail, both of which we've heard about before.
Also, it looks as if Verizon has dropped the Visual Voice Mail subscription price to $2.99 a month per line. This is good, but we still would much rather Verizon offer the visual voice mail without a monthly fee at all. The LG Voyager in Titanium is available at the same price for $149.99 after a $50 rebate and a new two-year contract.
We're a big fan of USB keys for their convenience, small form factor, and price per gigabyte. They're a quick, simple way to transport data through a connection that can be found on every modern computer, but what happens when companies take an already good idea and add extra features? This is exactly the case with the 4GB SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus.
Sandisk partnered with BeInSync to build their automatic online backup software into the $50 Cruzer Titanium Plus, so every time you plug the key into a computer with an Internet connection, all of your data is scanned and copied onto a remote server that can be accessed using a user-specified name and password. All data is secured using 256-bit SSL encryption and is available for download at any time. To save room, BeInSync compresses all information into .zip files. The first six months are free, but a renewal will set you back $29 per year.
We're always wary of added functions that require annual subscription fees to continue service, especially ones that are provided by a third party. The data that lives on a USB key usually only lasts until you get home to your desktop computer anyway, so is there really a legitimate need for online backups? It seems pretty redundant. The key is already expensive at $50, but the idea that Sandisk wants an extra $30 a year for this unnecessary service pushes the Cruzer's value over the ledge.
Have you ever heard the adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it?" Check out our SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus review for a perfect example.
(Credit:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory )
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) are using low-cost titanium powders to develop lightweight, corrosion-resistant, bulletproof alloys for military vehicles and what they hope to be other military and commercial applications.
The latest project is a titanium door for the next-generation Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, which is meant to replace the Humvee and other front-line conveyances.
"By using a titanium alloy for the door, BAE Systems was able to reduce the weight of its vehicle yet at the same time decrease the threat of armor-piercing rounds," said Bill Peter, a researcher in ORNL's Materials Science and Technology Division (PDF).
Titanium is the fourth most common structural metal around. There's more of it in the Earth's crust than all the nickel, copper, chromium, lead, tin, and zinc combined. However, the current multistep, high-temperature batch process method for refining the ore into metal is extremely expensive.
There's a push to change that. The new nonmelt processing technique employed by ORNL and partners could cut costs by up to 50 percent, making it feasible to use titanium alloys for brake rotors, artificial joint replacements, and armor and other defense applications, according to ORNL.
One of those partners is International Titanium Powders, a company that wants to use something called the Armstrong Process to produce titanium and titanium alloys at a cost and quantity it believes will radically change the market (PDF).
"Instead of using conventional melt processing to produce products from titanium powder, with the new method, the powders remain in their solid form during the entire procedure," Peter said. "This saves a tremendous amount of energy required for processing, greatly reduces the amount of scrap, and allows for new alloys and engineered composites."
Saving money on bulletproof doors is a start; now maybe they can find a cheaper way to make the Pentagon's gold-plated toilet seats.
(Credit:
Army Research Laboratory)
(Credit:
SanDisk)
As their capacities have grown, USB thumb drives have become the method of choice to transfer data between PCs for many consumers. Some have also started using them as backups for their hard drives.
The latest SanDisk Cruzer Titanium Plus flash drive takes the concept even one step further by making backups of its 4GB storage automatically to an online company, BeInSync. The $60 drive comes with six months of this online service, after which an annual fee of $30 is charged.
When the Cruzer is plugged into a connected machine, the contents are automatically synchronized both ways and the data can also be accessed via the Web site. According to BeInSync, communication to and from the device is secured using 256-bit SSL encryption to ensure that your private data remains private.
(Source: Crave Asia)
(Credit:
LG)
If it seems that most mobile phones are either silver or black, there's good reason: Most are silver or black. Then there's LG, which is trying to split the difference between the two with a new finish called "Titanium Black."
Perhaps the company thought its designers had taken the name of its "Shine" line too literally and wanted to tone it down a bit. LG says the metallic-gray casing is "edgier than black and more chic than silver," according to Luxurylaunches, so it will provide "the best of both looks and will allow both men and women to shine." That's not exactly what lept to mind when we saw it, but we like the change anyway. (No offense to the Raider Nation; we don't want to get on their bad side, for obvious reasons.)
Aside from the color it has the same features as the original Shine, including a 2-megapixel Schneider Kreuznach camera, MP3 player and scroll wheel. The good news is that it's scheduled for release at the end of this month; the bad news is that it'll be in Europe. Crave will just have to scheduled a trip to Paris to pick one up. If only the Concorde were still flying.
(Credit:
Kiwami Studio)
Aluminum is for foil. Stainless steel? Barbecues and razor blades. The only metal truly worthy of armoring your precious iPod Nano is titanium.
The "Re-Nano Factron" case by Kiwami Studio is made of the ultra-hardened substance, the type that's been used to protect everything from battlefield spy bots to keyboards and USB drives that can survive being run over by a car in the snow. Engadget says it's available in Japan for around $818--or about five times more than the Nano itself. Now that's what we call commitment.
(Credit:
SlashGear)
Slava Tyukalov is one busy inventor-slash-entrepreneur. Only a few months ago he generated tons of interest in his handmade wireless mouse, a beautiful creation of graphite, aluminum and Italian leather. Now SlashGear says he's come up with a USB drive that features an important addition: titanium.
Why? Because he apparently wanted to make it as close to indestructible as possible, being waterproof, anti-shock, anti-vibration and anti-static. (For a demonstration of its durability, check out the YouTube clip below.) We have just one question: Why are people so determined to abuse their poor USB drives anyway?
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