AH - New ELECTRONIC and GADGETS

Pink doesn’t yield its ground as arguably the gadgets’ favorite color, so Nokia turned out its new C3 cell phone in hot pink. Yet those who believe that this color is overplayed or want a better color match to their outfits can get the new Nokia in slate gray or golden white. Nowadays a full QWERTY keyboard is becoming a must for all serious cell phones , and Nokia C3 is the first Series 40 headset to offer you one. Social networking capabilities are also heavily featured, offering easy straightaway access to the most popular networking sites and easy performance in terms of uploading pictures, adding comments, viewing updates and change your status on Facebook and Twitter. Other features include Instant Messaging, Wi-Fi connectivity and, of course, Nokia’s own Ovi services complete with mail and chat. The headset has a 2.4-inch display and supports 8GB external memory. Out sometime in the end of spring – beginning of summer, Nokia C3 is announced to go for EUR90.

Looking for gadgets to take better care of your home audio sound? Bang & Olufsen will soon be here with a new word in subwoofers. Called BeoLab 11 , it is expected to hit North America within the next month. Very different from the too-well-known square box tucked away in some nook, the BeoLab 11 comes in two stylish speakers with 6.5-inch drivers which are to face one another providing an acoustic balance. It takes off much of the vibration, that allows their placing practically anywhere in the room, and not only on the floor. According to the company’s information, BeoLab 11 guarantees an altogether richer sound due to the fact that it takes over the reproduction of all the low frequencies, leaving the smaller loudspeakers to deal with only upper bass, midrange and treble.

Yamaha has just unveiled three high-quality in-ear headphones – EPH-20, EPH-30 and EPH-50 – each with three ear buds, a different driver unit, and allowing the customer to choose from a range of sizes and colors according to his or her preferences. Yamaha EPH-20 comes in black, reddish-brown, indigo blue, lime green, and hot pink colors with a 10.7mm driver unit. EPH-30’s driver unit is 9mm, the choice of colors is limited to the classic black or white; this set features a function that drowns external noises. Advertized as a professional-quality set, EPH-50 is equipped with a 13.6mm sound driver and a 1/4-inch plug adapter for home stereo use. All the three new Yamahas have durable construction (EPH-50 made extra durable) and boast of high efficiency that goes easy on mp3 batteries. They use dynamic type sound rivers on 20~21,000Hz frequency response.

t’s natural for women to shun weighing scales even if they are fit and slim – this gadget holds the reputation of the bearer of unwelcome news for too long a standing! But after all is said and done, can a woman really afford not owning one? You can keep it out of sight of everybody, but now and then there will come a time when you must know the truth. And if the truth is to be told, it’s better be told pleasantly – by something as cute as Hello Kitty Bathroom Scale. The ever-conquering pink and hearts will augment your pleasure in the figure or take your mind off it if it’s not quite what you wanted to see for $62. Smile while you are checking your weight !

Here comes the latest Chinese idea about smartphones – a typical cell phone with a somewhat drab appearance, gray and common-looking, but you know what, it’s just a kind of a lid. Once opened, we get a golden gadget with a touchscreen strewn with colorful icons. On second thoughts, this double-layer handset doesn’t come. Manufactured by some obscure Chinese company that chose to remain anonymous, it uses the GSM 900/1800 band and thus will be no use in the States or in Canada. Of course it can be tempting to get it for just $231 (retail, wholesale comes a lot cheaper, if you deal in handsets) if you travel in places where you will be able to use it. Who knows, it may be the ultimate all-winning model that will be used even in the open space!

When Microsoft wished to customize the Xbox gaming console they must have wanted it to scintillate from the start, for they approached CrystalRoc for the design. The outcome of this co-operation is an Xbox studded all over with more than 11 thousand Swarovski crystals. It couldn’t scintillate more! The creation of this glittering beauty took three full days. The number of Swarovski-decorated consoles is reported to be very limited.

Since we fell into the habit of carrying our music with us everywhere, gadgets that are light, user-friendly, and provide quality sound have become indispensable. And if they help us dispose of all those wires endlessly trailing and catching at things – and which, incidentally, provide no adornment to our outfits – it’s just like the answer to prayers. This kind of answer was furnished by designers Kang Yong Soo and Kim Ji Hee and it is called the Bluetooth speakers . The device is a U-shaped structure of two speakers that are easily portable and provide Bluetoothwise connection to any of your player or cell phone. Amplified sound with a 2-watt output should give us fair quality. The distantly urban in design and slightly hooky U can at will be disconnected and placed apart when you get home and strive for better acoustics.

The collection of the world’s most expensive gadgets , accessories, devices and what-nots created by UK-based Stuart Hughes (whose ornamentation abilities go far beyond an ordinary man’s purse) has been augmented by a stunningly beautiful MacBook laptop . Before you go to Hughes’s official site to check it out, here are a few details that may interest you. The production of the MacBook Air Supreme Ice Edition , as it is called, used up an impressive amount of solid platinum (about 2,500 grams for the front) and over 50 22.5ct IF Flawless diamonds (shaping the Apple logo). Polished aluminum finish adds the Air Supreme a quiet elegance and a feeling of lightness. Naturally it is a limited edition, according to the great Stuart Hughes himself there are only 10 laptops to go round, each bearing a price tag of £139,995 (appr. $208,999).

Gigiway ’s recent incomparable gift to music learners (oh, all music specialists) is called the Piano and Violin Learning Pen . An elegant though thickish affair with an in-built speaker at the end, it is no pen at all, but a hand scanner to read your music for you. What you do is point the gadget pen-wise at a music passage and the ingenious device will play it for you, several times over and over, if necessary. You can «ask» it to slow down the pace at the most complicated places in the notation while you are letting it sink in properly. It can also explain the meaning of symbols. There are two models available, GP001 and GP002, equipped with 1G memory card where you can store playbacks of about 10 music books.

There may be quite a number of outfits that will be marred into burlesque by donning these glasses , but this is not your fashion shop, it’s bona fide stuff for 3D vision from Samsung. The gray narrowish ones are the SSG-2100AB going for $149.99, the black ones looking very very serious are the for $199.99; and there are two smaller SSG-2200KR for $179.99 in children colors of pink and blue with rechargeable batteries. No release date yet, but those gates to the 3D world can be pre-ordered on Amazon right now.

Your nose as a sensor telling you of the state of your milk can now be replaced by a milk jug that knows exactly whether you can rely on the milk being fresh. The idea to supply us with a new sensor instead of the long-serving (or long-suffering) in-built one belongs to designer Oliver Newberry, who stuffed a milk jug with high technology topped with an HP sensor that estimates the acidity of the milk. An LCD screen on the jug changes “Fresh” to “Sour” as soon as the acidity gets too high. Besides it is fitted with an alarm system. Now just in case an idea flashes across your mind that this sort of thing is fairly useless, you should know that British statistics show 330,000 tons of milk gets rejected from the kitchen table on the suspicion that it is off. Cravendale, the milk company that came up with the wastage figure, hails the new gadget that is supposed to “take the guess work out of determining when your milk has soured.” One wonders if the jug technology can be adjusted ...

It is not a poetic turn of phrase, but an actual concept from The Emotional Lab called the Moonwatch . The new watch does not show the time but the current phase of the moon. Shrugged at by some, it will be very useful for astrologers and those moon-influenced individuals who like to know what moon day it is.

Mobiado expanded it mobile phone line with Classic 712 GCB. The phone’s casing uses 24-carat gold, sapphire crystals and stainless steel. The frame is machined from brass and the lettering – Mobiado logo and keypad symbols – is hand painted. Small screws holding the phone’s parts together are made of gold. Mobiado Classic 712 GCB was traditionally built around one of Nokia’s mode’s (in all probability, it’s 6700). The gadget comes with 2.2” TFT-display with 320×240 resolution (QVGA), 5 megapixel flash camera with video function, 1.17 GB storage space, GPS with A-GPS support, noise reduction system based on two speakers, Bluetooth and music player that supports AMR, MID, MP3, MP4, M4A, WMA and AAC.

The new Thanko’s mouse is one of those that have given up on being mousey and play with diverse appearances. It looks like a paw – maybe not quite a cat’s, but feline, sure enough. Its specifications include compatibility with Windows XP, Windows 7 or Mac OS X (it can also be connected to the old USB 1.1 interface), 800 dpi resolution and a good deal of snuggliness The Pow Mouse is available in Japan for around $16, measures 85 x 120 x 35 mm, weighs 20 gr. Unfortunately the design doesn’t support a wheel so you will have to od without scrolling.

Computers, cell phones, home accessories have been overwhelmed by fashion since almost time immemorial, and if there was a gadget that managed to stay away from the onrush of pink-dominated designs it was maybe PSP s. So now Sony , cooperating with designer Jill Stuart, broke fresh grounds by launching the “Jill Stuart Sweet Limited Package”, a special edition console done in pink. It has already been on the Japanese markets for a week and retails for $230. The PlayStation Portable in this limited edition set is of the softest pastel hues and goes with a pink cleaning cloth and a pouch whose strap is beautifully done in beaded pearls. There is also a pink case carrying a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo.

Vertu goes Japanese with its beautiful Signature Kissho Collection . It is a limited edition comprising four handsets with unique designs for every season and a unique name. You can buy Daigu, Kinko, Kikusui or Nanten (from spring on) depending on your favorite season. The collection was prepared expressly against the first anniversary of the Vertu Tokyo store – Vertu Ginza. The handsets were designed by Japanese artist Kazumi Murose who specializes in makie lacquer technique. Each of the four Kissho handsets will be available at the price of 20 million yen or about $215,000.

Givori , a unique mobile phone designer, unveiled new its new collection, Cherie. This exclusive retro-collection is produced on Nokia 8800 Carbon and BlackBerry 9700 Onyx. Besides other interesting elements, Cherie stands out by using special vintage Swarovski crystals that are no longer produced by the Austrian company. Cherie phones come with crystal-encrusted headset, nice compact mirror and hand-crafted pouch adorned with green taffeta and lace. The collection will be available as limited edition of 50 phones .

The story of an one-hand keyboard replacement goes back to the year 1968, when Doug Engelbart came up with a small five-key device that looked like the piano’s attempt to go digital. Characters were entered by playing chords… sorry, punching certain combinations of keys. As we know, this kind of musician’s keyboard failed to crush the original thing with rows and rows of qwertys. It doesn’t mean one can’t make another go, pondered designer Erik Campbell; it’s just that not all people like to play the piano. While a gadget along the lines of a mouse might gain popularity! And he conceived of something that all but brought the word fish into the world of computers. His is a jellyfish type of a five-key keyboard, definitely more gay in terms of color, and made to fit under your palm. As long as you remember all the button combinations, you can easily emulate everything your bigger keyboard can do. Now does it sound exciting to have a red jellyfish around your PC or convenien...

Among the exhibits at the Basel World watch fair soon to open in Switzerland there is expected a quaint intermixture of a 21-st century cell phone and a 20-century Swiss mechanical watch. The ingenious gadget is called the Celsius X-VI-II’s mechanical cell phone and there are 547 mechanical parts, some of which are visible working away right under the watch face. The watch was created unique using a patented unique Remontage Papillon mechanism topped with a butterfly-like device whose wings spread out as it gets activated. The hinge of the phone carries a tourbillion. The Celsius X-VI-II is wholly mechanical, powering from human energy.

Aliph , the creator of Jawbone Bluetooth headsets that gained their share of fame, showed a great ability for development by the latest release, Jawbone ICON, only a few days old. Without undue modesty Aliph describes it as “the first truly intelligent Bluetooth headset ”. Of course, we long to know what features bear out the bold statement. First of all, it is the MyTALK platform, a cool device allowing for plenty of customization. This Internet browsing tool can update your Jawbone ICON . MyTALK DialApps gives direct access to favorite services with an easy directory assistance, services; voice-to-SMS and voice dial are supported. MyTALK AudioApps helps choose the voice and the language that the information will be delivered in; English, French, Spanish and German are supported. A tool rather bombastically called Simultaneous Multipoint provides the ability of using two phones to switch between two calls and pairing with as many as eight devices. Another aptly named feature is t...

Liverpool-based jeweler Stuart Hughes has come up with another luxury gadget to cater for the rich and the stylish – iPod Supreme Rose Gold Limited Edition, only 10 handsets of which are available at the price of £59,995, about 95,000 in US dollars. Created on the design of the Apple iPod Classic, it bears proudly the Apple logo laid out impressively from 53 VVS1 color-F diamonds. iPod Supreme Rose Gold is made from 263 grams of 18ct solid rose gold. More VVS1 color-F diamonds of 3.4ct adorn the main navigation button whose body is made from platinum.

Jean Paul Gaultier has come up with an outstanding Valentine’s Day gift idea . Everybody is quite familiar and fascinated with original bottle for Le Male fragrance that made a revolution on the perfume market at its time. Now the recognizable stripped male torso has turned into a comfortable device – a flash drive .

Japanese designers encouraged all lovers to trust each other even more and invented a chip that can effortlessly track the location of your partner. The chip is built in the Onyx silver pendant. Supposedly, a man can make this gift to his woman to know where she is at any time. And the woman, as the designers believe, should be exited at this gadget, not leaving an inch of personal space for her.

If you and your loved one like to leave each other love messages or to-do lists, you’d definitely love to have Digital Video Memo . This gadget allows to leave sound and video messages to your family. The device is ultimately simple to use. You just fix the gadget with a magnet holder on a vertical surface (like on a fridge door), then push record button and leave your message, looking at a tiny built-in camera. Your love confession or shopping memo can be viewed on a small display.

If your loved one spends most of his time working, buy him a mini digital photo frame with 1.5 inch display for a gift . It is so small that can be carried on a keychain. Anytime he feels lonely he may look through a digital photo album you will lovingly compile for him. The digital photo frame can store up to one hundred photos so it will remind your loved one of you, your pet, your mom and many other close people he can’t live without.

Pink , this soft, cheerful, and inspiring color, is still very much in, and new gadgets keep appearing in pink – like this one. Minuet is a girlishly cute watch , and if it looks somewhat biggish, it has good reasons to, for it has two integrated features, an MP3 player and a voice recorder. It supports MP3, WMA and WAV music formats and records voice in WAV. A common USB cable will help you connect your watch (a stainless steel case with pink faux leather strap!) to your computer and download up to 4GB of the music you would like to listen to on the go. Or, once we mentioned it, any digital file. While you are doing that, Minuet will be recharging via USB. The Minuet carries a Japan Citizen MIYOTA 2035 mechanism inside and has controls on both sides. The Li-Ion battery takes approximately 1.5 hours to recharge which will give you up to 9 playback hours. The earphones are included. EUR 28.78 is what you pay for this new spot of pink on you.