Iklangadget.com - Information about Gadget

It was nearly six months ago when Samsung laid out their plan to manufacture an affordable, super-fast 256GB SSD by the end of the year. It sounded a little bit optimistic at the time, but as of today, they're here. Sort of. Samsung says that manufacturing has begun, but still hasn't let loose on the most important nugget: price. They have, however, elaborated a little bit on their claims of "disruptive" performance: the news SSDs will offer speed "analogous to having a 15,000rpm drive, without all of its size, noise, power and heating drawbacks." They also claim to have decreased the read/write speed gap to about 10% and dropped power consumption to a slight 1.1w. This all sounds great, it's cost that'll win the SSD war. [Akihabara]

Those new games that came with the 3.1 firmware are swell and all, but they're not deciding features. Well a strapping, brusque, heavily-armed young man has brought to our attention that the Checkers app contains a dummy 'Touch' option, leaving us a mysterious clue — to something. That something, while it could be new, touchy Zunes from the future, is more likely something else: either a bizarre example of the lazy porting of a mobile game or evidence that the planned integration of Zune software into Windows Mobile will extend past the music interface.

No matter what the reason behind this, one thing is very clear: Zune fans aren't exactly helping their favorite media player too much. Zune Tattoo Guy? Zune anal spew guy? Zune "I'll shoot you in the face if the next Zunes don't have touch" Guy? Try as you will, you can't peg this one on Ballmer. Video below and mildly NSFW for a gratuitous "Sup, bitches." [RyJones]

My BlackBerry Storm review ended up a lot more lukewarm than I would have liked, because of one problem: bugs. RIM's on top of the situation, though. They told us that the BlackBerry Storm would get an over-the-air software update "within weeks" to improve several aspects of the device - and I look forward to re-rating the phone when it does.

BlackBerries used to be known for their absolutely bulletproof reliability - they never shipped with bugs. But I think that RIM has now bit off more than they can chew. First with the BlackBerry Bold (if the fiasco where Orange took it off the shelves is to be believed), then with the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, now with this device, they've let products out of the gate just a little bit - a few weeks - before they were 100% ready.

I have to believe that's connected to the forking RIM OS platform. For years, they generally ran all of their devices on one OS and one platform. The Curve, Pearl and 8800 are actually all pretty much the same thing, and their software moved in lockstep. But now RIM has three platforms running in parallel: 4.5, for their older models; 4.6, for the Bold and Flip; and 4.7, for the Storm. Do they just not have the staff to QA all of those at once?

Senior Editor Wendy Sheehan pointed out to me that she thinks her iPhone is as buggy as our Storm was - it's just that the iPhone's bugs didn't appear during the initial review period. That may be the case. I very much look forward to updating our review based on the new software build.

Another day another Black Friday leak, this one courtesy of Staples! So what exciting things does the world's largest office supply chain have in store for us? Quite a few decent deals, if you're not afraid of rebates being invalidated. Here is some of what Staples has to offer, with a little asterix to warn you if it requires a rebate. Don't say I never did nothin' for ya. [Gotta Deal]

Brother MFC3360C All-In-One Printer - $29.98*

eMachines 19” Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor - $99.98

Netgear Wireless-N Router - $49.98

Western Digital My Book Essential 640GB External Hard Drive - $69.99

Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007 - $59.99 *

Kodak EasyShare C913 9MP Digital Camera w/ 1GB Card - $79.99
(And you get a free Canon photo printer too with any purchase of an advertised camera)

HP Pavilion 15.4" Dual-Core Laptop w/ 2GB, 120GB - $399.98
(Free HP printer included)

It's the worst thing about phone cameras (except for the image noise, poor low-light performance, desaturated colors and incessant motion blur): the picture delay. Scalado says they've managed to eliminate it by constantly recording and displaying actual JPG images of the frame in real time. In other words, when you take a picture, rather than calling the camera to snap a completely new hi-res image, the Scalado Camera Engine simply saves what you can already see. Popular sensor makers Aptina, OmniVision Samsung and MtekVision are already licensing with the tech, so your camera phone experience might become slightly more bearable before too long. [Slashphone]

Neuros, who built their reputation with weird, chunky (but wonderful) modular MP3 players, has long since moved exclusively to the home entertainment field. Their latest attempt at eroding the Apple TV's market share is the Link, a set-top streaming box that will pull video from a wide range of online TV sources — Hulu, NBC, ABC, etc. — as well as stream local audio and video content from any USB hard drive. As is always the case with Neuros set-tops, the Link's software is open source and ready for modification. This time, mercifully, that might not be the box's biggest draw.

With the Neuros.TV interface, the Link does something simple but spectacular. Instead of pushing you through a clumsy series of web portals, it gives you a simple, unified interface for browsing online video content. With out-of-the-box support for nearly any video codec (courtesy of mPlayer and VLC, mainly), a solid interface and an included wireless keyboard/controller, it's a capable machine. At $299 (or $249 without the keyboard), it'll be tough to take on the $229 Apple TV, which in addition to having an included local hard drive and access to iTunes, supports most of Neuros.TV's features though Boxee. Spec sheet below. [Neuros via Zatz]

Technical specifications

* 1080p H.264 video playback
* HDMI (max resolution 1920x1200, 1080p) output
* High-definition 6-channel Audio output
* Optical S/PDIF audio output
* Gigabit Ethernet
* 802.11 g/b WiFi, up to 54Mbps
* Lots of USB 2.0 High-speed Ports (6 external ones today)
* Housing: 300mm x 90mm x 326mm (11.8" x 3.5" x 12.8")
* Noise: under 27dB
* Controller: 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard trackball controller
* Software:
o Seamless integration with Neuros.TV, a free service that lets you organize and watch Internet TV on your TV
o Neuros distribution of Ubuntu 8.10
o Open-source video players (MPlayer, VLC, Xine). A comprehensive list of formats, containers and media can be found on the above websites.

The James Bond series has always had gushing reviews of their gadgety goodness, even before Jesus' take on Quantum of Solace. This January 1966 article, “James Bond's Weird World of Inventions” look backs to the time when Sean Connery was filling 007's shoes. Remember the Disco Volante, the110-foot hydrofoil floating fortress? How about the Bell jet-pack Bond uses in the opening scenes of Thunderball?

Most of the infernal devices never existed in the original Ian Fleming stories. “Our only excuse for using them” says screenwriter Richard Maibaum, “is that such devices are available and cry out to be buckled onto James Bond’s back.”

Interestingly enough, while most of the tech found in Quantum of Solace can possibly be made, Thunderball's $500,000 budget imagined up a whole slew of inventions that had never been seen before. Have movie goers become addicted to portrayals of Bond more rooted in reality, or are our gadgets so advanced now that we don't have to make them up? [Modern Mechanix via Neatorama]

You know what sucks? The line at sports venues when you're waiting for disgruntled employees behind a bar to pour out overpriced Bud Lights for thirty or so already drunken meatheads in front of you. While there's not much you can do to make the meatheads disappear, the Scotsman Trufill Beverage Dispenser can at least get rid of most of the line (and some of the angry pourers) by raining out a whopping 10 pints of beer in just 10 seconds.

The system works using a special cup, which allows drinks to be filled from the bottom rather than the top. For drinks that require ice, an added ice dispenser dumps cubes in from the top while the drink is being filled from the bottom. According to the company, fast pour times with almost no spill mean that the Trufill could end up saving 75 percent to 80 percent on labor costs. Though judging by how much the price of beer goes at Yankee Stadium, I doubt that'll ever translate onto the consumer's receipts. [Oh Gizmo!]

For all you Apple TV users out there, Apple's now released firmware version 2.3. The patch, downloadable through the media hub's built in updater, now lets users stream music from AirTunes to any speakers connected to an Airport Express or other Apple TVs in the house. You'll also get the ability to use third-party remotes, and make playlists that include a mixture of audio and video formats. [Apple Insider]

Looking for a stress ball that's sure to anger the hordes of PETA? Here's one shaped like a chicken that crows in pain when you squeeze, hit or shake it. Let the chicken have it whenever work's got you down and it'll be sure to make you feel all plucky again. This fun little toy even comes in three sizes, priced $13.90 for a large, $9.90 for a medium and $6.90 for a small, so that you can choke different sizes of chicken depending on where you are and how much stress you need to release. [Brando]