Gadgets

Embarrass your friends, win a camera

As if snapping humiliating pics of your pals wasn't fun enough, now you can score a camera phone for those embarassing shots.

As part of a campaign to launch its K300i phone, Sony Ericcson is sponsoring an embarrassing-photo contest, reports Softpedia.

Head over to Shame Academy to get the rules of the game: "Each picture shown on the site can be rated on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being dull (think graduation picture/photo of your gran's cat), and 10 being side-splittingly, rib-crackingly hilarious. Or shameful, painful or just plain wrong (for instance, a … Read more

Blu-ray disc hits 100GB

TDK has developed a prototype Blu-ray disc that can store twice as much data as current iterations of the next-generation DVD format--and record it twice as fast.

PC World reports that the 100GB disc, unveiled at a TDK exhibition in Tokyo this week, can record data at 72 megabits per second, double the 36 mbps rate of current Blu-ray discs. To achieve the higher capacity, TDK added two additional recording layers to the disc to take it up to four layers.

TDK's announcement comes on the heels of last week's news that Toshiba has created a three-layer … Read more

Stefani designs digicam for fans

Chart-topping pop singer Gwen Stefani, often described as a style icon, has gone and designed a digicam.

The limited-edition (only 3,000 produced) HP Photosmart R607 Harajuku Lovers Digital Camera by Gwen Stefani is turquoise and white with maroon-colored accents including hearts and Japanese kanji and katakana characters. The camera retails for $249 and features extras including a carrying case and charms designed by the singer, as well as a DVD with a Gwen interview, remix track, screensaver and images. The title of Stefani's solo debut, "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." adorns the gadget.

Needless to say, this … Read more

iPod cases for the preppy set

If you like to take your iPod sailing, you might want to know that preppy-clothing retailer J.Crew has come out with its own MP3 cases.

A cotton patchwork plaid madras case trimmed with leather runs $29.50. Another madras case--which one savvy blogger says looks "suspiciously like the pattern on the dishes my grandmother used to set out when company was coming"--goes for $24.

J.Crew has not yet come out with monogrammed cases or little argyle sweaters to tie around the iPod's neck.

Man sets texting record

Not that the guy has too much time on his hands or anything, but Deepak Sharma of Ludhiana, India, has gotten his name registered in the Guinness Book of World Records for sending 182,689 text messages a month, notes gizmo hub Engadget.

That would be, oh, something in the neighborhood of 6,000 messages a day, 253 an hour, 4.2 a minute or a new one every 14 seconds. Which leaves Sharma just enough time get in a quick wrist exercise every 12 hours or so.

Sharma aims to increase his messages to 300,000 in the coming … Read more

'Gremlin' foils electric car's speed quest

On the road to a speed record, a cigar-shaped electric car has been bested by a gremlin.

No, not the trapezoidal AMC compact from the 1970s. "It's an electrical gremlin," said Colin Fallows, a member of the British team aiming to break the existing record. That's the word from the stretch of Nevada highway where the E-motion vehicle was to be put through its paces, according to the Associated Press.

Fallows, the car's designer, and driver Mark Newby had hoped to make their high-speed run Thursday, but ran into weather and mechanical problems. The effort … Read more

Amazon.com lists PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager

As of Thursday afternoon, online retailer Amazon.com is already listing PalmOne's next handheld device, which features a hard drive. According to the site, the PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager is not currently available. Sources tell us the device will be introduced on May 18.

Specifications on Amazon indicate the device will come with a 416MHz XScale processor and 320-by-480-pixel color display. Clicking on the order link says Amazon's price is $499.88.

Movie theaters take on DVR traits

Now moviegoers can skip the 10 to 15 minutes of ads that traditionally run before the feature presentations. Loews Cineplex will begin publicizing the actual start times of movies, the company announced earlier this week. The move was partly in response to customer feedback, as well as a bill introduced by Connecticut lawmakers.

Starting May 13 in Connecticut, movie listings will note that movies will start 10 to 15 minutes after the published showtime. Movie listings in markets nationwide will have the same information over the next month. Loews expects viewers to still arrive early to buy refreshments and pick … Read more

Shuffle grabs 58% of flash player market

Judging by the proliferation of iPod Shuffles you see bopping around these days, it's no surprise: Apple Computer's flash-based digital media player, out for less than six months, is gaining market share fast.

According to numbers from The NPD Group, the Shuffle has grabbed a 58 percent share of the flash-based digital media player market, up from 43 percent in February.

Merrill Lynch analyst Steven Milunovich called the 58 percent number a "stunning figure."

Overall, Apple had a 74.8 percent share of the total MP3 market in March, thanks to its hard-drive iPods, which claim … Read more