Bluetrek X3 Bluetooth Rugged Headset Review

Bluetrek X3 Bluetooth Rugged Headset Review Cradlepoint CTR500 Mobile Broadband Router Pinnacle picoStick USB DVB-T TV Tuner Palm drops Windows Phone Blur iPhone Tripod Epson Postcard Printer iTwinge iPhone Keyboard Video Demonstration HTC Leo Capacitive Screen Confirmed Windows Mobile 7 Launching in 2010 Nokia Braille Reader – SMS for Visually Impaired Bluetrek X3 Bluetooth Rugged Headset Review   We recently received a Bluetrek X3 bluetooth headset for review to test how it performs. The Bluetrek X3 is described as being splash proof, shock proof and dust resistant. It is designed to be rugged allowing it to be used in various weather conditions and still function correctly. Included in the box is the ear piece it's self which comes with a clip that goes around the ear. Several other sized clips are also provided so you can pick the most comfortable one to use. A USB wall charger can be found along with an in car lighter charger as well as a short and slightly rigid USB cable for charging on your computer or connecting to the lighter charging unit. There are just 3 buttons on the device to make it function. On the front of the headset is a button which you hold down to enable bluetooth to pair it with your phone. On the top side is a volume up and on the bottom side is a volume down button. Other than that, there are no other controls on the headset. Pairing the headset is simple and all you need to do is enable bluetooth on your phone, hit the search for devices button on your phone and make sure the headset is switched on too. The phone and headset will then be paired and all audio on the phone will then be diverted to the headset allowing you to make and receive calls hands free. Power wise, the X3 rugged headset has about 8 hours of talk time with 10 days of standby power. It weighs just 13g so sits very comfortably in the ear without you realising it's there. On the edge of the device is a small flap which pulls back to reveal a small USB connector. This port is used to charge the headset. Overall, an impressive headset witch good sound quality and built very well allowing it to handle the dodgy British weather comfortably. More details over at Bluetrek. Bluetrek X3 Bluetooth Rugged Headset Review   Cradlepoint CTR500 Mobile Broadband Router   Mobile broadband this last year has started to become quite popular. The ability to put a SIM card in a compatible laptop, or use a USB dongle has allowed people on the move to connect to the internet where ever they can pick up a 3G mobile phone signal. The Cradlepoint CTR500 takes things a step further by allowing a number of computers to connect to it and share the connection. This comes in handy for people on business trips or maybe even groups who want to work together sharing the same connection. The CTR500 connects up to EVDO and 3G networks and creates a wireless network for other computers to connect to it. You do need to connect a USB model to the device to connect to the web but once connected it allows up to 32 people to share the connection wirelessly. The CTR500 mobile broadband router can also be used with an option antenna for improving signal quality to get the most out of it. It supports multiple VPN passthroughs and for wireless security it has WEP at 64/128Bit as well as WPA and WPA2 encryption. The router costs $199 and is available from Cradlepoint Tech. Via: Redferret Cradlepoint CTR500 Mobile Broadband Router   Pinnacle picoStick USB DVB-T TV Tuner   This USB stick houses a DVB-T TV tuner. The DVB standard is widely used in Western Europe but is starting to grow throughout the world. To help with signal reception the USB TV tuner stick has a small flip antenna that you can either attach to the USB DVB-T tuner when needed, or use a cable to use it as a free standing antenna. Software is provided with the picoStick called TVCenter that allows digital video recording allowing you to save programs to watch later. Recordings can be stored in either MPEG-2, DivX or H.246 formats so that the files can be transferred to other media players. The picoStick is currently compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and is compatible with low power CPU's which includes netbooks and other similar sized devices. The minimum specification includes just 256MB of RAM and a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor. The picoStick goes on sale soon in Europe and will cost around $80 when launched. More details on the product page. Via: Everything USB and Engadget Pinnacle picoStick USB DVB-T TV Tuner   Palm drops Windows Phone   Palm have confirmed that Windows Phone (Windows Mobile) will not be used on any of their phones from now on. Instead, it will be working with it's own webOS only. This was confirmed by the Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein who said there will be no more devices with that OS installed from them. All development in the future will now focus on creating a better webOS. It also indicates that no other OS will get a look in either as Jon said… "Which means that going forward, our roadmap will include only Palm webOS-based devices." I'm not convinced it's the best strategy as it seems companies like HTC who create phones with multiple OS's will get a broader range of apps. However, for webOS users who like the operating system this is good news because Palm will focus all it's attention to making good devices based on 1 system rather than many. Via: Geeky Gadgets and Electric Pig Palm drops Windows Phone   Blur iPhone Tripod   Mobile phone cameras can be awkward to work with and unless you hold very still you often get a bad image. Mobile Mechatronics are wanting to tackle this problem and have created the Blur Tripod for the iPhone. The tripod comes with a tripod adapter, and a mini tripod and also requires that a $0.99 application is downloaded to the iPhone that ads a shutter delay mode allowing you to run in to the shot. The tripod and adapter cost $14.99 making the total just shy of $16. Other functions included in the application is a level phone setting making sure your phone is sitting on the tripod correctly as well as multiple shot variable delay settings. Via: SlipperBrick Blur iPhone Tripod   Epson Postcard Printer   According to Akihabara News, Japanese folk love postcards… a lot. For this reason a number of manufacturers create postcard printers designed to just print postcards. Epson is the latest to create one and have made the Address Expert E-800 and the smaller E-600 printers. Each printer is compatible with ether a PC or a Mac up to Windows 7 and OSX 10.6. They each have a resolution of 5760 x 1440 dots per inch and they have a 7″ LCD on them. The larger model, E-800, has a wireless keyboard and both models can be used as a Digital photo frame too. Both are compatible with PC and Mac (Windows 7 and OSX 10.6), has a 5760×1440 dpi resolution, and a nice 7" LCD. The only difference between them both is the wireless keyboard on the E-800. Both can also be used as Digital Picture frame as well. Epson Postcard Printer   iTwinge iPhone Keyboard Video Demonstration   A couple of days ago we mentioned the iTwinge which is a keyboard attachment for the iPhone. We were unsure at the time of how it works such as, does it just tap the keys on the screen or does it work with software and is an actual keyboard. A video demonstration of it working is now available and it reveals that power for the keyboard is taken from the iPhone. I assume at this point that it isn't somehow tapping the screen below as a user asks why it can't be made transparent which the company producing it says it has technology underneath that prevent that at the moment. The iTwinge is not as bad as I thought to be honest and although the user in the video only achieved 30 words per minute, it does look like it will allow typing quicker than that. iTwinge iPhone Keyboard Video Demonstration   HTC Leo Capacitive Screen Confirmed   Ai.rs have managed to get hold of a pre-production HTC Leo. The Leo is a Windows Phone which runs a 1GHz Snapdragon processor which should make it rather snappy. The HTC Leo has a huge 4.3 inch screen that is multitouch and capacitive. Not much new is confirmed on this phone except that the screen is capacitive. The amounts of RAM and ROM as well as connectivity have been known a while and are standard to what you would expect on a phone these days. The phone is quite large as seen in the comparison shots above, but for some reason it still looks like an amazing phone that many could easily look in to purchasing one. More pictures below with the promise of a video in the near future. Via: SlashGear and Ai.rs HTC Leo Capacitive Screen Confirmed   Windows Mobile 7 Launching in 2010   Windows Mobile 6.5 (Windows Phone) is just about to launch in a few weeks time on October 6th, but already there is talk of the next version of Windows Phone which is version 7. The new version should be available sometime next year and features more Social Networks integration. The Social Networking features of the Windows Phone will allow direct interaction between the phone and social networking so that when you load up the phone it is based at communicating with friends and keeping in contact more. Integration of news feeds will also be included which allows you to switch on the phone and see all the news and details you want right on the phone rather than having to search for them. Location based services will also play a big part which will allow the location of your friend to be shown on screen when he calls. Microsoft are calling the new features a "Mobile Social Platform" allowing website owners to tap in to the API and create applications and features geared at users. It sounds fantastic and if it works as good as it sounds then maybe Windows Phone could be one of the popular choices for next year. Via: MobileTechWorld, UberGizmo Windows Mobile 7 Launching in 2010   Nokia Braille Reader – SMS for Visually Impaired   Nokia have created a cool little app to assist those who are blind or visually impaired with reading text messages on their mobile phone. The Nokia Braille Reader application sits in the background and when a text message is received the application automatically loads up. When a part of the screen is tapped the message is then relayed to the user through a series of vibrations. When a dot is raised the phone vibrates sharply and when the dot is not raised a less forceful vibration is felt. Each dot is played one at a time with 6 dots creating each letter. The application was developed as a joint project between Nokia, Tampere University and the Finnish Federation of the visually impaired. The software doesn't require any specific hardware to run as it just uses a regular screen and the standard motor found in all mobile phones. Software wise it is based on the S60 5th Edition phones which allows it to be used on the Nokia N97, N97 Mini, 5800 XpressMusic, 5530, 5230 and the X6. More details are shown in the video below… The download is available for free over here with more details provided at Nokia's site here. Via: Engadget Nokia Braille Reader – SMS for Visually Impaired