Spy Gadget No. 1: Camera Sunglasses

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

There are priceless moments that are never caught on cam because well, for one you don't have a camera and another thing, it happened too fast that the event just "flashed before your eyes" These kind of things happen so often that you just wish your eyes has a built-in camera. Well apparently you're not the only one who thought so. Someone thought about the same thing and made a gadget out of that concept.

Introducing the 1.3 Megapixel Spy Camera Sunglasses! These sunglasses can capture images with a resolution of 1280x1024 . Pretty big huh? Considering these images are taken from a pair of sunglasses, that resolution ain't half bad. To capture a sneaky picture, you use an RF remote control for stealth.

As for the material, do not worry these sunglasses won't cramp your style. These are designed to function as sunglasses and as a camera too, not the other way around. So its first and foremost function is to look cool and protect your eyes from the sun. High-quality lightweight frame material and UV400 polarized flip-up lens make up this spy-gadget like sunglasses.

The camera part is powered by batteries and can last until 9 hours on standby. However, you can't go all trigger-happy and shoot a montage of pictures since this camera can only take 1 photo per minute. So how do you transfer the pictures from your nifty gadget and upload it in the Internet? This gadget comes with a USB 2.0 interface via a standard Mini USB port.

In addition to all these features, this gadget also allows you to play and listen to MP3s via strategically located earbuds. If you don't want to listen to music you can always unhook it out of the way.

With the Camera Sunglasses (they really should think of another name for this) you can take photos before it flashes right past your eyes. Well what do you know, a gadget that makes you look cool AND captures fleeting moments!

Webdesign Blog Layouting: 3-column VS 2-column

Monday, May 12, 2008

When I was in high school, the blogs I made had the usual 2-column webdesign layout. Usually, navigation goes to the left and content takes the center space. All ads if there were any, are put in the left sidebar and all content goes right smack in the middle. Sometimes I change the location of the sidebar from left to right but the fact remains that I only have 2 columns. Then when I got older and was able to research on more layouts I read that 3-column blog layouts are like the Holy Grail of blog layouts.

I wanted to find out why and I came to these conclusions:

1. Widgets. Widgets. More Widgets. Bloggers want to put as much clutter in their blog as possible. Technorati tags, blog roll, random awards, blog polls... you name it, they want it. It has become some sort of status symbol to have as much "bling" in your blog as possible. And 3 columns allow you more space at first glance without scrolling down.

2. Centered content. When you have another sidebar your text doesn't overstretch. If text is overstretched, the eyes will have a hard time moving across the page and most likely the person wouldn't take time to read the whole thing. Having two columns reduces the scattered impression your blog has.

3. Extending Sidebar. Face it, nothing looks uglier than a sidebar that extends far because of a long content. Having two sidebar minimizes that.

However, these doesn't mean that 3-column layouts are THE layout holy grail and that everyone should follow it. It still depends on your taste and what works for you. 2-columns also has its pros and cons. The key here is determining what works for your blog. Do you like your readers to focus on the center content rather left to right? Or would you rather have your readers view your site like they're reading a book? Once you have this question answered, you can design your blog in the way you see fit.

Blackberry 9000: Living up to the hype?



When it comes to phones, Blackberry is top of the elite gadget chain. Blackberry doesn't have that many users unlike the major players in the cellphone industry such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson but Blackberry does take pride in not only it's quality (completely reflecting this is its price) but it's high usability functions. Blackberry completely transcends standard phone gadget quality by combining PDA functions and phone functions. It doesn't have touch screen capabilities but Blackberry makes up for it with its reinforced screen for durability.

The highly rumored Blackberry 9000 has finally been out on the market and the challenge now begins whether it is worth all the talk everyone made over it. In a world where happiness is derived from gizmos and gadgets, where does Blackberry Bold 9000 stand?

In a quick rundown here is what Blackberry BOLD (I just love saying that) 9000 has to offer:

(from: GSM Arena)

The new Blackberry Bold features a large TFT display with the same half-VGA resolution as the Apple iPhone's - 480 x 320 pixels. The Bold messenger packs in a new full QWERTY keyboard and runs on the latest Blackberry OS 4.6.

The Blackberry Bold makes use of a 624MHz processor and 1GB of on-board storage. It also has a microSD memory card slot with full support for 8GB microSDHC cards and a promise for 16GB support, one such large capacity cards become market available.

Identical to Blackberry 8830 in terms of size, the new Blackberry Bold is the allegedly the first Blackberry smartphone to feature tri-band HSDPA support besides the quad-band GSM/EDGE one. The Blackberry Bold is definitely is packed with goodies as it also flaunts an integrated GPS receiver and Wi-Fi.

A pair of stereo speakers, a 2 megapixel camera with LED flash, Bluetooth and a USB port all fill up the feature set.


A lot of the people who waited with bated breath on the release of Blackberry 9000 (and their excitement just get fueled a lot more by rumors creeping in on each other) seem to be disheartened by the Blackberry BOLD 9000 at first glance. They'd be like "This is it? THIS IS IT?!" But there is more to the features of this phone than what one would normally see. It's the little things that make its use more enjoyable. The display, first and foremost is awesome! I never imagined it to be that clean and crisp.

As expected, Blackberry BOLD 9000 is expected to deliver huge tasks. It's prepping up the user for such tasks by it's 16GB memory promise. (via micro SD card of course) There really is nothing bad to say about Blackberry BOLD at least not yet. Few people have gotten their hands on it and as of now, all we can do is wait for this gadget to prove itself to us.

Wii Gadget Wonder: The Rifle!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Wii releases yet another gadget for their console. It's... ta-dah!! The Wii Rifle! Now, I'm a big fan of shooting games. The first shooting game I ever played was on arcade. It was Time Crisis and I remember being inexplicably annoyed whenever the gun doesn't shoot and point accurately. I mean, what's the whole point of a shooting game if you miss your target because of your gun? In shooting games, your main gadget is your gun. It's your life. So it has to do its job properly.

Wii's Rifle looks cool and sleek

Wii's Rifle isn't another controller altogether. To use it you have to place the usual Wii controller in front of the gun and the Nunchuck as a handle. This makes up the whole gun. It actually looks pretty cool and sleek. This gadget promises to make the Wii gaming experience a lot more rewarding for shooting freaks like me. However this latest addition to the Wii gizmo series, makes me think, just how many Wii shooting games are there for us to enjoy?

If Wii is willing to innovate this much then isn't it just natural that the games come pouring in too? Sure, their appeal is not just to the young'uns. Heck, even Queen Elizabeth is caught to be enjoying Wii. But to have a wider audience they have to introduce more games to their system. The latest Wii gadget certainly piqued my interest. But for me to be hooked on it, they have to give me awesome games first.

I wonder when Devil May Cry will come out on Wii. I bet when that game comes out, it will be wicked awesome! Imagine doing all the Dante moves with your wii-mote and and possibly going around breaking an ankle or two while you're at it. That'll be cool.

The Wii Rifle Gadget stands at $16.58