Gadget news

Newsweek's Levy adds to iPhone buzz, confirms Gates alien rumors

Last night, a mixed bag of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, publicists, and geeks flocked to a lecture hall at Manhattan's Cooper Union for the 2006 year-end edition of the NY Tech Meetup, hosted by Meetup founder Scott Heiferman himself. Okay, it wasn't really a mixed bag, as I was one of about a dozen females in the room. (CNET TV's Chris Parker taught me that the proper term for such a situation is "brodeo.")

Usually the NY Tech meetup consists of six five-minute presentations by local entrepreneurs. But last night's event had a special appearance … Read more

More stuff to Crave

We dredged the series of tubes for you! Here's some other Craveable stuff that's going on around the Web.

--GAMING: Strengthen that Wiimote strap (Kotaku)

--JUICY GOSSIP: Is Apple going gaming with HDTVs, iTunes Video Game Store? (CrunchGear)

--POLICE BLOTTER: 12-year-old boy arrested for opening Game Boy before Christmas (GameLife)

--GADGETRY: Mi-Flower (Outblush)

--FUTURISTIC STUFF: Interactive Pillows (Information Aesthetics)

--FOLLOW-UP: Colbert vs. the Decemberists (Stereogum, see CNET News.com coverage here)

How many iPods are iLemons?

The Apple iPod is, far and away, the most popular MP3 player on the market--less a product and more a way of life for many people. But just how reliable a product is it? That's the question posed by Nick Wingfield's article in today's Wall Street Journal. "When iPods Die" (which, like most WSJ content, is locked behind the paper's subscriber firewall) compiles some compelling iPod war stories. Among the frustrated 'Pod users chronicled is Tom Westrup of Austin, Texas, who--after suffering from repeated freeze-ups during playback--is currently awaiting his fifth replacement iPod. There'… Read more

Today: Toshiba 100GB drive. Tomorrow: new iPod?

Toshiba announced a new 100GB model of its 1.8-inch hard drive on Tuesday. And although Apple Computer strenuously declines to comment on what it calls rumor and speculation, it doesn't take a genius to extrapolate that a 100GB iPod model might follow suit.

Most recently, Apple added an 80GB version of its video iPod in September.

Products using the new drives are expected to go on sale in the first quarter of 2007, the Toshiba representative said.

Toshiba's new drives, like predecessors, use two platters to store data and perpendicular recording technology to increase the amount of … Read more

More stuff to Crave

We dredged the series of tubes for you! Here's some other Craveable stuff that's going on around the Web.

--GREEN TECH: Panasonic Eco-house on display in Tokyo (Treehugger)

--CONSUMERISM: Target and designer Tord Boontje illuminate Union Square (PSFK)**

--END-OF-YEARNESS: CrunchGear's best of 2006 (CrunchGear)

--GAMING: Fake Wii ad more effective than real Wii ads (Best Week Ever)

--SUBCULTURES: Nerd Life For Sale (coin-op)

--NEWS: Fast-Food Self Service Kiosks Coming, Silicon Lifeforms Taking Over World (Gizmodo)

--GAMING: Nintendo family tree T-shirt (Uncrate)

--ONLY IN NEW YORK: At NYC's Blip Festival, teaching old tech new tricks (CNET News.… Read more

Get your sales story straight, Sony

Sony says holiday sales have been better than expected this season.

Sony Electronics President and Chief Operating Officer Stan Glasgow said Monday during a media roundtable in New York that this was due to his company's decision to avoid deeply discounting its products on Black Friday, according to a Reuters report.

"We are not a promotional company--Sony is a premium brand and we don't become the loss leaders in the industry," Glasgow said. "We generally don't expect to have a very good Thanksgiving or just-after Thanksgiving. It's been better than we expected and … Read more

Lexar releases Big Brother-enabled USB drives

When you hear Los Alamos National Laboratory is disabling its computers' USB ports to prevent people from toting away flash memory drives filled with classified nuclear weapons information, it's not a stretch to imagine that there might be a market for thumb drives with a bit of security.

Enter Lexar's SAFE PSD S1100, a product line announced Monday geared for use at corporate or government customer sites where there's a need to keep the lid on sensitive data.

The drives offer built-in 256-bit file encryption and a mandatory password to gain access to the data. The encryption … Read more

Musical toothbrush sings Kelly Clarkson

A recent study claimed that cows produce more milk when listening to music. Will American kids practice better dental hygiene if they have a musical toothbrush? Hasbro is willing to give it a shot.

After spending about two years developing the product, the company has released a toothbrush that plays two-minute excerpts of songs. And it's not elevator music. Hasbro has been working with some of the big record labels, including Interscope Records, Sony-BMG and EMI-Capital Records. Songs such as Let's Get It Started by the Black Eyed Peas, as well as hits from Kelly Clarkson, Destiny's … Read more

Digg founder dishes iPhone specs

Kevin Rose might be getting a phone call from Steve Jobs today.

On the latest espisode of his weekly Diggnation podcast with Alex Albrecht, Rose claimed--in between swigs of what appears to be a 24-ounce bottle of the Crave-approved Racer 5 IPA from Bear Republic--to have the dirt on Apple's long-rumored iPhone combination cell phone/iPod device. There's no shortage of blogs and Apple watchers predicting the imminent arrival of the iPhone, but MacRumors.com notes that Rose accurately predicted the news from last January's Macworld and also called the iPod Nano, so we're willing to … Read more