iPod, iTunes, iPhone and more Gadgets

Worried your kids haven’t been completely indoctrinated with the Disney universe and its philosophy of watch, buy, and buy? Well fear not, parents, because the cartoon-kingpin has got your back (and your pocketbook). If your tweens have been looking for something to do, and playing stickball just ain’t cuttin’ the mustard, maybe they need the Disney Flix Video Camera (pictured), a tween-targeted digital video camera that comes bundled with Disney Director, which lets the little rapscallions star in their own Disney movie. The company is also offering LCD TVs, such as the 15-inch High School Musical model, which resembles a locker and rocks 1024 x 768 resolution (the displays also come in Disney Princess, Hannah Montana, and Pirates of the Caribbean motifs). Additionally, the cartoon-factory is offering docks for use with your iPod which feature alarm clocks and AM/FM tuners, though the Hannah Montana version does double duty as a guitar amp — presumably to use with your Disney guitar. All the products will be available sometime this Fall, but good luck getting your kids to wait patiently.

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Nah, it’s not surprising that yet another company is tacking an “i” onto its product line and dousing each unit in glossy white, and Mouse Computer’s latest lineup of desktops certainly fits the aforementioned mold. Arriving in both micro tower and slimline models, these new machines offer up a multitude of hardware options including a number of Intel Core 2 Duo processors, a dual-layer DVD writer, up to 2GB of RAM, a 15-in-1 flash card reader, and NVIDIA’s 256MB GeForce 8500 GT (or the 8400GS in the slim model). Additionally, the skinnier sibling (seen after the break) can be equipped with up to 250GB of SATA hard drive space while the micro machine can house 320GB of capacity. Each model in the new i-Friend series looks to be on sale now, and prices will range from ¥79,800 ($676) to ¥129,800 ($1,100) depending on how you configure.

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment:

If anything, Palm’s Foleo seems like it was designed to elicit instant geek cred. It’s small, thin and light, and its solid state storage helps provide long battery life. It has instant-on capabilities and supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It even runs Linux and all for only $500. However, quite to the contrary, much of the reaction to Palm’s latest mobile foray has run the gamut from confusion to scorn, with some calling the product “Folly-o” or “Fooleo.”

The core problem that the Foleo seeks to address is easy to understand, but its positioning is a moving target. Here’s how early adopters are becoming lost in Foleo’s rationale:

Palm: Smartphones continue to gain more processing power and more memory.
Users: OK, that’s fair enough.
Palm: However, they are still deficient in input and output.
Users: Well, there sure are compromises, we can agree. I drag my laptop around when I need more.
Palm: So, what we need is a whole new device with a large screen and keyboard
Users: Whoa, why not create some kind of keyboard dock with a big screen for the Treo, like all those speaker docks for the iPod?
Palm: That’s clumsy. We consider this a smartphone companion.
Users I didn’t realize my smartphone was lonely.

Continue reading Switched On: The Foleo imbroglio (Part 1)

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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