Charge your gadgets with or without an outlet – the iGo Charge Anywhere Gadling review

by Scott Carmichael on

When it comes to powering my gadgets, and keeping them powered, I’m a bit of a freak. See, I have this deep hatred for gadgets that don’t have the battery life to stay working as long as I need them to. There is something sad about a $600 phone that dies halfway through the day, or a media player that can’t last through a long haul flight.

This is where the iGo Charge Anywhere can help. This 2-port USB wall charger has a secret – hidden inside the device is an 1800mAh battery pack. The combination of this AC charger and battery means you can power and charge two gadgets whether you have an outlet or not. The battery is powerful enough to get most gadgets back to 100%, or up to two full charges for smaller devices like an iPod or Bluetooth headset.

The charger is the same size as any “normal” USB wall charger, and comes with a USB to iGo tip cable. This allows you to carry just one cable, and an assortment of iGo power tips. These tips are available for almost every gadget on the market.

Of course, since the charger has normal USB ports, you can also use any USB charging cable included with your gadget.

The charger provides enough power for small gadgets like portable gaming consoles, phones and media players, and obviously does not have the oomph to power and charge your laptop.

The power rating of the iGo Charge Anywhere allows you to use it anywhere in the world as it supports 100V-240V. Of course, you’ll still need the appropriate plug adapter if you plan to use it in a non-US socket.

Operating the iGo Charge Anywhere is as simple as can be – plug your devices into one of the two USB ports, and plug it into an AC outlet. When you don’t have an outlet available, you just plug your devices in and press the power button on the unit.

Because the iGo Charge Anywhere is part of the new iGo Green lineup, it has a built in circuit to eliminate “vampire power”. This means the charger will completely turn off when it senses it has fully charged your gadgets. This means it won’t draw any power at all once it has done its work. The power savings may not be very big, but every tiny bit counts.

Pros: Works on any voltage, double USB charging ports, integrated battery pack, very compact
Cons: Relatively weak battery pack, only one power tip included

The iGo Charge Anywhere costs $49.99 and is available directly from iGo. The purchase price includes one free power tip (worth about $8).

Product page: iGo Charge Anywhere

Gadling @CES2010 — Polaroid moves back to its roots

by Scott Carmichael on

Polaroid invited me to their VIP event at CES. Instead of gathering everyone behind a crowded booth on the show floor, the company rented the 12,600 sq. ft. Conrad Hilton Sky Villa (where Barry Manilow normally sleeps). Polaroid is not the same company it used to be – the original Polaroid went bankrupt (twice), and after years of uncertainty, the remaining parts of the iconic brand were picked up by investment firms Hilco and Gordon Brothers. The Polaroid brand is one of the most powerful in the world, in the charts with Coca Cola and Apple, so the joint owners are very well aware of its potential.

At the 2010 CES, Polaroid announced several cool new developments:

  • The return of the original instant camera and instant film
  • Expansion of their ZINK portable instant printer lineup

The return of the instant camera and film

When Polaroid announced the closure of the remaining instant film production facilities, fans all around the world were crushed. Sure – Polaroid instant cameras had mostly been replaced by digital photography, but the original Polaroid camera still had a massive following. The prints were recognizable all over the world, and almost everyone in the US had their photo taken with a Polaroid at one point in their life.

Hardcore fans put together a plan to purchase the equipment from the new owners of Polaroid, and signed a lease for the old production plant in the Netherlands. This has now evolved into something pretty cool – Polaroid is bringing back the instant camera. Later this year, the new Polaroid PIC 1000 will hit store shelves. It looks and feels exactly like you’d expect from a Polaroid, and it will still take the original 600 instant film. The camera comes from Polaroid (and one of their partners) and the film is being produced by “The Impossible Project”.

Expansion of the ZINK printer lineup

Polaroid was the first company in the world to produce a product using ZINK technology. ZINK stand for “Zero Ink” and the technology produces small prints from a printer with no ink (hence the name). Until now, the Polaroid PoGo printers only produced tiny 2″ x 3″ prints, and at that size, they are pretty useless. Sure – the final product looks decent (often a bit dull), and it takes about a minute to make a print, but it is still cool to see the technology in action.

Later this year, the “tiny print” problem will go away, thanks to a new 3″ x 4″ ZINK printer. Of course, the print speed will most likely be the same, and they will suffer from the same fairly high price per print as the current generation, but I’m happy to see some more developments in the technology. Polaroid ZINK printers are available as pocket printer (with USB and Bluetooth) and built into a camera.

Victorinox Presentation Master – the Swiss Army Knife that reads fingerprints and controls powerpoint — Gadling review

by Scott Carmichael on

Despite 2700 different booths, probably close to 50,000 new product announcements, and a whole assortment of 3D TV’s, the coolest product I came across at this years CES was a USB drive. Obviously not just any USB drive – imagine a USB drive with the strongest encryption possible, a fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth presentation remote, laser pointer and more.

Best of all, this product isn’t the result of someone taping together some components in their basement – it comes from Victorinox, the people behind the original Swiss Army Knife. It is called the “Swiss Presentation Master”, and it looks (and feels) like a Swiss Army Knife.

The product was actually announced at the 2009 CES, but this year, they finished development, and are getting very close to being able to sell you one.

Now, before you point out the logical flaw in flying with a Swiss Army Knife, remember that they also make “flight” versions of some of their products, like the SwissFlash Flight we reviewed last year.

The new Swiss Presentation Master is an absolutely amazing piece of technology. Inside a device not much larger than a normal USB drive, the Swiss designers were able to include a laser pointer, Bluetooth remote with 2 buttons (for presentation control), a removable 8GB, 16GB or 32GB flash drive WITH AES encryption and fingerprint scanner AND of course a knife, scissors and a nail file / screwdriver.

The USB portion of the Presentation Master can be removed. A USB extension cable is included.

If you own a SwissFlash USB drive – you’ll be happy to know that you can swap the drives out. This means you can mix and match drives and knives, which is especially handy if you’d like a version with, and without a blade.

The designers did not stop with the knife itself – on the flash drive is an entire suite of applications designed with travelers in mind.

The Victorinox Secure application allows you to create secure files on the Presentation Master itself or on your own hard drive, allowing access through a password or fingerprints. This means you can use your USB drive to secure files on any other drive.

Victorinox Secure also provides Outlook synchronization, file syncing and backup as well as a really cool browser security feature. This allows you to start your browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox) and store cookies, temp. files and favorites on your secure USB key instead of leaving “cookie crumbs” on a public computer. And finally, it can act as a secure password storage device, only revealing your passwords when you swipe your finger.

The Bluetooth remote control is simple – you pair the Swiss Presentation Master with your computer, and the two arrow buttons can control Powerpoint presentations, or any other task that can be operated with the left or right arrow.

The final, and possibly most mind blowing feature is an actual self destruct feature. If the drive detects someone trying to hack their way into your files, it will physically blow itself up. Obviously, this doesn’t involve explosives, but the developer of the Swiss Presenter had a unit with him that had deliberately been blown up, and the memory chip really is blow to pieces inside its case.

Victorinox are so confident that they have developed the most secure USB drive in the world, that they were offering a $100,000 prize to anyone that could access the data stored on a drive at their CES booth. As the show came to an end, nobody had succeeded in hacking their way into the drive.

The Victorinox Presentation Master will be available soon, and prices have not yet been determined. A booth representative revealed that you’d need to bring about $300 to get your hands on one. There is no denying that this price is steep – but if you really value the security of your data, and you’d like a drive even the border police can’t access, then this may be the best option out there. The added bonus of a laser pointer and Bluetooth remote just make a great product even better.

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Gadling gear review – Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC3 noise canceling headphones

by Scott Carmichael on

In one of the final Gadling gear reviews of 2009, I’ll show off the Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC3 noise canceling headphones. The ATH-ANC3’s use active noise cancellation to drown out the noise around you. The exact technology behind noise cancellation is pretty complicated, but all you need to know is that these headphones use tiny microphones to listen to the sounds around you, and use something called “antinoise” to cancel out engine noise, crying babies and nagging seatmates.

The ATH-ANC3’s consist of a small control box, a regular 3.5mm headphone jack and 2 earpieces. The earpieces are slightly larger than “normal” earphones, but are extremely comfortable. Included with the package are 2 additional sets of replacement ear-gels, so you’ll always be able to find the perfect fit.

Since the earpieces are “in-ear”, they provide a very good sound seal, which is the first level of defense against unwanted noise. Even when not powered on, the headphones block out a considerable amount of sound. The control pod houses a single AAA battery (one is included in the box). The best part of the electronics is that the headphone still work when the battery dies. This means you won’t lose your music if you forget to bring a spare battery.

Controls on the pod are simple – power and monitor. The monitor button allows you to listen to the outside noise, without having to remove the headphones. This is of course perfect if you need to listen to a cabin announcement.

Audio performance from the QuietPoint ATH-ANC3 headphones is quite simply spectacular. Music sounds vibrant, with plenty of bass. When you enable the noise cancellation circuit, you obviously hear a minor reduction in sound quality, but unlike with some other headphones, this reduction is very minor. In addition to this, the ATH-ANC3’s produce virtually no background “hiss”, something many other noise canceling headphones suffer from.

The noise cancellation rating from Audio-Technica is 20dB, or up to 90%. While the ATH-ANC3’s may not kill all engine noise on your flight, they will greatly reduce it, to the point where your flight (and music) becomes much more comfortable.

The headphones come in a very nice hard carrying pouch. Included in the package is a half meter extension cable, airplane jack adapter, a AAA battery and an assortment of replacement earpieces.

Final thoughts

When you start shopping for noise canceling headphones, you need to make several choices – you can go with passive headphones (that only isolate the noise), you can pick large on-ear headphones, or in-ear ones like the ATH-ANC3’s. The advantage of in-ear headphones is that they work well for side sleepers making it possible to take a nap on your flight.

The sound quality of the Audio-Technica QuietPoint ATH-ANC3 headphones is fantastic, as its ability to cancel outside noise. But perhaps its best feature is the price – the MSRP (from Audio-Technica) is $169.95, but smart shoppers can often find them for as low as $50. We have regularly featured them as one of our daily deals here on Gadling.

To be honest – even at the $170 price point, these headphones are very much worth it. They are compact, run forever off a single battery, and produce exceptional noise cancellation. But when you find them at $50, you are practically stealing them.

Audio-Technica ATH-ANC3 product page

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Gadling gear review – Samsung TL225 Dualview digital camera

by Scott Carmichael on

This Gadling gear review is going to introduce you to one of the newest cameras from Samsung. The Korean electronics maker may not be one of the first names you think of when you shop for a digital camera, but their products are always quite innovative and usually bring pretty decent value for money to the table.

The TL225 “Dualview” camera is the first digital camera with two LCD screens. On the rear of the camera is a 3.5″ touch sensitive screen, and on the front is a lower resolution 1.5″ screen.

The basic specifications of the camera are quite decent – 27mm wide angle 4.6x optical zoom with dual image stabilization, 12.2 megapixel sensor, smart face recognition, 29 smart scene modes, 14 effect modes, 15 integrated edit features, HD video and a voice recorder.

The second screen is of course the biggest selling point of the TL225. When turned off, the screen can’t be seen, as it is hidden behind a piano black plastic exterior. When enabled, you can select to use it as a second viewfinder, which is great if you like making photos of yourself.

A second mode turns the display into a settings screen, showing the current mode and focus settings. The screen also shows a countdown timer when on timed shutter mode. A third setting uses the screen to grab the attention of young kids, by displaying cute animated cartoon clips.

Sadly, when you turn the camera off, the Dualview screen setting is lost – so if you plan to use it a lot, you’ll need to turn it on every time you power the camera on. The screen is also a little dark, making it fairly useless in bright scenes.

In using the camera, I found the animated kid setting to be the most useful. The self-view feature is fun, and if you combine it with a small tripod, you’ll be able to make decent photos of yourself, without having to hand your camera off to a stranger.

The touch screen is nice – but it’ll be something you either love or hate. Integrated behind the screen is “haptic feedback”, which means you get a vibration feedback when you touch it. Navigating the menus is fairly easy, and there are still dedicated buttons for zoom, power, shutter and playback.

The screen also supports several gestures, making it really simple to browse photos by swiping left or right.

The TL225 takes MicroSD memory cards – which is also one of its biggest drawbacks. For starters, MicroSD cards are about 2-3x more expensive than regular SD memory. MicroSD cards are also more expensive if you need a faster card, something you’ll absolutely need if you plan to record HD movies.

I initially tested the camera with a class 2 8GB card (a pretty popular speed/size), but it could not record HD video, complaining about the card speed. I then tried it with a class 6 8GB card, and had no problems with HD. A high speed Class 6 MicroSD card is fairly hard to find, and you’ll need to go online to find a retailer that carries them as your local electronics store usually only carries class 2 or class 4 (the higher the number, the faster the card). I understand how space constraints forced them to make the switch to MicroSD, but it is really inconvenient.

Another big inconvenience is the USB/video connector port. As with many Samsung products, the TL225 uses a proprietary connector, which means you’ll need to bring the bulky USB cable with you when your travel. The camera does come with a video cable, but only for non-HD content. An HDMI cable for viewing content on an HD TV is an optional extra, and I was not able to locate any (online) retailer selling it.

Final thoughts

There is a lot to like about the Samsung TL225 – it looks great, has a very decent wide angle zoom lens, and the quality of its photos is above average (sample photos are in the gallery below). The Dualview screen starts off feeling like a nice gimmick, but I actually found myself making good use of it.

Sadly, there are also several things I did not like – the camera is quite sluggish, and I often got annoyed waiting for it to take a photo after I pressed the shutter. The piano black exterior is going to be a massive fingerprint magnet, so be sure to carry a cleaning cloth when you take it on a trip.

The proprietary cable and MicroSD slot are probably the two things that annoy me the most – most manufacturers offer cameras with MiniUSB and MiniHDMI but Samsung forces you to carry their bulky (and rather short) USB cable with you. Thankfully the USB cable does allow you to charge the camera when plugged into your computer. When you purchase the camera, calculate an additional $30 into the price for a fast MicroSD memory card.

The TL225 comes with a carrying strap, battery, USB/charging cable, USB wall charger, composite video cable, manual and software CD (Windows only). Its MSRP is $349.99, but can regularly be found for as little as $250, making is a very decent bargain for such a well equipped camera.

Samsung product page

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