Windows 7 Life Theme
Windows 7 users that have been keeping an eye on Softpedia already know that Microsoft has been releasing a steady flow of personalization content. The latest Windows 7 theme made available by the Redmond company is titled Life, and comes courtesy of the Discovery channel and BBC.
The theme pack in question is available for download, as many others, free of charge via the Windows Personalization Gallery, the company’s central hub for offering themes designed to allow customers to customize their Windows 7 desktops.
“Bizarre, beautiful nature from Discovery Channel,” the short description of the Life theme, which will leave users with a feeling that the images should have been accompanied by more information, reads. Of course, the same is not the case with many themes on the Windows Personalization Gallery, but this specific example feels like it needs the added touch of the Bing wallpaper hotspots.
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Windows in the Dock
Okay Apple fans, I know desktop docking bars are old hat on Macs but there’s no reason why Windows users can’t join in the fun as well. In case you’ve just tuned in, a docking bar is simply an on-screen graphic, usually always in view, containing a strip of shortcut icons to your favourite applications, so there’s no need to mess around with the Start menu or minimize open windows to get at the desktop. There’s plenty of docks to choose from but this one, called Nexus, is one of the better ones, with more configuration options and eye catching features than you can shake a stick at. All you have to do is download the program, run the installer and it’s good to go. It comes pre-loaded with popular options, like a clock, CPU and RAM meters, browser and email client icons and a weather gadget to get you started so all you have to do to make it your own is drag your preferred icons on to the bar, set the size, transparency and position and it’s ready to use.
World’s Smallest Camcorder
Over the past 30 or so years I’ve written ‘World Smallest Camcorder’ so many times that it’s set in Word AutoComplete. Here’s the latest, it’s from Shenzen AEE Wireless Technology and it’s called, rather confusingly, the ‘Mini DV’. In fact it has nothing to do with the camcorder tape format of the same name, it records in AVI format on Micro SD cards.
Whether or not it is the ‘World’s Smallest’ is open to debate but it is teensy, measuring just 55 x 20 x 118mm and it tips the scales at just 50g. Up front there’s a fixed focus lens and behind that a 2 megapixel image sensor, image resolution is 640 x 480 at 30fps. Power comes form a rechargeable Li-Ion battery that lasts for up to 2 hours. Read more
Is Your Keyboard Bugged?
No, not that sort of bug, we’re talking about the type that gives you nasty infections. If your keyboard is anything like mine it’s probably crawling with gems, but that doesn’t matter, they’re my germs and we’ve got used to each other. One place where germs are unacceptable is in hospitals, where doctors can carry all sorts of nasties around with them, tap in your details on a keyboard, and then the next person to use it picks them up on their fingers, you get the picture. Read more
Sun Powered Shades
Sadly very few solar powered gadgets are actually green. Hardly any of them will ever recover the energy expended in their manufacture during their working lives, let alone the couple of weeks most of them last, until the novelty has worn off, but that’s another story. No, we’re here to tell you all about a pair of sunglasses fitted with solar panels that can be used to charge an MP3 player or mobile phone. Solar cells are notoriously inefficient and your face would probably burn off long before a useful charge was achieved. I may be wrong, the designers, Hyun-Joong Kim and Kwang-Seok Jeong have used organic dye type cells, which they claim to be both cheap and efficient, but given the relatively small surface areas of the cells, and the need to face directly into the Sun to get the best charge, it all seems a bit dubious.
Balls to Security
In my other life, as a reviewer and tester of security and surveillance devices I get to play around with a lot of highly innovative and occasionally downright wacky gadgets but this one has them all beat. It’s called the GroundBot and it’s pretty much what it looks like, a motorised ball, that wanders around, with two side-mounted cameras. It comes from a company called Rotundus and it can be controlled manually, beaming back 3D images to the operator, or programmed to follow preset routes, It’s waterproof, rugged and capable of moving through mud and snow, so it’s perfect for keeping watch on outdoor locations. So if you’re out and about, getting into places you should be and you think that you are being watched, don’t look up, look down…
Fit For Purpose?
fitpc
What’s all this then? At first glance it looks like it might be some sort of wireless gadget but believe it or not it is a complete PC, and no, that’s not a giant key. It’s called Fit-PC Slim and the whole thing measures just 10 x 11 x 3cm, which isn’t much larger than a pack of 20 cigarettes. Inside the box they have managed to squeeze an AMD Geode CPU running at 500MHz, there’s 512Mb RAM, a 60GB hard drive, Wi-FI and audio adaptors plus all the usual inputs and outputs. It comes pre-loaded with Linux or XP; there’s no fan, so it’s completely silent and all it needs to run is a simple 12-volt power supply. Amazing stuff, though you might now be asking why, and I have to say that I have no easy answers, but for someone out there it’s just what they’ve been waiting for!
Wi-Fi On Radar
Here’s a wireless utility with a difference. The Xirrus Wi-Fi Monitor generates a radar-like display to show all of the wireless networks in range of your laptop. By translating relative signal strength into range it shows, in a rather eye-catching way, which ones are likely to give you the best connection. For obvious reasons – unless you have a rotating and highly directional Wi-Fi antenna on your PC the display cannot tell you which direction the access point actually is, but it looks great. Versions of Wi-Fi monitor are available for Windows Mac and Linux, and the only catch is the XP version requires that you install Yahoo Widget Framework, which adds another 15Mb to the download, (the Vista version installs as a sidebar Gadget)
All Google Gadgets Available for Free on Blogs
Bloggers are constantly looking to attract more readers. Of course, content is almost always everything, but spicing up texts or images with some interesting gadgets can definitely increase the popularity of the majority of weblogs. After a testing period, Google has finally launched the Google Gadgets for blogs. All the fun applications that have ever been built by Google engineers or third party developers, and which are in Google’s database, are available for all bloggers.
People can choose whatever application they like from the Gadgets Directory, integrated in the layout of blogs. Users who have an older version of the dashboard, which displays the “templates” button, have to update it to the “layout” button. From there, in a few easy steps, everyone can upload various applications to make their blog more interesting and useful to readers. Gadgets automatically adjust to the width of the sidebar. Their height, measured in pixels, can be adjusted to make the applications more or less prominent on the webpage, according to personal preferences. Read more
Working on the Lap of Luxury
Now this really is my kind of gadget…. This is the Boom arm workstation and as you can clearly see it is the ideal gift for the gentleman, or lady, who likes to do their laptopping in bed. It’s also a boon, or should that be a boom for those who are bedridden but not by choice, and it could prove handy for wheelchair users as well. The manufacturers even see it being used by exercise nuts, whilst on a treadmill but that’s probably going a bit too far. Fully adjustable and reasonably portable, it’ll set you back around £150. UK availability has yet to be announced but if you just can’t wait you can always see if they’ll send you one at: EasyChair WorkStation Products
