Latest Posts on Coolest Gadgets

Walmart, Hollywood and VUDU – The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship
Ila Dusk’s Personal Screaming Alarm – Hope You Never Need It
Folderix Flash Drive
The Professionally Choreographed Orchestral Fountain
Toshiba has new range of SDXC and SDHC memory cards
Sony Xperia sola announced

Walmart, Hollywood and VUDU – The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 09:29 AM PDT

Just about everyone loves movies, our new devices allow us to take our entertainment with us almost everyplace we go, but something has been missing. You buy a DVD and need to watch it at home (or in your car). You can save it to your computer and convert it so you can send it to your ipod. Alternatively you can buy or rent your movies already set up for your devices as a download from the iTunes store, but then you don’t have a hard copy for your collection.

Well, I’m not ready to say this is the solution, but it IS the next step in portable media options for those of us who like to keep what we buy. Walmart, in partnership with the major Hollywood studios is just about to increase the value of movie ownership for its customers. Starting on April 16th, 2012 in more than 3,500 stores, Walmart customers can bring their DVD and Blu-ray collections to a Walmart store and receive digital access to them from the partnering studios.

It works something like this, grab your Sony, Fox, Warner Brothers, Paramount, or Universal movie and take it to your Walmart Photo Center where a Walmart associate will open a free VUDU account for you. You let the associate know if you would like standard or HD conversion, and the associate will then authorize a digital version of your movie to be added to your VUDU account, no uploading, no bother and you head home with your old movies still in hand. Lastly, simply log onto VUDU.com from most internet connected devices and watch your movies anywhere, anytime.

An equal conversion for standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs will cost $2 and standard DVDs can be upgraded to HD for $5. Perfect? No. Opening the door for movies to be sold with digital rights and other options? I hope so, I have a lot of room left on my iPad. For more information visit Walmart.com

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[ Walmart, Hollywood and VUDU – The Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Ila Dusk’s Personal Screaming Alarm – Hope You Never Need It

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 08:18 AM PDT

I worry about safety quite often, probably more than I should. Mostly, I worry about my daughter, she’s nine years old and I sometimes wonder if I have made her too aware of dangerous things, or worse, not aware enough. How do you protect yourself and your children? What exactly should she do if a stranger approached her? Yes, we have gone over the scenario plenty of times, but if any of us really were in a bad situation, how can we be sure how we would react?

Well, the Personal Screaming Alarm might be able to give you, or someone you love, a voice when they need it the most. The Screaming Alarm looks very much like a small MP3 type device, common electronic or decoration, but in reality, this little powerhouse emits an ear-piercing 130 decibel scream that sounds just like a woman in really big trouble. Check the video after the break.

Unfortunately, most common alarm sounds are just part of everyday life. When is the last time you even stopped to look for a car that had an alarm sounding, much less call the police? I guess the advantage you gain with the Ila Dusk Personal Alarm is the element of surprise. Kept dangling from your handbag, you only need to pull the linked chain attached to the bottom of the unit and it will emit an ear piercing female scream that will hopefully, make any attacker think twice, or at least give you that extra second you might need to run away.

I don’t even have to think about giving one to my kid, its totally safe. She cant hurt herself or anyone else, so she doesnt have to be afraid to use it (unlike with mace or pepper spray) and once you hear it, you’ll see that people will take notice, and maybe thats half the battle, getting people to take notice. The Personal Screaming Alarm is available from ProblemSolvers.com for under 30 bucks.

Coolest Gadgets UK – For all your UK centric tech and gadget news.
[ Ila Dusk’s Personal Screaming Alarm – Hope You Never Need It copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Folderix Flash Drive

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 06:30 AM PDT

USB flash drives are dime a dozen, so the only thing that will make one stand out from the other would be this – either it has blazing fast performance, is extremely durable and rugged, or it comes in a form factor that will definitely appeal to most of the general populace out there. Enter the $14.99 Folderix Flash Drive that resembles one of those small file folder icons, although it maxes out at 4GB of storage space. At least, you are able to choose from yellow, blue or purple shades, but if you want to be traditional to the core, then yellow is most probably your best bet. Something tells me that this will cater only for USB 2.0 connections, so forget about blazing fast data speeds at USB 3.0.

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[ Folderix Flash Drive copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The Professionally Choreographed Orchestral Fountain

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT

If you happen to own a yard that is large enough to play around with different kinds of garden accessories that will spruce up the overall look of your pad, then you might be interested in this rather luxurious $7,000 The Professionally Choreographed Orchestral Fountain. Yes sir, it is quite a mouthful to pronounce, but the fountain itself is capable of projecting lighted waterspouts which are synchronized with music. There is a computer chip located within the fountain that will synchronize the multicolored light patterns, the height of the waterspouts, and the side-to-side movement of a dozen water nozzles with the melody of the music.

As for the tunes of your choice, everyone in the garden ought to be able to hear it, since it will be transmitted through a quartet of 200-watt speakers that are built into the side panels alongside a 100-watt amp which generates crisp, clear sound. All three nozzles in the center of the fountain will emit a couple of tiers of sprays and water which glisten through a ring of white LEDs. The fountain itself is controlled via the included tablet computer, enabling users to select songs, adjust the volume, or change the choreography of the light and water show from up to 30′ away. Definitely the thing to introduce the green-eyed monster into the lives of the Joneses, don’t you think so?

Coolest Gadgets UK – For all your UK centric tech and gadget news.
[ The Professionally Choreographed Orchestral Fountain copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Toshiba has new range of SDXC and SDHC memory cards

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 05:30 AM PDT

Toshiba does not only make HDTVs and camcorders, you know, as the company also has a penchant for flash memory storage solutions. Having said that, Toshiba has just introduced a new range of high performance SDXC and SDHC memory cards that fall under a new brand name – EXCERIA. Hmmm, if I did not know any better, EXCERIA might just lead some people into thinking that this is some sort of smartphone name from Sony or the likes. The new range of SD memory cards, as Toshiba claims, is capable of delivering the highest performance levels available. I guess someone needs to run those claims through numerous benchmark tests before agreeing, don’t you think so?

I, just like many of you out there, did scratch my head a fair bit when I first came across the name EXCERIA. It was so called that way in order to reflect a combination of “excellent” and “experience”, where it will ensure that the cards are fully compliant with the SD Memory Card Standard Ver.3.0 UHS-I, and will also feature versions that offer the world’s fastest data transfer speed for an SD memory card.

Toshiba’s EXCERIA SDXC and SDHC memory cards, as you know, is said to offer fast data read and write speeds and full compliance with the SD Memory Card Standard Ver.3.0 UHS-I. In fact, the minimum recording speed is compliant with UHS speed class 1 and SD speed class 10, and the new products that will be launched in a trio of series, EXCERIA Type 1, Type 2 and Type HD, each of them will feature a trio of versions with different capacities.

The Type 1 series will be able to integrate new controllers which realize the world’s fastest data transfers, alongside a maximum read speed of 95 megabytes (MB)/sec and a write speed of 90MB/sec. As for Type 2 series products, those will offer a maximum read speed of 95MB/sec and a write speed of 60MB/sec, and last but not least, Type HD products have a maximum read speed of 90MB/sec and a write speed of 30MB/sec.

Toshiba hopes to roll out their new range of high performance SD memory cards under the EXCERIA banner sometime later next month, where capacities as well as pricing details have yet to be confirmed.

Press Release

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[ Toshiba has new range of SDXC and SDHC memory cards copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Sony Xperia sola announced

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 05:00 AM PDT

Yes, Sony seems to have been rejuvenated after their split from the Sony Ericsson partnership, and during the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, we saw them introduce a trio of new Xperia smartphones that run off the Android operating system. Having said that, there is yet another smartphone available for grabs this time around in the form of the Sony Xperia sola. Do not make the mistake of thinking that this is a solar-powered phone, although I am quite sure that the name might just fool some people into thinking it is so.

It will be the latest addition to Sony’s portfolio of Android powered Xperia smartphones, where it comes complete with Sony technology, in addition to offering premium entertainment as well as an innovative floating touch navigation. Even better is the fact that the Xperia sola will keep up with the times, since it is also NFC enabled. The Xperia sola will feature Xperia SmartTags support, letting you alter your smartphone’s settings as well as applications to fit your lifestyle in a jiffy without having to go through button presses.

Just how does Sony’s unique floating touch system work? For starters, your finger can just hover above the display, allowing it to function like a moving cursor without having to actually touch the display itself. Once it finds the desired link, it can be highlighted using a simple tap, where the page will load afterwards. This will definitely pave the way for new user functionality as well as applications via software updates and engagement with developers.

Each purchase of the Xperia sola will come with a couple of NFC Xperia SmartTags right in the box as standard, in order to simplify consumers’ everyday smartphone experiences. All you need to do is touch an NFC Android smartphone on a SmartTag, and a pre-configured profile in the smartphone will launch. The two SmartTags that come with the Xperia sola can be personalized with up to 10 commands.

Other hardware specifications include a 3.7″ Reality Display powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine, xLOUD and 3D surround sound audio technology, a 1GHz dual-core processor, a fast capture camera, and access to Sony Entertainment Network. I am rather surprised to hear that the Xperia sola will come with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, although it is comforting to hear that an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade is coming your way when summer 2012 rolls around.

Press Release

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[ Sony Xperia sola announced copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]