back to article Ten sizzling gizmos survive economic nightmare

They don't call it Pepcom for nothing. After a year of economic Meltdown, you might expect financially embattled companies to limit their investment in new technologies. But the mood was upbeat at New York's Pepcom Holiday Spectacular on Thursday, and there was no shortage of new consumer goodies, each designed to attract your …

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  1. AlexV
    FAIL

    Phone anti-radiation device

    What, still? Seriously? Surely these things have been comprehensively debunked by now...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Re: Pong iPhone Case

    ""...the Pong iPhone Case attracts radiation emitted from the iPhone’s antenna and directs it away from the user’s head..."

    WTF? Yeah, and I can do a good deal on some Snake Oil if any of you iTards are interested...

  3. Tamer Shafik
    Stop

    Attracts radiation?

    "the Pong iPhone Case attracts radiation emitted from the iPhone’s antenna"

    No it doesn't. It may provide a shielding effect, it may even reshape the RF field around the device, but it doesn't achieve this by 'attracting' radiation.

  4. Andrew 8
    FAIL

    Pong iPhone case...

    I prefer Wired's assessment : http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/09/pong-radiation-blocking-iphone-case-smells-fishy/

  5. Rich 30
    WTF?

    Hero?

    That pic of a HTC Hero doesn't look much like a Hero, more of a Magic?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @Rich 30

    Sure doesn't look much like SWMBO's Hero. Her's is square at the bottom, not rounded.

  7. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    WTF?

    3D Again?

    I have a boxed 3D googles kit in my spare room, plus 5 CDs of images. All from a company called Kasan Technologies. To prove it's age it has a PC card, an ISA PC card!

    Unless you can simply present 3D on a store bought device, without having to wear anything, it's never going to be more than a gimic.

  8. Bryce Prewitt
    Thumb Down

    The horror, the horror

    "These glasses might even make the prequel watchable."

    No.

  9. Cliff

    Oh dear, Reg...

    http://www.pongresearch.com/Startpage-Technology-How_It_Works/327/Default.aspx - seriously?

    better still, it's a case for the back of the phone, so it can't even shield the face of the phone, the bit that goes against your head! That, plus the likely signal attenuation through the rear of the case, means that as the phone tries harder to keep a signal, you get an even higher radiation dose through the face of the phone than without the case.

  10. Lunatik
    WTF?

    <vicreeves>Very poor</vicreeves>

    Can I just join in the chimes of "WTF?"; how'd you get duped by something that a) has been around in one form or another for nearly 20 years, and b) of dubious scientific merit, to say the least?

  11. stizzleswick
    Coat

    Like so often...

    ...most of these devices are completely useless in practice or can be replaced by far cheaper devices that had been in the market for a long time (so we know they should be reliable by now, or know for sure that they are not).

    I wish the manufacturers would concentrate on making their existing products better instead of constantly re-inventing the wheel.

    Mine's the one with the construction drawing of a wheel sticking out of the pocket.

  12. John Deeb
    Pirate

    pong not that outragious

    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/risk/cellphones

    "Although research has not consistently demonstrated a link between cellular telephone use and cancer, scientists still caution that further surveillance is needed before conclusions can be drawn"

    There will always be a market for those who like to be cautious with drawing conclusions here.

    Furthermore, passive coupling is already around for a while, Nokia has also a craddle although the purpose is amplification thought a larger antenna. But the coupling does indeed "draw" energy away, or is transferred to the second antenna "ladder", which can then be a directional antenna, why not? How much energy we're talking about though? Pong doesn't reveal much detail...

  13. Greg J Preece

    Contour HD

    Going down a different route to "blah blah radiation bullshit blah blah", I just wanted to chime in with....WANT! Been really wanting a camcorder like that. Off to find specs and pricing.

  14. Haku
    Go

    VholdR

    My brother bought a VholdR for his mountain biking antics and I am very impressed with it, the twin lasers should be a feature of every headcam because it allows you to easily see where the camera is pointing and get it at the right angle, but what most impressed me was how well it copes in low light levels where most cameras fall flat.

    I'm interested to see what the VholdR ContourHD is like. This is the kind of mad shit he gets up to:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocBA9kCIjE0&fmt=18

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb-5ol8JXyw&fmt=18 (two VholdR cameras at the same time)

  15. Andrew 19
    FAIL

    Reg joins the tinfoil hat brigade. Literallly.

    Wow. The Reg is the site where I expect to see frequent derisive references to the "tinfoil hat brigade". Did that same site just seriously recommend a product that is EXACTLY THE SAME CONCEPT as a tinfoil hat?!?!?!?

  16. Chris Wood

    re: Hero?

    That's the US version of the Hero. It has the same internal hardware and firmware/software as the UK one but in a different case.

  17. TeeCee Gold badge
    Stop

    TwonkyBeam.

    That rings a bell. Is this the same PacketVideo who've managed to completely banjax the whole DLNA thing by ensuring that you can buy DLNA-certified products that won't talk to each other? You know, because various bits are using their shonky^H^H^H^H^H^Htwonky plugin for the purpose?

    Ah! The Reg's internal search comes up trumps, turning up an article to prove that yes, it is!

    http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/18/dlna_finger_pointing/

    I wonder how many DLNA certified tellys they bought before finding one they could use for their demo?

  18. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Oh, god...

    ...I was about to post about how that mini camcorder is a total winner if it has a wide angle lens, but I'm pretty much required to add another WTF/FAIL to the mix - it's utterly embarrassing that you put that Pong case in there.

    Talk about eliminating any technical credibility you have in one fell swoop... What the hell were you thinking?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    @ Chris Wood, Re: Hero?

    "That's the US version of the Hero. It has the same internal hardware and firmware/software as the UK one but in a different case."

    Makes me wonder why they did this. Does the US version have a pull-out ariel or something?

  20. Stu
    Badgers

    Yeah those headcams r pretty kewl...

    ... I saw your downhill biking vid Haku, very cool stuff, but I cant help but be disappointed by the resolution of all those cams. Sure YT kills the quality a lot, but dont those suckers only pull in video at 640x480 or thereabouts?

    Christ considering all those megapizzle cameras out there, you can't help but think its just easy and very very cheap for companies to put together these things and knock-em-out at high prices just cos they fit into the 'ruggedised' category.

    All it takes is to get hold of some off the shelf 720p or even 1080p capable CMOS sensors, combine it with some HD capable capture chippery, make it read/write SDHC media, and sell it at about the same cost as these things. I'd wager they'll still pull in a profit.

    .

    As for those 3D glasses, I seem to remember Asus or similar taiwanese company trying out this whole 3D shit about ten years ago now. Then it kind of just petered out. Wont make a jot of difference to people if true 3D content is not readily available, i.e. games developers allowing the Nvidia 3D capabilities to work 100% with their software, they invariably had problems back ten years ago, haven't seen it change.

    .

    iPhone radiation shielding - Stoopid.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Android take up

    Re take up of Android, if T-Mobile et-al pulled their marketing fingers out of their arses and actually advertised the capabilites of Android in a similar fashion to Apple do with the constant pushing of the iPhone then I guess take up would be more

  22. Joe Blogs
    Thumb Up

    Twonky beam

    Actually installed this at the weekend and it works brilliantly with my Samsung DLNA TV and with my non DLNA Kiss DP601 player. Can send anything to them, much to my others halfs annoyance as she tried to watch something on TV and YouTube crap kept appearing at the click of a button from my PC :-)

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @Stike Vomit

    I'm afraid only the (c)Disney(tm)(r) branded version will come with the pull-out Ariel... and even that might be kerplunked because they take a dim view to their image(s) being used in the adult industry.

    PH - because I would love to own a device I can pull her out of...

  24. james 68

    2 things

    1. prices for items (even speculative) would have been nice - just sayin

    2. "The glasses then rendered the images with fantastic depth. Impressive indeed." erm...bollocks? was your reviewer on crack that day? the glasses dont render anything, they use a shutter system which rapidly makes alternating lenses cycle transparent/opaque to create a pseudo 3d image on a compatable monitor/tv set

  25. Zack Mollusc
    Stop

    Iphone cover is stupid

    I am astonished that anyone would be retarded enough to buy the iPhone cover when it is much simpler to extend one's tinfoil hat so that it covers one's ears and cheeks. To prevent the side pieces from flapping in the wind, extend further to form a tinfoil balaclava helmet which will also save money on sunscreen.

  26. milof9
    Thumb Up

    Twonky Beam, Philips Streamium

    I wasn't at Pepcom, but loved this article (for those of us unable to attend, yet constantly on the lookout for the latest and greatest gadgets).

    I'm pretty impressed with TwonkyBeam, having tried it for the last week to stream audio from my IE 6 to my Philips Streamium NP2500 in my living room. Works great! Definitely check out the free download if you have any DLNA / uPNP devices in your home:

    http://www.twonkymedia.com/beam/

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