Planet Gadgets Gadget Blog

Renault Begins Producting Electric Cars

Renault has begun production of electric cars as part of an Israeli-backed initiative to find effective alternative energy sources. The project is aimed at weaning Israel from dependency on foreign oil.

Renault-Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the cars, with a range of about 100 km in city driving and up to 160 km on the highway, will accelerate from zero to 100 kph in 13 seconds and have a top speed of 110 kph — similar to many gasoline-powered cars.

Ghosn said a key reason why the company chose Israel to launch the project is because 90 percent of Israelis drive less than 70 km a day and all major urban centers are within 150 km of each other. For Israel the cars would mean less dependency on oil imports, mostly coming from Russia.

Ghosn went on to say the car will be the most environmentally friendly car available in the world, using touches that are unique. He also claimed the cars will carry lifetime warranties and will sell for the same or less than regular cars.

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“Rock Band” And “Guitar Hero” Pushing Sales Of Digital Songs

“Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” have started to drive sales of digital songs in a meaningful way. Since MTV’s game division released “Rock Band” two months ago, the result has been an additional 2.5 million digital songs downloaded.

Activision, meanwhile, said it has sold more than 5 million new songs via download for “Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock” since it began adding downloadable content in early November.

By comparison, it took wireless operator Sprint four months to sell 1 million songs on its over-the-air full-song download service. While new digital music services competing with iTunes and free peer-to-peer services have struggled to convince music fans to pay $1 for a single, downloadable tracks for games like “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” are flying off the digital shelves.

According to MTV, who didn’t release any specific numbers, most of the downloads were sold to XBox 360 players.

The trend will not be leaving any time soon. A large number of other video games plan on selling downloadable music tracks, as well.

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US Video Game Sales Reach $17.9 Billion In 2007

Not only is the video game industry booming, it is even out-pacing the hopes of analysts. Sales of video games weighed in at $17.9 billion in 2007.

Nearly 8.5 million Nintendo DS devices were sold in the United States last year, while buyers snatched up approximately 6.3 million Wii game consoles.

“By the end of 2007 we were sold out of virtually all hardware, and much of our stock of software and accessories was sold out as well,” said Cammie Dunaway, the executive vice president of marketing at Nintendo of America.

“And that momentum continues here in the early weeks of 2008.”

Sony sold 3.97 million PS2 consoles and 2.56 million of its newer PS3 consoles in the United States in 2007, NPD reported.

Microsoft last year sold 4.62 million Xbox 360 consoles, which debuted in the market in November of 2005, a year before Wii and PS3 were released.

Video game hardware sales were boosted by the fact that it was the first full year that the Wii and PS3 consoles were on the market.

Video game sales are expected to grow in 2008, but not at the same rapid pace as last year.

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Toshiba Cuts Cost OF HD-DVD Players

In a sign of continued standards warfare, Toshiba today announced they’re cutting prices of the HD-DVD players by as much as 40%, as many movie studios have already embraced Sony’s Blu-Ray format.

Toshiba America Consumer Products said it cut prices of its HD DVD players effective January 13 to boost market adoption of its next-generation DVD players by mainstream consumers after what it said was a successful fourth quarter in unit sales.

“While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer,” said Toshiba executive Yoshi Uchiyama in a statement.

Toshiba’s players will now start as low as $149 going up to $399 for the top-of-range player.

The war is far from over, but Toshiba realizes they were quickly falling behind.

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Steve Jobs Debuts The MacBook Air

Last yera it was the iPhone, this year it’s the MacBook Air - an uberthin laptop MacIntosh computer.

Steve Jobs recently debuted the MacBook Air.

Jobs said it is the world’s thinnest notebook — just .76 inches at its thicket point and .16 inches at its thinnest. “We’re talking thin here,” he said. The crowd went crazy over the the new laptop. There’s no doubt that it looks impressive. It has an 80 gig hard drive and a built in iSight web camera.

The MacBook Air is built to be a wireless machine and does not have a built in optical drive. You can buy a disc drive as an accessory.

Here’s some of the basic features:
Weight: 3 pounds
13.3 inch display
Full sized, backlit keyboard
2 GB memory

Price $1799.00

It’s scheduled to ship in two weeks.

It looks to be pretty cool, even for someone that is used to working on personal computer..

CNN

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Red Zune 80GB

Zune 80 GB fans can now get their favorite device in Red. This should be just in time for Valentine’s Day, oddly enough, so you can celebrate that day in style.

Responding to consumer excitement for the Zune 80GB, Microsoft Corp. is making the popular wireless digital media player available in red with Zune Originals, just in time for Valentine’s Day. Inspired by the themes of love and sharing, an exclusive collection of 20 new laser-engraved designs will be available to consumers for a limited time at http://www.zuneoriginals.net;
in addition, Zune Marketplace will feature Valentine’s Day playlists that can be shared with friends or loved ones Zune to Zune or via the Zune Social online music community.

“Zune gives consumers a dynamic canvas that is brought to life by the music, pictures, videos and podcasts they fill it with,” said Scott Erickson, senior director of product management for Zune at Microsoft. “Zune Originals makes it easy to design a customized player, while wireless sharing and the Zune Social online music community give people new ways to
connect.”

For more information, see: Zune Originals

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Core Muscle Balance Board

Are you looking for the ultimate workout of your abdominal muscles? Then you might want to check out the Core Muscle Balance Board as a fun way to tone up once and for all.

The board has a non-slip platform with raised rubber toe and heel plates for better traction, and when mounted and activated using the remote control, the board pitches and yaws at three different speedsslow, medium, or fastforcing your abdominal muscles to contract in order for you to keep balance, resulting in a low-impact core workout. You can also initiate a 15 minute c ross-training program that shifts between the three speeds intermittently. An automatic timer shuts off the device after 15 minutes. Four non-skid rubber pads keep the board stationary while in use and will not mar hardwood surfaces.

The Core Muscle Body Board supports up to 250 pounds.

It is available at Hammacher and costs $479.95, not including shipping.

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MySpace And 49 States Agree To Web Safety Principles

MySpace has long been under attack for not doing enough to protect the millions of teenagers who visit the site. But now the company has reached agreement with 49 state’s attorney generals on principles to keep teens safe.

“This is an industry-wide challenge and we must all work together to create a safer Internet,” MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement.

The agreement also calls for MySpace to hire an independent examiner for two years to monitor how the site handles consumer complaints.

In October, MySpace’s smaller rival Facebook and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo agreed to settle a child safety probe. The social network promised to begin addressing within 24 hours any complaint about inappropriate content and allow an independent examiner to oversee how it handles the complaints.

Texas is the only state that didn’t sign the agreement.

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Feline Drinking Fountain

Are you as a pet owner looking to provide fresh tasty water to your favorite cat? Then you’ll want to be sure to check out the Feline Drinking Fountain that provides a natural flow of water that can help prevent bad kittie diseases.

The falling stream aerates the water more effectively, while a pre-filter removes large particles, and a three-layer charcoal filter removes smaller impurities. The result is fresher tasting water that is constantly circulated and returned to the dish in a gentle cascade. The soft, adjustable flow wont startle cats or require constant mop-up due to splashing, and unlike previous models, this fountain has the quietest pump available for hushed operation.

The stream is 8 inches above the catch basin and it holds up to one gallon of water at a time.

The feline drinking fountain is available at Hammacher for $69.95.

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Best Buy Nervous About Upcoming TV Conversion

Technology is always changing and sometimes it even gets outdated. The next technology on the chopping block is analog television and it’s demise is approaching fast - in only 13 months all TV’s will be required to be digital ready. TV’s without a digital converter box or without cable service will stop working on Feb. 17, 2009.

That means that consumers have a few choices - upgrade their television set, buy a digital converter or buy cable services.

Vice chairman and CEO of Best Buy, Brad Anderson told an industry audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas the following:

“The number of converter boxes that is going to be required could put remendous pressure on us to solve all those problems” in a short time, said Anderson.

“We’re very nervous about the potential risk. Once it gets turned off, it could be very interesting,” he added.

Apart from the supply issue, customer education looms as a problem for the retailers. Speaking on the same panel, Phil Schoonover, the CEO of Circuit City Stores Inc. said Anderson’s caution was appropriate. He contrasted the digital TV transition to the introduction of high-definition television sets, which mainly attracted the well-heeled and technically savvy.

“I think it will feel very different in this next round of TVs, because we’re through the early adopters,” Schoonover said.

What are your thoughts on this forced change? Do you think it will go smoothly?

MSNBC

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