The Pointless But Fairly Cool Internet Fridge

Virtually everything is Internet enabled today, even the ultimate fridge for the ultimate tech home. It’s simply not possible to find any item in the home (apart from maybe the toilet roll holder or the tap (see next post)) that is probably less likely to offer some of the very latest gadgets and tech but that’s a major part of the appeal of the Internet fridge – you don’t actually NEED to be able to look at the weather or listen to the news headlines from your fridge but by God you’ll love telling everybody how you can.

A built in 56k modem, a TV tuner and 15 inch LCD monitor on the door, FM radio, and even a digital camera are all packed into this titanium styled fridge. It even has a built in mp3 player so while you sleep you can download music and while you make breakfast you can listen to your downloaded tacks and really enjoy the benefit of an Internet connected fridge (we know you could use your mp3 or your PC or your PMP but why bother when you can use the fridge?)

OK, so we don’t really see the use of this particularly but then maybe we’re just not fridge people, or indeed kitchen people for that matter. The price tag of considerably more than £1,000 means that it’s unlikely we’ll be buying it simply for bragging rights any time soon and most of the functions can be done better, cleaner, smoother, quicker, and more portably from other devices that the vast majority of us own anyway.

Dells new Desktops bring a ray of sunshine to the office

Dell have taken the initiative to bring some much needed excitement to the desktop, at last a PC manufacturer has decided to make the ugly looking lumps that generally hide under a desk just a little bit more attractive. The new Dell Inspiron 545 and 546 mini towers, and the 545 slim tower desktops provide a splash of much needed colour to an otherwise dull and unattractive piece of computer equipment. Coming in a range of delightfully garish colours such as Formula Red, true Blue, Plum Purple and Flamingo Pink this revolutionary PC colour palette is bound to brighten up any home office.

Of course for a PC user the colour could be regarded as a rather insignificant issue it is after all what the desktop is packing which is the more important factor, and in this case it is up to 8GB of RAM. Dell are providing the new Inspirons with the usual adaptable ‘custom made’ service so the end user can decide which processor they would prefer. Dell have given various options AMD Sempron, Phenom X4, Athaslon X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo, Intel Core 2 Quad and Intel Celeron options and a choice of graphics cards.

Dell are not usually known for releasing style statements but more recently have been seriously addressing the aesthetics of their computer hardware. Dell are no doubt hoping that the new and improved funky desktops will be as successful for them as their Inspiron laptops which also come in a range of vibrant colours.

Hitachi DZ-BD10H Records Direct To Blu Ray Disc Or Hard Drive

Despite winning the war of the next generation DVD format, Blu Ray technology has really only limped into existence and if it wasn’t for the PS3 and, more recently, laptops and desktops including the ability to play (and very occasionally record) in the blu ray format it would barely have even registered as being a new technology. Things are finally starting to progress though with a number of new players either just having been released or, at the very least, bing released soon.

Hitachi has also announced the DZ BD10H Blu Ray camcorder that can record in full HD and directly to a choice of blu ray disc, SDHC card, or its 30GB hard drive. However, if you’re really looking to record extensive footage in the full 1920 x 1080 HD format then you may be a little disappointed because the hard drive will only handle about 4 hours of this at the best framerates (you can double that time by reducing the framerate).

The DZ BD10H is actually the updated replacement model for the DZ-BD9H and is substantially smaller than its predecessor, but this is the main reason behind the dip in hard drive size from 60GB to 30GB.

Because of the numerous recording options, though, you can transfer the footage on your hard drive directly to SDHC card or to a recordable blu ray disc. It’s certainly a step in the right direction for the Blu Ray format.

The Panasonic G450 Mobile Broadband Modem

USB modems and mobile broadband is coming on in leaps and bounds in a very short space of time. Prices are already set respectably and by going on contract with any of the major providers you can bag yourself a free modem. If you want something completely different to the free dongles, then you might want to consider the Toshiba G450.

It’s actually a bit of a bizarre hybrid between crap mobile phone and good USB modem mixed with a seriously unusual design. The three round sections you can see are the screen and two halves of the numerical keypad. None of them are particularly user friendly as mobile phone accessories – the screen, while being OLED, is tiny and offers little more than the most basic information. Anything but standard phone keypads simply don’t work because we are creatures of habit after all.

The G450 modem includes WellPhone software that is actually pretty good, even if it isn’t the most attractive offering. Software tools that are installed as part of the software include contact and communication management functions, and this is where the combination of modem and mobile works well – in fact, it’s safe to assume that this is why the mobile phone side of things was stapled on in the first place.

As well as being able to browse emails and contacts, you can also send, receive, read, and store your SMS messages. The software works in much the same way as an email client and makes things a lot easier (although much less portable) than a normal mobile phone.

The Panasonic G450 can also be used as a mediocre MP3 player or as a standard USB flash drive depending on your preferences at the time.

If you go into this expecting the G450 to be a mobile phone you’ll be disappointed, because it is, when all’s said and done, a mobile broadband modem with mobile phone functionality built it. If you look at it like that then it’s a nice piece of kit that offers something very different to the usual fare.

<