With 2006 rapidly approaching we have been quietly prepping a Porsche 911 Carrera Targa for sponsorship. We will be starting slow with a few autocross and track days to get our feet wet for the 2006 season. Also we will use the Porsche for our new install proving ground for mobile products like GPS, Satellite Radio, Windows Media devices, etc.

So far upgrades have included a Fabspeed exhaust system, Bilstein sport shocks, Rennline triangulated strut brace and custom Steve Wong performance chip. So far we have reduced the vehicle weight to about 2800lbs.

Here is a video clip of the Dyno run we did at CarbConn a couple of weeks back. We ended up with 200 RWHP (rear wheel horse power). That works out to about 240 HP assuming about 15% drive train losses.

We are still looking for a couple additional sponsors for logo placement on the car, send us a note if you want to see your logo in our reviews photos and track videos.

Special thanks to Craig @ Rennstore for taking the video of our dyno run.

CoolIt are the same people who make the USB Chiller so you can sit at your laptop or PC and always have that frosty can of Amped or Jolt ready.

The retrofitted Xbox 360 will be on display at the CoolIT Systems booth 70556 in The Sands Expo Center throughout the duration of the CES Show. The display will feature a side-by-side comparison of the CoolIT MTEC liquid-chilled Xbox 360 to the standard Xbox 360 to demonstrate superiority for temperature, noise level and ultimate performance.

The Microsoft Xbox 360 has been the topic of much discussion since its release on Nov. 22, 2005. Aside from its limited supply through Christmas and fantastic gaming abilities, many headlines have been about problems related to the excessive thermal output of Microsoft’s latest gaming console product.

To provide gaming consumers with a high performance option, CoolIT Systems has designed a retrofit product that will transform the stock forced air cooling system with a state-of-the-art liquid-chilled system that employs the exclusive MTEC technology pioneered by CoolIT Systems.

http://www.coolitsystems.com

Primarily shipping to the professional broadcasting market for the past two years, Jadoo Power will introduce the NABII power unit, N-Stor fuel canister and FillPoint refill station for a variety of new applications, including field-ready laptops, emergency response radios and other equipment used in “off-grid” power situations, as well as professional broadcast cameras.

Jadoo Power Systems Inc. the leading supplier of portable fuel cell power systems, announced today that it will be introducing its line of fuel cell products for prosumers at next week’s ShowStoppers event at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2006 in Las Vegas. PDAToday staff will be there for more photos and demo goodness.

“Commercialization has been priority number one for Jadoo and we are excited about bringing our tried and true technology to these new prosumer markets,” said Jack Peterson, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Jadoo Power. “It is clear to Jadoo that the applications for a durable, reliable ‘off-grid’ fuel cell power source are many. That is why we are introducing the NABII, N-Stor fuel canister and FillPoint refill station to the prosumer electronics market here at CES.”

http://www.jadoopower.com

Astraware and Pazzazz Games are pleased to announce the release of Moonfighter for Palm OS and Windows Mobile for Pocket PC.

Moonfighter is a fun gravity-based shoot-em-up that challenges players to pilot their spacecraft around lunar terrains and blast aliens whilst collecting energy spheres to extend their mission time. Players can progress through thousands of Moonfighter levels, each one offering more challenging terrains and more enemy attacks.

Moonfighter offers three types of alien enemies: Turrets - static units placed at strategic points around the terrain; Spiderbots - walking units that climb the cavern walls and Saucerbots - anti-gravity platforms that can float around. Enemy attacks take the form of Guns - unguided laser bolts with unlimited range; Missiles - medium range guided torpedoes; and G-weapons - short range gravity distortion fields that either attract or repel your craft. As players fly around the alien terrains they will encounter narrow valleys, lunar peaks, and underground caverns many of which are protected by heavy-duty blast doors.

Moonfighter is developed by Pazzazz Games, creators of the award winning GTS Racing Challenge and Hellfire: Apache vs Hind, and exclusively published by Astraware. The game is available at http://www.astraware.com/moonfighter priced $19.95, but check the Astraware website for a special release discount!

Super Deluxe Theme Pack from Simbsoft has been released. They have over 500 Super Deluxe Themes for your Pocket PC to customize your Today Screen and give your Pocket PC a fresh new look.

Select favorite themes from the most popular categories: Abstraction, Animals, Beach, City, Flowers, Landscape, Space, Sunset, and Underwater.

Features include over 500 beautiful themes. Each theme was created and adjusted for the best appearance on your Pocket PC. You can preview pictures with themes’ corresponding file names to choose the themes you like most of all. Compatible with Pocket PC 2002, Pocket PC 2003/SE, Windows Mobile 5.0 and VGA screen supported including Landscape mode.

http://www.simbsoft.com to preview all themes in Super Deluxe Theme Pack.

With the wide array of mobile device that can play MP3 music and / or video, the one thing that almost every one of them lacks is good sound output. From MP3 / MP4 players to PDAs and mobile phones, most devices have a tiny mono speaker at best. Even many notebook computers have a very basic pair of small speakers that are incapable of producing quality, high-fidelity sound. All of these devices are design to use a pair of stereo headphones for listening to music or watching videos, but what if you want to enjoy quality sound without being tied to a set of headphones?

The Boomtube H2O1 from Think Outside, creators of the Stowaway Keyboard, is a portable speaker system designed to be easily stored and transported, but still able to deliver a quality, audio experience. Whether in your home, office, hotel room, boat, or any location, you can have great sound from your mobile device.

Read our full review of the Think Outside Boomtube H2O1 Portable Speakers with bass tube

If you are a notebook user, one day you will run out of hard disk space. For those who need to easily add more hard disk space to their computer or simply want to be able to transport large amounts of data from one machine to another, external hard drives have been available for a long time. Based on SCSI, Parallel, USB, or FireWire, they provide an external case for a standard hard drive with connectors for the interface and power. The latest offering from Targus is the 40GB Ultra Slim Pocket Drive.

Based on a 1.8” hard drive inside a fully enclosed plastic case, the Pocket Drive is connected to any compatible device through the USB plug. Supporting USB 2.0, the Pocket Drive contains a 1.8” hard disk drive with 40GB (unformatted) with 512 bytes sector size and 4 data heads. The drive has a 2MB buffer and a 4,200 RPM speed. The USB Plug is stored within the case and “flips out” for connection to a USB port. A USB Extension Cable is included with the Pocket Drive Two LEDs indicates power and drive activity. The Pocket Drive is 3.4"x3.0"x0.6", weights 1.66 ounces, and is smaller than any 2.5” Hard Disk Drive in an external case.

Click to read our full review of the Targus 40GB Ultra Slim Pocket Drive

The most exciting area of computing has always been micro technology. Making what is large today into smaller, more usable forms has driven many advances in the computer industry. In the last fifteen years, computers have moved from the desktop to the laptop and notebook computers have become the computer of choice for most people. However, as small as they have become, notebook computers are still not small enough for many specialized uses and users. I have always been fascinated by handheld sized computers. Not necessarily the handhelds that reduce the functionality of a computer to a basic subset, but handhelds that have the full capability of the current, full-sized versions. I still own, and occasionally use, an IBM PC110 and Toshiba Libretto 70. For those who do not know, the IBM PC110 was the world’s smallest 486 computer (the size of a paperback book) and the Toshiba Libretto was the smallest Pentium 1 computer (the size of a VHS video cassette). Both were complete computers with color screens, keyboards, mouse pointer, docking stations, etc. running full versions of Windows. Now a revolutionary handheld, from San Francisco-based OQO, brings the current level of computing power into the world’s smallest Windows XP computer.

Read our complete review of the OQO model 01+ Ultra Mobile Computer

This looks kind of neat; it’s a 30GB or 80GB portable hard drive that allows you to store your digital photos while on the go.

I know...why not you’re your iPod or some such thing? Well this has media slots including CF I/II, MD, SM, xD-Picture Card, MMC, SD Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, and MS PRO Duo, so you can copy and save your pictures directly from any digital camera memory card.

When connected to your computer, Media Buddy functions as an external hard drive through its high-speed USB 2 connection. So after all that it also does double duty as an MP3 player...nice.

Media Buddy weighs 11 oz. (with hard drive and battery included) with dimensions of 5.8” (L) x 3.4” (W) x 1” (H). It comes in 3 stylish colors: Powder Blue, Arctic Silver, and Pearl Gray and 4 storage capacities: 30GB, 40GB, 60GB, and 80GB. Media Buddy comes complete with Ulead Photo Explorer image management software (normally a $30 value), USB cable, earphones, AC adapter, Lithium-Ion battery, carrying case, resource disk, and user’s guide. It is available immediately at Digital Foci’s online store at http://www.digitalfoci.com starting at $229.95. For more information, see the website: http://www.digitalfoci.com

A new robot can recognize the difference between a mirror image of itself and another robot that looks just like it.

This so-called mirror image cognition is based on artificial nerve cell groups built into the robot’s computer brain that give it the ability to recognize itself and acknowledge others.

The ground-breaking technology could eventually lead to robots able to express emotions.

Under development by Junichi Takeno and a team of researchers at Meiji University in Japan, the robot represents a big step toward developing self-aware robots and in understanding and modeling human self-consciousness.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20051219/awarerobot_tec.html

Commodore is set to unveil its first US domestic product offerings for B2B and B2C segments.  One of personal computing’s pioneers, the resurgent Commodore brand will showcase the Commodore Multimedia Tower, Commodore MediaBox and the Commodore Navigator at the CES 2006 convention.  The groundbreaking digital media company reintroduces itself on the heels of the brand’s dominant presence in the 1970s and 1980s and a European test market of handheld digital devices in 2005.

“We are excited to be launching our initial offerings at this year’s CES,” stated Ben van Wijhe, President & CEO, Commodore International Corp.  “We expect our Tower, MediaBox and Navigator to both advance AND uphold the world-class quality of yesteryear’s Commodore products.  Never before has a brand come out of hibernation and truly reinvented itself to position competitively in an ever-evolving digital media marketplace.”

The Commodore brand will debut at the 2006 International CES with:

Wow...if you just can’t muster the energy to read your email now you can have it read to you. How it Works:

MT1 automatically creates a new Outlook folder. Once a new email arrives in your inbox, it’s automatically selected & copied to that folder, where it awaits processing and translation to audio. This process is automatic—you do nothing. MT1 also allows you to listen to emails with Word document attachments. When you’re ready to listen to your emails on your iPod, cellphone or PDA, simply connect that device to your PC and press the download button. You’re now ready to listen to your emails. It’s that simple.

“So Peter, how about that TPS report...hang on Peter, uhh you like my coffe cup...grreeaat, Ok Peter just convert that TPS to a MagneticTime file I’m kinda busy right now...suuuper.”

MT1 uses Acapela high quality text-to-speech technology, which transforms emails or word attachments into natural speech, reading it aloud with the flexibility and richness of natural sounding speech. Acapela speaks multiple languages and reads proper names, numbers and currencies for optimal and smooth restitution of the information.

Windows and will be available for Mac early 2006 for download at: http://www.magnetictime.com priced at $39.99. Currently available in English, MagneticTime will also be available soon in French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian Dutch and Swedish.

Topics:

• PSHUG welcomes KEGS Digital Imaging SIG for a holiday get-together!
• Demos:  Dream’eo Solo Windows Media device with GPS and the Sprint PPC-6700 also the Bluetake Bluetooth BT400 G5 Headset
• Our annual predictions:  How well did we forecast 2005’s technology news?  What do we see coming in ‘06?
• Refreshments
• Giveaways, door prizes, and swag!  Thanks to
  • Proporta (goodies including an MP3 player, PDA accessories and cases)
  • Nebula Software‘s work bench “graduates” including some older iPaqs and accessories.
  • Bill, our president, is bringing 2 autographed copies of Mastering Visually Windows Mobile 2003

Date/Time:
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
7:00 PM
Location:
Microsoft RedWest Building E - Emerald Room
Redmond, WA
Turn off 148th Ave NE at NE 56st St. (look for the traffic light and the “Microsoft” sign)
It’s just a little farther down 148th from the PSHUG Nov. and June location, the same location as the October PSHUG meeting, and also just down the street from the regular KEGS Digital Imaging SIG meeting.
Map:
http://members.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/locations/images/north_campus.jpg
Windows Live photo with “Bird’s Eye View"
PSHUG thanks Microsoft for sponsoring us by providing our meeting venue!

The fashionably designed OLE 8100 delivers DVD-quality video and MP3-quality audio files, and also functions as a digital voice recorder.

The RIDATA OLE 8100 supports the following formats; music: MP3, WMA, OGG, AC3; video: AVI, MPEG-1,2, and 4, VOB, DAT; and photo: JPG, YUV (up to 4800 x 3600), support picture preview/slide function. Video and photos are displayed on an energy-efficient 2” LTPS LCD panel.

It sports embedded solid-state NAND flash memory. 1GB and 2GB capacities are available. The 2GB model provides up to 3.5 hours of video play time and over 3 hours worth of audio.

Video output to NTSC or PAL standards is by the included A/V cable.  Video output ports are RCA and S-tunnel. A/V input/output ports include MIC in, line-in in, earphone out, and A/V out. A USB 2.0 PC interface is also included. The 1GB unit is priced at $229, the 2GB version at $279. http://www.ritekusa.com

RIDATA of recordable CD and DVD media fame is set to introduce a USB-powered digital video broadcasting-terrestrial
(DVB-T) tuner. This will bring over-the-air or broadcast digital television signals to be received by and shown on PCs, laptops, or
other mobile devices such as PDAs...neat.

The RIDATA USB DVB-T tuner receives digital terrestrial TV and radio signals; supports DVB protocol ETS 300 744; includes MPEG-II software decoding; performs real-time digital video recording and time-shifting operations; and offers full-screen display.  It also includes an electronic program guide, offers a multi-channel preview, and receives teletext signals.

Hmmm, I bet I still cant find anything decent to watch in the middle of the day!

The RIDATA DVB-T tuner has an MSRP of US $60.00