OpenPeak has unveiled the OpenFrame platform that hopes to bring a semblance of the iphone OS to the home phone, an effort that is normally found on other cell phones without much success so far. The OpenFrame is a tiny tablet that resembles a digital picture frame, and will be accompanied by a traditional handset, where both are manufactured by OpenPeak and will be sold via telecommunications companies for $200 to $300. Developers are encouraged to come up with third-party programs including staples such as a calendar, local weather & news and Internet radio. Do you think the OpenFrame platform will catch on, considering similar online services are already available on the PC or laptop? I suppose it might be if the non-geek demographic were to pick it up.

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I have always had a preference for how the Skull Candy earbuds look, since they are one of the few that features a bit of color and are sold at a great deal of stores.  Well these new Sony earbuds seem to feature even more color and add a bit of sparkle to the mix as well.  Which means that these shiny little guys are likely going to be more fitting for the feminine type.  These colorful earbuds might actually be enough to get me to switch brands.  Well they would have been, if there was a US release date to speak of.  No, this pretty new product is headed straight for Japan and no word if it will venture elsewhere.

It will be released September 10th in Japan, so any shot those of us elsewhere have at it will likely happen after then.  Hopefully Sony will release these in other areas of the world so that the rest of us can have brightly colored sparkly earbuds.  They will be sold for $22, so they also are going for fairly cheap.  They will be released in the colors shown in the above picture, which are white, green, pink, tan and blue.  Although I’m sure they have prettier names for the colors, but you get the idea.

Source: Newlaunches

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In a press release issued on August 20th eBay has signalled a shift towards pushing fixed priced sales over auctions.

The changes include the introduction of a flat rate fee of 35 cents for ‘Buy It Now’ listed items as well as no extra charge for listing multiples of those items. The fee changes amount to around a 70% reduction in costs to the seller. The aim of this being to see a drastic cut in the cost of listing items for sale and therefore encouraging more sales through the site.

Lorrie Norrington, president of eBay Marketplaces commented:

We aim to be the most competitive marketplace online, and this new, incredibly low pricing helps us achieve that goal … A 35 cent listing fee virtually eliminates the upfront cost for sellers to put more of their great inventory on eBay and creates more opportunity than ever for sellers to build successful businesses.

Before now listing a fixed price item could incur multiple and much higher fees, but this move is being seen as eBay’s bid to become more competitive against e-tailers such as Amazon.com. Norrington has also tried to quell fears that eBay is moving away from the auction model, saying:

We love auctions. Auction-style listings remain the ideal choice for sellers who are uncertain about the value of their item, have a scarce item in high demand, or are willing to start at a low price and let bidding determine the final value … With these changes, we’re making sure sellers have competitive opportunities in both formats-auction-style and fixed price.

The new fee structure will be introduced during September.

Read more at eBay.com, found via The New York Times

Matthew’s Opinion
Even though eBay are saying they still love auctions this move clearly makes fixed pricing a very tempting proposition for sellers. It doesn’t benefit small sellers that much or anyone selling a single item that is potentially worth a lot of money to the right collector, but it does push for more shops to open up.

I think eBay have just realized if they want to push on with growing their business then their real competition is Amazon and other large e-tailers. They have no real competition in the auction business, but their growth has slowed and they needed to react.

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Use a wonderful way to flaunt all your memorable photos on the new Next Base Photo M@il Digital Photo Frame. This frame displays photos at a high resolution of 800 x 600. Next Base Photo M@il Digital Photo Frame works efficiently with integrated Lithium batteries for up to 2 hours continuously.

Features

• 4:3 format
• 8” digital TFT screen
• 4-in-1-card-slot-in for SD, MMC, MS/MS-Pro/xD memory cards
• 2 GB internal storage space
• Individual design

Next Base Photo M@il Digital Photo Frame allows you to show content from the Internet even without using a PC. Wi-Fi, USB connection and different slide show effects are some other features of this innovative product. Next Base Photo M@il Digital Photo Frame supports various formats like JPEG, BMP, JPEG without surround and Motion. It also features a weather forecast function.

Price and Availability

Next Base Photo M@il Digital Photo Frame is available at a price of 199€.

Source: Next Base

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A partnership between American Airlines and Aircell will ensure that travellers still have Internet access even if they are 30,000 feet in the air. The mobile broadband service, called Gogo, will be provided on the entire 767-200 fleet in operation for American Airlines.

Routes offering the service will include non-stop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles and New York and Miami. Gogo marks the first time an in-flight broadband service will be offered in the U.S.

The fee-based service will cost US$12.95 on flights that last more than 3 hours. Passengers will be able to access the service by simply turning on their Wi-Fi enabled device; which would include laptops, smartphones and PDAs. Voice over IP support will not be provided nor will cell phone service.

Offering Internet access instead of mobile phone service is a nice compromise. Sitting next to someone who is talking on the phone the whole flight could drive you insane. Now, if the person is just browsing the Internet, instant messaging or emailing someone that’s not a big deal. I can imagine US$12.95 would be a small price to pay to stay productive during a flight that lasts 3 hours or more.

Read more from the joint press release.

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When Electronic Arts decided that they needed a “global quality assurance center,” they had a pretty easy task. Find a place where lots of people play video games. So what did they do? Well, they found a nice, big state university and they’re setting up shop.

Today, EA and Louisiana State University announced the gaming giant’s commitment to create more than 200 jobs with an annual payroll of around US$6 million for kids to test new EA Sports titles. While only 20 of those jobs will be full-time, the government of Louisiana is hoping that this facility is just the first of many. Stephen Moret, Louisiana economic development secretary commented:

That’s kind of the dream —thinking of them as the anchor tenant of a new research-based complex cultivating the digital media industry

See, the state has been courting video game and digital arts companies looking to make Baton Rouge a new center for the industry (look out, Silicon Valley). The first step was the introduction of a video game design degree program at Baton Rouge Community College. That was started with help from game developer Nerjyzed Entertainment.

Since then, the city has been able to bait a few other little-known gaming companies, but now comes the big fish in the form of EA. If they keep this up, I think that I could actually be convinced to move back there.

Read more at the Electronic Arts press release, found via The Baton Rouge Advocate and Kotaku

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Google’s mobile operating system called Android is one step closer to becoming a reality. The company announced this week that the latest version of the operating system’s software development kit was now available. The Android 0.9 SDK is available as a download and includes a number of enhancements as Google moves closer to version 1.0.

Enhancements to the operating system include a new Home Screen, new applications, new development tools, new API’s, and most importantly a number of bugs from the previous versions have been fixed. Unfortunately, there were some items which were removed including the GTalkService and the Bluetooth API.

There is still no guarantee that applications developed with the 0.9 SDK will work with the 1.0 version of Android, but this latest SDK at least gets developers one step closer.

According to Google’s own developer roadmap the Android 1.0 SDK is expected sometime during the third or fourth quarter; with Android 1.0 devices expected to be available sometime before the end of the year. That being said, I think Google’s timeline may be a little too ambitious.

Ultimately, how well developers get on with the Android 1.0 SDK will determine what Android-powered devices, if any, will be available before the end of the year.

Read more at the Android Developers Blog and the Android website.

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Sony has announced the semi-successor to the playstation Portable, the PSP 3000, which will go on sale in Europe on October 15th for €200. The current PSP will remain on sale.

So what’s new? Not much. The screen has been improved, and features an anti-reflective coating, higher contrast and a wider color gamut. This should translate into sharper, brighter and more colorful images. There is also a built in microphone to make Skype calls easier, and a tweak to the video-out socket, “which will allow new PSP users to enjoy games on non-progressive TVs.”

Perhaps most significant of all are the two new colors Sony has invented for the new handheld, two colors which are likely to be the only visual differences noticed by the casual viewer between the 3000 and the current Slim’n'light model. In addition to boring old “Piano Black”, the PSP 3000 can be had in either “Pearl White” or “Mystic Silver”.

The €200 buys you the console and a game (or the Go! Communications software). Alternatively, you could spend the same €200 on, say, an iphone, and get a slew of extra features. Just saying.

Press release [PR Newswire]

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Is there anything that lasers can’t do? The answer, if you need it, is “No”. They’re even useful in the kitchen. Here we see two cooking hacks which are so perfect in their synergy between nerds and their favorite foods that we wonder why we haven’t seen them before.

The ingredients

Pizza

Coffee

Geeks

Lasers

Method

Take one pizza, place on an industrial laser line cutter and stand back. You pizza will be divided into slices so perfectly accurate, you will never have to argue about who gets the biggest.

Next, place three cups of foul instant coffee powder and cold water into a the chamber of a 2KW laser. Spin into position and briefly zap, until you have a steaming but tasteless brew. If you are feeling fancy, also boil some water for tea.

Serving suggestion: Pour the coffee away, and buy beer. Enjoy.

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We try to cover all kinds of gadgets here at Gadget Lab, both high and low-tech. But one thing that seems to have slipped our attention is the humble toothbrush, a device so ubiquitous in the developed world that it is almost invisible.

Well, that’s about to change. Behold, the Colgate 360º, somewhat baffling subtitled “For an healthier whole mouth clean”. This brush, according to Marian Bantjes of the Objectified blog, is “astonishing”.

Bantjes starts of in the same way as I might have — with a rant about the ridiculous overdesign of the toothbrush. But then she decided to put here money where her mouth was, so to speak, and tried one out. The result? A rather sensual description of the brush:

The moment I took it out of its package I was surprised by how perfectly it fit in my hand. Rubber ribs nestled just below the knuckle of my index finger; the unusual curve of the handle fell below my pinky, encouraging my hand into an elegant, natural form…

The bristles seemed to snuggle over my molars with a massaging hug. The bizarre rubbery bits inside the bristles made obvious and satisfying contact with the top of the tooth. And the strange, nubbly mat on the reverse side from the bristles gently scrubbed inside my cheek: double action!

Yes, this might sound like an erotic story, but it woke me up. I use the cheapest brush I can find (usually two for a dollar), but Bantjes’ review has opened my eyes (and mouth) to a new world of gentle dental hygiene. I will be hunting one down this afternoon. Even the commenters on her post love the thing, although one or two of them manage to keep things in perspective:

Yeah, it’s ok. It’s a toothbrush. Seems to work.

and

get a grip people … it’s just a toothbrush.

Objectify Me: Marian Bantjes and her toothbrush [Objectified via ★]

Product page [Colgate]

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