Gadgets Galore

A new report by ChangeWave Research provides yet more evidence of the surge in consumer interest in smartphones; and of Apple's iPhone in particular. Last week we reported statistics from AdMob stating that smartphones are now edging out feature phones as the device of choice for consumers. In the race for the highly lucrative consumer smartphone market, blackberry devices still hold the lead over iPhone - but ChangeWave's data shows that the gap is rapidly closing. We predict that it won't be long until Apple overtakes RIM as the leader in this hotly contested (and vitally important, in context of the Web's shift from ... Read Full Story

Singaporean manufacturer Creative has leaked its own eBook Reader–the Zii MediaBook eReader. Surprisingly, the Zii Plaszma will throw its own set of unique features on an eBook reader. One more surprise: the Zii MediaBook will not have an e-ink display. Rather, what potential users will get is a touchscreen of unspecified size. It will be a cross between a PMP and an eBook reader, I guess (alright, this sounds like a plain old PMP to me). It makes sense as the Zii Plaszma platform is made for multimedia. No photos of the hardware yet. Other known features of the Zii MediaBook: Internet-capable, SD card, ... Read Full Story

Take projection out of the boardrooms and put it literally in the palm of your hand with the Cinemin Swivel Multimedia Pico Projector by WowWee. This pocket-size projector features Texas Instruments’ DLP projection technology and a unique 90-degree hinge that allows you to project onto virtually any surface. Use it to connect to a wide variety of handheld devices–such as the iPod, iPhone, and Flip Video–so that you can project your videos, photos, and more with anyone, at any time. The Cinemin Swivel offers: Mid-body 90-degree hinge for adjustable viewing. Small size and long battery life for easy traveling. High-contrast, ultra-clear HVGA picture. Four ... Read Full Story

On Thursday WolframAlpha launched its developer API , which should allow large and small developers (as well as businesses and educational institutions) to harness the power of the computational knowledge engine to enhance their own applications or products. Today, the WolframAlpha iPhone app (iTunes link) — which was built using the new API — was released to the App Store. The application is pretty advanced, as its $49.99 price-tag suggests. Before your jaw drops over the price, keep in mind that this is much more than just a mobile version of the website. It’s a high end graphing calculator (that supports discrete number theory, ... Read Full Story

The iPhone app for Wolfram Alpha ( iTunes store link ) got approved by Apple surprisingly quickly, I was told in a breathless e-mail from Wolfram PR on Sunday. But the real surprise was the price: The app is $49.99. The rationale is twisted. "It's less than half the price of a graphing calculator, but it does more," the rep told me. By the way, "price of a graphing calculator" is a calculation that Wolfram Alpha can't compute. For much, much less than the price of a graphing calculator, or $0.00, you can point your iPhone's Safari browser at Wolframalpha.com and have full access ... Read Full Story