By David Klein
Moshi’s latest product, the iLynx, immediately caught my eye at January’s Macworld convention in San Francisco. When I saw Moshi’s booth I ran over to see what they had coming in the near future. My first question was: “What is that and when can I buy it?!” (Yes, I love cool looking products.) The Moshi employee told me it was a USB and Firewire hub. Somehow, they took a relatively dull concept and made it surprisingly sexy. Moshi demonstrated expertise in this style of design again.
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Palm Inc. (PALM) said Tuesday it will take a charge of less than US$10 million as it cancels a planned new companion device for its Treo smartphone. Dubbed the Foleo, the sub-notebook-like device was referred to as the Foolio by its critics because it was sort of a smartphone and sort of of a laptop ‚Äî but didn’t really have the functionality of either. (Thanks Vic)

Palm CEO Ed Colligan just posted a message to the company’s official blog stating that they’ve decided to cancel the Foleo mobile companion “in its current configuration” in order to “focus all of our energies on delivering out next generation platform and the first smartphones that will bring this platform to market.” In a way we’re sort of disappointed that we’ll never at least get to play with one and put it through its paces, but it’s definitely the right move — Palm needs to focus on one thing right now, and that’s coming out with a category-killing smartphone.

Engadget :: Palm kills the Foleo dead

Tags: Palm, Foleo

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With about a month having passed between the Apple TV‘s release and today and an active community working on hacks, workarounds and new features for the device, we want your current stories about what you’ve done with yours:
What was your first impression of the machine? Was it easy to set up? Did you have any problems setting it up? What workarounds did you have to use? Have you upgraded it yet or tried any hacks that have come out for it? Was there a feature or set of features missing that put you on the fence about buying one in the first place? And, finally, what additional modifications would you like to see created for it, either by Apple or the user community?
Send us your stories and we’ll make sure the best stories are published in a round up tomorrow. This isn’t a ticket to instant fame, the affections or the opposite sex or a brand new Ferrari sitting in your driveway, but if you’ve had a memorable experience with Apple’s hippest new device, let us know.

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And not just your Apple TV stories. Your brains would also suffice.
The Apple TV’s been out for over a week now and a number of you have gotten your hands on one. We’d like to know what you’ve made of it and what your overall opinion of the device is, especially considering how much of a break this is from what Apple typically produces and the new markets the company’s trying to enter.
What was your first impression of the machine? Was it easy to set up? Did you have any problems setting it up? What workarounds did you have to use? What would you like to see changed or added to a future version? Have you upgraded it yet or tried any hacks that have come out for it? Was there a feature or set of features missing that put you on the fence about buying one in the first place?
If so, let us know and we’ll make sure the best stories are published in a round up tomorrow. This isn’t a contest and there are no terrific prizes to be won, but we’d just like to know what you make of Apple’s coolest new toy.

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It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the concept of an Apple tablet. It would be a great machine for commuting, allowing me to keep up with news and email on-the-go. New reports indicate that Apple may be close to releasing such a beast in 2007.
Citing sources in Taiwan Australia’s Smarthouse claims that Apple researchers have built a fully working prototype of tablet Mac and three companies in Taiwan are bidding for a potential launch in mid 2007.
Quanta and Hon Hai Precision Industry (a.k.a. Foxconn Electronics Inc.) are Taiwanese companies that make notebooks and other devices for Apple. Both have signed confidentiality agreements with Apple for the Tablet Mac according to the report.
Read the rest of the story on my ZDNet Blog: The Apple Core.

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PC Magazine has collected 12 of the weirdest USB-powered devices, and displayed them on a page titled ’10 Weirdest USB Devices’.
Amongst the gems are memory sticks made of real sticks, the fondue (sorry, FUNdue) set pictured, a disco ball and a hamster wheel.
It seems to me that the hamster wheel was a wasted opportunity. Wouldn’t it have been better to install a mini-generator in the wheel’s hub, and let the hamster earn its sunflower seeds charging my PowerBook’s battery supply?
Read more…

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Sony Ericsson have launched the MBW-100 Bluetooth Watch. The analogue watch will go on sale globally during Q4 of 2006 with a guideline retail price of EUR 300.
Designed in partnership with fashion watchmaker Fossil, the MBW-100 sports an OLED display beneath the watch face which displays who is calling you on your mobile (well, as long as your mobile is a Sony Ericsson K610, K610i, K618, K790, K800, V630, W710, W850, Z610 or Z710). A key press on the watch rejects the call, or diverts it to the phone or bluetooth headset.
The watch also allows you to play, pause and skip to the next track on your phone’s music player, notifies you of text messages received and lets you know when your are out-of-range from your phone.
And now the bad news. It weighs 190 grammes. That’s 5 grammes more than my 60 gigabyte iPod Photo. 190 grammes is twice the weight of your average candy-bar mobile phone, so why not just have the phone built in to the watch? An attractive lightweight wristwatch-style phone which paired to a bluetooth headset might get me wearing a watch again!
Oh, and Sony also get the ‘Tautology of the Week’ award for this excerpt from the official press release:
“Most consumers cannot do without the indispensable tools for their busy lives”
Nice.
(Contributed by: Brett Jordan)

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Fresh from the ‘What-A-Good-Idea’ department comes the USBCELL. This 1300mAH rechargeable battery has a hinged cap that folds back to reveal a USB connector. This can then be plugged-in to any full-size, powered USB port, avoiding the need for separate recharging devices, cradles or cables.
At 1300mAH, the USBCELL is half the capacity of many conventional rechargeable batteries. However the conveniencce of being able to recharge or top-up by simply plugging into a USB port is a definite plus.
AAA and 9 volt batteries are being planned, along with power-supplies for a wide range of portable devices including mobile phones and game consoles.
Contributed by Brett Jordan.

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While traveling this weekend to Austin City Limits festival in Austin, Texas this weekend (more about that on my personal blog later, promise) I stumbled across this cool gadget charging station in the George Bush Intercontinental/Houston Airport (IAH) airport. The Charge Carte kiosk is brought to you by the same people who extort US$3 out of road-weary travelers to rent luggage carts in airports.
The concept is simple: insert US$3 in the Charge Carte machine and you get 30 minutes of gadget charging time. Many devices are supported, the top row of three is all iPod chargers, the rest are phone chargers for Treo (yay!) Motorola, Nokia, Blackberry, Nextel, LG and Samsung rides. The company claims that a 30 minute charge should provide up to 50 percent of the power capacity of a dead gadget and that their rapid charge technology will charge a cell phone or PDA up to twice as fast as a standard outlet charger.
I didn’t have to use it (luckily) but it’s a great idea nonetheless.

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We’re as surprised as you, but Apple actually put their iTV units on display right after the show! Really, there isn’t a whole lot here that we didn’t already see in the keynote and up on their site, but it’s definitely Mac mini sized in terms of footprint, and is a sexy little bugger. Click on for lots more pics!

Hands-on with the Apple iTV prototype – Engadget

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