USB Heating Slippers

First, we had USB heating gloves which our venerable Mobile Ojisan mused as a very cheap cheap alternative to central heating. Just in case your office chilled toes are also complaining, online retailer Thanko has unveiled a pair of, you guessed it, USB heating slippers! And with notebooks making such cosy lap warmers, you're all set for some truly toasty surfing! Rock on.

Check out: USB connectivity | wearing the slippers | upclose

Via Akihabara News

Price: 3,980 yen (US$33.30)
Availability: See Thanko site
Device: USB peripheral
Basic specs: N.A.

Pink RAZR now available in Singapore

Christmas seems to have arrived early for Motorola, after the phone maker launched not one, not two, but three new handsets over the past weekend. The PEBL and L6 phones were announced in an earlier press release. Then there's the pink RAZR which we only found out today. Company representatives has assured that the pink RAZR is not a limited edition unit, so there is no need to rush down to stores to buy one. But given that it has gathered quite a bit of interest on the CNET Asia site since its announcement, we believe it will be in short demand throughout the X'mas season. The pink RAZR will be sold at the same price as its silver and black predecessors.
First take of the pink RAZR

Olympus' need for speed

Olympus has released its new high-speed xD-Picture Card that allows for faster image capture and new image effects. These cards, when used with the company's digicams and software, will enable users to create art effects and 3D images.

The new 3D function gives the impression of solidity and depth when the pictures are viewed through red-blue 3D filter glasses or crossview frame. And according to Olympus, these effects can be witnessed onscreen or on paper. Users of these new xD-Picture cards simply need to key in the activation code into Olympus Master 1.4, which can be downloaded from the company's Web site as well.

New xD-Picture Cards go 3D.

Acer's foray into LCD TVs

It was just a matter of timing for the Taiwanese company to roll out its large-screen LCD TVs built on an extensive know-how in LCD technology from its years of experience in manufacturing LCD monitors.

Acer's offering comes in two different flavors--a bedroom-friendly 26-inch AL2671W and its big brother, the 32-inch AT3201W. Both models share a common feature set which revolves around a high definition-ready panel, an all-digital DVI terminal, sound-enhancing SRS WOW, among others.

Priced to sell, the new Acer AL2671W and AT3201 are available at S$1,799 (US$1,060) and S$2,499 (US$1,470)respectively.
More info here

Racing your laptop

From Acer's Ferrari notebook to the upcoming Intel-Lamborghini laptop, Nascar has joined the free-for-all by branding the Cisnet-made laptop with its distinctive trademark. Powering on an AMD Turion 64 ML-30 chip and 80GB hard drive, the two partners have jointly designed the first Nascar notebook.

Available only to the US market, the laptop was launched in October and can be purchased through CompUSA and Target.com. It costs US$899.99 (S$1523.81) after rebate and comes with a Nascar-themed Logitech mouse, customized Media Player and Nascar-inspired screensaver. If fans are hoping to race virtually with Nascar 2005 on this system, they will probably not get past the starting line. Unlike its namesake, the Nascar laptop has to depend on the poky and slow integrated graphics card to render animations. Gaming on this system is about as fast and as enjoyable as watching a race with the safety car on the track.

And unlike the cutting-edge technologies found in racing vehicles, this mobile makes do with yesterday's specifications. 80GB of storage, integrated graphics and PCMCIA slots may still allow it to make it past the qualifying round this year, but we expect the Nascar notebook to be retired in short notice with next year's lineup. We hope to see better systems from the other 200 licensees bearing the stock car auto race logo.

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