Meet the cheapest laptop in the world

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From credit card debt and school loans to rising gas prices and adjustable mortgages, there are plenty of reasons consumers in the developed world can't afford a laptop. Not to mention the fact that underfunded schools and underprivileged kids also exist in the developed parts of the world. Enter the Medison Celebrity laptop. It's a US$150 laptop from Swedish company Medison that's available through the Columbus, Ohio-based online reseller 2Checkout.com.

With Nicholas Negroponte's OLPC hovering around US$175, and Intel's Classmate PC expected to cost more than US$200, the Medison Celebrity laptop can lay claim to being the cheapest laptop in the world. And it boasts an impressive feature set for the money. For starters, it features a large, widescreen 14-inch WXGA display and weighs a reasonable 2.18kg. Powering the Medison Celebrity is a 1.5GHz Intel Celeron M 370 processor and 256MB of memory. You may scoff at such a meager memory allotment considering all the reviews out there that complain whenever a PC serves up less than 1GB these days, but the Medison Celebrity doesn't have to power Vista or any other flavor of Windows. Instead, it uses Fedora Linux, which requires less muscle to run than a Windows OS and no Microsoft licensing fee. Rounding out the specs are a 40GB hard drive, an integrated Via PN800 graphics chip, and 802.11g Wi-Fi. You also get stereo speakers, three USB 2.0 ports, and a PC Card slot. Medison backs the laptop with a one-year warranty but offers little detail about the terms.

Medison takes orders in a variety of currencies, and it claims it will outfit the laptop with the appropriate keyboard. The company estimates it'll take four to six weeks to ship, but "availability of the Medison Celebrity model depends on how many orders we get per day". It also lists additional charges above the US$150 price to the US as US$6.45 plus 5.5 percent "and extra" for its partner, 2Checkout.com.

Is this US$150 laptop too good to be true? Could be--I've tried all morning to place an order, but I kept getting an error message before I could even enter my credit card info and address. I'll keep trying, but it looks like Medison isn't quite ready to bestow Celebrity status on anyone with an extra US$150 kicking around. I'll update this post should I get my order to go through.

UPDATE: I successfully completed an order. And wouldn't you know, the US$150 laptop ended up costing an even US$150. Shipping was free within the US, and no taxes or other charges were applied.

Hello Kitty Stratocaster Electric Guitar

My word. Just when we thought nothing was sacred from the lipless one from Sanrio's stable, it proves us right again. Hard to believe that an instrument which held its own in the league of country crooners, rock 'n rollers and fiery Spanish Flamencos would turn candy sweet in Hello Kitty's signature pink. If this is too sugary even for you, ah, fret not. There's a number in black. Kitty learns to rock!

See more images here


Via popgadget.net

Price: US$199.99
Availability: At Musician Friend or check out the Hello Kitty Mini Stratocaster Electric Guitar.
Device: Guitar
Specs: Humbucker, volume control knob, 25-1/2" scale length, 1.610-inch nut width, 21 frets, Agathis body, maple neck, die-cast chrome machine heads, chrome hardware, custom pickguard with Hello Kitty graphics

Eye candy for photographing children

Finally, a camera accessory that won't be doomed to rapid obsolescence: The Pez candy dispenser.

Federico Sartorio recommends some basic modifications to the candy dispenser that will let it slip into the hot shoe atop your camera that otherwise would be used for attaching a flash. Use it to grab the attention of children you're trying to photograph--as long as you have plenty of available light.

Be warned that trimming the dispenser's "feet" could reduce its resale value on eBay.

Via CNET Crave

Panasonic cameras offer auto auto auto mode

Some subset of photographers would like a compact camera with lots of higher-end features and manual controls. But a vastly larger quantity want their cameras to take photos with the correct focus, exposure, white balance and other factors without having to do more than press the shutter button.

Which is why Panasonic's three newest cameras, the Lumix FX-33, FX-55 and FZ18 are notable. For one thing, Panasonic is catching up with competitors such as Fujifilm and Canon by introducing face detection, which lets the camera guess more intelligently about what the photographer is trying to shoot and adjust settings accordingly. But more novel is what Panasonic calls Intelligent Scene Selector.

Intelligent Scene Selector, if switched on, replaces a common set of broad parameters that otherwise must be manually activated. It lets the camera take its best guess about whether the scene is one of five modes: Portrait, landscape scenery, macro close-up, night scenery and night portrait, said Alex Fried, Panasonic's National Marketing Manager for Imaging in North America. And when the camera is in portrait modes, it uses the face-detection technology for further refinement.

"All that takes place without touching a button," Fried said. "Consumers don't utilize scene modes to their fullest capability. A lot don't go that deep into the manual or into the menus."

All three of the new cameras feature the face detection and automatic scene selection as well as two earlier technologies, Panasonic's Mega OIS, which shifts the image sensor to counteract camera shake, and Intelligent ISO, which increases the camera's sensitivity to try to deal with moving subjects. Boosting ISO lets the camera use a shorter exposure to freeze action better, but it produces more off-color speckles called image noise.

Collectively, Panasonic calls the four features Intelligent Auto Mode. I suppose camera makers can be excused for attaching official names to their features, and now metafeatures, in the effort to distinguish their models from the herd. But I fear it causes brand exhaustion among camera buyers.

As my comrade Will Greenwald noted, the three new cameras are 8-megapixel models due in September and sporting zoom ranges that begin at a nice 28mm wide angle. The FX33 and FX55 are smaller, with 3.6x zoom lenses and LCDs measuring 2.5 inches and 3 inches, respectively. The FZ18 has a huge 18x zoom range, a notch longer than the predecessor FZ8, which began at 35mm and spanned a 12x zoom range. And for control freaks, it offers manual control and raw image support, Fried said.

 See more of the latest cameras for this fall

Via CNET Crave

+336+ SMS Mirror

Disney may have invented the first one-of-a-kind talking mirror for Snow White. And happily ever after, we've seen tech magic conjure up TV mirrors, interactive mirrors, and projection mirrors to see how you look in the clothes. Now designer Robert Stadler of the French design group Radi Designers has decided to mirror the other efforts. Only his is a mirror that can receive SMS messages from phones. The messages appear as luminous text running on the surface which is visible close up. It's fortunate there are just 20 pieces available worldwide, so you'll never have to agonize over whether to plonk down US$10,000 to feed your SMS addiction.

See bigger image here

Via Coolest Gadgets

Price: US$10,000, limited edition of 20
Availability: Found here
Device: Dual-purpose mirror
Specs: 27.5 x 21.6 inches

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