If you’ve been astounding friends and family with your thousands-of-words-per-minute typing skills on your Blackberry, RIM’s latest patent may come as a bit of a heart-stopper. According to “recent” filings from the smartphone manufacturer, a new style of keyboard is on the table which may move your familiar key placement into a slightly more angular position. The purpose of the proposed pad is ostensibly to improve accuracy by creating a more “natural” placement for your thumbs — though this concept might be a little more effort than required. Of course, since all kinds of crazy designs get filed with the patent office, we wouldn’t put too much faith in this seeing the light of day, though it is an intriguing look into RIM’s design process.

[Via Mobilewhack]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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We were pretty stoked about the Blusens G-series PMPs that overlay guidance information on Google Maps satellite imagery when we first heard about them in October, and now Spanish site Xataka has a hands-on video with the G01, which appears to be just as impressive as we’d hoped. The satellite maps automatically appear when available for the area you’re in, and Xataka says the unit itself is quite fast. Sadly, there isn’t a ton more detail in the review, but those of you aching for some shaky camera work and cheesy country-rock tunes can check out the vid after the break.

Continue reading Hands-on with the Blusens G01 satellite imagery GPS

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Mio’s been generating some buzz with its new C620 series of personal navigation devices, thanks to their innovative digital elevation mapping and preloaded landmarks which allow for a 3D experience that trumps most other products on the market. Well the 4.3-inch C620 and TMC-equipped C620t are finally available for purchase, although pricing wasn’t set in the announcement, probably because these split-screen Bluetooth units are being sold in a number of European countries but not where we want them most, right here in the good old US of A.

[Via Slippery Brick]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Tried visiting Blu-raydisc.com lately? You know, that site created by the Blu-ray Disc Association? If you’re a newcomer, go on and click that “United States” location button upon arriving — and shield your eyes if you fear the sight of HD DVD. As of right now, some clever (and equally meddlesome) individual has hacked the website to redirect to the The Look and Sound of Perfect, which is the official website of the HD DVD North American Promotional Organization. Of course, it’s impossible to say who did this or what’s really going on, but it should provide a hearty chuckle if nothing else. Peep the gallery shot below for a full-screen image of the redirect result. You wanted a format war? Oh, you’ve got one.

Update: Seems to be fixed now — ’twas fun while it lasted!

[Thanks, Tom]

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Not nearly as intrusive as it first sounds, the Body Orifice Security Scanner (BOSS) is a chair-shaped mobile metal detector that officials are considering installing in every prison in England and Wales. Designed mainly to weed out one of the most popular forms of contraband — cellphones — the new BOSS II is said to be sensitive enough to detect even a single SIM card being smuggled somewhere inside an individual. So far the two £6,500 ($12,900) chairs that have been used at the Woodhill jail in Milton Keynes since April have helped authorities seize 21 handsets, with inmates who trigger an alert segregated and swiped down by a metal detector every time they leave their cells until the metal object has been, um, passed. While this system does humanely do away with uncomfortable cavity searches, those poor souls with a knee replacement, a bit of shrapnel embedded in their hip, or the like seem destined to toil away in solitary confinement for eternity.

[Via SlashGear]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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