I got my Nokia N95 back in October 2007 and I wanted a better casing to protect the phone since the default casing in the box was not good enough. The default casing had to be flipped open during calls and that blocks the camera view. So I was pretty delighted when the Brando guys sent me the Nokia N95 Black Silicone Case as it looks classy. I’ve been getting a lot of compliments on it since people around Kuala Lumpur don’t see black casings often. Its pretty unique.

Putting it on
It took me a good 10 mins to figure out how to put the Nokia N95 Black Silicone Case on the phone. The casing came in 2 pieces. You put the phone on the bottom wider part, slide out the phone, drop the top silicon part on the display side and slowly slide it along the “railings” of the bottom part. Get it ? Installing the Nokia N95 Black Silicone Case was pretty easy and it fits nicely into the phone.

The outlook

The Nokia N95 Black Silicone Case looks tough and protects every corner from bumps. Its made of quality silicone material. The silicone case allows access to every button, speaker, microphone, camera, SD slot and light sensor on the device, except the battery compartment. Too bad it attracts quite a lot of dust once it gets out from my pockets. I guess the Organic Anti-dust Technology (OAD) did not work. Take not adding in the casing makes it about 15 mm thicker in width. I like this casing as I can leave it my car seat (fabric) and it won’t slide around. Try doing that with a hard plastic casing.

Conclusion

$10 is a pretty good deal for this casing as it offers all around protection while enabling you to access all buttons on your phone. A good buy for your Nokia N95

Nokia N95 Silicone Case. Goes for $10. This silicone glove provides protection from scratches, dust and impacts for your device. High-tech silicone with Organic Anti-dust Technology (OAD) which makes the case soft to touch and helps prevent dust and dirt from the case.

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Yes folks. Its official. The Nintendo Wii has been hacked. Soon you’d be able to get a homebrew Nintendo Wii and it’ll even make you coffee (kidding!). Kudos to the dudes at the 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress for making our lives complete. Now I’d wish they’d send me a demo version so that I can tear it up.

From the report: The guys over at 24C3 just demoed a Wii hack that is set to provide native wii homebrew in the near future (not running in GC mode, and with full access to all the Wii hardware!) They were able to find encryption and decryption keys by doing full memory dumps at runtime over a custom serial interface. Using these keys, they were
able to create a Wii ‘game’ that ran their own code (their demo happened to show live sensor/Wiimote information, amongst a few other things).

via

Here’s a link video of that conference. The Wii segments starts at 59 minutes.

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Lithium batteries are primary batteries that have lithium metal or lithium compounds as an anode. There’s been a recent spade of exploding batteries at airports causing personal injury and U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a press release regarding its presence on flights in and out of USA. Air travelers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning Jan. 1, 2008. The ban affects shipments of non-rechargeable lithium batteries, such as those made by Energizer Holdings Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co.’s Duracell brand.

Further checks on the press release states:

Passengers can still check baggage with lithium batteries if they are installed in electronic devices, such as cameras, cell phones and laptop computers. If packed in plastic bags, batteries may be in carryon baggage. The limit is two batteries per passenger. Lithium batteries are considered hazardous materials because they can overheat and ignite in certain conditions. Safety testing conducted by the FAA found that current aircraft cargo fire suppression system would not be capable of suppressing a fire if a shipment of non-rechargeable lithium batteries were ignited in flight.

In the press release, the DOT states that you can check lithium batteries in checked luggage “if they are installed in electronic devices, or in carry-on baggage if stored in plastic bags.” However the Safe Travel website clarifies this further by saying that batteries that aren’t installed in devices are forbidden.

Lithium batteries banned on USA flights via

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… it would crash repeatedly for no obvious reason, refuse to restart until you rebooted the engine, then lock you out until you simultaneously pulled the handle, turned the key and yanked on the radio antenna.

OK, so this was originally a joke told at Microsoft’s expense, but it also points to a truism about a development process widely favoured in the Valley: ship products before they are ready, then rely on rapid improvements to bring them up to scratch. Now it seems that Silicon Valley upstart Tesla Motors is doing its level best to keep the old joke alive.

The electric car company set up by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk (we profiled him earlier this week) has been struggling for some time to produce an advanced transmission for its hotly anticipated sports car. Rather than put off the launch of its first vehicle yet again, it has now opted for a familiar Valley alternative: a beta version.

This is how new Tesla CEO Ze’ev Drori explains it in a blog post this week:

To help speed delivery of cars, we will begin production in 2008 with an interim transmission design. These transmissions will meet high standards for reliability and durability, but the car will not meet the original performance spec for acceleration, reaching 60 mph in 5.7 seconds instead of the promised 4 seconds. When the final transmission is ready, we will retrofit all cars, at Tesla’s expense, to meet the promised performance specifications.

Valley luminaries like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who top the Tesla waiting list, shouldn’t mind - they know all about putting out products before they are ready (In fact Google Product Search, formerly known as Froogle, is still in beta after more than five years, which must go down as some sort of record.)

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Pantech/Samsung/Motorola

A couple readers have chided me for not comparing the battery life of the three phones I reviewed in Friday’s paper, so I will do it now.

The Pantec Duo claims 3 hours of talk time and 240 hours of standby time. The Blackjack II claims 7 and 336. The Q 9h claims 9 and 720.

I must confess that I did not run all three phones down to zero, so I cannot confirm the accuracy of these numbers.

They should give readers the gist, though, and add one more reason to choose the Q over its competitors.

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iLuv, one of my fav gadget companies is going to CES 2008. iLuv will be debuting a number of new products, including the revolutionary i399 BluePin 2.1 Channel Audio System, which features a 300 feet wireless transmitting range.

The i399 uses a detachable BluePin II through which Bluetooth headphones can be used to listen to music or send music from another bluetooth device like a Nokia N95 to i399. Designed using the patented jAura sound cell technology and featuring a built-in woofer, this 2.1 channel speaker system is capable of reproducing a more authentic and richer audio sound. Other iLuv i399 features include speaker phone capabilities, a rhythm-sensitive blue LED light, a digital clock, display FM stereo radio capabilities, and an auxiliary line input that is compatible with 1G, 2G and 3G iPods and iPod Nanos.

iLuv is setting up - Booth #12838 at CES 2008.

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Dell has a new Business Notebook out called Dell V2100. The V1200 is a Santa Rosa notebook designed for business professionals / students who are looking for a value-for-money ultraportable laptop to lessen the bag’s weight.It features Wireless-N Wifi for up to 5x faster throughput and up to 2x the range when used with a Wireless-N router. The Dell Vostro 1200 is now available in the Japanese market for about $794 and on Dell Malaysia’s site for RM1999. As usual, users in USA will have to wait awhile for it to launch.

Dell V1200 Specifications:

Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 (2.0GHz) or Celeron 540 (1.86GHz) processor
up to 4GB memory
Up to 160GB of storage
Mobile Intel GM965 Express Chipset
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
12.1 inch TFT TrueLife WXGA glossy liquid crystal display (1280�800)
Dual layer DVD burner
2.0 mega pixel webcam
802.11abgn WiFi, Bluetooth
Windows XP SP2 or Vista
Starting weight at just 1.9 kg

via Dell Vostro 1200 Business Notebook

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Photo: Panasonic

Okay, it’s not much to look at, but it is an important development: the Blu-ray drive you see above is thin enough to fit into even the slimmest laptop computer. It will let folks use their computers to watch movies in all their high-definition glory. Perhaps more importantly, it will let them burn the HD videos they take onto discs.

The drive isn’t on the market yet, but expect it to appear in high-end laptops within a few months.

Apple would seem a natural adopter — since the company supports Blu-ray over the rival format HD DVD — but Panasonic would have to tweak the design somewhat. Apple computers use slot-loading DVDs.

As for Windows-based machines, I’m not sure whether they will ever appear with this drive. Microsoft supports HD DVD.

Via Gizmodo.

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Amazon’s music download service has added “hundreds of thousands of songs” from Warner Music Group. The influx of Warner artists ranging from Metallica to Madonna brings Amazon’s total catalog up to about 2.9 million tracks.

Apple’s iTunes has about twice as many songs, but Amazon offers several advantages. All Amazon songs are unprotected MP3s that play on virtually any digital device and allow owners to transfer them freely among machines.

Plus, all songs from Amazon are encoded at 256 kbs, double the rate of most tracks on iTunes, so they offer better sound quality on high-end speakers.

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Wal-Mart has the shelfspace to make or break a new DVD release, but its attempt to take that power to the Web has just bombed. The mega-retailer quietly closed its video download store in the run-up to Christmas. So underwhelming was the service that its failure is only just getting noticed.

Leaving aside Wal-Mart’s own particular failings, this is another sign that the movie download business has been going nowhere fast. Earlier this week we reported that Apple’s iTunes store will soon be trying out a new approach, offering movies from News Corp’s 20th Century Fox studio for rental.

A second feature of the Apple/ Fox deal looks even more intriguing: besides slotting it into a DVD player, people who buy a traditional movie disk will also be able to rip a (DRM-protected) copy of the movie to their iTunes collection, then watch it on an iPod. For Apple, this is a great way to suck more content into the iTunes ecosystem from what remains the dominant channel for movie distribution. For Fox, it’s a great way to add more value to a DVD (”Watch this film on your TV and your iPod!”)

This all highlights once again the lack of appeal for mainstream consumers in movie downloads. Even those who feel comfortable plugging into an online service and paying full DVD prices are left with a digital file that they’ll have difficulty transfering to the TV screen. Without significantly lower prices, it’s an idea that seems to be struggling.

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