Archive for February 8th, 2010

We’ve all seen a ton of iPhone mockups over the past four years, but what if a company actually brought one of these mockups to market…I mean, other than Apple of course.  This appears to be Bestpower’s model.  The Shenzhen-based company passed what appears to be an iPhone mockup circa 2006 through the FCC last week, complete with iPod interface and rounded iPod-like design.

The device, known as the Bestpower X200, rocks quad-band GSM support, a 320 x 240 touch screen, FM radio, still and video camera, and ‘advanced Yamaha audio chipset.’  The X200 has up to 15 hours of talking time and 120 hours of standby.

There’s little chance that the X200 will make it to the States, however the phone does have English characters and an English interface and support for US GSM bands, suggesting that the device may be available through wireless importers.

Wallets are handy, but very insecure.  If you lose your wallet, anyone can open it up and take your credit cards, cash and IDs.

Enter iWallet Corporation.  The company’s flagship iWallet device has a fiberglass, carbon fiber or kevlar exterior that is locked with a biometric fingerprint sensor.  In order to open the iWallet, users must register their finger prints with the iWallet PC application, and swipe their registered prints on the device.

The iWallet also pairs with Bluetooth mobile phones (currently only the BlackBerry Curve 8900 is supported), and will notify users when their wallet and phone are separated.  That’s a valuable feature if you tend to leave your wallet behind, but not so useful if you forget both your phone and your wallet.

The iWallet is currently available from iWallet corporation, starting at $299 for a fiber glass model.  A carbon fiber or carbon fiber with kevlar model will run you $599.  Engraving is also available for an additional $99.

Although the iWallet seems like an interesting idea, we really need to stress test the device before we endorse the product.  I’d like to see if the iWallet can take a good solid hammer shot to its hinge, which would be necessary to truly protect its contents.

Also, the iWallet’s battery lasts for only 24-48 hours, meaning you’ll need to remember to recharge the device pretty frequently.  You don’t want to have to explain to others how you let your battery die and got locked out of your iWallet.

Over the past month or so we’ve seen several, seemingly new Cisco routers pass through the FCC.  These included the E2000 and E3000 dual-band wireless N routers, as well as the M10 and M20 wireless N models.

We initially thought that these routers were part of new E and M series networking lines from Cisco, however a tipster has informed us that these new routers are actually just rebranded Linksys routers with slightly different firmware.  According to our source, the most notable improvement on these routers is a simplified hotspot set-up process, suggesting that these routers will be targeted at SMBs, not consumers.

The hardware on the Cisco M and E series products correspond to their Linksys brethren as follows:

Cisco M10 shares the hardware of the Linksys WRT160Nv3
Cisco M20 shares the hardware of the Linksys WRT310Nv2
Cisco E2000 shares the hardware of the Linksys WRT320N
Cisco E3000 shares the hardware of the Linksys WRT610Nv2

Thanks to our tipster who sent this in.

It’s a pain to let your cat in and out of the house, especially at odd hours in the early morning.  But if you install a cat door, who knows what other riff raff may be creeping through that door?  You may wake up with a living room full of possums.

Enter SureFlap.  The company’s Microchip Cat Flap uses wireless technology to recognize the ID chip already implanted in your cat to give your pet access to your home while keeping out “marauding intruders.”  The door works with 15, 10 and 9 digit microchips, and can store up to 32 different codes if you’re one of those…you know…cat people who have 32 cats in their home.

Sure, you do have to train your cat to actually use the Cat Flap, but once that’s taken care of your cat will be able to enter and leave when it chooses, while unauthenticated animals will be locked out.  You can also manually lock the cat flap to prevent your cat from leaving the house altogether.

The Microchip Cat Flap is a pretty ingenious use of a cat’s ID chip.  I’m not sure how many cat owners with pet doors actually have random animals entering their house, but this seems like a pretty valuable solution for those of you that have this problem.