Tech Products of 2010.:Check out the 10 best tech products of 2010, as picked by the man who’s seen and tried just about every one you can imagine.

ChiliPad Bed Heater/Cooler

This is just geeky cool. I picked up one of thee for a King-sized bed earlier this year, and it has brought near harmony to our bedroom. The problem is my wife tends to run cold, where I tend to run hot at night, so I’m either sweating or she is shivering, and the right mix is hard to find. The ChiliPad uses circulating heated and cooled water to regulate temperature just like what is used for spacesuits and for some types of racing. The end result is I can chill my side of the bed down as cold as I like it, while she can heat her side up, and both of us are relatively happy. The wireless remote controls could have better range, and you do have to refill the water every couple of weeks, but this thing has been a dream come true for us and one of the highlights of the year.

AMD Eyefinity 3 Monitor Gaming Rig with Radeon 6800 Series Card

It took me about two months to get this set up so that it would work right. It wasn’t a software problem, but finding the right mix of monitors so I had enough size, but wasn’t driven nuts by the gaps between them. But I finally found the right mount, and the right set of three monitors (two Dell 24” monitors on the sides and a Gateway 24” monitor in the middle) all in portrait mode (the Gateway is a taller monitor, more square, and better for the middle). The end result is a great gaming rig that isn’t spinning my power meter like a top.

Xbox 360 Kinect

Speaking of staying alive, this product will probably kill me, but I’ll die with a smile on my face when I go. Once I got a mount for the bottom of my TV and didn’t have to adjust for the camera being off center, I retired my Wii and started moving around my living room like I was mad. I find I can get rather winded relatively fast, and that the pictures it takes of me in strange positions could likely be used as blackmail at some future date, but damned if I’m not having as much fun as I initially did with the Wii before it got old. This has been a huge treat at the end of the year, and I’m tickled to be having so much fun with it. Hey, and this week it was reported that Kinect is outselling the iPad two to one. It sold 2.5 million in 25 days, versus 2 million in two months for the iPad.

Neato Robotic Vacuum

I have 5 Roombas in various states of repair, and not a damn one of them vacuums very well. They also wonder around the floor like a blind, nose-less mouse. Basically they are stupid sweepers . The Neato uses a technology similar to what is being used in self-driving cars, and it is a real vacuum cleaner, so it actually vacuums up the dirt, it doesn’t just try to sweep it in. This means it looks around the room, figures out how to best cover the space, and then it executes a plan. Personally I think it is smarter than most politicians. If I could, I’d vote it into office.

With a 1,000-watt motor and a frame that was based on a bike sold to the US military for paratroopers, this bike is my own personal dream come true. With substantial power for the hills, the ability to fold it up and put it in the back of my car, and stealth black finish, this has been a wonder to enjoy the California sun. It will go up most hills with only a little added work and can really put on the speed when you need that burst to get through a light. This is my second electric bicycle, and by far my favorite of the set. Electric cars may not yet make sense for most of us, but electric bikes have arrived and I love my M-750.

Kindle DX

I picked the Kindle DX up to review thinking it was too big, and that it would end up on my shelf unused after a couple of days. Instead I fell in love with it, and it goes with me wherever I go. The larger screen allows me to put more text on the page, so I’m not flipping as often, and allows me to use larger text so I’m not straining my eyes and can work in low light. While I do miss a cover with a built-in book light like the regular Kindle, I can’t give up the extra size, and for me, the iPad just hasn’t been a real alternative. I have the latest model in black, and it did cost $379 but I really don’t know what I’d do without my Kindle. It is the one product I don’t go anyplace without.

Alienware M11X

This laptop has been a real champ this year, and I now have two of them with one as a backup. This laptop has been a dream. No problems, Nvidia graphics when I want to play video games, embedded graphics when I need the battery life. It looks cool, and it is small enough to use in coach without sucking in my gut. The latest model switches between graphics chips automatically, and has an updated Intel processor, so it is even better now. Some folks carry what their company gives them, I carry what I want, and currently I want my Alienware M11X.

LG E900 Optimus 7

Windows Phone 7 is new territory for LG to conquer and the LG E900 Optimus 7 is their first pawn in the game. However “pawn” hardly describes the rich feature set of this player. LG has done its best to set the Optimus 7 apart with great build quality and some subtle but useful software perks. With the strict hardware restrictions imposed by Microsoft, it’s really hard to make you product stand out and we hope the LG attempt turns out successful.

Key features:
3.8" 16M-color capacitive TFT touchscreen of WVGA resolution (480 x 800 pixels)
Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
3G with HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) and HSUPA (5.76Mbps)
Windows Phone 7 operating system
1GHz Snapdragon CPU, 512MB RAM
5 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash and geo-tagging; Panorama photos with the Panorama shot app
720p video recording @ 24fps
16GB of built-in storage
Standard 3.5mm audio jack
Standard microUSB port (charging)
Wi-Fi b/g/n; DLNA support via PlayTo
Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP
Accelerometer for screen auto rotation
Landscape on-screen QWERTY keyboard
FM radio with RDS
Office document editor
Social networking integration
Built-in A-GPS receiver
Comes with a choice of free apps via LG AppStore
Voice-to-text functionality
ScanSearch augmented reality app

The New Nokia C5-03 Phone

The Nokia C5-03 is a grandson of the best-selling Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and though it might be the last hurrah for Symbian^1 (or Symbian S60 as old-timers call it) it tries to deliver the same level of satisfaction on the bang for buck meter.

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE support
Tri-band 3G with 10.2 Mbps HSDPA and 2 Mbps HSUPA support
3.2" 16M-color TFT LCD resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
5 megapixel fixed-focus camera and VGA video @ 15fps recording; geotagging
Symbian S60 OS
600 MHz ARM 11 CPU and 128 MB RAM
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g; UPnP
GPS receiver with A-GPS support and free lifetime voice-guided navigation; free city guides and traffic information
Digital compass
40MB on-board storage, microSD expandable up to 16GB; 2GB card included
Built-in accelerometer
Standard 3.5 mm audio jack
Stereo FM Radio with RDS
microUSB port (charging)
Flash and Java support in the web browser
Stereo Bluetooth 2.0
Very good audio quality
Voice commands

Apple Releases new line of small and powerful iPods

The new iPod Touch is as powerful as the iPad and even thinner.

Touch, which has Apple’s blazing A4 processor and Apple’s pioneering HD Retina display with four times more pixels and an ultra sharp 326 ppi and 24-bit color. The iPod also sports the 3-axis gyro control and Apple also announced GAME CENTER, a social networking vehicle which will allow players to take on each other via WiFi in cyberspace playing a wide variety of games including a new game from Epic Games called Project Sword, and action packed RPG adventure with action happening in real time.
Additionally, the Touch will be able to take advantage of dual cameras and FaceTime with which it can communicate to iPhone 4 users and iPod Touch users over WiFi Video conferencing. And the latest iTunes has a great new social network called PING which enables fans to listen to new music from friends playlists, comment socially about it and download them on the spot. The iPod will also enjoy high dynamic range photography and HD video and be able to edit courtesy of the iMovie App.

The new iPod Touch goes on sale next week, just in time for Christmas for $229 / 8GB, $299/32GB and $399/64GB. With gaming, music, and HD movies, the new iPod Touch is going to be a hot item come Christmas.

Steve Jobs announced smaller and thinner iPods today at Apple’s Fall Music Event. With smaller, new designs for the iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and a thinner, more powerful iPod Touch, Apple is poised to hit the entertainment market in music, movies and gaming like never before. And just in time for the Holidays.


Let’s start with the iPod shuffle. As if it couldn’t get smaller, it does. And the best part is, Apple has brought back buttons along with voiceover to make navigation of songs easier. The Shuffle is a tad larger than your thumb, has a clip, and has over 15 hours of battery life. In 5 colors (Blue, Pink, Green, Yellow, and Silver), the Shuffle will sell for $49 for 8GB.

46% Smaller and lighter, the new iPod Nano has multi-touch
The biggest change has come in the iPod Nano, which is now 46% smaller and is multi-touch. That means that Apple has dumped the control wheel and gone to complete touch navigation. It’s slightly larger than the Shuffle, which shows how small it really has become. Apple has dropped the video camera feature but has brought in a clip to make it easier to wear (which is great for athletes and runners) , has an FM Radio, Nike Pedometer, and 24 hours of battery life. Comes in seven colors (the same colors as the shuffle plus black and red) and starts at $149.

Toshiba claims the mantle of world’s fastest SD card

Toshiba says their new SDHC cards are the fastest in the world.

Back in the golden age of ocean going travel, companies like Cunard, White Star and the like were involved in a travel style arms race, each vying for the fastest steam ship. And the winner was usually the one who travelled from London to New York in the fastest time (as signified by the Blue Riband Trophy). Well, tech companies are doing the same thing with SD cards, each vying for both the largest and fastest SD cards on the market. Toshiba is now claiming to have the fastest in the world … let’s take a look.


In today’s HD Video obsessed market, write speed is as important as storage size since cameras are writing tremendous amounts of digital data onto those SD cards. And Toshiba’s cards are claiming blazing read/write speeds of 95Mbps and 80Mbps respectively. With that kind of speed, videographers will also be able to enjoy faster transfer speeds once USB 3.0 is all the rage.

Look for them in sizes of 8GB to 32GB in SDHC and 4GB to 16GB in microSDHC formats, where all are compliant to the SD 3.0 standard and will be due in December – just in time to make excellent stocking stuffers.

E FUN Next3 Android 2.1 tablet available for $230, real fun sold separately

Getting sick of cheap Android tablets and e-readers? Boy, we hope not, because E FUN's Next3 is just one of many being announced in time for CES 2011. As you may have gleaned from the headline, the Nextbook Next3 runs Android 2.1 and has the usual array of specs for its $230 price -- a resistive, 800 x 600-resolution 8.4-inch display, a 600MHz Rockchip processor, WiFi 802.11 b/g, 2GB of onboard storage, and an SD card slot. From the looks of the pictures in the gallery and the short press release after the break, it seems to be positioned as more of an e-reader than a tablet -- you know, with its integrated Borders eBook Store and all -- but you should be able to surf the web and watch some videos on it. No word on what apps are preloaded, but naturally there's no Market access. We're going to call a spade a spade here and say this thing looks a heck of a lot like the Pandigital Novel and Velocity Micro Cruz Reader, but we'll be checking it out in Vegas in a few weeks to get a confirmation on that. Don't let that stop you from ordering one today, though -- it's only $200 at HSN right now.

Mission Motors reveals Mission R electric racing superbike, conceals price

Not impressed by the Mission One? We'd bother to ask when your last mental health checkup was, but at this point, it probably doesn't even matter. If there's an ounce of warm blood left in your body, chances are you'll be at least partly invigorated by Mission Motors' latest cycle, the Mission R. Hailed as the outfit's latest electric racing superbike, this slice of highway heaven packs 14.4 kWh and 141 horsepower in a package smaller than a modern 600cc sportbike, and for the gearheads in attendance, you'll be pleased to know that the liquid-cooled 3-phase AC Induction motor conjures up 115 ft-lbs of torque at the crank from 0 to 6400 RPM. Tim Prentice of Motonium is responsible for the chassis, and the entire bike is expected to make its debut early next year in the TTXGP racing series. As for a consumer price and ship date? Keep dreaming. On both fronts.

The New XBOX Kinect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2qlHoxPioM

Kinect hack lets you reenact Big piano scene (video)

The only limit to the applications Kinect can be put to is imagination. The more of it you have, the more things you can use the peerless Xbox 360 peripheral to achieve. To wit, some eager chaps have put together the Keyboard Anywhere hack, which employs a little Python and the libfreenect library to offer up a piano keyboard on any flat surface of almost any size. You can practice your Mozart concertos on a desk, or, as they so ably demonstrate, imagine yourself as a young Tom Hanks skipping along on the FAO Schwarz floor piano in the movie Big. It's all up to you.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgLp-KyK5g8&feature=player_embedded#at=71

Nokia delays E7 slider into 'early 2011'

Oh dear. Like the N8 before it, Nokia just confirmed to us that the Symbian-powered E7 slider will be delayed. The official word has it launching in early 2011, not December 2010. We've been told that Nokia's holding up production due to a "minor durability issue" discovered in the E7 hardware. We can't blame Nokia for wanting to ensure the best possible user experience -- it's just a shame that it will require the holiday shopping season to sort it out.

Nook Color getting Android 2.2 and Market in January, current hacks could make it blow up [updated]

You had to know the hacking community was going to have a field day with the Nook Color -- a $249 Android Tablet hiding behind with a thin e-reader coating. Indeed it didn't take long to get rooted nor for Android 2.2 to get installed on there, but that particular hack comes with an interesting potential side-effect: small-scale thermonuclear explosions. Enabling FroYo requires disabling the device's battery monitoring process, the very one that would be responsible for shutting down the device before the cells start overheating and, ultimately, going critical. Yeah it's unlikely, but it could happen. Meanwhile, another hack has enabled the Android Market, but those instructions begin with a very daunting warning: "Very smart people have failed at this. If the following instructions confuse you, you might want to wait until an easier method has been developed."

And, thankfully, there is a much easier way coming, with Barnes & Noble confirming that Android 2.2 will be officially coming to the Nook Color in January. Yes, Android 2.3 is what's happening, but this is still an exciting upgrade as it will finally also allow access to a traditional Android home screen and even enable the Android Market. In other words, it should work just like an Android tablet, Kindle app and all.

Russian Yo hybrid said to offer 67mpg, cost under $15k, gets a billionaire's backing

Russian entrepreneur Mikhail D. Prokhorov may have big plans for moving the Nets downtown and turning them into the Brooklyn New Yorkers, but another of his big plans will stay a little closer to home. Well, his home anyway. It's the ë, the Cyrillic character "yo," and a funky name for a recently revealed hybrid that has scored the billionaire's support. The ë is a little four-door, four-seater car with a top speed of 80mph and a range of 680 miles, delivered by a hybrid powertrain with two electric motors and a single internal combustion lump. However, unlike the parallel hybrid Prius and the (mostly) series hybrid Volt, both of which rely on expensive and heavy battery packs, the ë will only be able to hold a small charge. Instead the engine, which uses a rotary vane design, will run continuously, spinning a generator and providing the current to turn the wheels. It's an unusual layout for a car, but if it can deliver its supposed 67mpg at its proposed $14,500 MSRP when it's slated to hit the streets of St. Petersburg in 2012, you can call us converts -- and comrades.

Microsoft lands its largest ever Surface order... from a karaoke bar (video)

There's not much to see right now, but it appears that Red MR is well on its way to becoming one of the most advanced (and probably the most amusing) karaoke bars in the world. Ahead of its Hong Kong debut this Saturday, said company has already installed six Surfaces in its two bars, and is aiming to fit more to fill up all 80 rooms -- and that number could go up to 300 in the near future -- once Microsoft has ramped up production. With Red MR's customized software (still under wraps), customers will be able to pick songs, order food, watch TV, and play games on the Surface while listening to a drunk rendition of My Heart Will Go On. Oh, and there'll also be a few Kinects dotted around the bars, but it's not exactly clear whether they'll be in the rooms as well. Anyhow, we'll be flying out to Hong Kong to check it out later this week, so stay tuned. For now, you can watch a demo of the Surface's Liar's Dice game after the break.

Windows Phone 7 in review HTC Surround review

Of all the Windows Phone 7 launch devices, AT&T's HTC Surround is likely the most curious. It's a landscape slider built on the same basic internals as the rest of its platform siblings, but there's no keyboard under that screen -- the quarter-inch slide reveals an aluminum speaker bar and integrated kickstand, which combine to create a tiny little stereo system of sorts. Mix in Windows Phone 7's heavy Zune integration, add in a dash of Dolby Mobile and SRS Wow "virtual surround" audio processing, and top it all off with 16GB of internal memory, and you have what might be the ultimate phone for on-the-go media consumption.

Kinect for Xbox 360

Along with our Kinect sensor, Microsoft provided us with six titles to play around with. We'll leave it to our good friends at Joystiq

You have a VGA camera and a powerful multi-array mic -- video chat's kind of a no-brainer, at this point. We're happy to say this part works great -- once you get connected, that is. Like we said before, the sensor still isn't too fond of us sitting down, with lighting conditions seeming to be the biggest culprit in our inability to gesture our hands. Thankfully, you have some options to use a controller here. We chatted up Joystiq's Justin McElroy for a few minutes, with the Kinect sensor tracking his head and body as he performed a ritual dance for us (if you could call it dancing). Even just for audio, using the Kinect as a mic (with smart noise cancellation) decidedly beats wearing a headset any day.

And just like that, all three of the major game consoles now have some semblance of motion controls. Unlike the Nintendo Wii and PlayStation Move, however, Microsoft's Kinect for Xbox 360 opts to get rid of buttons altogether, relying on body gestures and voice commands. As the (estimated to be $500 million) ad campaign says, "you are the controller" -- for better and for worse
Along with our Kinect sensor, Microsoft provided us with six titles to play around with. We'll leave it to our good friends at Joystiq for the more in-depth reviews; here's our brief impressions:

Google’s Nexus S shows up at D: Dive Into Mobile conference

Google’s flagship smartphone – the Google Nexus S has been making rounds around the internet and recently it was caught at D: Dive Into Mobile conference where it reflected its complete Google experience.



The smartphone will come loaded with Android 2.3 i.e. Gingerbread, a very subtle User Interface and some amazingly powerful features like the very strong sounding near-field communication

BenQ launches DV S11 Camcorder with Pico Projector

BenQ has come up with a new camcorder from nowhere. We did not get any leaks nor were we introduced to any hints from BenQ regarding the upcoming launch but it is final. BenQ has launched a camcorder that will be tagged as DV S11. The upcoming model comes in colorful designs and small size thus making it easy to handle during day to day shoots.

New luxurious 2011 Mercedes Benz CL-Class coupe unveiled

The CL600 pictured by Autoblog boasts an even greater 510 horsepower, 612 lb-ft torque twin-turbo V12 (and believe me, MB certainly have plenty reminders of this within the car itself!).In terms of tech, upgrades to the CL include new safety technologies including Active Lane Keeping Assist, Active Blind Spot Assist, Adaptive High Beam Assist, Night View Assist and more. The fancy Mercedes-Benz COMAND system comes standard, featuring USB and SD card interfaces mated to a 7.2 GB hard drive.

Check out all the luxuries of the new 2011 CL Class coupe the gallery below…

New Galaxy Tab photos show Samsung cloning iPad aesthetic

Samsung's Galaxy Tab has been spotted again in China with design choices lifted directly from the iPad. The Android tablet's browser is directly patterned after Apple's, including the page management feature, while the on-screen keyboard is also somewhat similar. Ifanr notes that Samsung went as far as to use a Dock Connector-like design at the bottom rather than a USB port.

The spy shots do suggest better specs than feared earlier. Samsung's seven-inch Super AMOLED display should reach 1024x600 rather than the earlier 800x480, and in its current form it would use more of the stock Android 2.2 interface rather than Samsung's TouchWiz layer. Its 3.2-megapixel back camera, VGA front camera, 3G and GPS are expected, although the PowerVR SGX 540 graphics should make it one of the fastest tablets so far.

An introduction for the Galaxy Tab is expected at the IFA show next week in Germany. Samsung is fully expected to launch the Galaxy Tab worldwide and could release the slate in the US through Verizon as a subsidized device. It may be the largest competitor to the iPad in the short term as most are either coming from smaller firms or are delayed until next year.

Review: T-Mobile G2

because of that. The vaunted HSPA+ is fast as hell and there is very little to criticize from start to finish. That said, it’s also a brick and the form factor isn’t for everyone.

Features:
3.7″ S-TFT LCD display (800×480)
800MHz Qualcomm MSM7230, 512MB RAM, 4GB internal, MicroSD slot (comes with 8GB)
Slide-out QWERTY keyboard
HSPA+ access where available
5-megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus, 720p video

Pros:
Beautiful and solid construction
Screen extremely bright and sharp
HSPA+ really is ridiculously fast
Quick and responsive in every way

Cons:
Perhaps a little too solid (heavy, bulky)
Keyboard not my style (may be yours)
Troublesome slide mechanism – damn thing keeps pinching me
“Vanilla” Android 2.2 may not be enough, yet pre-installed apps too much, for some

Review: T-Mobile G2

http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/10/29/review-t-mobile-g2/

Want An iPod Nano Watch? So Does Everyone. Idea Poised To Be New Kickstarter King

We’ve talked a lot about Diaspora, the open-source Facebook-alternative, in recent months. One of the reasons for that is the massive success they had raising money on the crowdsourced fund-raising site, Kickstarter. The project raised over $200,000 from nearly 6,500 backers in just 39 days. Now a new project has already blown that tally out of the water: an iPod nano-based multi-touch wristwatch.

Scott Wilson, the founder of Chicago-based product and design studio, MINIMAL, set out with an idea: to create two watch enclosures for Apple’s latest iPod nano. He wanted the TikTok to be a low-end model ($35) and the LunaTik to be high-end ($70). So he put his project on Kickstarter with a goal of raising $15,000. So how is he doing?

Most Expensive iPhone 4 with Diamond and Gold

Last year, we’ve posted the simple most expensive iPhone and this time, we’re revealing the world’s most expensive iPhone 4′s. Both these iPhone 4′s are designed by Stuart Hughes.

The diamond version, we’re having this in $19,514 , which features a shell that has been “encrusted with circa 6.5cts of top quality VVS , colour ‘F’ diamonds.”

Next is the gold model, it’s shell is made from pure 24ct. gold and is priced at $2,395.