Top 10 Gadgets You Should Have In Your Go Bag [Lifehacker Top 10]

Top 10 Gadgets You Should Have In Your Go Bag [Lifehacker Top 10]:

We share a lot of cool gadgets around here, but there are a few tech essentials we think should be in every geek's laptop bag. Here are the 10 coolest (and most useful) gadgets you should always have with you. More 

Hack an Ikea Solar Lamp to Charge an iPad [Weekend Project]

Hack an Ikea Solar Lamp to Charge an iPad [Weekend Project]:

In the past we've covered how to turn the inexpensive Ikea Sunnan solar lamp into a solar display case and today we have a hack from electronics manufacturer Voltaic Systems to turn the same lamp into a solar charging station for an iPad or other power-hungry phone or tablet. More »

Gmail People Widget Provides Added Context to Your Messages [In Brief]

Gmail People Widget Provides Added Context to Your Messages [In Brief]: "

Today Google announced a new Gmail People Widget to provide contextual information about the people in your address book from within Gmail. The widget shows you details about the people you're interacting with in a given message and provides shortcuts for chatting with and replying to them. More »"

Apple's New iMacs Add Thunderbolt, More Graphics Muscle, and Monster Quad-Core Guts [Apple]

Apple's New iMacs Add Thunderbolt, More Graphics Muscle, and Monster Quad-Core Guts [Apple]: "Goodbye miniDisplay ports, and hello Thunderbolt: Apple's latest iMacs include the faster Thunderbolt connection, but that's not the only new addition from Intel. The computers, which come in 21.5 and 27-inch size options, also run on Intel's latest Sandy Bridge Core procession line. More »"

T-Hawk UAV enters Fukushima danger zone, returns with video

T-Hawk UAV enters Fukushima danger zone, returns with video: "

We'd love to head on down to Fukushima with a DSLR and some iodide pills, but that's obviously not going to happen. Sending in a flying robot seems to be the next best thing, though, and that's exactly what Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has done. T-Hawk, a US-made MAV (Micro Air Vehicle) commonly used to search for roadside bombs in Iraq, made its Japanese debut last week when it photographed the nuclear plant from above, providing a detailed look at the interior damage a month after iRobot's visit. Small enough to fit in a (rather large) backpack, officially the T-Hawk is named for the tarantula hawk wasp species, but could just as easily have been named for the T. Hawk Street Fighter character, who also swoops in to attack his opponents from above. As expected, things look pretty nasty at ground zero, so head past the break for a video of the damage."

Video: Those Flying Fish Are Called Air Swimmers

Video: Those Flying Fish Are Called Air Swimmers: "


Would you buy a toy fish that flew in the air wagging its tail as if it were swimming? If you answered yes, then check this out: it’s called Air Swimmers. Air Swimmers consist of a helium-filled balloon with motorized fins
that flap in the air. From the video you can see it looks pretty cool and the ‘swimming’ doesn’t look too bad either. One battery in the fish, three in the remote, and the bag of helium should last a few weeks.

They’ll be about $40 when they come out in July.

Aerial News Drones

It's only a matter of time before they are over most of the country. Think of them as the news helicopters of the 21st century.

Domestic Use of Aerial Drones By Law Enforcement: "PatPending writes 'Aerial drones are now used by the Texas Department of Public Safety; the Mesa County Sheriff's Office, Colorado; the Miami-Dade County, Florida, Police Department; and the Department of Homeland Security. But what about privacy concerns? 'Drones raise the prospect of much more pervasive surveillance,' said Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. 'We are not against them, absolutely. They can be a valuable tool in certain kinds of operations. But what we don't want to see is their pervasive use to watch over the American people.''

Walt Mossberg Says Colleges Will Deal With a Deluge of Tablets

Walt Mossberg Says Colleges Will Deal With a Deluge of Tablets: "
Las Vegas—In his keynote address at the Higher Ed Tech Summit, Walt Mossberg, the influential technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, told an audience of higher-education officials and company executives that their future held many tablet computers. And not just the iPad, but some of the 70 or so new tablet devices that have been announced this week at the Consumer Electronics Show here.

Speaking yesterday, Mr. Mossberg noted that CES this year should be renamed “TES” because there were so many of the things. (There was Motorola’s new Xoom, for instance, and Dell’s Streak 7, Lenovo’s IdeaPad Hybrid—a laptop with a detachable tablet—and devices from Samsung, Toshiba, Motion …)

And tablets will matter in higher education, Mr. Mossberg said, because students will bring them to campus, and colleges and—in particular—publishers will need to meet their needs. “The actual users, like students and faculty, will barge in,” he said.

Books should cost less, and they should be digital, Mr. Mossberg said. He is a trustee of Brandeis University, and “I vote on cost-cutting at every meeting. So the idea of having to spend a fortune on books is just primitive.” Course materials, including books, are less expensive in digital form, and tablets make them easy to use. “The multi-touch tablet computer has a serious chance of challenging the mouse-based interface, which has been around since the 1960s and came to fruition in the 1970s,” Mr. Mossberg said.

The technology columnist pointed out that the other major trend that will affect colleges is cloud computing, or the use of Internet-based software. Now, it may seem this news is less than surprising, as software companies have been beating this drum loudly for years. Still, colleges have not been listening. The latest Campus Computing Project survey, completed in the fall of 2010, reported that only 15 percent of campuses have a strategic plan to address cloud computing. So perhaps the reminder from the Brandeis trustee was timely.

Ten most significant gadgets of 2010

No big surprises here. IPad is #1 and it just makes me want a Kindle even more. Actually, I like the Nook Color for its ability to run Andriod, but that's another story.

Ten most significant gadgets of 2010: "When this year began, we were feverishly speculating about an Apple tablet, looking forward to 3-D TV sets, and optimistically waiting for the end of the cable companies' cruel grip on our wallets.