Flashpaper 2 removes DRM?

I just read somewhere on the web, that Adobe's own Macromedia Flashpaper 2 can remove the DRM of a PDF file. Should work a PDF based eBooks, too.

eTel Austria 100MB/month UMTS for 8.5 Euros/month

The Austrian provider eTel offers 100MB/month UMTS connectivity for 8.5 Euros/month. 250MB/month cost 19 Euros, 500MB/month 23 Euros.

PhoneGnome

PhoneGnome is a VoIP box for 119$, does call routing via IP broadband (Ethernet) and POTS, and now even supports Skype. Pretty interesting.

Nokia LD-3W Bluetooth GPS receiver

Nokia introduced a new Bluetooth GPS receiver called LD-3W. It has the newest SiRF Star III chipset, uses standard Nokia BL-5C rechargeable batteries and recharges via the new tiny Nokia charging port. Size: 78.4 x 45.4 x16.5 mm. Weight: 65 grams.

SATA IDE Acrylic Kit

Just saw this at akihabaranews.com: the SATA IDE Acrylic Kit. On top of an IDE 2.5, 3.5, SATA and USB 2.0 connector, Digital CowBoy also offers ACRLYLIC plates that allow you to arrange your HDD's in a convenient way so that you don't have to lock them inside an external casing.

Nimzy Vibro Blaster

The Nimzy Vibro Blaster weighs 445 grams and turns any flat surface into a speaker for 70 British Pounds.

iLingo translation software for the Apple iPod

Talking Panda offers iLingo, translation software for the Apple iPod. The Euro Pack with French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian costs 49.95$, the AsiaPack with Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Korean sells for 39.95$.

AllOfMP3

AllOfMP3 is the only online music store that I know of, that is done right. Reasonable pricing, a choice of encodings and quality levels and best of all, no useless DRM.

Red Wine Audio iMod

Red Wine Audio offers an iPod modification called iMod for all 4th generation iPods (black/white screen and the iPod photo units) for 199 $. They take the analog output (line out) off of the dac chip and send it directly to the internal 1/8" headphone jack (converting it into a dedicated line-out jack) via high-end Black Gate Non-Polarized NX-Hi-Q coupling capacitors. The result of the Red Wine iMod is a superb sounding, battery-powered, miniature-sized digital playback source with fantastic features and a stellar user interface.

gorillapod flexible tripod

Joby has a flexible tripod called gorillapod that weighs 335 grams for less than 25$.

Google NoteBook

Google introduced Google NoteBook. Clip and collect information as you browse the web.

3 Austria offers Option Globetrotter GT Max

3 Austria now offers the Option Globetrotter GT Max. It is a Triband HSDPA/UMTS and Quadband EDGE/GPRS/GSM PCcard. Only available in PCcard form factor, so no ExpressCard/34 or USB version right now and in HSDPA maximum 1.8 Mbps download capacity.

Sony eBook reader

The Sony Reader is an ePaper based eBook reader, that finally supports standard file formats like PDF, HTML and text. It uses a six inch "electronic paper” display with SVGA (800x600) resolution (approximately 170 pixels per inch) with 4-level grey-scale. Allows approximately 7,500 page turns per charge.

ElGato EyeTV 2.2 supports Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T USB XS

ElGato EyeTV 2.2 finally supports the Terratec Cinergy Hybrid T USB XS, so you can receive analog and digital (DVB-T) TV with your Mac without having to carry around a big external tuner box. As it has no hardware based compression as e.g. the EyeTV 200, you should have a very fast Mac for recording analog TV.

Sony Vaio UX Micro PC

Sony announced the Vaio UX Micro PC. Intel® Core™ Solo Ultra Low Voltage 1,2GHz CPU, Windows XP Pro, 512MB RAM, 30GB hard drive, 4,5" WSVGA (1024×600) LCD with touchscreen, USB2, micro and headphone connector, integrated speaker and micro, fingerprint sensor, VGA and SXGA-camera, WLAN IEEE802.11a/b/g, Bluetooth2.0+EDR, MemoryStick Duo and CompactFlash slots (for an optional EDGE modul). The external dock has 3 x USB2, Firewire400, Ethernet 100BaseT and VGA ports. Batterylife around 3,5 hours (7 hours with the optional high power battery). Size: 150.2 x 95 x 38.2 mm, weight 520 grams. Availability July 2006 for less than 2000$. Now I only need a MacOSX 10.4 for Intel installer that supports the Sony Vaio UX Micro PC, and I have the perfect portable Mac and can finally get rid of all my other devices (Palm, PocketPC, Nokia770, PowerBook, Newton...).

MacBook finally announced

Today Apple finally introduced the MacBook. Color: white. Top model in black. 1099$ to 1499$. 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz Intel Core Duo, 60 or 80 GB S-ATA hard drive, analog and digital audio in and out, 512MB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300) on two SO-DIMMs; supports up to 2GB, 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy TFT widescreen display, 1280 x 800 resolution, one FireWire 400 port (8 watts), built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit), mini-DVI port (up to 1920*1200), optional external Apple USB Modem, which means no built in fax/data modem.

Missing pieces: backlit keyboard, slot (neither PCcard nor ExpressCard/34 slot), so UMTS/HSDPA WAN connectivity only via USB or Bluetooth 2 EDR.

Maurice Hennessy in Vienna, Austria

Today Maurice Hennessy visited Vienna where a new Hennessy cocktail named "Vienna" was created by some of the best bar keepers from all over Austria. In the next few months the winner will be chosen and invited to Congnac in France.

Acer HD TV with 1080 resolution and media player

The Acer AT3705W-MGW is a 37" high definition TV with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, analog and DVB-T tuners for less than 2000 Euros. It even has a Linux based media gateway with Flash reader, WLAN and Fast Ethernet.

Benq HD TV with 1080 resolution

The Benq DV3750 is a 37" high definition TV with 1920 x 1080 resolution without loudspeakers for less than 1500 Euros. The same model with matching loudspeakers costs around 200 Euros more.

solar powered charger

At Conrad they have a solar powered charger for less than 30 Euros. Size 28 x 108 x 168mm, weight 320 grams. It can charge five AAA rechargeable batteries (not included), which then deliver the stored power to the consumers connected, includes a spiral connection cable, an universal adaptor (universal connector with jack 2.5 mm, jack 3.5 mm, hollow connector 5.5 x 2.5 mm and hollow connector 3.5 x 1.35 mm) and mobile phone adaptors for Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens.

Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD)

NME developed the Versatile Multilayer Disc, a red laser 20-100GB optical disc that is perfectly usable for storing high definition video with up to 40Mbps playback rate. So even 1080p playback should be easily possible.

Imperial Festival Palace Hof

Today there was the season opening at the Imperial Festival Palace Hof. This castle, which belonged to Prinz Eugen and is located between Vienna and Bratislava has been renovated in the last few years. If you happen to be near Vienna or Bratislava, take a look. You won´t regret it.

no MacBook announcement from Apple, yet

All the rumor sites, who predicted a MacBook announcement for May 9th were wrong. Maybe next week. BTW: the image of the black iBook is from theapplecollection.com.

portable sunscreen

This portable sunscreen is available for 75€.

Printable reference and outline maps of the US

Another great resource on the web: printable reference and outline maps of the US.

Hard to find 800 numbers

What a great idea: a website, that lists all those hard to find 800 numbers.

Apple Expo Paris

The coming Apple Expo takes place from September 12th to 16th at Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles, Hall 5 in Paris. No information about a keynote by Steve Jobs, yet.

GoogleMaps in Europe

The newest version of GoogleMaps has street level maps integrated with their satellite images for Europe, too.

FirmTek SeriTek/2SM2-E Serial ATA ExpressCard adapter for the MacBook Pro

At NAB in Las Vegas Firmtek announced the SeriTek/2SM2-E, a S-ATA ExpressCard/34 for the MacBook Pro. Should be available in Q3/06 for 120$.

Seagate brings 750GB hard drives

According to DailyTech Seagate announced 3.5 inch hard drives with 750 GB capacity. There will be P-ATA and S-ATA versions, but no infos on pricing, yet. I heard rumors of more than 500$ for the P-ATA version, though.

Gumbal3000 in Vienna, Austria

On May, 1st, the annual Gumball3000 rallye had a stop in Vienna, Austria at the Kursalon Hübner.