Gearfuse

OK, the first part might be total wishful thinking, but the touchscreen mirror part is definitly on the upcoming wave of the future. The Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems unveiled their touchscreen mirror system at the Cebit IT trade show this week, and let me tell you, it’s totally going to change the way you brush your teeth and trim your balls.

While the technology behind the mirror’s creation isn’t what you would call “new” or even “new-ish,” the system is still pretty cool sounding. Are you tired of having to remind Grandpa to wash his dentures? That’s the way of the past. In the future, your mirror will remind all of the elders in your life to wipe their own asses and maybe, if we could be so lucky, will guide them through changing their own damn diapers. I mean, really, what could they have possibly eaten?

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Sunload presented its solar energy charger bag at CeBIT 2007. Sunload’s flexible solar panels allow for solar technology to be integrated into fashion products, including these bags. The bag can charge your gadgets using a 8-cell Li-Ion battery, car charger, or through its two USB connection ports.

Solar technology is becoming more integrated into everyday life. The Sunload charger bag allows for an environmental friendly and convenient way to travel with multiple gadgets. The solar bags will be available this summer for a still unknown price. — Andrew Dobrow

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Hi-Tech Wealth, a China-based company, is displaying this solar powered cellphone at CeBIT, called the Light-Energy Mobile Phone. The clamshell design offers a solar panel taking up one of the sides of the flip phone which is constantly sucking in power to be used for the phone.

When the phone is on standby the charge stores itself “forever” claims the company, although keep advised that blabbermouth teenagers will have to plug it in from time to time to keep a full charge. As of now, the Light-Energy phone is merely a concept and no information has been released regarding release or shipping information. — Andrew Dobrow

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As early as today, Accton Technology Corporation might release details of a beta test for the EarthLink WiFi phone. Beta testing taking place in Anaheim seems to have gone successfully, but the biggest test will come when the results are announced and the Earthlink phone is put to the test by the public.

The Earthlink phone will allow you to make calls from within your own network, along with on any municipal Earthlink WiFi network. When the phone is powered on, you’ll be able to make cheap calls without loss of sound quality. Unlike the Linksys iPhone WiFi telephone, the Earthlink version actually looks pretty cool. Linksys has created an eyesore. Earthlink has created a usable phone. — Andrew Dobrow

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Three LCD screens on a laptop? Oh, don’t doubt it so quick, fellow gearheads. Check out the ACME tri-folding laptop featured at CeBIT. Don’t get your hope panties all up in a bundle just yet. This ACME product is for now, just a prototype, but this rugged piece of lap gear is sure to turn a lot of heads. Especially of those who are into killer resolution.

While the thought of a company named ACME might fill your head of falling anvils and Elmer Fudd, this laptop is no cartoon fantasy. At least, we hope not! This thing is too damn cool to be loony. While ACME says it is a “rugged” laptop, you would figure it would include dust-proof and water-proof protection. Think again. Apparently rugged no longer refers to the outdoor-men. At least it has an aluminum frame, which must be what they refer to as “rugged”. — Andrew Dobrow

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Linksys presented its VoIP phone, the iPhone CIT 400 at CeBIT 2007. You might know it as the uglier iPhone. This is the first time the Linksys iPhone has been publicly presented. It earned much more attention than it would have because of the legal uproar between Linksys and Apple over the iPhone moniker.

The Linksys iPhone is an internet telephony VoIP phone that is meant to be used with VoIP services such as Skype. There really isn’t anything to overly impressive about the CIT 400, but it is worth mentioning because of the coveted iPhone branding. Although much criticism has been wrought over the Linksys iPhone, compared to the Apple iPhone, any product seems to dim, but we are sure it’s a well made product, much like the popular Linksys routers and wireless internet cards.

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Linksys announced its release of the new KiSS 1600 Networked Media Player at CeBIT in Germany. The DVD / media network player will be able to connect to your TV via an HDMI cable. The KiSS 1600 promises an “enhanced media experience” by allowing the transfer of high definition video, audio, and pictures, directly to a user’s TV.

The KiSS 1600’s DVD player includes a resolution of 720p, more than most upscale DVD players currently available, while also providing wireless 802.11g and Ethernet capabilities to your network. The KiSS also allows for streaming of media from your computer to be displayed on your TV. The addition of a USB port allows for content to be watched off of external hard drives, MP3 players, digital cameras, and USB drives. This Linksys giant supports DVD, Windows Media 9 HD, Windows Media 9, H.264/AVC, MPEG, MPEG2, MPEG4, DivX 3.11, DivX 4, DivX 5, Nero Digital, XviD, while audio formats are CD, WMA, WMA9-Pro3, AAC-LC, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis. A complete living breathing media monster available now for a street price of £259.99. — Andrew Dobrow

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Korean company SNT presents IOPS. An on-board PC designed to manage all of your electronic needs while driving. Being shown at CEBIT in Germany, the IOPS runs Windows XP through its main output 7″ touchscreen. In addition to the obvious features of a GPS, the IOPS also has T-DMB channels, which is not even available in the U.S. yet. IOPS also comes with a hard disk in which you can record live TV and then burn it on to a disk all while doing 95 on the freeway. What a rush!

And since IOPS can interface with HSDPA networks, you can also receive an Internet connection for on-the-go shopping, RSS feed reading, or anything your heart desires. All of this is done as its linking with your Bluetooth device and displaying a video feed from your back bumper. Very impressive. Also, very cool. — Andrew Dobrow

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We no longer live in the time of one device call management. People these days own up to four phones sometimes because of their crazy work habits! Crazy, yes, but we’ve seen it happen. The first ever Universal Phone Charger is being shown this week at CEBIT. The AnyFix charger is the product of Prof. Luigi (fitting name for one in the tech industry) Colani, an 80-year-old veteran of the field of industrial design. AnyFix can charge 80% of European cell phones, including all major brand names.

Charging your phone with AnyFix is as easy as pressing a button for the correct corresponding charge. The charger is a product of a totally bio-designed idea. It takes its sleek form from the Dytiskus Marginalis, a 3.5 cm long beetle which can travel underwater at speeds up to 4 meters per second thanks to its streamline body shape. Colani is known for his groundbreaking designs in the auto and aviation field. If the AnyFix does what it says it can, you can add mobile to that list. — Andrew Dobrow

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We’ve been hearing too much about what SonyEricsson has under its sleeves, rumor has been going on about the next announcement which could be as early as this week (if not up till CeBIT). This morning we spotted new non-photoshopped photos of an unannounced SonyEricsson Walkman-branded phone on a forum, so far no word on specification, but we are sure that the screen is QVGA and it takes up a large proportion of the width, which means that the specs won’t be too low. We would not expect any phones with a co-branding of Walkman and Cybershot. From what we can see from photos, the handset is quite metallic, the rim around the screen might point towards a non-candybar set-up, the fact that the photographer tries to avoid showing us what’s right on top or below the screen makes us postulate that this should be a 3G phone afterall. The user-interface is non-UIQ (this should not be any of the rumored messaging devices), it appears to be flash-enabled, with variable swirls of leafy patterns behind the icons (this would require some processing power), reminding us more of the good o’Z800i. More pics after the jump.

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