Something a swimmer can count on for a good workout … Finis Lap Track

Now that it’s time to break out the turtleneck sweaters and ski parkas for the holiday season, it only makes sense that we talk about …. Swimming accessories? Sure. Why not. Especially when the Finis Lap Track timer will help swimmers to cut valuable seconds on their lap time.
Completely waterproof, the Finis Lap Track helps swimmers track the laps, lap times, spilts, the works. It also gives an estimate of the number of calories burned in a swimming workout. And with it’s single, extra large button swimmers push on each lap, it’s hard to miss even when one is doing the back stroke. After which, the swimmer’s split time will be displayed for 5 seconds in order to check your times as you swim.

Lastly, it has a lap count down feature, which let’s swimmers presset the Lap Track for time and laps and a signal will count down to zero until a swimmer’s workout of through.It attaches to the pool wall by suction pad, or thanks to a plastic arm and weight bag which allows it to hang over the side.Cost is about $80 US and is available for preorder with delivery time well in advance of Christmas.

Question of the day: Watch or Cellphone for telling the time?

Our last phone poll discovered that an astonishing 28% of our readers used iPhones—go ahead, see for yourself—which brings us to this question. Do you wear a wristwatch, or do you tell time using your cellphone? We're about half and half here, most of the time wearing a watch but occasionally peeping at the time when we pull out our iPhones for Warbook on the go. You?

O’Neill goes extreme with Video backpack

Extreme sports enthusiasts wanting to document their shredding, can be just like Warren Miller thanks to O’Neill – the sports manufacturer famous for wetsuits and clothing lines. They have upgraded it’s Campack with a portable media player/recorder and external camera lens. Snowboarders, skier’s, and anyone who is addicted to getting the rush of extreme sports can use the H4 Campack to record their relentless pursuit of cheating death.
An external camera for video taping extreme sports is nothing new. Samsung had a wireless sports camera setup last year and still has the wired variant in the SC-X300L. But what makes the H4 system so cool isn’t the external camera lens that attaches to a head or goggles, but the fact that recording is completely controllable through the backpack itself. Control buttons, large enough for ski gloves to press them, are located on the shoulder strap. Stop, start and record are easily accessible in this fashion. Sadly though, gone are both iPod and Bluetooth connectivity as well as a solar charging option which was part of the H2 system.
The player sports a media 2.4-inch 240k color LCD, and stores video on either it’s 512MB of internal memory or up to 2GB in SD card storage. Very disappointing that a high capacity SD storage wasn’t used as snowboarders (and others) will have to stop and change SD cards after only about 2 hours of YouTube quality PAL video. Ever try changing something the size of a quarter with ski gloves?
Nice effort though. Cost is going to be about $400 USD starting in December.

sunrich technology 32GB EXPRESSCARD SSD has our eyebrow raised

Unlike yesterday's unquestionably, uh, questionable 64GB and 128GB USB Micro Vaults, this solid-state disk is as real as the subject of any press release. We've played with them before, but this one's promising 32GB, a massive drive that slides right into that mostly unused little ExpressCard 34 slot on your newish laptop, and could very well make you oh-so-happy by holding, oh, say, your entire OS. How about a speedy flash-based boot up? The US rep says it works with Vista and supports Windows ReadyBoost. He also says that as a low-power drive, it could boost your battery life. The release that you can see below is an announcement for production and not for retail, but we have connected with the company, and in spite of the funky shot above, this appears to be a go.
Sunrich Technology's ExpressCard Solid State Drive
Sunnyvale, Ca - (Business Wire) - Dec 28, 2007 Sunrich Technology is a leading manufacturer of I/O Connectivity and Storage products for consumer and business professionals.
The Sunrich Technology ExpressCard Solid State Drive (SSD) offers a reliable low-power, ease of use solution for customers who need to add high performance and high capacity plug-in storage to their laptop or notebook computers. The card fits easily into the ExpressCard slot of newer laptop or notebook computers and delivers extra removable memory storage and reliable data backups.
Key Benefits:
* High performance plug-in storage* Large memory capacity:Available in 4, 8, 16, and 32GB for MLC(Multi-Level Cell) FlashAvailable in 4, 8, and 16GB for SLC ( Single-Level Cell) flash* Easy installation with full Plug-n-Play* Works with Windows ReadyBoost to improve system performance* Compact ExpressCard / 34 form factor is completely concealed in ExpressCard slot* Low power consumption reduces battery drainage on laptop or notebook computers* Supports Windows Vista
Sunrich Technology is now taking production orders for the Solid State ExpressCard.

USB Credit Card Brings Korea To The 22 Century

While we're just now struggling to get credit cards that pay wirelessly, Korea's already moved on to the next stage and made their credit card USB-compatible. Not only can you wave this thing in front of a register like Harry Potter trying to Wingardium Leviosa Hermione's dress, you can plug this into your computer to make online purchases as well. It saves you the trouble of either remembering your CC number or fetching your wallet every time you want to buy a copy of, say, an iPhone book on Amazon. Korea: not just the place where red hot world cup ladies come from anymore.

Nintendo Wii is officially hacked

Wii modchips have been around since the start of the year in one form or another, but some folks at the 24th Annual Chaos Communication Congress just demoed a new Wii hack that lets them have full access to the console, including all the hardware. By using a custom serial interface, they were able to grab access to the encryption and decryption keys during runtime by doing memory dumps. Don't worry about the details if you're not sure what's going on, just know that you're going to be able to run even better homebrew and "backup" Wii games in the near future.

LG announces two new flash drives that are anything but ordinary

I’ve had more than my fair share of flash drives. Most of them get lost, or in the case of a couple, they literally fell apart. Knowing this, it’s not really all that surprising that I steer away from the fancier drives. However, if you prefer a thumb drive with a little something extra, LG has announced the release of two new ones that might be up your alley.
First up is a biometric drive. As you might have guessed it features a built-in biometric scanner. I highly recommend scanning more than one finger, as you never know when one might become separated from your hand. You also have the option of using a boring password to bypass the scanner, but that’s no fun at all.
The other drive from LG has been dubbed the “Vaccine.” This is an interesting little drive that includes anti-virus protection when it is plugged into a PC. The particular software they use has not been named, but you do get a two-year subscription with your purchase. I’m actually really curious why someone would bother with something like this. Why not just buy the software and install it on your PC? Then you don’t have to mess with plugging in your flash drive every time you sit down at your computer. Sure, this might save you a couple bucks if you have more than one PC, but that’s only if only one is online at a time, and unless you live alone, there’s a slim chance of that happening.
No word yet on pricing or availability on either model, though both will come in sizes ranging from 512MB to 8GB.