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The stylishly slim LG-KF510 was made officially available today by LG Electronics. At only 10.9 millimeters thin, the new LG-KF510 comes with a 3-megapixel camera, advanced music player, and a feature that adjusts the brightness of the LCD screen automatically so that the phone can conserve its battery power. What’s more, the LED-backlit navigational pad is easily activated with just one touch of a finger because it is touch-sensitive, and features a new ‘Interactive Touch Lighting’ system that regulates the amount of brightness and control on the navigational pad. The LG-KF510 will retail for approximately $500 and will come in two colors: Stardust Dark Gray and Sunset Red.

Via [IntoMobile] Via [Akihabara News]

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It’s not exactly news that more and more chunks of our lives are lived on the Internet. But every now and then we get a reminder - of how, for example, the ‘net increasingly is taking over jobs that used to be exclusively television’s. Case in point: March Madness, a US sports phenomenon that is also a television phenomenon, disrupting regular programming for weeks every spring. It is now huge on the Web as well - and destined to get even more so this year.

Because it eats up a good deal of April, too, we still have several more weeks of March Madness, the NCAA Men’s Division annual basketball championship, a tourney with scores of games and a dizzyingly complex playoff structure. That gives us all plenty of time to check out this year’s biggest deal, an experiment at Joost, the free video site. Joost is conducting a hugely ambitious live test of its video streaming system, planning to broadcast every single game to anyone anywhere in the world.

The actual games are the least of March Madness, but the side activities are a Web phenomenon too. There are dozens - probably hundreds - of sites and blogs keeping track of brackets, many collected at the Bracket Project. What’s a bracket? As the usually invaluable Wikipedia explains, a bracket is the “diagrammatic representation of the series of games played during a tournament, named as such because it appears to be a large number of interconnected (punctuational) brackets.” Got that? A 2006 New York Times article also attempted clarification, with equally opaque results. To me, anyway. See the pic above, which is sort of a help.

Brackets aside, there’s another March basketball Madness going on too, although you wouldn’t know it from the buzz. That would be the NCAA Women’s Division Championship.

Mike Johnston of the great photography blog Luminous Landscape wants a new camera, and it does almost nothing but take pictures. He dubs this fantasy-cam the DMD (Decisive Moment Digital), and it is noteworthy as an antidote to the bell-and-whistle-fest that is the modern digicam.

Johnston wants a simple tool, quiet, with no flash, a fixed wide angle lens, an optical viewfinder and DNG + JPEG only. In fact, it has almost nothing not found on the simple, basic film cameras of old, other than being digital. And you know what? I want one.

So there you have it: a small, light, unobtrusive carry-around camera with great handling and world-class responsiveness, capable of being used in all manner of lighting conditions and yielding DSLR-quality results on the gallery wall. The 21st-century equivalent of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s stealthy street-shootin’ Leica.

The Leica comparison is an apt one. The M8 comes the closest to Mike’s dream camera, but cost as much as a small car. There’s definitely a (probably large) niche for a product like this. Simple, stripped down, easy to use, fast and reliable. Sign me up. But enough talk. What would you like to see in the perfect camera?

‘DMD’: The digital camera I’d Like to Own [Luminous Landscape via Kottke]

Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Flickr

Have you ever thought that your mouse was just too large to use comfortably? Perhaps if you sliced it down the middle it would be the perfect size. Honestly, I can’t say that I’ve ever had such a thought cross my mind. Rather there have been some mice which I thought were almost too slim for my tastes. If you’re very much unlike myself, you might enjoy this Super-Slim USB mouse.

This mouse measures only 0.94 inches wide, which is really thin. I dug out one of my old plain-Jane Logitech mice and measured it for reference, and it came up at just over two inches, making this mouse less than half the width of an ordinary mouse. Mind you that you don’t get your buttons cut in half, as the single button functions as two. The front is a left click, while the rear is a right. Some might say this is a good mouse for taking on the road, however, there are much better ones on the market for just that. On the bright side, you won’t break the bank with this $11 mouse.

Source: GeekAlerts

What’s the most essential element required for basic human existence (other than food and water). No, not the internet. Electricity. While we in the developed world complain about cable mess and exploding batteries, Africa is in desperate need of juice, and English design student Daniel Sheridan has a solution.

He has built a power generator into a teeter-totter, so instead of wasting their energy when they play, kids can store it as electricity. According to Sheridan, the see-saw is a pretty good source: just five to ten minutes of playing will provide enough power to light a classroom (or, presumably, any room) for an evening.

The BBC article is a little patronizing in places. At one point, Sheridan goes off on the standard they-have-so-little-but-look-how-happy-they-are rant.

They don’t have Gameboys and all the rest. They are just so genuine and keen to help - they would grab the wheelbarrows we were working with given half the chance.

It’s worth it, though, if the publicity gets these things made. Sheridan has already won two awards and is working on prototypes.

See-saw to power African schools [BBC via Afrigadget]

Photo : Pittsinger/Flickr

I’m not too sure if you actually need speakers on a motorbike considering all the road noise that will interfere with your listening experience, but if you insist on picking up the View Gate VMP-300, then who am I to stop you? Just in case you’re not sure what you’re getting into, the View Gate VMP-300 motorbike speakers come with built in 15W amplifier and 25W output. Since it is powered by 12V DC, it is compatible with most bikes. Just make sure your ipod comes with a tough protective case because the biking life can be rather harsh, especially on sensitive electronics. The View Gate VMP-300 will retail for approximately $98 for a pair.

Normally the kind of design crossover illustrated by the Index Chopping Boards is at best a clever joke and at worst a, well, tacky joke. This time though, the biggest joke is the $85 price tag, but for that you do get a smart looking take on color-coded chopping boards. Essentially the same as you could buy in any catering store, the polypropylene boards have index-card like tabs, with cutesy pictures to remind you that raw meat is red.

Why do they cost so much? Because they are on sale in the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art)Store, where brightly colored plastic is magically transformed into a precious material. We advise sticking with wood: it contains enzymes which help to kill bacteria and your knives will stay sharp longer.

Product page [MoMA via Book of Joe]

Meizu’s M8 Mini One has been getting a lot of media attention since it first came out because of its eerie resemblance to another touchscreen enabled mobile phone from another side of the world. Meizu’s M8 is now catching a lot of eyes again, with the release of its updated interface pictures. (Note that the interface has already been updated even though the product itself has not even shipped yet). The photos provide a sneak peek at the Meizu Mini-One’s music player interface, which can be viewed either in portrait or landscape mode. Rather than emulating the Apple iphone’s minimalist interface and showing widgets one at a time, the new Mini-One’s interface now crams all you could ever want to see about your music on the wide touchscreen display. You now have album art, song title, artist name, rating system, karaoke-style lyrics tab (if they’re available for the song), and the music controls all fitted on the screen in just one go.

Nothing new in terms of features, but I think it’s a step in the right direction for Meizu (for once!) unless they want to be stepping in the direction of a district court with possible copyright infringement lawsuits from Apple. Product development is said to be up to speed during the recent weeks and an August release date for the Chinese market might be a possibility. I think I even heard someone say that the word Meizu, when translated in English, meant “hopeless pirate.” Can anyone confirm? Continue reading for a few more pictures of the updated Meizu M8 music player interface…

Via [Electronista]

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Lenmar ACUSB1 AC to USB power adapter

Charge your ipod almost anywhere! With Lenmars ACUSB1 you can charge your iPod or any other USB-charged device from your any standard power outlet. No computer required, you just need the USB cable your iPod came with, and an outlet, and youre ready to charge.

Technorati Tags: Lenmar

T-Mobile has added another great handset to the HotSpot@Home service line-up, this time its the blackberry 8820 and it will be available beginning today. The BlackBerry 8820 features Wi-Fi, built-in GPS with Blackberry Maps and TeleNav, a microSD slot with support for up to 4GB cards, Bluetooth, voice dialing and of course is myFaves compatible. Also in the good for “business use” theory the 8820 is lacking the camera.

Read [T-Mobile]

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