Da Gadgetz

It's been awhile since we last saw the xpPhone, a quick, quiet demonstration at Computex that left us doubting whether the thing would ever see the light of day outside a packed showroom floor. It seems our doubts are about to be put to rest as ITG, creator of the thing, has thrown up a pre-order page on the phone's website. There's no mention of a price, and indeed you won't be asked to plunk down any cash right now (it's not much of a pre-order), but what's interesting is that it asks you to choose between 3G modules for Vodafone, Orange, or AT&T. That means ITG seemingly has aspirations of a global release for this thing, and while we're not sure how many people are going to want to lug around a MID-sized monster celly with a "super big" 4.8-inch LCD and a weight of nearly a pound, surely some nation in the world has pockets big enough for this.

This is the Smart Measure Cup. It's a simple, great idea—a measuring cup that displays precise volume on a backlit LCD complete with unit conversion. So great, in fact, that it's been rebranded and picked up for manufacture.[Yanko Design]

Sure, you can get a relatively compact camera with a nice built-in 10x, 15x or even 20x optical zoom, but where's the fun in that? This new so-called Avatar Digital Binocular Sports Camera, however will never be saddled with labels like "boring" or "practical". Its big selling point, as you can see, is 21x optical zoom that gets further bolstered by a blinding 40x digital zoom, all of which apparently must be managed without such niceties as auto focus. On the business end of the equation is a 2-megapixel camera with a 2.5-inch LCD, which just so happens to also double as a ful-fledged media player with a curiously familiar-looking interface. Its available to order right now for just $128 or even less if you buy'em in bulk. Never to early to start that holiday shopping.

It's been a while since we've heard anything about Fujifilm's FinePix Real 3D camera, but as the twin-lensed shooter nears that scheduled September release some more details are spilling out -- including the price, which will be "around $600" at launch. Yeah, it's steep, and that's not all: to properly view the images you'll need to either shell out for special prints with a plastic lenticular lens on it or buy a special stereoscopic LCD photo frame, and none of that really screams "cheap." Honestly, our instinct would be to spend all that scratch on a good DSLR or even something like the Olympus E-P1, but there's always a chance Fujifilm's about to reveal the public's deep-rooted desire for 3D snapshots. We'll see -- anyone dying for one of these?

Sony has unveiled eyeglasses that can show full-color video images. The prototype supports a QVGA resolution, weighs 120g, is 3mm thick at the lens, and has a contrast ratio of 50:1.The glasses use a proprietary holographic waveguide and an optical engine made up of a LED light source and a transparent LCD panel. Video coming from the optical engine is reflected by a film in the holographic waveguide. It then bounces off a glass plate and is diffracted to the eyes by a second holographic film.Before it brings the glasses to market, Sony is trying to slim the prototype down to 80g and make the lenses transmissive enough to be used in dark places. The company says it's hoping to commercialize the produce by 2010.