All posts from Popgadget: Personal Tech for Women

A few weeks back, I reported that Mattel was holding open votes to decide Barbie's 126th career. Among the choices were News Anchor, Architect, and Computer Engineer. I'm happy to announce that the people have spoken and we now have Computer Engineer Barbie.

According to Mattel's site, the doll's designers worked side by side with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to design realistic clothing and accessories. Barbie will be decked out in a tee with a binary code pattern and some black knit skinny pants. She'll also be equipped with all the latest tech including a smartphone, Bluetooth headset, and even a travel bag for her laptop. Speaking of the laptop, Barbie's will of course, be a pink affair which will match her prerequisite glasses.

“All the girls who imagine their futures through Barbie will learn that engineers — like girls — are free to explore infinite possibilities, limited only by their imagination,” says Nora Lin, President, Society of Women Engineers. “As a computer engineer, Barbie will show girls that women can turn their ideas into realities that have a direct and positive impact on people’s everyday lives in this exciting and rewarding career.”

To increase the tech factor, the lucky girls that receive this Barbie will also get a special code to access exclusive online game content on Barbie.com. I wasn't a huge fan of Barbie when I was coming up, but I would have loved to have found this under the Christmas tree or in an Easter basket, or birthday gift. I wish I had some young female relatives to share this awesome piece of geek chic with.

With that said, Computer Engineer Barbie is available for pre-order at www.MattelShop.com and will be available nationwide this winter. Spread the geek gospel with someone you love.

Via Boy Genius Report

Posted by sherri
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Tags: Barbie  Computer Engineer  contest  toys

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This variation of the popular Nokia 5800 Xpress Music edition makes the most of Nokia's Ovi Maps that was recently re-vamped into a free 'forever' app.

The Ovi Maps app features coverage for over 70 countries and combines with the 5800 to maximize its abilities to give you turn-by-turn, voice-guided navigation for both driving and walking. Ovi Maps also features free updates, more than 6,000 3D landmarks, free event guides, and free Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides.

As for the hardware, the bright 360x640TFT touchscreen displays the excellent features of the easy-to-read Ovi Maps and features tactile feedback. The 5800 Navi also features 3.5G (3.6 Mbs); Wi-Fi; 3.2 MP camera with video recording, autofocus, and LED flash; 81MB of internal memory; hot-swappable MicroSD slot that can accommodate cards up to 16GB; very respectable battery life of 8.8 hours talk time and 16 days of standby time; and all the music features of the original 5800 Xpress Music edition including dedicated menu button and even respectable built-in stereo speakers.

The 5800 Navi includes an auto power adapter and a windshield mount right in the box, so it's ready to jump in the car and hit the open road with you. The windshield mount was a little tricky to put together and seemed rather large upon assembly, but actually is quite usable once installed in the car. It's very adjustable and was long enough to put the phone right at my fingertips, even in my huge (read: non P.C.) SUV.

Currently on sale at the Nokia Online Store for $299.

Posted by Brian
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You seen fashion PCs, catwalk-worthy phones, and even haute couture-inspired cars. Now meet the fashion handheld console. A Japan-exclusive, Sony is releasing the “Jill Stuart Sweet Limited Package” a blossum pink PlayStation Portable. This special edition console was created in conjunction with designer Jill Stuart

The limited edition set includes the pastel-colored PSP a pouch with a beaded pearl strap along with a matching pink cleaning cloth. There is also a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo all packaged in a cute pink box.

The “Jill Stuart Sweet Limited Package" becomes available on March 4 for $230. Interested gamers should start looking for a good import site.

Via TechCrunch

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Tags: fashion  gaming  Jill Stuart  PlayStation Portable  video gaming

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It's not a magic mirror, but it's still pretty cool. The Digital Cosmetic Mirror allows women to try on make up without having to go through the time consuming step of applying the makeup. Created by cosmetics company Shiseido, the interactive display allows users to check out new products using augmented reality.

Users simply stand in front of the computer's camera and let it scan your face. The image is then loaded into the computer and it gives you a number of colors to try out. Users then select a color via touchscreen and the computer applies the makeup to the virtual image. If you like what you see, you can print out the photo and pick up your new cosmetics.

The Digital Cosmetic Mirror can apply eyeshadow and lipstick as well as recommend different products and makeup techniques. So far this is a Japan-exclusive but I would love to see this in my favorite cosmetic store in the near future,

Via Japan Trends

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Tags: augmented reality  digital cosmetic mirror  makeup

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Even though dating should be about having fun and meeting new people, it's also about finding out if this person is potential mate material. I mean you want to know if the person sitting across from you has had serious run-ins with the law or has picked their nose since age seven. Thanks to this new iPhone and Android app, you might not be able to check about the nose picking habit, but you can get the deets on just about everything else.

Created by information commerce company, Intelius, Date Check does what the company does best, dig up dirt.Date Check is an app that lets users pull up all those juicy secrets that you want to know, but might be too shy to ask on the first or second date. With a flick of the wrist you can find out if a person has a criminal history via the sleeze detector. You can also see if they own real estate, or if they're living with someone -- say a spouse they might have forgotten to mention.

The app is currently available for free on the Android Marketplace and the Apple App Store.

Via Gadgetwise
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Posted by sherri
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Tags: android apps  applications  dating  iphone apps

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Today was 2010's first iDay- the announcement of a new or updated Apple product, predictably following months, or in this case years of feverish speculation. Steve Jobs gave the gathered press the first glimpse of the super-tablet himself, proudly declaring the new iPad not just revolutionary, but magical. It is undeniably sleek, beautiful, and impressive to look at but is it necessary, especially for people already toting around iPhones or iPod Touches, along with a MacBook or a MacBook Air?

Here are the specs:

-9.7" LED backlit, fully multi-touch display, with IPS technology (IPS provides wide viewing angles and good color reproduction, important for a tablet that you may use both laptop-style, and as a media player). There's also a special fingerprint-resistant coating, obviously good for a screen with a touch interface.

-Up to 10 hour battery life for video, music, and wifi surfing.

-Half an inch thick, weighs 1.5 lbs, 9.5" high, 7.5" wide.

-Wifi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G through AT&T (yay, not). Assisted GPS on 3G models only.

-On-screen keyboard only- but wide enough, apparently for something approaching touch-typing. Jobs typed with all his fingers, not just thumbs during the demo. There's also an optional hardware keyboard which also charges the iPad.

-The iPad will run all current iPhone/iPod Touch applications, plus have its own iPad-only apps.

-The iPad is an advanced e-book reader, using the iBooks app for reading and the iBookstore app for browsing and buying books. iBookstore has licensing deals with some of the biggest publishers so book selection should quickly get competitive with the Amazon Kindle's, plus iBook supports the EPUB standard, which offers thousands of free books. The best part? The Amazon Kindle and BN Nook use low-powered e-ink displays which are easy on the eyes and give great battery life, but they are not backlit or in color. The iPad is both, and while battery life is sure to be less than the Kindle's, 10 hours is still really, really good.

-iWork, Apple's answer to MS Office will be available for the iPad. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote (Apple's versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) will be $9.99 each, a great price for a full featured app.

What are the advantages of the iPad over the iPhone or iPod Touch? The screen, obviously is almost three times the size, a huge improvement for web surfing, watching videos and viewing photos, email, and working on documents. The on-screen keyboard, which will surely elicit much discussion, won't please everybody, but will surely be more comfortable for typing longer docs and emails, and there is the optional hardware keyboard.

Why would you get the iPad instead of a MacBook Air? There are some great tablet PCs out there already (I have and love the Viliv, for example) and while they are less popular, thus far, than netbooks (low-priced, lightweight, and usually lower-powered small notebooks), I think they are a separate beast from the laptop altogether, one that makes a lot of sense to me. I'm currently 9 months pregnant, needing to keep on top of email and everything else work-related, but my hormonal brain mostly wants to be entertained. I use my MacBook Pro for work, but honestly these days I use it just as much to watch TV, listen to music, and shop for baby things. I don't really need the MacBook Pro to do those things. I also use my Kindle for hours since I can't spend as much time in bookstores. Wrap up the e-book reader, iPod, iPhone, and most of the features of the MacBook into one device and my electronic load lightens considerably.
The iPad won't replace your MacBook or any other notebook computer, it's a media device that can do some work too.

Some questions remain:
-No word on if Safari on the iPad will support Flash. That's the thing that most drives me crazy about my iPhone- going to a site and seeing a big nothing because the site is entirely in Flash. All the streaming video sites like Hulu utilize Flash, so perhaps that's a marketing decision on Apple's part to make sure iTunes is media central, but it's a huge, huge, disappointment. Perhaps a deadly mistake, and a reason to look at other tablets.

-The flash-based storage on the iPad can't be supplemented with memory cards so the 16 GB-64 GB storage options seem excruciatingly paltry- especially since Apple is pushing their high-def movie content on iTunes. If you get the baseline 16 GB and you load up a few movies, you're going to run out of space very quickly.

-No built-in camera for Skype and other video conferencing. This too seems odd as Apple have long been including webcams in their notebook and desktop computers.

-There were rumors that AT&T was losing their iPhone exclusivity as of today. Nope, and in fact, if you want to have 3G service on your iPad, you'll need service through AT&T. There are two plans available, and both are, blessedly, without contract so you can cancel at any time. $14.99/month for 250 MB and $29.99 for unlimited use. You also get free AT&T wifi, which I personally only ever find in Barnes and Noble stores.

Will I buy it? Oh probably. I was an avowed PC user for years and years and the iPhone was my downfall into the Cult of Mac. I never thought I'd fall in love with the iPhone but now I literally don't go anywhere, even into another room of my house, without it.
Do I think everyone needs it? I acknowledge that there are some serious issues, especially if there's no Flash and the lame storage options, but this could be the computer that gets your tech-phobic dad able to use email for the very first time, and will be equally enthralling for a middle-schooler who wants to play games and do homework research.

When can you get it? The wifi only models will be available in about 60 days. The wifi+3G won't be available for another 90 days. The pricing? Well yes, it starts at just $499 but that's for 16 GB model which has wifi only. The highest end model will have 64 GB, with wifi and 3G, and cost $829. I'd highly recommend waiting for the $829 model. You'll need the storage and unless you live somewhere with widely available wifi, you'll be frustrated when you leave your home and lose access to most of the features of the iPad.

Get more details at Apple.

For the minute-by-minute account earlier today, I was following Ryan Block's excellent coverage on gdgt.

Posted by Mia
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LG and Sprint are continuing their partnership with the release of the successor to the stylish Lotus phone. The LG Lotus Elite has all the looks of the original Lotus, but has stepped it up a notch with a few exclusive features.

One of the new features on the Elite is the 2.4-inch external touchscreen that allows users to easily navigate all their pertinent information without having to open the phone. The screen has a 320x240 resolution which makes for a vibrant phone experience. Other features include the new three dedicated shortcut keys for social networking, email, and text. The social networking button, dubbed Social can be mapped to a person's favorite social network.
In addition, the fashion phone comes equipped with a 2.0 megapixel camera with autofocus that is located in the hinge of the phone. There's also a full QWERTY keyboard and microSD slot that expands the memory up to 32.GB.

The phone is currently available at Sprint for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two year agreement.

Posted by sherri
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Tags: cell phones  LG  Lotus Elite  Sprint

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Contrary to popular belief, there are more than a few girl gamers out there, serving up their own brand of pwnage with a smile. When it comes to game development, women continue to be an underrepresented segment of the industry. Sony Online Entertainment is doing their part to remedy the situation with the G.I.R.L. scholarship.

The G.I.R.L. (Gamers In Real Life) program was created to affect how women are portrayed in video games. And there's no better way to change the machine than to work from within. In conjunction with the program there is also a scholarship was created with the express purpose of recruiting into the fields of video game production and design.
One lucky gamer girl can be awarded the $10,000 prize provided they are eligible to apply. Eligibility is as follows:

* Currently enrolled in an undergraduate program related to video games, including programs related to video game art, design, animation, production, programming, or visual effects;
* Have a 3.00 or higher grade point average (GPA) on a 4.00 scale;
* Continue to be enrolled during the entire 2010-11 academic year, not graduating before the end of the 2011 spring term;
* Be a legal resident of the United States (including the District of Columbia) for the duration of the competition and
* Be eighteen (18) years or older at the time of application

Applications are currently available at https://www.scholarshipamerica.org/gamersinreallife/.

Via Gamertell

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Now that geeks are considered sexy, we techies are finally being appreciated for our sparkling intellect, and almost obsessional love of tech. In my mind, we were always sexy, but it just took mainstream society awhile to catch on. Now one of our most treasured mainstream childhood icons might be getting in on the geek sexy angle.

Mattel creator of the iconic Barbie doll is asking people to vote on the dolls next career. Since her debut in 1959, Barbie has had over 120 careers. She's been an astronaut, a rock star, and a veterinarian. Hey, she has to pay off the mortgage for that dream house and Ferrari somehow.

Listed among the possible careers is computer engineer. I can think of no better way to show the next generation the coolness of tech than presenting some lucky youngster with a shiny ne "Computer Engineer" Barbie. Please lend your vote and let's initiate Barbie into our ultra-cool society of tech.

The results on the voting will be available on February 12. So vote and keep your fingers crossed.

Via CrunchGear

Posted by sherri
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Tags: Barbie  computer engineer  toys  vote

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Any expectant mother can tell you, it's never to early to start communicating with your child. Besides having extended conversations while baby is in-utero, music has been proven to assist with positive fetal development including displaying "advanced intelligence, coordination, and learning abilities."

Nuvo Group's new device helps deliver soothing sound to your baby with the Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System. Kind of like a speaker system for your unborn bundle of joy, Ritmo is a lightweight belt that fits comfortably around mommy-to-be's tummy. The belt has four built-in speakers that utilized patented Safe&Sound Technology to make sure that the sound level is perfectly safe for baby's ears. The belt also comes with a controller used to plug in an mp3 player.
In addition to music, you can also record family members special messages or reading a bedtime story. The great thing about this gadget is that it has a shelf life beyond the pregnancy. Ritmo has applications that allow it to adapt to the stroller, crib, and baby's toys after birth.

The Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System is currently retailing for $129.

Via Coolest Gadgets

Posted by sherri
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Tags: music  Nuvo Group  pregnancy  prenatal  Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System

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Reebok recently started selling a walking shoe, called Easytone, that is supposed to tone your leg and butt muscles while you walk.

And the buzz machine swung into action. The Easytone shoe has made a huge splash--TV appearances, newspaper and magazine articles, buzz, buzz, buzz.

If the shoe fits, does it really firm up those muscles? Does the Easytone shoe work?

Dan Ariely is James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University is skeptical. He points out that the scientific evidence is thin. Reports of Easytone effectiveness may, he speculates, may be due to the placebo effect. (Placebos are inert pills or any item that can't possibly be of direct medical benefit, but still makes people get better.)

The placebo effect is enormously important in medicine. When a new drug is tested on people and turns out to be effective, a notable number of people in the control group, who received a sham pill rather than the real thing, always get better too.

As it turns out, the placebo effect contributes heavily to the positive effects of exercise too. When people are told (falsely) that a particular activity is good exercise, many of them believe it so strongly that they lose weight and body fat and their blood pressure even goes down. Which has me wondering how I can convince myself that reading in bed, sleeping late, and taking long hot showers will make me thinner.

Posted by Tam
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You've always loved your jeans, and now here's another reason: denim protects you from snakebite.

Of course, to be fully protected, you may need to give up those skinny jeans that show off your, um assets. Go shopping instead for something like the technology breakthrough fabric invented in the 18th century but still beloved in the 21st: Armor-like heavyweight denim fashioned into Mom jeans.

Posted by Tam
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