Joy of Gadgets

I really tried to like the Tritton Technologies AXVisor, which is a bluetooth handsfree system that clips to your visor and provides speakerphone capabilities while you’re driving. I found the device relatively easy to pair with my Nokia handsets and the controls were pretty good. Unfortunately, the device falls apart in the most important feature: being able to hold a conversation.

While I can certainly hear people loud and clear, the same cannot be said for my voice to the caller. Being a Nokia boy, I’ve tried a number of my Nokia handsets with this device. None of them provided adequate voice quality while driving or in my house at home.

The scary thing is that this is the second device the Tritton folks sent me. The first one I was not heard at all. I think it was a defective unit. This one is clearly working, but not well.

Aside from calling my friends and annoying them with voice quality tests, the best “automated” test I can come up with for voice quality is the Tell Me service (800-555-8355), using it to play Blackjack or even use the other voice activated services. Using my Nokia handsets and the AXVisor, the Tell Me service was rarely able to correctly identify what I was saying.

I’m really not sure if it’s this device or an endemic problem with Nokia’s bluetooth stack as I have yet to find a single bluetooth headset that sounds good enough that I’d actually want to use it for more than a few minutes. I’d much rather use the built-in speakerphone on the Nokia handsets or simply use a wired headset than use anything bluetooth.

I certainly can’t recommend this device with a Nokia handset. Maybe it will work better with a different handset, I don’t know.

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Given the fact I carry at least one GPS-enabled phone, I don’t spend much time looking at–or caring about standalone GPS devices. However, the email I got from the folks at Dash got my attention.

The thing I find particularly compelling about this GPS is that you can program it with your voice! Simply dial a number and speak where you want to go. Within seconds, the GPS will be programmed for you!

For this and a lot of the other cool, Internet-connected features this GPS offers, you also have to fork over money for a connection plan, either for up to 2 years up-front, or at $12.99 a month.

Makes me wonder, though, why I can’t use the sound of my voice to program the GPS on my phone?

I have to give GreenEcoMobility, a Chrysler company, some credit for coming up with a plug-in hybrid called the Peapod. It’s a start, but barely.

The car comes in 2, 4, and 6 person models. Takes 6 hours to charge on a standard 110v plug. The range is about 30 miles with a top speed of 25 mph. Around here, I’d be getting my ass run over if I drove that slow!

Theoretically, it will be in production in 2009, but is this the right car? Need about thrice the speed and range. Then we’re talking something I might buy.

Via TechEBlog, DVICE, Dezeen

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Can’t afford the Tesla Roadster, one of the few plug-in automobiles in existance? How about instead of an over $100,000 plug-in car, an $8,000 motorcycle that plugs in.

Yup, that’s what the folks at Electric Motorsport are selling in their Electric GPR-S. While I was occasionally on the back of my dad’s motorcycle as a kid, I don’t know much about them myself. However, I do know that this particular motorcycle can go up to 70 mph and get somewhere between 35 and 60 miles on a single charge, depending on how hard you drive it. The recharge time is 4 hours, or it can be brought down to 1.5 hours if you spend extra on the speed charger.

I suppose this is for the more adventurous green types among us. Me? I can’t see myself in one of these, considering how wet things can be up in my neck of the woods. Maybe in a climate that is more dry than the Puget Sound.

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Lotus Engineering is developing a car that is kind of an omnivore! It will be powered by conventional gasoline, less conventional but mainstream ethanol, or the relatively new and unheard of methanol. It will, in Lotus tradition, perform quite well with a 0-60 speed of 3.88 seconds!

Theoretically, methanol (CH₃OH) can be produced using CO₂ from our atmosphere and Hydrogen. In reality, it will take a while to figure out how to do it on an industrial scale. Given how long it will take to establish an alternative fuel network anywhere near as extensive as our current gas stations–not to mention coming up with a fuel that can be produced inexpensively on an industrial scale–flex fuel cars like this offer the ability to take advantage of the best of both worlds.

Via gizmag