Motorola unveils CLIQ

Motorola has released its latest Android handset – the CLIQ that will boast MOTOBLUR (not very bright, eh), the first and only solution to synchronize contacts, posts, messages and photos among others from a variety of sources including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Gmail, work and personal e-mail, and LastFM, where all of these will be delivered right to your home screen in a jiffy. All content is fed into easy-to-manage streams, freeing up more time and space for you to live out your life to the fullest. Just in case you thought the CLIQ looks familiar, that is because this is known as the Motorola DEXT outside of the US.

Let’s take a look at the hardware first before we move on to the software, and the Motorola CLIQ does not disappoint as initial impressions seem to be rather favorable, as the CLIQ maintains the solid build-up of previous Motorola handsets. Being a QWERTY slider, it will feature a full HTML browser for you to stay connected online via Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, while a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus capability lets you snap great looking photos under good lighting conditions, letting you upload them to photo sharing or social sites in a jiffy. In addition, you can play back YouTube videos wherever you are, while the inclusion of a 3.5mm headset jack lets you hook up just about any pair of headphones to enjoy your favorite tunes.

As for MOTOBLUR, your entire range of conversation threads, friend updates, stories, links, photos and more will be delivered to live widgets on the home screen automatically, doing away with the need to dabble with numerous open applications and menus simultaneously. This gives you unprecedented ease of use to stay updated with your friends’ status updates all the time, instantly, while allowing you to filter through email as they come in, whether to reply those or not. You can also blast your social network status straight from the home screen without individually updating them manually, while news feeds keep you in the loop of the latest happenings. Good times could come back for Motorola with the CLIQ and MOTOBLUR, so do keep a lookout ofr it in Q4 this year.

Bloodbot combines your worst vampire and robot fears

There are a lot of people who faint at the sight of a needle, as well as those that swoon at the sight of blood.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was some machine like this Bloodbot that could draw your blood, without a human ever being present?

Some of you might faint at the very idea of that, but haven’t you ever had a doctor who had a hard time finding the vein while you were donating blood? Apparently, this bloodbot has an accuracy rate of seventy-eight percent. Normally, I would say that is good, but I would like to see the average accuracy rate for a doctor.

When I first saw this Bloodbot, I thought of that line from The Matrix when Morpheus is telling Neo he saw the evil machines “liquefy the dead so they could be fed intravenously to the living”.

Yes, I suppose that we will create the Bloodbots for good, like blood drives, but what happens when the bloodbots decide they don’t have enough? Then comes one of the worst premises for a science-fiction film I ever heard entitled: Attack of the Bloodbots.

That’s right, vampire robots. Now you know that Hollywood is officially out of ideas.

Sungale 3.5 inch LCD comes with lamp (or is it the other way around?)

The first thing I thought of when I saw Sungale’s new desk lamp was that it reminded me of some prop on The Prisoner.

That, or some other weird sixties British science-fiction show where the set designers thought they were being futuristic, but it ends up looking completely ridiculous by today’s standards.

In other words, I can just see agent John Steed sitting at his desk, turn on the two-way communication screen with his umbrella, and utter “Miss Peel, we’re needed”.

I realize that some of you might not get The Avengers reference, and that’s fine. However, you should admire Sungale’s retro-looking combination of a lamp and digital picture frame.

The screen has a 320 x 240 resolution, and has 512 MB. It can be expanded with SD, MMC, or Memory stick for photo and videos. It also has a calendar and clock, as well as capacity for playing back MP3s.

Controls are located below the screen for the photos, music, and video. To the right are the interface controls for the main menu and on the left is the adjustable lighting for the 5-watt bulb.

All this for a low price of $90. I suppose if you were doing your home in theme of “The Village” then this would be your accessory.