Hi-tech Frontier

The Flipside of Fashion is Security – This Wallet is a Vault in a Pocket Tin foil is sooo passé. If you’re stylish and paranoid, the Flipside wallet is the fashion accessory for you. This polymer and aluminum wallet comes in three striking colors, holds 6 cards or 15 cash bills, and springs open automatically at the press of a button. Credit cards these days come with embedded radio (RFID) chips, and the Flipside’s shielded interior prevents identity thieves from skimming your cards. The stylish geek knows that fashion is fleeting, and when it’s time for a new wallet, the Flipside is completely recyclable. Best of all, it’s made entirely in the US of A.

HP dv6Z – Artist Edition 2 Notebook – $ 680 Here’s a chance to save over $300 on the newer HP dv6z Artist Edition 2 laptop. Powered by a Turion X2 RM-75 2.2 GHZ processor, it includes 2 GB or DDR2; 250 GB of hard disk storage (free upgrade to 500 GB); HDMI; 4 USB 2.0 ports; 6-cell battery; Wirless-G; Webcam and Windows Vista Home Premium. There’s more that you can add onto this rig – and why not because our GearSponsor LogicBuy has a 15% off coupon that’s stackable on top of any deals offered at the HP site.

MIT researchers weave "flexible camera" out of fiber web We've seen liquid camera lenses and cameras shaped like an eye, but a group of researchers from MIT's Department of Materials Science and Engineering are now taking things in yet another shape-shifting direction with a so-called "flexible camera" that uses a special fiber web instead of traditional lenses. Those fibers are each less than one millimeter in diameter, and are comprised of eight nested layers of light-detecting materials, which the researchers are able to form using an extrusion process like that used to make optical fiber for telecommunication applications. Once woven into a fabric, the researchers say the "camera" could be anything from a foldable telescope to a soldier's uniform that gives them greater situational awareness. Of course, they aren't saying when that might happen, although they have apparently already been able to use the fiber web to take "a rudimen...

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1 gets reviewed, recommended If all those recently unveiled sample shots from Panasonic's Lumix DMC-GH1 have left you wanting more, you're in luck. The kids at Digital Photography Review have got their hands on the thing and have been kind enough to give us an extensive review. Rocking a Four Thirds imaging sensor, HD-video mode (with stereo sound recording), a multi-aspect sensor, and a video-optimized lens, the camera is essentially the G1 with HD-video, according to the review. Not that that's a bad thing, especially when noting that it has "the best implementation of video on a 'non-compact camera' that we've seen so far." Among the camera's strong points are its resolution, size and weight, build quality, image stabilization, and shutter-speed simulation. Still the reviewer didn't look kindly upon the camera's relatively small amount of RAW headroom, fairly low powered flash, poor battery life, and a loud shutter ...

Datawind bringing UbiSurfer, PocketSurfer3 to the US Remember Datawind's PocketSurfer and PocketSurfer2 handheld internet devices? Ever see one out in the wild on this side of the pond? Well, Datawind is hoping that it'll have better luck with its new PocketSurfer3 and UbiSurfer devices, which are both now apparently officially on track for a US release. The PocketSurfer3 (pictured above) is a fairly modest update to the PocketSurfer2, with it adding an improved screen and updated UI and, most perhaps importantly, a lower $249 price tag that also includes a year of free cellular usage (up to 30 hours a month). The UbiSurfer, on the other hand, is a more traditional netbook-style device (check it out after the break), although it harkens back a bit to the pre-Atom days with a 7-inch screen, 1GB of storage, 128MB of RAM and an unspecified, presumably low-power processor. The good news, however, is that it includes the same year of free service as the PocketSurfer3, and packs an e...

Packard Bell debuts updated ixtreme desktop PC Packard Bell already rolled out its updated line of imedia desktop PCs earlier this month, and it's now done the same with its higher-end "ixtreme" desktop, which gets some upgraded specs and a sleek new look. While that exterior is certainly a step up for Packard Bell, it's not quite as eye-catching as the specs, which include your choice of Core i7, Core 2 Quad, or AMD Phenom II X4 processors, up to 12GB of DDR3 memory, a max 3TB of storage space, your choice of a few NVIDIA graphics options (including the 1GB GeForce GTS 250), an optional Blu-ray combo drive, and ten USB ports for anything that won't fit inside. No word on a release 'round here, of course, but folks in the UK will be able to pick this one up this month with a starting price of £599 (or just under $1,000).

New Cradlepoint firmware turns MiFi into -- wait for it -- a 3G WiFi router You might imagine that Cradlepoint's feeling a bit of heat since Novatel released its fantastic MiFi series, since the whole idea behind Cradlepoint's gear is to turn 3G modems into WiFi access points. It's cool, though, Cradlepoint managed to find a tricky angle: you can't charge the MiFi, use it as a USB modem, and have WiFi enabled at the same time! We still think we'd stare, point, and laugh if we were walking through an airport and saw some dude with these two cute little boxes tethered to one another, but we've got to admit that this is a pretty big Achilles' heel that Cradlepoint's managed to solve here; all it takes is a firmware update for your Cradlepoint, and voilà, you've now got MiFi compatibility.

BlackBerry Onyx with optical trackball leaks out Looks like RIM's getting serious about optical trackballs -- first the Curve 8520 ditched the spinner and now it looks like the Onyx has been upgraded as well. That's pretty much just as we've all expected ever since we first laid eyes on this 3G mashup of the Bold and Curve 8900, and we're pretty stoked about it, since we find optical trackballs to be pretty great. Of course, there's no word on a ship date, but we're hoping it'll be soon.