Peek Tech Blog

Hunting wild boar and predator packs the extra excitement that thrill hunters crave. And what better way to clearly see the hunted prey is through binoculars.

Use the binoculars from Nikon which offers a variety of high-quality men’s and women’s outdoor and casual garments, optics accessories and other high performance gear. Have a free gift card ranging from $25 to $50 on Nikon ATB (All Terrain Binocular) like the Trailblazer or the ProStaff binocular in this Nikon Pro Gear promotion. This Free ATB Pro Gear is valid until December 31, 2008 only.

With these guided binoculars, simply gear up with Nikon and your optic arsenal means a success in hunting the prey.

Are you an electric vehicle-loving balance guru? Then you should get in line for Focus Design’s self-balancing unicycle (SBU). The unicycle can blaze down the street at 8.5 MPH, and can go for 12 miles on a single charge. At 25 pounds, it can easily be carried to a charging station.

The unicycle rider controls the vehicle’s speed by leaning forwards or backwards to go faster or stop. There are no pedals—only foot rests.

According to Focus Designs, even balance-challenged riders may fare reasonably well on the SBU. The vehicle stays upright using “accelerometers and gyroscopes with sophisticated balancing algorithms”. Riders will need to stay at least partially upright by themselves, though—the company says that the SBU is about half as difficult to ride as a regular unicycle.

The SBU is coming out in limited production next month for $1,500. If you’re interested, start boning up on your interview skills now— the first ten buyers will be chosen on the basis of order date and the quality of a personal interview.

Will the release of the SBU spawn an electric unicycle trend? Probably not. But it’s definitely a fun addition to the rapidly growing canon of electric vehicles.

The promise of an electronic device that can serve as an acceptable substitute for a daily newspaper should get a boost this Monday, when iRex Technologies releases its latest e-reader, the iRex Digital Reader 1000.



The new model, available in three different configurations and prices, features a 10.1-inch diagonal screen, big enough, says Hans Brons, iRex chief executive, to replicate the look of a newspaper’s layout.

That’s still smaller than Plastic Logic’s prototype e-reader, which features a screen more than 13 inches in diagonal, but it is bigger than iRex’s current iLiad model, with its 8.1-inch diagonal screen.

The Plastic Logic device won’t be available until next year. Both use E Ink’s screen technology, which is also behind the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader.

IRex is positioning the device as a business tool, able to store 20,000 pages on its 1-gigabyte SD card; the card comes with the unit, but higher-capacity SD cards can also be used. The device displays PDF, PowerPoint, HTML, and .txt files. And if you buy the $749 1000 S version, you can make pen-based notes directly on the device, transfer the page back to a PC (but not a Mac) and then convert the handwriting to text.

The cheapest $649 model is read only; the most expensive 1000 SW, available later this year at $849, includes handwriting input as well as Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity.

Customers in Europe using the iLiad service can use the iRex’s wireless connection to download newspapers and books. And Mr. Brons said that he would begin to offer American newspapers “by the end of the year.”

But at those prices and that screen size, the new models are bumping up against low-priced laptops, which also feature wireless, a bigger color screen and a keyboard for typing documents or messages.

The question is whether customers will see the Digital Reader’s lighter weight, much longer battery life and easier readability–especially in bright light–as reasons enough to buy one more device. But as these devices proliferate, the market for content is sure to expand and that should drive demand.

It should also drive innovation so the thin, lightweight and flexible e-reader arrives even sooner.

The recently reported clickjacking vulnerability affecting Adobe Flash Player could also allow a hacker to remotely activate a computer’s microphone and webcam (meaning they could see and hear what you were doing).

The Adobe Security Blog is reporting that a Flash Player patch should be available by the end of October and until it is released, they are encouraging users to change their browser’s Flash Player settings by following these steps as a temporary workaround:

1. Access the Flash Player’s Global Privacy Settings panel at the following URL: http://www.adobe.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager02.html
2. Click “Always deny”
3. Click ‘Confirm’

Completing those steps will keep the bad guys from remotely accessing your computer’s webcam and microphone - although I am not sure why that ability was even an option in the first place with Flash Player.  Why would someone, good guy or bad, even need the ability to remotely access and control another person’s microphone?

Since YouTube and other online video sites use Flash to display the videos, users that frequent those types of sites could be particularly vulnerable, I would think.

Intel Corporation, one of the famous processor makers will be rolling out its new generation of chips to be used for desktop computers. The chip will be called Core i7, following the name of their already established and popular Core branding.

The microprocessor has a codename “Nehalem” which will deliver energy efficiency and high performance. The Core i7 is expected to be produced in the fourth quarter of 2008. The Core name is under the flagship of Intel microprocessor brand.

Intel Corporation also said that the first chips in the new Intel processors will carry the “i7” identifier.