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We were ready to fall in love with the Impulse NPX-9000 as soon as we heard the words “World’s Cheapest Laptop,” but now that we’ve got a review sample in our hands the bloom might be off this rose — especially since the $199 wholesale price isn’t even as cheap as the Dell Mini 9 on sale. On the other hand, there’s something just delightfully janky about our Windows XP-powered unit, now labeled the TNX-9500 — it beeped continuously for several minutes when we first turned it on, the 1GHz no-name processor seems less willing to run Internet Explorer than Richard Stallman on a bad day, and it took us several minutes to figure out that a loud howling sound was being produced by the always-on microphone feeding back through the speakers. Yet for some reason we were all smiles the whole time — what can we say, we’re suckers for cheap. Hopefully Impulse will stake a bolder claim to the title of “world’s cheapest laptop” when production ramps up, since prices are expected to fall, but this particular unit actually can’t get any cheaper for you — we’ll be giving it away soon. Check some shots in the gallery!
Gallery: World’s Cheapest Laptop hands-on

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In case you missed it, Engadget VIP Club cardholders, the tasteful and elegant Dell Adamo is available for online orders in the US now — not just those other countries overseas with long names that are hard to pronounce. With model names like Admire (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB memory, and a 128GB SSD — starting at $1,999) and later-confirmed Desire (1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB memory, and mobile broadband, also sporting a 128GB SSD — starting at $2,699) the company’s definitely reinforcing the laptop’s savoir faire. Options include the “Jet Setter” package (with external DVD-RW) and the “Entrepreneur” (with external 250GB HDD). Available in Pearl and Onyx — not that the suckers flying coach will be able to tell the difference.

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We’re suckers for power-strip designs. As gadget nerds, we’re constantly faced with overloaded circuits and blocked ports. For the latter, there’s this design by Jeff Carter that neatly overcomes the limitations presented by the ubiquitous (and ridiculous) side-by-side strip design. Regarding our excessive power issues, that’s easy: more interns to shovel the coal and kittens.
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As you’re no doubt aware, we’re real suckers for Palm’s Pre on tape, and this “Meet Pre” specimen hasn’t yet assuaged our thirst. We suppose it’s the exact type of stuff demonstrated on the video that keeps us coming back: webOS presents some new paradigms for interaction and integration, and, like the iPhone before it, will take a considerable amount of digestion to really come to terms with. Plus it’s pretty. This video demonstrates a few interesting tidbits, such as a list of folks invited to a meeting and which ones will be going — a nice integration of calendar and contacts — and the phone is shown “sending” a webpage to a friend, which involves forwarding a link and an attached .png screenshot, perfect for mobile-to-mobile communications. Here’s hoping we hear more about the phone this week at MWC… and a 3G GSM edition certainly wouldn’t be unwelcome. Video is after the break.
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By Luke Anderson

Is it just me, or do drinks taste better when they are carbonated? Take grape soda for example, that’s much better than your run-of-the-mill grape juice. Now granted, one of those two is probably healthier for you than the other (depending on if it’s real juice), so why not add a little carbonation to it? I’m no science whiz, but apparently all it takes is some baking soda, vinegar and one of these funny little u-fizz contraptions.

Apparently you can carbonate just about any liquid you’d like with one of these little suckers. I’m pretty sure that the first thing I’d try would be Jell-o. That would be some pretty cool stuff right there. If your kid needs a science fair project, or you’re bored with your current non-carbonated drinks, then this $7 kit will get you started.

[ ScientificOnline ] VIA [ Technabob ]

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Lego’s just announced that it’s teamed with Digital Blue to bring out a line of digital cameras, PMPs, and walkie talkies for children. As you can see, the products will have the familiar “Lego” look to them (though not constructed out of actual bricks), and though we haven’t heard anything in the way of specs yet, they’re said to be arriving this summer with prices ranging from $19 – $60. Our opinion of these is currently hanging out in the “not really excited” file, but outfit these suckers a set of wheels and we’ll probably be sold. Second photo after the break.

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We’ve been waiting for something like this for pretty much ever, and thanks to IOGEAR, we’ve finally got it. Here at CES, the company has introduced new 2- and 4-Port HDMI KVM switches with USB 2.0 Peripheral Sharing (GCS1792, GCS1794), which are HDMI 1.3b and HDCP compliant. As if that weren’t enough, both boxes also support 1080p resolutions, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. In related news, the 4-Port DualView Dual-Link DVI KVMP Switch (GCS1644) also saw the light of day today, and everything mentioned here should be up for sale in Q1. Oh, but don’t think these suckers will come cheap — prices range from $299.95 for the 2-port HDMI KVM to $679.95 for the DualView sibling.
ACCT=109

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Oh, heaven help us all. Just when we thought SanDisk had taken a hint and stopped promoting its slotMusic initiative entirely, in flies this. Quite honestly, we weren’t aware that it could get any worse, but this friends, is worse. The Sansa slotRadio player includes a fairly intriguing 1.5-inch OLED display, a useful FM tuner and a slotRadio card with 1,000 hits that were “handpicked from the Billboard charts.” Oh, and we hope you dig ‘em (all of ‘em), because there’s no way to remove or alter them. For real. The device itself is expected to ship to three or four suckers early this year for $99.99, and additional 1,000 song, genre-specific slotRadio cards will be offered up separately at $39.99 apiece. And we thought the NOW That’s What I Call Music! theme was a train wreck — way to show ‘em what a real disaster looks like, SanDisk.

[Via OLED-Display]
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By Luke Anderson

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a Mountain Dew addict. I’ve honestly considered trying to see if I can order the stuff directly from a distributer, rather than by going through my local supermarket. Yes, I know that it’s bad for me, and that I should at the very least switch to the caffeine-free kind, but that would defeat the purpose (not to mention taste disgusting), wouldn’t it? Well if you’re a health nut, or just have your own reasons for not wanting any caffeine in your diet, you might be surprised to know that many beverages that tout a lack of caffeine might actually contain the very thing you’re trying to avoid. So how do you spot the impostors? With a simple test.

Sure, you could lug around someone that is highly allergic to the stuff and make them try everything before you drink it. However, that course of action probably isn’t the best way to learn the truth. What you should do instead is pick up a pack of these Caffeine Test Strips. These little suckers can tell you just how much caffeine your beverage contains. You just dip one into the beverage (you’ll need to separate some out from your cup, as contact with the strip can contaminate the liquid) and wait for about 30 seconds for a result. The strips come in packs of 20, and cost around $10.

[ DiscoverTesting ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

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Philips has trickled news about these DAPs over the past few months, but things just got real, man. The Raga is a completely nondescript flash player with 2GB or 4GB of flash storage, a tiny multi-line display, 27 hours of battery life and a $35 or $45 price tag; the Spark steps things up with a fancy 1.5-inch OLED color screen, clix-style navigation and $50 / $60 price points; while the LUXE (pictured) adds Bluetooth and style into the mix for $90 or $100. Spark and LUXE both offer Rhapsody integration and some new “FullSound” EQ tech from Philips, but the real hotness is the LUXE. The player can clip to your clothing and pump tunes as would be expected, but also syncs up with your phone to allow you to interrupt the music and answer calls without ever swapping out your headphones. We got to play around with a couple versions Philips had on display, and it really does look the part — though we wouldn’t mind it a bit slimmer. The Spark looks nice and really does offer a good amount of screen for the size — plus we’re suckers for the clix interface — but the Raga looks like the red-headed, overweight stepchild of the lineup. LUXE will be available in January, but the other two should be hitting store shelves now. Check out our hands-on shots in the gallery below. Or don’t, we’re not the boss of you.
Gallery: Philips debuts new GoGear lineup: Raga, Spark and LUXE

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