Blaupunkt and miRoamer will announce a partnership at CES that will put internet radio into car dashboards for the first time. Blaupunkt prototypes pictured here show the technology in action.

“miRoamer’s development with Blaupunkt is the first seamless Internet radio solution,” said miRoamer founder and CEO George Parthimos. “With the simple push of a button, users can access AM/FM stations or Internet radio’s thousands of music, entertainment, news and talk stations from around the world, all from the same car stereo.”

MiRoamer dipped its toe in these waters last year, but the requisite hardware deals apparently didn’t materialize. Now that Blaupunkt and miRoamer have formed a partnership, we could see in-car internet radio enter the mainstream.

“The first model will connect to a 3G/HSDPA/HSPA device via Bluetooth for Internet connectivity,” explained miRoamer spokesman Ryan Greives. “When connecting to the Internet via an external device (such as an iPhone), the customer’s existing mobile service provider is the default network,” adding, “various models are in the pipeline which may have an internal modem.”

With the radio connected to a smartphone on an unlimited data plan, these prototypes (the New Jersey 600i, pictured above, and the Hamburg 600i, below) will provide in-dash navigation of tens of thousands of miRoamer stations, already available via computer and available for access by car starting on January 1, 2009. Beyond that, the availability (and pricing) of Blaupunkt’s internet car radios are unclear at this point, although Grieves confirmed that they will be available on original equipment in new cars, although surely the dedicated gadget head could find a way to get one installed.

miRoamer’s claim that this is the first internet radio for the car seems a bit dubious on the surface. Indeed, although they are not elegant in-dash solutions, imeem, Pandora, SeeqPod, YouTube and other music services have been available on connected portables like the Apple iPhone and Windows Mobile for months. In addition, Autonet – another CES exhibitor this year – has offered in-car internet since last year that could potentially be used for music streaming from any number of providers. And, of course, satellite laptops can stream music to car stereos.

But miRoamer and Blaupunkt’s prototypes appear to be the first models to offer in-dash internet radio. “Today, users want to jump in their car and go — no pulling out third-party devices or plugging in cords to access their music and information,” according to Parthimos.

These stereos also offer phone, address book and navigation via Bluetooth, but internet radio is the main attraction with the ability connect to tens of thousands of miRoamer stations as well as any other online playlist or MP3.

If you’re diligent enough, you could post playlist files pointing to various MP3s on the internet, on a free blog site or anywhere else, since they don’t occupy much disk space, since they just link to remote files. Then, you could bookmark those playlists on the Blaupunkt radio to access it all from the road. Another plus is that you can customize favorites, search options and more through your computer at miRoamer.com and access them later through the radio.

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15.00 EURO 18.90 USD

Available from Atypyk.

A girl (or guy, I suppose) can never have too many USB memory, and even better if they’re sparkly and don’t look like traditional storage devices.
Personally, I prefer the cellphone attachment over the USB necklace which is made from iridescent colorful crystals in green, blue or red. 4GB for $39.95 from Technology, Gadgets and Curiosities.

Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,

Ladytron

People say you carry the light with you and now you can — literally. Just pocket one of these credit-card-sized light bulbs, which are powered by a small cell. Flip up the light bulb shaped cut-out to switch on the soft glow. Fits easily in your wallet or purse, so you’ll always have one handy. Personally, I’m going to use mine the next time I’m in a meeting a someone has a “bright” idea. Designed by Hyun Jin Yoon and Eun Hak Lee, you can see more at Yanko Design.

IPod Touch as deadly sniper accessory? Awesome. This is the Knight’s Armaments M110 iPod Touch mount, a clip-on case designed to hold your iPod Touch in easy reach while you draw a bead on the enemy.

Alone, this isn’t much — you could watch ‘Nam movies while taking target practice, we guess. What makes this a useful accessory is the companion software from the same company, called BulletFlight. Simply dial in the shooting conditions: wind speed, distance, type of gun and bullet, and the app will tell you just how much to tweak your shot to hit the bullseye.

The app is $12 on the App Store. The mount and case themselves don’t seem to be up on the Knight’s Armaments site just yet.

Product page [Knight's Armaments via TUAW via The Firearm Blog]

Product page [iTunes]

Now a photo published on CrackBerry.com shows Obama checking his phone after his inauguration parade. It seems the BlackBerry will be the newest high-tech resident of the White House.

Obama has struck a “compromise” that allows him to keep the Blackberry to stay in touch with senior staff and friends, says an Associated Press report.

Security on the BlackBerry has been amped up, though White House officials are releasing few details on exactly how that is done.

Obama’s personal BlackBerry has been the subject of much discussion, with speculation centered on whether he would be allowed to keep the device once he was sworn in. Presidential communications can be subpoenaed by the Congress and are preserved for history, so every e-mail sent by BlackBerry would need to be saved somehow. There have also been fears that the device could be hacked or, worse, compromise his personal security by helping an attacker pinpoint his location.

It looks like Obama and his team may have been able to work around some of those concerns.

While it may not be clear from the photo, it is very likely that, contrary to reports, it is indeed a BlackBerry phone that Obama is holding. In the past some have suggested that Obama may be forced to switch to an NSA-approved device called the Sectera Edge that can be used for highly classified communication.

The device from General Dynamics runs Windows Mobile but is bulky — which could rule it out as a substitute for the sleek BlackBerry 8830 he is believed to be using.

source

Our holidays were neither silent nor holy. (But we’re on our knees thanking someone they’re over.)

It’s not too late to become a holey roller. Just download Ecofont, a brand new typeface designed by some Dutch geniuses that’s made up of tiny little holes.

Here’s the backstory: Most printer cartridges end up in landfills. The more ink we use, the more garbage we create. So Spranq designed a font that uses 20 percent less ink by simply removing as much of each letter as possible, while still leaving it readable. Basically, the whizzes got rid of the line that connects the dots to create the characters.

It’s free to download and use, so there’s no reason not to.

Unless you’re just a total a-hole.

Available online at ecofont.eu.

Lit From Within
WOOD LED CLOCK

You have gorgeous wood floors, heirloom wood furniture – you even have those wooden salad bowls from the 70s – so why not a wood clock? A stroke of designing brilliance, this clock is made of LED lights layered under a wood veneer. When the clock’s off, it looks like a minimal decorative object – when the clock’s on, the large numbers glow through the wood. AC adapter included.