They've been busy out back in the wall plate skunk works the past few years — to be precise, since October 7, 2005 when the Wall Plate Digital Thermometer made its debut in Episode 1.

Three plus years have gone by and by golly, they've managed to cram in a relative humidity readout in the same space.

From the website:

Wall Plate Digital Thermometer/Hygrometer

Track temperature and relative humidity with digital readouts right at the top of this switch plate.

Rear switch selects ºF or ºC; plate installs simply — without wiring.

Includes battery.

Plastic.

White or Ivory.

$17.99.

They've been busy out back in the wall plate skunk works the past few years — to be precise, since October 7, 2005 when the Wall Plate Digital Thermometer made its debut in Episode 1.

Three plus years have gone by and by golly, they've managed to cram in a relative humidity readout in the same space.

From the website:

Wall Plate Digital Thermometer/Hygrometer

Track temperature and relative humidity with digital readouts right at the top of this switch plate.

Rear switch selects ºF or ºC; plate installs simply — without wiring.

Includes battery.

Plastic.

White or Ivory.

$17.99.

We've previously covered the Samsung HDTV sets that are scheduled to make an appearance in 2009, but this super svelte one wasn't on the list, meaning it's most likely prototype fodder for the "thinnest HDTV" category that will surely get an exercise at CES 2009 this week.

The current record holder for thinnest HDTV is Philips with its 8mm prototype LCD, which was shown in Berlin last year at the IFA electronics show. Sony, on the other hand, takes the prize for having the thinnest retail television, a 9.9mm set that's already on store shelves. For more on the thinnest of the thin and their insane asking prices, check out Wilson's review of the top three on the market today.

Note: Pic is NOT of the rumored Samsung HDTV. [PC World]

We've previously covered the Samsung HDTV sets that are scheduled to make an appearance in 2009, but this super svelte one wasn't on the list, meaning it's most likely prototype fodder for the "thinnest HDTV" category that will surely get an exercise at CES 2009 this week.

The current record holder for thinnest HDTV is Philips with its 8mm prototype LCD, which was shown in Berlin last year at the IFA electronics show. Sony, on the other hand, takes the prize for having the thinnest retail television, a 9.9mm set that's already on store shelves. For more on the thinnest of the thin and their insane asking prices, check out Wilson's review of the top three on the market today. Of course, there's always the XEL-1 OLED set from Sony, at 3mm, if these are too thick for you.

Note: Pic is NOT of the rumored Samsung HDTV. [PC World]

Last month I featured a nifty USB Digital Endoscope, speculating that if you were the adventurous sort you could even try doing a colonoscopy on yourself or a trusting friend with it.

Now comes a free-standing unit that doesn't require a computer, enabling you to make house calls anywhere or even use your car as a mobile clinic.

You know how for a long time you've suspected there's tons of money hidden behind some wall, but you've never been willing to destroy it to find out?

Well, guess what: your ship just came in.

Chuck Cage reviewed the device on November 21, 2008 on Wired magazine's website as follows.
....................

Try This at Home: Camera on a Flex Cable Finds Lost Objects

Milwaukee may have designed it to help home inspectors spot hidden mold or shoddy repairs, but the M-Spector is just too much fun to leave to the pros. Did your 5-year-old really drop your diamond ring down the sink — or pawn it for Fruit Roll-Ups? Want to find out the easy way how many bananas your "hilarious" brother-in-law stuffed in your tailpipe? Grab the M-Spector, thumb the power button, and the 2.4-inch screen lights up with 320x240-pixel color video, transmitted from the tiny CMOS camera on the end of its flexible 3/4"-diameter neck. A camera-mounted LED illuminates dark and dismal places, letting you see anywhere you can cram the 3-foot-long cable. Sure, cops could use the M-Spector to peer around corners or ferret out shanks in prison cells, but it's equally effective at locating the perfectly good grape that rolled under your fridge. Just don't get too creative; you'll probably want to draw the line at home colonoscopies.
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Requires 4 AA batteries (not included).

In this arena size does matter: the extra foot afforded by this upscaled iteration (last month's USB-powered version offered two feet of function) portends much more flexibility when it comes to applications.

Though the Wired review listed a price of $250, checking just now at Amazon I see it's been reduced to $99.

That's a lot of technology from a very reputable company for under a hundred bucks.

$99.

When I first played with Touch Diamond a few months back, I started hating HTC for what it did with the much touted TouchFLO 3D interface. It was slow and sluggish but thankfully, HTC managed to sort it out with a firmware update.

Now keeping aside my past experiences I recently got the chance to play with the Touch Diamond’s QWERTY variant, Touch Pro and I’ll confess, I was pretty much impressed with the device.

Touch Pro is available in some countries for quite some time but the phone was launched only a month back in India. The phone is also known as T7276 which is sold exclusively by Idea Cellular in India.

The Packaged Content includes the device, earphones, charger, manual and a DVD.

Here are the official specs:

Processor: Qualcomm MSM7206A 528 MHz
Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Memory: ROM: 512 MB; RAM: 288MB
Dimensions: 102 mm (L) X 51 mm (W) X 18.05 mm (T)
Weight: 165 g (with battery)
Display: 2.8-inch TFT-LCD flat touch-sensitive screen with VGA resolution
Network: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE; Europe/Asia: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz (Band frequency and data speed are operator dependent.)
Device Control: TouchFLO 3D; Touch-sensitive navigation control
Keyboard: Slide-out 5-row QWERTY keyboard
GPS: Internal GPS antenna
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR; Wi-Fi: IEEE 802.11 b/g; HTC ExtUSB (11-pin mini-USB 2.0, audio jack, and TV Out in one)
Camera: 3.2 megapixel color camera with auto focus and flash light
Audio: Built-in microphone, speaker and FM radio with RDS
Battery: 1340 mAh Rechargeable Lithium-ion or Lithium-ion polymer battery
Talk time: Up to 419 minutes for GSM
Standby time: Up to 367 hours for GSM
Expansion Slot: microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

First Impression:

The first impression it gave me was of a brick than a phone. To accommodate the QWERTY keypad, HTC has made the Touch Pro almost 7 mm thicker and heavier by 55 grams. However, every apprehension seems to disappear as soon as you hold the device.

Design:
Touch Pro’s design is pretty much similar to Touch Diamond albeit with some alterations. The phone still carries the glossy front but the glossy rear from Touch Diamond has been replaced with matte finish in Touch Pro. The front sports a beautiful 2.8-inch VGA screen, four buttons and a D-Pad. Top of the phone has the Power button while the bottom has mini USB slot for charging and earphones. The right side has a place for the stylus at the bottom and the left side has volume controls.

The smooth horizontal slider reveals the USP of the phone – the 5-row QWERTY keyboard. Overall, the phone design is good and does not give a small hint of cheap build quality.

Keyboard:

HTC has managed to cram up a decently sized keyboard in a size of not more than 102mm. Typing on the keyboard takes a little time to adjust but once you’re all set, everything is a breeze. However, users with large fingers may find the keys a bit difficult to adapt.

TouchFLO 3D:
For the uninitiated, TouchFLO 3D is a visual interface developed by HTC which sits atop the Windows 6.1 OS. Unlike the original TouchFLO, TouchFLO 3D starts with the phone itself and is generally a one-stop solution for all your needs. The Touch Pro’s TouchFLO 3D integrates the Home Screen, Favorite Contacts, SMS, E-mail, Internet, Photos/Videos, Music, Weather, Phone Settings and a Program menu to add different apps for faster access. The TouchFLO 3D is fast and responsive but at times it showed signs of lagging when 2-3 applications were running in the background.

Camera:

Touch Pro features two cameras – front for video calling and the rear for video recording and photography. The rear one sports a 3.2 megapixel lens with autofocus, flash and can shoot still pictures, videos and panoramic images.

The lack of a dedicate camera key on the phone is really disappointing as you need to use the touch-sensitive D-Pad. The navigation pad first locks in the focus on the subject and then clicks the picture after hitting the center button.

Don’t expect anything extra ordinary from the camera. It produces good photos under day light conditions with images being viewable on a computer screen. They are not print worthy though.

Memory:
Touch Diamond sported an out of the box internal memory of 4GB in addition to its 256MB of ROM. But this time, HTC has let off the memory and gives 512MB ROM to the users. They can further expand the memory as per their liking via a microSD memory card.

Internet:

Touch Pro connectivity options include EDGE, 3G and Wi-Fi. I mostly surfed on a Wi-Fi network and it was one of the best internet experiences I’ve had on a WinMo phone. Touch Pro’s screen, keyboard and Opera browser makes a killer combination. Though Touch Pro comes pre-installed with Opera 8.65, I installed the Opera Mobile 9.5 Beta. The rendering of the webpage was almost PC-like and the UI of Opera looked great on its VGA screen.

Another thing I tried out was the customized YouTube application. It’s a nice addition to Touch Pro’s multimedia arsenal that lets you surf the whole YouTube from the application itself. However, one glitch I would like HTC to address is auto rotation of the app while sliding on the keyboard. The app, irrespective of the user’s orientation uses the portrait mode to surf through the videos and initiates the landscape mode only while viewing videos.

Battery:
Touch Pro sports a strong 1340 mAh capacity battery. A moderate usage like cellular calling, Wi-Fi and other multimedia features lasted for around 1.5-2 days.

Price:
I believe if this phone was launched prior to iPhone 3G in India, it would have been retailing below Rs. 30,000. A good example is its true sibling, Touch Diamond which started off with a Rs. 27,500 price tag when it was launched by Airtel. However, with the iPhone 3G entering the Indian market, below 30k pricing of high-end smartphones was a thing of the past as a new price niche was created by Apple. Touch Pro’s also not an exception to this phenomenon as network locked (with Idea Cellular) Touch Pro goes for Rs. 34,900 ($741). That’s a bit cheaper than the network unlocked Touch Pro being sold on Amazon US.

Pros:
Good Build Quality
VGA screen
TouchFLO 3D
Keyboard layout

Cons:
Price
Bulky
No TV-out cable bundled

Score:

Advertisement: Samsung Hub - Tracking minute steps of the Korean Giant

Those iconic double-decker Routemaster busses are disappearing from London streets, now running on only a few "heritage routes" in the city. Industrial Designer Hugh Frost wants to bring back a similar bus with this radical idea he calls Freight*BUS, streamlining the top-heavy conveyances while vaguely suggesting their original shape.

The electric bus has a motor in each wheel like many electric car designs do, and each wheel can turn sideways for crab-like parking. Adding to the versatility are its ceiling-suspended seats, which can be moved out of the way for cargo hauling (hence the name Freight*BUS), or to cram more people into the bus, Japanese-style. Nice, but somehow this design loses the charm of the traditional London bus. See the gallery for a detailed look.

Yet into that small space, the makers of the Z-Nano (its real name) have managed to cram almost everything, from a laser tracker to a scrolling function to, yes, obnoxiously bright LED blinkenlights. Here it is in action:

We have complaints. First, it will obviously cause your fingers to shrivel and lock into a rigid, bony claw. Second: Why is the case for this thing so big? The whole point of a tiny mouse is to make it easy to carry, right? The supplied clamshell travel case is as big as a regular mouse, so why not just use a proper desktop mouse?

Third, how is this different from a trackpad? Just asking.

World's Smallest Optical Mouse [Tech E Blog via BBG]