We are well aware that high end smartphones are now capable of producing very good snapshots and decent videos.  This time, Polaroid’s SC1630 camera is blurring the line.  It runs Google Android phone OS . Hence, it’s a camera that can make phone calls. In this respect, Polaroid prefers to call this device a “phone camera” (stress on “camera”), and not your regular “camera phone”.

Let’s see what is known about the “camera” part first. It’s a 16 Mpix shooter for stills that is also capable of shooting HD videos. The lens has an optical 3x zoom (6.5–18.5 mm which translates into 36–108 mm when compared to full-frame format). It also has 5x digital zoom, but as usual, we don’t go there.

The camera face of the device looks like your ordinary digital shooter, with a regular flash strip. Zoom level can be chosen by convenient “hardware” slider, and the shutter also has a dedicated “hardware” button. Camera view can be adjusted with the help of 3.2 inch multi-touch widescreen display. There are 18 shooting modes to choose from, plus face and smile detection for portrait mode. Transferring photos to Polaroid printers can be made via WiFi, or Bluetooth, or saved on camera with up to 32 GB microSD card.  All in all, it’s your regular 16 Mpix shooter.

The Android face of the Polaroid SC1630 leaves many things to be desired though. First of all, there’s this delay of no less than 5 sec between stand-by and readiness to shoot that precludes many on-the-go and paparazzi-style shots. Demoed on-board is a customized Android version (must be built around Android 2.3 Gingerbread, or even Froyo.) Polaroid hopes to put Ice Cream Sandwich on the camera at the point when the SC1630 will be released at $299.

The “phone” part of the camera has also a 3G radio but apparently no carrier commitment just yet. At CES 2012, this “phone camera” has got a lukewarm reception at best, but who knows, maybe you will like the idea much better? Here’s a clip from our friends at Phandroid that may help you decide:

Cotton Candy by a Norwegian company FXI Technologies is a prototype USB stick that is equipped with Samsung’s Exynos dual-Core ARM Cortex A9 (1.2GHz) CPU, an ARM Mali 400 MP (quad-core) GPU, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and HDMI output.

We covered an earlier version of this interesting dongle-like miniature computer back in November, now its smaller and more versatile and was featured at Showstoppers at CES 2012.

This time the mighty little dongle shows how good it can run Ubuntu and Android 4.0 on external monitors, or just using the laptops’ displays to demo its prowess. Newer version of FXI Cotton Candy has got an additional micro USB port and switchable Bluetooth to augment two full sized USB ports that existed in previous prototype iterations. Its connectivity is certainly improved: Cotton Candy can plug into a monitor, keyboard and mouse and power source. So, you get a full-fledged computer on your hands weighing about 21 grams.

Ubuntu boots fast enough and looks quite good, but running Android 4.0 with a keyboard and mouse in place of a touch-screen interface feels a bit clunky. However, for web browsing and other traditional tasks Cotton Candy works just fine, and 1080p video also played without issue.

Cotton Candy runs Ice Cream Sandwich, but as shown it’s more like a work-in-progress than finalized Android 4.0. FXI developers promise improvements that can make Ice Cream Sandwich run smoother. Improved connectivity has led to an interesting demo of the Cotton Candy feeding two screens simultaneously. Developers work on getting different content on these screens that can be manipulated independently, and then it will be quite spectacular way to use this Cotton Candy. Additionally, two Cotton Candy sticks can feed a single display with two different windowed working environments.

Such virtualized ICS environments for your laptop is just one useful option to operate Cotton Candy. FXI’s idea is that as hardware continues to evolve, devices like smart phones are getting old and underpowerd too fast. While that might be fine for a smartphone that gets upgraded every year or two, it doesn’t work well with TVs, car computers, or other “smart” devices that may be used for 5-10 years. Here’s where a Cotton Candy stick can help, provided you can get them as new upgrades more often than TVs and car computers.

For operating in cloud-oriented environment, Cotton Candy becomes handy too, as its user could carry one device around that has access to all the apps and data that user wants from the cloud, and his interface stays the same no matter what “host” computer’s display is used.

At the moment, there’s no indication of what to expect from the price when this prototype may hit a product manufacturing stage. Estimates indicate the price will be below $199. Which one day with Cotton Candy production volume counting in the millions, may easily be lowered to about $25 or so.

Tamaggo Inc., a consumer technology company based in Montreal, Canada, has previewed what will be the first consumer picture-taking device with fully integrated, built-in panomorph technology that lets users capture 360° high-resolution, navigable images with just one click.

What this egg-shaped gizmo can do to your 360° world is create stunning panoramas much better morphed than, say, your ordinary StreetView imaging. You need to go to Tamaggo to experience it.

Tamagoo is also not your ordinary rotating Web cam on Googlemobile. Its specs are quite spectacular, too:

Tamaggo Founder and President Jean-Claude Artonne, calls the products of Tamaggo action as Tamaggraphs and tells “that the Tamaggo can freeze the action taking place within the entire 360°-imaging environment, unlike a standard stitching solution that needs multiple snapshots taken over a few seconds, such as required by Microsoft Photosynth and other stitching applications.”

Artonne, also the author of many imaging patents, noted that Tamaggraphs can be taken from distances between 0 (zero) and infinity, no focus required. He also noted that the Tamaggo captures images in four automatic orientations: Sky 360°, Ground 360°, horizontal panoramic and vertical panoramic.

The Tamaggo 360-imager is a 2012 CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards honoree in the digital imaging category.

For availability and pricing pop on over to Tamaggo.

Basically, this is a Bluetooth FM transmitter that will work with just about any car. You plug it in and your music can stream wirelessly from your cell phone to your car speakers. When a call comes in, it’ll switch to that for some handsfree chatting on the road. That’s simple enough; just make sure you keep your cell phone charged up.

Yeah, it’s not exactly private, but it’s a little more versatile than a simple Bluetooth speakerphone. Other features include the 2.0-inch LCD display, which can also be used for caller ID, phonebook, and song information. There’s voice dial too, as well as support for Siri on the iPhone 4S. If you don’t want to stream music from your phone, the SD card slot can presumably be used for tunes too.

The Satechi Soundfly View retails for $79.99.

Although there are many different stylus designs out there to choose from for the Apple iPad, we encourage you to check this one out. The jaja is the first ever pressure sensitive stylus for the iPad and it appears to be pretty impressive.

As you might agree, all the current iPad stylus designs are nothing much more than sticks and there aren’t any compelling reasons to use one instead of your finger. That is where the jaja comes in.

The jaja stylus comes with a new system developed by Silicon Spark called the “ii” system. This new system allows jaja to communicate the pressure that a user applies on the display. And you won’t need wires, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

The two customisable buttons on the stylus will allow you to select menus, and you will be able to change brushes, colors, fonts or tools and all that can be done without moving far from the drawing space.

For communicating with the iPad, the jaja uses high frequency sounds that are above human hearing but can be detected by the iPad microphone. The makers are promising 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, and the stylus has a transparent tip and a USB plug for quick recharging.

The jaja will retail for $69.95 once it gets funding from Kickstarter, and at present is available in black. Check out the video and head here to know more about it.

Although there are many military-grade laptops out there to choose from, it is still a bit difficult to find a good rugged machine for all the young users in schools. Lenovo has churned out tough devices earlier, but this is the first time that they are introducing a classroom-ready rugged laptop under the ThinkPad brand name.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X130e, which will be sold to schools in December with a price tag starting at $469, is coming with specific improvements which will help it to withstand the occasional fall or the abuse a notebook is likely to suffer in the hands of the students.

As you might not have forgotten, the X130e was earlier assumed to be the successor to the X120e when leaked pictures of the device started appearing on the internet. Now, the device has become official.

The 11.6 inch X130e, which will be available with an Intel Core i3-2367M processor or AMD Fusion E-300 or E-450 APU, comes equipped with a rubber bumper on the top cover, a thicker bezel, strong corners and hinges, and reinforced and recessed ports.

You will get up to 8GB of RAM and 500GB in storage, Bluetooth 3.0, and it will be powered by a 6-cell battery which is coming with a battery life of 8.5 hours.

Other features include 3 USB 2.0 sockets, HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, a combined headphone / mic port, and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. The laptop also comes with the company’s RapidBoot technology, which is expected to provide a sub-20-second start-up time.

The downside is that all durable features in the new ThinkPad has resulted in a machine weighing in at 3.9 pounds (1.78kg), fairly heavy for an 11-incher (although Lenovo says it is “lightweight”).

Well, a slightly updated version of the iControlPad has now been revealed and while the core idea remains the same — real gaming controls on a touchscreen smartphone — there is one notable difference: the clamp. You don’t need to buy special “sides” to hold your smartphone in place, because there’s an adjustable metal clamp that should be fairly universal. I can’t say whether it stretches out far enough for something like a Dell Streak, but I imagine something as big as the EVO 4G should be just fine.

As a quick refresher, the iControlPad features a d-pad, two analog nubs, four face action buttons, start and select, and a pair of trigger buttons toward the back. It works with Android straight up, as well as jailbroken iDevices. It’ll also work with non-jailbroken iPhones if you do the iCade emulation thing. Check it out for $62.49, including the metal clamp.

You know how when you go out with your friends on your bicycles you can’t communicate with each other because the traffic is too loud? Well, a Swedish wireless tech company, called Free2Move, designed a Bluetooth communications system specifically for cyclists.

HIOD One consists of an arm-mounted voice module with hard-wired earphones and microphone and a wrist-mounted control module. With this new technology, cyclists can talk to their friends as long as they are no farther than 400 meters away.

The HIOD is powered by rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, which works for around ten hours of talk time. Any cyclist can stay in contact with up to five other riders through the HIOD system, but only one at a time. The system requires users to be in clear line of sight, which could be difficult for mountain bikers, for example.

While rider-to rider is the main purpose of the HIOD, it can also be used to make and receive phone calls from connected mobile phones or to stream music.

The HIOD One is not available for purchase in general stores yet, but Free2Move is currently looking for interested parties who may want to buy or sell it.

[Gizmag, OhGizmo via HIOD]

As the newest version of the wireless communication technology, Bluetooth 4.0 is a low-energy technology. With this 4.0, devices like the iPhone 4s that constantly transfer data back and forth to other wireless devices can benefit from it. In addition, you will no longer have to worry as much about draining your battery from using Bluetooth. Devices like hands-free communications and wireless headsets for music will also benefit from the Bluetooth 4.0’s low-energy technology.

It will take some time before it is widely adopted, but when it is, we’ll be looking forward to it.

[CNET via Apple]

No matter how much we enjoy our tablets touchscreen interface, there are times when tapping with a finger just doesn’t cut it. That’s why Logitech has now launched the “first wireless mouse for Android tablets.” It’s not for iPad though, since iPad has the Apple Wireless keyboard already, this mouse is especially designed for Android. The Tablet Mouse for Android 3.1. is a wireless optical mouse that connects via Bluetooth. Sadly it doesn’t use any tablet specific functions, even though it’s the first mouse designed for Android tablets supporting Android 3.1. (Honeycomb) or later. The mouse is priced at $49.99 and it is powered by AA batteries.

Alongside the release of the Android Mouse is Logitech’s keyboard for Android 3.0.+, connects via uses Bluetooth and runs off four AAA batteries for a cost of $54.99. It also comes with a case that can be used as a tablet stand too.

[Logitech]