'Pele' Limited Edition Books Available for $3,000-$11,000
Pelé is a global symbol of where sporting brilliance, drive and humanity can take you and he remains soccer's only genuine, universal icon.
'Pelé' book from Gloria Books Ltd. is the luxury, large-format limited edition version of the new, official autobiography by Pelé. The giant, 720-page tome (including gatefolds) finally does justice to his extraordinary life. Two years have been spent researching, sourcing, interviewing, and ultimately producing the greatest ever soccer book. It is limited to a worldwide edition run of 2,500 units only. It includes an introduction and unique, new autobiographical material from the man himself, plus a special tribute to Pelé by Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter, President of FIFA. Finally, each numbered copy is personally hand-signed by Pelé. This is a genuine high-value, long-term investment in a piece of soccer history.
'Pelé' is available now and has been in high demand amongst limited edition collectors and sports fans across the world since its launch during summer 2006.
The images and text cover every key moment of Pelé's life, from early childhood to the modern day. The book contains over 300,000 words including exclusive new biographical contributions from Pelé himself, as well as classic and newly-commissioned work from some of soccer's greatest living writers, including Hugh McIlvanney and Brian Glanville, as well as João Máximo, José Werneck and Juca Kfouri from Brazil.
The collection of over 1,700 images is the result of months of exhaustive research across photo libraries and personal archives in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, London, New York and Paris, and has resulted in the discovery of a treasure trove of photographs, many of which had lain hidden for decades. Expert restoration and reprographic treatment has ensured the quality of the historic photography.
'Pelé' makes a big impact at 45cm x 35cm and weighing over 16kgs. It is also big on graphic style and features breathtaking design and production. The pages are printed throughout in eight colors including resilient metallic inks. The book and specially-created presentation case are covered in printed and embossed Setalux Italian fine silk. The cover is also embroidered with calf-skin yellow leather title lettering.
Of the 2,500, 2,100 will sell for $3,000. Another 250 are priced at $3,750 because the photographer Marvin Newman signed his 16-by-20-inch picture of Pelé in Central Park in 1975. "The last 150, priced at $11,000 and signed by the surviving members of Brazil’s World Cup-winning 1970 team, have sold out", said Gloria Books publisher & CEO Ovais Naqvi.
As more airlines competing to come up with new ideas & offer new services to its customers, a German airline comes up with an evil idea of an airline for smokers ... SmintAir (Smokers International Airways).
Former German investment banker Alexander W. Schoppmann hopes his new airline will begin daily services on March 26 between Dusseldorf in Germany and Tokyo's Narita airport. He says smoking will be permitted in all 138 seats onboard the airline's two leased Boeing 747 aircraft.
Flights will cost 6,500 euros ($8,300) return for business-class seats and 10,000 euros ($12,800) return for first-class seats.
He believes the route between Germany and Japan will offer a service to bridge Europe and Asia, and hopes to eventually extend the Dusseldorf to Tokyo route to Shanghai in China.
"It's not so much the idea of letting someone smoke, it's more the idea of letting people who are coming on board, who are making decisions every day, they don't want to be told off and we are giving them a feeling of being on a luxury airline."
SmintAir plans to start flying in March next year. Non-smokers will also be encouraged to fly with SmintAir.
Emirates Airlines First To Allow In-Flight Mobile Calls
Emirates will become the first airline to allow passengers to make mobile phone calls on its flights. The airline has invested $27 million to fit the fleet with equipment supplied by AeroMobile, which will allow passengers' cell phones to operate at their minimum power setting, thereby allowing their safe use.
Emirates expects to launch the service on one of its Boeing 777 planes as early as January 2007. The news comes just months after Ryanair announced it planned to launch a similar service in mid-2007 - subject to regulatory approval.
"We believe that the ability to communicate efficiently, easily and safely when on board flights will become an essential feature of business and leisure travel," said AeroMobile president David Poltorak .
"We are currently talking to a number of other airlines about extending the service to their fleets." The Sussex-based company believes the in-flight mobile calls market could deliver revenues of as much as £1.5bn by 2010.
HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group said: "As the world leader in innovation for our customers, we are delighted to offer the choice of mobile phone use to passengers who would like to make contact with friends, family or colleagues while flying with us.
"The option of mobile phone use will be available under guidelines that recognize and respect the privacy of all our customers.
"Our customers are already making more than 6,000 calls a month from our in-seat phones, so we will be making life easier for those for whom staying in touch using their mobile phone has become an indispensable part of their everyday lives. Our research tells us our customers would appreciate the option of staying in touch in this way."
Cabin crew will also be able to control the system at any time, and select operating modes appropriate for certain flights - such as selecting text only operation mode for overnight flights.
ProScope HR: High Resolution USB Handheld Microscope
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One of the nice gadgets I have seen and tried in Dubai GITEX 2006 is the ProScope HR, the high resolution USB handheld microscope. Available with 10X-400X magnification lenses. The ProScope snaps 640-by-480 true-color digital images or 320-by-200 AVI movies. It's very easy to connect to your notebook via a USB port and it comes with a software.
The ProScope has many applications. A biologist might configure it as a Webcam to monitor experiments remotely or share its output with a colleague through NetMeeting. Rather than squinting through a microscope eyepiece, students can view an image together.
The ProScope HR unit price is ($249) and the lenses available are:
Nintendo Wii Enters the Arena Against PS3 & Xbox 360
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It's a warm winter already in the US, thanks to the game console war between Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360. And now we have another challenger, Nintendo Wii which was launched yesterday.
According to PC World article, Nintendo is trying to expand the gaming audience to new players and is positioning the Wii, which lacks high-definition graphics, as a console on which the whole family can have fun. At the center of this strategy is the "Wii-mote," a television remote-control-like wireless controller that includes motion sensing.
With the controller Nintendo wants to simplify gaming so that people who have never touched a console game might give it a go. In "Wii Sports," a launch title being bundled with the Wii, there are no complicated button sequences to learn. In a tennis game the Wii-mote is swung like a racket and in a boxing game thrown like a punch. Hold the remote in your hand and simulate bowling a ball and you've got the hang of the bowling game.
The console also features an online service called Wii Channel. It automatically downloads news and weather, includes a sticky notes-like message service that can be used between family members and allows access to the Internet through a version of the Opera Web browser. Game downloads are also included through an online store.
At $250 it's half the price of the cheapest of the two PlayStation 3 consoles and it is available in greater quantities than the PS3 during the crucial holiday season in the U.S.
It's a great game console for sure. I just watched a live demo in ( Dubai GITEX 2006) and I was so impressed with what I saw. According to PS3 exhibitors, PS3 will be available for sale in UAE and in the Gulf region in March 2007. The current retail price in the US is ($499) but no one is sure how much will it be here ...
An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 Playstation 3 consoles went on sale Friday November 17th in the US. The first devices were sold in midnight launch events, while most consoles will be distributed when electronics stores and other retailers handed them out in the next morning. Ebay sales are picking up steam, with sellers asking for as much as $9000!
People went crazy or what? I know many people are despirate for the new PlayStation3 (PS3), but not to the extend of paying $9000 a unit!
According to PS3 News, it says "Don't believe the PS3 Hype". That might be true ... but there might be false and many people are willing to pay suhch huge amount of money for PS3.
I can give a long list of eBayers who look serious when they claim they have new PS3 units and they are willing to sell them for your family fortune ...
This eBayer has good ratings and excellent history wants to sell his PS3 for ($250,000) and that's in American dollars! Shipping is free in case you're wondering. He was asked if this was a joke ... he said, "This is eBay, this is not a joke. Thank You for your time and interest in my auction."
Also this eBayer has a PS3 with a starting bid of (US $45,000) and a buy now price of ($500,000) ... but 75% of the final sale price will go as a support to the American Red Cross.
There is another one who wants to sell it for a buy now price of ($1,000,000) or a starting bid of ($100,000) ... I'm not willing to say a word about it ...
Pocket Viewer Magnifier: Reading Assistant for Older People
Here's the next big thing in handheld magnification. It will make a nice gift to your old parents or those with weak vision.
Anyone whose vision requires the assistance of magnification to read in a world filled with tiny print is well aware that handheld magnifiers traditionally only enlarge print only two or three times. The Pocket Viewer, however, is a magnifier in a class all its own. More then just a simple magnifier, this viewer uses camera style technology to create a level of clarity, brightness and contrast not found with other handhelds.
Boasting a 7x magnification and a well lit display, it's the perfect solution for reading, writing and seeing what you want, whenever you need to. Its compact streamline design means it is small enough to fit in your purse or pocket. Another great feature this Pocket Magnifier offers is its three different options for viewing: a white on black view, a black on white view, and a full color view for viewing photographs or illustrations. As an added bonus, it has a built in writing stand that adds increased flexibility making it possible to sign checks or write a brief note.
The only problem with this cool gadget is the price ($899.00)!
Luminetx VeinViewer: Access Your Veins Without Suffering
Whether due to age, skin tone or condition, veins can be significantly difficult to locate and access in many patients. VeinViewer by Luminetx uses unique, patented technologies to identify and locate subcutaneous veins and project their location directly onto the surface of the skin.
The VeinViewer by Luminetx uses a combination of near-infrared light and patented technologies to image vascular structures, thus allowing physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to clearly see accessible vasculature (or lack thereof) in real time, directly on the surface of the skin.
By imaging the vasculature, clinicians have the ability to visualize the location of the target area regardless of a patient's age, body type or skin tone. During prototype development, the device was recognized by Time Magazine as one of the most innovative medical inventions of the year 2004 (Time Magazine, "The Most Amazing Inventions of 2004", November 29, 2004).
The VeinViewer incorporates DLP Technology from Texas Instruments.
This is a USB powered CD shredder from Elecom. It does not break the CD into tiny pieces but instead uses a more practical approach. It scratches the CD making it totally unreadable. Just plug the device to your USB port place the CD turn on the switch and in under 5 seconds you have a Frisbee.
The Elecom SCR-CD001 is available in Japan for 3,150 Yen ($ 26).
It's worth mentioning here that there are other methods to destroy your CD or DVD like putting it for 10 sec into the microwave oven or rather shredding it in a multi purpose shredder.
Dell received the honor of unveiling today the first quad-core desktop computer. Just hours before Intel will formally announce its Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor, Dell announced the XPS 710, which looks like a regular XPS gaming system but hides one of the first quad-core CPUs you can buy - for at least $3700.
The XPS 710 was built with room to spare, supporting up to four hard drives for a massive total capacity of 2TB. These drives can be configured to support RAID 0 and RAID 1, helping improve system performance or data protection, depending on your preference.
The new system is Microsoft Windows Vista Premium-Ready. Dell's Express Upgrade program makes it easy to install the Vista upgrade when it becomes available.
The XPS 710 is available immediately worldwide. Prices start at $3,699 for the Jet Black chassis with an Intel Core 2 Extreme Q6700 processor, 750-watt power supply and two-year limited XPS warranty5 with prioritized support queue.The Special Edition Formula Red model with 1-kilowatt power supply and the same processor and warranty support starts at $3,799.
Dell also announced today its first 30-inch widescreen flat panel monitor UltraSharp 3007WFP-HC featuring 92 percent color gamut when most monitors feature color gamut covering 72 percent of the NTSC color space.
The Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP-HC is available in the U.S. on Nov. 21 with a starting price of $1,699.
SanDisk Corporation, the world's largest supplier of flash storage card products, will be participating at GITEX Dubai 2006 for the first time.
In past years, SanDisk products were promoted at GITEX through Grand Stores, SanDisk's distributor in the United Arab Emirates. With SanDisk's growth in the region, GITEX 2006 is a perfect opportunity for SanDisk to showcase its latest innovations and expose its upcoming business plans for the region.
SanDisk is the original inventor of flash storage cards and is the world's largest supplier of flash data storage card products, using its patented, high-density flash memory and controller technology. SanDisk is headquartered in Milpitas, CA and has operations worldwide, with more than half its sales outside the U.S.
GITEX 2006 will take place in Dubai World Trade Center from 18-22 November 2006.
CarComm BTCC-45: World's Thinnest Bluetooth GPS Receiver
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The BTCC-45 Bluetooth Carcomm Creditcard GPS Receiver is with his height of 11mm the thinnest GPS receiver in the world. It's designed to use with Smartphones, PDAs and other devices which support Bluetooth GPS Navigation.
The BTCC-45 Bluetooth Carcomm Creditcard GPS Receiver is a high sensitivity GPS Receiver, which simultaneously tracks up to 12 satellites, provides accurate satellite positioning data with fast time-to-first-fix (TTFF) and low power consumption.
BTCC-45 uses only 65mA of power from its an 1100mAh Li-Ion battery which should last about 17 hours when it is fully charged.
The Trackstick Pro is a tiny GPS data logger capable of continuously recording its own location histories for extended periods of time.
This device is powered by an included cigarette lighter plug or can be hard wired to any vehicle. The Trackstick Pro is the perfect solution for companies and individuals looking a way to record and validate vehicle, shipping or truck routes. With 4Mbit of memory, the Trackstick Pro can log weeks or even months of travel histories. User selectable features allow the record time to be changed from a recording interval of every 5 seconds or from 1 minute up to every 60 minutes. A first in, first out memory map will continuously record while erasing the oldest location histories first.
The Trackstick Pro can be permanently mounted on a vehicle in plain sight, covertly installed or removed from the cradle and placed on the dashboard. An internal software alarm will time stamp any power interruptions and can be viewed when the data is downloaded. Measuring only 2 1/2"' X 2" X ¾”, the weatherproof case can be mounted via the cradle and screw pads. The Trackstick Pro records Date, Time, Location, Speed, Direction, Altitude, Signal Strength and Temperature, All information can be instantly "transferred" via the included USB cable and software. Mapping and reporting software is also included.
Raytheon Announces Revolutionary New 'Cockpit' for Unmanned Aircraft
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Raytheon Company unveiled Tuesday the Universal Control System (UCS) -- a first of its kind unmanned aerial system (UAS) "cockpit" that revolutionizes operator awareness and efficiency, while providing the ability to control multiple unmanned aircraft, reduce potential accidents, improve training, and decrease costs. The announcement was made during Shephard UV North America 2006 conference in Tysons Corner, Va.
"We took the best-of-breed technologies from the gaming industry and coupled them with 35-years Raytheon UAS command and control expertise and developed a state-of-the-art universal cockpit built around the operator," said Mark Bigham, business development director for Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems business.
"We broke down the operator's tasks and objectives and constructed a system built entirely around them, rather than building the system around the air vehicle first, without input from the operators. Improvements included adding a wrap-around display to enhance operator effectiveness. We wanted to put the operator in the UAS 'cockpit' virtually and dramatically enhance his or her situational awareness. UCS operators will have better situational awareness than any manned platform, which dramatically improves safety."
A 2004 study by the Federal Aviation Administration, "A Summary of Unmanned Aircraft Accident/Incident Data: Human Factors Implications," states that " ... a common theme across many of the mishaps reported involved a problem with the command interface to the system." The study also noted that "In the systems analyzed, human factors issues were present in 21 percent (Shadow) to 67 percent (Predator) of the accidents ... numbers suggest there is room for improvement if specific human factors issues can be identified and addressed." Bigham added that Raytheon is confident that UCS will improve operator performance statistics such as these found in this study, and that the company looks forward to analyzing user results.
d3o: Shock-Absorbing Material for Different Application
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d3o's Ribcap
Engineered by a British company of the same name, d3o is an elastic polymer that tenses in response to quick movements.
"It doesn't protect you as much as a hard helmet," cautions Swiss entrepreneur Jurg Ramseier, who released the first Ribcap last November. "It's for people who don't like to wear helmets."
Ribcap's Hendrix model is expected to hit U.S. stores in October. Eventually you'll see d3o in everything from skateboarding shoes to bulletproof vests.
How it works? Elastic polymer pads inside the Ribcap create a soft shell. Smack your head, and the shock causes the molecules inside the padding to tightly bond, forming a structure that resembles a chain-link fence. This stiffening helps absorb and redistribute the force of the impact.
d3o company doesn't make finished products, but sells the material to sport-gear manufacturers like Ribcap, Globe Shoes, and a company called Spyder, which used it in the ski suits worn by the U.S. Olympic team in Torino.
This revolutionary rechargeable battery can charge from any USB port without the need for any recharging devices, cradles or cables. Simply pop the lid to reveal a built in connector and charger, plug into any powered USB port on your desktop, laptop, keyboard or games console, to charge the battery. USBCell can be used exactly like a normal battery meaning there is now no need to purchase huge packs of alkaline batteries, or invest in or carry a clunky charger. Billions of USB ports are readily available in homes and workplaces around the world meaning you never need to run out of power and making the USBCELL extremely cost-effective and convenient for all battery-powered devices. Currently available in the AA format, the USBCELL will shortly comprise a full range of standard formats, phone and camera batteries.
USBCell by Moixa Energy was launched September 19th and already received some good reviewes like the one from TrustedReviews:
"I was frankly, amazed how long the batteries lasted and I was snapping pictures for what seemed like hours. After a while the camera finally flashed up the battery flat icon and shut down. I placed the Compact Flash card inside my card reader and was surprised to find that I’d taken a simply astonishing 563 pictures ... To compare I then tried a set of Duracell Alkaline batteries in the camera, only to find that they weren’t even strong enough to take more than a few pictures. It seems you need Duracall Plus or Ultra M3’s to deliver the amperage that a high power device such as a digital camera needs. This makes the USB Cells seems all the more impressive."
It's currently available in the UK for £12.99 (US $25.78) for 2-cell pack.
