Last year we reported on a product called Cotton Candy from FXI Tech that contains a dual-core ARM A9-based Samsung Exynos processor capable of outputting to a PC via USB or TV via HDMI.

When we first saw it, it was running Android 2.3 Gingerbread. At CES 2012, we’ve seen an updated version of the device running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich as well as Ubuntu. The flash drive-sized device accepts a MicroSD card, so switching out to a different operating system is as simple as swapping out the flash card.

“One of the major benefits of the Cotton Candy device is its versatility,” said Borgar Ljosland, CEO and founder of FXI Technologies. “By demonstrating two new operating systems on a variety of screens from PCs, to Macs to TVs, we further show the flexibility of the world’s smallest computer.”

There may be some debate about whether or not it really is the smallest, but it certainly does pack a ton of potential in a very small package. Also, the little stick can accept micro USB, which allowed for a USB gamepad to be plugged into the side for some gaming action.

Previously peeked back at IDF, Belkin has unveiled more info about their Thunderbolt Express Dock here at CES, including an expected Summer 2012 arrival window. The dock features all sorts of added connection potential: three USB 2.0, two Thunderbolt, one FireWire 800, one HDMI, an Ethernet and a 3.5mm audio jack. Lending a hand to your port-deprived MacBook Air or Ultrabook via Thunderbolt, the peripheral offers the expected bi-directional transfer rates up to 10Gbps while keeping with the Apple color scheme. Pricing details aren’t expected until closer to the ship date though.

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Next week during CES 2012, Vuzix Corporation will unveil what it calls SMART Glasses technology. It promises to be thinner than the typical head mounted display, fitting into the temples and lenses of a conventional pair of eyewear. It will also pipe in more than just “wearable TV,” bringing interactive content served up on Internet-connected SMART devices literally right to your face.

“This amazing new technology starts with a compact display engine capable of hi contrast and brightness for outdoor use,” the company said during the show. “The output is then relayed into a 1.4 mm thick plastic waveguide lens with input and output hologram structures on the surface which squeezes the light down the waveguide and then two dimensionally expands the image back into the user’s eye, creating an image that is then mixed into the real world.”

The new tech will be used in a line of both monocular and binocular SMART Glasses for commercial, industrial and consumer markets. Applications for the tech will include standalone solutions for night vision and first responder use, to fully internet connected and geospatially aware devices for “amazing Augmented Reality applications.”

“With integrated head tracking and options for multiple camera technologies Vuzix SMART Glasses can broaden the users’ sensory perception across a greatly expanded light spectrum,” Vuzix added. “Additionally they can be used to recognize their environment along with their position in the real world, all-the-while recording and transmitting what the user sees.”

Back in September Vuzix released the Wrap 1200VR, a set of sunglasses-styled specs offering the equivalent to watching 3D content on a 75-inch display from 10 feet away. Packed with WVGA displays supporting up to 720p, the headset supports the latest side-by-side 3D video format. It also uses a new head-tracking technology called Wrap Tracker 6TC (with compass) which includes 9 sensors that work together to create a 3-degree of freedom solution with automatic drift compensation.

As for the new SMART Glasses tech, Vuzix said devices will begin to enter the commercial and industrial markets by summer 2012. Additional information regarding those devices and the new tech in general will be provided next week, so stay tuned.

In a world where modern gadgets and electronics rule our lives, many precious memories are now stored on the memory cards of our smart phones, the disk space of our hard drives and the cloud where our emails sit. Normally we might not remember a conversation we had with a friend several weeks ago, but nowadays we can just scroll back on our text message history and find out exactly what was going on at the time.

Hoping to take advantage of our dear friend modern technology, designer Joe Doucett has created an innovative concept that puts a sentimental spin on all of our digital conversations. By hooking up to your phone and printing selected conversations in the convenient size of a receipt, BlackBox allows you to create a physical copy of a digital memory to cherish forever, or at least until you lose it.

Although you may keep your digital messages organized into neat little folders and labels, most of the time you probably never see them again or forget about them when they are cleaned up. Having a physical copy created by the BlackBox provides an additional measure that allows you to keep your memories intact. Of course you could just use a traditional printer to do all of this, but the BlackBox just makes it look so much more convenient and neat with its pocket sized printing. For more information of the concept or more of Doucett’s designs, head on over to his page here.

“Get up and go” is for the birds, man. But in the off-chance that your PC, home entertainment system and various gaming consoles weren’t enough to keep you inside for days at a time, check out the upgraded version of Brando’s USB Indoor/Outdoor Thermometer. The third iteration of the temperature gauging device gives you the sort of accuracy you just can’t get from TV and internet forecasts. The thermometer can give you instant readings without having to install extra software — you just hold down the caps and number lock keys and it will copy the current temperate to your clipboard. It can also send you the temperature via text message, for those times when you can’t be bothered to start up the computer. The price of such glorious slothfulness? A mere $32.

Love Verizon’s LTE but just can’t seem to get bars of service in your office or home? Wilson Electronics has announced the Sleek4G-V, which the company claims is the world’s first 4G mobile signal booster. We haven’t found any contenders to the claim, but either way the signal enhancer is bound and determined to beef up your high-speed data. In addition to providing Verizon-specific LTE, Wilson promises 2G / 3G connectivity for all major US carriers (iDEN capabilities excluded) just in case you need to actually, y’know, make calls on your phone. While it’s designed primarily for outdoor use, an optional accessory kit can be purchased to make it work indoors quite soundly. Listed for $150, the Sleek4G-V should make its way to retailers by the second quarter of this year.

We were already head over heels for the original Retrode, and we’ve gotta say — version 2.0 looks mighty good in that attire. As the story goes, the product shown above is the result of some three years of toiling, with the second iteration handling cartridges for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. In fact, there’s a pair of ports on here, enabling one cart from each console to be loaded up and carried around. Users need only to find and install an emulator on their machine, plug a cartridge and / or an associated controller into the device and then connect the Retrode 2 to one’s computer via USB. Once you’ve loaded a ROM into your emulator, configured your controller and canceled every appointment on your calendar for the next 48 hours… well, you’re in for quite a weekend of retro gaming nirvana. It’s up for pre-order now in the source link for $84.99, with shipments expected to begin on January 23rd.

SOURCE via Retrode

It was yet another solid year for Amazon’s Kindle family of products. The mega online retailer sent out its yearly post-Christmas card, bragging about moving “well over one million Kindle devices per week” for December, making it the best holiday yet for the e-reader / tablet line, according to the company. Three Kindles held the top spots on the site’s list of best sellers, led by the Fire, the Touch and the plain old fourth generation Kindle. No exact numbers from Amazon, as per usual, but it looks to have been a pretty green Christmas for Bezos and co.

Case maker M-Edge filed suit with a Maryland court last week accusing Amazon of “unlawful corporate bullying” and patent infringement relating to the company’s line of Kindle cases. According to M-Edge, the company signed a three-year agreement with Amazon in November 2009 for a 15-percent sales commission, only to have the retail giant demand a new contract with a 32-percent cut a mere two month later. A lawyer for M-Edge told The Wall Street Journal that Amazon punished the case maker over its refusal to play ball, after threats of burying the company’s products on its site. According to the filing, M-Edge finally caved and signed a new contract in July of last year, given the fact that Amazon apparently drives nearly 90-percent of the small company’s revenue. The suit also accuses Amazon of “knocking off” its reading light-packing covers with lighted jacket designs for the Kindle 3. Amazon, for its part, has refused to comment on the matter.

SOURCE via Wall Street Journal

Pogoplug has already moved to the cloud. Now, it’s coming back down to Earth. Today, the company unveiled its latest “cloud expansion device,” known as the Pogoplug Series 4, pictured above. As the fourth incarnation of Pogoplug’s original device, this box effectively allows users to host their own unlimited storage, for those moments when 5GB (or even 10GB) of cloud space just won’t cut it. With Series 4, you’ll be able to hook up your HDD through one of four different connection ports, including two USB 3.0 inputs, one USB 2.0 port and an SD card slot. The model also features plug-and-play support for Seagate GoFlex external drives, or any other USM-compliant products. The Pogoplug is available now for $100.