Sexy Gadgets, Cool Gadgets and Concept Gadgets

I’m sure you all love gadgets and you’re somewhere near to addiction when it comes to using them, but there’s something you must hate as much as I do: the fact that they don’t last forever. As they need power in order to run, they tend to stop working when their batteries are depleted. Unfortunately, gadgets don’t run without a source of power, so other solutions must be developed for this problem. Since the green energy is an everyday issue, here it is another member of the eco-friendly family, the iCharge Eco, a solar powered cell phone charger.

The device can be used not only on Apple, but also PSPs, Nintendo DS, PDAs and a variety of other mobile handsets. So, if you aren’t too impressed by the solar-powered mobile phone concepts out there, due to the lack of any 3G features, that you might be interested in this more conventional way to make your mobile devices green.

Sunlight is one of the best energy sources, there’s no doubt about it, and it is pretty much endless. As important as that is the fact that the sun energy is free and available almost anywhere and, of course, is green, having less impact on the environment.

The iCharge Eco features a generous 1,350 mAh battery that’s capable of delivering an output of DC5.0-5.5V/600 mA. The size of a common candybar phone, the iCharge Eco can be easily carried inside your briefcase or back pack, either. Not to mention the fact that, being a solar charger, you can take it everywhere you want to, including on longer trips through the vast outdoors.

With the iCharge Eco, you need around 3.5 hours to charge via AC adaptor, 5 hours via USB and 15 hours via solar panel. Maybe it’s not enough energy as some of you might have expected, especially the 15-hour charging via solar panel part. However, the device is good enough if there are no other means available to charge your mobile devices.

This solar powered cell phone charger comes with a lot of adapter plugs for various devices and you can choose between black, white, silver, red, pink, blue or green. As far as the price is concerned, there is no information yet, but the device is expected to come as a very attractive holiday gift.

When you are a distance apart from your near and dear ones and missing them a lot what can you do at most excepting a call? Yes, video telephony is there but it is not a well accepted medium. You surely have to trust on the live chat through internet. In this regard, a webcam is such a gadget, which mitigates the demand of your near and dear ones visualizing you. And a good webcam in many ways helps you to transmit a good view towards the remote end. Most of the webcams in the market are known to deliver an average performance. Genius iSlim 2000AF is a solution for you with a fantastic performance if you are keen to have a pleasant chatting experience.

This 2.0 mega pixel webcam from the house of genius is a cool and trendy gadget which goes hand in hand in style with respect to its performance too. Compatible with most of the chat messengers it is a nice device that surely enhances the look of the laptop or PC whatever you are using. It guarantees to deliver a natural image. The brightness and sharpness are no doubt good too. It comes with new technology like motorized auto focusing lens, which lets you move freely without disturbing the image quality. Whenever you are in motion its lens automatically continues to focus on you. As a result it eliminates the problem that most webcam users face when they tend to move.

In the VGA mode it manages to transmit upto 30 frames per second, when running at 1.3 mega pixel capacity it delivers upto 8 frames per second. But with the maximum resolution of 2.0 mega pixel it continues to produce upto 6 frames per second, which is at per with the standard. The package is bundled with Cam Suite, Genius Application-Webmate and Crazy Talk Avator Creator. You can also share your personal video clips with YouTube channel using this unit. In built microphone is there to transmit audio clearly. It is able to have a viewing angle of 45 degrees in up and 90 degrees in down.

In the nutshell these are the key features that will please you. So hopefully this is going to be your smart choice when you are planning to have a live videoconference or chat.

This is the age of technology and everybody is interested to utilize all the potentials of modern technology that come with a wide range of services and products which make life easier. From our home to office, everywhere we are always in touch with some features of technology that continue to help us all the way. In this issue, portability is a very crucial point to remember. And that is why Logitech presents the all new Z-500 Wireless Speakers.

It is such a gadget that is mainly intended towards laptop users that enables them to place the speaker anywhere. But not only the laptop users but any other compatible device can be plugged in with this. The full suite includes speaker bar, a short audio cable, a mini-USB charging cable, a mini-USB to the USB cable. The design of this Logitech Z-500 Wireless Speaker is another reason you will like it to have on your desk. The sophisticated and stylish look makes an impressive appearance. In the front, four metal speaker grills are encased surrounding the Logitech logo.

This wireless speaker from the house of Logitech come with auto installing software which is very easy to use and compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS. A mute button however was expected in the panel. It is a smart appliance for working with any Bluetooth device including high end mobiles. And it continues to deliver high performance playing audio – be it a song track, movie sounds or gaming sounds. It will offer you a complete satisfaction as your audio partner. USB or 3.5 mm jack is also there for establishing a wired connectivity. The heavy duty Lithium-Ion battery manages to keep it alive for a long 12-hour playback, which seems to be enough for a day. Regarding the music it is quite good in performance. The only flaw that will strike is, highs and bass could be played better. There are some distortions in the maximum volume range. Otherwise it’s a cool gadget you can rely on.

In a nutshell this is a smart buy for you if you are not taking too much care of its slight high price tag compared to the existing brands in the market.

The $399.99 portable navigation device, Magellan Maestro 4370, is a step up model from the Magellan Maestro 4250. The device features a revamped user interface which is based on the features called One Touch.

The device features a black chassis and vibrant display. Measuring 3.2 inches high by 4.6 inches wide by 0.7 inch deep, the Maestro 4370 is a very attractive GPS device. The Maestro comes with a protective casing that protects the device from scratches.

The Maestro sports an attractive 4.3-inch touch screen which supports a resolution of 480×800 pixels. The images, maps and texts look very smooth and sharp on its display. The most attractive feature of Maestro is its One Touch menu which allows you to select you favorite addresses and presents them on single page. This enables you to tap on the appropriate icon to navigate to the destination.

The Maestro 4370 features a mini USB, SD/MMC card slot and an FM antenna input. The speakers are located on the back whereas the top side features a power button. The package comes with a car charger, USB cable, AC adapter, vehicle mount, protective cover and reference material.

The Maestro 4370 features maps of US, Canada, Puerto Rico with 6 million POIs. The Maestro allows you to choose the road types along with the calculations according to fastest time, simplest route, shortest distance and most economical. The charger has integrated RDS/TMC receiver which receives real-time traffic updates from Navteq and displays the road conditions in color codes. The Maestro comes with 3-months subscription of traffic service and you will have to pay $39.99 per year for traffic service.

The Maestro provides you the 2D and 3D view of the map though you don’t get 3D models for all buildings. The map screen tells you the name of current street, distance and name of your next turn along with estimated time of arrival. If you are driving on highway, the map screen provides lane guidance.

The Maestro also sports a multimedia player and image viewer. The player supports formats like AAC, MP3, WMA, MPEG2, and MPEG4 music and video. The player also supports features like playlist creation, repeat mode and shuffle. The built-in FM modulator of Maestro 4370 allows you to pipe PND’s voice guided instructions and other sounds through your car radio. The other features include text-and voice guidance and Bluetooth.

The new Toshiba Libra MK4058GSX is really an interesting 2.5 inches hard disk. It is really designed for portable machines that need a lot of storage space and it can hold an interesting 400 GB of files. According to the manufacturer, this hard drive will reduce space requirements in any portable machine to around 40%. You can really understand why because the drive is very compact.

It is clear to say that the size of the Toshiba Libra MK4058GSX is impressive. On the other hand, this is not the only strong point of the drive. We are also dealing with a hard disk that is very silent. Remember that we are talking about a unit that was designed to work in media environments. The low noise factor is crucial from this point of view and the Toshiba Libra MK4058GSX surely delivers. The fact that Toshiba managed to put in so much storage space in a drive that is so small and silent really is a strong selling point for the unit.

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The wildest thing someone would dare to do is to count the thousands of iPod compatible products that are now available on the market. There is no day that passes by without having a brand new device in front of our eyes that was made to work with iPods. And they (meaning the manufacturers) are always claiming to be different than any other similar products.

The DLO HomeDOck HD Pro dock, which was revealed to the public at CEDIA this year, is said to upscale video files into HD video. Apparently, the only thing you have to do is to just plug in your iPod to the dock and that’s it. Your videos are upscaled automatically, to 720p/1080i. Not to mention the fact that, in addition, the device features HDMI ports that are to be connected to your screen plasma or LCD and optical digital audio ports that enable users to experience the Dolby Digital sound.

The DLO HomeDock PRO enables custom installers to add the functionality of your iPod into any home integration network. The device is equipped with RS-232, the industry standard connectivity and with a graphical interface that is very easy to use. This way, customers are all given what they’ve asked for: the HomeDock PRO integrated their iPod into their home entertainment system.

More than that, the HomeDock PRO is said to be the world’s first iPod dock that was designed to allow customers view and select everything they’ve stored on their iPod directly on the TV screen. Therefore, with the help of a full-function remote control, they can navigate their iPod and browse the music, TV shows, movies and podcasts, or whatever they might have stored on the device.

A very important and attractive thing about the HomeDock PRO consists on several consumer-friendly features, such as screensavers that are meant to protect the plasma against burn-in, a turbo scroll designed for a faster navigation and 12 color themes that help the user personalize their iPod experience.

The portable iFrogz Ear Pollution Toxix headphones come in two different versions: in-ear and on-ear. The in-ear version is comprised of ultratiny earbuds and canalbuds that you can put somewhat inside your ears. The on-ear version is comprised of circular earpads and a headband that rest over your ears. The $20 headphones fail to live up to the expectations due to its sound quality. The lightweight earphones offer a hint of stylish design. So, the Toxix earphones may work in a pinch for those on light budget but they are far from the best option for portable headphones.

The Ear Pollution Toxix headphones have lightweight and compact earcups. But the headphones are made of cheap materials. So, it is not advisable to fold the headphones in order to store them. The headphones don’t look durable and if you don’t fold them, the headband is prone to breakage. The headband is adjustable and two small (2.2-inch) round earcups are attached to the headband in slightly stiff leatherette padding. The earcups apply pressure on your upper part of your ears and headphones prove to be very uncomfortable after only 30 minutes of wear. A thick 47-inch cable connected to the left cup ends in a silver plated L-plug.

The Toxix headphones have a stylish design and features with radiation symbols on both earcups. The headphones are available in several color options. It is available in silver, pink, gold and brown version. Each version has one main color with at least one color accent. The package doesn’t include any other accessory except the headphones.

The sound quality is typical of its price. The audio quality can’t be called good by any means. The music through the Toxix headphones doesn’t sound better than that played by stock earbuds that come with your MP3 player or music phone. The music sounds mushy, muffled and the mids are a bit harsh.

In the end, the Ear Pollution Toxix headphones are okay for those who are on tight budget, but others should look as there are so many good quality headphones available in the market.

Jabra is known for its high quality Bluetooth headset for years. With the models like BT8040 and JX10, the Jabra survived the competition from the established name like Aliph. With BT530, Jabra is once again trying to revive the Bluetooth market. Although the BT530 lacks voice capabilities of BlueAntV1but it offers excellent noise cancellation and definitely seems to be a good deal at $99.99.

With BT530, the Jabra has primarily focused on the functions and design is secondary. Measuring 1.9 inches in length, 0.7 inch in width and 0.5 inch in thickness, the headset has business like appearance. The headset design gives it a long and slender look with black plastic body. The upper half of the headset features two volume buttons with a multifunction call key in the middle. The volume buttons are easy to find just by feel and multifunction call key is slightly raised to make it easy to press. A skinny perforated strip of chrome is provided in the middle of the plastic body. The chrome strip features two noise-cancellation microphones which significantly reduces the background noise. The top side sports a charger jack and the left side sports a power slider-switch.

The headset comes with two earpiece covers- one that simply sits inside the ear and the other one that fits with your ear folds. The first one requires you to wear an ear hook otherwise the headset will be unstable and the second one does not require any hook. Also, the ear tip comes with various gel-tip sizes that will definitely fit your ears comfortably.

The most distinguishable feature of the headset is its noise-cancellation capability which features Jabra’a Noise Blackout technology. The headset produces crystal clear sound with good volume and audio shock protection. The other basic features include answering, ending, rejecting the calls, last number redial, voice dialing, call mute, call waiting, and placing a call on hold.

The Jabra has rated the battery life of BT530 to be 5.5 hours of talk time and 10.4 days of standby time.

If you own an Xbox 360 you probably kept wondering how it would be like if it would be a really portable xbox. Well, now it is thanks to Benjamin J Heckendorn. He recently created the Pelican Xbox 360 (named like that because it is actually an XBox 360 put inside a Pelican 1490 case). Now the idea is really interesting but what can be found inside this interesting gaming gadget?

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There are a lot of car stereos available on the market that are friendly with your iPod. New stereos do include one or more ways in which you can attach your iPod to the device. The problem is that most connectivity options available are docks or cables that basically leave the player visible. Everyone that walks by would be tempted to steal it. Now we are faced with a solution from Fusion in the CA-IP500. The gadget is basically a car stereo that features a face that will flip down and reveal a special place for your iPod. You will put it in and it will not be visible. The Fusion CA-IP500 is compatible with both generations of iPod Touch, Generations 5, 6 and 7 of iPod Classic and Generations 2,3 and 4 of iPod Nano.

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It is the quality of the sound system that matters when you are going to enjoy a musical experience. This is the reason to analyze the all-new Altec Lansing VS 2521.

Surely, the 2.1 mid-range Speaker from the house of Altec is going to create a positive impression as it plays a wide range of music with a lot of perfection producing a high performance. It continues to produce good output in sound frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. With moderate volume level it is a good experience to listen to smooth Jazz and Ghazals. Decent music of mid-level frequency and sharp music of high level frequency is clearly identifiable. This indicates prominence level of the 2.1 speakers. But as it is a mid range speaker meant for personal usage, party music arrangement cannot be trusted with this. When the maximum volume is hit there is always a chance of distortion. The subwoofer is excellent in performance. With deeper bass the speaker creates a nice impression to produce natural sound. For watching movies, the Altec Lansing is a good selection as it manages to output a good effect of background tracks and also dialogues are very prominent and natural through it. Playing a game with this sound output device is also a wise decision. This is an unquestionable replacement for 2.0 ordinary PC Speakers. It produces almost real time experience of gaming environment in terms of sound.

With respect to its design it comes with satellite having a 2-way speaker design. Here the tweeter and the mid range drivers are separate. Total power output is 28 Watts (7 Watts RMS per channel and subwoofer 14 Watts RMS) In terms of the connectivity the Altec Lansing has auxiliary input for connecting another audio source apart from the headphone inputs. It also features bass and treble control panel in front of the right satellite. The satellites are big enough and can be locked at their base. The giant subwoofer sizes almost 5.2-inch driver. It is surely one of the sound output device that you are going to add to your cart.

There no difference between Moray headphones and other headphones in it price category. But Razer is marketing the Moray headphones as “in-ear noise-isolation gaming” headphones, which is expected as Razer is a gaming brand. The Moray headphones pair up nicely with the MP3 players, PSP and DS. Like most of the earphones, the Moray earphones comes with three different sized ear-buds- small, medium and large and they will most likely fit your ears comfortably. The pair comes with a small carrying case and an adapter with two prongs for airplane use. The earphones come in white and black colors.

According to Razer, the earphones offer powerful bass driven stereo sound with mid and high range sound clarity. This claim by Razer is true to some extent but if you have used high-end headphones with your MP3 player then you’ll definitely miss the bass offered by those headphones as Moray has somewhat restricted bass. Also the clarity is not as detailed as offered by high-end headphones. You’ll feel that there is some distortion at higher volume but overall sound quality if fairly good. The headphones are priced at $32 and you expect better sound quality at this price range then there are some other option like V-moda Bass Freq and Sennheiser CX 300.

The headphones have a straight jack; if it gets hit then the connector might get damaged. So, it would have been better to have a right-angled jack. But this is a minor issue. The ear-buds do not provide good noise cancellation but if any of the three ear-buds fit your ears comfortably then the ear-buds are able to reduce the external noise to large extent.

In the end, the Moray gaming headphones are not much distinguishable from other in-ear noise-isolating gaming headphones but they are good and affordable pair of earphones. The comfortable fit of earphones, decent sound quality and carrying case makes the pair worth the money especially if you are looking for the replacement of the earphones that comes with iPod or MP3 players.

Measuring 12.2cm wide by 17.5cm tall by 0.8cm thick, Sony’s Reader PRS-505 is aimed at those who find e-book readers as a device to carry large information wherever they go. The device weighs 260g and comes with a brown leather pouch. The pouch protects the device from scratches and any other kind of damage. Magnets are provided at the top and bottom of the pouch and they keep the pouch closed. Although the device is small but it is not possible to fit it in your pocket unless your pocket are large. The device sports a 6-inch screen which is a trade off between portability and usability. The screen size is less than the page size of a paperback book.

As far as the design is goes, the PRS-505 has got the best looks in its category. The front and back of the device have matte silver look with shiny top and bottom. A large number of buttons are provided to control the device. But the navigation is pretty simple and easy. The top edge features a power switch with ports for Memory Stick and SD cards. A USB port, standard 3.5mm headset jack, volume rocker and a charging connector are located on the bottom edge of the device.

The PRS-505 comes with a software CD which contains a quick start guide and 100 e-books, and USB connectivity cable is provided for charging. But no AC adapter is provided with the package.

The PRS-505 supports various file formats like RTF, MS-Word, TXT and PDF. It also supports Sony’s BBeB and EPUB formats. It can also display images with JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP formats. You can also listen to the MP3 and AAC files but you need to use the headphones as the device lacks built in speakers.

The software supplied with the device works only with Windows XP and Vista. Moreover, simply copying the files to the SD card will not allow you to read files which a bit frustrating. This also means that you can’t take files from the computers that don’t have the Sony’s software installed on them. The built in 192MB memory is sufficient for around 160 eBooks.

The E Ink screen of PRS-505 does not put any kind of strain on your eyes and you can read on the device as long as you can read a conventional book. The lack of backlighting also eliminates the glare produced by the screen.

Navman has announced the unveiling of their new S-Series GPS navigation systems and the 1st new model in the series is the S100. As its reviews, S100 is just 13.5mm thick and is built-in with 4.3? widescreen screen without bevels. It comes with some enhanced specifications such as 3D city landmarks, NavPix geo-tagged photo navigation, Local Search via Infobel, and true Pedestrian mode.

The S100 makes use of the latest “Spirit” software, which uses a novel Glide Touch user-interface. Users just slide and tap the touchscreen to dock, open, pan and scroll menus, not unlike the newest smartphones and MP3 players.

The Navman S100 has also added some new features such as Text to Speech (TTS) and junction assist to allow you to navigate difficult junctions, the cradle is a big upgrading over prior models also. However, the S100 is marred by the latest ‘Glide Touch’ user interface, which is said to be irksome and fussy to use with button presses being unnoticed too often for our liking. The S100 doesn’t come with bluetooth but this is said to be a dispensable feature and not something to miss anyway.

Let’s check out the full set of features:

• Mio Technology “Spirit” software with Glide Touch
• GPS fix 5 times faster with SiRFInstantFixII
• Infobel local search via NavDesk desktop
• Pre-loaded safety camera data – free trial
• slim, lightweight design (13.5mm)
• Latest Regional map data
• 4.3? Super flat widescreen
• NavPix photo navigation
• Economical Routing
• Junction Views
• 3D landmarks
• MP3 player

The Navman S-Series S100 also known as (Spirit S100) is expected to be made available in November 2008 with the price tag of around £199.

Navman keeps on making improvements with each launch in their ‘S’ series, but it will have to improve the Points of Interest (POI) and user interface before it can rival the likes of Garmin.

Some UCLA scientists created quite an interesting mobile phone mod. They took a cell phone and put in a blood analyzer, which can detect a serious of diseases while not costing much. In most cases if you want to go through blood analysis you will need to go through serious tests and this takes both time and money. How could you do that in remote parts of the world? For instance, Africa, where we all know we are faced with HIV problems (not to mention malaria or other diseases).

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SanDisk has announced the availability of SanDisk Cruzer, of which the company claims is the 1st secure USB flash, which is capable of fully backing up Apple Mac OS X PCs. In addition, the SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise is also touted to help IT experts more efficiently defend info on company-issued secure USB drives in Macintosh environments.

Yariv Fishman, senior manager, product marketing management, enterprise division, SanDisk, was quoted as saying, “SanDisk Cruzer Enterprise is perfect for the millions of business users who use Macs at home or in the office. It combines a simple, user-friendly interface with the addition of SanDisk’s tough security and ultra-fast transfer speeds. It’s the first secure USB flash drive that provides full Mac support by allowing initialization of the drive directly on a Mac platform.”

Cruzer Enterprise in Windows PC and Mac OS X environments comes with the similar specifications and data security- albeit utilized in both environments. The device can be initialized from either a Windows PC or

Macintosh, where users are allowed to:

* Launch online support, view current firmware and drive information
* Change contact information, language and other preferences
* Log in and shut down access to the encrypted storage area
* Change and manage passwords

Available now in 1-, 2-, 4- and 8GB configurations, Cruzer Enterprise can support Apple Macintosh PCs sprinting Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” and Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger.” Cruzer Enterprise is claimed to protect all files stored on the drive with sophisticated hardware-enabled 256-bit AES USB encryption, which built-in with highly-developed password protection will make it really hard for unauthorized users to make access to data if the drive is stolen or lost.

Existing Cruzer Enterprise users can download a firmware update at http://www.sandisk-enterprise.com/macupdater. There is no official announcement of its availability and pricing so far.

In case you see that your laptop’s battery is almost over and you can not plug it in there is only one thing you can do: go home! Well, this was reality until now because we are faced with the Voltaic Generator Laptop Bag. You can use it to plug the laptop directly into the solar-charged battery the bag has. You can thus get some extra battery life for your notebook.

This gadget does not really look that great but it is useful. We are almost sure that the Voltaic Generator Laptop Bag is one of those gadgets that wants to be useful and not necessarily good looking. Most people will end up wearing this bag as a backpack. Keep in mind that you might look strange wearing it. Still, not stranger than with other gadgets out there.

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Take it to a Japanese company to create a really small gadget like this one. We are talking about Castrade, which recently presented their new Castrade CV-MP01 LED video projector. It is so small that it can actually fit inside a wine glass and utilizes LED backlighting and LCOS technology. If you decide to put your hands on one, you should know that it offers a ratio of 4 to 3 and will offer you a resolution of 640 X 480. This little gadget even has included built in speakers and RCA input. Now it is not that great when talking about performance but it sure is small.

OCZ Technology, a global leader in ground-breaking, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, has come out with the launch of their new external storage device, which is known as the Throttle eSATA drive. The drive backs up eSATA interface that is not just compatible with desktops, but with the laptops either. In addition, it is also touted to be capable of delivering augmented data transfer rates of 30MB/sec write speeds and 90MB/second read speeds. The handy plug-and-play eSATA drive doesn’t demand additional power cable and cords to offer outstanding versatility and performance.

Eugene Chang, Director of Product Management for the OCZ Technology Group commented, “We are excited to bring in the Throttle eSATA drive, which delivers many of the key benefits of external SATA including faster transfer rates and a cost effective expansion storage for high performance computing. The Throttle is available in high densities and offers exceptional peak interface speeds for high performance notebooks, desktops, consumer electronics and entry level servers. In the case where an eSATA port is not available, the Throttle has the ability to connect via USB as well for ultimate flexibility.”

As its review, The Throttle, claimed to be an option to usual USB drives, is brought in 8 GB, 16 GB and 32 GB capacities. Besides, it also lets users make access to data by virtue of a supporting small USB port. There is no info as to the availability and pricing of the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive so far. On the whole, if your PC has an eSATA port, the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive certainly comes as a product that you must try out; flash thumb drives are all about faster and convenience access to your files while on the move is nothing but convenient.

Enthusiasts, Travelers and business professionals are said to take advantage of the greater overall user experience that this latest high speed, high-capacity Throttle has to offer.

The new Brando Wireless Keyboard is both small and useful. The new model is backlit and is just as big as your palm. It runs in wireless and not in Bluetooth and this might be quite an interesting fact that users will enjoy. The new Brando Keyboard might just be a great solution for any room in your home that has dim lights (for instance a video room). This cool gadget is available for shipping at the moment. You will get it around the end of the year. It is also quite cheap at just $47.