The AR Drone is a fairly large device, with a tough Styrofoam body (covered by a hard outer shell) that is carried aloft by four powerful rotors. It kicks up a hell of a racket doing so, but the noise is just part of the fun. The four rotor system sets it apart from remote controlled helicopters because the user doesn’t have to worry about trim. Thanks to the four rotors and a built in altitude sensing system, the Drone flies steadily and beautifully.

Here’s the real treat though; it’s controlled by a smart phone. Using either an iPhone or an Android device with downloaded software, the user can pilot the Drone by tilting their handset in desired directions. Also, the Drone has a front mounted camera that transmits images back to the handset’s screen. You’re not going to be able to effectively navigate that way, no matter what the makers claim, but it adds a fun dogfighting game element to the device, when two are close together. And it’s cool.

The Drone does not come without its problems, though. It uses a WiFi connection (we’re mystified as to why the makers didn’t go with Bluetooth, which would have been much better) which can drop in areas of interference. If the signal drops, the Drone goes into a sort of safety holding pattern, hovering above the ground. Re-establishing connection may give difficulties, in which case you pretty much have to wait for the rechargeable battery to run out, forcing the Drone to perform an emergency landing procedure.

Another issue is wind. Even seemingly slight winds can carry the Drone off, prompting the user to perform a quick landing to avoid it leaving the 50 meter range of the WiFi signal. Once again, once it is out of range, the same holding pattern behaviour occurs… but a breeze will carry it away.

The Drone can also be flown indoors, as it has a special protective housing included in the box, which shields the rotors on their sides. When all is said and done, the AR Drone is a rather expensive toy. It has no function beyond fun. Yet, despite its cost and niggles, it is just about the most fun you can have without breaking numerous laws. We loved playing with the AR Drone, and anyone remotely (aha, a pun) interested in remote control flying should give it serious consideration. It’s a reason to buy a compatible phone!

Verdict:

The most fun you can have without breaking a ton of laws.

PROS:

• Awesome fun
• Easy to fly
• Did I mention fun?
• Great support

CONS:

• WiFi connection
• Pricey
• Wind issues

Buy it here

Many online shops and retailers sell the Parrot AR Drone.

Ping Monitor is a desktop gadget for Windows that can monitor up to five local or remote servers. As the name suggests, it pings the servers in intervals specified by the user of the application. (I suggest you read through Ryan’s excellent Network Troubleshooting Basics: The Ping Command if you need to refresh what you know about the ping command).

All information are presented then as a graph and in averages on the Windows desktop.

Configuration of the sidebar gadget may be somewhat confusing. Download it from the developer website and install it as usual. It should work out of the box under Windows Vista and Windows 7, I have tested it under Windows 7 Pro and it worked without problems.

When you first display the gadget it does not monitor a domain, IP or server. Right-click the interface and select Options.

Up to five different urls or IP addresses can be added to the gadget. Ping Monitor supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. Enter an IP address or domain name in the first field, and an alias that is used to identify it in the second. The alias is shown on the main interface which is better than displaying IP addresses for instance. Still, you can select to use the domain name or IP address as the alias as well.

Make sure you change the default ping frequency from 1 per second (!) to another value. I suggest you switch to minutes or even hours instead.

Click on the 3 tab afterwards. Here you can change the size of the gadget. The default size was to small for my taste, and I changed that to 200% for a better view at the stats.

You can also make changes to colors and the graphs under the other tabs in the configuration.

The gadget displays the maximum, average and current ping time as well as the number of errors while pining the server or IP address.

The graph visualizes those findings. You can ping a server manually with a click on the update icon next to the server’s alias.

Ping Monitor is a handy gadget for Windows users who want to use the ping command to monitor websites or servers. The ping command is not as sophisticated as other server monitoring means, for instance by performing checks if a database is running on a server.

Users who prefer an application instead of a gadget can take a look at Nirsoft’s Ping Info View instead which is also compatible with Windows XP.

Battery indicators are part of nearly every modern operating system. They estimate the time that is left to use the device without power source.

The gadget PwrDrain does something different, which may make it interesting for some users. Instead of displaying the total power left, it shows the current power usage in realtime.

This way, you are informed automatically whenever the power use goes up or down. You can test the workings by increasing the brightness on your laptop, running a demanding Flash game or turning on WiFi.

The Windows gadget has two core uses. It can be used to get an understanding for a device’s power requirements. With time, you will know which features and settings increase the power and which reduce it or have no effect on the power use of the device. That’s handy to know when you run into situations where you need your device and want to make sure that it runs the maximum available time.

PwrDrain can also be used as an indicator that gives you direct information when power usage goes up. You could then return to the old settings provided that the change is not necessary to work with the system.

The gadget displays a meter in its interface, power use increases from left to right.

The gadget works on all devices that provide a power meter. While most do, some laptops and mobile devices don’t. The gadget won’t work on those devices then.

You can find out if the machine has a compatible power meter by going to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Power Meter. If the Add Counters dialog is not empty the device is compatible.

The PwrDrain gadget is compatible with Vista and Windows 7. It can be downloaded from the official project homepage at Google Code. (via)

The benefits of this solution are twofold. First it frees system resources of the computer because the on board processor is handling those applications. All the necessary files to run are stored in read only memory and transferred to the system memory at system boot which means that any possible changes are reset when booting the system for the next time.

A licensed included version of Kaspersky anti-virus is keeping the system virus free while other systems protect the computer against various threats like IP spoofing, DNS attacks, Phishing and Spyware. Add to that Parental Controls and Web Filtering and you got a complete security solution for your PC or laptop.

All of this sounds really nice but what happens if something goes wrong ? What if the web filter is filtering a website that the user wants to visit ? Does he then have to configure the web filter in Linux ? What about the firewall ? That would be a major concern for me.

Yoggie Pico Personal is currently available at Amazon for $127.49, the business edition adds a secure VPN and sells for $139.99 at Amazon. The license has to be renewed each year which costs $30 for the personal and $40 for the business edition.

The dew camera uses voice and gesture recognition to take pictures and videos from memorable (happy) moments only. I could not figure out unfortunately if the dew camera is using its own storage capabilities or relies on external devices that are connected by wireless lan with the camera.

Nec did present a dew viewer for the camera as well which “is a terminal device to replay your past experiences recorded by the camera. It can freely go back in time or show the marked memorable scenes.The viewer (display) can also show images of yourself, recorded by other people who wore the camera.”

Please take note that the viewer is smaller than the camera. The dew camera now leads to the question whether you would carry such a device around all the time, only on special events or not at all.

I would think that it could be nice to wear the dew camera on holidays, parties and the like. What do you think ?

You never leave your door unlocked with this little device, once the door is closed it is automatically locked and can only be opened by either Fingerprint, PIN or Mechanical Key. It is able to save up to 100 fingerprints with one fingerprint being the master fingerprint which means that user is able to delete the other fingerprints if the need should arise.

The operating voltage is 4 AA alkaline batteries, DC 4.5-6.0v or 9V Stand-by power which should last for about 12 months. I’am not selling this product of course but the price appears to be really fantastic, 199$ for this device plus a free afternoon to replace parts of your door with it. Great bargain if you ask me.