Gadget charges cellphone from boiling water

A Japanese company has come up with a new way to charge your mobile phone after a natural disaster or in the great outdoors - by heating a pot of water over a campfire.

The Hatsuden-Nabe thermo-electric cookpot turns heat from boiling water into electricity that feeds via a USB port into digital devices such as smartphones, music players and globalpositioning systems.

TES NewEnergy, based in the western city of Osaka, started selling the gadget in Japan this month for 24,150 yen, and plansto market it later in developing countries with patchy power grids.

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Archos gives the home phone an Android upgrade

Pioneers of Android Tablet devices, French company Archos has turned its hand to the home phone in a bid to push the aging product into the digital age.

To create its sleek and desirable Archos 35 Smart Home Phone, Archos streamlined the often-outdated device to match smartphone standards, added the Android operating system and refreshed it with forward-thinking technology.

"Compatible with any ADSL box or phone line and using standard DECT protocols the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is a light and stylish home phone that brings users contact sharing with their Android smart phone, MP3 ringtones, caller photodisplay as well as access to thousands of Android apps, web surfing, emails and video calling," said Archos.

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Quick review of new MSI C-Series laptops

MSI has recently updated its C-Series notebooks with four new models, namely the CX640, CR640, CX480 and CR480, all of which come with the latest second generation Intel Core processors.

The notebooks come with F1 racecar-inspired styling, with an F1-style push start power button and a sleek "crystal diamond" finish.

The C-Series comes with either 14in (CX480) or 15.6in screens (CX640 and CR480), and runs on either the built-in Intel graphics or the nVidia GeForce GT250M graphics card.

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Quick review of Lenovo ThinkPad X1

Lenovo has unveiled the ThinkPad X1 laptop for users who demand better performance and entertainment while on the road.

The X1 measures less than 17mm thick and weighs 1.72kg, which makes it light and easy to carry around. The laptop has a 13.3in display which is made of Corning Gorilla Glass that is scratch-resistant.

The notebook is designed with mobility in mind - it uses Enhanced Experience 2.0 software which starts up the notebook in just about 20 seconds on average, so users can start working on it quickly.

The X1 also features RapidCharge battery technology that charges the battery to 80% in just 30 minutes.

The X1's four-cell battery is rated to last up to five hours.

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