PayPal just updated their iPhone and Touch application.  The PayPal 2.0 iPhone App now supports “bumping”… basically if you and a friend have iPhones, a PayPal account, and the PayPal app you can send money to each other buy bumping phones when nearby.  Seems like we are one step closer to replacing good old fashioned cash.  Bummer.

“Beyond that proximity feature, PayPal 2.0 also adds a means of splitting up a restaurant check or other group purchases and “billing” other PayPal users for the amounts due. Bill reminders, money withdrawals, and other features you’d expect from the online payment system are still in place, too.”

[Via]

Ever wanted to watch CNBC while riding sitting on the bus or just killing time?  The FLO TV Personal Television allows you to watch TV almost anywhere.  This isn’t designed to replace your home TV experience… but supplement it.  The 3.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel touchscreen is surprisingly clear and will let you watch a full 5 hours of TV before the battery runs out.  The unit has built-in stereo speakers and they put out fairly good sound, if you want privacy use the headphone jack and included earbuds.

The Flo TV works uses a slightly different band from the cellular network digitally over UHF channel 55.  The Personal Television currently has 13 channels (channel lineup here).  The Flo TV ends up costing about $200 which isn’t bad… the part I don’t like is the monthly or annual fee to get the content.  The plans are as follows $14.99 per month after the included six month trial period ends, or $149.99 for 1 year, or $199.99 for 2 years.  Video of the Flo TV in action after the break.

Looks like another iPhone app that I want has hit the market.  Trapster’s 4.0 release helps users log roadtrips, find friends, locate speed traps, rockslides, roadkill, etc… The beauty of the Trapster app is that is i database that is user updated so if a new speed trap pops up you will know about it.  Read on for a review of some of the best features after the break.

We’ve Got A Great Big Convoy

Driving a Uhaul truck and a Honda from Texas to Illinois, with just two vehicles, it’s amazing how many times we nearly lost each other. Though this isn’t a feature most people will use every day, this updated version of Caravan lets users add "friends" and track where they are or going while exchanging directions, points of interest, audio, et cetera.

It’s perfect for caravanning or road rallying because one user can send a message to an entire group. This could also work well for bikers, urban hikers, or other large groups of iPhone-equipped travelers. Plus, it’s a good way to avoid people you don’t want to see.

Uh-Oh, Here Comes The 5-0

Among the app’s users is Texas’s Travis County Sheriff’s Department, which Trapster discovered was entering in their own traps before they went out to try and pop speeders. Why? According to sheriff’s deputy Tom Carpenter, "If I can get my compliance without writing a ticket, I’ve done my job."

If there’s a speed trap logged by a known law enforcement official, it’ll show up with a custom graphic, seen above, so drivers will know how close they are to getting busted. We’ve fooled around with it between Houston and Austin (the latter is in Travis County), and it worked exceptionally well, giving advance notice of impending speed traps as well as detailed traffic information.

Track Your Roadtrip In Real Time

The days of geotagging your photos, loading your trip points into Google Maps by hand, and then posting all the info to Facebook are over. Trapster’s "My Trips" feature will track your journey and automatically upload any photos, video, or notes you take along the journey to a custom map online that you can share with friends. See a great roadside attraction or stop at a delicious restaurant? You can mark it for future reference. We can think of a million uses for this, both professional and personal. You can see a sample trip here.

Watch Out For That Dead Armadillo!

In addition to pointing out county mounties, Trapster 4.0 adds a few new road hazards to the reporting list. These range from helpful alerts about scenarios like road closures or construction zones to notifications of things like brush fires and roadkill.

You can download Trapster for at the iPhone App Store, Blackberry App World, Palm software store or at their site.

[Trapster.com]

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Since all of you out there in the Internets deep down really give a poop about what grinds my gears I thought I’d share this little gem with you.  It has become apparent that, because of today’s levels of social retardation, the only way to push a new technology is to give it a cheesy buzzword name incorporating Green, Eco, Solar, Hybrid, or as a complete copout just put a trendy pre-fix like “i” in front of everything like iTunes, iPod, iShit, etc… That said, behold WiTricity!  It’s like Wi and Tricity, two perfectly good English words, are combined into a tasty concoction.  This snappy evocative portmanteau label denotes transferring electric energy wirelessly.  WiTricity cleverly uses a little Orwellian doublethink to “clearly” differentiate itself as a TRANSFERRING technology as opposed to TRANSMITTING technology, since apparently the word TRANSMITTING got a bad rap.  The short of it is, this technology as it matures will allow wireless TRANSFER of power and eliminate the need for wires, which would be absolutely banging!  I sincerely hope this derivative work of Nikola Tesla fares better today than the first time it was attempted in the first half of the last century.  By the way, Nikola Tesla, despite the perfunctory acknowledgement, was the original Jedi Master of wireless energy transfer and dabbled extensively with harmonics, resonances, induction and other cool stuff until the time of his passing and having his works jacked by the FBI and tagged TOP SECRET. Makes one wonder…

Panasonic just announced their latest model in the Toughbook family, the H1 Field which is targeting field salespeople, healthcare professionals, maintenance workers, etc…  (Maybe it shouldn’t be white if you want maintenance workers using it?)

The Panasonic Toughbook H1 Field also has the option of a Qualcomm Gobi2000 mobile broadband connection, can be dropped from six feet, has a smartcard, RFID and barcode readers built-in, two hot-swappable batteries, a 64GB SSD, and a 10.4-inch dual-touch display.  Add up all that goodness and the standard tough factor that comes with the Toughbook line and you might actually see folks using this next time your rent a car.

Expect to see this tough iPad like device around March 2010 for about $3,400.

Panasonic Toughbook H1 Field – features:

• Genuine Windows 7 (with XP Tablet downgrade option)
• Intel Atom processor Z540 (1.86GHz)
• 2GB RAM
• 64 GB reinforced flex-connect Solid State Drive SSD
• 10.4” XGA sunlight-viewable 500 nit dual-touch LCD
• Circular polarizer with anti-glare and anti-reflective screen treatments
• 6 hour battery life
• Twin hot-swappable batteries
• 3.4 lbs (with both batteries)
• Fully-Rugged
• MIL-STD-810G certified (6 foot drop)*
• Magnesium alloy chassis – encased in polycarbonate
• IP65 certified sealed all-weather design*
• Reinforced flex-connect Solid State Drive (SSD)
• Wide operating temperature range (-20C ~ 60C or -4F ~ 140F)

• Embedded Connectivity
• Optional integrated WWAN / Gobi2000™ mobile broadband (EV-DO and HSPA)
• Intel® WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/n
• Bluetooth® v2.1 + EDR

• Integrated Options
• Global positioning system (GPS) receiver
• 2D barcode reader (also 1D capable)
• 2.0 megapixel auto-focus camera with dual LED lights
• RFID reader

• Optional Security Features
• Fingerprint reader
• Contactless SmartCard reader
• Insertable SmartCard reader
• Integrated docking connector
• 10.4” (L) x 10.6” (W) x 1.3” – 2.3” (H)

Logitech has released a cool iPhone app that lets you control your PC via a virtual keyboard and track pad via Wi-Fi.  Perfect for the HTPC or computer connected to your TV.  My favorite part is the fact that it shows you what you are typing so you don’t have to constantly look up at the computer/TV screen.  Install this app on your iPhone and the Touch Mouse Server software on your PC… and poof you have a great free wifi keyboard/mouse.

Seems like a bit of black magic to me… but the RCA Airnergy gadget (coming out this summer) is able to charge your gadgets by harvesting energy from nearby Wi-Fi networks.  The demo unit at CES charged a BlackBerry phone from around 30% to full in about an hour and a half.  Simply amazing… and cheap… expected to retail for about $40.

Mad Catz Interactive (Saitek) has launched a batch of high end Cyborg gaming mice which will start shipping in Q2 of this year.  For the first time ever on a mouse, the main contact points between the gamer’s hand and the mouse are adjustable allowing a customized grip preference. Cyborg states that they are the most comfortable gaming mice around… and I am sure this is true… but this is more of a desk candy thing… looks freaking cool.

The top of the line Cyberog R.A.T. gaming mouse will set you back about $130 and comes with rechargeable lithium ion batteries, a 5600dpi laser, removable weights, and is wireless.

Boxee has made a name for itself by simplifying the process of consolidating entertainment content for the PC.  The product is great… but not everyone wants to watch TV on their computer… or have a computer tethered to a TV in the living room.  Looks like Boxee has addressed the issue with the launch of their new IPTV set top box powered by the Nvidia Tegra 2.

The best part about Boxee’s approach is rather than using the traditional content provider model, Boxee acts as a portal to content providers.  This is good because you get just about everything the web has to offer = lots of content.

“Rather than using a Home Theater PC (which you can do with the Boxee software) the Boxee Box makes the Boxee experience accessible to the average consumer who doesn’t want a full fledged PC, or the support headaches that come with it, next to their TV.”

Boxee is great, but not everyone just “gets it” the first time, kinda like TiVo years ago.  Watch the Howcast video above for an explanation of how to get started with Boxee.

Two things I love coming together, like Reese’s peanut butter cups, the iPhone and an RC Helicopter.  Expect to see the iPhone controlled Parrot AR Drone helicopter in Q4 of 2010.  The best part, other than the fact it is controlled by the iPhone, is that the copter has two cameras on board for shooting video.  The front camera shoots 640×480 @ 15fps and the bottom camera shots 480×320 @ 60fps.

Video of the Parrott AR.Drone in action after the break.

Parrott AR.Drone Shoots Video with 2 Cameras from Charlie White on Vimeo.