If you’re tired of your “buddies” swiping all your tech whenever they come over for a bit of Halo, you might be interested in this new CATSeye GPS/GSM/RF tracking system for hunting them down the next time it happens. The matchbox-sized transponder device can be slipped into an item (above it’s sitting inside a TomTom GPS unit) and then tracked via the CATSeye system. Device coordinates can be set to send at a regular interval, if the unit is moved (there’s a motion sensor inside as well), or if it’s taken outside of its assigned “geo-fence.” The system mainly relies on GPS for tracking duties, but it can give GSM tower coordinates in a pinch, and a separate RF scanner can locate the unit with up to 1-inch accuracy. We’re not quite sure how much the rest of the system costs, but the RF scanners range in price from $100 to $1000+. At those kind of prices the system is really best suited for keeping store inventory or for tracking items given to enterprise staff, but we still think the revenge angle is totally justifiable. Make sure to peep the read link for a video of the system in action.

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AMX is looking to put a little more ZigBee into your life (and, really, couldn’t we all use a little?), announcing a pair of new remotes and some other ZigBee wireless gear at the just-concluded CEDIA Expo in Denver. The Mio Modero R-4 (seen above) is the company’s top-of-the-line remote, with a 2.4-inch color LCD touchscreen , AMX’s “G4 graphics engine” (which won’t let you play Halo, but will give you animated icons), and 28 old-fashioned push buttons. Also announced was the Mio Modero R-3, with which you’ll have to settle for a smaller monochrome LCD, though you’ll get a bountiful 45 backlit laser-engraved buttons. Both remotes will give you some two-way ZigBee action, letting you view everything from song information to the current room temperature from the comfort of your couch — if you’re living in one of those houses of the future, that is. To go along with ‘em, AMX has dropped some additional ZigBee wireless gear to complete your setup, including a ZigBee wireless gateway, and a repeater to extend wireless coverage to the farthest reaches of your mansion. No word on pricing — hint: you probably won’t find this stuff in the Insignia aisle — but it should all be available in the next few months.

[Via Talk About CEDIA]
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Aight everybody, we’ve got a fresh one comin’ through here. Sony’s faulty cells apparently made their way into Toshiba Satellite and Dynabook machines — apparently about 340,000 units in all — which are being recalled. (For reference, thus far we’ve racked up Apple, Dell, and Panasonic.) The upshot is that according to Toshiba, no one’s been hurt and no explosions have been caused by their machines (yet). Unfortunately not much other information is readily available at this time, but we’ll be sure to hit you back with the exact models, dates, cell identification numbers, and the rest before somebody’s Satellite falls out of orbit and we get massive guilt complexes for not doing our duty as servants to the battery-using public.

[Thanks, Dave]

Update: Thanks to everybody for the submitted link on Toshiba’s site, but it looks like the company has still yet to get together a page outlining how the recall will work and which batteries it will affect. Stay tuned!

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Here at Engadget, we love to bring you news about one of our favorite low-tech gadgets — the key. No, not key as in keyboard, but rather as in, “Dude, where’s my (bump) keys?” or more accurately, “Holy crap, I just dropped my keys into the ocean.” Fear not, because for the low price of $7 you can now buy a new keychain fob that promises to save your keychain from maritime disaster. When your keys hit the water, the Davis Key Buoy will open up and inflate a 14-inch long bright orange cylinder for easy spotting within 30 seconds and will hold them there for up to 40 minutes. Of course, if you carry a warden-sized set of keys with you then this won’t work, as it only supports up to 4.2 oz (120 g) of weight. Now if some company could team up with Davis to make an inexpensive waterproof 2GB flash drive that would inflate to the surface in the event of a water landing, then they’d have a product we’d surely buy.

[Via OhGizmo]
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Continuing their skyrocket beyond ODM-dom, HTC’s buyout bid for Taiwanese Dopod has moved into the final stages. Having signed a memorandum of understanding, the only thing left in the estimated $150 million deal is approval from the Taiwanese government. Assuming HTC chairwoman and Dopod controlling shareholder Cher Wang, daughter of petrochemicals billionaire Y.C. Wang and wife of HTC boss-man Peter Chou, has enough influence to push this through (read: she does), then HTC is about to find themselves in direct competition with their own customers O2, i-mate and HP. HTC already confirmed their decision to self-brand phones in Europe, now the Dopod deal could result in HTC designs being sold exclusively under the Dopod branding outside of Europe. In fact, HTC has already cut ties with both O2 and i-mate in Australia, New Zealand, and India. So if Dopod’s claim that HTC manufactures 80 percent of Windows Mobile phones is true, well, O2, i-mate, and HP best be looking for fresh design and manufacturing blood on the quick.

[Thanks, Ash]
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Two of our favorite companies (well, more like two companies that we’ve heard of) have just announced that they’ll be getting nice and cozy in the next few months, with cellphone giant Motorola agreeing to buy barcode-scannin’, RFID-taggin’ Symbol Technologies for about $3.9 billion. Besides handsets, Moto also has a significant foothold in the mobile enterprise market, and Symbol’s RFID, barcode, and ruggedized PDA products will supposedly double its presence in inventory management while at the same time “being accretive to earnings,” according to analyst Lawrence Harris of Oppenheimer & Company. The deal will reportedly be completed later this year or in early 2007, at which time Motorola will change the name of its new acquisition to SMBL.

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Alright, nothing to see here. Samsung is just parading their sexy, Adobe Flash-capable, 1.8-inch screened, 30 hour lastin’ and video-playin’ Yepp T9 all across Asia with nary a thought for us lowly North Americans. Now they’ve hit their very own South Korea with the player, and we’ve got our first sight of pricing: 199,000 won, 239,000 won, and 299,000 won in Korea (for the 1, 2 and 4GB versions respectively), and supposed $180, $220, and $280 US pricetags for whenever it drops here. We’re taking those latter prices with a grain of salt, since they’re a fair bit off the direct conversion of won to dollar, and the player hasn’t actually been announced for the States as far as we know, but we suppose it’s better than nothing. So, anyone feeling that purple?

[Via Akihabara]
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