ModeLabs Group from Paris announced through a press release the availability of the Bluetrek Metal, supposedly the world’s thinnest Bluetooth headset. The device’s main component is metal, is only 4mm (0.16 inches) thick and weights no more than 5.5 grams (0.01 pounds).

Small, but efficient, this gadget’s standby mode lasts up to seven days and allows you to talk for five hours straight. The headset has a tough predecessor in the Bluetrek Bizz model, and will be available in June for the Entire Europe. It is expected to have a $60 price for black and silver versions and $76 for the silver steel color.

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January 14, 2008 Lockheed Martin recently received final approval from the U.S. Navy to proceed with the integration and shipboard installation of the world’s first, fully-open architecture Aegis weapon system for a major surface warship. Aegis Open Architecture is a weapon system that can absorb frequent technology refreshes and upgrades in capabilities, both from new development and separate third party products.

Aegis Open Architecture is a weapon system that can absorb frequent technology refreshes and upgrades in capabilities, both from new development and separate third party products. It accomplishes this by using commonly available off-the-shelf computing hardware and open system software.

Aegis is the weapon system of choice for the U.S., Australia, Japan, Norway, South Korea and Spain. It seamlessly integrates the SPY-1 radar, the MK 41 Vertical Launching System, SM-2 and SM-3 missiles and the weapon system’s command and control system. It is currently deployed on 85 ships internationally, with more than 20 additional ships planned or under contract. The U.S. Navy plans to begin a modernization program similar to the Aegis Open Architecture scheme for the 62-ship class of Aegis-equipped Arleigh Burke destroyers in 2012.

The USS Bunker Hill is the first of 22 cruisers scheduled to receive Aegis Open Architecture over the next ten years.

“Aegis Open Architecture will continue to keep a force of 84 U.S. Navy cruisers and destroyers - and dozens of allied Aegis-equipped ships - relevant and at the forefront of technology for the extent of their ship life,” said Orlando Carvalho, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Surface-Sea Based Missile Defense line of business. “Providing this transformation is the result of thorough systems engineering and close collaboration with the Navy and multiple innovative business partners to replace custom designed software with open architecture software.”

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March 26, 2008 It’s an ingenious self-activating miniature bouy on a keyring and after several years of difficulties reaching market, the Seatriever Waterbuoy is now available and seeking international distribution. The UKP13 (US$26) Waterbuoy is the first product in a family of automatic floatation devices that will recover your mobile phone, keys, GPS receiver, PDA, binoculars, VHF radio or anything else that drops overboard.

Waterbuoy is a safety device for anything portable on your boat. It may only be the same size as a regular car key fob (70mm x 28mm x 18mm), but Waterbuoy packs some ingenious miniature flotation technology to stop precious objects from sinking to the bottom. When dropped into the water, Waterbuoy becomes a flashing emergency float for whatever it is attached to, making it possible to retrieve just about anything that you accidentally drop into the water.

Just because it has been dropped over the side does not mean that it’s lost. Before you even have time to worry about all the contacts in your mobile phone or how you are going to get home tonight, with your car-keys and house-keys at the bottom of the sea, Waterbuoy will spring into action.

“Waterbuoy is a unique product. It will lift up to 1kilogram back to the surface, it will stay afloat for at least 24 hours and it has an emergency flashing light that makes it visible from up to 250 meters away in the dark, so you can even get your valuables back at night,” explains James Halliburton, CEO of Seatriever International. “Waterbuoy is the world’s first and only high-tech solution to the most infuriating accident that can happen on the water.”

Waterbuoy’s operation is ingenious. Seconds after falling into the sea, canal, marina, lake or river, water passes into the body of the fob dissolving a patented automatic actuator that releases gas from a tiny tank into a bright orange balloon. The balloon breaks out of the end of the fob and continues to inflate. Simultaneously, a bright LED starts flashing which illuminates Waterbuoy from the inside like a Belisha beacon. The toughened balloon inflates to the size of a melon making it very easy to grab one-handed or retrieve with a boathook without fear of it bursting.

Waterbuoy is the result of two years of intensive engineering development that has led to the patenting of some very clever new technology.

Seatriever is currently using this technology to scale the concept into a multitude of new markets and applications. So look out for more and more Waterbuoy-branded devices helping to save all kinds of objects you’d rather not send to a watery grave.

Distributors are currently being sought in all countries so Waterbuoy will soon be available in all good chandlers. Dealers interested in particular territories can contact Seatriever direct.

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