Gadget Access

Posted Jan 13th 2008 8:36AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Wearables
On the real, spy glasses are old hat, but building a set on your own for under $40 is most definitely notable. An engineering fellow has managed to do just that by snagging a micro camera from eBay for around $18 and wiring it up to a $20 pair of Solar Shield shades. From there, he connected the camera to a pocket-friendly MiniDV camcorder — which we’re sure could be done wirelessly for those with extra time — and continued on to snag quite a few questionable reels of footage from a day at the beach. Of course, you won’t find us recommending that you let your inner voyeur loose or anything, but feel free to tag the read link for all the instructions you need (and a video to boot).

Posted Jan 13th 2008 9:11AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: CES, Misc. Gadgets
Oh dear lord, we aren’t even through this year’s CES / Macworld one-two punch and we just happened upon some distressing news for the 200,000+ tech trade show-goers and media that attend both: they’re overlapping in 2009. AGAIN. Granted, things appear to be a little different this time around — Steve and the Cupertino crew will be firing the first shots on Tuesday, January 6th, with Macworld continuing through Friday the 9th, while CES opens up on Thursday, the 8th, and wraps up Sunday, the 11th. But didn’t Jobs and Shapiro say this thing would never happen again? Actually, come to think of it, no — they merely “agreed it would be nice if they didn’t overlap.” Yeah, it would really would be nice, guys, you should try making it happen more than once every couple of years.

Posted Jan 13th 2008 6:12AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: CES, Features, Misc. Gadgets
Primaries schmimaries. Your vote is so obviously well spent here: we’re asking you to make your selection for best (and by best, we mean worst) Crapgadget of CES. Simply browse through the crap we’ve assembled below and add your pick to the tally. Hopefully next year you’ll be able to call in your vote via Mini Phone while sitting on your Tole Pure.

The nominees
Round 1: the Mini Phone
Round 2: the MP5 player
Round 3: Boxing Champ
Round 4: Fugliest display evar
Round 5: tweety! digital camera
Round 6: The Apple Pie
Round 7: 64MB Beer MP3 player
Round 8: Firetruck with 1.5-inch digital photo frame
Round 9: spy recorder for little girls
Round 10: PC Desktop Duo
Round 11: Janky-ass MP4 watch
Round 12: iPod docking pink plastic purse
Round 13: e-paper display actually paper
Round 14: Hello Kitty with human debris
Round 15: Shredmaster Jr.
Round 16: Music Player Sunglasses
Round 17: the non-existent digital photo frame
Round 18 finale: Tole Pure really is a crapgadget

You decide ‘08: The best of Crapgadget at CES

Round 1: The Mini PhoneRound 2: The MP5 playerRound 3: Boxing ChampRound 4: Fugliest display evarRound 5: Tweety! digital cameraRound 6: The Apple PieRound 7: 64MB Beer MP3 playerRound 8: Firetruck with 1.5-inch digital photo frameRound 9: Spy recorder for little girlsRound 10: PC Desktop DuoRound 11: Janky-ass MP4 watchRound 12: iPod docking pink plastic purseRound 13: E-paper display actually paperRound 14: Hello Kitty with human debrisRound 15: Shredmaster Jr.Round 16: Music Player SunglassesRound 17: The non-existent digital photo frameRound 18: Tole Pure really is a crapgadgetVote

Posted Jan 13th 2008 3:08AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Apple, a company normally and notoriously known for being fast and loose loose with its product announcements just blew our minds: spy shots from within the Macworld expo revealed a large, black, shrouded booth; there’s simply nothing to see. More on this story as it develops — Tuesday morning.

My worst fears have been confirmed… Microsoft apparently is trying to take over the world as the Geeks saw Microsoft’s Robotic Studio control robots at this year’s CES. Geek’s everywhere know that robots will reduce the human population to slaves and fuel because movies have told us, so the fact that Microsoft’s Robotics Studio can control robots with what looks like a 4GL click and play with tons of tutorials to boot means that Microsoft will soon control all robots.

Using the XBOX controller, hobbyists can install an embedded Windows on devices like Lego Mindstorms NXT or the Roomba iCreate and control these physical robots like they were in an arcade world tripping people and otherwise causing havoc in marketplaces around the world causing the value of the dollar to drop (of course confidence in the US economy with the weakened demand for US based securities might modify the value of the dollar downward more than the robots).

Honestly, neither Geek had heard or seen the Microsoft Robotics Studio product before. Microsoft Robotics Studio is a Windows-based environment for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers to easily create robotics applications across a wide variety of hardware. We were quite impressed with the demo and the interface not to mention the team member who actually competed in the DARPA Grand Challenge and probably has this bumper sticker on his car.

Posted Jan 13th 2008 12:40AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: CES, Handhelds, Tablet PCs
To wrap up its CES week, iriver has some pictures and scattered Korean text about its booth experience and product reception in Vegas over the past days. Tucked below all the self-congratulation, however, is what looks to be an as yet unannounced prototype from the ever-active iriver designers. The product appears to be an e-book of sorts, but with handwriting recognition and potentially a color display. Obviously, there’s no more info at the moment to go on, iriver has been feeling a little protype-ish of late, and we never got much of a product out of iriver’s last e-book, but hopefully we’ll be hearing more about this one soon.

Solving Rubik’s cubes is a pain in the ass for ordinary mortals. If you’ve gotten your butt kicked by someone else in a Rubik’s cube solving contest before, how would you feel if you bite the dust after getting slammed by a robot?

Meet Cube-kun (translation: Mr. Cube) from Japan. Showcased in Tokyo’s TEPIA exhibition, Cube-kun’s sole purpose in the world is to, you guessed it, solve the Rubik’s cube. When you give this mechanical guy the cube, he’ll quickly register the arrangement of every side with his flat-screen face and form a solution within a single second. You can’t beat that.

via Tokyo Mango

Whilst travelling back from a frankly exhausting CES 2008, I found a very small reference in one of the local UK newspapers referring to a new product just about to hit the market. Now, I’ve heard of some strange food and drink combinations in my time, but Marmite with Champagne is probably one of the weirdest. Now I’m one of the odd people in my family who actually likes Marmite and I also like Champagne, but both together, um, I’m not so sure….

This is being marketed as a limited edition valentine’s gift, with only 600,000 being made available. The jar has a gold-coloured label saying ‘I love you’ or ‘For my lovely Marmite lover’.

Prior to it’s full release on 21 January 2008, Selfridges are selling the Marmite with a hint of Champage for £3.99. After this date they will sell at the lower price of £2.99 for a 250g jar. Selfridges have also commissioned Theo Fennel, the jewellery designer, who has designed jar with a sterling silver engraved lid at £145. However, you’ll have to be quick to get these ones as there’s only going to be 50 made.

Therefore if you’re other half is more minted, perhaps this loving gift would be more appreciated (particularly if there was something with a diamond hidden in the black stuff). Mind you, think it would get a bit messy if everyone thought, ‘he hasn’t just bought me a jar of Marmite has he? There must be something else in here too’!

Now, this comment is aimed at one particular person, and I think you know who you are - if all you get me this valentine’s day is Marmite, albeit with champage, I will not be happy or impressed! Even if it has a silver lid!

I haven’t as yet tasted this product, but if you have or if you know of anyone who has, please share the taste experience.

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Posted Jan 12th 2008 7:14PM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Features
Apple’s a bit short on banners this year — just that “There’s something in the air” teaser we saw yesterday in a couple of forms — but we’ve arrived in San Francisco to prep for the show, and thought we’d snap a few shots of the convention center before the Macworld 2008 attendees descend upon this place like a plague.

Gallery: We’re on the ground at Macworld 2008

For a brief moment yesterday, an image appeared over on GameStop showing off this forthcoming add-on for your Rock Band performances. The kit includes everything you need to put on your own Spinal Tap-esque stage show in your garage, except for the 18-inch tall Stonehenge.

According to the box are, Performance Design Product’s Rock Band Stage Kit is an “Interactive Light and Smoke Stage Show” to accompany your Rock Band jam sessions. Rumor has it that the light show is even synchronized to the music.

GameStop was quick to yank the image of the product, but the listing is still live, showing a 6/23/2008 release date and a retail price of $99.99. If you can’t wait, you can always pick up some cheap nightclub lighting to achieve a similar effect.

[via Destructoid]

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band, electronic arts, gamestop, light, music, ps3, rock, smoke, stage, xbox 360