By Andrew Liszewski

Given the original Back To The Future movie came out in 1985, I think it’s safe to assume that the ‘OUTATIME’ license plate has already been claimed in every state, province or country with licensed vehicles. But why should that stop you from slapping one on your ride? (Even if it’s not a DeLorean.)

ThinkGeek’s now selling this Back To The Future ‘OUTATIME’ California license plate replica ($29.99) complete with an ’86 expiration sticker, and if you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that doesn’t require both front and back license plates, you now have as good excuse as any to always drive 88mph.

[ Back To The Future License Plate Replica ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Besides tablets, trackballs and touchpads, there haven’t been many advancements in human-PC interaction since the development of the mouse and keyboard. And while Contour Design’s RollerMouse Free is called a ‘mouse’, using it is a whole different experience. The device comes in the form of a wrist wrest, but just above the left, center and right buttons you’ll find a long spinning dowel (for lack of a better term) that can be shifted left and right by about 3 or 4 inches.

Spinning the dowel causes the cursor to move vertically on-screen, while sliding it from side-to-side takes care of the cursor’s horizontal movement. I have to say that using the device was a little awkward at first, since I’ve been pushing around a traditional mouse for about half my life, but after just a few minutes, controlling the cursor with the RollerMouse becomes second nature. The main benefit to using the RollerMouse Free is to help reduce repetitive stress injuries in your ‘mousing’ arm, but it also helps keep your hands near the ‘home row’ at all times, theoretically increasing your productivity.

According to the Contour Design rep I spoke to, the RollerMouse Free should be available in the first weeks of March for $219.95 from the company’s website.

By Evan Ackerman

Humans are tropical animals. We really aren’t designed for cold weather, and we have to wear impractical amounts of clothing to go outdoors in the winter when you get much beyond the 23 degrees of latitude. So instead of wearing five extra layers, it makes a lot more sense to just wear one extra layer that provides all the heat you need. Venture’s line of self-heating fleece jackets and pants contain integrated single-sided heat pads that’ll keep you toasty warm, even in ridiculously cold places like Canada.

Venture jackets have a heating pad in the back, and two across the chest. The heating units themselves are barely noticeable in the fabric of the jacket, but from what I could tell when I tried it out, they’re quite powerful. Although you do have to carry a battery pack, it’s lithium and doesn’t weigh much, and there’s a remote control that lets you select the temperature for each heating zone individually. You should get 5-10 hours per charge, and you can recharge the jacket from a standard wall outlet. Venture also makes fleece-lined heated cargo pants if you need a head to toe solution.

The jackets are all high quality outerwear, and it shows in the price. Expect to pay $150 – $200 for one.

[ VentureHeat ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Here’s another piece of cleverly designed furniture that you could probably just build yourself in order to save a boatload of cash. The Three Sixty Table was designed by Studio Mauerer Hendrichs and features three sets of trucks and wheels from a skateboard (and a half) allowing the 40-inch glass top to rotate just like a lazy susan. But if a weekend spent sawing, drilling and stealing decks from the local hood rats isn’t your thing, you can just go ahead and buy one in your choice of German oak or walnut wood finish from The Future Perfect for $1,795.

[ Three Sixty Table ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]

By Evan Ackerman

This transparent touchscreen at the Intel booth was being used to demonstrate how powerful their new Core i7 processors are. The screen was performing all kinds of fancy interactive visual tricks with a framerate readout in one corner that managed to hit 1500 fps (!) on occasion while never dropping below 400 fps.

The screen itself is nothing more than a capacitive touch panel (single touch, boo) sandwiched between two sheets of glass, which allows it to create a sort of glasses-free 3D effect. At first glance I got all excited thinking that this WAS the entire display, but it’s actually just a screen of sorts with a projector behind it. Oh well.

There’s no way this transparent touchscreen is going into production, which is a shame… It’s gorgeous, and would work brilliantly paired with one of those ultra short throw projectors.

[ Intel Core i7 ]

By Evan Ackerman

Bluetooth headsets are not generally at the top of my list of interesting things to write about, but since I’m actually in the market for one, I kept my eyes open at CES to see what I could find. I’ve got a hands free speaker thingy for my car, but I really need one for my bike.

The BlueAnt Q1 looks like it might be perfect for talking while biking, since it features a second microphone on the outside which allows for active noise cancellation. When it comes to wind noise, the Q1 is supposed to be able to completely cancel it out at speeds of up to 10 mph… I like to think I’m a more aggressive biker than that, but I imagine that even at higher speeds there’s still a substantial improvement in call quality.

The other nice thing about the Q1 is its voice recognition engine. You can give the headset verbal commands, which it will recognize and respond to with its own voice. Beyond basic voice dialing, you can ask it things like whether or not it has a good Bluetooth connection with your phone or how much battery it has left, and it’ll answer you (video of that here). Clever.

The BlueAnt Q1 should be available at the end of March for about $130; we’re hoping to get a review unit before then and we’ll let you know how well it works.

[ BlueAnt ]

By Luke Anderson

How many of you out there live alone, or in a dorm? If you fall into either of those categories, you probably find yourself doing very small loads of laundry (or just bagging it all up and taking it to your parents’ house every month or so) which can seem like such a waste in a regular washing machine. Not to mention depending on your residence, you might have to go off-site to wash your clothes. Well if you only need to do a small amount of laundry, then the Baguni ‘hamper in’ concept would be perfect for you.

This tiny washing machine is great because it functions as a hamper for your dirty clothes. When it’s full, just add in the detergent and fire it up. Unfortunately I doubt this thing is going to dry your clothes, so that’ll be another challenge. Either way, it seems like a pretty cool concept if you ask me.

VIA [ Dvice ]

By Luke Anderson

If you work at an office, do you hate it when other people use your computer? I’ve only worked in an office setting a couple of times, and that was always a huge pet peeve of mine. You just don’t touch my computer. Well if you’re a Trekkie, here’s one way to guarantee that no one messes with your PC. Just get yourself a keyboard that features Klingon keys and that’ll scare just about anyone off.

Other than the alien letters scrawled upon the keys, there really isn’t anything special about this keyboard. Though it seems that the Klingons still haven’t discovered USB. I’m curious just how strong these things are. I mean, what if you’re forced to fight to the death with the Trekkie three cubicles down? At any rate, this will set you back a whopping $63, though I’m sure a good portion of that is due to the alien technology contained within.

[ CherryKeyboards ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ll be the first to admit that the whole “World War II” game concept has been overdone. I’ve lost count of the sheer number of titles with that exact theme that have been released in the last few years. That’s not to say that they’re all bad games, it just makes you wonder when a game franchise lasts longer than the war it’s based on. But I digress. I’ve been playing the latest installment of Call of Duty for a little while, and it’s about time that I shared my thoughts.

The first thing you’re going to notice when you get into the game is that the graphics are incredible. There are some times when it’s kind of cool to just stop and take in the lush foliage of the jungle, of course that’s usually disturbed by the bullets flying by. The level of detail is certainly not lost when it comes to the more gory parts of the game. It’s not terribly uncommon to see someone lose a bloody limb or two, which I’m sure holds true to what actually happened to some during the war.

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