By Shane McGlaun

The lazy summer days of my youth were often spent throwing lawn darts with my brother. Honestly, most of those games involved more throwing lawn darts at my brother than with him. Hitting a moving target was much more difficult than that big circle, especially with all the screaming for help and ducking behind trees my brother usually did.

I’m sure kids like me are why you can’t buy lawn darts like we had back then. The company behind the popular golf game Golden Tee has announced that lawn darts are back, at least in virtual form in a new arcade game called Target Toss Pro: Lawn Darts.

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By Shane McGlaun

I like computers and for me and many other enthusiasts what we really want is a hard drive that has lots of storage space, fast data access times, and quiet operation. I don’t particularly care how much power the drive consumes so long as it meets my other wants.

In the enterprise computing environment, all of those things are important but at the top of the list is low power consumption. Shaving what seems like a tiny amount of power consumption from the massive amount of hard drives inside the typical data center can mean tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in power savings. Hitachi has unveiled a new enterprise 2.5-inch hard drive that is fast and sips power like a social drinker at a frat party.

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By Andrew Liszewski

I got to spend a week with the original Peek while at CES this year, and while I really liked the device, particularly given its pricepoint, there were a few areas that could have definitely been improved. And that’s exactly what the company did this morning when they officially announced their new Peek Pronto.

Now the update is definitely not a complete overhaul, more of a slight refresh, but the new model now adds push email, unlimited email and text messages, support for up to 5 email accounts at once, a search function, support for viewing PDF and Word documents, compatibility with Microsoft Exchange and even a larger font size option. But most importantly, the software on the device is now 50% faster Peek claims, all for the exact same price of just $79.95 with a $19.95 monthly fee.

But if you’ve already got a Peek, don’t feel too left out. According to an email the company sent out last night, current users will be privy to a software update next week that adds all the new functionality to the original Peek model.

The good news for you Peeksters is that we want all of you to have the software that will be powering Pronto – for free. Next week I’m going to let you know the details of how you can upgrade your Peek so that you can have the same software that will be on Pronto. I think you’re going to like it!

[ GetPeek.com ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Ok, so the iPhone’s finally got cut and paste, or at least will get cut and paste sometime this Summer, but Apple continues to ignore that other glaring omission on their uberphone. Who cares about an App Store when I’ve got all this annoying stubble on my face? And A2DP? That’s not going to get me looking presentable for a big meeting. So as of this point I’m ditching the iPhone and switching to the Cool758 which Solomobi.com is currently selling for a mere $112.

Not only does it have dual SIM card slots, an FM radio and other standard cellphone crap, but removing a cover on the bottom reveals its true innovation, a built-in electric razor! I guess Apple is going to have to play catch up once again if they have any hopes of competing with this bad boy. (Standby time: 220-260 hours, Talking Time: About 2-3 hours, Shaving Time: Probably about a half hour.)

[ Solomobi.com - Cool758 ] VIA [ Digital Drops ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The photo you see on top is a speeder bike ride-on toy created by Huffy in 1984 as part of a toy store sweepstakes. Not only does it actually look like the speeder bikes featured in the Endor chase scene in Return of the Jedi, but it also has a bit of retro 1950′s charm to it. In other words, I’d proudly ride one of those around, even today.

But the photo you see on the bottom is an updated version of the speeder bike ride-on toy created by an Australian company called ToyMonster. Not only is it completely lacking any of the charm of the original, but it barely even looks like a speeder bike. On the plus side it’s apparently faster and handles better than the original, but it’s yet another reason why I feel that today’s kids have gotten royally screwed in the toy department.

[ StarWars.com - The Return of the Speeder Bike Ride-On ] VIA [ TheForce.Net ]

By Chris Scott Barr

One of the great things about being a gamer in today’s world is that game content isn’t limited to what is on the disc you purchase at your local retailer. With broadband in most households, you can just log onto Xbox Live, PSN or whatever gaming service you use and download extra content and demos. Xbox 360 owners are currently at a disadvantage, as they have to pay around $50 a year for a Gold subscription which allows them to take their games online and download free demos. However, PS3 owners may start finding DLC a little harder to come by in the future.

According to a memo that was sent out to publishers, Sony will begin charging publishers a scaling fee for downloadable content. Specifically, they will have to pay 16 cents per gig downloaded for the first 60 days for free content (such as demos ) and indefinitely for all other paid content. Sure, that might not sound like a big deal, since Sony has to pay for their bandwidth, so they’re just passing on the buck. Unfortunately, that can lead to some big issues for publishers.

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By Chris Scott Barr

I’ve yet to figure out just what it is about Bluetooth headsets that just instantly make you look like a douche, but I do my best to steer clear of anyone wearing one. I mean, if you’re just standing there talking one one in the street, you look crazy. If you’re wearing one around everywhere, then it looks like you’re some big hotshot that gets all sorts of important phone calls. Use it when you’re in the car, or when you’re at your desk working, otherwise take the damn thing off. Well thankfully there’s a new alternative to the Bluetooth headset; behold the Throat Microphone.

The logic behind this product can’t really be argued with. Rather than depending on a mic to pick up the vibrations that move out of your mouth, it sits up against your throat. The vibrations here are just as strong as the ones coming out of your mouth, only they’re pressed up against your skin, reducing background noise. Apparently SWAT teams already use a similar technology for this exact reason. I guess that those guys would probably know a lot about communication in high-noise areas. There’s no word on pricing or availability, but I can tell you right now that you’re going to look just as bad, if not worse than the guys with regular Bluetooth headsets.

[ Sanwa ] VIA [ Coolest-Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With a price tag of $229.99 the Bird Gard certainly isn’t the cheapest way to keep flying pests away from your garden. But if you’re using it to protect a small airport or a hanger it’s probably not a bad investment given what birds are capable of doing to an aircraft. The secret to the Bird Gard is that it uses the actual distress calls of birds to repel 8 different types of feathered foes including Starlings, Robins and Blue Jays. A single Bird Gard is able to protect an area up to 1 1/2 acres in size when set to full volume, but extension speakers ($39.99) with 100 feet of cable are also available to expand that range.

[ Bird Gard Electronic Bird Repeller ] VIA [ Luxury Housing Trends ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Most research and development facilities start from the ground up when it comes to designing new technology, but engineers at General Electric’s Global Research development arm have done just the opposite. They transformed one of the company’s existing home security motion sensors into a device that’s smart enough to classify different types of motion, even to the point of wirelessly monitoring a person’s breathing and heart rate.

The upgrades to the motion detector mostly came in the form of sophisticated processing algorithms that allow the sensor’s ‘brain’ to better process a person’s movement. Possible applications for the improved motion sensors include monitoring patients or the elderly at home as well as neonatal infant health monitoring since premature babies often have skin that’s too fragile to physically attach sensors to.

[ PR - GE Scientists Create Wireless Medical Sensing Platform ] VIA [ Medgadget ]