By Shane McGlaun

The first Fast & Furious movie was really cool and I liked it a lot. The second and third films in the franchise were not nearly as cool and enjoyable to me. Friday marked the release of the fourth film in the franchise with the original actors, and from what I hear it is a pretty good movie.

As typically happens today, a new video game launched alongside the movie for the iPhone. The new Fast & Furious game is the sixth game in the franchise to come to the iPhone and iPod touch. The game is available now on the iTunes store for $5.99.

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By Andrew Liszewski

TechEBlog managed to find an intriguing eBay auction for an old 1970′s Sega arcade game known as Gun Fight. Since the game predates everything from vector graphics to sprites, players actually take control of miniature wild west figures and try to shoot their opponent before they taste the searing kiss of hot lead. And to make things more challenging, the game includes various obstacles like cacti that can be used for cover until the tops get “blown-off”.

I also managed to dig up a site with scans of the Sega Gun Fight manual (I like the “Fast Draw to Profits” tag line) as well as a YouTube clip of the game in-action, which I’ve included after the jump. Oh, and if you’d like to add the Gun Fight arcade machine to your collection, there’s a Buy It Now price of just $2,400.

[ eBay - 1970 Sega Gun Fight arcade game in great condition ] VIA [ TechEBlog ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

While wandering the floors of a trade show like CES, the only thing more important than having a bag for stashing press kits and other assorted crap is finding a comfortable place to sit while writing. Unfortunately for me that turned out to be the floor 90% of the time, but not next year! Thanks to Hammacher Schlemmer ($129.95) I’ll always have a place to sit, and shout directions, with this Messenger Bag Director’s Chair.

The chair folds down to less than 4-inches thick and while the whole package weighs about 9lbs it can actually support weights up to 250lbs, which equates to about half of the brochures I had stuffed in my suitcase when I left Vegas. As an added bonus there’s a cup holder on one of the armrests for holding your perpetually empty water bottle, and various pockets for storing other gear.

[ Messenger Bag Director's Chair ] VIA [ The Design Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Tired of fumbling with the buttons on your alarm clock every morning? Well as you can see in the product shots, this alarm doesn’t actually have any buttons, and instead relies on a motion sensor for controlling its various functions. By simply waving your hand above the clock you can do everything from switch between the time, date and temperature to setting up a countdown timer and even programming the daily alarm. It can also apparently light up with 5 different colors, and is available from Homeloo in orange or green for just $8.

[ Magic Sensor LCD Clock ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Evan Ackerman

Hey. Hi there. How’re you doing, good? Good. So, when’s the last time you backed up your computer? I only bring this up because last Friday, someone broke into my apartment and stole my laptop. This, to put it mildly, really sucks for me. But luckily, I had backed up most of my data, which downgraded this whole experience from utterly catastrophic to a serious inconvenience. With this in mind, I would like to spend just a little bit of time suggesting ways in which you can prepare yourself for something happening to your computer which, if you’re anything like me, probably has stuff on it that represents a significant chunk of your life and sanity.

Now, I realize that many (if not most) of you probably have never had to deal with serious data loss. Yeah, maybe some file gets misplaced or eaten every once in a while, but that’s about it. I won’t belabor the multitude of ways in which totally unexpected and really bad stuff can happen to your computer, but you should just spend a minute thinking about what exactly is stored on your hard drive and what the implications would be if you were to come home one day and find that it had just disappeared. Never mind the actual physical computer, that’s replaceable. But think about your music. Your documents. Your email. Your pictures. A lot of that stuff is just not recoverable, and some of it (pictures especially) are priceless. I’m not saying you should be super paranoid all the time, but I am saying that you should recognize what some of the data on your computer is worth, and treat it accordingly. Some suggestions, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

They say there’s different strokes for different folks, and while I’m not sure how much entertainment I’d get from watching a tiny powered car race around the inside of a bowl, I’m sure someone, somewhere would. But I will give props where props are due. The MM Circuit Mini Racer from Gakken comes with an impressively tiny car that’s just 0.98 inches long and weighs only 3 grams. It doesn’t have any steering capabilities, but it will race around the inside of the included plastic bowl (or a bowl of your choosing) thanks to what I assume is a small electric motor inside, and not just a flywheel.

It comes with a charger/launcher that’s powered by 2xAA batteries and a Japanese-only manual, but I’m just not sure if there’s enough novelty here to justify the $53 price tag from the Japan Trend Shop.

[ MM Circuit Mini Racer ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When TV came along, photos, paintings and other artsy objects that people hang on the walls of their homes quickly became ignored in favor of that wonderful glowing box. But did anyone ever stop to think about how that made a lot of those household objects feel? The designers at Troika did, and to put some power back in the hands of the picture frame they came up with the TV Predator concept.

Instead of just hanging on the wall, looking all depressed because it’s being ignored, thanks to modern technology the TV Predator can finally fight back against the TV by randomly changing the channels, adjusting or muting the volume, turning them on and off at all hours of the day and doing everything it can to turn the homeowner against the boob tube. The concept was created to examine the idea that advances in AI and technology could eventually give older electronics the ability to get jealous and strike back against newer products designed to replace them. Kind of like the Futurama episode “Obsoletely Fabulous” where Bender was replaced by Robot 1-X.

Thanks Meg!

[ Troika TV Predator ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Without a doubt, the biggest downside to Rock Band is the drum kit, guitars and other gear that ends up cluttering a corner of your living room when you’re not playing. But here’s an elegant solution to the mess. The Rock Box is an upholstered leather (or at least leather looking) ottoman designed to cleverly hide your Rock Band gear. It’s spacious enough to hold 2 guitars, the foot pedal and the microphone, and also features a specially designed lift that raises and lowers the drum kit with an easy one-hand motion. Now the Rock Box unfortunately isn’t cheap, it’s currently $199.99 on Amazon minus the Rock Band instruments, but it’s a neat solution that cleverly blends both form and function.

[ AK Rock Box Gaming And Storage Ottoman With Drum Lift ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Luke Anderson

[ The following concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

Another week has passed, which means 5 more days worth of questions have been answered by yours truly over at the Laptop Experts site. As you likely know already, I answer a selection of questions every weekday at the Toshiba-sponsored Laptop Experts website. As with every other week, I’ll give you a recap of a few questions that were answered.

Power issues are never fun to deal with, especially when like these two people, your battery won’t hold a charge, or the whole thing won’t power on at all. What happens when you’re outside of the US and need to download drivers from a US-based site? Also, someone was having a strange issue where they would type one letter on their keyboard, and a number would show up.

If you’ve got a laptop issue that’s been plaguing you, or feel like working your brain by answering a few questions, then head on over to the Laptop Experts website and join in.

[ Laptop Experts ]