By Chris Scott Barr

I remember as a kid having to go to Payless Shoes a couple times a year (depending on my age) and picking out new shoes to replace the uncomfortably small ones on my feet. I was hard on shoes anyway, so I really didn’t mind picking out a nice new pair. My parents, on the other hand, weren’t usually as happy when they had to pay for yet another pair of shoes that I’ll outgrow. Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a shoe that grew with your foot? There is, it’s called the INCHworm.

These shoes have an accordion-like material around the arch of the foot, which can be pulled outward to increase the length of the shoe. All you have to do is press a button, pull, and your shoe can grow up to a full 3 sizes in ½ size increments. A small counter in the heel even lets you know which size the shoe currently is. For those worried that their child will wear out the shoes long before they outgrow them, the company assures us that they are some of the toughest shoes on the playground. They’ll definitely save parents some scratch at just $39.99 a pair.

[ INCHworm Shoes ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

by Shane McGlaun

Back when I was a kid getting a better picture on the TV Friday nights for watching Dukes of Hazard and The Incredible Hulk meant making my brother stand on one leg with tin foil in one hand and rabbit ears in the other. Today we have HD images and I have become so accustomed to the great picture quality I can hardly stand to watch SD programs.

The problem is that for people with smaller rooms and not enough space for a big 1080p TV there were few options other than a SD TV. Viewsonic has announced a new 22-inch screen TV that has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 offering full HD 1080p image quality. The set has integrated ATSC/NTSC/QAM digital tuners, so it’s ready for the summer transition to all digital broadcasts.

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by Shane McGlaun

I am a big fan of PC gaming and if you have ever compared graphics on games available on PC and console systems when the PC is well equipped, it is easy to see the graphics on PC are much better. The rub for many PC gamers is that the hardware costs much more than buying a game console. The video cards alone often cast more than an Xbox and a Wii put together.

NVIDIA has announced a new mid-range video card called the GTX 275 that puts good performance into the hands of gamers looking to spend about $250. Sure, that’s still more than a Wii, but you can do so much more on a computer than you can on the Wii. The GTX 275 slots into the lineup between the GTX 260 and GTX 285 in price and performance.

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By Andrew Liszewski

As if it wasn’t awesome enough that E3 was returning to its former glory this year, according to Kotaku, Steve Wiebe will be making an official attempt to reclaim the Donkey Kong world record, currently help held by The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters antagonist, Billy Mitchell. The attempt will go down on June 2, and officials from Twin Galaxies and other gaming notables will be on hand, in addition to probably any one who’s seen the documentary and wants to see Steve reclaim the record. So if you’re heading to E3 this year, make sure to get your Donkey Kong Kill Screen tee and cheer Steve on in style.

[ Kotaku - King Of Kong Rematch Going Down At E3 ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that Sony makes some really nice toys sometimes. Their latest ultra-compact camcorder, the HDR-TGV5, records “full” 1920X1080 video (compressed to AVCHD) to 16GB of built-in flash memory which should accommodate about 6 hours of footage in LP mode. And if that runs out, you can always throw a Memory Stick PRO Duo card in there when you need more storage.

The 2.7-inch LCD display should help reduce the camcorder’s battery life, but it also serves as a touch screen interface, reducing the amount of buttons that usually clutter up the exterior. The HDR-TG5V’s also got a built-in GPS antenna and comes with NAVTEQ digital maps allowing you to geo-tag your videos and photos and see where they were captured right on the camera’s display.

The HDR-TG5V is expected to ship sometime in May, and will set you back about a grand.

[ PR - Sony TG5V ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Evan Ackerman

Every night, farmer Bob tried to chase down those stupid little gray aliens with the big black eyes who were stealing his cows. And every day, farmer Bob’s friends would call him crazy. Until, that is, they saw the footage from his video recording flashlight with infrared LEDs. Knowing that aliens have deceptively poor eyesight, farmer Bob was able to sneak up to within 13 feet of them and use the 17 infrared LEDs on the flashlight to covertly illuminate the scene. Then, the integrated video camera captured the cownapping shenanigans in 640×480 video at 30 fps onto the 128 mb of internal memory, supplemented by a microSD card slot. Of course, it was easy for farmer Bob to find his way home later when he turned on the bright 3 watt white LED, and he could always look at the flashlight’s LCD screen to check on how much power was left in the 3 C batteries as well as the status of his recordings. All in all, farmer Bob was proud of his $399.95 investment, and it served him well, until one night, farmer Bob never came back.

So, let this be a lesson to you: if you go out stalking cow stealing aliens with a $400 infrared video recording flashlight, and your friends call you crazy, listen to them, ’cause man, you’re crazy.

[ Hammacher ] VIA [ Gizmowatch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

In case you missed it, yesterday was the first day of April. To those not in the know, some people call this “April Fool’s Day.” At one point this used to mean that individuals played fun pranks on other individuals. However, in the age of high-speed internet, it means that approximately 78.3%* of all news posted on that day is complete BS. Bear that in mind when reading about this product. I’m not saying that it’s fake, but if it ends up being such, at least I warned you.

Warwick Audio Technologies has created a nearly paper-thin speaker (which looks a good bit like ordinary tin foil) that can be hung on walls like pictures to shout at you as you’re passing by. While I’m sure that advertisers would love to get their hands on this stuff, I really don’t look forward to a time when ads are talking to me every time I pass one, ala Minority Report. I won’t pretend to completely understand the mechanics behind the speakers, so I’ve reposted the explanation in its entirety after the jump.

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By Evan Ackerman

According to internal polling data that I just made up, the average OhGizmo reader has 16.03 gadgets. That’s a lot, and since most if not all of them require electricity to operate, it’s important to mooch as much of it from other people as possible. The extension cord that you have plugged into your neighbor’s garage can only handle so much current, but soon there may be a way to steal electric power from someone who isn’t expecting it and won’t come after you with a weed whacker: the water company.

This little device gets stuck onto the end of a faucet or inserted into an existing water pipe. It’s got a little hydroelectric turbine in it, and when water moves through, the turbine spins to charge a battery. You can then plug into the battery to charge stuff. It’s not completely free, of course… You’re taking advantage of either gravity or a water company pump somewhere, and you’ll pay for your electricity with a reduction in water pressure caused by the resistance of the turbine. But hey, if you don’t overthink it, it’s free [minuscule amounts of] electricity!

Needless to say, there’s no information on production, but I bet whatever it would cost would be the equivalent of a whoooole bunch of kilowatt-hours of electricity out of a socket.

[ coroflot ] VIA [ TrendHunter ]

By Andrew Liszewski

There’s no surer sign that Summer is just around the corner than the stores filling up with beach and water toys. And what better way to have fun in the sun (or suns, depending on where you live) than with a collection of Star Wars inflatable toys? These come courtesy of Jakks Pacific and include everything from the Millennium Falcon, to an X-Wing, to Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s starfighters from the prequels. (Not pictured.) And as StarWars.com asks, why has it taken 31 years to get an inflatable Death Star beach ball?

Sadly, that R2-D2 floating drink holder won’t be out until next year, but you should be able to find the rest of them at Target stores in the US, or Walmart stores in Canada, though I have no idea on the pricing.

[ StarWars.com - Blow Up The Death Star! ] VIA [ TheForce.Net ]