By Andrew Liszewski

What better way is there to keep the kids occupied on a warm Summer day than with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry? But what parent wants to spend the afternoon playing official timekeeper while their kids swim laps in the pool? Enter the Swimways ESPN Swimming Challenge which not only comes with an ESPN decal on the side, but a couple of mountable touch pads that can be used by two swimmers to start and stop the timers on the waterproof (hopefully) clock. There’s also a set of LED displays that show the current time, winning time and number of laps if you’re just in it for the exercise. $43.95 at SwimOutlet.com.

[ Swimways ESPN Swimming Challenge ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Oh Hammacher Schlemmer! Every update to your website is a cornucopia of gagdets and gizmos I never knew I needed. For example, last week I was blissfully unaware I had any desire to own a 6-foot remote control model of the RMS Titanic. But here we are, and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to get through next week without this thing half-sticking out of my bathtub.

Of course the $2,500 price tag is a good deterrent, but you do get what you pay for. At 6-feet from bow to stern the 1:150 scale model is constructed from over 300 handcrafted pieces and each one involves over 400 man hours of assembly. The attention to detail is pretty impressive too, including miniature white maple planks for the decking that have been stained to replicate the color of the originals, as well as real mahogany and cedar used for other parts of the ship including the superstructure and detailing.

Its 3 propellers are powered by 3 x 550-watt electric motors, and 2 rechargeable batteries provide enough juice to propel the Titanic up to 5mph for about 3 hours. And the included remote has a range of up to 75-feet which is probably something you’d want to be keenly aware of as it would be a shame to watch one of these go sailing off into the horizon if you ever lost control.

[ The Authentic 6 Foot Remote Controlled RMS Titanic ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Carrying around a metal detector while wearing a big set of headphones isn’t exactly the coolest look for the beach this Summer, but neither are these metal detecting sandals which I assume are meant to be a more subtle approach to finding buried treasure. There’s a copper coil embedded in the sole of the right sandal which connects to a removable battery pack you’re supposed to wear strapped to your calf. The detector can find metal objects buried as ‘deep’ as 2 feet underfoot, and it will alert you to their presence via a flashing red light, a gentle vibration and an audible buzz. It’s powered by a single 9V battery which is good for about 6 hour of use, and you can find it at Hammacher Schlemmer for $59.95.

[ The Metal Detecting Sandals ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

By Shane McGlaun

Every now and again, someone I know will ask me what Blu-ray player they should buy to go along with their new TV. I always tell them to get the PS3 because I think it’s one of the best Blu-ray players out there. I had a guy tell me he didn’t want video games in his house the other day and preferred a stand-alone Blu-ray player to the PS3.

For people who feel the same way Pioneer has launched a trio of new Blu-ray players including the Elite BDP-23FD, the BDP-120, and the BDP-320 models. The 23FD is aimed at the professional integrator looking for a player with full control capability for integrating into high-end home theaters. It includes a special KURO Link Picture Mode and a precision quartz lock system that helps prevent playback jitters. The 23FD sells for $599. Read the rest of this entry »

By Shane McGlaun

I have a couple gaming PCs in my house and none of them can be called green. In fact, my personal gaming PC can double as a heater in the winter and after a few hours use in the summer it makes my office unbearably hot.

Maingear has announced a gaming PC for the eco conscious gamer called the Pulse. According to Maingear, the Pulse is the world’s greenest gaming PC and is the first upgradable NVIDIA Ion PC ever. The machine uses NVIDIA Ion graphics for power savings and can be upgraded with a GeForce 9800 ECO video card. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

My desk seems to be plagued by a constant turf war between my mouse, keyboard and Wacom tablet who are constantly battling it out for real estate. But could the Combimouse finally bring peace to my desktop? It takes the idea of the split ergonomic keyboard one step further by allowing the right side to double as a mouse, so in theory you never have to take your fingers off the keys.

When your hands are poised in a standard typing stance the right side operates like a regular keyboard, but when you hold it like you would a mouse, you end up touching a contact switch on the side which automatically changes it to ‘mouse mode’. So not only can it be used to move the cursor, but the I, O, J, K, L and < keys become your mouse buttons. But don't get excited about ordering one just yet. It seems the Combimouse is still in the prototype stages at this point, though successful usability tests have been carried out by Wichita State University, so it just might make it to the market some day.

[ Combimouse ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Chris Scott Barr

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen a Batman game come along that I really enjoyed. I’ve been keeping my eye on Batman: Arkham Asylum since it was announced, and today I finally got my hands on a demo while at the Eidos booth.

The game looks fantastic, as you’ve no doubt seen from the trailers that are out. Much like Batman, your time is almost equally split between sneaking up on your enemies and kicking ass. You have a full arsenal of gadgets there to help you accomplish both tasks in style. I particularly enjoyed the combat, especially when you had a group of enemies trying to come at you at once. The more hits you chain together, the more finishing moves you can pull off. It only takes a few minutes to get a feel for the combat, and then you’re taking guys out left and right.

If you’re like me and enjoy the non-stop action parts, you can actually enter the challenge mode, which has 4 waves of enemies, with each growing larger and more difficult. Combine the action, good controls, excellent visuals and Mark Hamill voicing the joker once again, and you’ve got yourself one awesome Batman game. It’ll definitely be worth checking out when it hits stores on August 25th.

By Chris Scott Barr

Back at the end of 2007 I introduced you guys to a company called Fusion-IO, which was producing hard drives that ran on your PCI-Express slots. It was a pretty cool idea then, but unfortunately their offering was really salty, and aimed primarily at enterprise customers. Well since one of the co-founders is a hardcore gamer, they decided to branch out and try to bring the same incredible performance to a new crowd.

Enter the ioXtreme. This card holds 80GB of storage (NAND Flash) which is capable of giving you a performance boost that you won’t see by just upgrading your CPU and RAM. Games, large applications like Photoshop and Final Cut will open almost instantaneously. They likened it to bringing up a program that was minimized on your start bar, which is pretty incredible. They even said that it would be possible to boot Windows in just one second. Unfortunately this feature won’t be available at launch, due to them still working out bugs with a few different BIOS, it will however be available via a driver update. The card should be launching later this year for somewhere around $800, though the price is subject to change.

By Chris Scott Barr

Valve is a company that has never failed to impress me with a game. Coming to E3 I was hoping to hear some news about Half Life 2: Episode 3, or even something about the new Portal game. I was disappointed. What I didn’t expect was to see a new Left 4 Dead game this soon, especially with the SDK just getting released not long ago. Even better, the game was playable behind closed doors.

The game takes place in the deep south, with four average Joe characters fighting their way through a mass of zombies. They’re going to be adding short movies to the beginning of each of the 5 different campaigns to give you just a little more story than the first game. However, Valve stressed that they want the game to be more about the action and experience, so you won’t ever find yourself stopping in the middle of the game just to see some plot progression.

Read the rest of this entry »