By Chris Scott Barr

If you’ve spent a lot of time behind a camera, you’ve no doubt discovered just how much of an impact lighting has on your pictures. Sure, you can make do with that built-in flash on your DSLR, but if you really want some great shots, you’ll need to cough up the dough for a decent flash. Once you’ve done that, you can pick up this awesome kit from Brando that will really let you do some cool stuff.

This kit includes 6 different flash accessories that will drastically improve the quality of your shots. I’m still in the learning process myself, and for $88, this kit certainly looks tempting.

[ Brando ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

It looks like Microsoft is really gearing to shake things up in the retail world. Apparently they have decided that the world is finally ready for dedicated brick-and-mortar Microsoft stores. This week the company announced that they will be opening the first of their stores this Fall, with more coming next year. Fall seems like a good time for them to be opening a store, what with Windows 7 coming out in October, but the real question is what they’re going to be selling.

Apple stores do well because they sell hardware. You can walk in and find just about any Apple computer you want, not to mention iPods and other accessories. Is Microsoft going to sell computers from other manufacturers? If so, which OEMs will get a spot in the store? If they don’t, then will you simply see shelves lined with copies of Windows, Office and a spattering of Microsoft peripherals? That doesn’t seem like it would really draw in a lot of people. I suppose they’ll have Zune’s too, but who really buys a Zune anyway?

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By Chris Scott Barr

I’m a gamer, which means I like to pump as much juice as I can out of my computer. Overclocking means more heat, which I combat by using a liquid cooling system. Liquid cooling isn’t all that uncommon in high-end computers, however, it’s practically unheard of for light bulbs. Until now, that is.

This small LED bulb uses liquid-cooling so that it can provide full 360-degree lighting. It consumes only 4 Watts of power, while still giving off the same amount of light as a traditional 25 Watt bulb. Sure, it’s not the brightest in the world, but it would be great for small desk lamps and such. Each bulb will set you back $35 and is rated for up to 35,000 hours. You know you want to get one, just to say you have a liquid-cooled bulb.

[ EternalLEDs ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

David Berry, an ‘ILMer’ who worked at the world renowned effects shop when it was just started back in the late 70′s has posted a great collection of behind-the-scenes super 8 home movies he shot while they were working on Star Wars. These days the effects industry is mostly driven by software, so it’s cool to see how shots were created and assembled before the advent of the render button. Not to mention the fact you’re watching people who completely revolutionized an industry and obviously had fun while doing it.

Unfortunately it doesn’t seem like I can embed the video here, so you’ll have to head over to Vimeo to check it out.

[ Vimeo - 5757 ] VIA [ The Official Star Wars Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’d like to confidently say there will never be a mountain climbing game or accessory for the Nintendo Wii, but given how much other crap has come out for the system, I’m just not sure. But until that day comes, mountain climbing enthusiasts can now enjoy their favorite pastime from the comfort of their own backyard with the ClimbStation. (Assuming there isn’t already a mountain in their backyard.)

It’s technically portable, though it requires a car with a trailer hitch to move it around, but once it’s set up it provides a 150cm wide climbing surface with 90 holds that can be configured however you prefer. For more advanced climbers the ClimbStation features a hydraulic tilting mechanism that can adjust the angle of the climbing face between +15 to -30 degrees, and it has a top scrolling speed of 17 meters per minute. But for novices the ClimbStation also incorporates sensors that keep track of how fast or how slow you’re climbing and will automatically adjust the scrolling speed to match your pace. If you climb fast the wall scrolls faster, and if you stop the wall will slow down giving you time to find your next hold. It’s an impressive piece of exercise equipment and should be with a price tag of just over $42,000.

[ ClimbStation ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Cables are so 1920! But for some reason we’ve yet to been able to completely rid ourselves of those tangled burdens. Thankfully there’s devices like the new HDAiR from Altona Technologies that are helping us cut those cords one by one. It’s a wireless USB display adapter that lets you connect a USB-equipped PC or laptop to a Hi-def display or projector via HDMI or VGA. The HDAiR has a usable range of about 30 feet (it doesn’t require a line of site) and over that distance you can push an image with a resolution of 720P or 1440×1200. $199 available now on the Altona website.

[ Altona HDAiR ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This morning Corsair launched a new ‘extreme’ series of solid-state drives that use the Indilinx Barefoot controller, Samsung MLC NAND flash memory and 64MB of on-board cache to achieve read speeds of up to 240MB/sec and and write speeds of up to 170MB/sec. The drives will come in 3 capacities including 32GB, 64GB and 128GB and should be available worldwide immediately. While they’re obviously not the biggest SSDs on the market, if speed is your priority I’m sure these will work quite nicely.

[ Corsair SSDs ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Can I interest anyone in a fake light switch that only shows the time via a small red LED display? And while I say ‘fake’ because it can’t be used to control any lights, the on/off switch does actually work, but only to turn the time display on and off. But why would anyone want to do that? Well to stop time of course!

Whenever I screw up and the deadline ties me up, I always think. “I wanna stop the time.” Of course I know nobody can do that. But instead of stopping the time, at least I might forget about it. That’s the starting of the idea. This clock is for people who want to turn the time off for a while. It doesn’t show you the time if you turn the switch off. As soon as you turn it on, the projection starts to light up from the back and show the time.

[ Time Switch ] VIA [ wrooney ]

By Chris Scott Barr

How many times have you been in a war zone and needed to quickly and quietly get a message to someone? Sure, I’m guessing that a lot of you haven’t been in that situation, but I’m sure that it can be rather a difficult task. Well this new AK-39 keyboard was designed to help overcome that obstacle.

Besides the obvious ability to be strapped to an arm, the keyboard can withstand harsh electromagnetic interference and has LED backlighting so it can be used with night vision goggles. Now I just wonder how long it’ll be before someone makes a cheap knockoff for cell phones. There’s no word on pricing, but iKey is happy to send you a quote if you’re really interested.

[ iKey ] VIA [ Dvice ]