By Andrew Liszewski

There’s just something more satisfying about playing air drums than air guitar, and I think it’s because almost anything from a pencil to a wooden spoon can be turned into drumsticks, whereas finding a suitable substitute for a real guitar is a bit trickier. Of course drumsticks alone can’t reproduce the sounds from a full-on drum kit, but these V-Beat sticks seem to fall somewhere in-between your imagination and the real thing.

The drumsticks feature motion sensors and come tethered to an electronic control box which is somehow able to detect the positions of the sticks. So hitting the air where a cymbal would be in a traditional drum kit would produce a cymbal sound, and hitting where a snare would be located would produce a snare sound, etc. It also comes with a pair of foot pedals which are used to produce the sounds from a bass drum and a hi-hat. Now the fact that the drumsticks aren’t wireless is kind of sucky, but it does mean the only batteries you’ll need are a set of 4xAAs for the control unit. And you can get it from Firebox.com for about $42.

[ V-Beat Drumsticks ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This morning Sony announced a new type of lithium ion secondary battery that includes all the major improvements one expects to hear from a new battery including higher power output, extended lifespan and faster charge times. The batteries, which are designed to be used in larger rechargeable batteries like the kind used in power tools (hence the basic label) feature an olivine-type lithium iron phosphate used as the cathode material. As someone who never progressed past high school chemistry I’m not quite sure why that’s a better material to use, but according to Sony it results in a battery that has a power density of 1800W/kg with 20A continuous discharge, a 2,000 charge-discharge life cycle and the ability to recharge up to 99% of its capacity in a mere 30 minutes. And apparently the new batteries have been shipping since June of this year, so thanks for letting us know right away Sony!

[ PR - Sony Launches High-power, Long-life Lithium Ion Secondary Battery Using Olivine-type Lithium Iron Phosphate as the Cathode Material ] VIA [ Sony Insider ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We don’t cover a lot of software here at OhGizmo!, but once in a while we come across an app that we feel is worth mentioning. Like Sudoku Grab for the iPhone, which is the perfect tool for those who like to tackle Sudoku puzzles, but never seem to have any success in solving them. You just take a shot of the puzzle using the iPhone’s camera (obviously the 3GS probably provides better results) and the application will automatically solve it in just a few seconds. You can also choose to actually play the puzzle on the iPhone first, once the numbers have all been converted, but why put up with all that frustration? $1 available from the iTunes App Store.

[ iTunes App Store - Sudoku Grab ] VIA [ Fosfor ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As new eBook readers continue to flood the market, it’s hard to weed out which ones actually have a shot at competing with Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s reader. But the new 5-inch Pocket PRO from Astak certainly warrants my endorsement, at least on paper. With a 5-inch, 8-level grayscale screen and a price tag of just $199 it’s definitely being targeted towards the low-end market, but it also supports over 20 different open file formats, and more importantly appears to be extra PDF-friendly.

Poor PDF support has been my major complaint with the Kindle and Sony’s reader, particularly when it comes to dealing with documents larger than the screen’s native resolution. But the Pocket PRO includes PDF reflow making those oversized docs a little easier to read on its 5-inch screen. Other features include text-to-speech that CAN’T be remotely disabled from what I can tell, MP3 support, 512MB of onboard storage plus an SD card slot and an expected ship date of late August.

[ PR - Astak's 5-Inch Pocket PRO eBook Reader Collaborates With Adobe Systems and Makes Its Debut ] VIA [ i4U News ]

By David Ponce

The little fellow you see on the picture here is called Evoia and is powered by two Panasonic EVOLTA AA alkaline batteries. We like to think of him as a modern version of the Energizer bunny. And his claim to fame is that he entered the Guinness Book of World Records as “the longest distance covered by a battery-operated remote-controlled model car.” That’s right, the little guy kept pedaling non-stop, following an infrared beam from a lead car for 5.6 laps – 23.726 km or 14.82 miles – around the 4.2 km Le Mans race circuit for 24 hours.

We’re not sure whether the toy ran out of juice at the end of the 24 hours, or if the stunt was simply stopped due to the lead car’s driver going insane from driving around at 0.6mph for 24 hours. Either way, hit the jump for an entertaining video of a bunch of photographers getting all paparazzi-ish around a two inch tall cycling toy.

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By Chris Scott Barr

A while back we mentioned that Toshiba had plans to sell Blu-ray players overseas. Well the company made things official by joining the Blu-ray Disc Association. They will be releasing players later this year, though they did not specify which markets would be getting them.

You have to wonder how awkward it was for them to finally join the Blu-ray camp. After all, they spent years pushing HD-DVD and after giving up early last year they want to make players for the competition. As a consumer, I say the more the merrier. The more companies making players, the more room there is for competition. Competition, of course, (usually) means better prices.

[ Toshiba ] VIA [ Gearlog ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Am I the only one that hates dealing with checks? I only write them to pay my rent, since I can’t use my debit card or any form of online payment. I’m not a big fan of people writing me checks for stuff either. I won’t complain when someone gives me money or anything, but I always forget to cash them since I never go to the bank. Well one bank has an awesome solution for depositing those checks you get.

To be as cliché as possible, “there’s an app for that.” If you bank with USAA (a bank for military personnel and their family members) you can actually snap pictures of the front and back of the check with your iPhone. In a short while, your funds will appear in your account like magic. While I do have a few doubts about the security of the system, it would be nice to see other banks pick up on this feature.

[ USAA ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Is it just me, or does this recordable megaphone seem kind of lazy? On one hand I understand that a megaphone can be an effective tool for making one’s concerns known to the general public, but on the other hand, I’d probably have a hard time believing you felt strongly about a particular cause if you were walking around simply playing back a recording of your protest chant.

On a set of 4 x D-sized batteries you can expect to get about 6-8 hours of broadcast time, and it even includes a siren option if you find your protests aren’t annoying enough. $22 from Otherland Toys.

[ Recordable Supporter's Megaphone ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As the world slowly progresses to HDTV it might seem odd to find a device designed to facilitate old standard-definition displays, but that’s exactly what the AT-HD530 from Atlona Technologies does. It accepts a 1080P HD or UXGA digital signal from a PC (1600×1200 @ 60Hz) via HDMI or DVI and downconverts it to a standard-def NTSC or PAL signal available via HDMI, S-video or even ancient composite RCA hookups.

Normally I wouldn’t even give such a device a second look, but since I’m in the middle of testing out a pocket-size Pico Projector that only has a composite video-in connection, I can see how something like this could be useful in certain situations. Just be aware that it won’t work with HDCP-enabled devices if you were hoping it could be used as a workaround. $299 from the Atlona website available in late August.

[ Atlona AT-HD530 ]