By Andrew Liszewski

While the Bugatti Veyron might have beaten it when it comes to facts and figures, I still think the McLaren F1 is the greatest supercar ever produced. While the Veyron achieves its impressive speed and performance through sheer brute force, to me the McLaren F1 always looked like it could hit 200mph by just pushing it down a hill.

Well today McLaren announced the first details on their next high-performance sports car, and while it’s definitely not designed to outperform the F1, it’s also only expected to cost somewhere between ~$206,000 to ~$288,000. The MP4-12C, which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, features a one-piece carbon fiber “MonoCell” weighing in at a mere 176 pounds and is powered by a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 producing about 600HP and 433 lb-ft of torque. While top speed and 0-60 times were not officially noted in what has to be one of the most epic press releases of all time (Autoblog’s got it) rest assured they’ll probably be impressive.

[ Autoblog - McLaren MP4-12C: First batch of details and images surface ]

By David Ponce

We’re running on translated information with scant details but our understanding is that the Chinese Huawei E5 allows you to convert your 3G GSM signal into a WiFi signal. It’s also allegedly the world’s first to do this. This means you could turn it into a mobile hotspot and allow the connection of any nearby wireless devices. So instead of tethering your one laptop to your cell to access the Internet, you use this to create a hotspot and connect via WiFi using any device you like.

Detailed specs include:

Wi-Fi 802.11b/g

WAPI

HSUPA/HSDPA/UMTS 2100 MHz

EDGE/GPRS/GSM 1900/1800/900/850 MHz

MicroSD card: up to 32G

Sadly no details on pricing or availability, but these Chinese products have a knack of making their way here sooner or later.

[ Article (Translated) ] VIA [ Cloned In China ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Every so often it’s nice to review a gadget that’s devoid of firmware updates, software installs, driver issues, DRM, rechargeable batteries and other headaches that prevent a device from just plain working right out of the box. So when I had the chance to review the Slice line of cutting products, I figured it would be a nice change of pace.

Now you might not think there’s much room for technology or innovation when it comes to hobby knives and vegetable peelers, but you’d be wrong. The Slice line of products actually use a zirconium oxide ceramic blade that’s considered to be the most durable substance on Earth, next to diamonds of course. So besides being considerably harder and sharper than the steel blade on your average knife, there’s a long list of other reasons why you’ll want to upgrade your own collection of cutting, slicing and peeling tools after you read my review.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Evan Ackerman

Hard on the heels of the Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 is the Nerf Raider CS-35, a semi-automatic Nerf gun that makes use of an honest-to-goodness drum magazine, which manages to cram 35 darts into a single mag, letting you fire for a long, long time without having to reload. And the reloading system is modular, so that you can quickly swap the drum out for spring clips holding seven darts each.

The CS-35 is powered in the traditional Nerf manner, by you. Pulling the front grip back ‘charges’ the gun, while pushing it forward cocks it and chambers a dart. Squeeze the trigger to fire, or if you hold the trigger down, you can fire as fast as possible by just slamming the front grip back and forth. A big button on the side of the gun lets you easily release ammo clips, and Nerf thoughtfully included a port on the other side that opens to let you clear out jammed darts. The CS-35 is made of plastic that feels solid and durable, and easily accessible screws suggest that this Nerf gun should be simple to open up and modify.

The one thing to keep in mind is that loading systems aren’t completely modular across all of the guns, and neither are the darts. The drum mag takes only “streamline” darts, and you can’t use it in (for example) the Vulcan. By the same token, you sadly can’t use the Vulcan’s ammo belt in the CS-35. Aww.

The Nerf Raider CS-35 officially goes on sale today for a mere $30; you can find it at most major toy retailers nationwide.

[ Nerf ]

Special thanks to Nerf for sending me one of these bad boys to play with.

By David Ponce

A simple stainless steel creation by Scandinavian designer Maria Kivijärvi, the Cake Server could replace your current wedge-shaped cake cutter (or even more primitive knife) with this more elegant, purposeful and efficient utensil. It’s both cutter and prongs. Slice, squeeze, carry and release. The only issue we can see is if your horizontally challenged friends demand a larger piece. Or if you’re 20 people sharing slivers of cake.

Still, it’s smart and we like it. It’s made by Magisso and costs €60.

Keep reading for a video and links.

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By Andrew Liszewski

Just because you’ve embedded an LED into some random knick-knack doesn’t make it useful, and to be honest I would have thought the same thing about an LED-equipped clothespin. But seeing photos of Sungho Lee’s ‘Lighting Pin’ in action has changed my mind. Being able to clip it anywhere for hands-free lighting is one advantage, but attaching a rolled up piece of paper and creating an impromptu lamp is clever enough to make me want one of my own! It’s just too bad it doesn’t appear to be available for sale.

[ Sungho Lee ] VIA [ designboom ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Did you ever have a teacher or parent that always yelled at you for slouching? Well as annoying as that person may have been, they were probably right in doing so. Poor posture can lead to back and neck issues later in life, which no one wants to deal with. Since it’s hard to remember not to do it and you can’t have someone nagging at you all day, here’s a device that can alert you instead.

The USB Posture Alert Reminder uses ultrasonic sensors to detect just how close you are to your computer. This allows it to see when you’re slouching so that it can alert you accordingly. Alerts can come in the way of red and blue LEDs, or even a chime when you start to slouch. If posture is important, this $24 USB gadget might just be worth the cash.

[ SourcingMap ]VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I spend a lot of time typing, so having a keyboard that’s comfortable is really important. When I’m on the road, I don’t generally mind typing on my MacBook, but only for short periods. If I’m going to be writing anything of great length, I’m going to prefer a desktop keyboard every time. It’s for that reason that I’m surprised to find that Lenovo makes an external keyboard that’s modeled after their notebook keyboards.

The new ThinkPad USB Keyboard is actually not the first of its kind. Rather, Lenovo has been working with customers via surveys to create a better keyboard. The result was a keyabord that matches that of the T400-series laptop as close as humanly possible. Thanks to user input, they have removed the trackpad, numberpad and reduced the price to $59. I suppose if you’re really in love with your ThinkPad keyboard, then you might enjoy this. I’ll just stick with my regular desktop keyboard.

[ Lenovo ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re curious what $3,200 worth of CD player looks like, then feast your eyes upon the Impression II from Grant Fidelity. Designed for even the most picky of audiophiles, all of the electronics in the Impression II, including the power supply, the tube and solid state circuits, the tube analog output and the tube headphone amp are placed in the four corners of the player to prevent them from interfering with the CD player which sits in an isolated aluminum chassis in the middle.

The Impression II also features “defeatable up-sampling” with 3 optional frequencies including 44.1 kHz/16bit, 96 kHz/24bit and 192 kHz/24bit, though from what I can tell it doesn’t play SACDs which seems odd given the clientele they’re targeting. And since you’re already spending over 3 grand on this thing, you might as well go ahead and opt for the $380 polished stainless steel finish instead of the standard brushed aluminum one.

[ Grant Fidelity Reference Tube CD-1000 Player AKA The Impression II ] VIA [ Born Rich ]