In terms of transformability, these new Transformers watches aren’t that far off from the Kronoforms that helped make the 80′s as awesome as they were. But I don’t think today’s kids will even give them a second look since all they’re really getting is a basic robot toy and an even more basic LCD clock. No sound effects, no rocket launchers, no LEDs and no websites to interact with. Yeesh! When I was a kid we didn’t have… well you know how it goes. $9.99 each available from Amazon.
I grew up during the peak of sneaker fanaticism, and the release of the Reebok Pump was akin to Apple unveiling the original Macintosh or the iPhone. It basically blew our grade school minds, and I can’t believe (or refuse to believe) that it’s been 20 years since they were first introduced.
To commemorate the big 2-0 Reebok will start a year-long celebration on November 20 that will first see a re-release of the original Pump basketball shoe, followed by re-releases of other iconic models continuing through 2010. But don’t expect to be able to go into your local Foot Locker to snag a pair. According to Acquire, the shoes will only be available at select retail outlets around the world, including:
atmos (Tokyo), Kasina (Seoul), Juice (Hong Kong), Stolen Riches (Toronto), Espionage (Sydney), KICKS/HI (Hawaii), UNDEFEATED (L.A.), Bodega (Boston), Saint Alfred (Chicago), HUF (San Francisco), Commonwealth (Virginia), Packer Shoes (New Jersey), Size? (London), Sneakersnstuff (Stockholm), Patta (Amsterdam), colette (Paris), Solebox (Berlin), Hanon (Scotland) and 24 Kilates (Barcelona)
At what point did video arcades go from fun zombie killing and racing games, to simulators recreating mundane tasks like cooking and now text messaging?! That’s right, the Textminator (that’s what it’s really called) features a set of stainless steel phone-like keypads that allow 1 or 2 players to compete in a series of texting challenges including an arcade mode and racing the clock. It’s even got a built-in camera allowing egomaniacs to snap a photo of themselves for the high-score board. Now I know there are cellphone users out there who pride themselves on their texting speed, but why would anyone want to pay the $1 or $2 this elaborate setup will no doubt charge to prove their texting prowess when they can just do it on the cellphones they’re already paying for?!
Could someone please explain to me why, exactly, roboticists seem to think that it’s such a good idea to give their creations swords? Like, I get that it’s a way to demonstrate grasping and dexterous movements, but if you start with robots demonstrating swords, you move on to robots fighting each other with swords, and this will be our terrifying future. And swordplay seems to be a bad idea for HUBO here more than most, since it repeatedly hits itself in the head with a sword that is thankfully not made out of anything dangerous…
As Uncrate points out, being the “world’s first” often results in your having to charge an obscene amount for your wares. That said, we kind of like Imation’s wireless USB hard drive, if only because once again, any effort to ditch wires is welcome by us. Featuring transfer speeds of 15MBs/second and a range of 30 feet, the drive can store up to 1.5TB of whatever you think worthy of keeping around. If your main workstation is a mobile computer you can see how this setup can be useful as you won’t have to actually walk to your drive and tether your computer every time you want to back something up.
Sadly, ditching the wires on your external drive will cost you a pretty $450.
Cloud Engines has unveiled a new version of their Pogoplug hard drive mobile access networker sharing thingy. Um, let me take another stab at that: Pogoplug (which we first saw last year at CES) is a little tiny computer that talks to USB hard drives and makes their content accessible from anywhere, and easily sharable with anyone. It doesn’t do anything that you couldn’t do with all kinds of major networking headaches, but that’s exactly why it’s so useful: you just plug it in, it works, and you’re done.
Version 2 of the Pogoplug features a redesign that incorporates a few more USB ports, making it easier to add multiple drives, although you can also use a USB hub to do the same thing. It comes on a weird pink sled, which personally I’m not a big fan of… I kinda liked the unapologetic functionality and smaller form factor of the original. There are also a host of new features on the software side, the most notable of which are automatic media syncing and global search, but you’ll also find new tools for creating and sharing media slide shows and other social features like a sharing address book.
The Pogoplug 2 is currently on pre-order for $129 (looks like the original version is still an even $100), which includes a lifetime of web sharing service.
There’s no indication it will be made available in North America, but as November 16, Japanese manga artists have been able to buy a special version of Wacom’s Bamboo Pen & Touch tablet (reviewed here) called the ‘Comic Pen & Touch’ that includes comic book specific software such as “the pixia painting program, the CG illust 4.5 paint program demo from manga supply maker Deleter, the Comic Studio Mini manga layout program, and the Comicworks manga creation program demo for new artists.” And given a lot of the software appears to be demo or starter versions, I can’t imagine the Bamboo Comic will cost any more than the standard Bamboo Pen & Touch version.
Black Friday is only a week away, which means people will be lining up outside stores to get their hands on the cheapest gifts for the holiday season. HDTV’s, laptops and digital cameras will all be flying off the shelves only a few short minutes after the doors open. However, if a new TV is on your list, you might not need to fight the crowds for a good deal.
I usually don’t make it a habit of writing about a sale that some particular store is having, but this is too good to pass up. Best Buy has announced that they will be offering 32-inch 720p Dynex LCD TV’s for $299.99 and 40-inch 1080p Dynex LCD TV’s for $499.99. Those prices might sound like good doorbuster sales, but they aren’t. Rather, these are the new everyday prices and are effective right now.
Sure, Dynex isn’t the top brand out there, but the prices are almost too good to pass up. The best part is that you’re not going to have to stand outside in the freezing cold to get in on this. I’ll be interested to see how other manufacturers respond to this.
Google announced their new Chrome operating system yesterday, and as you’d expect from Google, it’s something innovative and entirely online, since as Google points out, we’re all online almost all the time anyway. At its heart, Chrome OS is just a browser, and all the applications that you’re used to having on your computer run as web applications (like Google Docs). A key difference from traditional web apps, though, is that Chrome will be able to harness some of the powers of the computer that it’s running on, thanks to the next generation of HTML, HTML 5. Like a browser, Chrome OS will start in mere seconds, and it’s designed specifically for netbooks. In a nutshell: Chrome OS is just like Google’s Chrome browser, except it’ll run web based applications that give it the functionality of a conventional operating system. While a developers build is available now, Chrome OS will officially launch sometime next year.
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By Evan Ackerman
