After a week of wall-to-wall 3D TVs at CES it’s nice to find something different and unique to get that nasty taste out of my mouth. And this Sand Shaper more than fits the bill. It’s a simple handheld tool that allows you to create near perfect spheres out of compacted sand or even snow, for those of you living under a blanket of white these days. Creating the spheres looks to be more about the technique than the device itself, but the Sand Shaper seems easy enough for even a toddler to use. Check out this video to see what I mean.
I can’t seem to find any pricing info on the company’s website or where to buy them, but I can’t imagine it would be anything more than $10 at most.
Update: Get em’ here for $12 a pop, or a set of 4 different sizes for $40. Thanks to everyone who provided links in the comments.
1080p? Yawn. It’s been done. If high def is the new normal def, what’s the new high def? It’s UHD (Ultra High Definition), which takes 1920 x 1080 full HD and quadruples the resolution to 3840 x 2160. This particular TV is an 84″ LCD from LG… Good luck spotting any pixels, even if I zoom waaaaayyyy in:
It’s kinda cool that you can actually get closer to the TV and examine things in greater detail, kinda like you can in real life. Not that this is necessarily a good thing, since it encourages unhealthy viewing distances. At least Sony is way ahead of us on that one.
It’s gonna be a little while before you’ll be able to buy a TV like this, if for no other reason than you’ll have a hard time finding any content that utilizes its full potential. And by the time stuff like this is available, we’ll be looking forward to the next high def standard… 8k (7680 x 4320, or 33 megapixels) should be arriving sometime around 2020.
Oh Fred! Besides brightening my occasional trips to hipster-mecca Urban Outfitters and providing perfect gift ideas for people I don’t really care about, you also occasionally come up with something that even I wouldn’t mind using. «REW not only cleans up those dangling headphone cables by spooling them inside a snap-shut case, but it’s got a retro cassette-tape design that lets everyone know you’ll always have a soft spot for your first Walkman, even if you’ve long since sold your soul to Apple.
At CES we came across quite a few accessories for adding GPS functionality to the iPod Touch and even the first generation iPhone, but they usually consisted of some monstrous sleeve or case that made the device inconvenient to carry around. But PosiMotion has come up with what I think is a better idea. Their G-Fi is basically a battery-powered wireless router with built-in GPS hardware that can stream navigation and position data to your device. It works with both the iPod Touch and iPhone 2G in conjunction with PosiMotion’s Navmii turn-by-turn navigation software ($32.99) and while the mini router can be used to connect any devices that support ad-hoc wifi networks for multiplayer gaming or file transfers, I’m not sure if the streamed GPS data can be used by other applications.
The built-in rechargeable battery powers the G-Fi for about 5 hours with a broadcast range of about 100 feet, and I guess the $99 price tag is a bit cheaper than upgrading to the iPhone 3G or 3GS depending on your current contract. But if you’re trying to choose between the iPod Touch with this and a dedicated GPS device, the latter is probably a cheaper solution. However, if you’re just interested in the mobile wifi router aspect, PosiMotion also sells the G-Fi VS which has a 6 hour battery since it’s not powering GPS chipsets, and a price tag of just $49.99.
I know, I know, I know. Another steering wheel accessory for the iPhone? Ugh… That’s exactly what I thought when I saw the Helix Gaming Grip at the PosiMotion booth at CES. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t make me want to download Need for Speed Shift from the App Store before I walked away, and the only thing I’ve ever played on my iPhone is Solitaire!
The Helix is pleasantly compact, and while it’s by no means pocket-friendly, the simple design actually won me over. Your iPhone can be placed in the slightly flexible grip in either portrait or landscape orientation and is held in place by nothing more than tension & friction, though iPod Touch users will need to use a small clip on adapter. Now I’m not sure if the Helix is something I’d go out of my way to travel with, even during my daily commute, but I could see it being stashed in a drawer and pulled out for the occasional accelerometer-based game.
The Helix Gaming Grip is expected to be available sometime in Spring of 2010, but you can pre-order one now on the PosiMotion site for $19.99.
We’ve written about plenty of USB powered vacuums in the past, designed to keep your desk or workspace free of Cheetos crumbs, but this USB Dust Vacuum Mouse kills 2 birds with one stone. I mean you’re already pushing a mouse around your desk all day, why shouldn’t it be sucking up crumbs and dust the whole time? Who has time to do both? And besides an always accesible minivac, your $12.69 also gets you a fairly capable 800dpi optical mouse with a scroll wheel and what appears to be slightly ergonomic styling.
Put your kids on the path to a long and satisfying career in the field of bio-engineering with Mattel’s new Xtractaurs dinosaur toys. A $20 starter kit comes with what appears to be a T-Rex as well as an ‘extraction gun’ which is used to sample the dinosaur’s DNA. The gun is connected to your PC and the DNA data gets uploaded to the Xtractaurs website where the sampled dinosaur then comes to life.
But instead of just playing with their dinosaur, kids actually uses them to battle the evil ‘Megazaurs’ in an online game. Where things get interesting though is that there are about 15 different dinosaurs that kids can collect (about $10 each) sample the DNA and then combine it to make more powerful genetic hybrids. Cause there’s nothing kids like more than playing mother nature!
We didn’t get a chance to play with it while at CES, but on many occasions at the show we would have loved to have the functionality promised by the AirStash flash drive. It’s a bit clunkier than the handfuls of regular flash drives we walked away with, but that’s because it’s got a built-in 802.11b/g wifi access point as well as an SDHC card slot allowing you to access the contents of an SD card from any wireless device. Like a laptop, PC, and more importantly, the iPhone.
Want to email a pic you just snapped but don’t have a computer handy? Well using any web browser you can access the contents of your camera’s SD card with the AirStash, or just browse through the photos on your iPhone’s large display. Unfortunately because it was just announced at CES there’s no info on pricing, availability or even how long its rechargeable battery will last, but we’ll keep you posted once those important tidbits are made available.
PC gamers such as myself are always big on customizing our keyboards and mice. Generally that means mapping keys to specific functions and adjusting the sensitivity of the mouse. However, when given the ability, we love to take the customization to a higher level. In the past we’ve seen mice that have adjustable weights, which can make a difference. However, Mad Catz has raised the bar when it comes to mouse customization with their new line of Cyborg R.A.T. mice.
The Cyborg R.A.T mouse is one of the craziest looking peripherals that I’ve seen. At first glance, it does not look like something that would be comfortable at all. However, after placing my hand on it, I found it to be exactly the opposite. In fact, thanks to the unique features it can become one of the most comfortable mice on the market.
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