By Chris Scott Barr

There was a time not all that long ago where Mad Catz was a brand associated with cheap gaming accessories that no one really cared all that much about. After the acquisition of Saitek, the company really turned things around. I had the pleasure of checking out their latest line of products, each one a quality piece of hardware. In fact, the first one I’m going to show you isn’t even related to gaming.

We’ve seen a number of solutions for controlling your living room PC and Mad Catz has their own. Under the Eclipse brand, the new litetouch keyboard is a sleek peripheral that wouldn’t look bad at all sitting on your coffee table. It’s a little smaller than your average desktop keyboard, thanks to the F-keys being dropped down and the arrow keys (and a few others) being brought in to the left of where they’d normally sit. If it’s going to be sitting out, smaller is generally better.

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By Chris Scott Barr

These days buying music and putting it on your MP3 player of choice is a pretty simple task. Unfortunately for some of the older generation, even that can seem like a daunting task. Instead they’d perhaps just prefer to listen to the radio. Well if you’re looking to bring them into the age of MP3 players without scaring them too much, here is an interesting device that I saw while roaming the floor of CES.

Myine has created a rather curious radio called the Abbee, which is essentially used to record music. At its very basics, it  is your average FM radio that your parents and grandparents have used for years. The interesting thing is the small MP3 player docked on top of the unit. When you turn on the radio and hit the record button, that MP3 player will begin recording the music played (while automatically editing out the commercials and DJ talk).

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By Chris Scott Barr

iPhone cases were everywhere at CES this year. You couldn’t go past more than a few booths without someone showing off their latest designs. Most cases were similar to others on the market, but with a different pattern, or a slightly different feel. It was always a refreshment to see something that actually brought something new to the world of iPhone cases. One in particular from Case-Mate caught my eye as I was exploring their booth.

Here in Vegas there is little reason to carry around a bulky wallet. I don’t need all of the stupid club cards that you have to swipe at the grocery store and whatnot. I just need my ID, debit card and room key. Those, along with my iPhone are really the only essentials that I need on my person. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a case that could hold all of them? Well Case-Mate thinks so too. Their iPhone ID Credit Card Cases are meant to hold your phone and two credit card-sized items. I think that three might have been a better choice, but then again I rarely have to worry about a room key. For $30 you can leave your wallet at home, while still having the essentials.

[ Case-Mate ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you have an iPhone, it probably goes with you everywhere. But how many places do you take a cable to charge it? Since the iPhone is notorious for having less than spectacular battery life, it’s generally good to have a way to get extra juice to it when needed. Scosche was showing off their latest iPhone/iPod charge and sync cable at CES, which should be easy to keep on your person at all times.

The flipSYNC looks very much like an ordinary fob that you might have on your keychain. However, hidden within are two ends of a cable. One end for your iPhone/iPod and one that is an ordinary USB plug. As long as you have access to a free USB port, you’ll always have a way to charge and sync your device. These should be hitting the market soon for an undetermined price.

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By Andrew Liszewski

If you were planning on making your first million with the brilliant idea of adding a voice recorder to a foam ball, someone’s already beaten you to it. (There’s just something about shattering dreams and Monday mornings that I love.) Powered by 3 button cell batteries the Message Ball has a built-in voice recorder that will record and play back 10-seconds of trash talk, secrets or whatever else you choose to confide in the ball. It might also make for a handy tool for conversing with a co-worker if your company prohibits the use of cellphones, regular phones, instant messaging, talking, shouting, passing notes, email, carrier pigeons, smoke signals, morse code, sign language, cemaphore and/or telepathy. $12.99 from Perpetual Kid.

[ Hog Wild Message Ball ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Traveling with a compact power bar of some sort is a necessity these days, which is why I sincerely hope this Cute Cube power adapter concept becomes a reality, and soon! Designed by Zhang Xi, Wang Hui, Miao Yingying, Zhou Xing and Cai Yun and winner of a most deserved Red Dot Design Award, the Cute Cube is nothing more than your run-of-the-mill power bar, but in a vastly improved package.

First of all the compact cube shape makes it easy to carry in a laptop bag or suitcase, but it also ensures the sockets aren’t sitting next to each other, which can be problematic if you’ve got a large transformer plugged in that blocks other outlets. And if you do run into an issue because of the size of the plug you’re using or the orientation of its cord, each of the sockets on the Cute Cube can rotate to accommodate everything you need to plug in. Cute? Kind of. Brilliant? Absolutely.

[ Red Dot Design Awards - Cute Cube ] VIA [ I New Idea Homepage ]

By Evan Ackerman

Next door to CES is the Adult Entertainment Expo, and as a journalist, it’s my obligation to go. And I heard that the world’s first sex robot was going to be making its (her?) debut. On Friday I spent about 10 minutes interviewing the CEO of True Companion about the robot to get an overview and some background, and we’ve been promised a live demo today.

We’ve got a video after the break that’s probably NSFW, since it shows a scantily clad (but not naked) android and there is some mild discussion of sex. I’d probably call it PG-13, but certainly not R or X. If this type of thing bothers you, no worries, just skip this post. Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

Flip took an early lead in the compact & dead-easy-to-use camcorder market, but a lot of companies, including Creative, have caught up and even surpassed what the Flip is capable of with their own products. The latest version of their Vado HD camcorder features a vastly improved and sleeker design that comes in various colors, patterns and finishes that will definitely appeal to the average consumer.

But the Vado HD will also appeal to those who care more about functionality than flash. It captures video at 720P ‘HD’ which equates to about 2 hours of footage on it’s 4GB of built-in memory. It’s also got a standard-sized HDMI port (since requiring an uncommon HDMI to mini-HDMI cable is lame) and a swing out USB connection with a flexible rubber arm with I find more convenient to use. But anyone who uses a device like the Flip for interviews will appreciate the Vado’s audio port on top which can either accept a pair of headphones, or an external microphone for improved audio quality. $179.99 available sometime this year.

[ Creative Vado HD 3rd Gen ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Not a fan of touchscreen keyboards but love the UI on the iPhone? Well now you can have the best of both worlds with Ion Audio’s new iType keyboard. I’m hesitant to call it an accessory, since it’s considerably larger and heftier than the iPhone, but that’s the price you have to pay I guess if you want a standard size QWERTY keyboard. (At least until Apple lets the iPhone work their wireless Bluetooth keyboard.)

With the iPhone mounted in the ‘cradle’ the iType reminds me a lot of Epson’s old HX20 portable computer, but slightly more functional. And I say slightly because thanks to Apple’s restricted SDK the iType can only be used with a custom app from Ion Audio. Not the iPhone’s native applications. So anything you’ve written or intend to write has to be copied and pasted into the app you need it, which is unfortunately a big drawback to the device.

The iDiscover Keyboard is essentially the same idea as the iType, but instead of providing a QWERTY keyboard you get a set of 25 piano keys in which to compose your mobile opus. Like with the iType it works exclusively with the company’s iDiscover Keyboard iPhone app, but it does include audio out connections and a headphone jack and can apparently even double as a MIDI controller for your PC.

[ Ion Audio iType & iDiscover Keyboard ]