By Andrew Liszewski

Thanks to a fake but convincing package design, Bacon Baby, which is supposedly bacon flavored instant baby formula, looks like you just might find it on supermarket shelves next to that boring flavored Gerber stuff. In fact, were it not for the outlandish claims on the J&D’s website, I’d probably try and order some for myself. I mean the great taste of bacon without all that exhausting chewing? It’s win win!

The results were absolutely impressive. By the age of 4 months, our test subject started to exhibit some amazing abilities including walking and talking. By 6 months of age, she could read and memorize her early stage children’s books and showed an extreme level of coordination and balance – so much so that she was enrolled in gymnastics and ballet with children 5 years older than she was! At two years old, she read her first 300 page book, memorized the Declaration of Independence and (this is absolutely true) began composing her first symphony.

Even though I’m sure this was an April Fool’s Day prank of some sort, I think we can all agree that bacon, which for some reason still isn’t considered its own food group, is just the thing a growing newborn needs. So here’s to hoping that J&D, aka Justin and Dave, come to their senses and try and find a way to make this product a reality. It happened with ThinkGeek’s Tauntaun sleeping bag, and that doesn’t even smell like bacon!

[ J&D's Bacon Baby Formula ] VIA [ FAIL Blog ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Details are a little sparse since Redrock Micro hasn’t officially announced these at NAB just yet, but these two devices appear to be a couple of slick accessories for the company’s microRemote follow focus system. The microTape sonar autofocus unit (pictured on top) features an integrated rangefinder providing autofocus functionality for moving subjects, at what will hopefully be a relatively affordable price point. They’ll also be unveiling a wireless remote for the system that uses an iPhone or iPod Touch to provide a touchscreen interface, as well as a hardware focus wheel, for controlling an HD-video capable DSLR that’s inaccessible while on set.

[ ProLost - Best Monday Ever ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With a price tag of just $15.99 I can guarantee you won’t be producing any real holograms with this Star Wars ‘Holographic’ Animation Lab. But if you’re in the market for a Clone Wars-themed modern-looking zoetrope, your quest is now over young padawan. The set includes 10 double-sided animation disks, with one side featuring animations of popular Star Wars: The Clone Wars characters, and the other side being blank allowing you to draw your own. It won’t be available until later in the year, but you can pre-order one now from the BigBadToyStore.

Update: The device is actually known as a praxinoscope, and is the successor to the zoetrope. Thanks Brandi!

[ Star Wars Holographic Animation Lab ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Andrew Liszewski

We first brought news of the Keyport way back in October of 2007, when the $300 device that promised to replace 6 of your keys with a slick, sliding key fob was first announced. Unfortunately though things didn’t go so well for the company, or its customers. Part of the ordering process involved sending them the 6 keys you wanted converted to a Keyport, which was kind of sketchy in my opinion. So over the years I’ve been following Gear Diary’s Larry Greenberg’s saga, who ordered one shortly after they were announced. But after 2 years of waiting for the thing to arrive, he was pretty much convinced he would never see the Keyport materialize.

But as he points out in his latest post, good things apparently do come to those who wait. Keyport (the company) has been reborn. The $300 price tag has been slashed to $79, and instead of having to mail your 6 keys to get converted, you simply let the company know the types of keys you’re using during the ordering process, and they’ll mail you 6 blank slugs which you’ll need to get cut yourself. Now the whole ordering process isn’t completely a breeze, in fact determining the types of slugs you’ll need will probably require the expert eye of a locksmith, but not having to send copies of your 6 most used keys off in the mail is a big improvement. (Though car keys that feature an electronic chip for starting the ignition will still need to be sent in.)

Now they’re still not officially available just yet, Larry was part of a select group chosen to beta test the new design and ordering process, but the cheaper price tag almost makes the Keyport seem tempting again, if history doesn’t repeat itself that is.

[ Keyport ] VIA [ Gear Diary ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As over-the-top and expensive as Romain Jerome watches may be, I have to give them credit for at least keeping the design of their watch faces easy to read. I’m afraid I can’t say the same for EleeNo’s Stocking Watch. Instead of hands, it uses two sets of concentric circles that each rotate independently. When it comes to actually telling the time you’re only supposed to focus on where the outermost/largest circles intersect with the innermost/smallest circles. Easy right! The case is made from stainless steel and the whole thing is water-resistant so the watch is unique and practical, and you can order one from Yanko Design Designer Store in grey, black, yellow or pink for $85.

[ Yanko Design - Stocking Watch ] VIA [ TechFresh ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It definitely comes across as a gimmick more than anything, but Medea Spirits’ Vodka bottles now come wrapped in a blue LED scrolling pixel display that can be programmed with up to 6 messages, each up to 255 characters in length. I guess it’s a bit slicker than just hanging a gift tag on it, and while the built-in battery will last up to a year, you can only get about 40 hours of scrolling display time with it. And apparently the programming mode is extra battery hungry, so make sure you plan out exactly what you want to say ahead of time. ~$40.

[ Medea Vodka ] VIA [ Luxist ]

By Andrew Liszewski

The idea that St. Bernards roam snowy mountains with miniature barrels of hooch strapped to their collars in search of trapped hikers is another one of those ‘facts’ I learned from cartoons. But discovering that you can actually buy those mini barrels, compete with miniature spigots, is the only proof I’ll ever need. Made from American White Oak and wrapped in 6 metal bands with your choice of finish, the barrels come attached to a leather collar that can be trimmed as needed to fit smaller dogs (making for an even more entertaining sight gag) and are available in 1/2 liter or 1 liter capacities for $49.95 and $56.95 respectively.

[ St. Bernard Dog Collar Barrel ] VIA [ The Green Head ]

By Ian Chiu

[ The following article is syndicated with permission from Everything USB ]

USB 3.0 is here. While not everyone has immediately hopped on the bandwagon yet, several major motherboard and storage manufacturers have been actively pushing out SuperSpeed USB devices, and one of them is Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 Performance Kit. Bearing an ambitious name, the BlackArmor PS 110 is one of the industry’s first portable USB 3.0 2.5″ drives. The kit – backed by a generous 5-year warranty – comprises of a 7,200-rpm 500GB drive that now becomes the performance bottleneck instead of the USB interface; a single-port USB 3.0 ExpressCard/34 card; an auxiliary power cable; and a backup software suite.

Obviously, what makes this drive so special is the speed. The on-board USB 3.0-to-SATA bridge chip boosts average performance to consistently high between 60 to 95MB/s. This is up from 30MB/s range registered by USB 2.0 FreeAgent Go. A review by Everything USB confirmed that the BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0 is indeed the bottleneck as a 3.5″ 1TB drive inside a WD My Book 3.0 easily bumped speed even further to 110MB/s. Keep in mind BlackArmor PS 110 3.0 is only first generation product. So it could take a year or two before the potential of USB 3.0 is fully realized. Read on for the full review for all the benchmark data and usability test results.

[ Seagate BlackArmor PS 110 USB 3.0 Review @ Everything USB ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s hard to criticize Romain Jerome for their recent rash of gimmicky watch designs since I’d never actually heard of the company before they started incorporating dinosaur bones, moon dust and pieces of the Titanic into their watches. So I guess the approach has worked, and it doesn’t seem like the company is ready to give it up just yet. Hence their latest model, the Moon Invader.

A new 46mm case with a bevelled, yet rounded, design is made from “steel coalesced by fusion with spare parts from Apollo 11″ and the 4 ball-and-socket joints surrounding the face are designed to look like the feet of the original lunar landing module. But they’re functional too, holding the lugs of the rubber strap and enabling the watch to adjust and fit almost any wrist. And while I’m sure the design team at Romain Jerome are treated like superstars, I think their PR people, particularly their press release scribe, deserve some real praise too for their creativity. Here’s how they describe the back of the watch:

The promise embodied in the special ‘Moon Silver’ plate on the stellar case-back of the watch is a powerful promise of the Moon on the wrist – thanks to a silver alloy boasting an extremely low oxidisation rate and incorporating moon rocks. This engraved plate depicts the lunar surface, of which the mineral particles interact on an infra-molecular level with the wearer of the watch. The Moon within reach, like a talisman to help keep your feet firmly planted on Earth. The veined pattern and grainy texture on the case-back evoke the future superstructures of lunar colonisation bases. These motifs also extend along the rubber strap. The security screw locks the access “hatch” to the movement of the Moon Invader.

The Moon Invader will be limited to a clever 1,969 pieces, and while pricing isn’t known, I’m sure it will follow in the extremely expensive footsteps of its predecessors.

[ Romain Jerome Moon Invader Watch ] VIA [ Acquire ]