By Andrew Liszewski

If you never got the hang of the old two fingers on the wrist method for measuring your heart rate, this handheld EKG unit from Hammacher Schlemmer is an easier, albeit considerably more expensive, means to monitor your ticker. It’s apparently FDA-approved, and instead of electrode cables stuck all over your body, you simply hold the unit in one hand, and press it against the palm of your other. Four integrated sensors provide an instantaneous EKG reading, which is displayed as a moving graph on its 1 3/4″ x 2 3/4″ monochrome display.

It will also let you know if you’re suffering from an irregular heartbeat through the use of an emoticon. I assume a smile means you’re ok, while a frown means you just spent $199.95 on a device to avoid visiting to the hospital, when you’re going to end up there anyways. The Home EKG Monitor has enough memory on board to store up to 200, 30 second heartbeat data recordings, which can also be offloaded to a PC via USB for tracking the health of your heart over longer time periods.

[ Home EKG Monitor ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you read my review of the iPad earlier today, you probably noticed my little rant about the internet connectivity. While I have no issue with paying a little extra for the hardware, I’m pretty frustrated that I would have to pay even more money every month to keep this device connected to the internet. In that spirit, I purchased the non-3G model and am determined to use one of my two other mobile connections to provide simple access to the web on my iPad. I may need to look no further than Sprint for this.

Sprint has announced a new case for the iPad, which has a rather unique front pocket. Okay, so the pocket isn’t that unique, but rather it’s what lies inside that pocket that matters. In that pocket you can place one of their Overdrive 3G routers, which will provide an internet connection to your iPad (or any other devices) via WiFi. You’ll be able to connect up to 5 devices at once (you’ll have to authorize them so that no one leeches off of your internets) to Sprint’s 3G or 4G network, depending on your area.

The case is actually a freebie from Sprint, if you buy one of their Overdrive routers. The router will set you back around $100 after a rebate and a new 2-year contract. You’ll also have to pay $60 a month for the service, which will get you 5GB of data. Yes, it’s more expensive than purchasing service on the iPad each month through AT&T, but some of us are already paying Sprint $60 just to connect our laptops. Kudos to them for seeing this opportunity and seizing it.

[ Sprint ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

This past week saw another retro – re-release. This time the good people at Capcom give us a double dose of side scrolling beat-em up action. Final Fight Double Impact gives Final Fight and Magic Sword the royal treatment. Final Fight I have some fond memories of SNES days, and interestingly enough we actually have a working Magic Sword cabinet in the Gamerfront office.

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By Chris Scott Barr

Since it was officially announced, I have openly ridiculed the iPad for its shortcomings. I’ve mocked the name (who hasn’t?), the fact that it’s just a big iPod Touch, and numerous other things. Most of all I stood resolved that I would not waste my money on one. So naturally I’m doing a review on the iPad, which I purchased for myself a little over a week ago.

How did I find myself in this situation? It started when I was reading a book a couple of weeks back. The particular one was part of a trilogy, the entirety of which was compiled into one giant 1,191 page tome. It’s not the first time I’ve read the books, and once again I despised its great size. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy an epic tale, it’s the physical book I could do without. It’s tiring to hold for any real length of time (I’ll read for hours on end some days) and terrible to lug around. Thus, for perhaps the hundredth time I pondered purchasing an eReader.

I looked around the web at my options, though I kept ending up at the same conclusion. Having read over the specs dozens of times, and actually held most of the prominent ones on the market, I settled on the Nook. Of course as quickly as I convinced myself that this was the one I wanted, I began to once again doubt such a purchase. Do I really want to spend $260 on a device that does little more than allow me to read books? Sure, I love to read, but that’s a lot of money for one task.

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By Andrew Liszewski

Besides convenience, the reason a lot of people buy bottled water is because they’re leery of the extra ingredients that might be lurking in regular tap water. And while re-usable water bottles with built-in filters do already exist, none of them look quite as slick as the 321 Water from a company called Half a Teaspoon. Once you fill the BPA-free 321 with water, you insert the alien-looking plunger mechanism into the bottle and then push it all the way down to the bottom. A carbon block filter removes any chlorine and unpleasant tastes or odors, leaving you with clean filtered water.

The carbon block filter lasts for about 100 uses, or about 50 liters, and a 3-pack of replacement filters will set you back $12.50, so while it’s not a one-time investment, it will easily end up being cheaper than buying bottled water in the long run. The 321 Water Bottle itself is available for pre-order for $44.60, but the company apparently needs 10,000 commitments in order to start production and hopefully deliver the bottles by the end of June.

[ 321 Water Bottle ] VIA [ Design Milk ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’m still excited about the Smoothee Steadicam for the iPhone, Droid and Flip that Tiffen revealed at CES earlier this year. Even if they were a bit sketchy on if or when it was actually going to be available. Babyology writer Ben Gunsberger was also excited at the prospect of improving his jerky iPhone home videos, but since the Smoothee is probably not going to be priced at a consumer-friendly level, he set out to build his own.

Instead of heading to the local hardware store though, he decided to take advantage of the building materials he already had at home, namely LEGO Technic. After a few weeks of tweaking the balance and improving the iPhone mount he had a design that seemed like it would work, but it turns out there’s a reason that Tiffen doesn’t use LEGO for their Steadicams. The flexibility of the plastic and connections introduced as much wobble as there was before, and the subtle creaking and cracking of the LEGO as the camera mount swayed to and fro was easily picked up by the iPhone’s mic. You win this round Tiffen!

[ Lego iPhone steadicam – yes, really! ] VIA [ YoKiddo! ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Worrying about battery life isn’t an issue when it comes to the HDV-T900 camcorder from Jetyo. In addition to running off a set of 4xAAA batteries which can pretty much be replaced anywhere on Earth, it also features a set of flip out solar cells that can be used to recharge those batteries, if they’re of the rechargeable persuasion. Unfortunately that’s the only feature that makes this camcorder stand out in an already crowded market, but it seems to have all the bases covered.

A 5.0MP CMOS sensor can capture videos up to 1280x720P in size at 30fps, and still images can be captured up to 12MP in size if you can live with a lot of software interpolation. It comes with 32MB of built-in memory, so you’ll want to make sure you have an SD card (sizes up to 32GB supported) handy if you actually intend to record any video. There’s also an HDMI connection for hooking the camcorder directly to your HDTV, and USB for downloading pictures and videos to your PC. Now I’m sure the HDV-T900 isn’t the most amazing piece of video hardware to come out of China, but according to the Red Ferret Journal it will only set you back about $88.

[ Jetyo HDV-T900 Camcorder ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

You’ll probably be hard-pressed to find a camera geek willing to give up the strap that came with their DSLR, proudly brandishing the Nikon or Canon logo, but since camera manufacturers are now targeting the consumer market with friendlier DSLRs, there’s probably a lot of customers who wouldn’t mind something a little more stylish. And that’s where a company called HighKey enters the picture. They have a whole line of replacement camera straps in a various different patterns, plaids and striped designs in a variety of different bright colors. Most of the straps seem to sell for $29.95, but there are a few cheaper ones, as well as a slightly more expensive ‘design your own’ option for $34.95.

[ HighKey Camera Straps ] VIA [ Design Milk ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you go for the gusto every moment of your life, but are looking for a rugged camcorder that isn’t quite so ‘extreme’, you might want to check out the X170 from Drift Innovation. Its compact design makes the camera easy to strap to a pair of ski goggles or the handlebars on your bike, and it appears to be pretty durable, including the waterproof wireless remote that can be strapped to your wrist, but I’m afraid the ‘extreme’ stops there. The X170 can only capture videos at 720×480 (and probably even less than that in 16:9 mode) but you’ll be hard pressed to tell they’re not hi-def while reviewing footage on its miniscule 1.5 inch LCD display. However an included break-out cable does allow you to watch your clips on a full-sized TV.

The 170° wide angle lens is great for capturing all the action going on around you, and it can be rotated through 300° depending on the orientation of the camera when its mounted. The 32MB of built-in memory is pretty much useless, but thankfully an SD slot supporting cards up to 16GB in size should provide hours and hours of recording at 720×480, or thousands of 5MP digital photos. All that for $199.95.

[ Drift Innovation X170 Action Camera ] VIA [ SlashGear ]