By Andrew Liszewski

Always dreamt of consuming liquids from your photography gear? Every camera owner must have at one point in their life, so if you missed out on that Canon Zoom Lens Thermos this Canon Lens Mug is not only way easier to get your hands on, but it will only cost you $24 from Photojojo. I know, a little pricey for a mug that doesn’t proclaim you the ‘world’s greatest somethingorother’, but it looks exactly like a Canon 24-105mm lens complete with lens cap lid, rubber focus wheel and a ‘working’ auto-focus switch. May or may not also include Canon’s revolutionary optical beverage stabilization technology, I’m going to look into that further.

[ Canon Camera Lens Mug ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Last month we promised to give one of our lucky readers a Warpia Wireless USB A/V Adapter Set. The catch was that we would be selecting a random comment on a random article between that day and the 31st of July. The random number gods selected this article, and a coin toss on the comments left sario27 as the winner of the prize. Congratulations go out to him (or her)!

We’ll be doing more of these contests in the future, as we like to reward our readers that also enjoy participating in the comments. Stay tuned for more free stuff!

[ Warpia ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The iPad is a useful device, what with that nice big touchscreen and all. One place it can come in handy is your kitchen. Imagine not needing to print off (or write down) recipes for your favorite meals. Just set down your iPad, and open up an app that has them all listed. But you don’t want to just leave your iPad sitting on the counter, it could get in the way, and might be harder to read that way. Instead, you could just simply mount it to your fridge.

The Woodford FridgePad is exactly the kind of iPad stand that you need to mount your iPad to your fridge. Since it relies on a few magnets to keep itself in place, you can just as easily mount it to anything made of metal this way. Look for it on sale in the next couple of months for around $75.

[ Woodford ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Websites like Where’s George? let’s you track the travels of a piece of currency using their unique serial numbers, but it only really works if everyone who gets their hands on it visits the site. The same idea exists behind the Bijlmer Euro created by artist Christian Nold, but it’s a little more automagic since the bills each feature an RFID tag. Now obviously in order to track the whereabouts of a given bill, every single place of business would need RFID scanners installed, so the notes are designed to be used more as a “complimentary local currency” for the south-east area of Amsterdam, where about 2,000 of them were made available.

A handful of local shops have been equipped with the requisite RFID scanners which then report to a website which allows users and shopkeeps to visualize the flow of the bills. And in order to ensure that people are more likely to spend the Bijlmer Euros in the area where they can be tracked, the participating shops and restaurants offer unique discounts and promotions when you pay with the special currency. I like the idea, but have to wonder if the issue of defacing currency comes into play here.

[ Bijlmer Euro ] VIA [ PSFK ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As much as I like the idea behind Master Lock’s 1500iD padlock, which features a 4-way directional pad instead of a spinning tumbler, there’s only one combination anyone is ever going to use on it – the Konami code. It’s burned into every gamer’s sub-conscious, and besides a handful of Mortal Kombat finishing moves, I know my brain won’t let me memorize any other combination anyways. For non-gamers a set of alternate passcode indicators is also included like letters, numbers, colors, shapes and symbols that can be stuck over the arrows if you find them easier to remember. $12.69 available from pretty much anywhere you can buy school supplies, or even cheaper from Amazon.

[ Master Lock 1500iD Padlock ] VIA [ Apartment Therapy Unplggd ]

By Ian Chiu

When it comes to gaming mice, or even mice in general, not much has really changed in the past couple years. Sure the number of buttons, number of programmable settings and DPI sensitivity may have increased, but when it came to the ergonomics of it, there wasn’t much you could do to change it if a given mouse didn’t fit your hand. Sure some mice allow you to swap out one sized “skin” or covering for another, but even this has always been a very clunky way of doing things and you could just as easily end up with a mouse which was too big instead of too small… or vice versa.

Mad Catz plans to change all that with their Cyborg R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse as this bad boy has more customizable features crammed into it then any mouse ever before! Don’t like where the palm swell is? Change it out for a different one or move it forwards or backwards until is does feel comfortable! Don’t like the pinkie grip? Swap it out for one of the two others which come included! Don’t like where the thumb buttons are? Move the whole freaking area until it IS comfortable. This is what the R.A.T. 7 gaming mouse is all about; or at least that is the THEORY behind it. Is the theory the same as the reality? Everything USB has the full review.

[Everything USB - Mad Catz Cyborg R.A.T. 7 Gaming Mouse Review]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll admit, the first time I was able to pilot a $30 RC toy helicopter inside my home I was quite impressed. Unfortunately it didn’t take long for the novelty to wear off, and neither wacky designs nor improved avionics have piqued my interest since then. But a built-in digital video camera? Air Hogs, you have my rapt attention again. Their new Hawk Eye RC chopper, which is due sometime in the Fall for about $65, is able to capture around 5 minutes of 320×240 resolution video, or hundreds of photos at 640×480. Useless for those of you hoping to use it for 2nd unit aerial photography on your low-budget blockbuster, but good enough for the rest of us who want to capture the annoyed reactions of visiting family and friends.

The Hawk Eye can also be connected directly to your PC for transferring the videos, and while you’re doing that the helicopter also charges, so you can kill two birds with one stone and be back in the air in no time. It also comes with a 2-channel remote of course, letting you control altitude and spin the chopper left or right, and start/stop the video recording or snap photos.

[ Air Hogs Hawk Eye ] VIA [ CNBC ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sometimes Star Wars merchandising just seems completely tacky. Other times? Completely awesome. And I think it’s safe to say this falls into that latter category. I mean nothing goes better with peanut butter and jelly than the Millennium Falcon, and I can’t imagine anything on Earth tasting better than a ham and cheese shaped like a TIE figher. And the vintage Star Wars tin these sandwich cutters come in? Well that’s just the icing on the cake. Get the whole set from Williams-Sonoma for $29.95.

[ Star Wars Sandwich Cutters ] VIA [ TheForce.Net ]