We’ve written about plenty of unofficial LEGO flash drives over the years, but the company has finally come to their senses and realized that these days a few extra gigs of novelty storage on your keychain is far more useful than an LED flashlight. At the moment they’re a little disappointing with just 2GBs of storage for ~$27, and they’ve used the most generic minifig in their catalog, but hopefully future versions will see members of their Star Wars family get converted, plus a little more storage would be nice too.
When it comes to gaming the iPhone isn’t the perfect platform for every genre, but thanks to its built-in rotation sensor, it’s not too shabby when it comes to racing titles. And while I hate to give crapcessories like the countless number of steering wheel accessories any credence, they at least make it easier to hold your phone during a nail-biting race. Just don’t expect it to feel like you’re sitting in one of those gimballed simulators, even if they’re packing a bit more oomph in the sound department like this one.
Sitting just above where you mount your iPhone this wheel includes a set of 27mm speakers that connect to your device via its headphone jack. They’re not particularly massive or impressive, but they are powered by their own 3.7V li-ion battery so they should actually have a bit of kick, particularly since you’ll be holding them right in front of your face. $22.20 from Focalprice.com.
On a set of 4 x D-sized batteries this LED lantern will run for an impressive 336 consecutive hours, on its lowest setting of course. But that equates to 2 whole weeks of illumination which is easily more time than most people can tolerate camping or even being outdoors. In fact at full brightness it can still run for 175 hours non-stop, or just over a week, which again is probably longer than most people can stand to be away from the safety of their online social networks. It’s also completely waterproof and will remain buoyant and fully operational if dropped in water, perfect if you’ve chosen a really, really poor place to set up camp. $49.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.
Alright fine, that headline was a complete and absolute lie. No one who’s ever seen the Bellagio’s fountains in person would confuse this water and light show with that popular Vegas attraction. And you know why? Because compared to this the Bellagio’s little garden hose spectacle is a monochromatic let-down. That’s right people, this water and light show spews forth in a dazzling rainbow thanks to a set of color-changing LEDs. Top that Mr. Wynn.
As an added bonus you won’t have to worry about paying Bellagio-sized power bills either since the LEDs in this thing are powered by an internal turbine generator that’s in turn powered by the water from your garden hose flowing through it. And while the 6 1/2 foot high and 19 1/3 foot wide plume of mist might not be as majestic as what the fountains in Vegas blast forth, you won’t be subject to any disapproving looks if you choose to sit back and enjoy them from the comfort of a folding lawn chair. $49.95 from Hammacher Schlemmer.
Rude Gameware isn’t the most well-known brand in PC gaming peripherals, but they are trying hard to make a name for themselves. They’ve recently released an update to their Fierce Gaming Mouse, dubbed v.2. When looking at the two, you can tell that they have made quite a few changes. So many, in fact, I hardly put the two in the same league.
Looks
Rude’s first foray into the world of gaming mice resulted in a rather generic and boring-looking product. This time around you can see that they’ve spend some more time on the presentation. Black plastic along the curves and silver buttons provide just the right accents to make it a little more noticeable. You’ll also find a braided cord and different colored LEDs under the middle button to indicate the current DPI settings. Overall, it isn’t the most flashy mouse, but certainly not one I’d be embarrassed to have next to my keyboard.
It’s not the first contraption designed to make finding your luggage on an airport carousel easier, but the easy2pick does seem to be a bit smarter than most. It’s a combination of a luggage tag with a built-in wireless transmitter and a keychain that will sound an alarm, flash and vibrate when your suitcase is within a 66 foot range. So while it might mean that it’s not actually on the carousel just yet, you’ll know it’s coming, and at the least, you’ll know it’s in the same airport as you.
Unique ID codes ensure that your keychain won’t detect someone else’s luggage tag, and the 100-hour battery life in the transmitter is prolonged even further thanks to sensors that deactivate it when it’s in the cargo hold of a plane by measuring the light, altitude and even sounds. And the system is a very reasonable $24.95 from X-treme Geek.
I can’t decide if this comes across as clever or too gimmicky, but BMW (which are always known for their performance parts, such as the air filter, and exhaust systems) decided to celebrate their 40 years of supporting more than 100 cultural endeavors around the world, so they hired graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister (seen leaving his John Hancock in the top photo) to create a limited edition book simply called CULTURE. Besides appealing to design types, the book should also appeal to BMW enthusiasts, and 5 year old kids, since it features an integrated remote control car as seen in action at the end of this promotional video.
Only 1488 copies of the book are being produced, each one signed by Stefan himself, but don’t excitedly head over to the BMW website just yet since the books won’t actually be available for sale. Presumably they’ll be given away to preferred customers, or those who’ve been a part of the projects actually covered in the book. At the least it’s a unique idea, and makes me hope that NASA does a similar thing…
It seems that Sony decided to be awesome and announce that the PS3 is going to start using cloud storage for its PlayStation Plus subscribers. The cloud will allow gamers to upload all of their saved game data to the network with 150 MB of storage. Starting up today, this online safe for your information will be available for use. You’re also going to start seeing more PS3 games coming out that will be better suited to take advantage of this feature.
Again, this offer is only for PlayStation Plus subscribers, but at only $49.99 a year, I’d say not having to worry about what might happen to your hard drive is worth it. For a limited time, all of you PlayStation lovers out there will get an extra three free months if you subscribe for a year.
Instead of using steam or high-pressure water which isn’t always readily available if you’re out touring the countryside on a bike, the Airspresso just uses air pressure provided by your bike pump. All you need to add is coffee grounds, hot water and a little bit of manual labor and in no time at all you’ll have yourself a 120 ml shot of espresso. The Airspresso weighs just 250 grams so it’s easy to carry, and is made from durable sounding “anodised aerospace aluminum, engineering plastic and brass” because you can’t charge $180 when you just refer to it as metal and plastic.
Related Tags: Flash-Drives, LEGO, Toys
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