Last time I counted, there were roughly a million iPhone/iPod docks on the market. Okay, so perhaps that’s something of an exaggeration, but sometimes it really does feel like there are that many. With such a variety, how can one be sure to pick out the best for them? Well, Stem has released a new dock called TimeCommand that they think you should consider.
First Look
The TimeCommand is a black cylinder that is almost exactly the width of the iPad. As you guessed, there is a good reason for this. Not only does this dock support your iPods and iPhones, but it has been designed to accommodate the much larger iPad.
On the dock you will find seven buttons. The larges is your snooze button, which also acts as play/pause if you’re listening to tunes. There are also buttons for two alarms, a set of brightness/volume buttons, and my favorite, the light button. When you plug in the TimeCommand, you’ll find that it has an outlet. If you plug a light into the extra outlet, you can control it with the button on the dock. This can be rather handy when used with a bedside lamp. There is also a decent sized digital clock on the face, and a pair of speakers built around the sides of the dock.
Created by undef’s Martin Fuchs and Philip Whitfield in collaboration with Joshua Noble, Receipt Racer is almost an homage to old-school top-down racing games like Lemans on the Commodore 64. But instead of staring at an antiquated CRT while you play, the randomly generated course for Receipt Racer is continuously spewed forth from a thermal receipt printer. Your vehicle, including your score and progress, are projected onto the paper from above, while a hacked PS2 controller still gives the game that electronic video game feel.
Each run is limited to about 164 feet (50 meters) since that’s how long each paper roll is, and its creators are well aware of how un-ecologically friendly the game is. So they just pass it off as being a commentary on how un-ecofriendly real automobiles are. The components of Receipt Racer, including the printer, projector and controller, are all wired into a laptop which all have to be properly calibrated and synced at the start to ensure the ‘vehicle’s’ progress and collisions can be detected. And in the event you do hit the wall or another car, a red “BOOM!!!” and a small pixelated explosion illustrate your demise, while your race stats are printed out at the end of the course.
I tell you, there is nothing worse than getting 13,120+ feet underwater only to find that your watch has stopped working. And Timex can boast all they want about their watch’s ability to keep on ticking after taking a licking, but there’s not a single IronMan in their lineup that’s built like Hublot’s Oceanographic 4000. There are actually two versions of it available. One made with a titanium housing that costs $19,900 and is limited to 1,000 pieces. And one made with black carbon fiber that’s $25,900 and limited to just 500 pieces.
Both are rated to depths of 4,000 meters (hence the ’4000′ in their name) and manage to stay water and pressure proof thanks to a screw down case back and glass that’s over a 1/4 of an inch thick. (6.5mm) And since you’re dropping so much coin on them, Hublot has been kind enough to include 2 different straps. A rubber band for day-to-day wear, and a longer rubber and nylon composition that can be worn over your diving gear.
Unless you’re casting into a well-stocked pond, fishing can be incredibly boring while you wait for something to take your bait. In fact I think it just serves as a plausible excuse for spending countless hours drifting on a lake in a canoe. But the makers of the FishEyes promise to take the boredom out of waiting because they’ve created a rod and reel that features an integrated wide-angle video camera at the end of the line, sitting just above your bait.
The live video feed is sent to a color LCD display built into the handle, so you can see the fish as they swim by. But it doesn’t do anything to actually encourage fish to take a nibble. In fact, I’m pretty sure the built-in LED lights it uses to illuminate your bait underwater would probably serve to scare the fish away. And if the fish aren’t biting, seeing a murky live feed of nothing happening underwater isn’t any more exciting than sitting and waiting. Finally, according to this incredibly cliched infomercial, the FishEyes only has a little over 25 feet of line, which could make fishing off a tall dock pretty much impossible.
A month or so ago we brought you news that Converse was releasing a limited edition version of their classic Chuck Taylor All-Stars, featuring an all-over pixelated Super Mario sprite print. Well if that design didn’t float your boat, or Frog Suit for that matter, Converse has just revealed two new designs featuring a wraparound version of level 1-1 and an epic scene of Mario battling Bowser. Rolling down the cuff of either pair also reveals Mario collecting coins in an underworld and being thanked by the princess. Sadly, like with the previous pairs, these new designs will only be available in Japan and will no doubt be immediately snapped up by rabid collectors.
Following in the footsteps of the Fling mini, ThinkGeek has created a smaller version of their JOYSTICK-IT Arcade Stick that makes it more practical for use with the iPhone, or other smartphones. If you recall, we reviewed the original version of the JOYSTICK-IT back in March, and while we felt it could technically be used with touchscreen devices smaller than a tablet, the overall size of the stick would make that impractical. But this new version of the JOYSTICK-IT looks to be about the perfect size for smartphone gaming, as long as your game of choice uses an onscreen 4-way directional pad. The original version of the JOYSTICK-IT is still available for $24.99, while this new, smaller version runs a bit cheaper at $17.99.
Whipping your smartphone out every time it vibrates at an incoming email, text message or app notification is not always considered proper etiquette, particularly when you’re with a group of people. But the fear of missing even one hilarious tweet, or being out of the loop on the next internet meme, keeps us compelled to keep checking our phones at every opportunity. One solution to this so-called ‘problem’ is to simply realize that somehow life went on before the advent of social media and wireless communications, and to just leave our phones hidden away. But the more realistic solution, at least according to Sony Ericsson, is to find a more subtle way to stay on top of things.
Their LiveView is like having a secondary display for your Android-based smartphone, but one that’s considerably smaller, subtler, and easier to pass off as a high-tech wristwatch. What looks to friends or family like you’re checking the time, is actually you staying on top of calls, RSS feeds, tweets and a seemingly never ending list of info you can probably survive an evening without knowing. But you know you can’t. So does the LiveView serve as an adequate alternative to keeping your smartphone in hand all hours of the day? For that answer and more check out our full review after the jump.
Building a better mouse trap may be a phrase nearly lost to time, but building a better mouse has never been more timely. Spending 8 to 12 hours per day at a computer, you really start to develop an appreciation for the tiniest changes in your controls. Logitech, who has made a name for itself subtly tweaking and perfecting the mouse, has made more radical changes in its line of trackballs. Their latest, the M570 Trackball, has moved the almost comfortably placed trackball out from under our fingers. The bright blue, gumball-sized sphere is now exclusively controlled by your thumb.
With the ball out of the way, the rest of the M570 looks like a perfectly comfortable mouse with four conveniently placed buttons and a scroll wheel. Ergonomics aside, the trackball is exclusively made for right handed users and there’s inherently a steep learning curve, especially for first time users. Additionally, the trackball also comes with Unifying receiver so you can easily share the wireless USB dongle with other compliant input devices, such as the Logitech K800 keyboard. Although much better for your wrists, how hard will it be to switch to using your thumbs to ‘mouse’ around? Does the more natural feel of the rest of trackball make up for having to retrain your clumsy thumb? You can decide for yourself after checking out the review at Everything USB.
The XPS line of laptops from Dell has consistently gotten good reviews, and now that they have refreshed it with Intel’s newer generation of Sandy Bridge Core i processors, things are just getting better. Today we’re looking at the entire range of configurations for the XPS 15, which can go from a Core i5-2410M 2.3GHz processor with 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and a discrete 1GB GeForce GT 525M graphics card, to the fully loaded Core i7 quad-core processor with 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD, 2GB GeForce GT 540M, Blu-ray, 1080p screen, 2yr warranty and Microsoft Office Home and Student. On the “low-end” you get $150 off with free shipping (total being $645) while at the higher end, you get a sizable $578 rebate (for a total of $1,200).
New Dell XPS laptops feature anodized aluminum display back, brushed aluminum palmrest and diamond cut trim around they keyboard and touchpad area. Also sports 3D capabilities, Skype-certified 720p HD webcam, JBL designed & certified speakers with Waves MaxxAudio and optional backlit keyboard, 9-cell battery, integrated TV tuner, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, 9-in-1 Card Reader, USB 2.0/eSATA combo port with PowerShare, USB 3.0 (on XPS 15 & XPS 17 only) and more.
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