Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Besides the themed packaging that just screams Disney, the only thing that brands these USB to USB-mini cables as coming from the ‘house of mouse’ is their non-beige/black/grey colors, and a plastic molded Cars/Princess/Mickey/Toy Story/Stich design on one end of the cable. But surprisingly even though they are tied to Disney, they’re each still a rather reasonable $7 from online stores like Brando. So I guess the only branding that leads to unreasonable overpricing is the term ‘Monster.’

[ Disney USB Cables ] VIA [ Chip Chicklets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

And now for something completely useless for those of you who like a whole bunch of extra crap running on their PCs, and every single USB port to be used. The Disney/Pixar Cars USB Email Alert connects to your PC and will alert you as to when a new email arrives with Cars sound effects and light-up features. It does require you to install an extra piece of software and login to your email, whether it’s Gmail, Yahoo or any POP3 account, and the device is available in your ‘favorite’ Cars characters like Lightning McQueen, Mater, Doc Hudson and a few others you’ve probably already forgotten. $33 from USB.Brando.com.

[ Disney Cars USB Email Alert ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Thanks to the likes of Brando and other companies, USB microscopes are plentiful and easy to find these days. But being tethered to your PC with a USB cable limits where they can go. Not this wireless model though, the only limit of where you can use it is your imagination… and possibly good taste.

It uses a 2.4GHz wireless signal with a switch on the cradle/wireless receiver for choosing one of 4 channels, and the optics are able to magnify whatever it is you’re looking at from 10-200x. It’s also got a ring of 8 white LEDs around the ‘lens’ for added illumination, a built-in Li-ion battery that charges when placed in the cradle, and is available from ThinkGeek for $139.99.

[ Wireless USB Digital Microscope ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you find yourself using the Voice Memos app on the iPhone a lot, or capture a lot of videos, this tiny pseudo-shotgun mic for the iPhone 3G and 3GS claims to provide “10 times better audio reception!” for just $14. It plugs into the iPhone’s headphone jack and can be pointed in any direction for capturing audio directly from the source, and according to Brando it gains 25+ db over the iPhone’s built-in mic.

[ Brando Workshop Flexible Mini Capsule Microphone for iPhone 3G S ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

For just $18 Brando will sell you a USB Foot Switch that comes with software allowing it to reproduce any keyboard shortcut when you tap your foot. Now off the top of my head I can’t really think of a keyboard shortcut I’d need to pass off to my foot, but since you can connect more than one switch to any given PC I assume there has to be the potential for something useful here. Internet? I pass the buck to you to figure out what it is.

[ USB Foot Switch ] VIA [ Pocket-lint ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Solar devices are rather popular, despite the fact that they generally take much longer to charge than your average gadget. Thankfully, there are some things that don’t necessarily need to be charged quickly. Take AA and AAA batteries for example. Mine usually sit on the charger for a few weeks before I need to swap out a pair with a keyboard, gaming controller or something. So with that in mind, I give you the Solar Powered Battery Charger Box.

As long as you don’t need fresh batteries on a daily basis, this little charger should do the trick. With full sunlight, you can recharge a set in just two days. However, if it is indoors getting 2-3 hours of sunlight each day, it might take more like 5 days. My biggest complaint with this product isn’t the amount of time it takes to recharge a set of batteries. Rather, it’s that the device charges 3 of them at a time. Why three? You don’t find them in packs of three, and most devices require even numbers to operate. If three is your magic number and you’re all about green energy, then you can pick this charger up for $39.

[ Brando ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Colin Ackerman

We’ve been fans of iGo’s power accessories for a while; with a system of interchangeable tips to charge as many gadgets as you own (almost) from any source iGo supports, you have to carry around far less self-tangling cableage keep all of your stuff juiced up and happy. iGo’s latest offering is a Netbook Charger, designed specifically for, uh, netbooks. It’s just like the power brick that came with your netbook, with few key exceptions: it can power any netbook you have a tip for, it includes a powered USB port, and it’s pretty. Read all about it, after the jump. (more…)

By Andrew Liszewski

It might not be quite as complicated as the Petaminx dodecahedral puzzle we brought you back in March, but if you don’t have the plastic casting skills of Jason Smith to make your own, this twelve sided IQ Pentagon puzzle from Brando is probably your best alternative. It’s just $49.90 and if you do order one I suggest snapping a few photos when it arrives because once you mess it up I’m pretty sure you’re never going to get it back to its original state.

[ Twelve Surface IQ Pentagon Puzzle ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s hard to find a compact speaker that doesn’t, well, suck when it comes to sound performance. And I can’t say for sure whether or not the U-Tube i-Speaker from Brando continues in that tradition of non-excellence, but it at least includes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery so it’s not just relying on power from the headphone jack of an MP3 player or a laptop. The tube design might also be of some benefit when it comes to this speaker’s sound performance, but with a price tag of just $19 I have my doubts. It’s definitely compact though… I’ll give it that.

[ USB U-Tube i-Speaker ] VIA [ Datensklaven ]