Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

This morning Flip announced a new version of their Mino camcorder with the MinoHD that features a slimmer aluminum body (or your own custom graphics) an upgrade to 8GB of storage and the ability to capture HD video at 1280×720. Other improvements include a larger 2-inch transflective TFT display (960×240 pixels) making it easier to see in bright daylight and software updates allowing you to do basic editing and trimming of clips right on the device. $229.99 available now from the Flip online store.

[ Flip MinoHD ] VIA [ Wired Gadget Lab ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Sharp has just launched their EL-T100W calculator which they refer to as the ‘Brain Trainer’ since it includes “fun” drills and quizzes that are designed to measure your brain age just like the games available for the Nintendo DS do. As a calculator the EL-T100W is pretty basic though, with a simple 10-digit LCD display and a basic numeric keypad, but that’s probably why it has a price tag of just over $21. And while it’s not specified in the press release, I have to wonder if the calculator can be used to cheat on those brain measuring math quizzes…

[ PR - Test your brain age with the Sharp ‘Brain Trainer’ ] VIA [ Electricpig ]

By Andrew Liszewski

How often have you come across a gadget that was only available as an import item and thought to yourself, “hey! I could really use that, but the website selling it looks a bit sketchy and how do I even know it will work as well as they claim it does, if at all?” Such was the case with the Compact Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad we brought you a few weeks ago. A friend of mine thought the same thing when he first saw it, but since it was the exact thing he needed for his HTPC he decided $40 wasn’t that big of a loss if the thing was a total piece of crap, but it turns out it isn’t.

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By Andrew Liszewski

You can spend hours carving a horrific face in your pumpkin in a vain attempt to scare the neighborhood kids, but no matter what you come up with, I guarantee you won’t get results like Todd Harrison did last year. Inspired by a Make post from last Hallowe’en, Todd’s jack o’lantern looks innocent enough, until you push its small red nose. At first the eyes will start to glow, giving the button pusher a false sense of security, but a second later a set of 105 decibel car horns will blare, scaring the candy corn out of any trick-or-treaters who happened to be anywhere near his front porch.

Todd’s posted a couple videos of the pumpkin ‘in action’ on his website, as well as a materials list and a brief rundown on how it all went together, in case you were hoping to create your own by the 31st.

[ ToddFun.com - Super scary honking pumpkin ] VIA [ Make ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’ve still got a collection of my favorite NES games sitting in my closet, just begging to be used creatively. My old NES died long ago and I have emulators to satisfy my classic gaming habits, so I don’t really have a need for them. I’ve wanted to find something really cool to do with some of them, and I think I’ve found a project that will make use of at least one.

A crafty modder named airz managed to cram a working NES (emulator, not the real deal of course) and a 2.8-inch LCD inside a single cartridge. Now he can play just about any classic NES game by just grabbing his old Mario Bros./Duck Hunt game. It can do a few other things like play MP3s and whatnot, thanks to the PMP he used for the emulator. I’ve seen other similar mods, Such as the one by ‘darkeru‘ (this mod was inspired by his work) but this one is the best I’ve seen thus far.

[ Ben Heck ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The Wii has always secretly been a game console that likes for you to get off your lazy ass and exercise. Sure, you can get away with just sitting on your couch wagging the Wiimote, but it takes away half the fun. Well now there’s a new accessory that aims to keep you sitting down and exercising at the same time. Yes, I’m talking about a bike.

The Cyberbike is a full-size stationary bike for your Wii. It comes bundled with some cheesy game that lets you save the world by mopping up pollution with your bike. Apparently it works with Mario Kart Wii though, so that would make it a little more interesting. Though I doubt the pedals come into play much in that game. Look for this to be out in Europe starting January of next year. No word on pricing or a US launch.

[ BigBen ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Created by Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco for National Geographic, this beautifully illustrated map includes the almost 200 missions to space from the past 50 years, showing which of our celestial neighbors we like to visit the most. The National Geographic website has an interactive version you can pan and zoom around on, but if you’d like to make yourself a nice little wallpaper you can find a full-sized version of it on Flickr.

[ National Geographic - Fifty Years of Exploration ] VIA [ io9 ]

By Andrew Liszewski

What started out as a boring Power Wheels 2001 G3740 Street Scene Silverado has ended up as an awesome miniature version of the Warthog from the Halo games, complete with a chain winch on the front and of course the triple-barreled machine gun mounted on the back. Surprisingly though it wasn’t created by Master Chief for his little Spartans, but by a modder known as flux83 who posted a ‘making of’ to the Modified Power Wheels forum.

[ Modified Power Wheels - Halo Warthog a.k.a. Chupa Thingy ] VIA [ Kotaku ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might not be as comprehensive, nor is it narrated by Stephen Fry, but Openmoko’s WikiReader could be the closest thing we have to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy right now. It’s a palm-sized encyclopedia that contains over 3 million English language articles from Wikipedia, available offline.

Thanks to its monochrome touchscreen display that allows you to click on hyperlinks and scroll an article with a finger stroke, the WikiReader will run for months on a set of 2xAAA batteries. And since Wikipedia is constantly being updated, the WikiReader can also be kept up-to-date with quarterly updates that can be downloaded for free from their website, or there’s a $29 yearly subscription plan which provides the updates via microSD cards. $99 available from Amazon today.

[ WikiReader ]