Oh! Gizmo

By Luke Anderson

Lets face it, it’s November, which also means that it’s really cold outside. If you happen to be one of those people living in a warm climate, you can just go…nevermind. Anyway, for those of you that have trouble keeping your hands warm at your desk, here’s a handy little gadget to help at least one of your hands.

Rather than trying to cram a heater into your mouse, Thanko has decided to make a USB Heating Mousepad. Sure, it’s not much to look at, but when your boss decides to get stingy with the thermostat, you’ll love its 40-45 degree Celsius temperature. This would go perfectly with one of Thanko’s heating keyboards, which between the two, should keep your hands plenty warm in the winter. This gadget won’t even break the bank at just $20.

[ Thanko ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By Luke Anderson

When I moved this last time, I was happy to discover that there is a doughnut shop about a block away. What’s better, is that it’s open 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. This means that almost any time I want a chocolate covered yeast ring, I can get one. If you aren’t quite as fortunate as I when it comes to doughnut shops, then why not just make your own treats? Normally, I wouldn’t recommend trying to fry up your own doughnuts, however, this Dough-Nu-Matic changes things a bit.

This awesome device can form, fry and drain mini doughnuts in just under 60 seconds. Sure, they aren’t full-sized or anything, but you can make as many as you want! Throw on some frosting and sprinkles and you’re good to go. The $130 price is a bit steep, but just think of all of the gas money you’ll save. Not to mention you’ll be the most popular guy in the office come break time.

[ PerpetualKid ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

You know those times when you just want to get down and dance but don’t have access to an abandoned factory like Kevin Bacon did? Well now you can let the iBoogie do the dancing for you. It’s basically a small speaker that connects to your MP3 player of choice via the headphone jack, but that’s not all. The iBoogie also includes an array of LEDs that light up in the shape of a stick figure who dances along with the music you’re playing.

The footloose stick figure apparently has over 50 choreographed dance moves, and if you don’t have an MP3 player, the iBoogie also includes the song Canned Heat built-in. It’s powered by 3 AA batteries and even includes the appropriate audio cable.

You can order one from the HSN website, and I assume the actual channel, for $19.95.

[ iBoogie Speaker and Dance Machine for MP3 Players ] VIA [ Chip Chick ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Most solar-powered devices aren’t that aesthetically pleasing, but this simple Solar Clock manages to maintain a clean design even with its fairly large solar cell located front and center. The clock can be mounted on the wall in a vertical or horizontal position, or you can swap out the overhanging hands with an included shorter set and simply place it on a table or desk instead.

It’s available from SUCK UK for about $38, but appears to be out of stock until sometime later in the month.

[ Solar Clock ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Looking like something you’d buy from the official ACME catalog, this 6-foot rubber band is apparently used in the shipping industry to bind boxes stacked on pallets. But I’m sure you guys can come up with a thousand more interesting and entertaining ways to use this right?

The Museum of Useful Things website, who sell the giant rubber band for just $5.50, cautiously suggests relatively safe uses like exercise and slingshots, but since we’re not legally on the line as the ones selling this thing, might I suggest more creative uses. I’m sure at some point I’ve seen Wile E. Coyote combine a giant elastic with a pair of roller skates in a cartoon. While I didn’t watch the entire episode, I’m going to assume the idea worked out just fine, and he was finally able to catch that annoying Road Runner. And if you try it at home, make sure to send us the YouTube clip.

[ 6-foot Rubber Band ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Evan Ackerman

It’s not too often that an innovative alarm clock comes along (I said innovative, not gimmicky), but when it does, you can be sure it’s worth paying serious attention to. The Moshi IVR clock is one of these. Not only does it look nice, with a big bright backlit display and a stylish base, but it’s completely voice activated. Completely. Just say, “hello, Moshi” and it’ll respond with “hello, command please.” You can then verbally ask it what time it is, to turn the alarm on or off, toggle the backlight, check the temperature, set the time, or a bunch of other things. Seriously, there’s no need to get out of bed or even move your arms ever again, but if you need the exercise, it looks like there are some old-fashioned buttons in the back to program it the hard way. The greatest thing is, of course, the ability to turn the alarm off without opening your eyes, but it doesn’t seem like Moshi is likely to respond to profanity. I hope version 2 will be programmable to allow it to interpret my early morning (i.e. 11am) garbled mumbling.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Moshi IVR clock costs only $50, available on the Moshi website, where you can also see and hear a demo of the voice activated functions of the clock while listening to soothing background music.

[ Moshi ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Evan Ackerman

Food chains are rather nasty things. We don’t like to think about it much, but you know all those cute little fuzzy wuzzy soft and cuddly animals like bunnies and gerbils? They exist primarily to get EATEN by bigger animals with NASTY SHARP POINTY TEETH. GRRRRRR!!! The sooner your kids learn that, the better they will be able to survive in the wild, so why not be pragmatic this holiday season and get them some Food Chain Friends.

Food Chain Friends come from a far away planet called Daro, which exists much like Earth did, some 200 million years ago. They come in sets of five, and cutely feast upon one another. For example, the Frokol eats the Vextie eats the Fergel eats the Skoodle eats the Zezzel, which gets by on Floober Tree Moss. Get it? No? Well, if you can fit one into the mouth of another, odds are it’s lower on the food chain and therefore lunch.

They’re friends. They eat each other. It’s a complicated relationship.™ Food Chain Friends come in two different sets, and are available for about $50 at FAO Schwartz among other places.

[ Food Chain Friends ] VIA [ Neatorama ]

This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

When it comes to a PC gamer, they need certain things that other users might not need in a computer. High-end graphics cards, lots of RAM, fancy keyboards and special mice are all things than you might find attached to a gaming rig. So when it comes to fighting computer viruses, gamers need special software for that, right? Norton seems to think so.

Norton Antivirus isn’t know for its low memory usage. In fact, it can be one of the biggest resource hogs on your computer, which isn’t good for framerates. So what has Norton done? They’ve cooked up a special Gaming Edition of their 2009 antivirus software. This release is supposed to use 80% less memory, and allow for more lax security in leu of better performance. You can even set it to “Gamers Mode” which will suspend all update downloads and antivirus alerts, thus not interrupting your gaming experience. If this special version doesn’t cost anything extra, then it might be worth looking into, that is if you can stand to have Norton on your computer in the first place.

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This post is syndicated with permission from GamerFront.net

I love Black Friday. There’s really nothing like staying up all night, standing in line while it’s freezing outside. Okay so it sucks, but the deals are totally worth it. Check out this awesome deal on a Wii over at Sam’s Club.

The members-only store has offered up a $224 Wii bundle that is the best I’ve ever seen. Not only will you be getting a Wii for $25 less than usual, but you’ll also get two extra Wiimotes and Nunchucks, along with Mario Super Sluggers and King of Clubs Mini-Golf. I can’t imagine that these will last long, so you’ll want to get there really early.

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