Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

StarWars.com took a brief (almost too brief) look at this Star Wars Electronic Laser Battle Game that dates back to A New Hope. The article mostly talks about the differences between the prototype pictured on the bottom and the final release version of the game pictured in the packaging above. While I would have preferred a few more shots of the actual game in action, and maybe even a video, the packaging shot still provides plenty of retro eye candy, and makes me appreciate all of my modern ‘electronic’ gaming consoles even more.

[ StarWars.com - Prototype Gallery: Electronic Laser Battle Game ] VIA [ TheForce.net ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A lot of high-end DSLRs still use compact flash cards instead of the ever-more-popular SD and its smaller cohorts. (The Nikon D3 comes to mind.) But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to buy a CF card which are getting harder and harder to find these days. These handy adapters from PhotoFast allow to use standard SD and microSD cards in your camera via a CF type II compliant adapter. And I particularly like the model in the lower right-corner which actually comes with a built-in RAID controller allowing you to use up to 4 microSD cards at the same time, theoretically giving you about 64GB of storage with 4 x 16GB microSDHC cards.

All 3 of these adapters appear to be available from the PhotoFast website and range in price from about $25 for the SD to CF adapter to about $30 for the microSDHC to CF adapter. Though the microSDHC model with the RAID controller won’t be available until mid-July.

[ PhotoFast CF Adapters ] VIA [ Akihabara News ]

By Evan Ackerman

As much as I love my netbook, the tiny size and convenience does come with drawbacks, not the least of which is the lack of screen real estate. Taking out my netbook after working on a pair of 30″ HD monitors at the office can be a shock, to say the least. The Mimo mini USB monitor provides an extra 800 x 480 pixels, which is a significant addition to the screen of any netbook, and it runs purely off of USB: no batteries or power cords and there’s a video card inside. It has reasonably decent brightness and contrast and can be used in either horizontal or vertical orientation. At 1.3 pounds, it’s light enough to carry around with your netbook, but the $130 pricetag is a bit steep… Especially considering that you can get a second netbook for about twice that much, or a full size external monitor for less. Oh well, that’s the price you pay for convenience and portability, I suppose.

It’s rather remarkable just how much the Mimo USB monitor looks like the D-Link SideStage USB monitor, which is supposed to come out at the end of the year for about the same price. It’s got pretty much the same specs, down to the weight. Not sure what’s up with that, but the most relevant point I guess is that the Mimo is available now. Or, at least sooner than the end of the year, at ThinkGeek.

[ ThinkGeek ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I loves me some pizza, be it frozen, delivered from a local shop or handmade by yours truly. I generally only turn to the frozen stuff late at night when everyone is closed and I’m too lazy to make one up myself. Of course if I had one of these Porta-Pizza ovens I could also avoid the nasty gas station pizza by cooking up a frozen pie in my car.

As I said before, I love pizza. However, I think this contraption takes things just a bit far. I can think of very few circumstances that this thing would actually be useful to the average consumer. Even then it just seems dangerous, messy and stupid. Sure, a pizza shop might try cooking pies on the way to the customer’s doorstep, but even that doesn’t sound too smart. If you absolutely must be able to make a pizza on the road, you can pick one of these up for $36.

[ Stupidiodic ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen opened last night, and in celebration of the movie PDP has released a pair of Nintendo DS Lite cases. The “armor” transforms your DS into either Bumblebee or Megatron, and has a matching stylus. Unfortunately the transformation is purely cosmetic, so your handheld isn’t actually going to do any special tricks. Although from the looks of it, the Megatron stylus could double as a weapon for self-defense if anyone tries to get their grubby paws on your stuff. You can pick up each case/stylus combo for $20, or a single case or stylus for $13.

[  PDP ]

By Shane McGlaun

I used to try to carry a flash drive with me when I had a real job and actually left the house on occasion. More often than not, I left it at home because I forgot to pick it up and put it in my pocket. I tried a small flash drive that could fit in my wallet once, but it was too thick and made sitting uncomfortable.

A company called TopTech Products has announced a new flash drive that is shaped like a credit card and appears thin enough to not be a pain in the rear when sitting. The drive measures 3.4-inches x 2.1-inches x 0.11-inches.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Shane McGlaun

I hate to have to plug my iPhone in to charge. My wife keeps my office as dark as a cave to shave five cents off our electric bill so I usually can’t see where to plug my iPhone in. After over a year of use the charge port is rather lose as well. I really want an iPhone with something like the Pre Touchstone charger.

Today I got my wish with a new product form WildCharge for the iPhone that allows Pre-like charging by just sitting the iPhone down. The good news is that the charge system works on any iPhone from the original to the new 3GS.

The WildCharge Skin is a durable form fitting case that can protect the iPhone from drops and has a little part on the inside that plugs into the charge port of the phone. Then all you need to do is sit the phone on the WildCharger Pad to get power to your phone. The skin is available for $34.99 and a kit with the skin and the charge pad is about $80. The only downside I can see is that it appears you have to remove the case to synchronize your phone.

[ WildCharge ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Because of its hardware limitations, the Nintendo DS has never really been a great platform for watching videos. But a new flashcart called the iPlayer could change that. Like with all the other flashcarts available for the DS the iPlayer is able to load “homebrew software” though the makers claim it will NOT be able to load backup ROMs.

What it will be able to do though is natively play video files without having to convert them to a DS-friendly format first, thanks to a built-in decoding chip. So you’ll be able to load AVI, RMVB, RM, FLV, ASF, MPG, MOV, WMV, DivX, or XviD video files onto a microSD card and play them natively off your DS. However, the iPlayer only supports videos up to 640×480 in res, and you’ll probably see poorer playback performance with anything larger, though they will work. There doesn’t seem to be any pricing info for the iPlayer just yet, but if it really doesn’t support the loading of backup ROMs I think it’s going to be a tough sell since the DS is first and foremost a gaming platform.

[ iPlayer ] VIA [ MAXCONSOLE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve had my eye on these Micro Slot Car sets from Tomy for a while now, so I’m glad to see The Gadgeteer has posted a review of one of the starter sets. The cars and tracks are basically no different than the slightly larger versions many of us enjoyed as kids, except that their micro aspect means they can be easily setup and raced on your desk at work for the title of the champion of the universe. The basic set pictured above starts at about $80, but they can get even more expensive like the Nissan Micro Slot History Set available from the Japan Trend Shop for $158! Damn you miniature nostalgia!

[ The Gadgeteer - Takara Micro Slot Car Basic Set Review ]