New Home Gadgets

There’s a great debate in the Bar-b-que world that meat only tastes better when cooked over an open flame, and even more so when cooked with charcoal (I prefer Applewood, actually). But historically sspeaking, the charcoal grill has been more of an exercise in frustration for backyard warriors only seeking to start the flame, much less cook on it. The 60 second charcoal starter from Hammacher changes all that. It looks more like a lightsaber than a charcoal lighter (although I bet Luke Skywalker could light one lickety split), but instead of light plasma, it uses hot air heated to nearly 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. The wand is buryed inside the pile of coal to heat until the briquettes begin to spark. (Read the full post about ‘New BBQ lighter gets coals flaming in seconds’…)

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Elmo coming back more funny than ever. Elmo Live waves his arms, sits and stands, crosses his legs, telling stories and jokes, singing songs and playing games. He is smart now… Link: 7×7 Toys (Read the full post about ‘Elmo is back’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 11:40AM by Darren MurphFiled under: HDTV, Home Entertainment It didn’t take too terribly long after Warner chose Blu-ray as its new best friend for every single wagon wheel to fall of the hd dvd carriage, and now that the funeral has been set, we’re quite curious as to what the HD DVD early adopters plan on doing. Head over to Engadget HD and let your voice be heard — even if it’s but a whimper.[Image courtesy of Los Angeles Loyolan] (Read the full post about ‘So, what are you HD DVD early adopters going to do?’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 3:22PM by Chris ZieglerFiled under: cellphones, Handhelds There’s a reason phones don’t remotely resemble PC cases, and we think this mockup does a fabulous job demonstrating why that is. Okay, look, we’re totally cool with Dell and Alienware producing an Alienware-branded handset — especially if it runs Android, a platform Dell has been rumored to be very, very interested in — we just really don’t want this (or anything like this) to be it. The morphing keypad and user interface look awesome, but we have a very simple rule when we purchase a new phone: under no circumstances should the slider have physically painful ridges digging into your hands during use. (Read the full post about ‘Concept Alienware Android phone makes our brain, hands hurt’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 10:39AM by Nilay PatelFiled under: LaptopsThe folks over at Laptop already hooked us up with some unboxing pics of Everex’s Cloudbook, and now they’ve posted up some quickie first impressions of the would-be Eee killer — and it looks like Everex could use that extra delay time to polish things up. The Cloudbook’s gOS build was found to be reasonably speedy and the minuscule trackpad designed for thumb usage actually grew on the reviewers, but what really killed the machine was a host of video glitches Everex says are the result of the wrong OS version being installed on the machine. (Read the full post about ‘First impressions of the Cloudbook: rough around the edges’…)

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Microsoft has partnered up with the Russian cellphone company Mobile TeleSystems OJSC to offer a subscription based PC. The subscription based PC’s will become available to all of the 85 million customers in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan and Belarus beginning in June through Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential program. While the details on the PC’s are still light, they are reported to be running Windows Vista and will also include a built-in mobile broadband access. The two companies are also currently working on new mobile communication services that can be used on the PC’s, but have not made any mention as to what they will be. (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft announce availability of subscription based PC’s in Russia’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 4:14AM by Nilay PatelFiled under: Media PCs Onyko’s cranked out a couple slick little audio-oriented desktops and media PCs, and its latest carries the tradition on in fine form — the new APX-2 HD audiophile PC actually looks more like a high-end shelf system than a PC, if you ask us. The compact unit houses a 1.66GHz T5500 Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, a vibration-isolated 500GB disk and the same digital amplifier found in the PCI-200 sound card, which bypasses Vista’s sound mixer and channels audio directly through to avoid HD Audio signal loss. (Read the full post about ‘Onkyo unveils another audiophile PC, the APX-2 HD’…)

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Wireless Outdoor Speakers You can have this for ?119.00 (Read the full post about ‘Wireless Outdoor Speakers’…)

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Sonance FS1B IPORT iPort Freestanding Unbalanced Audio/Video Docking Station Bring your ipod into your home theater system with style. Sonances FS1 iPort dock fits in perfectly, anywhere you place it. It works seamlessly with your home stereo, A/V distribution center, or personal computer through unbalanced RCA, composite video, and S-video connections. Technorati Tags: Sonance (Read the full post about ‘Sonance FS1B IPORT iPort Freestanding Unbalanced Audio/Video Docking Station’…)

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Posted Feb 16th 2008 2:41AM by Donald MelansonFiled under: Misc. gadgets, Robots As if there weren’t enough toys out there already to make us grown-ups incredibly envious of kids today, Playskool’s now taken the wraps off its new Kota the Triceratops “toy,” which looks to be the closest thing to a Pleo that you (or, rather, your kids) can actually ride. While we’re guessing Kota’s few notches below Pleo on the robo-evolutionary ladder, the 40-inch tall toy at least has movement sensors on nine areas of its body, and is able to react to you by moving its head, tail, mouth, and horns, not to mention play “adventure-themed songs” at the push of a button. (Read the full post about ‘Kota the Triceratops makes our childhood toys look like wooden blocks’…)

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