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Audioquest MINI1 (Mini To RCA) 2M Mini-1 Mini-To-RCA Cable (6 7) You want an affordable audio cable with superior signal transmission and a smooth, clear sound. That cable is the Mini-1, and its made by Audioquest. Audioquest has dedicated 20 years to producing the highest caliber audio and video cables, and all of their hard work has elevated their cables to the component level. And as a component, these cables will drastically improve the sound quality of every other audio component in your home-theater quiver. Really. (Read the full post about ‘Audioquest MINI1 (Mini To RCA) 2M Mini-1 Mini-To-RCA Cable (6 7)’…)

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Hybrid vehicles are always welcome in my book, since the earth is already being overloaded by too many people, too much waste and an imbalanced system of wealth distribution. Encouraging people to take public transport instead of just riding around in their fuel guzzlers for fun does take some getting used to, since most folks prefer the privacy of their car. What happens when you try to prick their conscience from another point of view? What if they know that if they were riding on a hybrid bus that does it’s part in reducing carbon emissions, will they take the plunge then? Until these plug-in hybrids are well distributed all over the world in congested cities, that answer remains theoretical. (Read the full post about ‘Plug-in hybrids the next big thing?’…)

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I’m not sure why, but I’ve never really worried about security where I live, at least not enough to bother with getting an alarm or a surveillance camera. However, if you’re worried about your goods getting stolen, or just feel the need to spy on others in your house while you’re away, this might be the perfect way to do it. While I don’t ever recall seeing a smoke detector quite like this in a house, I doubt that during the midst of a break-in that anyone would stop and go “that looks out of place, I wonder if it’s a hidden camera?” The plastic cover hides a 1/3” Sony CCD camera with an adjustable lens mounted on an adjustable bracket. (Read the full post about ‘Smoke Detector Spy Cam doesn’t quite look right’…)

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This NET-2000 device here may look like a flashlight, but if you turn it on, a net will shoot out. That’s right, someone actually took an idea from a comic book and made it into a publicly-available net-shooter that you can use to take out bad guys. This net-gun uses compressed gas through a pneumatic system, which I’m told is a better alternative to “traditional gunpowder activated net guns”. Yes, I had no idea that there were any traditional gunpowder activated net guns before today. You learn something new everyday. I’m guessing the ones that use gunpowder are for official or private use, and I’m guessing you might not need a license for a net gun. (Read the full post about ‘NET-2000 Traps You in My Web’…)

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The Giant Golf Set you see here helps you hit the darn ball since it has been blown up. After all, who in their right mind would continue swinging at a ball all day long while missing the target? The trouble with golf is that everything is so darn small. The club heads are tiny, the ball is minute, the holes are just ludicrous (as are the shoes of course), and you begin to wonder what on earth the point is. However, if it wasn’t for someone inventing pinhead golf, then some other idiot wouldn’t have come up with this super-size, super-stupid Giant Golf. Club, tee and ball are all ludicrously big, enabling even the tragically inept to take a successful swing and watch with smug satisfaction as their ball sails across the garden, beach or fairway. (Read the full post about ‘Giant Golf Set’…)

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Via’s Nanobook, incarnated in different forms worldwide, is to hit Indonesia as the Zyrex Ubud, and Japan as the Cloudbook CE1200J. The Ubud will be $545 or thereabouts and run Windows instead of Linux, as was the case with the U.S. Cloudbook. Specs for the Ubud is the same as usual: a 1.2GHz C7 CPU, 30GB hard drive and 512 MB or a GB of RAM. The Japanese CE1200J model, however, gets a touchscreen as well as Windows XP. It’ll be priced at about $600. It’s a nice little machine, but Windows looks like the right way to go about it, even with the price bump. Asus Eee still reigns supreme as the cheap Linux subnotebook of choice. Photos: Ultramobilelife.com and PC Watch via Engadget. (Read the full post about ‘Nanobooks Head To Indonesia and Japan’…)

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I’m not a coffee drinker, I really can’t stand the stuff. I prefer to take my caffeine in Mountain Dew form. Frankly it tastes much better, and you don’t have to deal with those nasty coffee grinds at the bottom of the cup. Of course, that also means that I don’t ever have a reason to buy cool coffee mugs like this one. While I wouldn’t actually buy this one for myself, I still think it’s a pretty cool design. The idea is that the further down you drink your coffee (or whatever is in the mug) the clearer the shape of a heart becomes. Since the outside of the cup looks quite ordinary, it would be a sneaky way to tell someone “I love you” well after you’ve left the room (after bringing them a fresh cup of Joe). (Read the full post about ‘This coffee cup loves you’…)

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Gone are the days when $1000 could not even get you a desktop PC, let alone laptops. Having a budget of $1000 today can easily get you a more-than-decent laptop from well known players in the laptop market. In any case, if you haven’t taken the plunge yet and are considering one, this latest round-up of recommended laptops under $1000 from PC World could be a good starting point. Topping the list with an exceptional battery life is the budget HP Pavilion dv2660se at $900, which can play a CD/DVD without booting into Windows. If you are looking for the lowest pricing, there is the $699 Toshiba Satellite Pro A210-EZ2201, which means you will have to contend with a low battery life as well. (Read the full post about ‘The best laptops under $1000′…)

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Posted Mar 17th 2008 6:33AM by Thomas RickerFiled under: cellphonesMicrosoft is expected to shore-up its much maligned Internet Explorer Mobile browser this morning by announcing new Flash Lite support. We have no idea when the new plug-in technology (including Reader LE for PDFs) might make it into Windows Mobile. Nevertheless, with the far superior Skyfire and Opera Mobile 9.5 mobile browsers already supporting Flash Lite, and Microsoft’s own competing Silverlight not expected to go mobile until the end of the year, it can’t be long now can it? (Read the full post about ‘Microsoft bites bullet, licenses Adobe’s Flash Lite for Windows Mobile’…)

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Hey, we’ve no qualms with Frontier crafting a 12.1-inch laptop that weighs less than some obese MIDs, but c’mon, a 800MHz Intel A110 processor?Yep, the same chip that resides in quite a few UMPCs has somehow found its way into this creature, along with 1GB of RAM, a WXGA (1,280 x 800) panel, 80GB hard drive, 802.11a/b/g WiFi, 4-in-1 multicard reader, integrated graphics and a built-in 1-watt speaker. Additionally, you’ll find an integrated microphone, a pair of USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, a 56k modem, VGA out and a biometric scanner to keep your files under wraps. Granted, it does weigh just 2.73-pounds, but until this thing gets a handle on the processor situation, we’d divert that ¥129,799 ($1,264) elsewhere. (Read the full post about ‘Frontier’s 12.1-inch FRLN ultraportable: can I get a real CPU?’…)

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