New Home Gadgets

by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 8:47AM Remember Thingamagoop, the little synth monster controlled by light thanks to the photocell governing the main oscillator? Well, this alarm clock mod requires a 9-volt DC jack and adapter, switch SPDT, and some audio cable and wire to bring it all together. A few snips and solder burns later and voila, the monster Moog alarm clock is born. Man, robots… synthesizers… it’s like the ultimate nerd sub-cult. Video after the break, detailed hacking instructions on the other side of that read link.P.S. Yes, he has throw-switch nipples and a uh, knob. ReadPermalinkEmail thisComments (7)Filed under: Misc. (Read the full post about ‘Video: Thingamagoop alarm clock mod haunts your dreams, wakes you to its nightmare’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 8:08AMThe Hollywood Reporter is stating in no uncertain terms that Blockbuster is developing a set-top box to stream video into the home. Now the real bombshell: it should be announced “sometime this month.” The device is expected to make the most of Blockbuster’s access to Movielink’s 6,000 strong Movie catalog just as soon as the content is migrated to Blockbuster.com (sometime before June). (Read the full post about ‘Blockbuster announcing streaming set-top box this month?’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted Apr 10th 2008 at 10:11AM Mini-projectors are a dime a dozen these days, but the Micro SD Card Projector is whizzing right around all those serious competitors and aiming instead for the carefree crowd. Essentially, the image quality you’ll get from this thing is likely to be lackluster — after all, the manufacturer doesn’t even bother to pass along a contrast ratio, let alone a native resolution. Still, the ability to shove an SD card into the rear and instantly watch your portable media clips on the big(ish) screen is a boon to travel junkies and kids of all ages. Heck, there’s even a set of composite inputs if you’re looking to give your DVD player (or similar) some work. (Read the full post about ‘Micro SD Card Projector blows up portable media’…)

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The most impressive company that had a booth at Comdex back in 1996 was Drive Savers:

They had a Museum of Disk-asters in which they showed the burnt, dropped and drown computers from which they were able to rescue data.

Disk Savers still exist today. You can see their website here:

• Data Recovery by DriveSavers | Hard Drive Data Recovery - Home

Here is a link to their Data Recovery Hall of Fame:

• Data Recovery by DriveSavers | Hard Drive Data Recovery - Hall of Fame

I remember being so impressed that they helped save an episode of The Simpsons. They are still touting that accomplishment almost twelve years later. So many companies from back then have disappeared. It’s nice to see that Disk Savers are still around.

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USB flash drives have led to the death of the floppy disk drive. Unfortunately, they’ve also introduced some risk when it comes to business data being placed on unsecured flash drives. In fact, it seems that many IT executives and managers don’t realize how much unsecured flash drives are being used. According to a SanDisk survey, 77% of corporate end users indicated that they have used a personal flash drive for work-related tasks. IT executives and managers surveyed only estimated the use to be around 35%.

Naturally, such wide use of personal flash drives to store work data increases the risk of such data falling into the wrong hands.

(Read the full post about ‘SanDisk survey warns of personal flash drive use’…)

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Philips GoGear SA28 is the first mp3 player that features its own Fullsound technology. The SA28 was first introduced during the CES2008, and now, it is available at China mainland. The 2GB SA28 is sale for RMB399 (approx US$57) with built-in FM tuner. Fullsound is a digital audio algorithm patented by Philips that refines audio output by performing 10 million operations per second to analyze and re-compute the music signal before it is sent to the speaker. This means that FullSound brings out the best of any audio system and delivers more life to the music. (Read the full post about ‘Philips GoGear SA28 for $57′…)

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Yinlips YDP-G68 is an MP4 player featuring a 2.8 inch TFT screen, 4GB storage, support for SD/MMC card, 1.3-megapixel camera, FM radio, AV-OUT, AV-IN and support memory card (up to 2GB) along with support for 8-32bit NES format games as well as MP3, WMA, AMR, ACC, WAV, ASF, 3GP, MPEG-4 and EXIF2.1 formats. Get yours right now for $96.55. [2Day] [ Source ] (Read the full post about ‘Yinlips YDP-G68 MP4 Player’…)

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by Donald Melanson, posted Apr 9th 2008 at 6:56PMWe’d already seen a few early tests of AMD’s new top-end Phenom X4 9850 processor, but the folks at Extreme Tech have now taken it upon themselves to see just how well the processor stacks up against Intel’s similarly high-end offering, the Core 2 Quad Q9300. As was suggested by those other reviews, however, the AMD falls behind the (admittedly pricier) Intel processor in just about every respect, including its ability to be overclocked. On the upside, however, that lower cost will likely offset the performance issues for many users, and it does still boast “moderate overclockability” and run cooler than the Intel chip. (Read the full post about ‘AMD’s Phenom X4 9850 gets pitted against Intel’s Core 2 Quad Q9300′…)

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My mother taught me not to open my mouth if I don’t have anything good to say. Well, needless to say, with the Bullshit button, I don’t even have to open my mouth at all. The Bullshit button can rile up anyone with five snarky sentences: - (Beep) That was bullshit! - (Siren) Bullshit detected, take precautions! - (Siren) Bullshit level defcon 5! - Oh come on now, that ain’t even bullshit, that’s horseshit! - Warning, warning, bullshit alert! All you need to do is load the gadget up with two triple A batteries and you’re on your way for some nasty pranking session. There’s nothing complicated here–just push the button and let it take the place of your potty mouth. (Read the full post about ‘Bullshit Button’…)

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I’ve been getting a lot of comments and emails asking about the prices of certain gadgets in the market so I’m pretty happy that I’ve discovered this cool little website where you can order and buy gadgets from! They have wide selection of gadgets to choose from. From iPods, to laptops, to mobiles phones and consoles, though they don’t have ALL the brands (like I didn’t see any Sony Ericsson stuff). They have a Cash-On-Delivery mode of payment which works for me since I really don’t believe in buying gadgets using credit cards. So check it out yourself. You might end up buying some stuff. I noticed their prices are a bit cheaper than most! [ Image source from GadgetGroce (Read the full post about ‘Gadget Grocery!’…)

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