New Home Gadgets

Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is the heavily anticipated handheld only follow-up to Ninja Gaiden, which was first on the Xbox and then re-made as Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden Sigma. All those games were virtually the same title, with some added missions and–in some cases–enhanced graphics. Fans of the series can look forward to the continued adventures of Ryu Hayabusa, but with the DS, there will be some highly noticeable changes. Graphically, the game looks as good as anything on the DS and often approaches the could-be-PSP level of quality. This is no surprise considering how Team Ninja was able to do such good work with the Xbox and the PS3, but it still needs to be said. (Read the full post about ‘Review: Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for DS’…)

Share This

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Blockbuster is thought to be developing an Apple TV style set top box which will stream movies direct to your TV. The device will tie in with the Blockbuster owned Movielink service, which allows movie downloads that can be played on a PC.

It’s hard not to see these emerging streaming services as the death throes of the optical disk as a delivery method. Netflix, always ahead of the game, has already teamed up with LG to offer streaming hardware and the AppleTV might eventually do for movies what the iTunes Store did for digital music.

The trouble is, whereas signing up for a bunch of neighborhood video stores meant nothing more than a few extra cards in your wallet, signing up with different streaming services means more boxes crowding the living room.

(Read the full post about ‘Blockbuster Plans Movie-Streaming Set-Top Box’…)

Share This

Rumors are flying about Blockbuster working on a set-top device that will stream films directly to your TV. The technology used to make this possible is rumored to be coming from Movielink, an online service for renting and downloading movies on your computer, that Blockbuster acquired last year.

The rumors are not that hard to believe considering that the company has recently reinforced its commitment to delivering content through a variety of mediums.

If Blockbuster is in fact developing its own box, it’s entering into a very crowded market.

(Read the full post about ‘Blockbuster to stream films to your TV?’…)

Share This

Safe Can - Heinz Baked Beans Introducing the Safe Can, shrewdly disguised as a common or garden tin of Heinz Baked Beans, complete with authentic look and feel. See price (Read the full post about ‘Safe Can - Heinz Baked Beans’…)

Share This

Micro Vectron The Micro Vectron is a free-flying dream. Unlike many other hovery flying things, this wonderful gizmo truly is a piece of cake to fly. You can have this for ?14.95 (Read the full post about ‘Micro Vectron’…)

Share This

Boy, these days UMPCs are really packing some powerful features. And rarely do you find a UMPC with in-built optical drive, to keep weight and thickness down. So its a big news when a mini laptop offers an integrated DVD burner.

(Read the full post about ‘Kohjinsha’s 7″ UMPC offers in-built DVD burner’…)

Share This

This is a trend that needs no introduction. The art of turning everything Lego is something that needs appreciation rather than a cliché appreciation. The studs on the oversized Lego brick act as controls for the player and you can also find a USB port and a headphone jack. It supports both MP3 and WMA file formats. The colors are pretty realistic enough to represent overgrown Lego bricks. Imagine fitting the giant blocks together and having a giant music system (just hypothesis). There still is a child in all of us. (Read the full post about ‘LEGO MP3 Player’…)

Share This

Though not nearly as sexy (or well-spec’d, for that matter) as Sony’s recently-unveiled HDR-TG1, AgfaPhoto’s DV-5000Z still manages to hold its own on paper. Measuring in at 4.7- x 2.75-inches (12- x 7-centimeters) and weighing just over 7-ounces (200-grams), this HD camcorder features a 5-megapixel Micron CMOS sensor, 2.5-inch flip-out LCD, 3x optical zoom and an SD / SDHC slot to store everything on. As for shooting capabilities, it’ll capture clips at 1,280 x 720 (using H.264 compression) and snag 16-bit stereo sound all the while. You’ll also find USB connectivity, a rechargeable Li-ion and video out, natch. (Read the full post about ‘AgfaPhoto’s DV-5000Z SDHC camcorder shoots 720p’…)

Share This

Our friends at Brighthand got a demo of the new Pocket Explorer, which should provide a “full web experience”, meaning that flash and AJAX stuff would work out of the box. It is an interesting demo, but I don’t think that the idea that “shrinking a desktop website onto a 3” display” will work more tomorrow than it did yesterday. It is OK only for users who don’t browse too often, in my opinion.

Share This

Fireplace DVD A roaring hearth. A warm pipe. A glass of claret and a faithful golden retriever. If that sounds rather like a glimpse of your grand-father’s winter’s evening, you can wind back the clock and remember the good old days before multi-channel TV with the uniquely innovative Fireplace DVD. See price (Read the full post about ‘Fireplace DVD’…)

Share This