New Home Gadgets

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 23rd 2008 at 8:30AM
While Amazon’s quest to take its DRM-free, MP3 store global is public knowledge, the where and the when of that maneuver are closely guarded secrets. The UK’s Telegraph is reporting that execs from Amazon’s MP3 store were in London last week to “thrash out details of the launch with British record company bosses.” Of course this says nothing about timing. On one side of the impending launch is DRM, that hot button of nastiness favored by the music industry and not offered by Amazon MP3. On the other, iTunes, and the music industry’s desire to usurp Apple’s digital dominance while inversely strengthening the bargaining power of its music execs’ over Cupertino. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon’s MP3 store nearing global launch?’…)

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Jun 23rd 2008 at 10:24AM
It’s been almost exactly a year since we heard any chatter over Apple’s adoption of the supposedly rock solid 128-bit ZFS file system, but it appears to be heading into the next version of the company’s OS… at least for servers. According to the promo page for Snow Leopard for OS X servers, the redundant, error correcting, dynamic volume expanding format will be available when the new system drops, though there’s no mention of whether it will make its way onto the standard version of the software. (Read the full post about ‘ZFS file system coming to Snow Leopard server edition’…)

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Satellite dishes are design disasters. Looking at the main façade of a city apartment complex and seeing a line of dirty gray disks poke out of windows like plastic mushroom outgrowth is a double depresso shot of gadget neglect and bad design aesthetics. But what would make it look even worse?  Wait, wait, I know. A rubbery square replacement satellite (called a Sqish), covered with camouflage sticker. Unfortunately, instead of blending in nicely into the building, this satellite looks bizarre and surely won’t work as a beauty enhancer. For the camo to even resemble an adjacent wall, the ’sqishes’ would probably need to be seen from the front exclusively, and won’t really reflect the true color of the environment. (Read the full post about ‘Camouflage Brick Covers Up Ugly Satellite Dish, Reveals Bad Judgment’…)

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The Unichal dixau concept dictionary is definitely something different from thumbing through old, dusty tomes. Place it over any unfamiliar English word and it will show the meaning of the word on the computer monitor in front, featuring real native-speaker voice. Hopefully the letter recognition technology used is accurate lest you get your new vocabulary all mixed up. Of course, there is nothing quite like using a traditional dictionary, but that’s not the kind of stagnant progress I’m hoping for. The dixau can support up to 17 other dictionaries when connected to the Internet, retailing for approximately $95.

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I know kids have a hard time eating their vegetables, but eggs? I personally love eggs, and the Egg Robot will definitely brighten up my day.

The Egg Robot comes in a funky sort of peace from a planet that is millions of “egg years” away, offering a nutritious gift to all who can handle a healthy dose of cholesterol. The Egg Robot makes an interesting addition to any non-alien kitchen, or a great novelty gift for the alien that secretly lives within us all. Whether or not the Egg Robot is proof positive of life on other planets is a moot point that can be heartily discussed over a breakfast of…you guessed it, eggs!

(Read the full post about ‘Egg Robot’…)

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We know Dick Tracy and his cell phone watch which has already been made into an actual product for quite some time already - now here’s yet another wacky idea taken off Maxwell Smart who hides a phone inside his shoe. I suppose those were the days where everywhere we went were pretty clean as folks had a higher degree of civic consciousness, putting chewing gum where it belongs instead of being a sidewalk hazard to strollers and joggers. ArchPort Shoes aims to literally take one step at a time by incorporating a cell phone into their shoes sometime down the road, but they are still a long way off from there at the moment.

(Read the full post about ‘Shoe phone could be a reality’…)

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Comic books may be seeing a rebirth in the digital revolution thanks to the popularity of mobile phones. The center of this resurgence appears to be in Japan according to a Reuters article. It seems that it is not uncommon to see businessmen reading comic books while they commute to work.

It’s this popularity that is giving publishers the idea of starting to offer comics digitally through mobile phones. One product, which is expected to really drive the feasibility of comic books on mobile phones, is the new iphone launching June 11th.

(Read the full post about ‘Comic books coming to a mobile phone near you’…)

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Okay - this is one of those quirky little gadgets that make you look twice even if you never intend to own one yourself.

It’s a USB robotic owl and although it doesn’t do very much, the vendor proclaims it comes from the “PC Forest” and has “mysterious healing powers.”

The USB Owl plugs into an available port and springs to life, opening it’s little eyes, blinks and then tilts it’s head back and forth. Whether there is any actual healing going on, I’ll let you readers be the judge of that.

(Read the full post about ‘USB Owl said to have “Mysterious healing power”’…)

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The Wii homebrew scene isn’t just all about software but hardware as well, with the WiiBrator being the latest device that makes the Wiimote an alternative “relaxation” device.

This is a highly advanced technology demo of a Wii vibrator. Use at your own risk. For educational purposes only. Wii remote jacket is supported for enhanced comfort…Do not try to use this with either the Wii Zapper or Wii Wheel peripherals.

(Read the full post about ‘WiiBrator Brings Sweet Relief’…)

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Alright, so everyone has their bizarre tendencies, mine happens to be that I find pigs adorable. I don’t mean in the way that someone who has never seen a real pig in their life buys cute little pig accessories. No, I mean both real and fake, I fully admit that it is both strange and completely ridiculous. That being said, I am of course a sucker for these cute little novelty earbuds. Being a bit of a gadget geek, I of course take into consideration that likely they don’t have the greatest sound quality.

However, that being said, it is taking a great amount of restraint on my part to keep that in mind and not pick them up purely because they are cute.

(Read the full post about ‘Japan getting little pig earbuds’…)

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