New Home Gadgets

Thanko has released many weird products in the past, but their latest product actually seems quite sensible. The Cooler mouse is a fairly standard looking mouse, but has a built-in fan that draws air from the bottom of the mouse, and pushes it out the top of the mouse to keep the user’s palm cool. This will probably go a long way to help users with sweaty palms. This mouse is also a 5-button mouse, with buttons to control the airflow. The Cooler mouse is currently retailing for about $18 in Japan. It’ll be interesting to see if this mouse does a little vacuum cleaning while chilling users’ palms. (Read the full post about ‘Cooler Mouse To Combat Sweaty Palms’…)

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It seems as though Asus will be revising its Eee PC 900 by offering 30GB of storage space, but it remains to be seen whether this new variant will be added to the 900 line or will it completely replace the 12GB SSD and 20GB hard drive models that are readily available. Word has it that this new 30GB model will come in black or white colors, powered by Windows XP and Linux (the choice is yours). Other than the change in capacity, other specifications remain the same including 1GB RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity and an SD memory card slot. Chances are the 2.5 hour battery life will drop a wee bit since hard drives do consume more power than a regular SSD. (Read the full post about ‘Asus Eee PC 900 has 30GB?’…)

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Creative’s Zen Krystal will be entering unchartered territory that is currently dominated by the Nike + ipod device, as this mp3 player features an integrated pedometer which is smart enough to track the miles you’ve racked up, your speed as well as the number of calories you have burned so that you won’t feel so guilty the next time you drop by McDonald’s and bring home a Big Mac. It even comes with pre-loaded games such as Hurdle Race, Catch & Dodge and Dice Roll so that you can exercise your brain in addition to your body. Other features include a built-in FM tuner, a voice recorder, a blue OLED display and a simple drag-and-drop user interface. (Read the full post about ‘Zen Krystal enters Nike + iPod Market’…)

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At E3, our friends at Crunchgear saw a really cool app for the iPhone - the latest LucasArts and THQ Wireless’ mega blockbuster video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, has been ported to it. It looks to be really seamless and LucasArts has gotten around the iphone’s sole multi-touch interface rather nicely. Players can’t use the accelerometer for anything other than changing from portrait to landscape, but users can actually control the Sith apprentice by running their finger in a manner suggested by the game in order to create the needed moves. An upside down sort of “plus sign” (where you keep your finger on the screen) will signal the apprentice to force choke the bad guys, then swapping from one side of the screen to the other will tell him where to toss his victims like rag dolls. (Read the full post about ‘Force Unleashed coming to the iPhone’…)

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For folks who’ve seen The Dark Knight already, don’t leave any spoilers in the comments section on how the Icare motorcycle concept resembles the Batpod in the latest Christian Bale outing. Designed by France-based Enzyme Design, this concept clearly oozes with a mean streak, powered by a six-cylinder 1.8 liter Honda engine which packs quite a wallop. There is no word on whether this will ever enter production, but it will definitely be a big hit with those who have extra dough to splash around then. After all, getting around on this will earn you way more brownie points with the ladies, right? Just keep your fingers crossed it doesn’t rain on that day. (Read the full post about ‘Icare Motorcycle Concept’…)

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Clearly, streaming video is the wave of the future, and the days of video stores are nigh finished. I had a chance to try out the Roku with its limited selection, and I wanted to try out the Unbox service from Amazon. It doesn’t look like I will get the chance, because Amazon is scrapping that Unbox program in favor of Amazon Video on Demand (VoD). This service is similar to the streaming video Apple offers with its iTunes. Amazon’s Vice President of Digital Media is very pleased, saying the company’s goal is “to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with the click of a button”. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon Video on Demand can “Bring It”’…)

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If you think you have some mad DIY skills, think again. This guy from China has the smarts to build a one-man submarine using nothing but good old fashioned hard work, a whole ton of ingenuity and old metal barrels. The submarine comes complete with an oxygen supply, headlights, monitoring cameras (presumably waterproof), and a TV set. No idea if he plans to send it to the murky depths for testing and leak plugging, but it is still an interesting contraption to have sitting in the middle of your lawn. (Read the full post about ‘DIY Submarine is Possible’…)

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Opera Software has announced public availability of the next version of Opera Mobile. The release is still in beta, but will give users the opportunity to take a sneak peak at the improved features included in the new mobile browser. The biggest change previous Opera Mobile users will note is that there are new visual effects and a new look to the browser. One thing that many Opera Mobile fans will love to hear is that version 9.5 beta comes with improvements in performance over version 8.65. Besides that, the browser also includes enhancements to the browsing experience including the ability to view an entire web page. Other nice touches include the ability to pan and zoom, improved standards support and the option to save pages and images. (Read the full post about ‘Opera Mobile 9.5 beta released’…)

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by Thomas Ricker, posted Jul 17th 2008 at 4:30AM var The New York Times is reporting that Amazon is scrapping its Unbox service in favor of a new online TV and movie store called Amazon Video on Demand. Unlike iTunes and Unbox, Amazon’s new digital store-front will stream any of 40,000 movies and television programs to customers. According to Bill Carr, Amazon’s VP for digital media, “Our goal is to create an immersive experience where people can’t help but get caught up in how exciting it is to simply watch a movie right from Amazon.com with a click of the button.” In this regard, the first 2 minutes of every video will begin to play when customers visit the video’s product page. (Read the full post about ‘Amazon Video on Demand store streams film and TV, launches today’…)

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Super Talent today announced the PICO-C Gold, a 24-carat gold plated, water resistant USB drive that weighs less than a nickel (~4.7 grams), is smaller than an SD card, and can store over 2,000 MP3 songs. The Pico-C Gold is shock resistant, water resistant, and has up to 200X (30MB/sec) transfer speeds. The Pico-C Gold includes a sturdy gold chain, and looks more like a fashion accessory than a high performance Flash drive. Super Talent uses chip-on-board (COB) technology to squeeze 8GB of Flash into an impressively small 31.3mm x 12.4mm x 3.4 mm gold plated steel cases. Super Talent 8GB Pico-C Gold drive STU8GPCG, is available for approximately for under $40. (Read the full post about ‘Super Talent 8GB Pico-C Gold USB drive weighs less than a nickel!’…)

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