Tech Gadgets Reviews

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 2:54PM

For better or worse, it looks like the so-called iControlPad is edging closer to reality — or at least something really similar. According to a new image (and our limited Spanish translation skills), Belkin is actually looking to produce an App Store gaming controller, though we’re still not entirely convinced that what we’re seeing is legitimate. Whatever the case, the JoyPod would somehow, someway provide users who purchased Super Monkey Ball to play it using a bona fide game pad, though we can’t figure out if the ipod touch / iphone slips in behind the controller or if it just morphs to fit the JoyPod’s space constraints. Guess we’ll see (or not) soon enough.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

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Filed under: cellphones, Gaming, Peripherals

Just when you think USB flash drives all come in extremely boring rectangular designs, along comes the machine gun bullet USB flash drive that will definitely more than just a passing glance. Inside the machine gun bullet case holds 1GB of storage space, but unfortunately you won’t be able to impress anyone any time soon since this is not commercially available just yet. How much do you think this ghetto-looking USB flash drive will cost if it actually hits the market?

Source: Gearfuse

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by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 10:54AM

Worried that retailers might be running out of utter crap to sell? Been looking for that perfect accessory to go with your “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps” sign? Enter the USB-powered, soda can-shaped anion humidifier. Not only will this magical and totally necessary device clean the air around you and re-energize your fat, lazy body, but it will look cool while doing it — you know, just sitting there being all soda-can-badass. When you absolutely, positively can’t find anything else to do with $24.99, the “Portable Can Shape USB Office Home Miniature Anion Humidifier” is there.

[Thanks, Simon]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

Remember the good ol’ FCC leaking out the new Zune 120GB? Well, now there have been some pictures released by the Canadians that show off two new larger capacity Zune players. The image includes a 16GB flash based model and the new 120GB model.

The pictures show up pretty clear considering they were taking from a phone, and you can see that the 16GB Zune has a glossy screen. It would make sense that Microsoft is updating their Zunes, as there have been rumors of what Apple plans to do come their special event. If Apple decides to update their nano, Microsoft will want to have something updated in their Zune line up as well.

Stay tuned for any further developments.

Via [Zunited]

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by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 6:27AM

Toshiba is offering up a nice respite from the inane quantity of LCDs and, um, more LCDs at IFA this year. The SD Multi Tool and the SD Photo Editor are two touchable handhelds, offering up some beefy features where similar devices lack, and also skipping over some of the more traditional MID OS features that might put these over the top — a confusing mix, but again, not an LCD, so we’re hooked. The SD Multi Tool is the real wild one, offering dual 3.5-inch touchable (finger or stylus) LCDs, rated at 960 x 480 each if the spec sheet is telling the truth — that could be a combined resolution. The device offers wireless connectivity of some sort, and can handle web browsing, email, videos, photo editing and pretty much anything else that isn’t an actual phone call — though it can’t be tough to squeeze some VoIP in there. Meanwhile, the SD Photo Editor really earns its “SD” moniker with dual SD card slots, while the Multi Tool just has one microSD slot. The Photo Editor runs a similar OS, but seems distilled down to mainly the photo browsing and editing functions, with a bit of PMP functionality thrown in we hope. A 5-inch WVGA screen with 16 million colors should be plenty of room to work your magic. No word on what OS is under the hood, but it seems to be mostly homegrown Toshiba fare. We know the Multi Tool does HDMI out, and we’d hope the Photo Editor does as well, since they’re both supposed to hit in 2009 for a similar price point: around $300 US.

Gallery: Toshiba’s SD Multi Tool and SD Photo Editor are a nice, touchable surprise

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Handhelds

Doorbells are normally pretty ordinary but designer Li Jianye has different ideas with the ‘Enter’ doorbell. Doesn’t really words to describe it, it’s just a cool idea.

Enterbell via designzen via Home Tone.

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FROM GAMERTELL - Tony Hawk’s Motion will utilize a Motion Pack developed by Kionix, a company that specializes in motion sensing products and will slide right into the GBA slot on the DS…
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by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 9:14AM

TomTom is really pushing the connected capabilities of its navigation devices with this new x40 LIVE series, which hit IFA this year as rumored. The GO 940 LIVE, GO 740 LIVE and GO 540 LIVE include a “new and extended” version of IQ Routes, which can adjust your route for predicted and actual road conditions, based on historical data and TomTom’s HD Traffic feature. The units include Safety Alerts for alerting to speed cameras, Fuel Prices, and Local Search, which is powered by Google and allows you to plan a route to your search results. Also onboard is voice command and control, letting you plan routes and make phone calls using only your voice. The series will be available in the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands and Switzerland this fall, starting at £299 (about $544 US). LIVE services are £10 a month. Unfortunately, the versions we played with at IFA didn’t have a live connection, but software looks easy to access and easy to use. Too bad the actual hardware looks circa 2003.

Gallery: TomTom’s GO x40 LIVE range present realtime route adjustment, Google searches

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Filed under: GPS

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 4:21AM

Alright, maybe “superflous” is a bit harsh, but we’re still a bit confused as to why LG stuck Bluetooth into its new 7000-series LCDs and plasmas. Sure, if they offered a Bluetooth remote we’d take it all back in a heartbeat, but the fact is that there are about four people on earth that own stereo Bluetooth headphones, and none of them have been watching TV on mute all this time — and the rest of us are too lazy to figure out how to beam pictures from our phone over Bluetooth, the other main function LG provides here. But would you look at that menu! It really makes it all worthwhile. Heck, LG could toss in some 802.11a, SCSI and a pinch of MIDI plugs if it meant more menus like this. Oh, and we suppose those purtiful icons will come in handy when browsing for photos off of the 7000’s USB port, so good on you, LG, good on you.

[Gadgie was the winner of our Engadget Mascot contest last year, he approves this message]

Gallery: LG’s 7000-series TVs win Gadgie Award for best menu design pertaining to a superfluous connectivity feature

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Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, Household, Wireless

Fotoviewr is a new (free) Web-based service to turn your Flickr (or SmugMug) photos into a cooler interactive slideshow for your friends and family. You could easily get a slideshow set up in less than a minute with Fotoviewr - just plug in a Flickr/SmugMug username, then select the photoset you want to display and third, the type of slideshow you want. Fotoviewr has 6 different types of slideshows from a carousel to a wall of photos to a pile of photos on the floor.

While I love Flickr for its clean website, I find it a bit slow. Fotoviewr speeds things up by preloading the photos and making it significantly faster to browse. Fotoviewr has also built an application for you Facebook junkies.

Posted in Cameras and Photo, Gizmo of the Day, Networking & Internet