Archive for July, 2008

Paper-craft Batmobile Tumbler from The Dark Knight

Posted in Automotive by Conner Flynn on July 19th, 2008

Paper-craft Batmobile Tumbler from The Dark Knight
The new Batman movie came out yesterday. I know many of you will be rushing to the theaters today. While I haven’t been able to see it yet and have a two hour nerdgasm, at least I can play with a paper version of the Dark Knight’s car. I’m talking papercraft! The design was created by paper model expert Claudio. With hundreds of individual pieces, this thing will keep you busy longer then the movie will.

Wii outsells Xbox 360 in the US

Posted in Wii by Conner Flynn on July 18th, 2008

Wii outsells Xbox 360 in the US
Nintendo’s Wii has now surpassed the Xbox 360 as the leading console in U.S. homes among the latest generation of video-game players. As of June, U.S. consumers bought nearly 10.9 million Wii consoles since it’s introduction, which makes Nintendo top console dog. In fact, the Wii has been the top-selling console in all but one month in the U.S. since it launched, according to research firm NPD Group Inc.

Nintendo is projecting that worldwide, the Wii’s annual sales will surpass the number of consoles that Sony sells for the first time this fiscal year. The formula seems pretty straightforward. Get people actually in the game with motion control and Miis, appeal to all ages and keep the price somewhat reasonable.

Birdcage Backpack for modern day pirates

Posted in Apparel by Conner Flynn on July 18th, 2008

Birdcage Backpack for modern day pirates
In the days of sailing the open seas, walking the plank, and sanding your peg-leg by hand, it was all the rage to have a bird on your shoulder. These days it’s frowned upon for some reason. That’s where the Birdcage backpack comes in.

You and your feathered friend can journey through the world together once again and leave a trail of bird droppings smell everywhere you go, while he makes snide comments. And if you have a hook hand and peg-leg it really makes a statement.

Reusable earplugs for your wallet

Posted in Earbuds by Conner Flynn on July 18th, 2008

Reusable earplugs for your wallet
Some of us would like to keep our eardrums in working order. To do that you can avoid concerts and the like and it also helps to have a pair of earplugs handy, but it’s not always convenient to carry them around. Unless you could fit them in your wallet somehow, like these RNID plugs from designer Shing Lo.

They even come with a set of rubber gaskets for a tight seal in your ears. Plus you can put them back on the card for storage. If these ever show up in the market, they would be pretty popular as a disposable and convenient product.

Star Wars MP3 player: May The Force Rock You

Posted in MP3 by Conner Flynn on July 18th, 2008

Star Wars MP3 player: May The Force Rock You
So you’re chillin’ with your Clone Trooper laptop, wearing your flannel like George Lucas and waiting in line for that new Ewok action figure that has a big release today. But what you need is some tunes.

This is what you want right here. A Star Wars mp3 player. The front features a close-up of Darth Vader with glowing red eyes, which is cool, but sadly, this MP3 player only features 512MB of memory and a display that looks like it’s 30 years old. It does come with a built-in radio however. It’s currently out of stock at Amazon.co.uk, but ForbiddenPlanet will release a similar product shown above for about $80 US at the end of the month.

DIY Lego record player

Posted in Turntables by Conner Flynn on July 18th, 2008


Is there anything Lego can’t do? This guy builds himself an authentic old time record player using Legos and a plastic cup in under 3 minutes. Then proceeds to play himself a record, thereby proving the whole deal isn’t just the product of too much bong water. In this video we also learn that a coffee cup will improve the sound quality of a Lego turntable. Lego 8-Track anyone?

Laptop Magazine Tests OCZ Core Series SSDs

Posted in Computer Components,SSD,Storage by Shane McGlaun on July 18th, 2008

OCZ Core SATA SSD TestedEarly this month OCZ announced its Core Series SSDs that brought pricing for SSD drives to significantly lower levels. Granted the SSDs in the Core series are still more than standard hard drives, but the savings compared to other SSDs on the market is very significant.

Laptop Magazine got its hands on a 64GB Core Series SSD and ran some tests to see how well the cut price SSD stacks up to more expensive SSDs and normal hard drives. The average read rate for the Core SSD was 112.4MBps and it had an average seek time of 1ms on Sisoft Sandra tests. HD Tach showed that the drive had an average read score of 89.5MBps and a seek time of 0.5ms.

Activision brings Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass to mobile phones

Posted in Games by Shane McGlaun on July 18th, 2008

Guitar Hero III: Backstage PassMusic based games are very hot right now with Guitar Hero and Rock Band selling tons of copies and playable digital tracks for the games often outselling their strictly music counterparts on iTunes. With the great proliferation of mobile phones capable of gaming music games are also migrating to mobile phones.

The latest music game for mobile phones is from Activision and is called Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass. The game features the same music gameplay we know and love form Guitar Hero with some interesting additions. Activision says in all there is more than 25 hours of play for the game.

Philips alarm clock with LCD digital photo displays

Posted in Clocks by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

Philips alarm clock with LCD digital photo displaysChances are you’re looking for a clock that will wake you up more gently then the Dumbbell Alarm Clock. This alarm clock from Philips should do the trick.

It features gradually increasing alarm volume, so that the clock wakes you up very gently while playing your favorite tunes, using a radio station or a buzzer alarm. It does double duty as a multiple display digital photo frame, each of the five pictures displaying at 128 x 128 pixels on 1.5 inch displays. You can even make them rotate in a slide show. Some other features include a calendar and voice recorder that you can record important information on.

Watch with hidden USB flash drive

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

Watch with hidden USB flash drive
If you have the need to smuggle sensitive data from one place to another and need to hide your usb drive, this is the watch for you. It features a hidden 4GB USB Flash Drive thanks to a secret compartment at the base.

Plus, it’s fairly plain so it won’t draw attention like say, a Tokyoflash watch. With this baby, before you know it, you’ll be stealing all kinds of company secrets. Unless of course your boss is reading the ‘Brick and notices how much your watch looks like this one.

X-Watch: Perfect X-Man retirement gift

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

X-Watch: Perfect X-Man retirement gift
It’s tradition to gift a watch to employees who have served you well and are retiring. So it’s easy to see Professor X commissioning this watch and presenting it to Wolverine one day. Of course that would make the Professor how old? Well, maybe in an alternate timeline anyway.

This is actually called the X-Watch and it’s a concept watch that should have been in the movie. It has numbers all along the length, and when they’re lit up it gives you the time. It also sports Braille so that the blind can use it. Or in case cyclops doesn’t have his visor handy and has to feel for the time.

Photo Safe II: Massive digital camera storage

Posted in Digital Cameras by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

Photo Safe II: Massive digital camera storageMost of us think that our 4,8 or 16GB SD card for our digital camera is large. How would you like to have 160GB of storage space for your camera? That’s huge! Well, today Digital Foci announced Photo Safe II, which is a portable photo storage device that takes some of the burden from your laptop, Mac or PC.

It’s basically a battery operated HD. It also has a built-in card reader and automated copy function which could really come in handy. The device supports all of the popular card formats, including CF (Extreme III, IV, UDMA), MMC, SD/HC Card, miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, and xD-Picture card. Just insert a card and hit the copy button, the entire card will be copied at a speed 3.5 minutes per GB. I comes in 80GB and 160GB versions, which cost $139 and $189.

Mushroom vacuum cleaners won’t give you an extra life

Posted in Vacuum by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

Mushroom vacuum cleaners won’t give you an extra life
Just how do they keep the Mushroom kingdom clean anyway? Looks like all the mushrooms in the land are actually vacuum cleaners. Makes sense. I mean, you need something to suck up left behind star power, coins, Yoshi poo…

These are also perfect for the messy gamer. I’m sure they can suck up that mound of potato chip droppings that have collected in your game spot. Well, maybe they aren’t that strong, but they make your home look more like a Mario game and I happen to know that’s a personal goal of yours. The Mushroom vacuum runs on 2 AA batteries and is available in red, orange, green or purple for $12.

Kingston announces the Terra Cotta USB drive

Posted in Kingston by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

Kingston announces the Terra Cotta USB driveKingston just revealed the limited edition 4GB DataTraveler Terra Cotta thumb drive in Japan. It’s aimed squarely at those who want a bit of style in their thumb drive, with nice art work on a gold-colored case. Those who want to be different and stand out from the crowd.

The Terra Cotta drive comes with password protection software, Vista ReadyBoost support, 15MB/sec read speeds, and 7MB/sec write speeds. No word on price yet, but standing out from the crowd will probably cost you. Art is never cheap.

USB Watch is just that, a USB watch

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

USB Watch is just that, a USB watch
We use the USB port for everything these days. Well, now it can even serve as a place to park your watch when not wearing it. At least if you have this watch, called the Timeless watch. It’s basically a hard drive ribbon with a usb adapter on one end and a watch face on the other. Connect both ends and you can barely call it a watch. Just charge it up and slap it on your wrist when you’re ready to hit the road.