Archive for June, 2010

Lego Minifig Ice Cube Tray

Posted in lego by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

We love Legos around here and at this time of year we also like some ice in our drinks. So when we find something that involves both, it makes our day. Lego Minifig ice cubes are awesome. Put a whole bunch in your drink and it will look like a Lego maritime disaster.

The Lego Minifig Ice Cube Tray will make eight Lego Minifig ice cubes at a time and will cost you just $8. It goes with all of the other Lego themed stuff around your home.

Huawei intros 3G pocket router with OLED display

Posted in Routers by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

Here’s something you don’t see everyday. Britain’s 3 has added a portable 3G router with its own display features. Huawei’s E585 has a monochrome OLED display that shows battery life and connection as well as the amount of data used. There’s also a new web-based setup page with the router and it can be configured for Linux PCs and Macs and Windows.

The E585 will continue charging even while it shares its 3G connection over Wi-Fi with up to five other devices. It also doubles as storage with a microSDHC slot, but we don’t know if this will act as network-attached storage. 3 UK will sell Huawei’s router in July for £50 (or $74) on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Ti-Vo slide QWERTY Bluetooth remote hits the FCC

Posted in Remotes by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

A remote with a slide out QWERTY keyboard? This remote recently hit the FCC’s test bench. The Ti-Vo slide Bluetooth remote certainly looks odd, but very useful. But it’s only operational over Bluetooth.

It will be interesting to see how this fares once it hits the market. With no shipping date or price tag, we have no idea if this will be flying off shelves and into your waiting hands or sitting on shelves feeling all QWERTY with no where to go.

Samsung B7722 dual-SIM phone with 5MP camera

Posted in Samsung by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

The Samsung B7722 comes packing some cool features along with dual-SIM capability. Some of those cool features include dual standby, a 3.2 inch display screen with touch-sensitivity, Wi-fi, Bluetooth 2.1, FM radio, a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, microSD expansion up to 16GB, 200 MB internal memory and the TouchWiz UI.

The Samsung B7722 is a good one for social networking as well. It also has 3G. This one will cost you $510 and is not bad looking if you need a dual sim phone.

Xbox 360 Slim to be unveiled at E3?

Posted in Xbox 360 by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

There has been no official confirmation, but word is that Microsoft could be ready to unveil an Xbox 360 Slim at E3. Sony has the PlayStation 3 slim after all and they do want to compete.

Let’s not forget that the PlayStation Move and Project Natal motion sensing controllers are just around the corner too. Things are heating up in the console wars. A slim Xbox 360 will be good as long as they don’t remove any important features to do it.

Is this Nintendo’s 3DS?

Posted in Nintendo 3DS by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

Official details of the 3D-capable Nintendo 3DS haven’t been officially unveiled just yet, but word on the street is that the portable console will have two different screen designs, a tilt sensor, and will be very powerful. The latest leak suggests that the 3DS could offer users a larger 3D display on top, while the bottom screen will have similar specifications to the original DS’ bottom touchscreen.

There’s also the possibility of a 3D camera that could allow you to take photos and videos that will appear in 3D on the display. Other improvements include a better media player with hardware AAC and MP3 decoding.

Archos releases new 13-inch Netbook

Posted in Archos by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

Archos is better known for portable media players than notebooks, but the company has put out a couple of Intel Atom powered netbooks over the last few years. The latest from Archos is a bit bigger, but still uses netbook-like components.

The Archos 13 is a 13.3-inch netbook currently available in France for €399.98 (or $485). Some specs include a 13.3-inch 1366 x 768 pixel display, Intel Atom processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth, 6-cell battery, VGA output and Windows 7 Starter Edition.

Retro typewriters turned into USB keyboards

Posted in Keyboards by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

If you miss the days of typing away at a slow speed on old typewriters, you can now relive those days on your computer. These retro typewriters have been converted into USB keyboards. They come from Jack Zylkin of usbtypewriters.

He takes old typewriters and converts them into keyboards you can use with modern computers. Pretty damn cool right? A fully-modded USB typewriter will cost you about $400 to $500, or Jack can take your old typewriter and convert it for you for $200.

Sigma SD15 gets a launch date

Posted in Cameras by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

You’ve probably forgotten all about it, but the Sigma SD15, announced way back in 2008 will finally start shipping at the end of the month with a hefty price tag. The SD15 will hit at least some parts of the world by the month’s end, but what can you expect to pay?

The price for the body-only is about $1,300. Want the Kit? That will cost you a bit more at about $1,500. That will take a chunk out of your savings for sure.

Steampunk Arduino Watch plays Breakout, may actually get worn

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on June 13th, 2010

Another day, another Arduino-based gadget. But this one is actually something you will want to wear. The Arduino Watch: Steampunk Edition has temperature, range finding, and trackball input while displaying time, games, and more with its 128 by 128 pixel OLED 16 bit display.

It plays Breakout and has the ability to display time in digital, analog or binary. Other sensors and programs can be added if you like. It can be made for around $250.

Space Probe to Return with Asteroid Sample

Posted in Science by Darrin Olson on June 13th, 2010

Hayabusa probeA space probe launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is expected to land in the Australian outback late Sunday after a seven-year journey to a nearby asteroid. Scientists hope the probe will be carrying a sample from the asteroid which will mark the first time a spacecraft has returned to Earth with samples other than from the Earth’s moon.

The probe named Hayabusa landed on the asteroid Itokawa two times in 2005 and after its long return journey will be landing a remote desert in Australia. Among the team to find and recover the probe will be indigenous Aboriginal elders to ensure that the landing of the device did not damage any sacred grounds.

G-Shock Gets New Design from Dee & Ricky

Posted in Watches by Darrin Olson on June 13th, 2010

G-Shock Watch designed by Dee & RickyWe’ve seen our share of G-Shock watches come down the pipe but never one designed quite like this. The new GA110DR-1A from G-Shock gets its primary-colored Lego design from New York fashion designers Dee & Ricky.

Although the watch has a toy-esque look to it, it still holds true to the G-Shock name with durable features including magnetic resistance, 200M water resistance, LED light, the ability to track time in 48 different cities, alarm, calendar and more.

Boxee Box Release Delayed Until November

Posted in D-Link by Darrin Olson on June 13th, 2010

Boxee Box release delayedWe hadn’t heard anything from D-Link and their Boxee Box in a while and they were coming towards the end of the expected Q2 release when they made a blog post announcing the delay of release. Apparently the Q2 time frame “proved overly ambitious” according to the post and a new release date for the US and Canada has been set to ship sometime in November.

The Boxee Box boasts the ability to bring many different types of streaming media to your HDTV from multiple online sources or connected directly through local media storage devices. Pandora, last.fm, shoutcast, We are Hunted, flickr, Picasa, Facebook, Flash 10.1 and most recently My Damn Channel are some of the media tied into the box.

BlackBerry Bold 9650 gets the ColorWare treatment

Posted in BlackBerry by Conner Flynn on June 12th, 2010

You don’t want your new BlackBerry Bold 9650 to look like everyone else’s, so why not spice things up? As usual, the folks over at ColorWare are more than happy to help.

You can colorize the inner back, outer back, top, bottom, frame, and sides. For once, ColorWare won’t be selling these directly. So you will have to send it in if you want to get your fancy colors. It will cost you $150 bucks.

Nokia E5 coming to North America

Posted in Nokia by Conner Flynn on June 12th, 2010

If you were intrigued by the recently announced Nokia, the phone will be available soon at a store near you in North America, according to a report by the Bluetooth SIG. The phone will also hit Australia and South America.

We still don’t have any North American pricing information on this phone, but we do know that it will cost €180 (or $220) unlocked, so it should be priced in that area. Some specs include a 2.4-inch QVGA display, Wi-Fi, HSDPA/HSUPA, A-GPS, Ovi Maps, 3.5mm headphone jack, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 250MB internal memory, and a 2GB memory card included.