Here at the ‘Brick we’re always on the lookout for gadgets that can give us sweet gadget juice, without it costing money on our electric bills. So we checked out Kinesis’ K3 power generator. The device sports both a windmill and solar cells, plus you can charge its internal battery with external electricity sources. So you can charge its 4,000 mAh battery using a USB adapter or a car cigarette lighter if you absolutely need power on hand.

According to the company, one hour of sun and wind will give you 30 minutes of talk time on a cellphone. Fully charged, the K3 can load the battery cells for an average mobile phone five times, or an MP3 player more than ten times. It costs $100.

If you’re paranoid about your credit card info while shopping online, (And who isn’t?) it just got a little safer thanks to the SmartSwipe credit card reader. You might think you’re safe online as long as that padlock icon is displayed in your browser. And you are pretty safe, but not completely, hackers can still access your personal information while it is being entered into your computer and while it is still in memory.

With this SmartSwipe card reader your info is safe becaue your card information is never stored on your computer. The device uses Dynamic SSL technology and the same level of encryption used in bank machines and ATMs.

We checked out Sandisk’s new slotRadio recently. As a refresher, this player comes with a microSD memory card slot so you can have your choice of pre-loaded music. The idea is that you can get it pre-loaded with Billboard hits cards that hold more than 1,000 tracks and buy other similar cards.

Did we like it? Did we hate it? Is it filled with useless songs that are all played out? You’re about to find out.

The iTrip is a pretty simple device. The idea is that you plug one end into your car cigarette lighter socket and the other into the earphone jack of your MP3 player, replacing your car radio with the soothing sounds of your own music collection playing through FM radio.

It’s just that simple. Just plug it in and find a frequency where you hear only static. You’ll get better results if you find one that has some neighboring frequencies with static. Then use the + or – buttons to tune your MP3 player to the same frequency. Just like that your player has replaced your car radio.

The folks over at OtterBox, protectors of gadgets for the active and accident-prone, gave us a chance to try out one of their defensive products to see just how well it holds up. In this case, OtterBox sent us a protective case for the Blackberry Curve, a device I have with me day in and day out.

Since the case from OtterBox is protecting something I own and depend on daily, we did not put it through the usual drops, dunks and vodka-proof trials that we would normally do. But, despite this we can tell you that this case blows away any other protective case we’ve had our hands on, for any mobile device.

The Clarion MiND appears to be a GPS navigation device at heart, but expanded into a special type of mobile internet hybrid device packed with connectivity and applications bringing dangerously close to a mobile PC, but just not quite. The mobile device has many addition features such as an internet browser, YouTube viewer, media player, file storage, weather, news, maps and of course navigation but runs its own type of hard-wired OS that leaves little for customizations.

The MiND is basically a small mobile computer running on an 800 MHz Intel Atom processor with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage (with an additional MicroSD card slot) and connects to the world via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and of course GPS. It also houses a couple of USB ports for connecting and transferring data, a headphone jack, speaker and docking port for an included dash mounting kit.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad W700ds is pretty damn intriguing. We want one. Sadly every gadget under our tree had just a single screen. So we were happy to learn that GottaBeMobile got their gadget-loving hands on one. They were nice enough to share their knowledge of the twin screened beast.

The model they have features a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme CPU, 4 GB of RAM, and NVIDIA Quadro FX3700M graphics. The primary display is a 17-inch WUXGA with a 1920 x 1200, while the secondary panel is a 10.6-inch WXGA with 768 x 1200 resolution. It still looks pretty awesome to us. You can check out the video below.

As I am sure you are all aware, Verizon Wireless is launching the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm tomorrow. This device is RIM’s first delve into a touchscreen mobile phone and swing at taking some of the market share away from Apple and the iPhone. We had a chance to get our hands on the Storm on the eve of the launch day and had some fun playing with the touchscreen and its unique clicking technology.

Obviously the most interesting part of the Storm is the single big button of a screen so we’ll just cut to the chase. The touchscreen in general works as you would expect, sensing your touch on the glass and allowing you to scroll through things like lists, menus and across maps. What’s different about the touchscreen on the BlackBerry Storm which sets it apart from other touchscreen phones is that the glass display is like a single large, mechanical button.

Those who tote around a portable projector for presentations will appreciate this one. Connecting to your computer with a VGA or DVI cable is very clumsy. The great advantage of the Epson EX70 is that you can connect via a USB cable. There are maybe one or two other projectors that can do this. If you want that convenience, check out the Epson EX70 for $799. You’ll like the fact that a USB cable is pretty easy to carry with you rather then a DVI or VGA cable. It makes setting things up a breeze.

The WXGA 1,280 by 800 resolution will go good with widescreen notebooks and the EX70 is easy to carry around. You can even show presentations without a computer, using an SD card or a USB drive. All of the ports are easily identified. Even a monkey could do it.

As you might have heard, SanDisk is offering players with a feature that’s a little unusual, a microSD card slot. The slot is a requirement to work with the new music format introduced last month called slotMusic.

The slotMusic format is basically just digital tracks written on a microSD card. SanDisk’s new Sansa player is made especially for the format and is pretty bare bones with no internal memory, no LCD, and no rechargeable battery. It operates on a single AAA battery. It plays slotmusic cards. Period. The device retails for $19.99. You can also get a customized player with an artist skin and a slotMusic card for $34.99. The skins on the player can be swapped if you like. Both models will be available in 2009. But how did we like it? Click through to find out.

You’ve seen him in The Shining and in Rocky as well as various videos and pictures around the web, but is this bot just as awesome in person?

He’s a wise-cracking and highly energetic bot, that’s for sure, but did his personality win us over as soon as we took him out of the box? Hit the link for the full review. Here’s a spoiler: Tri-Bot melted my cold geek heart and has my wife wondering why I can’t stop playing with a wise-cracking robot.

We got a chance recently to check out a robot of the cute and cuddly variety, as opposed to the kind that will take your face off. The sickeningly cuddly and cute WowWee Alive Panda Cub. While it doesn’t go so far as to chew bamboo in your livingroom and call itself Ling-Ling, it’s an impressive huggable robot for the kid or the grown up in your life. The final verdict? Kids love it because of it’s interactivity and realism. Hit the link and head over to our robot site for the full review.

We recently got a chance to go hands on with Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer. Just like the Epson WorkForce 600 All-in-One, it didn’t disappoint. The Artisan 800 is geared toward the more creative type of office. Designed to combine sleek styling with high performance. It has many of the same features, but with a creative slant. The Artisan 800 features built in wired and wireless networking, ultra fast print speeds (38 ppm), 6-color ink, a 7.8” touch panel, a 3.5” LCD screen, standalone photo capabilities, faded photo restorations, and a smart ink system. The Artisan 800 is smaller then the Epson WorkForce 600, which is nice as it can be tucked away a bit more conveniently.

Out of the box you get an ethernet cable, power cable, driver/software disc, user manuals, some sample paper, a small bit of phone cable and the necessary printer cartridges. No USB cable, but if you plan on using it wirelessly, that’s no big deal.