Gadgets Blog

Now this is how you get your kids to go outside and play.  Buy them a toy that’s highly similar to their favorite video game.  Granted this method isn’t advised for kids that play the more violent games.  Somehow I see telling them to go outside and pretend they’re playing Grand Theft Auto in the outdoors causing some issues.  However, for those that enjoy Mario Kart, you can pick up these R/C toys that would be fun to race around the house or outside on some pavement.

These come in several different forms and would be great to store in your desk for races while on your lunch break at work.  Not only does the set include a tiny remote control and a car, but it also has tiny 2” accessories to go with them.  Such as the classic banana peel and it appears that it comes with a spare set of wheels.  Despite that I love the idea of having a full set of these around, I’m not exactly thrilled at how much they cost individually.  They are being sold for $34.99 a piece through Amazon.

Source: GadgetGrid

I know that I have said this before, but I love guitar-related games like Guitar Hero and RockBand. You can imagine my thrill when I discovered Jam Legend (not to be confused with the Will Smith movie I Am Legend), a new way of playing a guitar game online.

As you can see, you don’t need to buy one of those special controllers to play Jam Legend. All you need to do is just turn the keyboard on its side. You can use the Enter key as a strum-bar, and then use the F1-F5 as the frets.

Yeah, that might be awkward using the keyboard for a guitar, and it really isn’t the same as those guitar controllers. You definitely don’t want to play Jam Legend on your laptop. If you don’t want to be using the keyboard for a controller, you can also use an external USB controller.

Jam Legend also allows you to share a song on a social network. According to the official site, Jam Legend lets a user “play more songs, by more artists, with more friends, whenever and wherever you are, and all for free”.

If half of these things about Jam Legend is true, then I might have found yet another way of wasting my time online. Like I really need that.

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This goes without saying, but Lenovo is quite successful. They are the ones who created some nice netbooks and laptops in the past few years. At CES, they gave us the ThinkPad W700ds with its slide-out screen. They are now turning their eye on Portable Media Players (PMPs) with the MRT800.

The MRT800 doesn’t seem to be very innovative, as it doesn’t offer anything new to the PMP world. Its main feature is a touchscreen that measures at 4.3 inches with a resolution of 480 x 272. The memory is about 4 GB, and there is a mircoSD card slot.

As for the other standard features, it can support RM/RMVB, AVI, ASF, MP4, FLV video, MP3, WMA, FLAC, APE, OGG, WAV, as well as JPEG or BMP images. It also features an FM tuner.

Yes, this PMP doesn’t look like any different than the plethora of PMPs that are already on the market and selling like hotcakes. However, does the MRT800 really need to be different?

So far, there is no word on a price or availability. As long as it is less expensive than your average iPod with that amount of memory, this thing will sell easily. I mean, it is Lenovo, for crying out loud.

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I’m sure by now, we’ve all seen our fair share of LED lights used in pointless ways.  Some are worse than others, but it seems like most of the time LED lights are featured, the overall product is ridiculous.  If you have your fan on, most of the time it’s because you’re hot.  Therefore, it could be argued that a fan that shows the temperature isn’t all that necessary.  On the other hand, at least it’s not a fan that can have random messages programmed into it.

It would be nice for those that just leave the fan on for a little noise to be able to glance over and check the temperature.  All around, I’d say that the usage of LED lights, in this case, isn’t all that ridiculous.  The product site lists that they believe this is the only fan to ever list the temperature on the spinning blades of the fan, however, they aren’t entirely sure either.  From the looks of things, it appears that the fan only lists the temperature in the form of Fahrenheit.  You can pick it up for $39.99.

Source: CraziestGadgets

See this ball to the right of the iPod dock? This is a beach ball from the future. Seriously, it is the Aqua Sounder, a spherical speaker for the iPod, but it is quite similar to a beach ball in many ways.

For one thing, the Aqua Sounders are waterproof, so they can float in your pool or hottub. The dock for the iPod on the left is a transmitter so the sound is beamed directly to the speaker. By the way, the transmitter works with most audio sources and is capable of supporting up to ten speakers.

The range of these speakers from the iPod transmitter is a very long at 150 feet. As for the power, Aqua Sounders run off batteries that are sold separately, and are good enough for 6 hours of playing time.

In addition to the floating feature, it has two ultra bright LED mood lights on each side. I suppose that if this speaker is going to be floating in your hottub, bathtub, or pool, it might as well look pretty. I’m betting the sound is good, since I have heard that sound travels better when it is on water.

You should be able to get the Aqua Sounders from the Grace Digital Audio site for about $149.99.

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MP3 players aren’t just for tech savvy adults, kids enjoy their music too.  Therefore if you have a youngster or you yourself are just young at heart, you might enjoy a design that’s a little more whimsical than an iPod.  The MP3 player is technically called the Rabbit MP3 Player according to the product page, but I think it might be a bit confused about what species it actually belongs to.  I’m not sure anyone would glance at this MP3 player and call it a rabbit, most would probably call it a frog.

It features an OLED/LCD display and supports 7 different languages.  It also has 8 different EQ modes that include normal, bass soft, rock, classical and jazz.  When it’s fully charged it will play for 5-6 hours.  The MP3 players have 1GB of memory built into them, which isn’t a whole lot.  It comes in green, pink, purple, blue or gray.  Despite that the product page lists it as a rabbit (likely they meant ribbit), Toys R Us has it correctly listed as a Frog MP3 Player.  Toys R Us only has the pink and green versions, you can pick them up for $19.99 a piece.

Source: SlipperyBrick

Mention the word Jabra and most of us will immediately associate it with Bluetooth headsets - after all, they’re pretty much one of the pioneers in this arena back when Bluetooth functionality was considered to be a luxury in the world of cell phones. They’re still in the game at point of publishing, and their latest effort is the Jabra HALO - a wireless Bluetooth stereo headset that enables users to enjoy their favorite audio tracks sans wires while answering phone calls in crisp, clear sound. The Jabra HALO relies on A2DP technology that allows it to seamlessly connect to any Bluetooth music-playing device, while playing nice with all 3.5 mm music-playing devices at the same time.

Developed by GN Netcom, the Jabra HALO comes with an over-the-head design that won’t look out of place with the rest of your modern electronics. It is equipped with an intuitive on/off functionality, a discreet display which does nothing more than relay the remaining amount of battery life left as well as connectivity status, and a touch volume control. Thanks to its foldable headband design and lightweight materials, the Jabra HALO tips the scales at just 3 ounces and is compact enough to bring with you wherever you go. In addition, you will be able to switch between wireless and wired connectivity with the HALO assuming a device does not support Bluetooth stereo (A2DP) technology.

Some of the specifications of the Jabra HALO include :-

• Bluetooth wireless technology
• A2DP for music streaming
• Zirene Power Bass for audio enhancement
• Multiuse for connection to two Bluetooth devices
• Auto-pairing to mobile phone
• Remote control music with touch sensors
• Noise Blackout technology with dual microphones
• Foldable headband and carrying pouch
• Talk time: 8 hours
• Music time: 8 hours
• Standby time: 13 days
• Weight: 3 ounces
• micro USB Charger

You can pick up the Jabra HALO from May 1st onwards for $129.99.

Press Release

LiveViewGPS might not be a name familiar to many where GPS navigation devices are concerned, but that doesn’t mean they have nothing to contribute to the cause. In fact, LiveViewGPS has just rolled out the NavTrac RTV10, a revolutionary device that merges both powerful GPS navigation with critical tracking and communications tools. While the NavTrac RTV10 might resemble a standard GPS on-dash system, it does more than get you from point A to point B as it is able to offer a bunch of innovative functions which is able to transcend conventional GPS devices, making it useful for a wide range of businesses and market segments.

With the LiveViewGPS NavTrac RTV10, you not only get robust navigation features including turn-by-turn directions and detailed map views, you will also be able to turn on live device tracking in order to track the device via a simple web site interface. This could come in handy for parents who want to know where their little ones are headed to (OK, maybe they’re old enough to have a driving license, but in the eyes of most parents, no matter how old their kids are, they’re still considered “little” especially so in the Asian context). Apart from parents, fleet managers for small and large companies alike will also appreciate this function as they can then keep track of all vehicle locations simultaneously as long as there is an Internet connection. Another advantage of the NavTrac RTV10 is two-way messaging that allows managers to keep in touch with their drivers via the web interface regardless of the vehicle’s location.

The NavTrac RTV10 is readily available for purchase as at press time, and it does look like a decent buy by any angle. We think this is worth a shot if you’re currently looking for a decent GPS navigation system for your car.

Press Release