Although like many people I have tape tossed in the back of my desk drawer, some people use it more often. For those that do, it may end up staying out on your desk quite often. Then if you have to have a USB hub on top it, you’re slowly acquiring more and more clutter on your desktop. If you like things nice and simple then an overwhelming amount of clutter can make it difficult to concentrate on work. Especially if you have to keep shoving things out of your way with every task.
Instead of keeping two items out on your desk, you might as well combine them as one. This tape dispenser not only holds your tape, but offers 4 USB ports.  Of course if you don’t use tape as often, this might be something silly to invest in. With hubs though, you can be exceptionally picky about your needs and still eventually find something that fits you. The dispenser is only sold in the clear shown here and will cost you $21.99 from USB Fever.
For those of you who haven’t grown out of your love of battling it out with your friends with toy lightsabers, you’ll like this new twist. Of course you could buy one for you kid and then buy one for yourself, claiming that you only bought it for bonding purposes. That is if you aren’t ready to come out of the closet about your child-like addictions. We all know the real reason though, you just can’t get enough of those epic battles with plastic lightsabers. This new lightsaber makes it so that you can get in an extra sneak attack.
Hidden within the hilt is a second, but smaller lightsaber. So you could easily defeat your opponent if they are sporting the older less advanced models. You can hold the extra lightsaber as a dagger type object, or you could attach it to the hilt of the larger lightsaber. Then you can take out your opponent with a double-bladed weapon. Sadly these cool new toys aren’t out just yet, you’ll have to patiently await the day that they are finally released. They won’t be out until August of this year and will cost you $46.99.
Sorry for that intro, but I thought this next gadget might appeal to the “extreme sports†crowd. I realize that I don’t do a good job imitating the way they speak, but no matter who you are, you might want to try the Scarpar.
The Scarpar is a motorized skateboard that sets the skater free from the sidewalk and downhill grooves, allowing them to go truly off-road. Not only is the Scarpar capable of going on mud, grass, sand, and snow, but it can travel at 60 km an hour, provided you’re downhill on a forest trail.
The 60 km/hour version is 4-stroke petrol powered, while a 35 km/hour version is all electrical. You can watch the YouTube video of this guy after the jump if you want to see it in action.
Some of you might notice the tethered wire that the driver holds onto with one hand. Yes, it is there for control of the steering and speed, and I’m not certain if there are plans to give any type of full control to the feet.
Scarpar has been under development for years by a company in Queensland, Australia, but it has been put off due to the economic crisis that we’ve all been feeling right now, in some way or another.
Someone really needs to just mass-manufacture and market this guy. Right now, the current estimate for a retail price for a single Scarpar is somewhere in the neighborhood of two or three thousand dollars. Can we get that price to drop a little lower, please? Most extreme sports nuts can’t even afford skyboarding.
I have recently heard that 38 percent of people believe that a television set is no longer a necessary household appliance. I can see why, because most of my television watching is done from the Internet anyway.
It would appear that computer giant Asus is ready for a new era of television watching with the Asus Express TV Stick. All a user needs to do is plug the TV Stick into a spare USB port, and he or she will have access to its auto-installation software for high quality digital (DVBT) and analog TV signal reception.
Don’t know what to watch? No problem! Pop-up technology allows the user access to an instant display of television channels. It sounds like the TV Stick is also a TV guide.
In addition to these features, the TV stick has 4GB worth of memory. This allows the user to store the shows that he or she wants to watch for a later time. Then, if he or she wants to watch them from another place, only a USB port on another computer is required. Maybe the TV Stick should be called the TiVo stick.
Well, whatever the name, the Asus TV Stick certainly sounds like quite a deal! Now, if my sources only had a price and availability date for this product, both you and I would know just how good a deal it is.
A lot of smaller gadgets are getting eco-friendly perks. Such as solar powered speakers and wind-up flashlights. They all make it so that you don’t have to use batteries, plus you’re helping out the environment in your own little way. One small gadget I did not expect to see is a wind-up vibrator. Although I strongly appreciate their commitment to being eco-friendly, I can’t help but think this is going just a half a step too far.
I mostly am saying this, due to the type of renewable energy they are utilizing. Let’s say you wind it up for what you believe to be the appropriate amount of time then just before that crucial moment happens, your charming little toy dies on you. It’d be a bit of a mood killer. Plus it’s just not all that interesting, they don’t have any compelling extras. It’s plain white in the very classic shape. If you like to keep it simple though, it wouldn’t be so bad. To work it, wind it for 4 minutes and that will get you 30 minutes of playtime. It is a bit pricey though, it will cost you £64.99 or about $95 from Love Honey. Love Honey is also who came out with the vacuum cleaner attachment that was seen a couple years ago.
Anyone remember that scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the two astronauts are talking, and they didn’t want the HAL 9000 to overhear them? So what do they do? They close themselves off in a soundproofed space-pod, and they believe that they could talk freely. Unfortunately, HAL’s little red light of an eye can read their lips.
Well, we didn’t have lip reading computers in 2001, but it looks like we will have them before 2010. It would appear that researchers at the University of East Anglia’s School of Computing Sciences have “developed the [lip-reading] technology by statistically modeling the lip motions of 23 bilingual and trilingual speakersâ€.
So not only can the computer read lips, but it can also tell what language that you are speaking! I believe that the computer is fluent in English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian.
How does this revolutionary technology work? Apparently, it is all about the articulators, these little twitches in your tongue, jaw, and lips that are also detected by the hearing-impaired when they read lips.
I suppose the police and military, as well as the hearing impaired, can use this technology, but I can also think of another use. See those faint lines on the head of the woman in the picture? It reminds me of the scene in T2: Judgment Day (extended version) when the Terminator tries to learn how to smile. Arnold wasn’t able to pull it off, and didn’t the terminators take over in the future? Maybe it all began with the lip-reading.
Looking to build your own computer after moving in to a new place? Well, there a hundreds and perhaps thousands of different options around, but let us offer yet another suggestion - the Logic Supply SolidLogic GS-L10. This computer was specially built to take advantage of Intel’s high-performance Montevina processors sans internal fans, where it is made possible courtesy of a case that is filled to the brim with heat sinks. The SolidLogic GS-L10 also does not fall short on connectivity options, featuring VGA, DVI, and HDMI outputs, a couple of Gigabit Ethernet ports, as well as support for hard disk or CompactFlash storage.
Logic Supply, being a distributor specializing in Mini-ITX products themselves, has constructed the SolidLogic GS-L10 using a couple of different products, where the GSL-10 case hails from Serener while the motherboard is supplied by MSI in the form of the MS-9818. There are three heat sinks on all three of its sides, while an internal heat pipe also helps to keep things cool. This unique combination of various products enable the device to function without a fan at up to 97 deg. F (36 deg. C), on condition that either flash storage or a 2.5″ “extreme environment” hard drive is installed within. In addition, the SolidLogic GS-L10 will also play nice with a trio of various Montevina Socket P processors that comprise of the Celeron M CM585 2.16GHz, the Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26GHz and the Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz. Since these processors come with TDPs of up to 35 Watts, keeping them running at optimal, cool temperature is no problem at all.
You have a range of Windows operating systems to choose from with the SolidLogic GS-L10 assuming you decide to swerve away from Linux instead, and you can choose Windows XP Embedded, Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista, depending on your preferences and needs at that moment. Prices start from $1,020 upwards.
Gadget mavens Brando is back at it again with their latest offering for folks who are looking for a backup solution - the Connectland SATA HDD Dock with One Touch Backup (USB + eSATA). This unique SATA HDD Dock plays nice with virtually any 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA hard drives, where you can rely on either USB or eSATA connectivity. With the inclusion of One Touch Backup function, you no longer have the excuse of forgetting to backup your essential data - how lazy can one get when it comes to making sure all the important and relevant data is safely tucked away somewhere else, anyway? The Connectland SATA HDD Dock with One Touch Backup (USB + eSATA) is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac platforms, and will come in US, Europe, UK and Australia options, where all of them will retail for $49 a pop.
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Dude, you’ve got to check this out! 
I have recently heard that 38 percent of people believe that a television set is no longer a necessary household appliance. I can see why, because most of my television watching is done from the Internet anyway. 
Anyone remember that scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey where the two astronauts are talking, and they didn’t want the HAL 9000 to overhear them? So what do they do? They close themselves off in a soundproofed space-pod, and they believe that they could talk freely. Unfortunately, HAL’s little red light of an eye can read their lips. 
