Gadgets Blog

Although some might glance at this laptop case and think only that it’s an insane amount of overkill.  However, those that have ever had to worry about putting their precious laptop through airport security, understand that sometimes overkill is absolutely necessary.  Plus you get the added bonus of looking mysterious and quite important while you’re lugging this case around.  It gives you that almost James Bond look that every person should be able to experience at least once in their life.

The case is made of polymer plastic, which makes it water-tight, dust-proof and lastly impact resistant.  The case uses impact resistant injection molded cases that are made of high strength polymer resin.  On the inside is a diced foam that once plucked to the shape you desire, will allow for your gear to fit perfectly within.  The case has a comfortable carrying handle that has a pressure release valve and padlock loops.  There is no actual word on pricing, but you can send in questions about the case and find out.

Source: LikeCool

When you’ve carved your pumpkin for the year, usually you grab a short candle and head outside.  Which does the job, but on windy years the candles never last very long.  Instead of going with the method than can be blown out, you could go for some LED lights specifically designed for this sort of thing.  Not only will it make sure your pumpkin stays bright, but you won’t have to reach inside of the pumpkin to shut it off at the end of the night.

These mini LED lights will also help appease those that are a little nervous that the candles might somehow cause a fire.  The lights come in sets of 2 and can be increased and decreased as far as how brightly they shine.  You can choose between a steady light and a flickering one.  All of this can be changed directly on the remote control, which also turns them on and off.  The remote will work from inside your home at up to 20 feet away.  To keep the lights running, when you purchase the set of 2, they’ll throw in 3 AAA batteries.  All of this will cost you only $19.95 from Williams Sonoma.

Source: GadgetGrid

Apparently, Nissan is making more cars than those EPORO robot cars that we reported on a while ago.

In this case, this is a concept car that a person could actually ride in. In fact, two people could ride in it, as long as the passenger doesn’t mind sitting in the back seat.

The Land Glider is very ultra light, and ultra thin. In fact, it looks like it could take up only half a normal lane. Of course what really makes the Nissan Land Glider awesome looking is that it leans when it turns.

Yes, it leans. In short, Nissan realized that motorcyles, with their cool leaning while they turn, could easily be used on cars. By the way, this Land Glider is totally electrical, and it is a Smart Car.

Speaking of Smart Cars, did you see last night’s episode of The Office, where Michael Scott does a comedy routine about smart cars. I suppose that most of these smart cars aren’t really smart, and that KITT from Knight Rider is the only Smart Car that we may never see.

Well, time will answer that question, but I’m under the belief that we will probably see the Land Glider sometime soon.

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Today must be Elecom day, because this is the second product from the Japanese company that I am reporting on this fine Friday. Unlike the TK-TCT005BK, this particular product has a name, and it is very important that you learn it.

It is called the “Sundries PLAYBRICK”, not “Lego headphones”. I would imagine its called that to avoid any lawsuits. I’m sure that users everywhere will call them that anyway, but I’m going to try to avoid that if I can.

This isn’t the first time Elecom has had a Lego, I mean, a building block style product, as they recently unveiled the Soundblock, an iPod dock connector speaker.

The Sundries PLAYBRICK comes in six colors including blue, red, white, black, pink, and mixed colors. Now, what I want to know is: can you attach actual Lego, ahem, building bricks to these phones?

If that is the case, maybe I can make an arch of building blocks to cradle my head. Maybe I can attach wingtips to make me look like The Flash. The possibilities are pretty limitless here.

You should be able to get the Sundries PLAYBRICK for about $23, but only in Japan. It should be noted that my source doesn’t tell me how these headphones sound. I guess it doesn’t matter, because customers will use it for the Lego, I mean, PLAYBRICK!

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For those of you who want a numeric keypad for your laptop, you have several options. You could buy the Adesso 19-key USB numeric keypad and mouse combination with a plastic cover.

Another option is this TK-TCT005BK from Elecom, which has a touchscreen with numeric keyboard. Just push the “Num” button on the top corner to get this function going on.

The TK-TCT005BK can also recognize certain gestures, like an iPhone. For example, if you want to zoom in and out, you just place your two fingers together and spread them out or in.

Not bad features for something that attaches onto a laptop. I am assuming it attaches via USB, like the Intuos4. I bring up this particular device from Wacom because I reviewed it the other day, and it has a nice zooming feature like this product from Elecom.

All in all, this TK-TCT005BK doesn’t sound so bad. It could use a shorter name, though, like the Num-Touch pad, or something. Okay, that is bad name, isn’t it? However, I couldn’t think of anything better. Let me know with a comment if you can think of something better.

If you want to try out the TK-TCT005BK, feel free to head over to the Geek Stuff 4U site and lay down $72.80 plus shipping.

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Kingston is back in business with its MobileLiteG2 memory card reader, the second generation device from its MobileLite flash card reader line. This time round, it will transfer information to your PC or Mac via USB from a variety of flash memory cards including SD, SDHC, microSD, microSDHC, Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick PRO-HG Duo and Memory Stick Micro (M2). You will find the MobileLiteG2 to be highly convenient since it boasts retractable covers on both sides, helping keep both the USB connector as well as whatever memory card plugged in safe and sound from minor damage. Each purchase will ship with a lanyard and short USB extension cable that makes it more convenient for you when it comes to hard-to-reach USB slots.

Press Release

Belkin is back with the new Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7, making it a snap to transfer files of all sorts from your machine which is plodding along to an older version of Windows to a newly upgraded Windows 7-powered computer. This cable is one piece of hardware that was specially designed for the Windows Easy Transfer utility from Microsoft, offering a simple and uninterrupted transfer that will be accompanied by a post-migration report each time to let you know in comprehensive detail what was transferred. It will arrive in North America on the 23rd of this month, although folks living in Europe and Asia will have to wait until the first quarter of next year. The Belkin Easy Transfer Cable for Windows 7 will retail for $39.99.

Press Release

We recently covered a device from Kempler & Strauss in the form of the highly interesting W PhoneWatch, and it seems that the company wants to extend its 15 minutes of fame by another quarter of an hour by unveiling the Billionair 7 smartphone. Guess all the money in the world can’t buy an education since the world Billionair is mis-spelt (on purpose, no doubt), making us wonder what happened to the first six iterations of the Billionair range. Making its debut at the International CTIA Wireless event, this next-generation feature-rich business-class smartphone is touted to integrate the best user interfaces of the most popular business and consumer smartphone platforms available in the market today in order to deliver the first GSM quad-band 3.5G phone based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform.

To make matters all the more interesting, the Billionair 7 smartphone is touted to offer a frameless touchscreen display accompanied by a full QWERTY keyboard for those who prefer the more traditional way of composing text messages and emails while on-the-go. This combination of interfaces will provide the user with various avenues to quickly and easily access applications via the touchscreen, while making replying of text messages and emails a snap. A 624MHz processor runs at the heart of this device, where it ought to be able to offer enough muscle to support advanced applications and handle multi-tasking without missing a beat. In addition, you will find a front-facing VGA resolution camera to handle all your video calls via 3G (or Wi-Fi), while the rear 3-megapixel camera is perfect to capture snapshots of impromptu moments when you forgot to bring out your normal digital camera.

Other features of the Billionair 7 include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, a stylus, an earpiece, a microSD memory card slot, a microUSB port, 3.5 hours of talk time and 200 hours of standby time. With a name like Billionair 7, you’d expect this smartphone to cost a bomb – apparently not, as it will retail for a mere $275 unlocked.

Press Release

Western Digital has refreshed its My Passport Elite external hard drive by throwing in something new which the market does not have just yet – an illuminated capacity gauge and drive lock indicator that allows users to see just how much space there is left available for them to drag all their digital movie collection over from their computer without having to access My Computer. Apart from that, the same glance will also let you know whether the data within is secure or not, letting you take pro-active measures to turn on the security features to avoid unwanted data theft and loss. Apart from that, the new and improved Western Digital My Passport Elite external hard drive will feature a convenient grab-and-go USB dock that frees up precious desk space while doing away with the potentially frustrating search for available USB ports.

The new My Passport Elite portable drive will come with automatic and continuous backup thanks to WD SmartWare software, offering protection in the form of 256-bit hardware-based encryption. If you’re going to pick this up, make sure you’re OK with Metallic Red, Metallic Blue and Charcoal Metallic colors since those are the only shades which the My Passport Elite drives come in – hopefully more colors will be introduced in the near future. Depending on your budget, you are able to choose from 320GB, 500GB and 640GB capacities.

To know whether data within is secured, make sure the padlock icon is available on display to show that the drive has already been password protected with 256-bit hardware-based encryption. This feature is normally found on much more expensive drive systems, making its inclusion another point worth considering if you’re in the market for a portable hard drive. Interested? You can pick up the 320GB, 500GB and 640GB My Passport Elite for $119.99, $159.99 and $169.99, respectively. Each purchase will come with a 3-year limited warranty.

Press Release

The winner of last week’s coolest gadget competition is the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj Digital Camera with Built-in Projector.

The Nikon Coolpix S1000pj Digital Camera is the world’s first digicam with a built in projector. This 12.1-megapixel resolution camera features a 5x wide-angle Zoom-NIKKOR glass lens; 5-way VR image stabilization system and a 2.7-inch high-resolution LCD. But the best feature is that ultra-small 10 lumens bright projector that can throw a 5-40 inch image anywhere from 10 inches to 6.5 feet away. Great for instantly sharing your slideshows and movies with everyone.

Congrats again to Craziest Gadgets.

In second place we have the SmartMeasure Cup With LCD Display.

There aren’t too many instances when I need to weigh my liquids, but nonetheless the Taylor Digital Measuring Cup and Scale can do just that. As we wrote in August the SmartMeasure Cup got picked up for actual retail sale and now it is here and available from Amazon for just $30.

Finally in third place comes the Video Camera Pen Captures Conversations From Your Shirt Pocket.

The Video Camera Pen is a covert spy device that records audio, color video and even writes just like a regular ballpoint.

Thank you to everybody who voted, submitted, commented or told a friend. The randomly drawn winner of the $50 Think Geek vouchers is:

tru (truovrld@…), congratulations.

Thanks again everybody and good luck with the next CGOTW contest which will be published shortly.

Want to hear about future contests first? Subscribe to our daily digest via email or RSS.

If you write for a gadget themed blog and wish to be included in next week’s contest check out the CGOTW instructions page.

Remember our coverage of the Tux Droid? Well, the guys behind this love our readers so much that they’re offering a discount of 30 Euros (which could be used to bring your loved one out for a decent meal) as long as you insert the code CG030 on their website when placing an order. Opportunities like this don’t come by every day, so make hay while the sun shines!

Wacom has made some very cool Professional Pen Tablets in the past, such as the Bamboo series. These Bamboo tablets recently got an upgrade with multitouch capacity, but even though the Intuos4 doesn’t have that feature, it still deserves a spotlight.

The Intuos4 has a similar layout as the Bamboo, except the controls are on the side rather than the top. These controls include user-defined ExpressKeys as well as a multifunction Touch Ring that makes it easy to use functions like zooming and other shortcuts.

The Intuos4 is designed for artists on the computer. Its pen feels very natural, like you were using a pen on paper. I can honesty say that I don’t have 2048 levels of pen pressure sensitivity for precise pressure control.

The Intuos4 comes in several sizes. The Small has six keys plus a 24 square inches of drawing space for $229. All other sizes have eight keys. The Medium has 48.5 square inches of drawing room, and costs $349. The Large has 102.5 square inches of drawing space and costs $469. The Intuos4XL has a whopping 218.4 square inches of drawing, for $789.

You may find these prices exorbitant, but I did a search for this on Amazon and found some cheaper prices. However, if you are an artist who draws digital drawings, the prices I quoted in the previous paragraphs are still worth the price.

More Intuos4 Info

If you haven’t quite had your fill of steampunk gadgets, this latest home made modification is one of the better ones out there.  Not only did the creator make an awesome USB drive, but they even made a special dock just for the USB drive that is just as high quality and detailed as the drive itself.  All around making a set up that will make people green with envy.

The USB drive itself, he doesn’t say how much data it will hold, but with looks like this, I’m not sure it really matters anymore.  Then the base only has one opening, which is specifically made for this drive.  It’ll allow data to be transferred to your computer.  The base has a light on it to let you know when the drive is plugged in.  It’d be interesting to know how much time it really took them to create this, but I guess we’ll just have to live without that information.  You can see plenty more pictures of the drive and the base by going here.

Source: GeekyGadgets

I doubt there will ever be a shortage of Fender fans out there and somehow I think Guitar Hero and games along those lines have created even more.  Which makes T-mobile’s new special edition phone a great idea.  At this point there’s a slight guitar craze even among those that don’t have a clue about guitars.  Fender has become much like Harley in that people that don’t drive Harley’s still wear the products.  Well this myTouch has a Fender look that’s bound to please any guitar lovers out there.

T-mobile has added more than that to their myTouch 3G.  They’ve created a newer version that will be released later this year.  It will have a 3.5mm headphone jack that will make things much easier for those that decide to pick up the phone.  The Fender version itself comes with a pretty woodgrain finish.  Then to top it off they’re tossing in a 16GB microSD card that is coming preloaded with music content.  Right now there isn’t a whole lot of word on the actual release date though.

Source: SlipperyBrick

TomTom has just announced an entry-level navigation system for cars based in Europe, aptly known as the TomTom Start. This solution is meant to be the (current) ultimate, easy-to-use, smart route planner for all drivers. Boasting a simplified menu that has a 2-button user interface, you can choose from ‘Plan route’ and ‘Browse map’ – surely they’re pretty much self-explanatory there. Features include a lightweight body, a decent 3.5″ display and a semi-fixed EasyPort mount that makes it a snap to carry it with you wherever you go or place it in the glove compartment when not in use. The TomTom Start standard edition will come in black and white color choices with maps of the EU only, retailing for Є129 for a regional map and Є149 for an European map. If you want to spruce it up, you can always purchase changeable covers known as StartSkins for €14.95 per color. Image from Engadget.

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