Its Electronica

Posted Feb 2nd 2008 9:58AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Peripherals

Finally, a mouse just for you. Thanks to the folks at Lite-On, you’ll never have to suffer the debilitating discomfort of an unshapely mouse ever again. The Moldable Mouse will make all your bad memories of ill-fitting input devices float away, using a lightweight modeling clay combined with a nylon and polyurethane fabric to make up its surface. Once you’re palming your new best friend, you can shape its contours to whatever form you desire, though we’re pretty sure making a perfect cube will present a challenge. The “stick-on” buttons and scroll-wheel can be added to any location you like, and communicate via RFID. The thing won a Red Dot design award and everything… but coming soon? Probably not.

[Via Wired]

Lenmar BCLC1X3 Universal Battery Charger

Get a charge out of your digital camera or camcorder with Lenmars universal battery charger. The OmniSource Universal charger has the power to revive Lithium-Ion batteries ranging from 3.6 volts to 7.4 volts.

Technorati Tags: Lenmar

I’m clumsy as hell, generally disorganized, and socially awkward, but I have awesome hair - strawberry blond to red, easy-to-cut, body and bounce all the time. My stylists have always loved playing and experimenting with it. A favorite product line of mine is produced by Jonathan Antin Product (you might remember Jonathan Antin - stylist to the stars - seen on Bravo’s show Blow Out).

In addition to the wonderful shampoos, conditioners, oil sprays, and finishing products, comes the Beauty Water Shower Purification System. With all his years of experience, Jonathan took to experimenting with pure, filtered spring water when working with brittle, damaged hair and dry skin, and has a portfolio packed with a-listing results.

Apparently, Johnathan understands the budgets of normal people, and while we can’t afford pure, filtered spring water, a small investment in his Beauty Water Shower System, provides you with pH balanced water free of chlorine, heavy metals, and harmful VOCs. As promised (I can attest to this), you’ll towel off, dry out, and reveal more softness, shine, and manageability, significantly increasing and maintaining the overall health and color of your hair.

For the ultimate in cheesy, and absolutely geeky gifts for Valentines Day, behold the “8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt”.

Buy one of these glowing shirts for yourself, and gift one to your significant other (boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, fembot 2000…). During your normal activities two and a half pixelated hearts will light up on your shirt. Hey… you’re depressed and in need of a recharge. But get within hugging distance of your significant other wearing the matching shirt and suddenly the hearts on both of your shirts start to light up until you’re fully powered up. Go too far astray from the source of your affections and you’ll drop back down to two and a half hearts again. Got it?

You can pick one up from $11.99-$24.99 depending on size

[Buy]

It has been a while since we first heard about states requiring eBay sellers to get an auctioneers license. In this case Pennsylvania was one of them and it seems they were very serious, they are in fact now suing a woman who decided to sell on eBay.

Mary Jo Pletz originally decided to use eBay as a way to earn an income and also be able to stay home with her daughter who had been diagnosed with a brain tumor. Mary Jo cooperated and immediately closed shop when she was notified in December 2006 that was she was doing was illegal. She went back to an out-of-the house job that required her daughter to go to day care.

The state however is not backing down on the prosecution. According to her attorney she faces a possible $10 million in fines, she is credited for selling 10,000 items and could be fined $1,000 for each violation. Some state officials have since acknowledged that “with her heart-tugging story, was not the best person with whom to make a legal point.” What makes this story worse is that Mary Jo also now worries that because of this legal trouble she could also have her state issued dental hygienist license revoked.

Had Mary Jo had or gotten and Auctioneers License this could have been avoided, but you would think that if she closed down it would have made it OK also. An Auctioneers License is typically used by the larger auction houses and many argue that selling on eBay and using an auction house have little in common.

Read [Philadelphia Inquirer]

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Microsoft sure has had a busy day today, what with announcing they have made an offer to buy out Yahoo, and now they have cut down the price of the 8GB Zune. Previously, it was $199, so this 20 dollars price cut is rather nice. If you want to buy the Zune, head over to Amazon and you can purchase one for the new price of $179.99 or less for the pink model.

Via [Engadget]

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Who’d need traditional synthesisers when the Kaossilator is around? A pocket-sized device, Kaossilator is the synthesiser of the future…

…provided that it catches on. You see, unlike traditional synthesisers, you play the Kaossilator by tapping your fingers on the touchpad. Swiping your finger from left to right means a change of pitch, while up and downwards changes the sound. Not only that, the Kaossilator also has built-in drum beats and with its “loop recording feature,” you get to create mixes by layering different sounds of your choice. Even the tone-deaf could pretend to be a Beethoven!

If you’re ready to create some modern music, head on over to ThinkGeek where the Kaossilator sells for approximately 100.

Taiwan is getting a dose of the Chinese New Year spirit with the new Sony Ericsson K530i in fiery red. It features a 2mpx camera, Access NetFront browser, RSS support, USB, FM radio, and Bluetooth, Screen: 176×220 pixel, 262,144-colour TFT, Memory Stick Micro support (up to 2 GB); 16 MB internal memory, 2.5x digital zoom, picture blogging, video recording, A2DP support, Media Player, Music Tones, PlayNow, TrackID, Speakerphone. Taiwan now has it for $273.

[Source]

Posted Feb 1st 2008 11:54PM by Ariel Waldman
Filed under: Features, Misc. Gadgets

Ariel Waldman contributes Movie Gadget Friday, where she highlights the lovable and lame gadgets from the world of cinema.

The last installation of Movie Gadget Friday revisited the Final Cut of the sci-fi noir classic Blade Runner. This week shifts from the future of LA to an adventure in the 8th dimension. Achieving cult status over the years since its 1984 release, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension captures our love of silly 80s sci-fi, popped collars, and geeky gadgets. Appearances by sci-fi regulars such as Christopher Lloyd, Jeff Goldblum, John Lithgow, and Dan Hedaya are in no shortage throughout. While the uses for a lot the hardware featured in the movie aren’t visually explained much more beyond “it blinks”, we’re taking an extended gander at the more elaborate inventions.

Oscillation Overthruster (above)
Small and powerful, this metal-cast, gyroscopic device can transport organic and solid matter into parallel dimensions. The Oscillation Overthruster works by systematically reordering three-dimensional matter, annihilating electrons and positrons to allow for penetration through static surfaces (read: warp). With minimal installation, the Oscillation Overthruster can be activated within a Dimensional Matrix Alignment system. The system emits a blue guidance laser, that when properly aligned, allows you to accurately aim for crossover into the 8th dimension. We can only hope that this gadget comes equipped with a P2i Ion-Mask in preparation for all the Planet 10 alien slime. More after the break.

Jetcar
Massively modified, the Jetcar was created out of the welding of a Ford F-350 truck, Grand National stock car, and a Douglas DC-3, which sounds like a candidate for a Darwin Award. This vehicle is definitely not an ordinary piece of chop-shop junk, as the nicely-equipped General Electric turbo jet engine can propel it past a Mach 1. Other standard features seen in the Jetcar include an embedded CRT for monitoring sine waves and the Dimensional Matrix Alignment system. We have to assume that this “hybrid” also comes with some serious weather stripping in order to keep Buckaroo Banzai safe from the 8th dimensional ooze. Not recommended for street use, as the undeniably large exhaust flames and nitrous oxide injectors may get you flagged by CARB.

3D projection record
Simply referred to as the “yellow record”, this device was delivered to Buckaroo Banzai in a pink box from the Black Lectroids of Planet 10. The thick resin-based record requires a mobile alien stylus similar to a VW Van Vinyl Killer, as well as bubble-wrap goggles that both protect and allow the Hong Kong Cavaliers’ eyes to view the 3-dimensional projection. Purely light-based, the 3d recording suffers from bad audio echoing, so we recommend using a headset at all times to avoid hearing feedback when communicating between dimensions.

Ariel Waldman is a social media insights consultant based in San Francisco. Her blog can be found at http://shakewellbeforeuse.com.

It might look like another boring candybar-style cellphone, but the DV300T from Mustek is actually a compact digital video camera. While the 2-inch LCD screen is not as convenient as the pop-out swivel screens on other tapeless video cameras, the DV300T seems to be going for a slim design over everything else.

It includes a standard VGA CMOS sensor which is fine for capturing near-NTSC or PAL quality video, but for still photos the images are actually interpolated to a resolution of about 3.1 megapixels, which isn’t exactly ideal. Since the lens is fixed, you have to rely on an 8x digital zoom for getting in closer to the action, but the DV300T at least includes some level of digital image stabilization to help improve your footage. On-board you’ll only find about 64MB of memory, but it will accept SD cards allowing you to considerably expand the amount of storage. Of course Mustek has also thrown in voice recording, MP3 and even eBook functionality, but what doesn’t have those these days?

Unfortunately I can’t find any pricing info for the DV300T, but given the basic VGA sensor and the paltry amount of on-board memory, I can’t imagine it will be that expensive.
[Source]