Its Electronica

Looks a whole lot like Boba Fett to me at first glance, this Remote Controlled Hovering Space Surfer.

This is the remote controlled 9″ space surfer that hovers in the air, spins 360, and moves left, right, forward, and backward - all while levitating parallel to the ground. Capable of indoor or outdoor flights, the space surfer has dual propellers that generate enough thrust to send the device from a stationary position to 66-feet in the air without requiring a hand-launch. The radio frequency remote control has proportional throttle and trim settings that allow it to be precisely controlled through climbs, descents, and turns. Made from durable EPP foam, the aircraft’s body withstands turbulent flights and crash landings. Pre-assembled and ready to fly, the device is powered by a rechargeable battery that recharges via the included AC adapter.

The Remote Controlled Hovering Space Surfer will come with a 27 foot range remote and is powered by a 9-volt battery. The theory of diminishing returns applies here - it takes 70 minutes to charge, and yet offers just a quarter of an hour’s worth of R&R time. You can pick it up for $89.95.

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El ZULO means “the hideout” in Spanish, and one look at it will tell you why. The design is a brainchild of Frank Ehners as part of his industrial design project at the Halle University of Art and Design in Germany. It targets an office environment, but somehow it looks more suitable for high-powered executives who return home after a long day at the office. El ZULO caters for multiple users, relying on fingerprints to identify the right person, automatically adjusting itself to cater to the back, knee, foot and head positions accordingly. Hopefully this power napping device of the future will be manufactured soonest possible for all the zombie-like workers worldwide.

Source: American Inventor Spot

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If you’re a fan of cute cartoons and comics, then perhaps the USB Monkey Optical Mouse is right up your alley. I wouldn’t use this for anything more than ordinary work though, since gaming is out of the question with a relatively low resolution of 800 dpi. It connects via USB and does not take the wireless route, but I would say that you could snag the heart of that hot new secretary with something as cute as this gift. The USB Monkey Optical Mouse will come in blue or pink colors, retailing for $16 each.

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This may appear to be just a regular pop can.  One with odd and cheaply done artwork along the sides.  However, this can is another mini humidifier in disguise.  It’s meant to sit on your desk just like the Personal Humidifier that utilized a water bottle.  However, this can will blend in with your daily caffeinated beverages instead of stick out like the other humidifier.  The only thing to set it apart is the USB cord and on odd looking top.  Well and not to mention it puffing out bits of steam.  I suppose normal cans don’t do that, so that would look a little odd.

While puffing out steam it also uses anion technology to purify the air.  Which removes things like dust, odors and mold.  The anions will not only purify your air but improve your metabolism and relive fatigue.  It will also, obviously prevent diseases from getting into the air around your desk.  Which means you can use those sick days for something a little more entertaining than just lying around with the flu.  To pick one up it will cost you $24.99 from Sourcing Map.

Source: CraziestGadgets

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by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 10:01AM

Our friends at Engadget Spanish got a look at Texas Instruments’ DLP Pico projector, which both Optoma and Toshiba have expressed interest in. The little unit pumps out a WVGA (we think) 1000:1 image, which they found quite satisfactory, in addition to 0.5 watts of sound. The built-in battery should run the thing for a couple of hours. Action-packed video after the break, en español!

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Filed under: Displays

Remember the good ol’ FCC leaking out the new Zune 120GB? Well, now there have been some pictures released by the Canadians that show off two new larger capacity Zune players. The image includes a 16GB flash based model and the new 120GB model.

The pictures show up pretty clear considering they were taking from a phone, and you can see that the 16GB Zune has a glossy screen. It would make sense that Microsoft is updating their Zunes, as there have been rumors of what Apple plans to do come their special event. If Apple decides to update their nano, Microsoft will want to have something updated in their Zune line up as well.

Stay tuned for any further developments.

Via [Zunited]

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Microsoft is still trying it’s hardest to compete with Google and Yahoo! for your internet searching.  It’s still trying to buy companies to do so, though it succeeded in the acquisition this time.  To help with search results, Microsoft has bought Greenfield Online, the company responsible for ciao.com.  Ciao.com is a European price comparison search engine, that is apparently quite popular.

This combined with the Microsoft Live money giving program could make for a great combination for Microsoft if they can leverage it well enough.  It should be able to actually provide links to buy products in search results now, rather than mainly links to the the manufacturers page for the product.  Sounds like a decent idea, almost like Google Shopping, but in the same page as normal search results if they implement it that way.  Now if only Microsoft can convince people to actually look at that page, that’d be quite a feat.

Read [Reuters]

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by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 6:27AM

Toshiba is offering up a nice respite from the inane quantity of LCDs and, um, more LCDs at IFA this year. The SD Multi Tool and the SD Photo Editor are two touchable handhelds, offering up some beefy features where similar devices lack, and also skipping over some of the more traditional MID OS features that might put these over the top — a confusing mix, but again, not an LCD, so we’re hooked. The SD Multi Tool is the real wild one, offering dual 3.5-inch touchable (finger or stylus) LCDs, rated at 960 x 480 each if the spec sheet is telling the truth — that could be a combined resolution. The device offers wireless connectivity of some sort, and can handle web browsing, email, videos, photo editing and pretty much anything else that isn’t an actual phone call — though it can’t be tough to squeeze some VoIP in there. Meanwhile, the SD Photo Editor really earns its “SD” moniker with dual SD card slots, while the Multi Tool just has one microSD slot. The Photo Editor runs a similar OS, but seems distilled down to mainly the photo browsing and editing functions, with a bit of PMP functionality thrown in we hope. A 5-inch WVGA screen with 16 million colors should be plenty of room to work your magic. No word on what OS is under the hood, but it seems to be mostly homegrown Toshiba fare. We know the Multi Tool does HDMI out, and we’d hope the Photo Editor does as well, since they’re both supposed to hit in 2009 for a similar price point: around $300 US.

Gallery: Toshiba’s SD Multi Tool and SD Photo Editor are a nice, touchable surprise

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Handhelds

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 12:45AM

Gore-Tex is fine and dandy, but the real argonauts out there know it still buckles under the most extreme conditions. Now, however, adventurists that happen upon a ridiculous amount of water could soon ford rivers (à la Oregon Trail, of course) without worrying about soggy socks. The technology, dubbed ion-mask, was originally crafted to “ensure soldiers’ clothing remained impermeable to chemical weapons,” but now shoe maker Hi-Tec has inked a deal that will being the solution to a smattering of its kicks. Reportedly, ion-mask can outperform “commercial waterproof fabrics such as Gore-Tex by more than a factor of 100,” and in testing, it maintained its breathability / waterproof abilities even after 100,000 flexes. No word on when full suits will be doused in this stuff, but hopefully you’ll be able to wear the same outfit to the office and the jungle here shortly.

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Filed under: Wearables

by Darren Murph, posted Aug 30th 2008 at 10:35PM

Remember that fad where everyone had dining room tables of their favorite Disney character? Or the age in the 70s where tables were shaped like lava lamps? No? At any rate, the modders over at SCAD Inc. have spent all summer crafting a fully-functional Super Nintendo controller-table, which reminds us an awful lot of the fully-functional NES controller-table we saw in May of this year. So, which geek is gonna take on the N64 controller table? Or better yet, the Virtual Boy?

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals