Archive for August 2007

Every time watch importer TokyoFlash reveals another one of their wacky digital watches, it makes my giddy with excitement. So it is with much glee that I bring you their latest watch, which tells time in Morse Code.

Remember those puzzles that had tiny steel balls that you had to try to get into little holes? Here’s a series of watches out of Germany that remind me of those favorites from my childhood. The Abacus series of watches has no hands at all.

Does your closet smell like old gym socks? Is Fido stinking up the place and making you sneeze? Does somebody like onions and runny French cheese? If this sounds like your house, perhaps you could us one of these.

Those of us in the States tend to think of GPS navigators as relatively utilitarian devices that help us find our way when we’re too afraid to ask for directions at the gas station. In Asia, GPS devices seem to be on the way to becoming much more.

Rumors about Palm’s latest mobile, the Centro have been floating around for a while, but the guys over at Gizmodo just got their grubby little hands on what appears to be the first real image of what the device will look like.

Everyone remembers Atari for their famous video game consoles, arcade games and even home computers. Being a child of 1970s and 80s technology, I’m surprised that I don’t ever remember seeing this oddity. The Atari Video Music was released in 1976 and was an analog video synthesizer that could generate a kaleidoscopic light show on your TV screen when hooked up to your stereo.

Is it just me, or have alien life forms abducted the workers in speaker factories lately? In recent days, I’ve come across some otherworldly radial speakers, dramatic communication towers, and even some that look like the aliens themselves.

We’ve all heard of electric blankets, right? Japanese electronics giant Panasonic decided to take the basic concept and embed it into a carpet. That way, when you step on the rug, your feet stay nice and toasty.

According to papers recently filed with the FCC, Philips is getting set to release a bookshelf stereo that can be wirelessly paired with Bluetooth sound sources. In addition to the requisite AM/FM/CD/MP3 capabilities, the Philips BTM288 stereo system will be able to connect to mobile phones and media devices via Bluetooth.

Check out these recently sighted Nintendo ads comprised of thousands of individual sticky notes used to create giant versions of The Big N’s classic gaming icons. Taking some obvious inspiration from this earlier video game Post-it art, the colored notes were used to create pixelated versions of Mario, Donkey Kong, Zelda and other gaming characters.

Plenty of companies have made cassette tape adapters for connecting MP3 players to your car stereo, but this one wins the award for ingenuity. Not only does this gadget let you play your digital tracks through your old school tape player, the cassette IS the MP3 player.

The engineers over at VoiceSignal have put together a prototype voice recognition application for the iPhone that makes it capable what I’ve been dreaming that Apple would add to its iPods for years. The demo application, called “VTunes” shows off voice-based selection of songs.

Creative Japan today took the wraps off this cool portable speaker for the 2G iPod Shuffle. The compact speaker goes great with the brushed metal finish of Apple’s tiny media player. Just dock your 2G Shuffle on the top of Creative’s new Travelsound i50, snap on the clear protective cover and you’re ready to go.

It seems like most gamer gear is oriented towards dudes, so it’s nice to see the occasional accessory for girls who like to get their game on. On one side, this contemporary necklace features a feminine cherry blossom design, but flip it over and it shows off your true gamer spirit with the image of a classic Nintendo NES controller.

Currently just a conceptual design, the TEMPO is an external storage device that’s designed to prevent you from losing files you accidentally delete. The clever thing about it is that it actually looks like a little recycling bin (although it might be mistaken for a cup of really black coffee).

Somebody sure likes their Creative Zen Stone media player. In fact, this guy loves his enough that he created a mammoth wooden version of his portable media player. Captain Ødegård’s giant-sized wood media player measures in at 8.25″ x 5.5″ x 2″, giving it about 90-times the volume of a regular Zen Stone player.