Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

GPS navigation devices for your car keep getting better, faster and cheaper, and the new Navman F20 keeps up that tradition. The new navigation device comes pre-loaded with detailed US street maps (versions available for other countries, too) and a very clean new user interface.

So called electronic paper and electronic ink technologies have been showing alot of promise lately, especially with the upcoming release of Sony’s eBook Reader coming out next month. At this week’s CEATEC show in Tokyo, Fujitsu showed off a prototype of a 7.8-inch paper-thin panel that can show 4,096 colors.

At this week’s CEATEC show in Tokyo, Sony showed off their web browser for the Playstation 3 console. The browser is navigated by moving two analog sticks (one for moving the cursor, the other for scrolling up and down the page).

Not since the old Atari classic “Kool Aid Man” has there been such an odd video game / food tie-in. The Home of the Whopper has announced an promotion for the holiday season in which they will be offering three surreal Burger King themed games for the Xbox and Xbox 360.

Every now and again, I like to mention the odd inventions that have been designed to be controlled (or powered) by your USB ports. Well this week, I bring you a new favorite: the USB hamster wheel.

This new mobile phone incorporates a complete Pocket PC and a cell phone in a single, compact form-factor. Rather than going the route of others by either offering the dumbed-down Windows “Smartphone” interface, or the large size of other Pocket PC phone combos, the izenMobile Krma phone attempts to combine the best of both worlds in a single device.

The new WACS7000 Streamium Wireless Music Center from Philips features a complete wireless music system in a sleek wall-mountable package. The system includes built-in stereo speakers, a 40-watt per channel amp, a cd player and an 80GB hard drive for local storage of up to 1500 CDs.

Epson Japan and design firm Industrial Facility have completed a collaboration to rethink the design of portable color printers and the result is quite striking. These new portable printers feature an integrated carrying handle and can run on batteries.

The folks at Playstation Magazine (PSM) received an unexpected surprise on Friday when Sony dropped by with a shiny new Playstation 3 for them to play with. Here’s what they had to say: You can even see the reflection of Motorstorm in the shiny exterior….

Back in 2001, the artists’ collective Temporary Services started a project with a prison inmate named Angelo in which they asked him to document how inmates adapt to their surroundings while confined. The project, entitled Prisoners’ Inventions, resulted in this fascinating 119-page book of detailed drawings that explain exactly how prisoners build contrivances from all sorts of found materials.

Who said that robots needed to be all clean and shiny (or functional for that matter?) The Bennett Robot Works designs sculptural robots made from junk. Each (non-functional) robot is unique and handmade by Gordon Bennett and made from a carefully selected assemblage of old and new parts.

With the impending release of the Sony Playstation 3, I thought I might take a moment to reflect on some of the finer points made by Sony’s management team regarding the PS3: It’s probably too cheap… – Ken Kutaragi, Regarding the $499 to 599 price point (the PS3) is not a game machine… – Ken Kutaragi, Regarding the machine’s beefy hardware architecture If you asked me if Sony’s strength in hardware was in decline, right now I guess I would have to say that might be true.

While NEC was showing off their cute little robot, capable of “tasting” wines (using its built-in) photospectrometer to the Associated Press, they got just a little more than they bargained for… When a reporter’s hand was placed against the robot’s taste sensor, it was identified as prosciutto.

Every few days, I report on a “world’s largest” or “world’s smallest” thingamabob, and today should be no different. JVC has just shown a new D-ILA (aka LCOS or SXRD) rear projection set that measures a whopping 110 inches.

The folks over at HP have shown the first of what is sure to be a number of HD-DVD drive add-ons for your PC. Hewlett Packard’s HD100 is an external HD-DVD drive that plugs into your PC’s USB 2.0 port and can read HD DVDs, DVDs and CDs.

Xtreme Enterprise has shown photos of their clear case mod for the Nintendo DS Lite. Their SHOCK! DS Lite replacement cases lets you swap out the shell and buttons of your system with new colors incluiding yellow, blue, red, black and a translucent case that lets you see all the gory innards of your DS Lite.