Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

The folks over at LucasArts are showing off some pretty cool new tech that’s planned for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, planned for next-generation consoles. The first video shows off the enhanced AI engine (called “Euphoria”) which provides each enemy with a “central nervous system,” which makes them intelligent and emotional reactions to stimuli in their environment: The second video shows off “Digital Molecular Matter,” which provides objects with much more realistic physical properties than seen in other game engines.

I know this might seem a bit dated, but I just found this and thought it was too funny to ignore. This t-shirt speaks for itself, simply stating “This is how I roll.” alongside a graphic of the funky Japanese games’ protagonist pushing a big old Katamari.

Rayman: Raving Rabbids has been one of the showcase titles for the Nintendo Wii’s motion sensing controller. Up until now, I had assumed that other platforms would be stuck with crummy joystick control for this game that screams out for something more.

Sure, there are plenty of cool modern digital clocks out there these days, but this one is so beautifully simple that you definitely should check it out. The ZER00:00 clock is so minimal that it doesn’t even provide a way to set the time.

If you’re in the market for a home theater PC that’s feature packed and looks great, check out the new FLeX line of HTPCs from Italy’s P. Guerra. FLeX home theater PCs feature zippy Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors and are packed in slick mini case that’s reminiscent of a black Mac Mini.

Remember those old car horns that played “La Cucuracha” over and over again? A California auto accessories maker hopes to bring back that awful fad in a new, even more irritating way. Let me introduce you to Horntones, a device that lets you play MP3 or WAV files of your choice through your car horn.

A team of industrial designers have come up with a truly unique concept in home appliances for the Electrolux Design Lab competition, the modular refrigerator. The NFridge reimagines the design of typical refrigerators by splitting the fridge into small, stackable compartments.

Here’s another fun product for all you Nintendo fanboys and girls. These Dot Design 2 Super Mario Brothers computer mice from Banpresto features popular bitmap characters from the popular game series. The mice come in two designs, one featuring Mario, and the other featuring a familiar Star shape.

If you’re just too darned lazy to set up a complete home theater system, this piece of furniture might be just what the doctor ordered. The Evesham Sound Stage X1 is not only designed to hold your widescreen flat panel television, but it’s a complete 5.1 surround sound system.

Bring out your inner Jack Bauer with this alarm clock import from Japan. Once the DangerBomb’s alarm goes off, you’ll need to quickly disconnect one of three color-coded wires to prevent the DangerBomb from “exploding.” To keep you on your toes, the alarm will pick a random color coded wire that must be detached within a pre-set amount of time.

A couple of week’s back I told you about the upcoming Samsung F700 mobile phone, which looks poised to give the Apple iPhone a pretty good run for its money. Well hot on the heals of that phone, Samsung has revealed another sweet looking touchscreen / keyboard hybrid phone, the SGH-F520.

This little known SEGA Saturn SGX system is for sale on eBay. The Saturn SGX was designed to run SEGA Saturn games in video arcades. Made back in the late 90’s by a company called SunSeibu, The SGX is basically a modified SEGA Saturn mounted in a heavy-duty metal enclosure with a coin-op mechanism.

[UPDATE 2/13/07: IGN has since updated their original review, now stating that SCEA has confirmed that the title will only run in 480p. Bummer.] I was already psyched for the impending release of God of War II for the Sony PlayStation 2, but now there’s even more reason to rejoice.

Research in Motion today announced their latest smartphone model, the BlackBerry 8800. The new model adds numerous features including GPS tracking, expandable memory, and a long-lasting battery. The 8800 is a full quad-band GSM/EDGE phone, and lifts many of the features found in the popular BlackBerry Pearl model, such as its well-received trackball navigation.

Designed primarily for commercial installations such as in shopping malls and at special events, these LED-based televisions can display 360-degree panoramic video. Dynascan’s systems display video all the way across the surface of a cylindrical fixture, using thousands or super-bright LEDs to produce an image.

While the Sony PlayStation 3 certainly hasn’t yet lived up to original expectations, there are still several million of us who did buy the console, and would like it to become part of our regular gaming regimen.