Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

Cingular has now posted a page on their site where you can now sign up to be notified when and how to order your Apple iPhone. With all of the excitement about Steve Jobs’ new baby, I think there’s a good chance these things will be going for more than retail on eBay for the first few months.

Nintendo announced today some facts and figures from the 2006 holiday selling season, and the Big N racked up some pretty impressive numbers: During the November – December holiday period, over half of all gaming systems sold in the U.S.

Griffin’s latest entry into the iPod accessory fray offers a unique spin on the amplified speaker/dock combos that have popped up all over the place over the last few years – wireless speakers. The Griffin Evolve Wireless Sound System features an innovative docking station which not only charges your iPod, it charges two wireless cube speakers.

Looking for a plasma set, but want true 1080p resolution? Samsung has revealed their first 1080p plasma sets (“the 84 Series”) for release later this year. The Samsung HP-T5084 50-inch plasma television is scheduled for release this May for $4199.

A few weeks back I told you about Cisco/Linksys’ new line of voice over IP products being marketed under the “iPhone” brand name. Well now that Apple has announced their hot new iPhone, it looks like they never completed the process of working out a deal with Cisco to use the name.

A while back, we showed you a funny clip of Honda’s ASIMO humanoid robot falling on his ASS-IMO trying to climb some stairs. Well the good news is now the little guy seems to be doing fine climbing stairs.

Hot on the heels on the announcement of of Apple’s gorgeous iPhone, Sandisk has announced their own widescreen media player, the Sansa View. While the Sansa View doesn’t offer all the Smartphone capabilities of Apple’s beauty, it does offer a pretty good value for a widescreen media player.

At this week’s Macworld conference, Axiotron is showing off its new Mac-based tablet computer, the ModBook. The ModBook is an aftermarket hardware modification kit that transforms Apple’s MacBook portable into the world’s first Mac tablet computer.

Even though Blu-ray has already declared victory in the high definition format war, Warner Home Video clearly hasn’t counted out HD DVD as a viable format. At this week’s CES show, the company announced a new format, called the Total Hi Def Disc, which provides both Blu-ray and HD DVD content on opposite sides of a single disc.

I recently reported on Joytech’s rechargeable controller dock for the Wii. Now, Nyko is getting into the game with charging cradles for both the Wii and the Playstation 3’s SIXAXIS controllers. Filling a void in both Nintendo’s and Sony’s product lines, the docks allow you to neatly recharge your controllers without unsightly cables running between the controllers and the consoles.

A few days back, I told you about a leaked image of what appeared to be Dell’s new 27-in computer monitor, the W2707C. Well, I had the main part of the story right, just not the model number.

Today is a big day for Apple enthusiasts, with speculation at an all time high for new hardware from the darlings of Silicon Valley. Rumors have been flying around for some time ranging from the iPhone, to the iTV, to new touch screen iPods, to a truly portable Mac.

If you’re the outdoorsy type, you might want to check out Bushnell’s new waterproof portable GPS navigator. It’s the first device I’ve seen that seamlessly integrates GPS mapping capabilities with real time weather data and an XM satellite radio.

Not to be outdone by Apple’s iMac personal computers, HP has finally announced their much anticipated all-in one system, the HP TouchSmart. The first system in the series is the TouchSmart IQ770, featuring a fast, dual-core AMD Turion 64-X2 TL-52 CPU, 2GB of DDR RAM, a 320 GB hard drive and a SuperMulti DVD burner with LightScribe capability.

At this week’s CES show, Sony showed off an OLED TV with that claims to have an unbelievable 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio. From the looks of the photo below, (taken by the folks over at Engadget,) the contrast does look pretty darned impressive: The 27-inch prototype’s organic light emitting diode panel also features a wider than NTSC color gamut and full 1080p resolution.

Gasoline pump manufacturer, Dresser Wayne, is showing off a new pump that features wireless Internet connectivity, including the ability to purchase and download music tracks while you pump fuel into your gas guzzler. The Dresser Wayne Ovation