Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

One of my favorite places for fun and unique items on the web is the $25 Giant Robot Store. I just came across a fun gizmo on their site called the “FM3 Buddha Machine.” The Buddha Machine is said to be the “anti-ipod.”

The folks over at ThinkGeek have just started carrying this fun little Japanese import. It’s a portable alarm clock that’s shaped like case from the classic Nintendo NES joypad. Looks like they went with the color scheme from the Japanese original Famicom system though.

The folks over at MaxConsole got their hands on these exclusive preview screenshots of the upcoming dashboard update for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. Of note are a new, cleaner look for the Xbox Live Arcade, a better organized Live Marketplace and most importantly, a link to the “Launchpad,” where you’ll be able to play demos and XNA homebrew games if you’re signed up for the XNA Game Studio program.

Philips Ambilight technology is said to improve perceived contrast and reduce eyestrain. Well now you can try a similar technology on your PC’s monitor. Smartbytes’ Ambient Reality Effects is a compact device designed to mount to the back of your monitor and produce colored background light on your surrounding walls.

The headline says it all. According to Sony’s European website the PS3 has been delayed until March 2007 in the PAL territories of Europe, Russia, Middle East, Africa and Australasia. Launch date remains November 17, 2006 for North America and Japan, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see that date slip given Sony’s recent track record.

With no advance hoopla, Apple has quietly announced the new 24-inch iMac today. The new model features a substantial widescreen display running at 1900×1200 resolution, a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a 250 GB hard drive, and 1 GB of RAM for $1999.00.

What’s that smell? Could it be Fergie’s ‘Humps’ or Justin’s ‘Sexyback’? Well now you can have a myriad of musically derived fragrances in your home thanks to this wacky new device. TokyoFM’s new USB powered system mixes six perfumes to automatically change fragance based on the music and artist currently playing on their radio station.

Samsung showed of their new LE40M91 LCD flat panel at the IFA conference in Berlin this week. The new set features a high-powered LED backlight, said to boost color gamut to 146% and the LCD panel claims a 10,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, which is extremely good for an LCD panel.

These miniature Atari 2600 joystick and paddle controllers function as both a keychain and a functional video game console. Certainly they’re a bit cumbersome as keychains, but you cannot deny the cool factor here. I’ve seen differing information on which versions feature which games, but from what I can decipher, there are three versions, one with Asteroids and Millipede (joystick); and one with Yar’s Revenge and Centipede (joystick) and one with Breakout, Pong and Warlords (paddle).

The Ion iTTUSB Turntable from Ion Audio lets you digitize your vinyl LPs and listen to them on your PC. The turntable includes Audacity software for Mac/PC for recording as well as a trial install of Bias Soundsoap 2 for cleaning and restoring vinyl.

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a new system for rapidly scanning wide areas with a laser beam using a rapidly moving mirror. If the technology hits its potential, a dime-sized projector could cast an image about a meter wide from only half a meter away.

At this week’s IFA consumer electronics show, Philips showed off a prototype 100-inch LCD FlatTV complete with their Ambilight Full Surround technology. For those not already familiar with Ambilight, it provides an array of colored LEDs as a backlight source behind the set.

Commodore, the brand that brought us the Pet, the VIC-20 and the C64 are now bringing us another oddly named device, the Gravel in Pocket. The personal media player was announced today at the IFA 2006 consumer electronics show in Berlin.

Every few days, somebody tries to outdo the last goofy USB memory stick design and this one takes the cake for me today. The Oooms (I just like saying that!) Wooden USB Memory Stick is literally a real stick.

Creative Technology has just announced the release of their new ZEN Vision W. The new mobile media player features a 4.3 inch diagonal 16:9 widescreen TFT display (480 x 272 resolution) for video playback, and either 30GB or 60GB of hard drive storage.

PlayStation Magazine has published an unconfirmed report from unnamed sources that state that Sony is working on a new model of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) for release in 2007. PSM’s Editors believe that the upgrade will be a revision of the existing hardware at the same retail price as the current model.