For those rainy days where playing outdoors is impossible, why not attempt to drive mom up the wall with the £49.95 Sky Challenger? This bundle comes with a couple of PicooZ helicopters that attempt to disable the other using infrared beams - something tells me that a whole lot of accuracy is involved if you want to remain on top of things. The battle will be fierce and intense, considering a 10 meter radius of the controller to reign in the PicooZ helicopter. Unfortunately, you only get up to 10 minutes of fun after spending the better part of the other half hour charging it. (Read the full post about ‘Sky Challenger’…)
Shuttle’s small form-factor KPC comes out today at $300, instead of $200 as originally planned. The little shoeboxes, with Celeron CPUs, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive and linux, are still cute as can be, only they now cost more than an actual pair of shoes, even in the the barebones version, which goes from $100 to $200. Given how frequrntly companies lowball their prices, there must be some counter-intuitive assumption about psychology in play. When we see yet another gadget announced at half the price it ultimately is, how can that be a good marketing strategy? It looks like a combination of naivety, wishful thinking and margin-padding: they’re selling something they’ve publicly assigned a conceptual value to at a much higher price. (Read the full post about ‘Shuttle KPC Hits Newegg at $300 Today’…)
Here’s a question: would these Transfomers wristwatches have sold even better in the west if they had simply ran this Japanese ad exactly as-is? See the dreadful Western ad after the jump for the same item, albeit lacking the brand.
Or, perhaps, its merely that they could sell them better today if they ran these ads now. As with anything, the nostalgic hankering is usually preferable to the thing being hankered after.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve never really worried about security where I live, at least not enough to bother with getting an alarm or a surveillance camera. However, if you’re worried about your goods getting stolen, or just feel the need to spy on others in your house while you’re away, this might be the perfect way to do it. While I don’t ever recall seeing a smoke detector quite like this in a house, I doubt that during the midst of a break-in that anyone would stop and go “that looks out of place, I wonder if it’s a hidden camera?” The plastic cover hides a 1/3” Sony CCD camera with an adjustable lens mounted on an adjustable bracket. (Read the full post about ‘Smoke Detector Spy Cam doesn’t quite look right’…)
iLive’s iT188B ipod dock soundbar looks great and sounds OK, but doesn’t offer features and power to match the category’s big boys. But that’s just fine, because it’s a cheap way to get something that doesn’t embarrass the furniture it rests on. The dual subwoofers on this 2.1 system aren’t going to rattle any bones, but the sound was surprisingly meaty, filling a 900 square foot room better than similarly-specced gear in its price range that I’ve messed around with bedore. There’s an integrated AM/FM radio (but only an AM antenna in the box), an auxiliary input for other devices, composite video pass-through, and a sub-out for attaching a proper subwoofer. A wall-mounting kit is also provided. (Read the full post about ‘First Look: iLive’s iT188B iPod Dock Looks and Sounds Slightly More Expensive Than It Is’…)
Posted Mar 17th 2008 7:52AM by Thomas Ricker And you thought Microsoft had trouble with piracy in Asia. Just look at what Egypt is doing to the new Windows… potato chips. Now with real Ballmer batter!Tags: camera, computers, cool gear, Ogg Vorbis (Read the full post about ‘Next version of Microsoft Windows, Ketchup flavored?’…)
Remember Spyhunter, Bally Midway’s 1983 Drive ‘Em Up? Then you’re going to love this Pontiac G8 ad. It opens with the actual game graphics,which morph into the modern day 3D extravaganza and even features the Peter Gunn soundtrack of the original. Anyone know which version of the game the graphics come from? (Read the full post about ‘Pontiac Ad Riffs On Spyhunter Video Game’…)
Since I prefer text-based forms of communication that don’t shame me for not having brushed my hair and still being in my pajamas at 4 in the afternoon, I’ve never been a fan of the web camera. I tolerate the presence of the ones built into my mobile devices, but I rarely install the corresponding software to get it to work. Pair that with the fact that this skull web camera ($65.36) from GeekStuff4U terrifies me to the core (the pained expression of that evil skeleton being strangled by the cobra’s tail will haunt me tonight), and you’ll understand why you won’t ever see me online. And no, it doesn’t make a difference that the 1.3-megapixel camera will record my movements at a fluid 30 frames per second. (Read the full post about ‘Skull web camera’…)
Everex’s CloudBook will finally arrive on Japanese shores this March 22nd, and this iteration comes with the following features :- 7″ touch screen display Bluetooth connectivity 802.11a/b/g WiFi connectivity 1.2GHz C7-M processor 30GB hard driveYou can tell that the first three features mentioned are improvements over the original, although it also sees a price bump of $200 to hit the $600 mark. Tags: dvr, computers, pvr, wireless (Read the full post about ‘Everex CloudBook Hits Japan’…)
Leadtek has rolled out its portable hybrid TV box - the WinFast DTV200 HU. It comes in a palm-size form factor, featuring USB 2.0 connectivity that supports both analog and digital TV and FM radio. Other features include support for high-definition terrestrial DVB-T and worldwide analog TV reception (NTSC, SECAM and PAL standards). You won’t find your eyes tire that quickly now with its de-interlacing technology that offers flicker-free video. Compatibility with HDTV and Dolby Digital AC3 audio have also been thrown in for good measure. Tags: Hi-fi, video game, PDA, high definition TV (Read the full post about ‘Leadtek WinFast DTV200 HU Hybrid TV’…)
