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SIGNAL Blinking Cell Phone Holder

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Accessories, Smartphones, Wireless / WiFi,

SIGNAL Blinking Cellphone Holder The zen of a quiet surrounding, say your work environment, is easily ruined when someone’s cell phone rings - especially if they have an annoying song-of-the-moment ringtone. If it’s you with the offending phone, avoid the scorn of the disrupted with the SIGNAL Cellphone Holder. Just silence your phone and put it in the holder, which will blink when you receive a call. It works by picking up on cellular phone waves…very smart in our book. Yes, we realize you could just put your phone on vibrate, but that’s not always a convenient option, and besides, we think this gadget will look uber-cool on anyone’s desk. The SIGNAL costs $30 USD.

R2D2 Action Figure is the Real Deal

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Toys, Wireless / WiFi,

If you couldn’t afford the full-sized R2D2 and missed out on the Trash Talker, take hope, for there is a new droid in town. The fully licensed action figure-sized R2 runs around your desk guided by its light saber remote. He can go forward or turn, makes the usual noises, turns his head, and has a red LED eye. Running on included batteries, you can conduct your own Star Wars for only $29.99 from ThinkGeek. Almost more than we like the gadget, we like the clever way the online retailer is advertising it on YouTube. Better hurry if you want the bot for yourself, for supplies are limited.

Tahoe Prepares for DARPA Race

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Science, Transportation, Wireless / WiFi,

This is one remote control vehicle we just can’t wait to try out. Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Racing team, in cooperation with GM, is preparing a Chevy Tahoe for a November outing sponsored by DARPA (Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.) The desert race consists of navigating vehicles through a 60 mile course that resembles a city street.

The Tahoe will be equipped with automatic steering, brakes, and throttle, and its challenge will be to stay on the road while avoiding obstacles such as other vehicles and oversized cacti. The winner of the race collects a cool $2 million. DARPA foresees this as a way of improving humans’ safe driving habits in heavy traffic conditions. We just see it as an expensive Hot Wheels racetrack for bigger boys and wonder what connections you have to have to become a team member.

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Get Ready To Rokenbok Rumble

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Toys, Wireless / WiFi,

If you haven’t quite reached the stage of true robotics competition, you can still have your own robo-truck wars with the Rokenbok Defender Duel. Build your own Lego arena and let loose the two RC Police Defender vehicles. Capture your opponent’s flag or try to knock your offensive combatant out of the ring. Included in the 2-player set are the two vehicles, control pads, and a Radio Control Center. Recommended for those physically over the age of 6, the Duel requires 1 9-volt and 6 AA batteries (not included.) For a price of $159.99, you can let the destruction begin.

The Godfather Gets Hands-On Action

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Home Entertainment, Video Games, Wireless / WiFi,

Godfather video game A year after their debut, the Corleones have become members of the Nintendo family. EA Sports’ Godfather is now available for Wii. During the game, you can pick up your opponents and toss them into the nearest wall or over a ledge. If that isn’t enough payback, you can strangle them to death. The Blackhand Edition is available at the EA Store for $49.95. We know this is just a game, but we are having trouble imagining that one can successfully choke his/her ~~foe~~

controller and still remain sane in the real world.

Google’s April Fool’s Day Prank is Flush with Humor

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Google, Wireless / WiFi,

Google TiSP logo So were you the victim of any April Fool’s Day pranks? We certainly were after we innocently went to Google.com the first day of April, and became intrigued by their offer for “Google TiSP”, their new FREE in-home WiFi service—utilizing your toilet and plumbing to connect to fiber-optic cable strung through sewage lines. After viewing the photos, our dumbstruck confusion yielded to laughter after we realized that it was all an incredibly elaborate April Fool’s Day prank. With detailed diagrams, how-to photos and even a FAQ, it’s impressive how much work went into this prank—and we can assure them their efforts didn’t go down the drain. If you’d like, check out Google’s previous April Fool deceptions, and click the links in the last sentence.

Folding MoGo Headset is Unveiled

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech, Peripherals, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,

Description Making its debut at the CTIA in Orlando this week is the ultra-thin MoGo headset. Weighing only 1/3 oz., and at a thickness of 5 mm, the Newton Peripherals’ Bluetooth 2.0 device features a fold-out earpiece which is especially sized to fit in a laptop’s PCMCIA or phone ExpressCard slot for recharging. The MoGo can go up to 6 hours of talk time and recharges in less than an hour. An optional AC adapter is also available. Not quite at the retail level yet, check with Newton for price.

Remote Simplifies Home Entertainment

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Accessories, Home Entertainment, Music, Wireless / WiFi,

The site may look like one of those “As Seen on TV” types, but we like the looks of the X10 iconRemote. With its simple set-up wizard, you can store up to ten icons with you or your partner/spouse’s fave channels. The remote features one button to turn on your TV, play a DVD, or turn up your surround sound. The X10 comes with 3 AAA batteries which last up to a year. If you doubt the company’s sincerity, they offer you a “30 day risk-free money back guarantee.” At a price of only $129.99, we can put up with the garrish graphics while we order one.

Listen to MP3s Wirelessly with Insignia’s 4-Gigabyte Player with Bluetooth

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Music, Portable Audio / Video, Wireless / WiFi,

Bluetooth is our new BFF. Why? Because Bluetooth is quietly changing the face of wireless technology, making our lives a little more easier…and fun! Case in point, the Insignia 4-Gigabyte Player, which wirelessly transmits audio (yes, in stereo), to Bluetooth headphones, which are gaining in popularity. The Insignia plays MP3s, WMAs, Audible audiobooks and even has an FM tuner. It can also store approximately 14 movies. All this in a compact device that has a 2.2” screen, is 4” long and weighs 2.4 ounces. Want more? How about a battery that lasts almost 20 hours! Plus, if you need more storage (and you know you do), there’s a slot for a MiniSD card of up to 2 GB. The Insignia, a Best Buy brand, is only available at the electronics retailer’s website, for what we feel is a very reasonable $160 USD.

Yoggie: Miniature Security Device for Your Laptop

Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Accessories, USB, Internet, PC / Laptop, Wireless / WiFi,

With telecommuting growing by leaps and bounds and free WiFi access becoming more and more prevalent, protecting vital information on your laptop is of the utmost importance. Help has arrived in the form of Yoggie, a palm-sized device that houses 13 security products. Once plugged into the USB port, Yoggie offers such safety measures as anti-spam, anti-phishing, anti-spyware, anti-virus, a firewall, intrusion detection/prevention, and much more. Yoggie will put you back $199 USD, but we feel that beats the trials and tribulations of having your identity stolen by a 12-year-old hacker.

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