There comes a time in every cube-dweller’s life, when he or she has to take the law into his or her hands. Maybe it’s finding out that stooge from marketing has stolen your last pencil…again! Or perhaps you’re tired of having your office moved repeatedly. Well, it’s time to draw a line in the low pile carpet. “No more,” you’ll cry as you stand your ground. With a Nerf Maverick by your side, you will prevail.
Suggested Price: $9.99
Sprint has joined AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile in offering unlimited cell phone calling plans. Sprint’s first unlimited plan is $99 and includes *everything*, not just calls, but data and PTT (Push to Talk) if you have one of those phones. Sprint is certainly pushing its competitors harder, and they must if they are to stem the financial bleeding they’ve been experiencing.
Ah, competition. It may be a cliche, but it really is amazing for consumers, although these price breaks and the possible ensuing price war may sink 1 or more of these cell providers before this is all over. But then again, it’s never over.
High-end home audio speakers may be a bit bigger than your typical gizmo, but this is certainly welcome news for you audiophile geeks out there.
Months back it was uncovered that premium home and professional speaker manufacturer M&K Sound would be making a return under new ownership… after being closed for over a year. Today, it looks like M&K is looking to make their return in the near future thanks to their new website that just went online today.
Most importantly, the new site shows which M&K products the new ownership is bringing back.
Is that a PMP in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Sorry, that’s all I could think of for this super mini video player that sports a 2.4″ or 2.8″ full-size bright high-res LCD display. The device can be expanded with a memory card (T-Flash or MicroSD) but comes with 2GB built-in. The battery life will let you play video for 3-4 hours and audio for 6-8 hours.
The device is so simple but really combines many features people look for in a PMP including simplicity of transferring video to the device (supports USB mass-storage mode for easy transfer of video on any OS), expandability memory, charging via USB (when traveling I hate bring extra chargers) and can play FM Radio, Text, Pictures, Games and Videos.
Two special features that are nice to have but are included on these mini PMPs are the existence of an integrated speaker so you don’t have to use your headphones in your hotel and the keys on the Neon M3 version are heat sensitive and glow when touched.
$100! What a deal!
Suggested Price: $99.99
As you travel throughout your day, electrons are shifting all over your body. Sometimes, like when you pull your sweater off or slide out of your car, an excess of electrons attach themselves to your body (you are actually tearing them off of the other substance). When you next touch a piece of positively charged material (your car door, your computer, or perhaps a coworker), the electrons rush from you to the positive charge. The result: a static shock. Static shocks are fun, but only if you are zapping others. They can be painful and also quite destructive; once a static charge fries your laptop, you’ll know what we mean.
So we offer a very easy way to help painlessly get rid of unwanted electrons. Attach the Static Electricity Eliminator (SEE, for short) to your keyring, and you’ll always have it with you. If you think you are “charged,” simply hold the SEE and touch the rubber tip to a grounded object (a metal desk leg, your car door, a metal peg leg, etc). You will see a little face flash on the SEE’s screen, and you’ll know you are static free. It’s that simple. And with no batteries to worry about (because you are providing the electricity), you’ll be able to use your SEE for years to come. So shout with us, “I defy thee, oh daemon of static!” Come on, we said SHOUT!
Suggested Price: $9.99
Update: Unfortunately, as you can see from the comments below, there’s a bit of ‘he said, she said’ going on, possibly between the competitors of similar products. As it would take entirely too much time to sort out who’s who, or to even verify any statements, backgrounds, etc., we’re simply closing the comments on this post. However, we’re leaving the comments as is. Perhaps there’s an independent 3rd-party who might want to weigh in on their own blog/site.
Wicked gift for any Star Wars geek, this Star Wars Lightsaber Desk Lamp will be proudly displayed in cubes, offices and homes everywhere a SW Geek works, plays or sleeps. The desk lamp is a mini glowing desk lamps made to look like the Star Wars Lightsabers. Chose the dark side with the red Darth Vader saver or go with the goody two sandal side with a green Luke Skywalker saber.
These desk lamps are available in the US but were imported from Japan and are Officially Licensed Star Wars Collectable. No idea why they were not originally made for the US.
Is it too early to start a Christmas list?
Suggested Price: $19.99
A cursory glance of the latest Fords, Chevys, Toyotas and cars available from any of the other big automakers in any given year reveals little in the way of truly new or revolutionary features. A redesigned cupholder here, a different color backlight on the instrument panel there, but when you think about it, there is really not a whole lot of difference in the the basic four wheels, four doors, gas-powered car that you can buy today from those our parents, or even our grandparents drove.
So I am hoping the Big Three pay attention to this little number coming out soon from RinSpeed–the sQuba. If an electric two-seater that can drive right into the water and dive to a depth of 10 meters sounds like something out of a James Bond movie, it should. Rinspeed boss and designer Frank M. Rinderknecht is a Bond fan, and was inspired 3 decades ago by the submersible Lotus Esprit designed by Q branch in The Spy Who Loved Me, and the sQuba is the result. The primary difference, of course, is that Bond’s Lotus was just movie SFX, but the sQuba actually works. Read the rest of this entry »
Update: Honestech has released v4.0 of VHS to DVD Deluxe.
If you have any kind of video collection dating back even to the 90s, then you probably have a number of VHS tapes collecting dust once you stopped using your VCR and switched to using your DVD player exclusively. Without having to go out and spend the same amount of money or more restocking your collection with DVD versions of your movies, you can obtain a hw/sw solution such as VHS to DVD 3.0 Deluxe and convert your VHS video tape collection to DVD yourself at the cost of about 4-6 movies. We tested out this product from Honest Technology (honestech) and found a very capable, complete solution that works without much fuss.
The iStraw Emergency Water Filter just might save your butt on your next backpacking trip… literally. The iStraw is a polycarbonate straw fitted with special micro-filtration technology on a membrane that can clean your water and protect you against water borne bacteria and protozoa present in drinking water and ice in many countries.
The iStraw is compact, lightweight and simple to use and if your a worldwide traveller… it’s a must! Unlike water purification tables, the gadget leaves no funky aftertaste while reducing 99.99999% of all water borne bacteria like Giardia and Cryptosporidium and can filter up to 500 liters of water. The iStraw should not be used to filter brackish or turbid water however and does not remove chemical contaminants or viruses contained in the water. With that said, it’s still a compact and perfect utility to carry on worldwide travels to places like Mexico or China.
Suggested Price: $39.99
Now in its second edition and twice as long as the first edition, “Hacking, The Art of Exploitation“, introduces the reader very rapidly to programming, pseudo-code, the C language, then dives deeply into exploits, and their associated code. If you’ve ever wanted to know what a buffer overflow, spoofing or password cracking was, then this book will not only explain what those are at a more than cursory level, but give you code samples so that you can test it yourself.
I have not seen the 1st edition, so this review of this book stands alone. Although Hacking devotes about a quarter of the book to introducing programming, pseudo-code, as well as computer basics such as memory segments and the heap, don’t make the mistake that you will learn programming from this book alone. This book’s strength is in explaining why holes exist, what common ones are and then demonstrating how they can be exploited with appropriate code samples. This is not a book for ’script kiddies’ who simply find pre-made exploit programs to run with a one-line command or a double-click of a mouse.
