Just when you thought you could sleep nights, enter the Duck Fader, the quackish relative of the dark lord himself. Like the iDuck, he glows and changes color, but he's evil!!
Just take it from iwantoneofthose.com: "With his glowing eyes and ominous helmet he's the epitome of an evil fowl, the icon of demonic duck lovers. . ."
Why he's named Fader instead of Vader is a mystery only Obi Wan or Yoda could figure out--possible copyright issues? I know I wouldn't want to mess with George Lucas.
The Duck Fader is available for about $12 from iwantoneofthose.com. Feel free to pick one up for Blogging Molly. (Click on the image to enlarge.)
Ever since the unveiling of the high performance, all-electric Tesla Roadster in July, car enthusiasts have been eager to see if the vehicle lives up to the hype. Ben Stewart of Popular Mechanics was the first lucky journalist to take the Roadster for a test drive.
Stewart drove a hand-built $350,000 Development Prototype Tesla Roadster. The Roadster's quiet motor left a distinct impression on him, setting it apart from conventional vehicles: When you step on the accelerator, the Roadster "scoots away nearly silently in a rush of instant torque," said Stewart. The downside of the hushed electric power train is that the creaks and groans of the chassis are quite audible.
Though the prototype was purposely locked into second gear for this test drive, Stewart confirms the publicity about the Roadster's performance: "Even without the lower first gear, the Tesla really hauls. Tesla's claim of running 0-to-60 in around 4 seconds sounds plausible. You squirt through traffic holes without the hesitation—it's absolutely always in meat of the powerband."
According to Stewart, the Roadster handles much like the Lotus Elise, on which its design was based. Tesla's second round of cars, the Evaluation Prototypes, should be nearly squeak- and creak-free. Hopefully, Technoride's own Bill Howard will get his chance behind the wheel soon, too.
The game world gets more like the movie world all the time. There are a few huge studios, who've gobbled up lots of smaller ones and dominate what's left. And you see more sequels, remakes, and copycat games than original ones by far.
One place you can still find creative games, though, is at the yearly Game Developer's Conference. It hosts an Independent Games Festival, where new and unknown developers are prized for their imaginative creations, the weirder and more out-there, the better.
So if you're an adventurous gamer who's tired of the SOS (same old shooters), you might want to pick up this compilation from Moondance Games, called IG: Independent Games Volume 2. (I didn't know about Volume 1 but I'm sure that's worthwhile too!) It offers 21 games, including Bantam City Games' Invadazoid, Rabidlab's Dodge That Anvil!, and Ocular Ink, by Pistachio Productions. Show those mega-studios there's a market for innovation! The package is just $19.95; that's a bargain even if you wind up playing just one or two of these games.
Description: The Push Pin Lamp is a giant-sized push pin with a cork bottom to pin-up your most important notes or reminders. The lamp measures 19cm x 19cm x 39cm. Choose from red, orange, blue or green.
How It Works:Hotgadget.com was nice enough to send us the blue Push Pin Lamp. To light up the lamp, just press down on the top of the push pin. To power off, press down again. Unfortunately, the bulb isn't included, so you're going to have to travel to Home Depot or another hardware store to find the right bulb. It uses a 25-Watt Type B bulb. I went to the Home Depot here in Manhattan and picked up a Philips 25W blunt tip candelabra base bulb.
Performance: There's really not much to say about its performance, other than it lights great! However, I wish that the blue shading of the lamp was darker, because you can see the bulb right through the lamp, and it's a little distracting. You may be better off with a blue light bulb if you can find the right size. The top of the lamp does get rather hot when you're turning it off, so hands beware!
Overall: Everyone here at the office loves this lamp! It definitely looks geeky sitting in my cube. It's a must-have for any office geek.
Pcalchemy, a relatively unproven entrant into the computer hardware market, is trying to make more room on your desk. With its new M1B, M1S, and M2B media center models, you can hold one powerful, teeny-weeny computer in the palm of your hand. The smallest of the slick MiniMCE models, the M1B comes in at a mere 6.5-inches square and 2 inches high. Although the M1S and M2B do increase in size a bit, the difference is negligible considering the size of comparable products in the wild.
But size isn't Pcalchemy's only selling point. Each model ships with the 1.83-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5600, a wireless keyboard, and a small IR remote. The company also throws in 1GB of RAM and a 100-GB SATA hard drive to store the countless movies and music people will want to store in this miniature powerhouse. An added bonus: The machine will ship with Nero 6.6 Suite 3 and a powered USB 2.0 port expander, so you can burn and plug all day long. But for all the nice options Pcalchemy included in the MiniMCE, it includes just an analog tuner. You can get an HDTV tuner separately, but it connects via USB only, and it'll run you an extra 60 bucks.
With a price of $1,199 for each model and a nice set of components, Pcalchemy looks like it is on the right track to gaining market share in a largely Apple-controlled market. But for all of the good (and there is quite a bit of that), a standard HDTV tuner sure would have been nice.
Having run out of feet to shoot itself in, within the past decade General Motors decided its survival might lie in building world-class cars. (Its survival might also depend on getting taxpayers to pick up retiree medical benefits, but that's a different story.) To show what it's got, the General rolled out a generous sampling of its 2007 models at a press day in the Virginia countryside, including a vastly revamped Saturn line.
Our initial take: Saturn, formerly home to treat-customers-right- dealerships and mediocre cars, is destined for improved fortunes with its new sedans, SUVs, hybrids, and sports cars. In particular, the Aura sedan provides the level of interior appointments, fit and finish, and performance that you'd expect from a mid-size, sporty sedan from Germany or Japan, yet you'll have a hard time spending more than $26,000 on an Aura. The Vue Green Line Hybrid compact SUV gets great gas mileage. The Saturn Sky sports car is a blast to drive, but if you want to bring a lot of baggage, you'd do better on a motorcycle with saddlebags. And the upcoming Outlook will move Saturn into the larger SUV segment.
As for the rest of the GM line, the new (in mid-2006) SUV line of the Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade is vastly improved, and fuel economy is somewhat improved; the Cadillacs have brought the fun back to driving American sedans; there are sporty Pontiac sedans and coupes with a lot of bang for the buck; and the Buick Lucerne CXS provides a cheap way to buy the equivalent of a full-size Cadillac DTS. But also, some GM interiors have plastic dashboards that look t00 much like shiny plastic, the dash doesn't marry well into the doors, the gauges feel low-rent, and the switchgear is stiff. Vice-chairman Robert Lutz once joked how GM has perfected the art of making higher-quality interior components look cheap. Amen.
Click on our slideshow (above) to see some of our favorite cars from the 2007 GM overview, with notes on their tech capabilities.
When I read things like, "the average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat" (from a University of Arizona survey), I just cringe! I hate to think what kinds of germs and bacteria are lurking on my keyboard and mouse as I type this! Thankfully, companies are realizing this nasty health problem and are manufacturing products for your desk to combat germs.
IOGEAR announced today its Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse, which "is able to inhibit a wide range of antibodies, viruses and algae" and is perfect for libraries, schools, offices, or any other places where computer mice are frequently used.
The outer shell of this mouse is covered in "nanocoating, consisting of titanium oxide and silver nanoparticles that can prevent or deactivate bacteria with 99% efficiency." It operates from 6 feet away, uses 2 AAA batteries, and measures 3.74 by 1.97 by 1.18 inches. And it's both PC and Mac compatible.
The Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse sells for $39.95 and comes with a carrying case. I don't see it for sale online yet, but it's said to be available at online resellers and select retailers.
The next time you're at the store trying to snag the new TMX Elmo doll, you may be risking your life.
A Tampa Bay, Florida man woke up early last Friday to buy the TMX Elmo at his local Target store. He had been waiting ten years for the anniversary doll to be released, and he hoped he could get his hands on one.
As soon as the store's doors opened, he ran right down the aisles in search for Elmo. Luckily, he found one, and as he began to pick up another to give to a customer, the man next to him pointed a loaded gun at him and said that he'd have no problem shooting. The Florida man quickly handed Elmo over to the attacker, and then called 911.
The Florida man believes that his attacker was a professional toy collector. "Chances are he's a hot wheels trader. That market is probably not doing well right now and he's doing the Elmo thing and I kind of moved in on his space. You know how drug dealers have corners; I think I hit his target corner up."
Unfortunately, the suspect has yet to be caught. So if you're headed to your local toy store, you better keep your eyes out for this Elmo enemy! And be careful folks: people go ballistic over toys in limited quantities!
Every year at PC Magazine, we survey thousands of our readers about a wide range of technology products. One of thoe products is cell phones and wireless services - and the data we get back is fascinating. There are really only two other organizations I know of that do wireless surveys in this depth, Consumer Reports and JD Power & Associates, and between the three of us, you can really get a picture of which phones and services are loved and which are loathed from sea to shining sea.
If you go to our main survey page, you'll find the broad conclusion: Verizon Wireless rocks on everything but fees. (I know, big surprise.) But if you drill down into the associated PDFs and spreadsheets, you can find a lot of other fun information. Let me pull someout for you.
Sprint is falling behind because of lower than average scores on customer service and tech support. For T-Mobile, a focus on service and support pays off -- they have the highest ratings in both categories -- but they fall behind Verizon on coverage and call quality.
Cingular users really love Audiovox phones ... what's up with that? Cingular has only offered one major Audiovox phone, the much-beloved, Editor's Choice SMT-5600. So all you learn there is that the SMT-5600 was awesome, which it indeed was.
Speaking of smart devices, when they're available, Palm Treos get the highest ratings for "using a phone as a PDA."
Where Sony Ericsson deigns to enter the market, people love their phones. Their ratings for "sound quality," especially, are very high.
Nokia may be the world's #1 manufacturer, but their phones fail to impress our readers. This underscores my belief that the US market is not very important to Nokia.
Looking for something reliable? Nokias on Verizon and Cingular, Sony Ericssons and Samsungs on T-Mobile, and the Motorola C290 on Sprint were better than average in terms of needing technical support or repairs.
Want to draw your own conclusion? Our article linked above lets you into a world of interesting data. Check it out.
Whether you're at the movies or the theatre, you're usually told to turn off your cell phone. However, audiences during a concerto at the Chicago Sinfonietta next month will be asked to leave them on.
David Baker, a composer and a music professor at Indiana University, wants to form a 15-minute Concertino for Cellular Phones and Orchestra to "reflect the 'wonderful balance' between order and chaos in society." The audience will be divided into different sections while red and green lights will go off, signaling audience members to activate their phones and to increase the volume of ring tones during the piece.
The Concertino for Cell Phones and Orchestra will take place on October 1 & 2 at 7:30 pm. Performances will be made by Paul Freeman, conductor; Melissa White, violin; and Alexander Kobrin, piano. You can purchase tickets to the event at ChicagoSinfonietta.com.
Mixx It
Digg It
Stumble
More...
All photos by Bill Howard
