It's Friday, and it's just about Halloween, which means you're probably sitting in your cubicle eating candy for lunch and looking at photos of dogs dressed up as Darth Vader. Just me? Well, Gearlog has a few
spooky sites for you to check out.
1. If you didn't get around to carving your own jack-o-lanterns this Halloween, then you can do so online. Check out this virtual pumpkin carver from vidugiris.com.
2. It's too late to mail a Halloween card, but it's not too late to send an e-card! Take a look at these Halloween e-cards from MyPunchBowl.com before it's too late.
3. Although this has nothing to do with tech, it's still extremely disgusting, and a great cake for this spooky holiday. Check out Instructables' Brain Cake.
4. Thanks to Popular Mechanics, you can spy on those hooligans coming to toilet-paper your house, or steal your Halloween decorations with this DIY pumpkin surveillance camera.
5. Spruce up your computer with a flashy Halloween desktop. (Via LifeHacker)
6. It might be a little too late for this year, but you can always get an early start for next Halloween: Check out the Pumpkin Pal Stake (pictured above) which lights up your jack-o-lantern by sticking the stake directly in the pumpkin.
Do Microsoft's new storefronts look eerily family to you? The company's new mall-based retail locations seem to have taken more than a few aesthetic and spiritual cues from Apple's successful stores.
The company opened up its first location in Scottsdale, Arizona this week, and PCMag sent a photographer with a last name rather similar to our own consumer electronics managing editor. You can check out a slideshow of the company's new Windows 7-centric location at PCMag, Surface computer included.
Microsoft opened up a second location in Mission Viejo, California, to what was apparently a rather enthusiastic reception. According to the OC Register, over 1,000 people crowded into the Orange County Mall, in an attempt to check out the new store.
Maybe it had something to do with the gift bags that Microsoft was handing out, which included a $25 Zune Pass gift card and lip balm, among other MS swag. Times are tough and lips are chapped all over, I guess.
Jedi trainees can stop wandering the neighborhood looking for a kindly old man or frog-like hermit to train them in the ways of the force. Uncle Milton's new Star Wars The Force Trainer can help them hone their mind-object control skills. I'm no longer a kid, but I grew up with Star Wars and still secretly (well not so secretly now) wish I had Jedi mind skills.
The $99 product arrived in our offices last week, and I took it for a test drive earlier today. It takes AA batteries and three AAAs, but otherwise set-up is a no-brainer (get it?). The double AAs go in the base, which uses a fan to push a decorated ping-pong ball up a transparent tube. It communicates wirelessly with the adjustable headset, which features three sensors that ostensibly read your brainwaves and transmit the information back to the base. With the right kind of concentration (sit still, don't hold your breath, and think about making the ball rise), you can make the fan blow harder (or softer) and send the ball up and down the tube. Training takes you from Padawan level to Jedi Master--Yoda is your audio coach throughout.
Virtually all promotion pictures and video show a boy with his hand stretched toward the device. This isn't necessary, but a fair amount of concentration is. I didn't break a sweat during the test drive, but I believe I may have, with Yoda's help (he coaches you throughout), finally become a Jedi. The proof is in the video.
Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, The Pleo robotic camosaur has reemerged, though without the help of dino-DNA. In a lengthy interview on Robotsrule, Ugobe founder and now COO of Innvo Labs Derek Dotson said Pleo is for sale again at Innvo's web site. What's more surprising is that Innvo's Pleo is not simply an inventory clear-out item. Dotson told Robotsrule that there are actually a number of improvements, including better paint, more durable skin, biodegradable packaging and better battery chargers. Innvo is also planning on improving future Pleos, making better use of its camera and opening up a processing bottleneck so the robot companion can do more with its existing sensors.
One thing that hasn't change, yet, is the pricing. The adorable bot is still $349. Innvo will want to get to work on lowering that price if they don't want to Pleo to fade into extinction.
This November marks the fifth year of Wired magazine's annual pop-up store. The Wired Store offers many of the neat gadgets seen in the magazine, and, for the first time, it will feature a design collaboration with Moby (yes, that world-famous musician guy).
Located at 415 West 13th St. in New York City, the store will have more than 150 items on display, including TVs, laptops, cell phones, clothing, kids toys, and more. The Wired Store will also host regular events, like Geek Dad Saturdays, and Game Day Sundays, as well as wine tastings and chef demos in the WIRED Cafe.
There will also be a green
section curated by Adrian Grenier and Peter Glatzer of SHFT.COM, and a gaming section curated by non other than Tony Hawk.
The Wired Store will be open to the public from November 21, 2009 through
December 27, 2009. Visit the store's Web site for more information.
Who remembers when the original Rubik's Cube first became a global craze? Anyone? That was 1974, and according to Wikipedia, it still sells better than just about any other toy.
But this is the digital age, so techie toy maker TechnoSource decided it was time to make an electronic version of the diabolically challenging cube. Instead of physically twisting slices of the cube to try to turn each side all one color, you slide your finger along the top, and the colored lights make the move for you. You can also ask the Cube for hints, undo moves, and even get it to solve itself. Confused? Just watch the video.
The cube (along with its charging dock) is out now at some Best Buys; the official on-sale date is October 18th, so you have less than a week to save up the $150 you'll need to own one of these beauties.
Gaming is about to change--forever. One of the highlights of this year's newly rejuvenated E3 conference was a couple of motion-controlled gaming interfaces from Sony and Microsoft. Sony's prototype uses ice-cream-cone-like wands, with a special camera that puts you and your actions in the game. Microsoft's Project Natal also uses a special camera, but has dropped the controllers entirely. All you need is your body.
The videos and on-stage demonstrations from the event looked amazing. Still, I was skeptical,--until I got to try it for myself. The new gaming technology was honored as part last week's Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards, which meant Project Natal made a rare live appearance at the pre-and post awards ceremony festivities. I lined up along with a number of children and other event attendees for a few minutes with the still-in-development gaming control system.
If you're like some analyst firms (iSuppli, for one), you firmly believe that the e-reader will be the hit of the holiday season. Best Buy, apparently, believes it too.
The electronics retailer said Thursday that it will add a dedicated e-reader and gadgets section to its stores this holiday season, stocking more than 120 different products priced between $25 and $75. Brands will include Sony, Sharper Image, Leapfrog, and Rubik's Cube beginning Oct. 11. Of course, the Amazon Kindle won't make an appearance.
Highlighted products will include the Sony Reader Touch and the Irex DR800ESG, which Best Buy announced in September. Gadgets will include the Sharper Image line of gadgets, the LiveScribe Pulse pen computer, the Ambient Flurry alarm clock and Cirrus 7-Day weather forecaster, the Rubik's TouchCube, the Leapfrog Tag and Leapster 2, Tracksters online racing game, and Mattel's XTRACTAURS.
The so-called "rainbow effect," consisting of brief, distracting red, green, and blue flashes in a projected image, is the bane of some projectors using Texas Instruments' DLP (Digital Light Processing) technology combined with a color wheel. Our projectors Lead Analyst, M. David Stone, will note this effect and its severity in his reviews of projectors that suffer from it, and perhaps lower their rating because of it. But a projector that "throws" only rainbows--well, that's a beast of a different spectrum. Rainbow in My Room, from science-toy manufacturer Uncle Milton Industries, is a novelty item for kids of all ages--or at least those 5 and up, according to the manufacturer's guidelines. It
projects a rainbow on the wall and/or ceiling.
Rainbow in My Room is part of a toy series that also includes Robot
in My Room, Moon in My Room, and Solar System in my Room. It requires 3 AA
batteries, though an optional AC adapter is available. It is sold
through various e-tailers for prices as low as $21.10 (Amazon).
Shoppers seem to love it--it averages a 4-star rating in buyer reviews
in the sites I've checked. So although we'll continue to give the
"rainbow effect" a demerit when it appears in normal projectors, thanks
to Uncle Milton it appears to have a (dare I say) bright side.
Can you believe SpongeBob has been around for 10 years already? And every year, we see new toys based on the charming sea creature. This is Nickelodeon's SpongeBob ShakyPants from Jakks Pacific ($24.99, ages 6 and up). When you squeeze his nose or pull his tongue, he talks. When you shake him or turn him upside down, he vibrates like a... well, let's just say, he shakes quite a bit. It's a little disconcerting but lots of fun, rather like SpongeBob himself.
Over the past several years, the LEGO brand has grown into something approaching a cult, with fans creating some amazing projects (LEGOs in space, the Woniak/Jobs playset) and other companies incorporating the design-friendly bricks into sometimes surprising products (iPod speaker docks). PCMag even once commissioned a LEGO artist to build a PC.
Now CE-for-kids maker Digital Blue is coming out with some of the most appealing LEGO-inspired products I've seen, including a camera, videocam, MP3 player, and more. Yep, they're for kids--but I can think of more than a few grownup who'll crave one or another of these cool products. And yes--they're stackable!
The LEGO Digital Camera, above, sells for $49.99 list. It has 3 megapixels and a 1.5-inch LCD on the back; 128MB of built-in memory holds around 80 photos.
I visited an event earlier today called Time to Play, where I saw about 20 companies and their hot holiday toys. Spin-Master had this neat little RC car, the Air Hog Zero Gravity Laser, that not only can drive on walls and ceilings (using some kind of vacuum suction) but also navigates around by following a laser beam that you control.
Harold Chizick (VP, Communications at Spin-Master), who demoed in the video for me, insisted I am the only person who mentioned to him that cats do the same things. Thankfully, no litter-box or couch-clawing issues with the Air Hog. It's available now, for $39.99 list.
For some, rainy or snow days mean parking themselves on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea. For me, it means frantically looking for something to keep my active five-year-old from going stir-crazy. Leapfrog offers parents a solution with its newest toy, the LeapFrog Zippity Learning System ($79.99 list, ages 3 to 5). The device, which looks like the marriage of a Segway and a Dance Dance Revolution mat, is billed by LeapFrog as its new "high-energy learning system." But does it have the chops to keep my kindergartner interested and active?
The Zippity consists of an interactive mat connected to a large, er, stick controller (think: giant joystick) that LeapFrog calls the Bopper, and a wireless console that hooks up to the TV via the included AV cables. The mat has four raised, pressure-sensitive spots, with an orange spot (with two footprints in the middle), a green spot on the left, blue spot above the orange spot, and a green spot on the right. The spots also act as arrows keys to go up, down, left, and right. The bopper stands approximately 23.5 inches tall, and to the right of its base is a large button with a Home icon.
The tech toys coming out for the 2009 holidays are starting to arrive in our offices, and PCMag's Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff has a soft spot for automatons, so he couldn't wait to unpackage this kitty. The FurReal toys aren't quite robotic, exactly, but in some senses they mimic the real thing pretty well, with realistic (and cute) movements and sounds.
Lulu, My Cuddin' Kitty is one of the more lifelike of these furry tech toys we've seen--it even sheds, but no sneezing ensued. Check our our video of the unboxing, which also is a fine illustration of really annoying packaging. The toy will list for around $54.99 and ship sometime this fall; for ages 4 and up.
Because of a scheduling snafu, we missed the first segment of the TechCrunch50 conference on Monday. But we were in time for the "New Frontiers" segment, which included a couple of interesting hardware products.
Spawn Labs
has developed a so-called HD-720 platform that allows a PC user to log in to a game
console, such as a Microsoft Xbox 360, from a network-connected PC. As of now, Spawn only works with the Xbox 360.
To set up products, you'll need the Spawn HD-720 applicance, which connects to
a game console. A game cline tis needed for the PC. With a username and
password, the PC and the applicance connects, and the game can be
played in 720p resolutions. If bandwidth is limited, the video
resolution will degrade to maintain the frame rate.
The problem is latency: on a network it's 100 ms. The company knows
ways to get to 70 ms, playing across the Internet can add up to 50 ms.
It's Friday, and it's just about Halloween, which means you're probably sitting in your cubicle eating candy for lunch and looking at photos of 
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This November marks the fifth year of Wired magazine's annual pop-up store. The Wired Store offers many of the neat gadgets seen in the magazine, and, for the first time, it will feature a design collaboration with Moby (yes, that world-famous musician guy). 
For some, rainy or snow days mean parking themselves on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea. For me, it means frantically looking for something to keep my active five-year-old from going stir-crazy. Leapfrog offers parents a solution with its newest toy, the 
