Did somebody say bandwagon? With the release of the Xbox 360 and the option of customizable faceplates, it seems Karl Lagerfeld has jumped the couch with these fancy, yet compelling faceplates for the Xbox 360. Along with Lagerfeld’s designs, other top designers in Paris have been commissioned to give their twist to this geeky artform including Chanel, Sonia Rykiels, Andree Putman, Irina Volkonski and DJ Pedro Winter. No word if Mugatu gets a shot. The units are on display at Colette through this Sunday and then will be available for purchase for $400 and up. [Thanks, Karson]
The Kaiser’s Xbox [Men.Style]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90620
Now’s here’s a great gift idea for that special person in your life. From the folks at Banana Design Lab comes My Beating Heart. This wholesome-looking heart resembles all the stuffed animals you’ve ever had, but with one small difference: the heart beats. Yes, so now on those cold winter nights you can hold the heart close to your body to not only keep you warm and comfortable, but to remind you of what it’s like to be holding someone’s heart. It comes in a whole bunch of styles and colors, as well as adorable names, such as “turtle dove” and “sweet pea.”
My Beating Heart [My Beating Heart]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90619
You ever wanted to take a nice, big paintball gun and really give it your boss or supervisor? Or maybe splatter a little pellet of paint at some women wearing only their delicates? Today’s your lucky day! Live-Paintball.com lets you remotely control a paintball gun, letting you shoot people dressed up in whatever costumes you desire! So the fantasy about giving your Mr. Grinch-of-a-boss a little extra makeup via a projectile of paint can finally come true. What effect this has on the real life paintball industry remains to be seen.
Hunt Women Online With Paintball Guns [Kotaku]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90618
The Intelliscanner Kitchen Companion is a Bluetooth enabled device that scans barcodes to keep inventory of your kitchen. It is powered by a database containing more than 300,000 barcodes of various grocery products. All you have to do is scan you products in as you get them and out as you stuff them in your face and the Intelliscanner’s database will know when you are running low on products. Then it can send a grocery list to a variety of different devices such as PDAs, iPods, cell phones, etc. All of this worthlessness can be yours for $279 for the Bluetooth model or $179 for the USB model. Would anybody actually use this?
Kitchen Companion 100 announced [MacMinute]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90617
Why would you ever want normal lamps again when you can have the TwistTogether Lamp from Glide? The lamps look like 1950s TV sets and illuminate your room with internal LEDs. They can be stacked upon each other, stuck in corners, and probably will cook your dinner if so asked. They’re easily the best looking lamps out there, and would be a perfect way to augment your high-tech entertainment room.
TwistTogether Lamp [Cool Hunting]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90616
To be honest, I don’t know which I’m more sick of hearing about, Podcasts or Bird Flu. But I guess the editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary didn’t want to be alarmist this year and decided to go with “Podcast” as the Word of the Year. Along with Bird Flu, the other runner up was IED (improvised explosive device). Fun.
Podcast is 2005 Word of the Year [vnunet.com]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90615
Admit it, you can’t match for shit. It’s ok, it seems you’re not alone. So to help the colour blind (or fashion unconscious) out there, a couple of students at Keio University have invented a scarf woven with optical fibers that can somehow figure out what colour you’re wearing, then trigger LEDs which will light up your scarf to match. Fascinating really. And as a side note, those same crazy students have also come up with a shirt that will change colour according to your body temperature. Happy holidays to all!!
LED scarf colour coordinates with suit [The Inquirer]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90614
How many times has your pet gotten lost and you became sick with worry? Tons? Then I’m calling the ASPCA. But if you worry about your pet getting lost, why not equip your doggy or kitty with the PetCell? PetCell is a cellphone specifically designed for pets that comes with its own dedicated phone number. You can call the number, enter a code, and connect to your mutt to talk to him/her. The PetCell also features GPS for tracking your pooch and will support a wireless camera for checking in on him. It’s also water, slobber, and stain resistant so you need not worry about what your dog might do to it. The PetCell will be available in early 2006 for between £175-£230.
Fido’s First Cell Phone [Wired]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90613
Reader Josh dropped us a note about the PXR-5 watch which is now available in the US from Charles & Marie. When it was announced a while back we had an eye on it and now we can be the proud owners of a sexy £45 digital timepiece that looks like a caribiner on growth hormones.
Product Page [CharlesandMarie]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90612
We try and try to keep ignoring MiniDisc. We really do. But it just keeps coming back to life right when we think it might be dead. This time around it’s going to be a bit harder with these JVC XM-C37 players because the battery life is absolutely insane. With a full charge, you’ll be able to get 305 hours out of the battery. That’s 12.7 days of uninterrupted MiniDisc action. Don’t have that much time and still want your tunes? A 20-minute charge nets you 15 hours of battery life. Looks like the only way MiniDisc can compete in an MP3-dominated market is to showcase its absolutely nutty battery life.
MD Player with 305 hours of battery life [Akihabara]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90611
The iGo brand is old news, but this recent addition of Mobility Electronics’ iGo everywhere130 AC/DV power adapter is pretty darn sweet. Instead of carrying around all kinds of adapter tips that would fit into different products with the older iGo products, this is all-in-one and promises to charge all your mobile devices, be they phones, laptops, MP3 players or digital cameras. Using a “power tip,” the everywhere130 works with AC and DC power, and your electronics can be charged literally anywhere. Which means you can easily watch the whole first season of 24 on the plane without any battery failures. Plus, it comes with a DualPower Accessory so users can charge a high power and low power device simultaneously.
Mobility Electronics Universal Power Adapter [Bios Magazine]
Options and pricing for iGo adapters [Amazon]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90610
The tiny MediaLounge DSM-120 Wireless Music Player uses 802.11b/g wireless or a wired network to stream your whole PC-based music library to another computer or any hi-fi speakers. For easy listening when your computer’s off, just attach a USB flash drive or USB hard disk drive to the DSM-120 and play music directly from the external drive or do some tinkering and install a 2.5-inch internal hard disk drive that will let you use bundled D-Link Media Server Software and a utility to transfer your tunes from the computer, or use the One Touch Copy feature to do the same from a USB drive. Whew. That was a lot of stuff.
It includes all the standard audio-outs including optical and supports Windows Media Connect and Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM-10) that allow streaming copy-protected WMA-based music. Oh, and don’t forget the alarm clock and sleep timer thrown in for good measure.
D-Link MediaLounge Wireless Music Player [Bios Magazine]
Specs and pricing for more D-Link wireless music players [Shopping.com]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90609
LG is coming out with their 42LP1DR TV soon. The model number may not be that big of a deal, but the features set is make me wiggle. The 42” HD-ready TV will feature a 160GB hard drive built-in for recording your shows and movies. This is great because it allows you to ditch the PVR box and keep your living room (or bathroom, if you’re that cool) looking streamlined uncluttered. The TV can do 13 hours of HD recording, 63 hours of SD recording, and you can even pull in pics through the built-in 9 in 1 card reader. This of course means you can do the photo viewing, movie viewing, MP3 playing, etc. through the same TV interface. Keep an eye out for this hot number from LG as no pricing or release date is set.
LG 42LP1DR 42” LCD TV with 160 GB Hard Drive [New Launches]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90608
Oops! After all that hype about a Dec 8 unveiling, looks like Creative’s big product launch was undermined by Japan, where the Zen Vision:M was unearthed a day before it’s London debut. The product, which is a bit of a mouthful, if you please, is indeed green and white (though it also comes in black and white as well as all white), has a 30GB hard drive, a 320x240 pixel, 2.5-inch screen with and plays MP3 and WMA-DRM audio files. But, as you may have guessed, it also plays 4 hours of video (or image playback) in MPEG-1/2/4, WMV, Motion JPEG, DivX 4/5 and Xvid formats. Sure, it’s a shot at the Video iPod—it is twice as thick—but unlike Apple’s offerring it’s got an FM tuner and voice recorder tucked in for good luck. Not a bad little product if you ask me, though maybe the interface does look a little familiar…
So here’s our question: Why did you buy a portable video player, if you did at all? Poll after the jump.
News of Creative ZEN VISION:M 30GB [Creative]
[MORE]
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Internet Week 2005 started yesterday in Tokyo, and this Linux phone was one of the first things unveiled. It is built on Windows CE with an additional Linux bootloader, if that makes any sense to you. The phone also runs Mozilla for web access and can access Google Maps (although I suppose lots of phones can technically do that). It was developed by Tokyo University.
Impress
[Thanks to Sven Kilian, CScout Trendconsultancy Japan for the latest news updates from Japan.]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90606
A new display set up at Tokyo station makes interesting use of e-paper. Six A4 sheets of e-paper are on show for commuters in a snazzy transparent blue housing — allowing you to see how thin the e-paper is. The sheets of e-paper are being fed with the latest news stories via a wireless internet connection and are updated with new content every 5 minutes. Rather cool, although to the casual observer (read: soulless, speed-walking salaryman zombie that make up most of Tokyo station’s commuters) it will simply look like someone has gone to extraordinary lengths to frame today’s weather report.
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90605
Do you like spiders? Or is the closest relationship you've ever had to one included a shoe and rolled up newspaper? The worse part is when the spider, in a stroke of genius, acts like he's perfectly dead after you've whacked him, only to miraculously spring to life and scuttle somewhere in such a nook that you'll never be able to reach him.
But maybe now you can have more luck with catching the thing and getting rid of it as you see fit. The spider catcher can let you pick up the spider from a safe distance, and then you can dispose your little friend however you choose. You can do the humane thing and drop him outside, or be vindictive and throw him down someone's shirt. The poor innocent spider will never even see it coming. Which is odd, surely, considering all the eyes they have.
Be spiderless for £9.99, and catch (hee hee) it here.
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90604
Games are gonna get speedier with Hynix Semiconductor’s double data rate 4 memory chip, being aimed mainly at consoles and PC graphics cards. The recently announced 512-megabit density GDDR4 chips are high-bandwidth DRAM, which the company claims will be able to process heavy volumes of gaming and video images a hell of a lot quicker than the chips you’ve got working in your PC right now. It also says data processing speed will be close to twice as fast as the GDDR3 chips being currently used. The GDDR4 chips will operate at 2.9 gigabits per second and can process 11.6GB of data in one second. Wow. Look for mass production of the chip by first quarter 2006 and by mid next year, look for an improved speed of 14.4GB.
New 512-megabit GDDR4 chips push video images to new speeds. [PC World]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90603
The one thing hindering my mobile phone usage is the inability to charge it via USB or Firewire. Yeah, I could buy one of these at one of those cellphone-crap mall kiosks, but why not just do it myself? Call me anal retentive, but I’d rather have everything just plugged into my computer charging for a nice unified work environment, which also would make it easier for travel. Here is a quick and extremely simple tutorial on making your own USB charger for Nokia phones. Neat stuff, Raphael. How about doing one for Motorola?
Tutorial Page [Via Make]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90602
It ain’t pretty and some design fascist at Apple is probably spewing latte all over his cute Mac Mini at the sight of this DIY iPod accessory, but, I love it. I haven’t a clue how he did it – even after reading it -, but that doesn’t stop me admiring the fiery Geek spirit. If you ride a bike and wear an iPod, then listen up. This guy has built an iPod charger for those on the move. The Bicycle iPod Charger may be ugly as sin but it works. Built from cobbled together lengths of wire, old batteries and unwanted bits of children, uber-Geek Mark Hoekstra has made a useful iPod accessory before Griffin or Belkin. Not impossible, after all. If you have the time and knowledge, then go here for the details and the pics of how to make cycling almost worthwhile.
ipod Music DIY
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90601
Now that we all have mad terrorist bombers living next door, it’s time to do our bit for national security. No need for guns or torture planes here. No Sir! I propose a stealth method of data collection using the latest in hi-tech surveillance equipment from well-known supplier to the US Army: Wal-Mart. The Estes XB 39 is a remote controlled plane that not only stays aloft, but takes aerial photos while buzzing around. The £75 plane, which is 34ins long and has a 55in wingspan, comes with a digital camera that will let you take 26 aerial shots of your dodgy neighbour. The camera can then be detached, assuming you don’t fluff the landing and plow into the side of your house, and the pics downloaded onto a PC via USB. Warning: using this device to spy on scantily clad, sunbathing neighbours would be considered a gross misuse of government property. Via Gadgetmadness
gadgets geek technology
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90600
This mockup of an Apple iPhone was conceived by Isamu Sanada, a Japanese graphic designer and Mac fan. But hell, if you ask me, it looks like a 2-year-old could snap this thing in half and use it as cymbals. Sure, it’s sleek, but I’m kind of tired of using that as a constant adjective for all Apple products. The buttons look hard to push, being somewhat indented, and does it really use bendy plastic? To me, that means it’s either impossible to open and close or so easy that it would break off within weeks. Anyhow, it’s an interesting try, and anything’s better than the ROKR…
iPhone R04 [Applele.com]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90599
You know it’s ugly out there when these pictures count for big news. These particular blurry re-pros are from a flyer that will be distributed at the Creative Festival Sales in Singapore, December 9-11, showing a “hip” guy messing with a green and white player that may (or may not) be the already-reported Creative digital audio player. Look closely in the background and you can see a jukebox, speakers, AV devices, drum sets, a TV and video players. Stare for a long, long time and you might even have a flashback. And who knows, maybe the device itself will feature a blurry, soft-edge design. Just two more days ‘til the December 8th launch.
Could THIS be the NEW Creative Media Player? [Stuck on fish]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90598
Except on a full moon, that is. Meet the latest from the ‘Here be Monsters’ toy range. Yes, it’s a tree chopping, check-shirted lumberjack that turns into a werewolf. Obvious really, when you think about it (under the influence of many mind altering substances). Don’t ask me why it works, but it just does. Just reach inside the lumberjack and pull it inside out to reveal his inner wolf. Now, there are those that would point out the Little Red Riding Hood connection (woodcutter and wolf) in a modern context of the woodcutter being both hero and villain. Or, it could just be a reversible cuddly toy. With fangs. This cross-genetic mix - or Transforming Werewolf Plush - will cost you about £15.
toys gifts
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90597
Freeline Skates are quite the interesting hybrid. Take a skateboard, snap it in half, make the halves into skates, and you’ve pretty much got the idea. The skates allow you to move in a way that is a cross between skating and rollerblading. You stand on them like a skateboard, yet move your legs like you’re rollerblading. You need to watch this video to do the freeline skates justice. The skates were created by a skateboarder who was bored with other forms of skating and boarding and wanted something new. Don’t expect to be doing insane tricks, though. The skates go for $129 and Band-Aids aren’t included.
Product Page
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90596
After much chatter and anticipation, Panasonic has finally started production of dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray discs. Ok, so actually, they’re calling it a “pilot production”—but hell, if something gets made and they can call it rabbit hunting I’m fine as long as it’s in high def. This tech miracle is taking place at the Japanese company’s Torrence, CA-based factory and is really the first attempt by any manufacturer to drum up a dual-layer Blu-ray disc.
Panasonic Begins 50GB Blu-ray Disc Production [Trusted Reviews]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90595
All About Symbian is featuring a full hands-on preview of the Nokia E61 smartphone. This is rocking all of the standard bells and whistles of smartphones: Wi-Fi, SPRS, 3G connectivity, mini-SD expansion, and IR. The screen is an average 240x320 and the keyboard is a bit on the small side. Best of all this runs a very snazzy Symbian OS 9.1 that will have tons of room for softwarey goodness. Check it out come Q2 of 2006.
Nokia E61 Preview: The Crackberry generation [All About Symbian]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90594
This is by no means in production, going into production, or being developed, but it’s a big concept and we like it! The Ecocycle is a hybrid utility vehicle that starts off as a garbage truck with recycling capability. Then it can convert to either an ambulance or a fire truck. No, it’s not a toy for the kids, but an actual vehicle that extends the meaning of the term “hybrid” beyond the engine. This truck can also be parked via remote control and turns easily due to its tall and thin design. The Ecocycle won the 2004 Hungarian Design Award and Mercedes-Benz had something to do with it. I just hope if this thing ever picks me up to drive me to the hospital, they double check to make sure my IV isn’t connected to an old TV dinner someone threw out.
The Ecocycle [The Cool Hunter]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90593
Looks like someone has been playing “A Boy and his Blob” for Nintendo a little too much. This speaker was designed by David Ellis for Kitty EX in Japan and looks like the result of a sexual union between Hello Kitty and a deformed marshmallow. Either way, the speaker is tuned more for fashion than audio, so don’t expect any B&O quality stuff here. Still want one? Go beg Mr. Ellis for one because these are not for sale!
Kitty Speaker [cNet Asia]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90592
This is the HS-RSS, a concept for cellphone photo printing. Add one of those telephoto lenses and you’re a 2-megapixel Ansel Adams. Seriously, though, let’s say we start getting cellphones that take pictures worth looking at (image stabilization would help). Would you print photos from a cameraphone?
Too cool for your phone [Gadget Madness]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90591
Made by Winzz, the iFace takes after the hugely popular changeable faceplate movement which started with cellphones back in the day. (Admit it, you had your huge Nokia phone with the butterfly faceplate that you used to play snake on.) iFace costs $25 for the initial black case which isn’t too bad for a decent case. But wait. You’ll need to start buying faceplates for the iFace! Ok, well, how much, you ask? $20 a pop. Yes. A new faceplate will cost you almost another case. Sorry Winzz, cool idea, but give us $5 faceplates if you expect us to get sucked in.
iFace interchangeable iPod cases announced [iLounge]
Trackback: http://blogs.vnunet.com/app/trackback/90590
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
