The folks at Belkin have a knack for making ordinary desktop peripherals look stylish and it seems they've struck again, this time giving our trusty USB hub a Lego-like makeover. The daftly-named USB 7-Port Plus Hub (F5U307) gives you additional USB ports and can be stacked on top of another sammich style to create a delicious tower of USB goodness. It'll also help you avoid cable clutter (since you wouldn't need to interconnect the hubs). It's not quite the wireless USB hub of our dreams, but at $49 bucks it beats flying to Japan for the alternative. – Louis Ramirez
Belkin Cascading USB Hub Avoids Cable Mess [via Everything USB]
What do you get when you take 80,000 and divide it by the population of Japan? Apparently you get the percentage of people who want a PS3 and will actually get one without eBaying their house and selling a limb to the Yakuza. The PS3 is about to drop in Japan and people are massing around the stores in spite of signs telling them to go home because they've already sold out. Sony's ingenious plan to leave hoards of people unsatisfied starts now: the important question is, do those people have a PS3 or not? – Karson Thompson
It's not clear what game(s) will make use of this contraption, but our eagle-eyed brothers at Kotaku have spotted Taito's upcoming Wii controller for train sims. We can't imagine a train sim being all that exciting (unless it lets you operate a NYC subway), but looks-wise that is one cool controller. – Louis Ramirez
A Wii Controller For Train Freakazoids [via Kotaku]
This is what happens when you give a hippie a screwdriver, a budget and a directive to redesign your office. Konica Minolta claims this prototype bizhub mish-mash will increase productivity and decrease stress levels, but if I had to stare at a psychedelic coffee pot slash retro lamp slash printerscannerfaxmachine every day, I'd throw myself out a window. Is there actually a serious company out there that would consider this affront to eyesight a useful tool? This may fit in with the culture in Tommy Chong's paper supply firm, but this abomination can't be the wave of the future, can it? – Karson Thompson
From kotaku.com — I arrived home Thursday night to discover that Microsoft had sent me an HD-DVD player for the 360 along with a selection of movies. continue reading »
Here's a closer look at the premium Zune headphones and the magnetic remote that you can throw all up on your refrigerator door, yo. The remote has the same double glow (or whatever the kids are calling it these days) that the Zune itself has. The headphones have to be way better than the shit headphones we listened to tonight at the LA event. The headphones have windy carry case. Merchandising is the heart of the American Corporation.
According to Nintendo data, this is their track record of worldwide sales over the last four generations of consoles, and it isn't good. Obviously the GameCube hasn't done as well as Nintendo hoped, and handhelds make up a huge amount of Nintendo's marketshare, but who knew that their home console sales had declined so drastically?
Of course, maybe it doesn't matter how many units Nintendo sells if at the end of the day, their numbers are in the black. And I have a feeling the Wii will fair a little better. Predictions anyone? Hard numbers only! – Mark Wilson
We just got back from the LA Zune event, and like the NY Event we covered, we found out some interesting extra details. Unlike iTunes, with its draconian non-redownload policy, Microsoft's Zune Marketplace will let you re-download purchased songs up to five times (plus even more if you call up tech support). Apple has been known to let people download their purchased music library again—especially if your name is Wil Wheaton—but for the most part they recommend that you back up your music instead of rely on them to be your data repository.
This may be a small detail, but it's something that's nice to have if your hard drive ever gets corrupted. – Jason Chen
After this gentleman/Aquaman-wannabe found himself on his third Treo in a year from water damage, he took drastic measures to protect his phone from the rage of the sea. Ripping apart his son's lunch bag, he found the answer had been there all along. Rinsing peanut butter and jelly away with his child's tears, Alexander Rose "invented" the perfect waterproof Treo case.
Oh yeah, except that it requires you to hold your Treo through a freakin' plastic bag. – Mark Wilson
Apparently Russell Crow's new movie, A Good Year, features some cool technology to compliment the bad acting. Specifically, a Palm Treo (model unknown) plays a key role in the film. Here's what Fred Baron, a VP of 20th Century Fox, had to say about Russell's Treo:
"Every once in a while, there's a prop that helps define a character, and the Treo is his..."
Only a Palm Treo could inspire Crowe more than his standard jagged-glass-bottle-smashing-someone's-head-after-a-night-of-heavy-drinking prop.
Oh Russell Crow, we only make fun of you because it's the only way to show affection. And affection is the only way you won't beat us up, probably ruining a great gadget in the process...along with our extremely lower intestines. – Mark Wilson
Some of you may get the reference above and will not even need to read the following useless filler text. To those who haven't watched the complete series of Dragonball Z (yet), read below.
Volkswagon just opened a $38 million testing facility on Monday that can simulate the worst weather that green-loving bitch Mother Nature can throw at a car. Temperatures can range between -40 to 302 degrees F in conditions simulating direct sun exposure and humidity up to 95 percent saturation. What, no 100%? It doesn't rain? I can simulate that in my £100 shower! German engineering in the house, for real.
Other innovations include "upstream conditioning boxes", or modular storage units that allow VW to test up to 50 cars, twice a day. The place looks like a really nice storage rental facility. I wonder if they'll test my futon next. Hit the jump for more pictures.
I’ve never personally had the ‘office urge’ to golf. Beat a manager to death with a 3-iron yes, but the real thing eludes me still.
Apparently though the ‘urge’ exists but now, with the weather turning golf courses into lakes, it might be a while before you to do the real thing. In the meantime, you may want yet another novelty mouse, this one complete with mini-putting green.
This is the unsurprisingly named Golf Mouse Mat and Mouse. When you absolutely, positively can’t find any other stupid way to waste time at work, this could be for you. Comes with a wee hole, golf flag, mini putter and three balls.
May also make you the Saddest Man In The Office. Yours for £17.-Martin Lynch
The godfather of the video game industry, Atari-creator Nolan Bushnell, has taken sides with Microsoft and Nintendo in the next gen gaming console wars. In an interview with Red Herring, Bushnell went on record saying "Sony shot themselves in the foot" with regards to the PS3. Adding insult to injury, he also talked smack about the PS2 saying, "it wasn't anything brilliant that they did. With the PS and PS2 it was timing." The PS3 does face an uphill battle price-wise, but after seeing it in action, we certainly wouldn't call it a failure. What do you think folks, agree or disagree with Mr. Atari? – Louis Ramirez
Nothing ruins the day quite like finding an OUT OF ORDER sign tacked to the front of our favorite pinball machine. Here to put OUT OF ORDER signs out of business forever is the Ultra Pin (Global VR). Where old-school bumpers, ramps and bonus whirly things would normally be, the Ultra Pin has a 32-inch 16:9 high definition plasma monitor.
In other words, the entire game--right down to the silver ball--has been digitized. The machine plays six different pinball games, including classics like Attack From Mars, F-14 Tomcat, and Xenon. A Force Feedback System even allows bumpers and tilters (you know who you are) to bump and tilt all day long.
The tech world's two leading giants (the NYT's David Pogue and the WSJ's Walt Mossberg) have put Microsoft's new Zune in its place, giving the unborn player multiple kicks and jabs before proclaiming the iPod the better of the two.
Mossberg starts off liking the Zune, singing praises for its good interface which he thought was "easier to use than the iPod's." Ultimately, however, he thinks it has "too many compromises and missing features to be a good choice" running back to the comfort of his iPod. He also dings Microsoft's point-based buying system (we kinda agree with you on this one, Walt).
Pogue, on the other hand, starts his hatin' right off the bat, saying the Zune "can't touch the iPod's looks or coolness." He bashes the Zune for having copy protection that's "as strict as a 19th-century schoolmarm" and hates on the fact that you can't even use the Zune as an external drive.
In the end, the Zune didn't stand much of a chance against the Pogue/Mossberg tag team. See the messy results for yourself below. – Louis Ramirez
Ladies and gentlemen, today is a sad day for the television theft protection industry. The good people at Innovation Lab have removed our need for their services. Say goodbye to locking wall mounts, cable tethers and bolted rails, because in the world of tomorrow all our televisions will be made...of concrete!
How will they make televisions out of concrete, you ask? Put on your thinking caps, because here comes the science: magic! You were thinking something more along the lines of optical fibres being embedded in the concrete acting as pixels, but watch that video again--that's magic, folks. If a giant slab of concrete doesn't fit your home décor (I'm seeing an 'unfinished basement' theme), you'll just have to go anywhere in the outside world with large slabs of concrete and hope advertisers have placed one there for your viewing pleasure. Betting on that proposition begins now. – Karson Thompson
It looks like the bandwagon has officially commenced for the Nintendo Wii. Case in point, the Loop. A new ring-shaped remote control concept that'll be coming out sometime in 2007.
The Loop lets you use hand gestures and a scroll wheel to navigate through channels. So pointing and clicking on the movies tab will give you a grid of currently playing movie poster thumbnails to select from. Hillcrest Labs, creators of the Loop, have claimed that at least one undisclosed 'major manufacturer' has licensed their technology. Whatever that means *Cough* vaporware *Cough*.
Now I'm all for innovation, but when I'm on the couch I'm usually relaxing and scrolling around. The Loop just seems like it's creating solutions for problems that aren't there. The people out there that are having trouble using today's remotes are going to be scared shitless of a remote like this, even if it is touted as being more 'intuitive'.
But the greater question is, what do you guys think? Would you use a remote like the Loop? Or would you just pass it up for something like the Harmony?
Space-age Remote Coming in 2007 [CNet]
We're always getting lost, so the more in-car GPS systems we can choose from, the better. The Strada CN-NVD905U is Panasonic's first all-in-one system coupling a 7-inch touch-screen LCD with a generous 30GB hard drive and built-in DVD drive. It'll come pre-loaded with maps and also support Sirius Satellite Radio, letting Sirius subscribers get up-to-the-minute traffic reports. Pricing isn't available (the device isn't expected to ship till Spring 2007), but if we drove more often, we'd want this in our car. – Louis Ramirez
Panasonic Previews its First in-car Navigation System [via Electronista]
An amazing innovation in the software world today: ALIPR (Automatic Linguistic Indexing of Pictures) is a program that takes a look at digital images, applies some fancy math and then spits out a list of appropriate tags for the picture. It isn't perfect, but the designers claim it has a 98 percent accuracy rate. They've been letting it dig through Flickr and the software has matched at least one user-defined tag almost every time.
Try it out for yourself. The image above of a cat drinking a soft drink yielded the following fifteen results: man-made, texture, color, people, indoor, food, painting, royal_guard, fruit, feast, holiday, mural, cloth, abstract, guard. Not all words I'd choose to describe a thirsty kitty, but not bad for a bundle of electronics. – Karson Thompson
Silex's new WiDock connects to your wireless network to sync up your iPod sans cables. Why this hasn't been built into Apple's iPod dock already I can only guess, but thank God somebody is on the ball. It even supports security standards like WEP & WPA.
The dock, which can also be connected via Ethernet, has all the traditional features of an iPod dock like the ability to plug into a stereo/TV and charge your iPod while its docked. Hopefully the setup will be easy to use because I'm sick of looking for iPod cables, especially since Apple quit supporting FireWire and made a good portion of them obsolete. Or else the little dock that could, could end up loosing some of its charm. The WiDock works with all iPods with a dock connector and will run you £80 starting in December.– Ben Longo
A lesson in product naming conventions: your first generation should be something with no easily discernable relationship to the item, like Nabaztag, the ambient Wi-fi rabbit gizmo. Subsequent generations should further complicate the already mysterious name, like Nabaztag/tag, the older and wiser version of said rabbit.
You may remember our coverage a few weeks ago in which we discovered that people weren't exactly falling in love with Nabaztag. We would like to reconsider that notion and welcome our new long-eared overlords. The new bunny is equipped with smell detection, so it can detect individual scents (like fear) and take an appropriate action (going for your jugular). They've also removed the 45-second speech limit, so your lagomorphic companion can serenade you all day long. £100 for a soul-eating rabbit? That's a steal! – Karson Thompson
It appears Microsoft has struck a deal with Universal Music giving them a portion of the sales from every Zune they sell. This undermines the traditional strategy created by Apple where music labels received money from song downloads, and not player sales. Microsoft has also said that similar offers are on the table for other labels as well. Way to go.
I can see why they wanted to sweeten the pot just to make sure they got Universal onboard (Universal controls 1/3 of all music sold), but why did they need to try and make this standard procedure by offering it to the rest of the industry. Once again Microsoft kills the party for everyone else. – Ben Longo
We have a love/hate relationship with our Q. We love the phone itself, but hate the OS and horrible battery life. Yet our heart still skipped a beat when word got out that the Q Pro we had talked about earlier (codenamed Norman) had been caught vacationing in Hungary. The styling on the new phone is somewhat similar to the original (minus the new black coating). We also noticed the Pro version is missing the Q's scroll wheel which appears to have been replaced with what looks like volume buttons. The keypad also got flattened out (with extra shortcut keys sprinkled throughout) and the camera got bumped up from 1-megapixel to 2MP. We'll remain skeptical until we hear more, but click on for additional close ups.
If those 30-inch LCDs we showed you are too big of a stretch for your budget, Soyo's GoVideo Dual LCD line might be just what you need. The twins are all decked out with built-in speakers, 2,560x1,024 resolutions, and 8ms response times. But what's extra cool is that the displays can be turned so that both their derrieres face each other (this can come in handy if you want someone to see what you're doing without them breathing down your neck). The 17-inch GVLM1728 will go for £500 while its bigger 19-inch brother, the GVLM1928, will go for £650. Having a dual-monitor set up is addictive once you've tried it and at just under a grand, the GVLM1728 is a quick way to gain some extra screen real estate. Click through to see the monitors aligned back to back.
Gamers might be hopping from foot to foot waiting for their Christmas console but in the world of PC gaming, nothing will be bigger than the arrival of The Burning Crusade – the first add on to the obscenely successful online game, World Of Warcraft (WoW).
After recently crushing the Christmas hopes of night elves, dwarves, and orcs around the world, it has just been revealed that January 16 is the day when millions of gamers will fail to turn up for their jobs. Employers beware.
Even worse, I thought that ‘only’ 6 million players were on the WoW books but this has now been revised to a whopping 7.5 million. As a former, and recovering, WoW addict - yes, it is that addictive – I know how many of those people will be feeling. Read more here. -Martin Lynch
There are six days until the PS3 lands in the US – a paltry 400,000 units – and already the zombie queues have started to form.
They arrived on Monday – 11 days early - and while it looks like a small gathering of homeless people at the local supermarket, it is actually a group of far sadder and more unfortunate people: gamers on the edge. So far they have gotten little more than colds and derisive comments from other Best Buy shoppers.
My favourite: “Where is the line for PS4? Is it on the other side?”
There’s also no guarantee that they’ll get one. I like my gaming – a lot – but I wouldn’t camp out for a console. –Martin Lynch
If you still have some dough left over after splurging on the Serene, B&O will soon be offering an update to the Earset 1, the aptly named Earset 2. It's their first Bluetooth headset (welcome to 2006, guys) and it uses two omnidirectional mics to transmit better quality sound than your run-of-the-mill wireless headset. One thing we do like about the unit, it doesn't appear to have that flashing blue "mug-me" light that most Bluetooth headsets have. But light or no light, at $200 dollars, this is one headset we'll skip. – Louis Ramirez
Let me begin this week by paraphrasing the great customs inspector Herman Melville: Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth, whenever it is a damp and drizzly November in my soul, then I account it high time to get to 125th Street as soon as I can. For nothing puts a smile upon my face, nor sparks so many column ideas, as my travels among the ceaseless stores hawking camo coats, shea butter, faux alligator shoes, and, above all, really cheap electronics.
How cheap are we talking here? Well, I've waxed poetic before about 125th's plethora of Discmen knockoffs and shelf systems that resemble Voltron's constituent parts. But I think I discovered the strip's cake-taker this past Saturday: a store near Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard had a sidewalk bin filled with $9.99 RCA Lyra 128 MB MP3 players.
A low price, to be sure, but a real bargain? If you break it down logically, the answer is definitely "no way." But I can see what the store's proprietors were thinking: they're hoping the Bandwagon Effect will help 'em clear some inventory. A semi-coherent definition of said effect after the jump. PLUS: The Van Morrison lyrical debate heats up!
At Nintendo's secret North Bend facility...whoops...the elves are readying the willy Wiis for ship, along with copies of zelda. The creates are marked "DO NOT SELL BEFORE NOV. 19th" and signed Ganon. There are photos of the trucks being loaded up, too, so here they come, here comes the thing I want most this year.
More photos of the facilities, Zelda discs being put into their boxes, and millions of Wiis, after the jump.
We've seen all sorts of bras before, but this is the first we've come across that helps save the environment. Dubbed the No! Shopping Bag Bra, this lacy red undergarment has padded cups that when removed, transform into shopping bags that can be used to carry around your groceries, laundry, or other purchases and reduce the consumption of plastic bags in the process. We're not sure those lacy strings would be able to hold much, so ladies, you may want to carry around an extra bra just in case. But if you're interested, the bra is made by lingerie company Triumph Japan. Click through for a look at the bra in action.
Unless your DVR came with a memory card slot, your current season of House is probably stuck next to your TV. That's where the SV-1000 Mini VCR comes in. Equipped with slots for Pro Duo and Compactflash cards (adapters are available for other types), this little blue box lets you transfer anything you've recorded onto your mobile media for use on your cell phone, iPod or other portable video device.
Can your miniscule screen convey the ruggedness of Dr. House's picture-perfect stubble? Maybe not, but beggars don't get to be choosers. If you're desperate, you can also use the SV-1000 to turn your TV into an MP3 player or slideshow viewer. The $180 price tag is a bit steep for something you could probably do with a PC and a BitTorrent client, but if you have to watch your shows on the go, it may be worth it. – Karson Thompson
It may look like some sort of torture device for your PC, but Asus' Silent Knight is actually an all-copper cooler designed to keep your CPU from overheating. The cooler supports Intel's Core 2 Duo, Pentium D, and Pentium 4 family of processors as well as AMD's Athlon 64-FX and Sempron CPUs, which makes it a handy component for overclockers who like pushing their processors to the max. More medieval pics after the jump.
From kotaku.com — Pathetic. Truly pathetic. Japan's PS3 per-store allotments are rolling in, and they ain't enough to meet the demand in Saitama Prefecture, let alone the entire country. While America is getting 400,000 machines at launch, Japan has been shafted with a measly 80,000. continue reading »
Ever since we saw The Serpent and the Rainbow as a little kid, we've had this unnatural fear of being buried alive. Well, a Russian inventor by the name of Vitaly Malyukov must have watched the same movie cause he's designed a casket with a built-in panic button that lets you contact the living in case your quack of a doctor accidentally pronounced you dead. Pushing the panic button (which glows in the dark) alerts the cemetery caretaker who can then dig you back up (after they return from their lunch break, of course). So in the end you'll wind up dead one way or another. No word on pricing or availability. – Louis Ramirez
Golf: the sport-like activity of high style. If the goofy pants and awkward hip-shuffling movements aren't enough for you, consider handicapping your game with the new Segway x2 Golf edition. The low-impact turf tires will keep your divot count respectable while speeding up your game and helping you get back to work earlier. Wait a second, who designed this horrible thing?
The x2 Golf comes with carriers for your golf bag and score card so you're always prepared. No official pricing on the web, but the original x2 debuted in August at $5,500. That's a minimal fee compared to what you paid for your license to kill gophers from the government of the United Nations. – Karson Thompson
We're still days away from the official launch date, but the folks at GameStop are showing off their online Wii bundle for the lucky few who'll get to snag one come the 19th. The $694-dollar package will get you 6 games (Zelda: Twilight Princess, Trauma Center, Red Steel, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, etc), a 1GB SD Wii memory card, a second Wii controller, the console, and Wii Sports. It's not a bad deal in the long run, that is, if you pre-ordered on time. – Louis Ramirez
From kotaku.com — Those lucky few able to get a PS3 in Japan on launch day will have a pleasant surprise when that get that panini maker out of the box: A firmware update. continue reading »
from jalopnik.com — A new braking system set to arrive in two years could dramatically improve the time (and distance) it takes to not go. It's the electronic wedge brake (EWB), and it could heighten cars' stopping power significantly. continue reading »
Looks-wise, Griffin's new iPod speakers are impressive. On one hand you have the Amplifi, which reminds us of the SpeckTone dock if Darth Vader were to design one. The $150 AmpliFi has two 2.75-inch speakers along with a 5-inch subwoofer and an auxiliary input for hooking up other players. For those who like taking their iPod on the road, there's the $130 Voyager, Griffin's first rugged iPod speaker dock which is enclosed in a removable suit of rubber. It's got built-in speakers as well and like the AmpliFi runs off a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. We're siding with the AmpliFi cause we're superficial like that, but you should be able to pick up both speakers by early next year. Click through for a look at the Voyager.
Helio's Drift, which we wrote about awhile back, has just gone official. What makes this phone special is that it ships with google maps, as well as an integrated GPS module. Cool, but cooler is that it adds dodgeball-like meat space social networking with its Buddy Beacon. Flip it on, and friend with the same phone can see where you are on the map. You can use buddy beacon to theoretically signal them by sms to turn on their beacons, too. I say theoretically because I don't know a single person who actually owns a Helio phone yet. Too bad—innovation should be rewarded. Anyhow, the phone has a 2.12 inch screen, stereo Bluetooth, 128MB and a microSD slot, a 2MP camera Anyhow, all that location based wonderfulness means that the Drift could be the GPS phone ever, especially in the attractive at $225. Available in gunmetal black and frost white.
From 
I’ve never personally had the ‘office urge’ to golf. Beat a manager to death with a 3-iron yes, but the real thing eludes me still. 
Gamers might be hopping from foot to foot waiting for their Christmas console but in the world of PC gaming, nothing will be bigger than the arrival of The Burning Crusade – the first add on to the obscenely successful online game, World Of Warcraft (WoW). 
There are six days until the PS3 lands in the US – a paltry 400,000 units – and already the zombie queues have started to form. 
If you still have some dough left over after splurging on the 
By Brendan I. Koerner
From 
Ever since we saw The Serpent and the Rainbow as a little kid, we've had this unnatural fear of being buried alive. Well, a Russian inventor by the name of Vitaly Malyukov must have watched the same movie cause he's designed a casket with a built-in panic button that lets you contact the living in case your quack of a doctor accidentally pronounced you dead. Pushing the panic button (which glows in the dark) alerts the cemetery caretaker who can then dig you back up (after they return from their lunch break, of course). So in the end you'll wind up dead one way or another. No word on pricing or availability. 
We're still days away from the official launch date, but the folks at GameStop are showing off their online Wii bundle for the lucky few who'll get to snag one come the 19th. The $694-dollar package will get you 6 games (Zelda: Twilight Princess, Trauma Center, Red Steel, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, etc), a 1GB SD Wii memory card, a second Wii controller, the console, and Wii Sports. It's not a bad deal in the long run, that is, if you 
From 
from 
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
