Peter Griffin said it best. Every guy has an inner thing that senses when someone touches the thermostat. Come on, someone has to know the Family Guy episode I'm talking about. If your thing happens to be on the fritz—this is where the HOBO U10 comes in. It is a wireless temperature monitor. Place it anywhere in the house and it will communicate wireless with your computer displaying the current temperature. The included software will also create time lapsed graphs about the heating/cooling situation in your house so you can be the most energy-efficient anal-retentive dad on the block. $79. – Travis Hudson
Update: I got so excited I realized it doesn't even monitor temperatures wirelessly. It will monitor temperature activity, then you can plug it directly into the computer to view the data and adjust your temperature settings for better energy efficiency. Damnit, I'm stupid. Thanks, Knave77 for putting me in my place.
We first told you about the Samsung GX-10 DSLR a couple months ago, but since then Samsung has created this nice preview video of the camera. It highlights some of the features of the GX-10 including a demonstration of the dust shaker-off'er thing.
For a refresher, the GX-10 has a 10.2-megapixel CCD sensor, 2.5-inch display, water-resistant casing and can shoot photos up to ISO 1600. – Travis Hudson
It may not be as sophisticated as Samsung's sentry, but for a backyard DIY project this robotic guardian is damn impressive. It's got built-in night vision and can track and shoot its targets in the heart. It doesn't look like it can do a full 360, but it's still pretty fast. Bonus video after the jump.
Aven performed a little convergence by simply plopping microscope lenses on a point-and-shoot digital camera. This digital camera has the ability to take pictures at magnification up to 150x. Aven suggests that the iLoupe was designed for professional fields such as forensics, but it could really be used by anyone that has a passion for taking pictures of extreme small things (insert penis joke here).
Aven seems to have partnered with Canon on this product because the microscopic lenses are attached to a Powershot SD600. – Travis Hudson
Just in time for the cold and blistery winter season comes this device from Thanko. It is quite possibly the weirdest looking mousepad out, but it gets the job done, so I'm not complaining. This fish-looking sleeping bag will ensure your hand stays nice and warm while mousing at the computer. Oh, you crazy Thanko. What will you think of next? – Travis Hudson
Researchers at MIT are working on a way to charge your gadgets via electromagnetic waves. Electromagnetic radiation is usually found in things like radio antennas, but by tunneling the energy from one copper antenna to another (which would be connected to your laptop), researchers have found out that it's possible to recharge devices. The process is still in its early stages, but anything to eliminate the huge chunk of cables under our desk gets our vote. – Louis Ramirez
When not busy looking for "if it bleeds, it leads" stories to report on, CNN sometimes fills its airtime with cute little tech reviews. This week, they (well, The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin) looked at the Microsoft Zune. We already know that our very own Jason Chen has testified, under pain of death, that the Zune is pretty good (then again, he puts next-gen game consoles down his pants...), but our friends at CNN seem to disagree.
The review starts off positively enough, but then the anchors weigh in with their valuable opinions. Watch as Soledad O'Brien whips out an iPod shuffle for seemingly no reason; marvel as Miles O'Brien demand that Microsoft hire better design guys. Overall, an extraordinarily in-depth review.
There, someone who doesn't think that the Zune is the Savior of Man. – Nicholas Deleon
Who hasn't wasted hours of their life trying to solve a Rubik's Cube? An online service is now offering to put any picture (I see no rules against racy photos) on a Rubik's Cube for your enjoyment. The pictures need to be at least 300 dpi in size with a recommended resolution of 900x1500 pixels. Then, after a short wait, you get your personalized Rubik's Cube delivered right to your door, initiating the long battle of trying to put Grandma back together again.
A simple concept to be sure, but think of all the revenge opportunities presented by this Cube. Why not give one to one of your co-workers whom you hate with a picture of him/her cheating on their spouse? The possibilities are pretty much endless here. – Nicholas Deleon
Buffalo's got this mouse, right, and you can use it both on your desk an in the air. Given the easy-to-remember name of BOMU-W24A/BL, the mouse makes use of gyroscopic witchcraft to let users flail the mouse in the air. The software that powers the mouse is only available for Windows, so Steve Jobs will have to find another method to control his exciting presentations. It should hit Japanese stores later this month for the not outrageous at all price of about $175.
So, $175 for a mouse... Ok, being able to use it in mid-air is a neat trick, but a trick worth that many dead presidents and/or switching to Windows for? I'd be hard-pressed to say "yes," I think. – Nicholas Deleon
Hong Kong-based Helpdezk wants your headphones to look as cool as you do, which might explain their !Tude headphones. (They could also just want your money, though.) The headphones are electroluminescent, that is, they light up in one of several colors in response to music being played. The two AA batteries should power the headphone for 10 heart-stopping hours of fun, as you can see in this wonderfully directed video. Look closely and you can see the headphones light up, turn off, then light up again! Silly, yes, but could prove useful for our zero-second attention span youth. – Nicholas Deleon
The bundled headphones with many portable music players are little more than molded plastic with all the fidelity quality of two cats in bag.
Most of you already know this. This is why headphone specialist Sennheiser is hoping to tempt you into the world of better audio with the Street range of headphones.
There are seven to choose from and the prices are unusually pocket-friendly, ranging from £10-£25. Some even come with their own designer pants.
For full details, check out the range PDF here.-Martin Lynch
I like monster PCs, mostly because my medium-fast PC of two years ago is now quite geriatric (5 minutes for a complete boot-up) and is making some worrisome noises.
Evesham is hoping to prise your wallets wide open this Christmas with the launch of the Solar Quattro GTX. Powered by an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 processor and boasting a spanking hot nVidia GeForce 8800GTX card from LeadTek, this PC is built for speed. Support for DirectX 10 (in Vista) and next-gen uber-games is great too, but there are none of those yet. Still, it’s nice to know you’ll be ready.
Others specs include the nice Cooler Master chassis, 2GB of DDR 2 Dram, a 500GB HDD, 22in widescreen display, Creative X-Fi Xtreme Fatal1ty sound card and Gigaworks ProGamer G500 5.1 speakers, and wireless keyboard and mouse. It comes with XP but you will get a free upgrade to Vista come January.
All you need is to love yourself more than your family and £2,800. -Martin Lynch
We have all had data disasters. My oddest was dropping - accidentally - my USB stick into a pint of lager. The USB stick died a sticky wet death but the beer survived and still tasted great.
However, if you want a real laugh at the most bizarre data loss and recovery stories from 2006, jump now, to read what recovery software specialist OnTrack has been dealing with. The tone is a bit twee, but some of the stories are good.
Hell, send in your own stories of data death and we may, if we get enough good ones, stick up a Gizmodo Readers list of IT disasters.-Martin Lynch
Apple announced that six major airlines will begin offering iPod compatible seats beginning in mid-2007. Those airlines include Air France, Continental, Delta, Emirates, KLM and United. iPod compatible seats is a fancy way of saying iPod docks on the seats. These docks will have the ability to power and charge the iPod along with streaming video to a seat-back display for easier viewing.
So what does this mean for the passenger? Well, first and foremost, a more enjoyable flying experience. Even though there is a kid behind you kicking your chair and a toddler screaming a few rows up, you can sit happy and content watching your iPod knowing it won't run out of batteries. A-OK with me, as long as it doesn't increase the price of an airline ticket from an arm, to an arm and a leg. – Travis Hudson
This is kind of a no-duh thing, but we were kind of worried that all the pre-loaded content that Microsoft put on the Zune (music, music videos) were going to get wiped out when you synced up the Zune to your library. After all, when you first plug the device in you get a message that asks if you want to "Sync with your library on this PC. Remove all the content on your Zune and replace it with the content in this library instead."
Good news for everyone, because all the pre-loaded content stays on the device even after a sync. The bad news? You can't sync the music and videos onto your computer. So you're stuck watching Brittany Murphy cross and uncross her legs in Oakenfold's video solely on your Zune. Darn. – Jason Chen
In today's music climate where something called "hip hop" is the regnant genre, dance fans may feel a little left out. That's why they need to man up and check out the Torq MixLab from M-Audio, a mini DJ mixing studio kit perfect for aspiring Tiestos, Above & Beyonds and ATBs. (The kit includes the X-Session Pro and Torq LE software). Compatible with both PCs and Macs, the Torq MixLab lets you slice and dice all the songs in your digital music library. The software supports two simultaneous song importations, so it's totally conceivable to mix and match "Can't Sleep" with "Tracking Treasure Down."
No word on how much this complete DJ kit will run you, but you can safely assume that it's aimed at DJ wannabes rather than seasoned pros. These devices have always been somewhat clunky in the past, but by the looks of it, M-Audio has made it pretty bulletproof. – Nicholas Deleon
Update: I've just been informed by an M-Audio mole that the Torq MixLab will hit the streets at $99, which is only about double the price of the entrance fee to most dance clubs 'round here.
Peter Griffin said it best. Every guy has an inner thing that senses when someone touches the thermostat. Come on, someone has to know the Family Guy episode I'm talking about. If your thing happens to be on the fritz—this is where the HOBO U10 comes in. 
This is kind of a no-duh thing, but we were kind of worried that all the pre-loaded content that Microsoft put on the Zune (music, music videos) were going to get wiped out when you synced up the Zune to your library. After all, when you first plug the device in you get a message that asks if you want to "Sync with your library on this PC. Remove all the content on your Zune and replace it with the content in this library instead."
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
