Japanese beer tastes like a whiff of spring air + soft tender boobies + alcohol, yet is more manly than Busch Light will ever be. But if you prefer to be locked up in your room playing with gadgets than getting a pint at a yakuza-run bar, then get a Japanese beer cell phone strap. It earns you the same street cred without having to drink a single drop. –Lisa Katayama
Refreshing Japanese beer cell phone strap [Tokyo Mango]
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A German firm has developed a spray-on condom for all your lifestyle needs. The liquid condom comes in an aerosol can that you spray onto the organ in question. A few seconds later, the liquid solidifies into the familiar latex and forms a tight seal. The company says it's a great time saver and is easier to use than traditional condoms. It's still in the testing phase (in fact, they're looking for volunteers right now) so it might be a while before it hits the neighborhood drug store. Now there's no "but I hate putting it on" excuses. And anything that promotes safety and responsibility is A-OK in our books (usually). – Nicholas Deleon
Product Page (in German) [Vinico]
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Sad news for GameBoy fans with word that Reggie Fils-Aime expects this to be the last holiday season for the portable game system. He said that he expects young gamers to make the transition to the DS in the coming year. GameBoy, we hardly knew ye.
That doesn't mean that video game publishers will stop supporting the system, however, but it does mean that Nintendo is telling them to get with the program and make some dual screen action post haste. Thankfully, the DS is pretty fantastic in its own right. – Nicholas Deleon
Nintendo sees at least one more Game Boy holiday [Reuters via CrunchGear]
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Over in Japan, Ranut is releasing a line of Disney-themed portable music players built around 256MB of flash memory. Granted, 256MB can effectively be rounded down to 0MB for most of us here, but your kids might still get a kick out of it. Other than being branded with familiar Disney characters like Minnie Mouse, it's pretty much a bare-bones, by-the-numbers MP3 player. Oh, and supposedly it only works with Windows. Looks like a winner for sure.
In this iPod and (if Microsoft has its way) Zune-dominated world, is there any room left for the little guy, especially when it relies on cartoon characters to generate sales? I'd take the under, personally. – Nicholas Deleon
Product Page (in Japanese) [Runat via Fareastgizmos.com]
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For those Xbox 360 owners who didn't also have an XP Media Center box, DivX streaming from programs like Transcode 360 were always a far reach. Now with TVersity, you can perform on the fly WMV transcoding and streaming from any XP machine.
All you have to do is install TVersity, set up the videos you want to share, and brows to your videos folder on your 360. You should see all the shared videos via TVersity, plus the "online videos", provided you have the right directshow filters. – Jason Chen
Product Page [TVersity]
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The EZ105 is RCA's latest attempt at miniaturising consumer electronics. This "Small Wonder" is a camcorder that can record up to 60 minutes of video or 30 minutes of "high quality" video on its integrated memory. Don't expect HD level quality, but good enough quality to pull off that voyeur movie that you have always wanted. The palm sized camcorder also includes a 1.5-inch LCD screen on the back for viewing.
The EZ105 Small Wonder is for the simple types who just want to record video without any big fancy tape-loading camcorder and it retails for a very nice $129. The domain name for the camcorder (mysmallwonder.com) could use some work, though. – Travis Hudson
Product Page [Via Gearlog]
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If those dinky Pizza Hut magnets don't have the OOMPH to actually hold up Pizza Hut coupons, you'll want to try this DIY project to make your own fridge magnet. All you need is an old hard drive, some wire, and a few minutes.
A project that doesn't involve soldering or risk of death? We're so there! Remember to keep this magnet away from other hard drives. Unless, of course, you're a fan of data loss. – Jason Chen
The best refridgerator magnet money can't buy [Instructables via MAKE]
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Apparently one of Apple's MacBook refurbishers was asleep on the job, judging from the Laptop full of porn that was sold to some London Apple Store customer. Of course, it was a friend of a friend who reported this. And he of course reformatted the drive and installed OS X already. Do they still have proof? – Jason Chen
Apple Sells "Refreshed" Laptop Filled With Porn To 11 Year Old Girl [Consumerist]
Image via First Goatse
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Imagine playing Guitar Hero, except with any song in your iPod's library. This four fingered "guitar" from MiJam lets you play basic cords and riffs by strumming the bar and fiddling with the whammy.
Fun for kids and people too lazy to learn how to play the guitar, but are too proud to still be doing air guitar. – Jason Chen
MiJam Guitar [iSkins via RedFerret]
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It’s that time of year when [almost] washed up TV celebs and big technology companies get together to launch new services under the guise of charity.
Cynicism aside, Shelter is as good a cause as any, and the idea of former Dr. Who, Tom Baker, turning text messages into voice is strangely appealing.
BT is offering a remixed, download-only version of The Kinks and Tom Baker doing that 1960s hit, You Really Got Me. Most of the proceeds go to the charity. Even better, BT will be using Baker as the voice of its text-to-landline service.
“Customers who send a text message to a fixed line or home phone will have it read out by Tom’s voice. BT will donate 2p to Shelter from every text message sent to a landline from now until January 8, 2007 and all of its proceeds from the download track. Tom Baker’s voice is on BT Text from December 1. The Text Aid track can be pre-ordered now from 7Digital and will be officially on sale from December 18 from a range of online retailers including eMusic and iTunes.”
So, if you want Dr. Who to voice some very rude texts this Silly Season, you can take refuge in the knowledge that as you destroy some relationships you’ll be helping needy others. Makes me feel warm all over.
Find out more about Text Aid here and pre-order the track here.-Martin Lynch
news technology phones charity BT
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To go along with your vibrating mouse and vibrating soap, there’s now a vibrating pillow. No, it’s not for between your legs - which is kinda odd these days.
This is marketed as a nice way to wake you in the morning as opposed psychotically loud alarm clocks and screaming children jumping on your balls. You can probably guess it’s function and you’d be right: you place it under your pillow and, at the appointed time when your miserable life has to begin anew, it goes off silently and vibrates your pillow to gently bring you back to life.
If that doesn’t work, you can then shove it between your legs. Not its intended function, obviously, but then certain Gizmodo scribblers like shoving PS3s down their pants.
Yours for £15 here. - Martin Lynch
news technology gadgets home clock shopping
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
