Nothing will distract your wife from the fact that you bought her a vacuum cleaner for Christmas like wrapping it in a gaudy, color-changing box. She'll barely notice that you bought her an insulting present that she'll get no joy out of using and that, because it's "hers," will make you feel absolved from helping with the chores because, hey! Flashing colors! You can grab three of these awful things for about £17. Plus shipping, of course. -Adam Frucci
The folks at Wizard Universe have put together a comprehensive list of the 50 greatest fictional weapons of all-time. All of your favorite imaginary superweapons are on there, although the order may be a point of contention with fanboys across a wide array of genres — including video games, movies and comic books. And if it is controversy you are looking for, consider that He-Man's Power Sword ranked higher than the lightsaber. Hit the following link for the complete list and let the nerdfight begin. -Sean Fallon
Ever wonder what your girlfriend does when you are not around —and how she gets her hair so shiny and manageable? If so, this wireless hair dryer spy cam may be right up your alley. There are a number of versions available at varying price points, but if you want the ultimate in fashionable spying technology you will have to step up to the X-Vision option that allows users to remotely beam images up to 1500 feet.
Other features include a 1/4" color Sony CCD image sensor, 380 lines of resolution, 3.7mm wide angle lens and an additional 2.4 GHz receiver. Unfortunately, there is no evidence to suggest that this thing actually functions as a hair dryer, so I fear that your covert spy missions may be short lived. -Sean Fallon
This wooden car is the product of a Ukrainian man's dream, pursued after he quit his job and sold two cars to fund the construction. One half modern and one half vintage, the gorgeous oak detailing is built upon a 1981 Opel with 100 horsepower. We're not sure if it's more beautiful than the Tryane II woodenmobile, but we love the split personality nature of this latest creation. As do we. -Mark Wilson
Recycled mobile phone parts are being used alongside circuit boards to make pocket-sized PCs. A team of engineers at Hokuto System is behind the idea, which will be available in Japan before the end of the year, and is known as DVIEW. It won't, however, be available to consumers. Instead, they will be used in shops as a self-contained point-of-sale display. Specs are below.
Researchers at Duke University have teamed up with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kyoto to get a monkey's brain to control a pair of robot legs through the internet. By mapping the monkey's brain signals while walking (through electrode measurements), Duke researchers were able to pinpoint the activation areas to specific leg movements.
Hooking up through the internet, the two teams were able to share these monkey brain walking signals—for lack of a better term—in real time, streaming the neural impulses halfway across the world to a pair of robot legs that were programmed with corresponding movements.
While researchers have been doing similar studies since 2000, giving monkeys control of robot legs (as opposed to what seems to be some more simple arm motions) is a breakthrough in the inevitable monkeys-teaming-with-robots for human overthrow scenario or just the dominance of an advanced mechanical intelligence sure to thieve all man's bananas without mercy. -Mark Wilson
Recycling circuit boards for use as everyday, decorative objects is nothing new —but you have to hand it to a guy who takes the concept this far. Although, I doubt that you would be pulling in a lot of tail rollin' down the street in a circuit board covered beater with Thomas Dolby blaring on the radio. -Sean Fallon
Shut up fool! You know it’s coming and it doesn’t matter because it still works.
Mr. T is back and doing one of the better games ads in recent times, for World Of Warcraft. Some old people like me will remember him from Rocky 3 and The A-Team – you know, the action show where things got blown up and there were massive gunfights, but no one actually died. A little dazed maybe from a direct grenade hit, but not dead. Kiddie-friendly gun violence.
His partner in crime for the new series of ads is a Jedi-robed, William Shatner, that wily old survivor.
Jump now to see William The Tauren Shaman.-Martin Lynch
Amazon’s pig-ugly ebook reader, Kindle, has sold out its initial stocks – although since we don’t know what numbers were sold it doesn’t mean it’s a runaway success.
The reader, which has had a massive media launch, is hoping to drive the ebook market into the mainstream, despite looking like a 1970s calculator. The device, which is US-only so far, will not be in stock again until December 5 [it was December 3 yesterday]. A statement reads:
“Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is temporarily sold out. Because we ship Kindles on a first-come, first-served basis, please ORDER NOW to reserve your place in line. See availability messaging above for estimated in-stock date.”
The device has won praise for being easy to use and the download facility – which doesn’t need a PC, network or Wi-Fi access – is really cool. However, it has been criticised for being too expensive (£200), ugly and charging people subscriptions to online Web sites that are usually free.
Let’s put it this way, there are 593 reviews on Amazon right now from customers that bought the Kindle and the average rating is just 2.5 out of 5.-Martin Lynch
There is currently around £74bn-worth of gadgets in UK homes, give or take a billion, according to a new survey from First Direct.
That's made up of 418.5m gadgets and each home has an average of 16. Mobile phones are, unsurprisingly, top of the heap at almost 70m and accounting for £558.4m in value terms.
Just behind are almost 60m TVs, with an average value of £500 and a whopping collective value of £29.8bn. Picking up the bronze are DVD players/recorders at 39.4m, costing around £100 apiece and worth £3.94bn overall.
I’m a little surprised at how far down digital cameras and camcorders placed, and who’d have thought DAB radios were that popular already? To find out where your favourite gadgets ranked, jump now for the full list.-Martin Lynch
It looks like the Germans are the first to be allowed to buy iPhones without those expensive contracts.
T-Mobile, Apple’s chosen operator in Germany, has been forced by the European courts to allow customers to buy the iPhone without a T-Mobile contract, after a Vodafone legal action. Even better, anyone who already bought one there can have their SIMs unlocked for free so that they too can hop to another network, if they so choose.
Great news – yes – but there is a snag. Up until now, German shoppers had to pay a total of around £1,130 for the iPhone and a 24-month T-Mobile contract. The iPhone makes up just £286 of that total.
So, you’d expect that now the German punter could get the iPhone for £286. Wrong. T-Mobile will sell you one without a contract but the privilege will cost you £716. Ouch, ouch, ouch.-Martin Lynch
Nothing will distract your wife from the fact that you bought her a vacuum cleaner for Christmas like wrapping it in a gaudy, color-changing box. She'll barely notice that you bought her an insulting present that she'll get no joy out of using and that, because it's "hers," will make you feel absolved from helping with the chores because, hey! Flashing colors! You can grab three of these awful things for about £17. Plus shipping, of course. -Adam Frucci
Ever wonder what your girlfriend does when you are not around —and how she gets her hair so shiny and manageable? If so, this wireless hair dryer spy cam may be right up your alley. There are a number of versions available at varying price points, but if you want the ultimate in fashionable spying technology you will have to step up to the X-Vision option that allows users to remotely beam images up to 1500 feet.
Recycled mobile phone parts are being used alongside circuit boards to make pocket-sized PCs. A team of engineers at Hokuto System is behind the idea, which will be available in Japan before the end of the year, and is known as DVIEW. It won't, however, be available to consumers. Instead, they will be used in shops as a self-contained point-of-sale display. Specs are below.
Researchers at Duke University have teamed up with the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kyoto to get a monkey's brain to control a pair of robot legs through the internet. By mapping the monkey's brain signals while walking (through electrode measurements), Duke researchers were able to pinpoint the activation areas to specific leg movements.
Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
