Retro

The typical DJ booth is awash in buttons, knobs, and faders, allowing for precise control over any music mix. And if you've ever witnessed a DJ in this natural habitat, you know how utterly boring it is to watch.

Enter the MIDI Fighter 3D, a new $249 DJ controller from DJ Tech Tools. Finally, a visually striking controller that requires its user to do more than just twist a few knobs.

In addition to the arcade-style oversized buttons used on the original MIDI Fighter controller, the MIDI Fighter 3D adds an internal gyroscopic sensor and digital compass, allowing you to control MIDI parameters (such as volume, pitch, and effect variations) by tilting or turning the entire device. … Read more

Have you ever tried buying an AC/DC album on iTunes? Don't bother. It's not there. Unlike those sellouts, The Beatles, AC/DC is too cool for that crap.

So what better way to honor the world's most tenaciously old-school rock gods than to give them their own pinball machine? I mean, it's about time someone showed The Who, that serious pinball geeks deserve a more rocking anthem than "Pinball Wizard."

The AC/DC Pro, currently in production by Stern Pinball, weighs in at a whopping 250 pounds, and can be yours for around $… Read more

Want to play god much?

With Nukemap, a new tool that lets anyone test out--on a Google Map--the effects of some of history's most famous nuclear explosions on cities around the world, you can.

Say you're inclined to see just how bad the destruction would be in London if "Fat Man," the second A-bomb dropped on Japan by the Americans during World War II, detonated there. Nukemap lays it all out for you.

Nukemap lets you choose from a long list of cities to experiment with--or drag the map's marker wherever you want--and then choose either a custom yield in kilotons, or one of a list of famous bombs. When you click the "detonate" button, you quickly see a map with a series of colored circles that show the radii of the fireball, the air blast, the spread of radiation, and the spread of thermal radiation. … Read more

This week, Lego goes crazy for Minecraft (even if we don't); the Death Star gets a real-world estimate; DARPA invests in making "Avatar" a reality; and Eric and Bonnie make their Barbie dreams come true. In Geek News, Eric is obsessed with Mass Effect 3, and shows off a mashup of "The Prestige" and the latest "Dark Knight" trailers.

Subscribe in iTunes SD Video | Subscribe in RSS SD Video … Read more

Let's review some of the most obnoxious alarm clocks to ever grace our nightstands. Clocky is an alarm with wheels that runs away from you. Tocky rolls around. The Defusable Clock requires cutting the right wire to subdue the alarm.

The Ramos clock on Kickstarter is also into defusion, but you're going to have to crawl out of your warm bed, locate the wireless control panel, and punch in a series of numbers that changes every day. … Read more

A special Valentine's Day episode of Crave featuring robots, champagne, littleBits circuit boards, and zombie chocolates. Plus, X-ray leggings, spider battle bots, hoverboards, Star Wars crafts, and a peek at the perfect date movie, "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."

Subscribe in iTunes SD Video | Subscribe in RSS SD Video … Read more

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--There was a time, not all that long ago, when the only way to play a decent (or indeed most any) "computer game" was to seek one out at a local pizza parlor or bowling alley--or, if you were lucky and your neighborhood had been blessed with such an establishment, the local arcade.

In fact, computer games weren't computer games yet. They were video games, or arcade games.

I can remember the excitement my friends and I felt when our neighborhood suddenly witnessed the arrival of a "real" video arcade. Space Invaders had been around for a while by then (how cool was it that the Pretenders had recorded an instrumental in its honor, complete with a sampling of the game's throbbing, threatening sound effects?). But the newly opened Louie's brought us a startling array of bright, beeping, and then-revolutionary games with strange and thrilling names like Pac-Man and Centipede.… Read more

YOKOHAMA, Japan--We've previously reported on the Gizmon iCA, an iPhone case that makes your smartphone look like a vintage rangefinder. The company was at the CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show, and we learned it has plans to launch a whole system of special-effect lenses and accessories for its flagship case soon.

In addition to the fisheye and macro lenses already available, future attachments will include tele, wide, tunnel effector, mirage, and circular polarizing special-effects filters. Sure, some of these effects could be easily reproduced using apps, but doing it the old-fashioned way and getting it right the first time without post-processing has a certain appeal. Other accessories include a car stand, mounted flash unit, mini tripod, remote shutter release, and silencer. … Read more

Simpsons fans in Los Angeles are meeting up today to kick off the Ultimate Fan Marathon Challenge in an effort to beat the world record for consecutive TV watching currently set at 86 hours, 6 minutes, and 41 seconds. On today's show, we'll discuss the challenge and propose one of our own that may be a little more difficult to achieve.… Read more