gadgets

Go, go, gadget arm

Have you ever wanted to feel like Inspector Gadget, but actually growing mechanical appendages wasn't a viable option?

The Quik-Pod (which despite its name, mercifully has nothing to do with digital audio) is an extendable handheld tripod. It screws in to the tripod hole of a camera and when you click a button, it extends your reach 18.5 inches.

This could be cool. It might mean my self-portraits are no longer blocked by my arm, but I can get over that pretty quickly. The Quik-Pod is $24.95, and collapses to 7.5 inches in your pocket.

Of … Read more

Enough Zs to put you to sleep

Okay not very nice, though I do give props to the company that came out with a decent sub-$100 PVP way before "sub-$100" was even standard jargon for plain old MP3 players (that was about three years ago). Now HandHeld Entertainment presents its first MP3 player--the ZVUE ZP3--yes, zat's right, ZP3.

The standard thumbdrive-style player features a whopping 512MB and supports MP3, WMA, and WAV files. Additionally, the ZP3 has a voice recorder and eight hours of battery life per AA battery. Charmed yet?

The ZP3 differentiates itself by coming preloaded with 30 "great … Read more

B&O $1,275 phone hits U.S. stores

Would you shell out more than a grand for a cell phone? Bang & Olufsen, makers of high-end electronics fit for Hollywood celebrities and corporate bigwigs, is betting someone will. The company has partnered with Samsung to come up with the Serene, a design-first handset that launched a few days ago at the jaw-dropping price of $1,275. Yes, that's $1,275 for a cell phone.

It is certainly a beautiful piece of gadgetry; a black flip phone with a rotary-style keypad, complete with a power-assist self-opening clamshell that lets you open the phone with style and panache. But … Read more

Firebox.com, a less geeky ThinkGeek

When I think about holiday shopping for my gadget-obsessed friends, I normally point my mouse right to ThinkGeek, the perennial mainstay of online nerd retail. Problem is, sometimes ThinkGeek's selection of lightsabers and binary blankets is a little too geeky. That's why I'm pumped about Firebox, a U.K. site that just launched a stateside version. It's got plenty of ThinkGeek-ish toys, but the slant is a little less "World of Warcraft" and a little more "Old School." If you take a look at their product selection--high-speed coffee makers, pumpkin-carving drills, … Read more

Lavender watch makes babies

Actually, you have to do your part, too. But the OV-Watch--FDA approved!--monitors the salts in a woman's sweat to predict the six days when she's most fertile. Now, isn't that romantic? (It would be more so, we think, if this watch came in any color that didn't scream, "Look! I'm trying to make a baby! And I love princesses!") Be prepared to shell out $100-plus for the watch and sensors to go with it.

(Via Babygadget, Photo: OV-Watch)

A $1.53 million bed and other wretched excess

Excess knows no bounds in the gadget world, as TechEBlog proves with a post titled "Top 5 Gadgets You Can't Afford." It's not kidding, either. One of the items, the first "floating magnetically levitating bed," carries a price tag of $1.53 million.

Others include the now-cliched million-dollar mobile phone and, on the low end, a high-tech shower for a paltry $22,587. The list even includes something for Halloween: a "wearable robot suit." But for $313,985, you might want to wear it more than just once.

(Photos: TechEBlog)

Next alternative energy: the candle

Doyle Doss is out to popularize a source of energy that was big when the coal scuttle was fashionable and society debated whether children should spend ten hours a day, or just eight, on a factory loom.

It's the candle, and his product is the Kandle Heeter, a series of concentric ceramic pots held together by a steel bolt strung with washers. Basically, the Kandle Heeter is perched above a jar candle. The heat from the flame is absorbed by the steel and then radiated out by the ceramic pots.

Candles put out quite a bit of heat, Doss … Read more