Gadgets

Whether you have bad eyesight, an aversion to technology, or are just an imbecile, have I got a cell phone for you!

This generic-brand mobile phone offers oversize numeric buttons (1-cm wide) that you can read from several feet away – making phone calls nearly fool-proof. The phone was mainly designed for seniors with limited tech savvy, but it’s fine if you’re just looking for a really simple cell phone too. Let me go on the record now by saying If I lose my ability to use the latest high-tech gadgets when I’m an old man, please just put me out of my misery.

The 6380 Senior Mobile Phone ( USD) does actually have a few handy features, including a built in flashlight, and a giant “SOS” button on the back that can automatically dial a pre-set emergency number, and emit a loud warning alarm. It’s also got a minimal display with large on-screen fonts, and a whopping 128×60 screen resolution. Sign me up now!

Actually, the 6380 does hide a couple of modern features under the hood, including a digital phone book, SMS messaging, a calendar, alarm clock, games (I can only imagine how much fun those are on that screen), and an FM radio. FM? I wanted an AM crystal radio set and a Victrola built-in.

Oh, and I forgot to mention one thing. The 6380 phone only works on GSM 900/1800 bands, so it works everywhere in the world except the U.S. and Canada. Oh well, I didn’t want one anyway.

I don’t know if he’s the action figure counterpart of console modder Ben Heck, but the customizer who goes by the moniker Jin Saotome does have an extremely long list of modified or custom made action figures. While most of them are Transformer mods/creations, I like his G.I. mods, where he mixes parts together to recreate characters from other brands. If you’re a fan of webcomics, prepare to have your day made, because here comes Dr. McNinja!

I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw this. Jin made the Dr. McNinja figure using a Firefly head and an SDCC Destro body. The coat was taken from an ROC The Doctor figure,  while the sword and sheath are from a Paris Snake Eyes figure. The stethoscope was made with using headphone wire. Awesome awesome figure. Now I know that there’s an official RE 5 Chris Redfield action figure, but I want to show Jin’s mixing and matching (and painting) skills, so here’s Jin’s take on the zombie-slaying cop:

Chris Redfield is made of  a custom Chris head from Broken Arrows Toys, a Firefly/beach head body, Storm Shadow upper arms joined to Tiger Force Flint lower arms,  Resolute Duke hands and legs, and some custom weapons from Marauder Gun-Runners. Finally we have Jin’s Air Man. Even though Dr. McNinja is still my favorite Jin Saotome creation, special mention goes to Air Man, probably the most complex of Saotome’s action figures. Air Man’s chest fan actually works and is battery powered. And even if it didn’t, man, look at the details!

Air Man is made of the following: an Animated Wolverine Colossus sans head with sculpted eyes for the upper body, Astro Boy Peace Keeper arms and lower legs, and Accelerator Suit Snails upper legs and waist. Jin made Air Man’s fan using styrene sheeting and a Nokia cellphone vibration motor.  The magnetic Wind Gust was taken from a DCU Red Tornado action figure. Unfortunately some lucky bastard already owns Air Man, and Jin says he had an insanely difficult time with the figure so he won’t be making another Air Man anytime soon.

Jin regularly auctions off his creations on eBay; keep an eye on his item list if you don’t want to miss out on his auctions. Check out his website for more custom action figures. I want a Dr. McNinja action figure dammit!

[via gameSniped]

The folks at Gamersyde were handed some footage of the opening minutes of the PS3 game 3D Dot Game Heroes, From Software’s upcoming homage to classic RPG/Adventure games. The graphics are really neat – it’s like everything is made of cardboard LEGO dot things.

If you’ve seen the trailers before then you’re probably familiar with the graphics, but I believe this is our first glimpse at the HUD and controls of the game. Also, BIG-ASS SWORD!

I don’t know why this dude and his MegaBastard Sword only appears at the very beginning of the game – although it seemed like whoever was playing could control Sir Huge Sword here, note that the HUD is absent – but according to 1UP’s Kevin Gifford, players will be able to customize and  swing huge swords. But of course, even heroes have to start somewhere – here’s the puny little fight stick the king gives the hero as he starts on his quest:

According to the same 1UP article that I linked to above, players will be able to choose from three archetypes – the Hero, the Prince, and the Adventurer. If you like none of those three, you can make your own hero, dot by dot, and even customize its animation. Going back to the footage, here’s the world map, which is very reminiscent of Link’s Map in the first Zelda, except that this one is pseudo-3D:

All in all, the game does have a very old school feel, but the cute graphics will probably lure in kids as well. Gamersyde is have bandwidth problems so they’ve disabled embedding for now, meaning I can’t post the video here, but all you have to do is go here to watch the high quality version, and here for the low quality one. You can also download the video if you want.  The Japanese version of 3D Dot Game Heroes just dropped this week; a North American release is coming, but we don’t know when exactly.

Let me start out by saying I’ve always been a closet pinball fanatic. I can’t tell you how many hours of my youth I spent dropping quarters, flipping flippers, and nudging bumpers in that quest for that almighty extra ball or two. So when I saw this modern day revamp of the classic pinball machine, I was stoked.

Nanotech’s Multipin is a digital pinball simulator, mashed-up with the physical look of a classic pinballer. The game is a full-sized pinball machine that provides electronic renditions of 17 pinball machines in a single cabinet. The system comes loaded with a number of original pinball games, as well as several modern remakes of classic Gottlieb pinball titles from the 1970s and 80s. And if 17 games aren’t enough Nanotech plans on offering upgrade packs with additional tables you can load in later.

Games are played on a large 32-inch 720p high-def LCD monitor that’s set into the playing surface under glass. Multipin not only looks like a pinball cabinet, the game is controlled with all of the classic trappings, a mechanical plunger, clicky flipper buttons, and a realistic audio experience which includes all of the sounds you’d expect to hear coming from a mechanical pinball machine. There are even digital motion sensors in the cabinet that let you nudge and shake the ball around (and eventually tilt the machine if you go too far). There’s also a second LCD screen under the machines backglass that’s used for displaying scores, game graphics, and the occasional mini-game.

Here’s some video from a recent episode of NBC’s TechNow showing off the Multipin in action:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The best thing about the Multipin? You can buy one for yourself – now. This isn’t vaporware, it’s a real thing. The 00 (USD) machine is available now over at Hammacher Schlemmer. Sure, you’ll need some seriously deep pockets to buy one, but if you’re a serious pinball addict, you might want to put Multipin on your Christmas list this year.

This egg-shaped chair may look like a serious throwback to the 1970s, but it’s actually a brand new home entertainment plaything designed to be integrated with modern media rooms. The Sound Egg chair is a completely self-contained 5.1 listening booth, perfect for a private home theater watching experience.

Acousticom’s Sound Egg is an acoustically-insulated pod, loaded up with a 5.1 surround sound system. In addition to the 5 precisely positioned satellite speakers, there’s also a hefty 10-inch subwoofer right under your seat. Talk about some serious rump-shaking. The guys at Acousticom claim the speaker system offers solid frequency response all the way from 20Hz up to 20KHz. As you can see from the photo below, you’ll still need to B.Y.O. home theater system and amp, but the chair has all of the speakers built-in.

Originally created for audio testing and home theater demonstrations, the Sound Egg is designed to provide a completely enveloping audio experience, that’ll have you never wanting to head out to the theater again. At least not when you’re by yourself, since there’s not really a good way to have multiple people share in the Sound Egg experience at the same time.

Ready to sit inside a giant egg and chill out to the latest blockbuster movies and video games? Don’t care for red and grey. No worries – the Sound Egg’s outer shell is available in 7 different colors, and you have 11 choices for the sound-deadening foam lining (a few colors cost bucks extra). You can sit your butt in your very own Sound Egg for 50 (USD) over at Acousticom’s online store.

Does your laptop get hotter than Hades and overheat all the time? I know there are plenty of laptop cooling solutions out there, but how many of them actually look decent?

Macally’s wooden ECOFAN and ECOFANPRO stands keep your laptop nice and cool, and look good doing it . Each stand has a built-in USB powered cooling fan, and can support any laptop up to 17″. They’re made from Bamboo wood, which not only has a warm natural style, it’s eco-friendly.

While the ECOFAN features a fixed-position stand, I greatly prefer the adjustable height stand on the ECOFANPRO (pictured above). Here’s a snapshot of the simpler model:

Both stands are available over on Amazon, with prices around to 33 (USD) for either model. With virtually no price difference, there’s no reason not to go PRO.

Now all I need is one of those Bamboo laptops to go with this, and I’ll be set.

Call it a case of life imitating software: a designer at Mintpass recently showed off a couple of designs for calculators that look exactly like the calculator apps in Windows and in OS X.

The Mac version has a metal case and a 2-liner LCD screen like its software counterpart, while the Windows calculator sports the classic XP color scheme, and even has menu headers. I know that these are just concepts, but what would the window buttons (maximize, minimize, close) be for in a real calculator? It would be awesome if you could actually maximize a real calculator though.

The designer is aware of the fact that it would be unlikely for either Apple or Microsoft to let any third party get away with making these calculators, so is leaving it up to the two computer makers to make real-life versions of their OS calculators, if only to give away as gifts or for marketing gimmicks. And if they decide to go ahead with it, maybe they should contact Mintpass.

I’m not really sure what a Margaritaville game might entail, exactly. The tragedy of salt shakers gone missing? The smell of shrimp? Old men wandering around in tank tops? Jimmy Buffett wandering around in a tank top? That’s it, guys: clearly, Margaritaville has been trademarked for a survival horror game.

I shudder to think of it.

Actually, there’s no telling just what Jimmy Buffett’s brand might be used for in a gaming sense, but one thing is fact: Margaritaville has been trademarked for use in video games. I’m calling it now: nothing good can come from this. I’m almost pleased there aren’t any more details available. The truth will probably be too horrible to contemplate, and right now, I’m contemplating a lot.

[via Joystiq]

I’m not a Twitter addict – although I do have an account – so I might be wrong on this one, but will a device that only sends and receives tweets be worth buying? That’s what Peek is counting on as is launches the TwitterPeek. Much like their one-trick ponies Peek & Peek Pronto, which can only send & receive emails but reportedly do a smashing job at it, the TwitterPeek was made just for tweeting.  But if you come across a tweet with a link on it, you won’t be able to look at whatever’s being linked, because the TwitterPeek doesn’t have a browser.

That said, the TwitterPeek does have a lot going for it: it has a scroll wheel and a back button, a large, colored screen, a raised and illuminated QWERTY keypad, a battery that lasts 4-5 days and can be charged in 2 hours, plus nationwide coverage (US only) that doesn’t depend on WiFi. But no browser. Those of you who are familiar with the Peek Pronto know that although it doesn’t have a browser either, it reads PDF, docs and pictures.

So Twitter addicts, is the TwitterPeek just the thing that you’ve been waiting for? Or will you stick to your Twitter apps on your phones and computers? If you said yes to the first question, head on to Amazon and get the TwitterPeek for either 0 (USD), which comes with 6 months of free service (you’ll pay /month after 6 months), or 0, which comes with lifetime wireless service. It comes in two colors, grey and aqua (or Twitter blue).

Update: PC Mag has reviewed the TwitterPeek and gave it 1.5 stars for its poor controls and very limited functionality. Apparently it makes even the simple act of reading tweets a chore. Wow. (via Gizmodo)

[via Engadget]

Looking for a zippy way to get around town? Sure, you could buy a car, or a bike, or maybe even a Segway, right? Well what about a bed on wheels? At least that way you could take a nap if you get stuck in traffic, right?

Auto-modder Edd China of Cummfy Banana has fabricated these ridiculous motor vehicles, fashioned to look like ordinary furniture. In addition to the speedy bed pictured above, he’s also built an oversize office desk on wheels, complete with multiple swivel chairs.

But his pride and joy is the “Casual Lofa,” which was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “world’s fastest furniture”. The Lofa is a motorized sofa that tops out a speed of 87 MPH. (Edd beat his own record sofa speed in 2007, by getting a sofa to drive 92 MPH – go figure).

If you happen to live in the UK, you can get a chance to take a ride on all of these vehicular monstrosities thanks to a special “day at the races” tour package that lets you experience them all.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The guys over at IWantOneOfThose are now offering the World’s Wackiest Racers package, which includes rides on all three of these oddball pieces of furniture, as well as a funky double-decker car. The 3 hour experience is conducted with a group of up to 6 participants, and will set you back £99 (appx.3 USD).