Latest Posts in Gadgetbox

Time of your life

As February comes to a close, we look forward to March. Yep, March: one of only two months that also happens to be a verb. Indeedy. The other? You’re telling me that you’ve never septembered anybody? You’ve been missing out, my friend.

This is the kind of incisive, hard-hitting knowledge that makes you keep coming back week after week, right?

Come to think of it: why do you come back week after week? Can’t you just leave me alone to mull my gadgets in peace?

Fine, fine. As long as we’re on the subject, let me give you a quick overview of the technology we’ll be looking at this week: a time-traveling whiteboard, a media card reader that can help you decide what to wear, and one of the world’s most seminal gizmos.

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Balance of power

I probably spend far too much time on a daily basis considering the forces of universe. Honestly, I can sit for hours, cup of tea in hand, and stare into the distance, thinking about what it means to be a tiny molecule in this vast expanse that is reality.

Unfortunately, the powers-that-be have told me that this is an unacceptable use of company time, and have threatened to take away my volcanic lair and replace it with what I’m assured is a very comfortable half-cubicle, unless I actually get to work. Really, they have no appreciation of the finer things in life.

If work I must, then work I shall: and you will reap the benefit. For this week’s delightful Gadgetbox repast, we bring you the latest in deadly foam darts, more on Nintendo’s latest peripheral madness, and a shining example of all that you can accomplish with the simplicity of 9.8m/s^2.

New Nerf weaponry is all foam and games

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Feast of gadgets

I know what you’re all expecting. It’s February 13th, and you probably think I’m going to make a big deal about tomorrow’s “holiday.” I have no idea why there’s such a fuss over something that happened hundreds of years ago and how it’s evolved into what we celebrate nowadays, but you know, I think it’s all just ridiculous. If you want me, I’ll be off celebrating the far more important feast days of Saints Cyril and Methodius, who were not only the patron saints of Europe, but also the inventors of the Cyrillic alphabet (which, with all due respect, should really be called the Cyrithodical alphabet or something).

Spurious greeting-card-inspired holidays aside, we’re still on our weekly crusade for great gadgets. This time around we bring you rocking out with your iPod out, a high-tech timepiece, and getting you (and your buddies) online, no matter where you go.

iPod + iGTR = rocking out with your own bad self

Loyal Gadgetbox readers know that I’m a Rock Band fanatic (my simulated drumming career is going quite well, thanks). But if there’s one major frustration with rocking out, it’s the limited song catalog. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could use any song in your music library?

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Kitchen kitsch

I’m not a gourmet chef, by any means—that’s what Ernesto is for—but I do like to dabble in the kitchen from time to time. My own repertoire is somewhat limited—there’s only so much one can do with a kitchen tucked in a volcanic lair, even if it is spacious and well-heated. I like to make a little stir-fry, occasionally cook up some fish, maybe even the occasional box of non-instant oatmeal.

Daring choices all, I know. But, more importantly, what’s the point in having a kitchen if you can’t stock it with the latest in culinary gadgets? Here’s a trifecta of kitchen-based tech for you this week: self-sufficient salt and pepper shakers, a toaster oven that lives up to its name, and the only kitchen knife you’ll ever need.

Shake it up, baby

If you thought the human race couldn’t get any lazier, allow me to provide evidence to the contrary. I can think of few tasks less intensive than salting and/or peppering ones own food, but apparently there are people for whom that constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. For those people, we offer forth the Movers & Shakers.

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See SPOT save

January has almost drawn to a close, which means all eyes look forward to the next month on the diabolical, never-ending calendar: Febtover. And, of course, with Febtover comes the ancient pagan ritual of whistlepig-worship, usually celebrated with temporal loops.

I speak, of course, of Groundhog Day.

It has been statistically proven that all of the most advanced weather-detecting technology in the world, harnessing processing power on the level of an entire Death Star, is not nearly as accurate as one groundhog seeing his shadow. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Just goes to show you that technology doesn’t solve every problem.

If that’s got you down, don’t worry. Here are a handful of gadgets that can help you solve problems. Like, if you get lost rock-climbing (or on your way to the corner store). Or managing that stack of devices you call a home entertainment system. Or heck, even if you just want to set things on fire. We’ve got you covered.

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Fold a phone

As you may have noticed, Gadgetbox was AWOL last week. As much as I’d like to take full responsibility and say that it was completely my fault, that’s simply just not true. The truth is I was being worked to the bone, forced to tramp around a crowded convention hall until I broke into tears and fled the scene. They found me hours later, curled in a fetal ball, hidden in a niche of the Crumpler Castle. So, you see, totally not my fault in the slightest.

Never fear: we’re back with a special Thursday edition of everybody’s favorite gadget blog—we are your favorite, right? We’ve got plenty in store for you, too, from a foldable cell phone, to Spider-Man’s power strip of choice, to a hard drive enclosure for the truly paranoid.

This cell phone folds like a bad poker player

I thought we’d mentioned the Readius concept cell phone a while back, but I could find no record of it in a painstsking search of the official Gadgetbox archives (er, rhymes with Schmoogle). Had I written about it before, in some parallel dimension, I think I almost certainly would have thrown out an ill-advised reference to Earth: Final Conflict. You never saw it? They had these foldable…screen…

Never mind.

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CES: The long gadget goodbye

They say all good things must come to an end. Might sound depressing, but I’m hoping with all my heart that it means the reverse—that all bad things must continue indefinitely—is not true.

So here we are on my third and final day of CES. I say “my” final day, because though my time in Sin City is drawing to a close, CES is steaming ahead until the end of the week. It’s just that I can’t take it anymore. I’m experiencing a rather particular form of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder called, catchily, TMG (that’s “Too Much Gadgetitis”). It’s not pretty, either: symptoms range from twitching extremities to, in its most serious form, an uncontrollable urge to become Amish.

So then, for my last trick, I present to you a triumvirate of tech to fulfill your wildest dreams: a hands-on report on the best (or, at least, most expensive) keyboard ever, more robotic beings to carry out your slightest whim, and, we kid you not, the world’s only musical TASER holster.

Optimus Maximus just about ready to roll out

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Gadgets strike back at CES

You might think you know fear, but let’s be frank. Until you’ve found yourself subsumed in a morass of thousands upon thousands of trade-industry and press, you don’t know the meaning of the word “fear.” Or “claustrophobia.”

While we usually focus on the little gizmos that can improve the details of your life here at Gadgetbox, it doesn’t mean we don’t also keep tabs on the big developments in the technology arena. So today, we present to you a couple of the stories that are making serious buzz in the CES arena. And, just to show we haven’t forgotten our roots, we’ll throw in one of our trademark handy gadgets. Just for you.

What can Blu do for you?

There’s a secret war going on in the world. It’s raged, interminable, for centuries, rearing its ugly head whenever the tides of current events have swirled into torrential eddies of malcontent. I refer, of course, to the eternal battle between red and blue. Yes, the colors.

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CES: The gadget saga begins

1.7 million square feet. 140,000 attendees. 1.21 gigawatts. These are the numbers that make up the 41st annual Consumer Electronics Show. So big that it spans three separate venues, before you even include all the private suites and parties. So big it exerts its own gravitational pull. So big that one man was heard to exclaim in awe: “that’s no moon…that’s the Consumer Electronics Show.” Alright, it was me. But still.

It’s a large show, this CES, and as an army of two (myself and my fellow Dan), it’s a daunting task to cover as many of these gizmos and doodads as I can get my robotically-enhanced grip on. But I’ll do what I can to give you a taste of the world of CES over the next few days (hint: it’s somewhere between salty, sweet, and crunchy). So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the tech that’s already crossed my meandering path: a GPS unit that talks back, a TV with double vision, and a monitor that you may have trouble wrapping your head around.

Dashing through the snow in a one horse GPS

What’s better than an in-car GPS unit? If you guessed an almost-sentient communicative network of GPS units, then you, my friend, have won a prize (offer not valid in 49 of 50 states). You’ve also hit upon the idea behind Dash Navigation’s Dash Express. Think of it as GPS meets social networking, but without all the annoying friend requests and embarrassing encounters with high school classmates.

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Underwater shooting

Hail and well met, this second day of the year two thousand and eight. Word on the street is that it’ll be vastly superior to that old 2007 model: more processor speed, higher definition, and hey, did we mention it’s one whole number higher? That’s right, the future is now.

I’ll be getting up close and personal with said future next week as I venture forth from my mountaintop lair in order to travel to the City of Sin for the 41st annual Consumer Electronics Show. And because of my dedication to you, readers, I will be sacrificing the many temptations Las Vegas has to offer (namely $3 brunch buffets, Wayne Newton, and fountains of pure gold) to bring you the latest on consumer electronics.

Meanwhile, this week we’ve still got our habitual troika of gadgetry for your viewing pleasure. Take a gander at a new underwater camera, a handy (literally) measuring device, and a way to keep tabs on people…who probably don’t want you keeping tabs on them.

Like shooting fish in a barrel. With a camera. Underwater.

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