Latest Posts in Gadgetbox

A few favorite gadgets

As 2007 draws to a close, it’s a time for remembrance of things past. The last year has been a pretty good one for all things gadgety, so let me take this opportunity to wax self-involved and take a look at the handful of gizmos that have made this year a deliciously potpourri of technology (note: please do not eat the potpourri. It is there for its pleasant smell, not for snacking).

So on this year's final Gadgetbox, we’ve got my favorite way to waste time on the weekends and evenings, a handy device for food preparation and theft deterrence, plus the perfect way to capture those fond memories of cooking…and theft deterrence.

l337est of the l337

I acquired my first and, for many years, only video game console when I was around eight or nine years old. The Nintendo Entertainment System is widely considered one of the best video game systems—nay, one of the best inventions—ever devised by human ingenuity. Ever. In the world. It really was a shame that I was so terrible at most of the games.

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Shopping for the enemy

While we here at Gadgetbox’s volcano-top lair are unarguably proponents of gadgets of all shapes, sizes, uses, and creeds, we are firmly opposed to the superfluous gizmoetry that is more and more encroaching upon the world. So though there’s plenty of worthwhile gear you might choose to bestow upon friends or family this gift-giving season, today we feature a handful of products that you may want to think twice about before stowing under the tree.

A much better solution, however, is to use our selection below as a jumping-off point for getting that elusive present for the hard-to-shop-for mortal enemy in your life. Because, you know, there just isn’t enough thought put into those gifts for the archrivals that keep you on your toes—balanced precariously on a tightrope over a pit of lava swimming with special heat-resistant sharks, of course.

No business like snow business

I’m hardly an old fogey, but there are some things that, to my mind, are far better accomplished by the tools we were given by nature. No need to invent new tools, right? I mean, I know it’s what sets us apart from the apes and giant salamanders, but come on: a snowball-maker?

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Holiday weaponry

Here in New England, the weather is always frightful. Either it’s a blistering 90°+ in the summer time, with humidity so thick that you can spoon it into a tupperware and save it for lunch, or it’s a frigid cold that makes you wish in vain for a handy tauntaun, whose belly you can curl up inside for warmth. But the change from hot to cold signals that winter is underway and that the holidays are fast approaching. Or have already gone by. Winter’s long around here, okay?

As we continue our ramp up to the holiday season, we have a trio of terrific tantalizers on this week’s Gadgetbox. Variations on an old weaponry fave, the perfect tool for dealing with those inevitable frustrating packages, and the latest in ice-scraping technology.

Lock, load, and launch

A USB-powered missile launcher is, frighteningly enough, nothing new under the sun. Once the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union and United States began decommissioning warheads, it was only a matter of time before these things found their way off the black market and into cubicles around the world.

But with their return to prominence, it was only a matter of time before escalation began afresh. It’s not sufficient to have a USB device that fires missiles…when you can have a USB device that fires missiles and has a detachable webcam. Or can fire missiles without being limited by the length of that pesky USB cable. In fact, we bet it’s only a matter of time before you’ll be able to buy a USB-powered submarine that fires intercontinental foam missiles on a polar trajectory. The webcam version was co-developed by Microsoft, and you know they know a thing or two about wholesale destruction and scorched earth policies.

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Gadgetbox gift guide

This is it: the first Gadgetbox of the rest of your life. I mean, technically, so is last week’s. And next week’s. But, like most mortals, we must stay locked in the present by the spatial/temporal ties that bind us. Until, that is, someone puts a time machine into a DeLorean, telephone booth, police call box, or adorable Japanese man. Anyday now.

But until then, there are still roughly nineteen shopping days before Christmas. So this week, here’s our first selection of potential gifts from the halls of gadgetry and gizmoetry (rhymes with “poetry”). Take your pick of a tool that sheds some light on the subject, a shirt that will make you the most popular person in the lands of the geek, or a remote control car that pays for itself. Heck, take them all!

Screwdriver has LED, but lacks vodka, orange juice

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Car keys with a bite

So, have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? What? You haven’t started? Get out there . Don’t you realize that time is running out, even as you’re reading this? If you wait too long, there might not be any presents left to buy . Think of the pain, the suffering: you’ll just have to buy socks for everybody.

And thus I fulfill my contractual obligation to whip the populace into a panic over something insignificant every once in a while. Good times.

This week on the ‘box, we’ve got a shocking surprise for would-be car thieves, an anti-eavesdropping pen, and some cheaper configurations of the fabled Optimus keyboard (though really, why bother?).

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Deja Zune

Well, it’s the eve of the eve of the biggest holiday on the American calendar. What? Yes, that’s right the eve of the eve . You don’t honestly think that people care a whit about eating turkey and giving thanks , do you? That’s not the American way, after all. Well, okay, maybe the stuffing-themselves-with-turkey part. But the big holiday around these parts is Black Friday, the day when the madding crowds descend on the shopping malls and retail outlets around the country in order to gorge themselves on ridiculously low-priced merchandise—that is, if they can avoid being trampled on the way by the rest of the bargain-seekers.

If you happen to be in search of deals this Friday, I wish you the best of luck and bestow the blessings of the Gadgetbox upon you. You might call this week’s edition “America’s Next Top Gadget” (if you choose not to, I won’t hold it against you). With all the high profile gizmos of late, I thought we’d take a look at three contenders for the latest gadget to change it all: Amazon’s play for reinventing the book, Microsoft’s latest attempt to take on the iPod, and finally, my long-awaited shot at super-rock-stardom.

Kindle aims for Book 2.0

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SpyTec 2007

I’m beginning to worry that I spend too much time concerned with the technological trappings of the world around us. I think Lord Vader put it best when he admonished Imperial Admiral Motti not to be too proud of the technological terror he’d constructed—after all, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force. Or, for that matter, the power of the Internet to slowly suck your life away, gurgling down a series of tubes. But seriously, when you close your eyes at night and just see an endless parade of dancing cell phones, multifunction printers, and digital music players, you can be sure of one thing: your dreams are going to be seriously messed up, man.

So, you may ask, what do video camera glasses, a gaming projector, and a compact bag have in common? Other than all being featured in this week’s edition of Gadgetbox, I have absolutely no idea. But hopefully you trust me enough to read on. Keep those fingers crossed.

These glasses totally have SpyTec

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Gadgetbox: Hygiene and reference materials

Daylight savings time is, I think, one of those things that would seem completely incomprehensible to someone visiting us from other planets—or, for that matter, even someone from a country that doesn’t observe it. Yeah, twice a year, we arbitrarily readjust all the clocks by an hour. You know, just to keep people on their toes . It’s like some sort of bizarre ritual dance of the seasons.

Daylight savings time may be one of humanity’s more complicated innovations, but the Gadgetbox aims to make things easy on you this week. So check out a one-stop shop for hygiene and reference materials, a way to keep your hands warm and your gadgets useful, and how to move a computer without turning it off.

Periodically change your shower curtain

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Gadgetbox: Post-Halloween special

Despite repeated attempts from friends and family to convince me otherwise, Halloween remains my least favorite holiday. Every year on October 31st, I find myself curled up in my bathtub with my dog and a shotgun—just like Will Smith trying to hide from vampires. But what’s really out there is far scarier than ghouls, goblins, ghosts, monster, or even masked serial killers: Small children, hopped up on the Jujubes , chasing their next sugar high. I warn you: Get in their way at your own peril.

WIth an entire year between us and the next terrifying All Hallow’s Eve, I thought it a good time to consider scary gadgets in the broad light of day. For nothing is less frightening than a guy dressed up as a giant pumpkin the day after Halloween. And so, with the sun at our backs, we can laugh blithley at a visit from the walking—or, well, shuffling —dead, a comfortable freak of nature, and—scariest of all—Steve Ballmer playing dress up.

Slouching toward Halloween

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Gadgetbox: Aging robotic dinosaurs

I have one word for you—one word that is going to change your life forever. Robots. Second only to flying cars (and, okay, perhaps dystopia ), robots is what defines the future . Don’t believe me? Look at the number of Japanese animation series that deal with robots (especially the giant variety). And, frankly, if Japan isn’t the future, what is?

We’ve dubbed today’s Gadgetbox “Robot Special Edition.” We’ll take a look at robotic servants to do your every bidding, a giant robot to terrify house guests, and the world-destroying power of robots when melded with dinosaurs .

Home is where your robot is

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