Latest Posts in Gadgetbox

Gadgetbox: Tickling the ivories

Gadgetry here, gadgetry there, gadgetry everywhere . Technology pervades every facet of our lives these days, from music to the kitchen to the bathroom. And you know what? Sometimes I wish it would stop, well, pervading quite so much. Sometimes I just want to sit down with a library book, blissfully ignorant of the fact that it’s overdue by two days. But no, I have to get an e-mail in my inbox reminding me that I haven’t returned it, despite the fact that I’m only halfway through. I bet cavemen don’t have this problem. Heck, they've got their own sitcom, so their life must be footloose and fancy free .

But just try living without any of today’s latest gizmos, like a $35,000 piano to end all pianos, or a razor that always leaves you feeling sunny, or even a state-of-the-art cutting-edge solution to one of the world’s most tragic culinary problems.

Black and white and played all over

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Gadgetbox: The future, now available

I’m not even going to bother asking if you missed me; I can tell by the single tear at the corner of your eye—yes, the one you just hastily wiped away—that my absence last week left you feeling bereft . Console yourself with the thought of me sunning myself on a remote Hawaiian beach—and if that doesn’t make you feel any better, consider that I’m now stuck back here in the cold, rainy real world with the rest of you.

There’s one thing that ought to make us all feel better, however, and that’s the withdrawal from our weekly gadget fix. But I intend to remedy that wiki wiki (that’s Hawaiian for “right the hell now”). Today on the ‘box we’ve got the world’s droidiest kitchen accessory, one way for you to live out your Tom Cruise fantasies (easy now), and the best way to protect your luggage on vacation that doesn’t involve very angry dogs.

Thatsa spicy astromech droid!

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Gadgetbox: Fry it up

Today is potpourri day at Gadgetbox. Which is to say that it will smell fantastic , even though it kind of looks like those gourmet potato chips you see in the store sometimes. Either way, I’ve decided to go themeless for this installment, instead regaling you with a random assortment of technological goodies that I think you simply need to know about.

Pursuant to that, we bring you an efficient food fryer, a handy cable management gizmo, and a motorized assault vehicle sure to strike fear into the heart of any miniature rebels you encounter.

Watch it fry

Truly, humanity’s greatest achievements have always been double-edged swords: gunpowder; nuclear weapons; the fryolator . Yes, fried foods are delicious, but their harm to your waistline is undeniable. But maybe—just maybe—a balance can be struck.

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Gadgetbox: Alarm clock from the Dark Side

Time, as an irritating villain once famously said, is the fire in which we burn. Unless you, like me, work from home, in which case time is more like the microwave in which we burn our popcorn and accidentally set fire to the kitchen when we forget to take the aluminum foil off our leftovers. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Today we look at time from a few different angles, including the all-too-literal constraints of the daily routine, a blast from the technological past, and as for the wristphone, well, it’s about time , isn’t it?

I…am your wake-up call

Having trouble getting out of the bed in the morning? The Dark Lord of the Sith can fix that for you. See, ever since that last Star Wars prequel came out, he hasn’t been able to get work (it’s hard for an agent to sell him to studios after the whole “Noooooooooooo!” incident). So Mister Vader has been filling his spare hours with the odd jobs, including a stint on this fabulous alarm clock.

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Gadgetbox: The sophisticated geek

Some would say that the automobile itself is nothing more than an overgrown gadget. And you know what? They're right. I myself own no less than twenty-seven cars of numerous varieties: Ferraris, Porsches, Hondas, Jeeps, a mailtruck, and an M1 Abrams tank. I know what you're going to say: "where do you find room for all of those?" Fortunately, at the compact size of just four inches long, they fit easily in a convenient carrying case.

But like every important technological device, the car turns around to inspire gadgets of all kinds. Today on Gadgetbox we look at three car-related gadgets, including a fancy-shmancy wristwatch, an exclusively speedy toaster, and, finally, a way to transport your personal transporters.

Jaeger LeCoultre wristwatch goes from 0 to 60 in 60 seconds

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Gadgetbox: A step back in time

As the weather turns crisp and the leaves move along the spectrum from shades of vivacious green to sunburst orange, a young man’s fancy turns not to love, but to years past. In long gone days, fall meant a return to the rigors and closely-scheduled time of the school year, when the fun and games of summer were remembered only in that annual one-page essay.

So it’s no surprise that this week’s Gadgetbox is tinted by the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, as I take a look at gadgets that bring out the kid in me: a way to live out my cinematic dreams, virtually explore the reaches of the stratosphere, and follow in James Bond’s footsteps.

Kids’ toy makes me green screen with envy

Why is that the coolest toys seem to be marketed at kids who won’t be able to really appreciate them until they’re adults my age? Seriously. If I’d wanted a home studio complete with green screen when I was a kid, I would have had to rip a green sheet off my bed, steal a JVC camcorder, and break into a multi-thousand dollar production studio like every one else on the block.

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Gadgetbox: Penny Arcade Expo

Had Abraham Lincoln spoke of a nation “of the geeks, by the geeks, and for the geeks,” he would have been perfectly describing the Penny Arcade Expo, known to geeks near and far simply as “PAX.” The three day convention in Seattle, Washington is a celebration of everything that it means to be a geek, especially one of the gaming variety. You’ll find video games, tabletop games, miniature games, handheld games, games made of games , and even the game of life (no, not Spore ).

I crossed the entire nation just to visit PAX, leaving the safety of my volcanic lair to trust my life and, more importantly, my luggage in the hands of commercial air travel so that I could commune with fellow gaming enthusiasts in this annual pow-wow. And, perhaps, find some nifty gadgetry along the way. Here are a few of the highlights.

Music with rocks in

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Gadgetbox: Who doesn't want their own robot?

With all the gizmos and devices that pervade our everyday life, it’s easy to forget that technology is supposed to simplify our lives. Instead it seems like they just add complexity to our quotidian existence. For example, take my novel ClearWriter 5000, which substitutes the words I type with correspondingly more sophisticated ones, transforming me into the height of erudition and pomposity. Or, as that sentence originally read: “My new word thingy makes me sound totally smart.” See how that “pomposity” snuck in there? Yeah, thanks for nothing, technology.

In this week’s box of gadgets, you’ll find new robots ready to rid your rooms of dust and dirt, a device that will help drive you sane, and Sony’s latest attempt to make Europeans watch more television.

New Roombas are cleaning up. Oh yes I did.

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Gadgetbox: Beef up security

The truth has finally come out: I’m not much of a sports fan. So this week, when a colleague invited me to participate in a fantasy football league, I had to decline on the basis of complete ignorance . Unless we’re talking about gadget news —the sport of kings—I’m about as useful as a Bluetooth chip on a toaster oven. In a lead-lined room.

Anyway, batting leadoff in Gadgetbox’s lineup this week: Sirius’s new portable radio, which may finally live up to its name; in the number two spot, it’s beefing up your household security to airport levels; and in third place, we’ll show you how to harness nostalgia for the perfect present … for me!

Revamped Sirius Stiletto less of a dog

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Gadgetbox: The unbearable lightness of gadgets

People say that money makes the world go around—I couldn’t disagree more. What makes the world go around? Light makes the world go around. Think about how much of what we rely on everyday depends on light: radios, the Internet, discos . Without our mastery of light, we’d be stuck in the dark ages. Literally.

There are many different “flavors” of light: white, ultraviolet, strawberry twist . While they have different purposes and uses, one thing remains true of them all: They are delicious .

On this week’s installment of Gadgetbox, we’ll be taking a look at three examples of harnessing light for our purposes. See how that wonderful luminescence can clean off even the peskiest stains, incapacitate potential threats, and even power your favorite peripherals.

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