If it’s gadgets you seek, my friend, then you’ve come to the right place. In my little blog of wonders, we have all sorts of fantastic gizmos and doohickies. Of course, we’re always on the lookout for new additions to our library of splendor, and this week is no exception.
So, come follow us through the halls of paradise as we discover a new contender in the peace talks over the next generation format war, the sweet fragrances of your personal data, and the only way to travel in the latest military-industrial complex style.
Sammy’s new player bridges the HD divide
“Hybrid” has got to be the buzzword of this decade—which, frighteningly is already on its way out. We’re going to need a new buzzword, stat: I suggest “fruitalicious.” Anyway, Samsung’s new device doesn’t run on a combination of gasoline and electric power, cool as that would be. Rather, it’s the second major hybrid next-generation optical player to hit the market, after LG’s BH100.
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We’ve been hearing murmurs of the Samsung BD-UP5000 for some time now, but we thought perhaps it was merely a legend—you know, like the Spear of Destiny or Paris Hilton. But this sucker’s real all right, and Samsung’s released the specs to prove it. The plays-well-with-others device will support 1080p playback for both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, up to 7.1 audio via coaxial and optical outputs, and an HDMI 1.3 interface. It’ll also feature an Ethernet port and compatibility with both HDi and BD-Java, the interactive standards of the two formats. No word on whether or not it will prepare sandwiches to your specification, but my fingers are crossed.
If you need this ultimate in compatibility, be prepared to spend for it. The cost will be a not-paltry $1,049 and it’ll ship in Q4 this year. Me? I’ll be sticking with my high-defintion flipbooks, baby.
Scratch n’ sniff flash drives: the jokes write themselves
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Flash drives have become a commodity nowadays. In fact, I think you can pretty much barter them for goods and services down at the local co-op. Of course, having become so commonplace, it’s been left up to the manufacturers to come up with ways to distinguish their own product from that of their competitors. Having tried everybody’s favorite Wookiee and ballistic protection, they’ve now decided to venture into the realm of the other senses.
That’s right: it’s flash drives that smell (pleasantly?). You can snag a Fruit-a-Roma drive in your choice of four wonderful fruit flavors—green apple, grape, orange, and strawberry— and in your choice of capacities: 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB. Unfortunately, we don’t have prices for these odoriferous storage devices, nor do we know when they will find their way onto the market, but rest assured that you’ll be able to tell when the computer lab begins to smell like herbal shampoo.
You know what? I’m not sure I even have to write the rest of this post. I mean: flash drives that smell like fruit , people. The hard work’s done here.
[via Gizmodo ]
Where armor meets bling
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When I do need to travel away from Gadgetbox HQ’s volcano-top secret lair, I don’t like to take any risks. At the same time, I prefer to travel in ornate splendor and finding a vehicle that can mesh these two requirements can be tricky at best. My experiment with an armored palanquin atop an African elephant met with less than spectacular results (my security compromised for peanuts !), so I’ve been looking around for a replacement.
And I think I’ve found one in the Tank Limo. The crazy Brits at Tanks-a-Lot modded one of the 30 armored personnel carriers that they had, and I quote, “laying around” into the poshest way to travel this side of the Popemobile. The Tank Limo features a fridge, twin DVD players, a reversing camera (running over your neighbor’s cat—or car, come to think of it—would be a serious risk in this baby), and a completely re-trimmed interior. And if that’s not enough, they’ve ordered neon lighting for the bottom and are working on incorporating a Jacuzzi. Plus some of those rims that keep spinning even when the car isn’t moving. Yeah. Alright, that last one was made up.
If you want to book the Tank Limo, it don’t come cheap: £1600-4000 (that’s $3,300-$8,250) plus the cost of shipping it to your area and possible excess mileage charges. But if it can handle navigating molten lava, then it can probably handle your senior prom.
[via Red Ferret ]
That’s it for this week’s installment of Gadgetbox. We’ll see you next week to ring in August with yet another parade of the technological marvels of the world.