Banpresto of Japan is coming out with a full line of Gundam gadgets. Of the collection are two USB gadgets, USB hub and USB Ionizer.
So what is Gundam? It’s a 30 year old Odyssey for the Japanese geek, like Star Wars or Harry Potter for the folks in the West.
The original series, which introduced a war between the Earth Federation and the rebellious space colonies of Zeon, didn’t even muster a large enough audience to warrant a full season back in 1979. Yet it spawned a group of TV, movie and manga sequels, spin-offs and compilations so extensive that only the most ardent fan could even try—and probably fail—to list them all.
So given this information my US readers have fallen asleep or clicked off to another site, but for my Japanese fan base [small] Gundam is getting into
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Due to the California Wildfires, AT&T has stated it will be offering freeT-Mobile Hot Spot Wi-Fi services to San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Orange and Ventura counties.
About 600 locations total will participate. The offer began on October 27th and will last a several weeks.
It’s a very nice gesture, especially for people who lost their homes and need to reconnect online and get their life back in order. But I’m not exactly sure why AT&T is offering T-Mobile’s service for free. Weird right?
Photo Credit: MalkoffDid another major telecom merger happen and I missed it? Or is AT&T just offering other people’s products for free? Maybe I’ll take a walk down 5th Avenue at lunch time and tell people that AT&T says they can get a free copy of OS X Leopard at the Apple Store.
Think it will work?
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There must be a group of young guns at Thanko as their latest USB gadget is a well thought out USB charger bracelet designed for the youthful gamer.
I would say ideal for the kid in us who can’t put down their PSP, the USB charger bracelet lets you go a little longer to reach that high score, or talk into wee hours of the morning with your significant other.
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AT&T is making Napster’s entire music catalog (5 million songs) available for direct-to-mobile purchase in mid-November via a new service called Napster Mobile. While not compatible with the iPhone, the catalog will be accessible via AT&T’s network for the price of $1.99/song or 5 tracks for $7.49.
Matchbox Twenty’s new album “Exile on Mainstream” will kick off the service.
If I’m sending my kids off to college and they don’t know how to use the internet for spelling…well that’s money poorly spent.
On the other-hand, it’s always nice to load up a flash drive with 140MBs of data so you can spell check on the fly. Wait…doesn’t every program, including Photoshop, include spell check these days? Ya I thought so. I’ve never understood the USB dictionary.
Open Cellar is a wine software management program which is now available from BeWine Connected on a USB drive shaped like a wine bottle.
The USB drive includes the Open Cellar software along with mobile phone ring tones, screensavers, wallpaper and a guide to the Grand Cru wine from Bordeaux.
The advantage with the novel Open Cellar software is understanding what a wine tastes like before making the purchase. In addition the Open Cellar software allows you to track, comment and classify the wine you like.
Emmanuel Etcheparre told me via email:
Hate fingerprints on your iPhone or iPod Touch? Enough to spend $9.90 on some finger condoms? A enterprising company in Austria is selling something called Phone Fingers that prevent smudges and fingerprints on the screens of the iPod Touch and iPhone.
Here’s a video of the “Phone Fingers” in action. It has a strange ending.
One more thing, the Phone Fingers only come in black and make the user look like they have a severe case of frostbite.
Silly product idea, weird choice in color and a demo video that ends in a theft… Yep, the Phone Fingers are a gag gift… like the Pet Rock.
Apple’s touchscreen technology works by sensing the electrical fields in your skin. A latex finger condom is an insulator and would prevent the iPhone and iPod Touch from detecting any input from your fingers. The Phone Fingers website even says “This is probably the funniest accessory for the iPhone available!” But if you go over to Digg.com, there’s a pretty heated debate going on in the comments. A lot of people initially thought this was serious product, not a gag gift. If you have a few minutes, it makes for a pretty entertaining read.
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Well, we don’t get it either. The USB blender from Brando spins up when the alarm goes off. One could argue the plastic balls inside the blender make for a shocking alarm clock sound, but then you have to explain the odd looking blender in your bedroom. I doubt anyone would put this on their desk, unless it really could blend a happy hour drink.
The USB blender doesn’t stop at blending, Brando worked in four different 70’s game show tunes to compliment the retro style design. I’m still having a hard time getting over the concept of blender alarm clock. Maybe a Christmas USB gadget gift for some culinary school which Brando now thinks the masses will want?
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Some may say recent trends are trying to make traditional hard drives as portable as UFDs, case in point is the GeekStuff4U SATA USB dock station.
Fitting either a 2.5″ or 3.5″ drive the dock station accepts a bare bones hard drive. Although a little more bulky than our Brando kit, it does have the convenience of a USB connector rather than digging into your system for an IDE hook up.
The SATA USB dock station is Windows and Mac compatible and runs just under $50 USD. Available at GeekStuff4U.
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Aten introduces a new hybrid USB KVM switch made mostely of cables. The 2 port flexible design easily expands the connection of monitor, PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
What Aten did with their new KVM switch design is insert a remote port for selecting between computers from an extender switch (as pictured).
The video supports 2048 x 1536 and runs on Win 2000, XP, Vista, Linux and FreeBSD. No power supply is needed to run the KVM switch, just plug-n-play.
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Cleverly disguised in a stick of DoubleMint gum this micro camcorder is one of the smallest spy camera’s we’ve seen.
Specifically designed to sit inside a gum pack the camcorder can record up to 33 hours of low-res video. At 15fps the device records directly to a microSD card and my record for about two hours on a single charge. When the juice runs out, recharge via USB.Here is a video clip of footage used from the Spy Camera
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Quite a novel concept the USB candle holder is a repository for your USB drives. This creative docking station turns your desk drawer of flash drives into a show case of gigabytes. However it would seem to become an eclectic looking assortment as how many folks have the same looking UFD – let alone black lacquer as seen in this photo.
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This is only a design concept from Chong Mingliang Sky and not available at this time. Would you buy/use it?
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Due to the California Wildfires, AT&T has stated it will be offering free T-Mobile Hot Spot Wi-Fi services to San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and Orange and Ventura counties.
About 600 locations total will participate. The offer began on October 27th and will last a several weeks.
It’s a very nice gesture, especially for people who lost their homes and need to reconnect online and get their life back in order. But I’m not exactly sure why AT&T is offering T-Mobile’s service for free. Weird right?
AT&T is making Napster’s entire music catalog (5 million songs) available for direct-to-mobile purchase in mid-November via a new service called Napster Mobile. While not compatible with the iPhone, the catalog will be accessible via AT&T’s network for the price of $1.99/song or 5 tracks for $7.49.
Matchbox Twenty’s new album “
