R2D2 voice-controlled Astromech

This should make every self respecting Star Wars fan drool:

Now how cool is THAT? Voice controlled, with authentic R2D2 sounds, and a cup holder. Sure, the real thing didn't have that, but let's face it, it could come in handy in your X-Wing. Reminds me of that time when I was attacking the Death Star, and I was thinking: "If only I had a place to put my cup of coffee, then I wouldn't have missed that thermal exhaust port!". Anyway, you can get one at Think Geek.

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Home Biodiesel Plant

Lots of websites exist with instructions on how to make biodiesel yourself from vegetable oil. To the uninitiated, this can be a quite dangerous undertaking, since it involves methanol (wich is very flammable and toxic) and sodium hydroxide (wich is incredibly corrosive and can cause the most horrible chemical burns you can imagine). The following setup is supposed to make it all a lot easier and safer.

You can use fresh vegetable oil for making biodiesel, but perhaps even better is using waste oil, because then you're recycling something that's otherwise thrown away. If you have access to a good source of used vegetable oil this device could be a real moneysaver!

Source article on Gizmodo

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Metal Led Torch

This is one amazing torch! Small and light (only 110 gram with batteries) but bright enough to blind you! It is made from aluminum and has four bright white leds. The torch is switched on and off by twisting the head. Power is supplied by three AA batteries (included), it comes with a wrist strap and a gift box.

Buy from the Gadgeter

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National Geographic Planetarium

The National Geographic Planetarium is a globe that projects the night sky on walls or a ceiling. Kids can learn about the stars and the constellations with this gadget, wich comes with a cd rom full of astronomical information and a laser pointer.

Besides information about the stars, the cd rom also contains information about the ancient Greek and Roman legends, wich gave many constellations their name. The planetarium itself requires 3 AA batteries; the pointer requires 2.

Buy from Otherland Toys

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Keyboard Organizer

This is no ordinary keyboard. It opens like a shell to reveal a hidden storage space! It can be used to store object like pens, paper clips, cd's, and all other sorts of small stuff that usually clutters your desktop.
The keyboard is about the same size as any standard keyboard and has a quality touch and feel. It has a PS2 interface, wich may be a bit outdated and not available on newer computers, but that can easily be solved with a PS2-to-USB adapter.

Buy from Boys Toys

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Kingston DataTraveler II

The Kingston DataTraveler II is an 8 GB USB stick that comes with Migo sofware. Migo allows you to use software from a removable drive just the way you would use it from a fixed one. You can take your favorites, email, cookies and history along with you on the stick.
This is similar to U3, but I can tell from my personal experience that U3 is a piece of junk. I got a USB stick with U3 software for my birthday a while ago and it didn't work. The software simply didn't run. Did a Google search on U3 and it turns out lots of people were having problems with it. Since I don't use a USB stick to run software from I simply formatted it and got rid on that U3 crap.
The software supported by Migo is:

• Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Windows Mail
• Outlook
• Outlook Express
• Mozilla Thunderbird

Supported operating systems are:

• Windows Vista
• Windows XP SP1 and up
• Windows 2000 SP4 and up

Source article on The Gadget Blog

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Optimash Prime

Mr Potatohead is a familiar sight at desks all over the world. He appears in numerous hilarious forms (the most famous ones probably being the Star Wars forms, Darth Tater and Spud Trooper), and now we can add another one to the family: Optimash Prime. Since that idiot Michael Bay not only got the marvelous idea of making another one of his crappy movies that rely for 99.9% on special effects and for the rest on incredibly cheesy moments, but also decided to mutilate one of our favorite childhood memories, this was inevitable: a Transformers version of Mr Potatohead.
But forget my violent rant. Although there are no words to express how much I loathe Michael Bay, I will always consider Transformers one of the coolest things ever. Except for the movie, wich I'm sure sucks bigtime. But not the anime series. And the toys. And, of course, Optimash Prime!

Buy from Firebox

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Free phones from Wirefly

Wirefly is offering free phones with new cell phone plans. Their homepage has a list of available plans and what type of cell phones you can get when signing up for them. For example, when you sign up for a T-Mobile plan, you get a free Motorola Razr phone, and as an extra bonus, a Bluethooth headset! These free headsets are available with many of the deals featured on their website.
For more demanding users, you can even get a free Palm Treo smartphone when you sign up for an AT&T wireless plan with data feature. AT&T also offer other free wireless phones with their plans, including the Blackberry Curve and Blackjack Smartphone.
Except new phones, you can also get great deals on upgrades. Upgrading means you can replace your old cellphone for free or at a significant discount when you extend your existing phone plan. Wirefly offers upgrade deals for AT&T, Sprint and Nextell plans. For example, you can upgrade your old phone to a Motorola Razr (including free wireless headset) when you extend your existing Sprint plan.
With the big selection of plans available, it may not be that easy to select the right one for you. To help you with that, Wirefly has a Wireless Wizar. You enter how much and when you use your phone the most, and then you will get a suggestion of plans that may be appropriate for you. And if you should decide to change your phone plan, you can also transfer your old number to your new plan!

This is a sponsored post. See the disclosure policy for more details.

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Disclosure policy

From time to time, I will start putting sponsored articles on this blog. Since these reviews may not always reflect my personal opinion, depending on the demands of the advertiser, all such articles will be marked as "sponsored". In addition, I have prepared a disclosure policy wich explains my policy towards sponsored articles.

This policy is valid from 24 July 2007


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content, topics or posts made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

The owner(s) of this blog is compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our posts or advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does contain content which might present a conflict of interest. This content will always be identified.


To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

Wii Shotgun

Besides the official Wii Zapper, wich will be compatible with the upcoming game Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, there are also lots of third party Wii accessories. I have mentioned the Piranha Wii accessories before, and now there's the Wii Shotgun!

The gun holds both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck. In my opinion, this one looks better than the Wii Zapper. After all, what's better to mow down hordes of zombies than a shotgun?

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Supreme Edition Darth Vader Costume

Every hardcore Star Wars fan has at least tried to dress like Darth Vader. Helmets, cloaks and accessories can be found at many shops, but if you really want to look like the Sith Lord himself, nothing can beat the Supreme Edition Darth Vader Costume.
At 699.95£, it's not exactly cheap, but this is the most accurate Darth Vader costume you can buy. It's a realistic replica of the actual costume that was used in the movies. The armor pieces are made of strong, injection-molded plastic, based on the original Lucas Arts molds. The helmet is made of iron. It even comes with breathing apparatus to imitate the evil lord's breath! The deep voice you'll have to provide yourself. The costume consists of the following pieces:

• mask and helmet
• sound module for breathing sound
• collar piece with shoulder guards
• leather belt
• cape
• imitation leather jumpsuit
• imitation leather gloves
• full-length robe
• shin guards
• instructions

The only thing not included is a lightsaber.

Buy from Firebox

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Legend Of The King

Legend Of The King is a puzzle that's part of the Sacred Myths and Legends series of puzzles. Each puzzle releases a clue for solving the next one when it's solved; this one is the third puzzle.
The puzzle is solved by pushing a series of pegs in the right position until they release the mechanism wich holds the box with the scroll in place. The creators describe it as "Indiana Jones meets the Da Vinci Code". Without the doom cults, nazis and self-mutilating monks, of course.

Buy from Firebox

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Samsung SPD-1000 surveillance camera

The Samsung SPD-1000 is a remote controlled surveillance camera. It can be mounted to a wall or ceiling, providing full 360° monitoring.

The camera is equipped with a 10x optical zoom lens, but digital zooming allows up to 100x zoom. Up to 128 presets can be configured for automatic scanning of an area, making it a fully automatic camera.

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Wireless USB Hub

Rumors about wireless USB have been floating around for quite a while, and now it seems like the first product are finally becoming available. Belkin is introducing their Wireless USB hub.

This device acts as a wireless extender for USB devices. The unit consists of a transmitter, wich you either plug directly in your USB port or place in a dock and connect with a cable, and a receiver unit wich doubles as a hub. You can connect any USB device to it just like you would connect it through a regular, wired USB port.

Source article on Gadgetell

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USB Dancing Robot

The USB Dancing Robot looks like one of those retro '80s robot toys, but when connected to your computers' USB port, it will dance to any music you play on any media player. It automatically detects the beat and dances and flashes leds along to it. Not batteries are required, since it's USB powered. Only works with Windows XP and 2000.

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Wii Zapper demo

Nintendo announced the Wii Zapper at E3, a gun-like enclosure for the Wiimote and the Nunchuck. Although a pistol that could hold the Wiimote was already available (not from Nintendo themselves, though), this gun holds both the Wiimote and the Nunchuck at the same time. The zapper is held a bit like a Tommygun. Here's a demo video:

It's demonstrated with Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, an upcoming on-rails shooter.

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USB Podcast Studio

With the growing popularity of podcasting, many people have decided to start one of their own. Politics, comedy, technology, hobbies, topics enough to discuss! Creating your own podcast requires some hardware, and this package offers everything you need.

The USB Podcast Studio contains a small mixer, headphones, a microphone and a USB interface box. The set comes with software that takes care of everything, from recording to uploading!

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A short rant

I tried to put it off as long as possible because I didn't want to participate in this stupid hype, but here it goes anyway. As you have probably noticed, the iPhone launched a few days ago. You probably also noticed that I didn't write about it, because I think it's an overhyped, expensive piece of crap. For the last few weeks, every gadget and electronics website was full of news about the iPhone. I always wondered why people are so crazy about it. Fact is that it's very expensive and the features aren't that impressive. There are phones out there that are cheaper and have more and better features. Some of the flaws of the iPhone:

• no MMS picture messages (my 100€ Samsung phone has it)
• no video recording
• fragile display
• can't use songs as ringtones
• small harddrive for a device that's supposed to double as an MP3 player
• no flash support (making it a lot less useful for web browsing)
• requires you to get an expensive phone plan

There are many smart phones that cost less and can do lots of things an iPhone can't do. So why the hell is everybody going so berzerk over it? Two words: Apple fanboys. Some people will buy even the greatest piece of junk if it has an Apple logo on it. When Apple would sell a 500$ toaster (the iToaster) people would be stupid enough to spend money on it. Do you see people camping in front of stores when Nokia launches a new phone? No!
The same goes for other Apple products, especially the iPod. I have a Creative Zen audio player with a 30 gigabyte harddrive. It does everything an iPod does and has the same capacity. The difference? One hundred euros cheaper! Apple fanboys are rambling all the time that Creative MP3 players (or any other non-Apple type) suck, but why the hell do they say that? The iPod is the most expensive MP3 player (not counting solid gold models or players that are studded with diamonds), yet it does nothing more than cheaper players!
For a while, I was thinking about getting a Mac after my current computer, but no way that's gonna happen. Apple fanboys behave almost like a cult. It has to be Apple or it sucks, period. I'll probably get some angry reactions for this rant, but that will only prove that the 'Apple cult' is a bunch of whiny, irrational morons.

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MP3 Belt

Of all the weird things MP3 players have been built into, this one seems to be one of the more rational ones. This one is built into the buckle of a belt. Different face plates that light up will be available for it, and the thing connects to a computer with USB.

Unfortunately, no information is available on capacity and battery life. I don't really expect this to become a success. My MP3 player clips to my belt as well, and has a 30 gig harddrive. I don't think this one has that!

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