Archive for November, 2008
Atari Classic USB Joystick for PC
The wizards at Legacy Engineer are keeping the Atari 2600 spirit alive with the Classic USB Joystick Controller – not only cool but surprisingly affordable. And they offer discounts if you purchase two or more. You can buy the Classic USB Joystick Controller direct from Legacy Store for $14.99. So you can play your favorite Atari 2600 games like Defender and E.T. on your PC with popular emulators such as MAME.
No word on whether these work with the PlayStation 3. We can just imagine playing Resistance 2 (PS3)
Until now the only game in town was the Stelladapter – a USB-to-Atari convertor allowing you to use real, vintage Atari joysticks on a PC (review here, buy online at AtariAge). However, at $39.95 this option is best for only the Atari purist … who nonetheless is playing Atari games on PC? Yeah, that doesn’t sound quite right to us either.
Kudos to Legacy for what looks like a great product.
Flying Cars are almost (finally!) here – the Terrafugia Transition
The Terrafugia Transition – A New Twist on Hybrid Cars
Hybrids get a lot of press these days. But kudos to startup Terrafugia for daring to take things up one or two notches with the Transition – a vehicle that can travel in both air and on roads.
So is it a flying car or a plane that can drive? Technically the Transition is a “roadable” airplane. No matter. The idea behind Terrafugia’s new creation is that you park your Transition in your own driveway and you commute is to the nearby airstrip for takeoff. No rental car needed at your destination – just convert back to driving mode and head to wherever you’re going on surface streets.
Terrafugia says the Transition is aimed at licensed pilots who need to travel between 100 and 500 miles at a crack. It’s definitely not for flying down to the mailbox or grabbing groceries and it won’t be too much use escaping from the cops during a high-speed chase.
Bad weather coming? No problem – land at the nearest airstrip and continue your journey on the ground. And say goodbye to rental cars at your destination.
Project Status
The Transition concept was formed back in 2006 by MIT engineers and may be ready to bear fruit soon in the form of actual production models to consumers – in late 2009. Not bad for such a radical concept.
Terrafugia admits they are still perfecting the one-touch folding wing mechanism and a power train that can convert smoothly between flying-mode and driving-mode but have developed proofs-of-concept solutions for these designs that offer reason for optimism.
Price & Availability
Only $148,000 gets you a two-seat vehicle with a 450+ mile range in the air and 25 MPG on earth. At the time of this writing Terrafugia has already taken roughly 30 orders for the Transition but no firm launch date has been provided. Safe to say you have a bit of time yet to get that pilot’s license so you’re ready when the Transition is ready.
Further Reading
Read Terrafugia’s page on the Transition vehicle.
The Register posted a detailed story on the Transition and talks about other emerging vehicle options such as NASA’s PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) concept.
Check the MIT Technology Review writeup.
Your Own Private Nuclear Reactor
Alternative fuels be damned, what’s wrong with good old fashioned nuclear power? OK to be fair that’s not exactly the message coming from Hyperion Power Generation. Hyperion, along with Los Alamos National Labs, has developed somewhat of a personal generator that can be shipped right to your backyard and generate more power than you could possibly use. That is if your “person” can afford the $25 Million price tag (USD). Your very own mini nuclear fission reactor comes sealed with enough fuel to power 20,000 typical U.S. households and according to Hyperion, the units overall cost per watt is lower than existing fossil fuels or alternative fuels currently available.
Read the full press release from Hyperion.
Here’s the scoop. Each reactor module is roughly the size of a hottub. It comes factory sealed and is designed to stay sealed. There are no moving parts and thus minimal to no maintenance required. Modules can even be chained together to provide more power for larger applications. The amount of waste after 5 years is roughly the size of a softball and the waste itself can be reused via fuel recycling to further reduce environmental impact. A side benefit of the generating process is it can also be used to purify water – a double bonus in remote/rugged situations.
On the safety front, Hyperion claims the amount of fissionable material in each module is so small that even if exposed the fuel cools immediately avoiding any kind of explosion or emergency.
This has interesting applications for communities, remote sites and super wealthy folks like Tony Stark. Talk about a new target for the “not in my backyard” crowd, though!
Maybe Ghostbusters-style proton accelerator backpacks are closer to reality than we thought?
Update: Will Boulder, CO be an early leader in nuclear energy alternatives?
Ultimate Headset for Sports Workouts and … Breakdancing?
Your b-boy/b-girl craving for an active and music-based lifestyle has probably run you into the Extreme Sports Conundrum. Namely the difficulty keeping headphones in place while you’re mountain biking, snowboarding, running, skiing or just straight up breakin’ to the beat of Buffalo Gals by Malcom McLaren. Yeah you know who you are.
Along comes Coosh with special-built headsets, promising you can get your shred on and never miss a beat. Heck, you can even be on a call with your iPhone while catching some serious air. Coosh has a series of “crash test” videos showing the headsets in action:
Let’s Play Some Hoops
Coosh recruited industrial design wizards Pensa (Brooklyn, NY) and Astro Studios to create headsets designed specifically for the active lifestyle crowd. Together they researched the Extreme Sports Conundrum and designed a new style of headphones with a special “hoop” that encircles the base of the ear. The hoops are removable too so the ‘phones can be used in more ordinary situations. Like waiting for the doctor to reset your broken leg.
Knowing their audience well, Pensa & Coosh knew this was a non-starter if they couldn’t deliver good sound quality too. And of course they can get uncomfortable with all that motion. That’s a lot to deliver.
Reality Check – How Did They Do?
We found Coosh did a surprisingly good at their mission. When doing some rugged mountain biking we could not jar them loose. The ‘phones delivered strong audio for both music and phone calls. And most surprising to us, the hoops were comfortable because of they are made from a soft & flexible silcone material. We’ve had our share of problems getting comfortable normal headphones – the fact Coosh nailed comfort, sound quality and ear-stickiness is impressive. As a bonus these things are inexpensive too – less than $25.
- understated but hip look
- excellent sound quality, with good base and accurate overall sound
- 65 Hz to 20Hz frequency response
- built-in mic on handset with answer/mute buttons
- available in black, white and pink (pink not available for iPhone version)
- soft and flexible silicone hoop material
- hoops can be removed when not breaking
Where To Get Them
You buy from Coosh.com direct or smart shoppers should check out Coosh Products (Amazon)
If there’s any disappointment here it’s the fact Coosh didn’t see fit to include Breakin’
Elmo Live is Alive with Fun
Elmo Live Strike a Few Poses with Retail Box (if you can find one!)
Introduction
There’s no more anticipated toy for kids this season than Elmo Live by Fisher-Price. The original Tickle Me Elmo
Review
Elmo Live has what you’d expect – the Sesame Street Elmo character’s look, voice and sense of humor. The latter two are captured in an huge range of responses, jokes and phrases including a number of fun games Elmo Live can play with children. Elmo Live has far more to communicate through voice than TME or its TMX successors. Elmo can even tell a number of stories. Elmo Live beats TME/TMX by an order of magnitude in that department.
As impressive as the voice improvements are, the biggest leap was made in Elmo Live’s life-like motion and interactivity. This is done through a bunch of motors & gears that really brings the character to life. Elmo sits, stands, waves his arms, points, moves his mouth, crosses his legs, sings, dances. Elmo is even aware when he has fallen over and asks for help (he is unable to get upright without your child’s assistance). Plus Elmo has a number of sensors that when touched or tickled elicit special dialog. These sensors also figure cleverly into the games Elmo Live has been taught.
Clouds over Sesame Street
We think Elmo Live is a riot but be aware of the following complaints:
- All those gears/servos can be noisy and distracting
- Elmo Live is not a cuddly toy meant to replace a teddy bear or other plush doll. The gear inside that gives it life also makes it less than cuddly.
- It’s not the cheapest doll around
- Extremely young children may find Elmo Live to be scary or intimidating because of how different he is from more familiar toys. This really depends from child to child. A safe bet would be 3 and up, though many younger children even will also find Elmo Live to be engaging and funny.
Summary
Quite simply there’s nothing out there like Elmo Live in terms of sheer interactivity and bubbling personality. The Sesame Street tie-in is a no brainer but Fisher-Price really put a lot of thought into this and it exudes charm and humor and does it interactively. Children of many ages and their parents are likely to be entertained by this one. It brings Sesame Street to life right in the playroom.
Where To Get Elmo Live
Earth, pretty much. So far it seems these are not as hard to come by as the original Tickle Me Elmo, but parents be warned. That is likely to change as people’s minds shift toward the holiday gift season and this is one of the hottest items on many family gift lists.
For online buyers we recommend K•B Toys Online (The Parent Company) and Amazon
May The Toast Be With You
Only Vader Could Be This Bold
“I felt a great disturbance in the kitchen. As if millions of slices of toast suddenly cried out in terror and then were suddenly silenced. I fear something delicious has happened.”
- Obi Wan Kenobe
Indeed, Obi Wan. It’s not even Thanksgiving yet and along comes this amazing gadget for the Star Wars Fan. Too bad we don’t know any of those. The Darth Vader Toaster from Star Wars Shop just became available for pre-order. In a rare marketing misstep Lucas has the toaster shipping January ‘09. As one would expect, this burns the Sith’s imposing visage onto that most basic of foods, bread. Going to be tough to top this as a slightly-delated holiday gift for the Star Wars geek in your life.
Maybe it’s just us, but does this give the “darkness” setting new meaning? How evil do you feel today – 1 through 5?
(We’re personally relieved that the toaster doesn’t burn the face of Anakin as played by Hayden Christensen.)
Courtesy of www.StarWarsShop.com, the online store of George Lucas’ mega-branding and bread scorching corporation LucasFilm.
M-Gears Review – Think Lego But Even Smarter
Introduction
The M-Gears toy construction sets are the M-Gears Building Set and 2 remote-controlled vehicle sets (see below). Each comes with instructions to build multiple creations which may remind readers of our perennial favorite – Lego. M-Gears distinction is the intricate interplay of many many gears instead of simple building blocks. But without the difficulties of below). Each comes with instructions to build multiple creations which may remind readers of our perennial favorite – Lego. M-Gears distinction is the intricate interplay of many many gears instead of simple building blocks. But without the difficulties of Lego Technic. Children will find M Gears far more forgiving, and likely more fun to create with.
Building the M-Gears plans included with the sets is a lot of fun but watching them move is mesmerizing.
M-Gears is sturdy and colorful. While they don’t advertise it loudly, M-Gears is compatible with Lego and other popular building blocks. We tested this out you can plug Lego blocks right onto your vehicles!
While younger kids can enjoy Elmo Live – if Mom and Dad can find one that is – M-Gears is perfect for a slightly older and more inquisitive child.
M-Gears Building Set
M-Gears Building Set
The M-Gears Building Set
We got a little worried checking out the box art up close – all those gears and colors looked fun but also complicated and potentially frustrating. It only took a few minutes with the parts to change our minds. Learning Resources designed M-Gears very well. Parts are sturdy, fit together smoothly and the instructions are visual, clear and make building process simple. As with all building sets we had a few lapses when ‘reading’ the instructions but we were still learning the gears concept. After a few minutes it became second nature. As we moved past our first creation this problem seemed to go away. It does take time to build some of the larger sets. This probably isn’t the kind of toy you want to take traveling to eat up a few minutes here and there, aside from the fear of losing precious parts!
When we finished our first Building Set creation, the airplane, we were impressed with the pure kinetic joy of the thing. Aim the finished toy and watch the hundreds of gears and parts do their thing. Seeing all those gears we placed move in every direction was both fun in itself and a good reward for the time and concentration we put in. It’s a great pay-off.
Note, the Building Set is motorized but not remote-controlled like the two vehicle sets we researched below.
M-Gears Remote Control Vehicle Sets
M-Gears Grand Prix
The remote-control M Gears sets are fairly similar but both are sold separately from the Building Set above. They are the Remote Control Grand Prix Car
The remote control chassis in both sets can support many kinds of vehicles and with even more parts from the M-Gears Building Set – and maybe some Lego blocks as well – you are able to create with very little limitation other than your child’s own imagination.
You’ll probably want to get at least one of these if your son or daughter enjoys M-Gears as it’s the perfect complement to the M-Gears Building Set.
Note that the vehicles are not blazingly fast. Dad’s won’t need to fear one of these rushing under his slippers while he walks to get the paper Sunday morning. And that’s a good thing.
Where To Get It
K-Bee Toys and other online stores like Amazon.
Target online or in stores. But be aware that availability may be a problem as Target doesn’t stock M-Gears sets in all stores.
Recommended Ages
Learning Resources recommends M-Gears for children 7 to 12 years of age. With children it really all depends on your son or daughter and their aptitude to this kind of play. The smallish parts and need to read instructions (at least to get the result shown on the box) might frustrate the younger set. Younger children will enjoy this most when accompanied by an adult for assistance. Really, this is the best way to play anyway! We think M-Gears is a well designed and thought-out line of toys and that most children – and their parents and grandparents – will find plenty to enjoy here.
M-Gears Photos
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- Building Set Examples
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- M-Gears Grand Prix (Child Not Included)
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- M-Gears Off-Road Truck
Blackberry Storm for $99 or FREE?
The ultra-hot touchscreen mobile phone arena is about to get even hotter. The next contender is the promising Blackberry Storm which has gained many favorable reviews. No Storm release date has been announced but it’s coming soon. And the latest news about the Storm comes by way of Fortune who reveals that Vodaphone – Blackberry’s UK carrier – is considering a grab for lucrative multi-year customer contracts by selling the Storm for either $99. Or FREE. We like the sound of free.
Competition with the iPhone and now T-Mobile Dash is creating a crowded smartphone market. And RIM, traditionally strong with business customers, wants to reach out to the broader consumer market. Recent news indicates that Steve Jobs has leeway to sell the iPhone for as little as $99. T-Mobile’s Android-based G1 is selling now at Wal-Mart for only $149.
Even better for those of us on this side of the pond is the news that Blackberry and Verizon are considering deep discounts in the United States also with price points of either $150 or $99 being most likely. More as soon as we hear the official release details from Verizon and Blackberry.
Blackberry Storm Interface
Great Deals
More Resources
High Priority Thread
Star Trek Delta Shield Tee