GadgetMadness: We find the coolest gadgets first

While looking for a Blue tooth headset that doesn't look like all the others on the market, we stumbled upon the EX-01 made by Messiah Entertainment that offers 4-6 hours of continuous talk time and charges via USB. We're taking bets that this headset will show up in a low-budget science fiction "made-for-TV-movie" within months after it is released in May.

Amazon

A few years ago I started using PortableFirefox on my USB drive to browse with. It was easier to always have my stored form data, bookmarks, and other browser settings with me regardless of which computer I happened to be using. The problem was I'd often find myself on a public WiFi network and didn't like the fact that my passwords and other personal data could be discovered by any average joe running a sniffer.

In this guide we're going to provide you with step-by-step instructions on how you can browse, email, FTP & IM over SSH on your USB drive.

Continue Reading "How To Use Portable Firefox, ThunderBird, FileZilla, and Pidgin Over SSH On Unprotected Networks Using Any USB Drive"...

Now this is the type of new gadget that gets us all starry-eyed and drooling. The CradlePoint PHS300 will allow you to turn your Blackjack, Blackberry, RAZR or other cellular or USB modem into your own personal 802.11b/g wireless hotspot. Simply plug the USB cable from your supported cell phone into the PHS300 and your're ready to go with all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a wireless router like NAT, Firewall, access control, UPnP, and 64/128-bit WEP (11b/g), WPA/WPA2, and WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK. This portable wireless device is also priced right at $179. Full features after the jump.

Continue Reading "Turn Your Cellphone Into A Portable WiFi Hotspot"...

This spiffy new JBOD Enclosure from ThinkGeek features a one touch backup function, blue and red LED's and data transfer up to 480Mbps (60MB/s) over USB 2.0. So you may be asking yourself - when would an enclosure like this be useful? If you have 1TB of data to transfer to another system and you only have two 500GB drives, then you could place both of your 500GB drives into this enclosure to create a single 1TB drive to move your data with. The caveat here is a big one however - while your data is on this JBOD disk system (which stands for "Just A Bunch Of Disks") it is not redundant and if either drive fails, your data is potentially gone gone gone for good. Also good to know is that JBOD ≠ RAID-0, which means the typical speed increase one would see from a RAID-0 config is missing in JBOD. This is a very cool enclosure for use in specific situations.

ThinkGeek.com

More about JBOD Disk Configurations

You've seen those novelty shocking pens, packs of gum, and other items that deliver a shock to your hand when held or pressed. If you're ever been zapped by one you know they pack quite a wallop. The mad scientists over at Pyro Electric have released plans and instructions on how to make your own shocking disposable camera:

Make sure you read their scary disclaimer before trying to build one of these for yourself:

** DISCLAIMER ** This Project Can Be Dangerous. It Is Meant Only For Educational Purposes. Consult Your Local Electrician To Understand Exactly What It Is You Are Doing Before You Start (So You Don't Kill Or Seriously Injure Yourself Or Others). ** /DISCLAIMER **

The Stunning Camera

Sometimes words just can't do justice to demonstrate how much fun a toy is. Such is the case with Johnny Lightning's Battle Wheels remote control battle robots. These remote control robots operate under a very simple premise: beat the snot out of each other, and knock your opponents head off to win! If you can't wait to know what we thought about these awesome robots of RC destruction, our list of pro's and con's is after the jump.

(Video music provided by Skipshot)

Continue Reading "Review: Battle Wheels RC Toy Robots"...

As I type this, my laptop is resting on a white breakfast tray I picked up from Ikea - no joke. The laptop is sitting at an angle to fit my mouse, and it's not really that comfortable or ergonomic to use. If only someone made a lightweight laptop stand out of anodized aluminum that could withstand weights up to 26.5 pounds, fit a 17" laptop with ease cool your laptop while in use and fold into multiple configurations and store easily.

If only.

LapDawg

If you're like me, you spend a great deal of your day sitting in front of the computer. (You're probably reading this site from one right now!) And if you're anything like me you probably plug in your dying cell phone at night to charge up, and then grab it off the counter in the morning right before you head out the door. Heaven forbid you forget to charge it, otherwise you'll spend the majority of your day with one nervous eye on the battery meter, shutting down Bluetooth and hoping that one last battery bar will hold out until the end of the day.

Wouldn't it make sense to instead keep your battery-hungry phone charged throughout the day while you use it? And that computer you're sitting in front of has a USB port, doesn't it? The Nokia CA-100 USB charger works on just about all Nokia phones with the new 2mm power plug that don't already charge via the USB port. (Funny that none of the retail cell phone accessory stores I checked sell this essential USB power gadget, but they sure have plenty wall and car chargers.)

Amazon

UV-C is the new Ultraviolet, and a ton of new products are using UV-C to kill germs outright. This spectrum of UV kills dust mites, bacteria and other germs without chemicals so why not stick one on your vacuum cleaner? That's what the Halo UV-ST Ultraviolet vacuum is all about - killing germs with UV-C rays while sucking up all that nasty dirt off your floor at the same time.

Halo Vaccums

Like you, I wanted to see "The Grindhouse" when it was released in the theaters, but I couldn't find a four hour block free to sit in the theater. While "Death Proof" looked good I was more interested in seeing "Planet Terror." I actually managed to avoid all trailers for "Planet Terror" and watched it fresh knowing nothing about the film except that it was about zombies and a babe with a machine gun leg. If you're read the site for a long time you know I have a thing for zombie films and that this genre falls into two categories: the "humans kick zombie ass" category, and the "humans fight hard to barely survive, and then die horrible deaths anyway" category. "Planet Terror" easily qualifies as the goriest and most awesome "humans kick zombie ass" movie I've seen in a very long time. Brief and totally spoiler-free review after the jump.

Continue Reading "Planet Terror (Grindhouse ) Best Zombie Movie Ever?"...