I have to admit, I wasn’t super thrilled when I wrote to Motorola hoping to check out the new MOTOACTV and they didn’t have any on hand, but suggested that I check out one of their new Bluetooth headsets. I picked the Elite Sliver, and I’ve been using it ever since. I’ve never been a big Bluetooth headset fan, but this headset has changed my mind. It’s very well designed, placing the bulk of the headset behind the ear, giving it a sleek, almost unnoticeable look (I have black hair and can barely see it at all when I look at myself head-on in a mirror. I guess that explains the name. :)

Previous headsets that I’ve owned have been notoriously difficult to power on and off, due to terrible button placement, so unless I walked around with the headset on at all times (which wasn’t going to happen), it was always difficult to answer the phone via my headset. The Sliver eliminates this problem, because it is easily powered on with a quick turn of the earpiece. There is no power button. It’s an awesomely thought-out user interaction. You then place it on your ear and the headset speaks to you and says that it’s successfully connected, and which phone it’s connected to (by the way, it connects to multiple phones and switches between them just fine, which I believe is a feature of Bluetooth 3.0, which it supports.) The Sliver comes with the usual array of earpieces so that you can adjust the fit for your ear canal size. You can also view the headset’s battery status on your iPhone’s status bar when paired and connected.

The Sliver comes with a charging case that you plug into the wall, then place the headset into. The charging case has its own battery, so you get up to 15 hours of battery power (when fully charged, the headset has more than 5 hours). It also has support for A2DP, so you can listen to Bluetooth streaming audio. I have been using it to listen to podcasts around the house and while walking the dog, and it’s worked great.

The one complaint that I have is that the charger doesn’t come with a USB cable for charging. It’d be nice if I could plug the headset directly into my laptop or the USB port in my car and charge it. The fact that it comes with a battery pack in the cradle makes this a lot less of an issue though.

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We’ve all bent or broken a nail trying to get keys off of a key-ring, and this clever solution pretty much solves that. The Free Key works using something that you learned about all those years ago in Physical Science: leverage. It’s leverage, used cleverly. Should we go with “cleverage” to describe it? I think so.

via NOTCOT

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I am going to buy two of these immediately; one for myself and one for my wife.

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Sometimes, when trying to figure out the solution to a problem, you end up having to rewrite the question. We’ve been wishing and trying to create a flying car for years, but the people at Terrafugia thought, what if we built a plane that we could drive? When you do, you come up with something like the Transition.

I’ve never wanted to fly a plane before. Now, I kind of do.

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A desk toy takes a cross-country trip using Google Maps, some help from his friends, and some really awesome camera/prop tricks. This short feels like Pixar movies used to.

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“What a life.” – John Gruber

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I think that this is a pretty novel idea. Every one of us has run out of power outlets at one time or another, and we increasingly need to charge gadgets that have USB plugs for power. The Flipit USB Charger goes in between any AC power plug and an outlet, and it gives you a USB outlet without sacrificing any of your existing outlets.

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It’s been awhile since I’ve seen something worth posting about on FreshArrival. I see so much new stuff every day, but not much seems worthy these days. This, however is the kind of thing that FA was made to highlight. Coffee Joulies are a new project that is genius and well-deserving of being turned into a full product. Ever make a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea and burn your mouth trying to drink it, or leave it sitting too long and have it get too cold, or feel forced to drink it quickly, while it’s at the right temperature, or really need your caffeine fix but have to wait until your beverage has cooled enough for you to consume? Coffee Joulies aim to solve all of these problems, and they just need a little help getting off of the ground. It’s currently a Kickstarter project, but these guys have already proven that they can make them into a real product, so please help them out!

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Such an unfortunate name for such a brilliant site. This Is Not Porn is a website that shows celebrities in a different light than we normally see them in. Some examples: Martin Luther King Jr. shooting a behind-the-back pool shot, Nancy Reagan on Mr. T’s lap, Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 70′s, Pablo Picasso playing a trumpet, Marlon Brando hanging out with Michael Jackson, Albert Einstein hanging out at the beach, Colonel Sanders and Alice Cooper…. and so much more. Take a bit, go through the whole archive, and then subscribe. Awesome.

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I cannot believe that these guys/girls are still alive after eating all of this junk. Epic Meal Time is an internet video show where a group of friends gets together to eat some of the most disgustingly delicious creations that I have ever seen. A bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a bird in a pig. A giant meatball stuffed with pasta, fast food sushi. They are crazy. It’s worth watching just for the spectacle of it all. Only in America.

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I can’t believe I didn’t post about these before (I’m thinking maybe they weren’t actually available for sale at the time), but here they are. Keybrids are a great new invention that let you save a little more space on your keychain by combining a keyring with your house key. This has another advantage as well, and this one is more enticing to me: You can much more easily find your house key when you get to your front door, because it IS the keyring! Until my home can retina scan me reliably, this will be on my keyring (or rather, this will BE my keyring).

The 2-pack is on sale this week for $13.99 if you use the code Core77 at checkout, otherwise they cost $8.99 each or $16.99 for the 2-pack.

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One of the ways that I know that I’m growing up is that when I have an idea for something, Google it and find out that someone has already built it, I’m excited rather than annoyed that someone has beaten me to the punch. A great example of this is the The Time Zone Converter. I was just thinking that someone should build a time zone converter that is simple to use and just lets you convert between two times without a bunch of fuss. Periodically I find myself wanting to convert from one time zone to another but I’ve never found something that works seamlessly without me having to think of what city is in which time zone and which just lets me effortlessly convert from one time zone to another.

Tonight, I found The Time Zone Converter. It lets you just type a time, two time zones, (which it helps you auto complete) and it fills in the other time for you automatically. There’s even a Mac widget available! Super easy, super useful.

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In 2006, analog sticks and shoulder buttons gave way to fret boards and whammy bars when Activision unleashed the Guitar Hero franchise onto the video game scene. Whether it be the adolescent perfectionist in the confines of his dark bedroom looking to secure face-melting 100% accuracy on Pantera’s “Cowboys From Hell” or the raucous atmosphere of a college party in which blurry-eyed freshmen bob their heads along with ZZ Top’s “Sharp Dressed Man,” Guitar Hero allowed gamers to throw their caution and petty differences into an ocean of rock fans blanketing a virtual arena as they rocked along one sizzling riff at a time. Four years and 16 titles later, the Guitar Hero franchise finds itself up against Electronic Arts’ behemoth Rock Band in a market where the term “over saturation” is the elephant in the room. Does Activision’s latest offering, Warriors of Rock, give the franchise a chance to fight another day, or is it time for a farewell tour?

At first glance, the gamer immediately notices that Warriors of Rock takes a specifically thematic approach to its presentation. Players are invited to “join the quest to save rock,” and along with their band mates, embark on a quest-driven campaign from smoky bars to fiery mythical chasms, overcoming various challenges and unlocking characters. The narration of KISS’ Gene Simmons accompanies a 90-song spectrum ranging from catchy pop hits to skull-rattling metal cuts. The decision to design an epic, fantastical campaign is an admirable one, as such themes tap into the guitar-driven spirit that gave the Guitar Hero franchise its fame. However, when crafting such a specifically-themed experience, it is critical that the song selections evoke that same spirit. A headless, Jack Skellington-esque rocker strumming along to R.E.M.’s “Losing My Religion” unfortunately creates a disjointed experience, and Gene Simmons’ lackluster narration does little to remedy numerous occasions in which Tim Burton clashes with dentist office ambience to produce “The Osbournes Attend the Church Picnic.” Nevertheless, a story-driven campaign plays little part in blemishing the collaborative spirit that this franchise has striven to create, and in that sense, this title holds on strong.

Warriors of Rock is offered in a variety of bundles, ranging from the full package of guitar, drums, and microphone, to the game disc by itself, for those seasoned veterans who at this point weather a sea of plastic instruments in their living room. The look and feel of these instruments shows that Activision has come to a comfortable point of solid build quality. However, an arduous calibration process lengthened the game setup and frayed the player’s nerves before the first notes were played. Fortunately, these setbacks were only momentary, and upon enlisting a partner in several rounds of the game’s variety of multiplayer modes, a band of friends can quickly become awash in the enigmatic riffs and collaborative bliss of what makes Guitar Hero stand the test of time.

In just four short years, the Guitar Hero franchise has traveled an epic journey, similar to that which Warriors of Rock attempts to create. Throughout that period, they have enlisted the music industry’s top talent and have pushed the rhythm game formula to its limits to combat the advances of their competition in a market whose thirst for these games is quickly becoming quenched. Despite a campaign that is, at times, a victim of its own conflict of themes, this game shines with its buffet of multiplayer options. Do these Warriors of Rock live to fight another day? For now, they do, but these warriors are fighting an uphill battle.

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Boy, do I ever wish that I had these when I was growing up. The geek in me would have loved the recursiveness of storing my boxes of LEGO in a box that was a LEGO. The adult me still wants a few of these though (and who wouldn’t, really?) They look amazing.

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