The Gadget Vault

BlackBerry Storm with keyboard?

admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:05:13 +0000

BlackBerry is about to launch it’s first touch screen phone, wich seems the thing to have now on high end smartphones. Apple kickstarted it with the iPhone, and now more and more manufacturers are adopting them. Problem is, though, that the keypad is usually sacrificed for a larger screen. Most such phones have an on-screen keyboard, while HTC has chosen to use a slide-out querty keyboard.
BlackBerry is rumored to be working on such a phone, too. Not much details are known at this point. It will probably be something like HTC’s upcoming Android-based phone.

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Puzzle Box Safe

admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:19:48 +0000

This has got to be one of the most original designs I have ever seen! It’s a wooden safe with a series of rotating drawers. The object you want to put inside goes into the large central drawer through a hole in the bottom first, and then you can move it from one drawer to the next by rotating them so the holes in them line up. It may be a bit hard to get things back out of it, though, and to be honest, it doesn’t look very “safe” to me. Nothing will stop a thief from just using a hammer or saw to open it. Remember, it’s made of wood, not steel! I wouldn’t use it for storing diamonds and gold bars, but it’s still an übercool contraption.

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Creative Zen X-Fi 32GB

admin — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:44:22 +0000

Here it is: Creative’s latest state-of-the-art portable multimedia player. The Zen X-Fi contains the Creative X-Fi technology wich is already widely used in their soundcards, with some spectacular results. It restores many of the nuances that get lost in the compression, resulting in a much clearer, deeper sound.
The Zen X-Fi is Wifi enabled. This can be used to stream audio to or from your home network, or you can use it to chat with MSN or Yahoo Messenger! It comes with a built-in speaker, 32 gigabytes of flash memory and the possibility to expand this even further with memory cards. And the weight of all of this? Only 71 grams!
I have always been a fan of the Creative MP3 players, but there’s one disadvantage: 99% of all MP3 accessories completely ignore the fact that there are other players than the iPod and provide only a connector for that particular player. Because this one has Wifi, you can use it with any wireless audio streamer, though.

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Gold Bar USB Hub

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:24:37 +0000

This would fit nicely in the category “Pimp my desktop”! It’s heavy, it’s shiny, it’s got 8 USB ports, and anyone who would even consider getting one of these deserves a swift kick in the nuts with a steel-toed boot.

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Self-Destruct Button Keychain

admin — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 17:00:22 +0000

As a supervillain, you have to be prepared for everything, even the worst. Sure, you have your secret underground lair, your army of henchmen and that secret escape route from your throne room where you plot world domination, but since everything that can go wrong will eventually go wrong, you need a failsafe device just in case you are faced with your nemesis (wich will probably turn out to be your twin brother you thought was dead after you supposedly killed him. Hint: next time, check if he’s really dead!).
That’s where this device comes in handy: a self-destruct button keychain! Picture this: your legions have been vanquished and you find yourself in your throne room, sitting in a luxurious leather chair as you hear footsteps approach. You swivel around, staring down the barrel of a gun. Of course, the guy holding the gun doesn’t shoot you straight away. No, for dramatic effect he has to deliver a speech about how you have failed, blah blah blah, giving you time to hold up your self destruc button in an overly theatrical fashion, paralyzing the secret agent with fear before you push it and obliterate your fortress in a huge explosion (insert demonic laughter here).

Buy from Firebox

Note: self-destruct button keychain is only a button. Self-destruct mechanism must be bought separately. Underground lair and army of henchmen not included.

Drum Kit T-shirt Video

admin — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 07:41:34 +0000

This t-shirt gives the “human beatbox” concept an entire new meaning. It has seven different drum and cymbal sounds wich are activated by touchpads. This would definitely draw quite a crowd in street performances!

Space Invaders T-Shirt

admin — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 20:30:22 +0000

The ones among us who are old enough to remember the 1970s or ’80s will probably have lots of precious memories of this game, and even those who are too young to remember the age of the arcade will probably know it. Chances are it’s on your cellphone! But back in the days when this game was only available on machines that needed a forklift to install, it caused coin shortages in some countries and was responsible for many wrist injuries. Aaahh, good times!
J!nx now has a limited edition T-shirt to keep the memory of this legendary game alive. It’s available in sizes from S to XXL. Better hurry, though, because there’s only a limited supply and once they are gone they stay gone!

Buy from J!nx

Lego V8 Engine

admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:36:33 +0000

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I was born 20 years too soon. When I was a kid, I had lots of Lego, but the most advanced component in my collection was an electric motor. Without the internet to get inspiration and custom plans, my creations were limited to the stuff that was in the instructions or, in the best case, modified versions of the standard models. Today’s 10-year olds are the luckiest kids in the world, with Lego Mindstorms and all the übercool sets and components.
Of all the custom Lego designs I have ever seen, this is without any doubt one of the coolest. It’s a V8 engine that has all the things a real engine has (almost all, this one doesn’t have sparkplugs for obvious reasons). It has cylinders and pistons, valves, camshafts, a distribution belt (actually a chain in this one) and it all moves the same way it does in a real engine. Whoever designed and built this is plain and simply a genius.

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Wii storage solution coming… sort of

admin — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:22:08 +0000

As everyone knows, the Wii is equipped with a lousy amount of storage. And when you’re out of space, all you can do is backup your savegames on an SD card and delete some stuff. You can’t put downloaded games on external storage, you can only play them from the internal storage. Rumors about a USB harddrive for the Wii have been floating around ever since it first became clear it didn’t have enough storage capacity. Now Nintendo has finally come up with some sort of solution. No, it’s no external harddrive. They will release a software update that will allow you to play games from external media.
This is good news of course, but there are a few downsides. First of all, the Wii doesn’t have an SDHC slot, only standard SD, so you can only have two gigabytes of external storage. Second, you’ll have to wait until spring 2009.
There may be one hell of a catch to this, though. Why does it take so long to allow you to play from external media? Shouldn’t this be something easy? Of course, there will be lots of DRM and encryption to prevent you from sharing downloaded games, but here’s another possibility. The update will probably also disable the current homebrew channel. You can disable the updates, of course, but having the possibility of using external storage the way it should have been in the first place sounds very tempting.

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J!nx Laptop Backpack

admin — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 20:27:35 +0000

When carrying around your laptop, you want it to have the best protection possible. This backpack does exactly that, and it also shows off your geek pride! The large main compartment is padded for extra protection and comfort and is big enough to hold a 17″ laptop.
Behind the main compartment is an organizer compartment with lots of pockets for storing things like USB drives, memory cards, cables and other accessories. A dedicated mouse and power adapter pocket is also provided. The shoulder straps are very durable and include a neoprene carrying handle. On top of the bag is a dedicated compartment for an MP3 player with a headphone exit port.

Buy from J!nx