Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Here’s another way to accessorize your monitor besides sticking Post-It notes all over it.  This Posy Cozy by artist Darlene is a knit holder that includes a plastic vial to hold flowers and comes with a gift card and Velcro to attach to the side of your monitor.  It is available in many different colors and costs $10, $14, or $15 on Etsy.  This would be a great way to have a flower arrangement at your desk without taking up desk room.  If having water in the vial would be too messy for you, you can just put fake flowers, or put pens instead.

But let’s say that knits are not your thing and you just want the vial.  Well if you have an HP monitor, you can get this Easy Clip kitfor $9.99 that has a flower vase, plus a headphone holder and two photo holders.  I suppose these products would be more suitable for a home computer than for a work computer since flowers might look too whimsical for work.  But I think they’d make the computer look more cheerful!  The Windows XP Control Panel includes a couple of flower wallpapers, so if it’s OK to have flowers as the background for your screen then it should be OK to have flowers on the sides of the screen too.

Via [geeksugar]

Here’s a contraption that would go nicely with your monster computer lounge setup. It’s the Gemini P29 wireless keyboard, which supposedly is the world’s “first 5-in-1.” However I haven’t been successful in clearly identifying what the other three features are, aside from it being a keyboard and a wireless remote.

It’ll measure larger than most average-sized keyboards, but the reason for this can be clearly seen - extra buttons and a joystick put on top, possibly for added convenience and more control. A 10 meter (about 33 foot) radius is afforded to you via a USB dongle for your PC, so you can control your PC apps, among other things, remotely.

Interested in getting one? I’m sure Xenics (from Korea) would be glad to help you out.

Product [Xenics Korea] Via [Akihabara News]

“Athletic Performance Sensing and/or Tracking Systems and Methods” is the title of a new patent applied for by Nike, in relation to its collaboration with Apple on something called Nike+iPod. While you probably thought that Nike finally ditched Apple when it released the Nike+ Sportband, this new patent reveals that Nike and Apple are actually on planning a few new things for their Nike+iPod team up, including adding support for activities other than running (such as yoga, karate, pilates and free weights) aside from expanding into the iPhone and iPod touch lineup.

When the idea behind this patent bears fruition, expect it to provide you with ways to create customizable workouts, motivational playlists, and specific feedback for your sessions in order to help you keep track of your performance, whether you’re actually improving or not.

Well it’s about time they got to work on this thing. With all the gleaming tech under the hood of the iPhone, it’s not unusual to hear Nike+iPod being able to do all of this. And as with all great things, the question of course, is when, where, and how much?

Read [USPTO] Via [iLounge]

While we’re waiting for Motorola to introduce its latest phones in CTIA 2008, let’s take a look at one of their latest cellphone accessories. Today, the Motorola H690 Bluetooth headset was introduced, featuring noise-reduction technology, echo cancellation, dual-microphones and a 5.5-hour manufacturer-rated battery life. It takes on the shape of most regular Bluetooth headsets, but Motorola says it comes with “TrueComfort” ear buds that provide a better overall experience. There’s no word on official pricing just yet, but expect it to debut during Q2 of this year.

Via [Crave]

Chinavasion, a company known for churning out sometimes bizarre and sometimes novel little gadgets, now brings us a cellphone accessory to show just how literally they take certain things. For what better way is there to celebrate having a Bluetooth headset and mic pair for your phone than wearing the microphone part inside your own tooth? I think it’s an engineering marvel.

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The Mr Jones Accurate watch will be the perfect gift for yourself, your lover, or your mortal enemy. That’s because the Accurate watch’s casing is made of stainless steel, it has a black leather strap with white stitching, it’s waterproof up to 5ATM, and best of all, the hour and minute hands are fitted with legible words. And not just any ordinary words. Mind you, these words seem very well researched. The hour hand says “remember” while the minute hand says “you will die.” Perhaps the best reason why this is perfect for giving out death threats! And while some people might question the taste of the maker Crispin Jones for his choice of words to implement on the clock hands, he had this to say: “I… work very hard to make them beautiful objects in their own right.” Uh, right. Beautiful in the eyes of the Grim Reaper? You bet. You can get one of these for only $145 a piece, which I believe is more than enough to remind you of “it.”

Via [Watchismo] Via [Oh! Gizmo]

Diligent research plus $75 USD have led researchers at the University of California, Berkeley to develop a cellphone accessory that turns any cameraphone into a mobile microscope. That, coupled with the ability of most mobile phones to wirelessly connect with computers either via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, makes for a very convenient way to do a little bit of research and medical diagnosis. With enough time and training, people might even be able to do this themselves. The concept is so simple I’m amazed nobody has ever thought of it before. Finally all those megapixels have found a way to be useful, for once.

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Have you ever dropped something or committed some other social faux pas while searching for your cell phone in order to turn the damn ringer off? Well, drop no more when incoming calls arrive, as so has help in the form of FlipSilent, a small software that helps you “use your phone naturally.”

FlipSilent utilizes accelerometer technology, which is the very same that is used to re-orient phone and camera displays horizontally or vertically. FlipSilent transforms the process of quieting an incoming call to an action as simple as flipping the phone from its back to its face (assuming of course, that you know where your phone is to flip, a malady that sometimes befalls a small segment of our population).

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There were many gamer-friendly gadgets at this year’s CES but, due to technological limits and simple human exhaustion, we couldn’t quite get them all on Gadgetell.

Here a reduced version of the list I compiled for my local CiN Weekly column featuring the better gaming gadgets and announcements from CES 2007.  Read on for the list…

• Razer Reclusa gaming keyboard with gold-plated USB plug


• Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse


• Nyko WiiMote charger

• Nyko PS3 wireless controller charger (4 controllers at one time)

• Novint Tech.’s Falcon 3D controller, maybe the weirdest item I found. The pointed mouse floats on robot arms and gives back a bit of resistance so it feels like you are touching the items on your computer.


• Alienware m9750 laptop (bling and caching)

• TDVision Systems’ 3D visor that turns any 2D video into 3D


• Samsung’s Series 53 and 54 LCD HDTVs with increased viewing angles and extras ports for game systems.

• HotSeat Chassis with a metal frame, 23 in. LCD HD widescreen monitors and surround sound. Pricey but dern cool. Frame only kit is $600, full setup can cost $4000.


• PCGamerBike to power your PC and control avatars in compatible games. Coming next month for $1100. Mini version available now for $180.


• D-Box GP-100, the uber plush sound-sensitive chair that reacts to on-screen action. A hard sell for $15K,000.


• N-Gage will become a software package that will work with their NSeries devices and will not be a specific N-Gage branded hardware device (I confirmed this with Nokia).


• Zune will play games by July 2008


• Sony, besides the unfortunate PR blunder, won two Emmys and announced and agreement with Midway to offer more downloadable games.


• Nintendo was a no-show but Wiis were on display everywhere and they won an Emmy for their D-pad.


• Microsoft promoted Vista with the FPS game, Crysis, showed off the Xbox 360 controller working with a Vista PC, console and PC content sharing, a raise in the 50MB download cap on games and some Zune integration.

A pretty clear theme at this year’s CES was not only home media servers, but also adding a friggin’ iPod dock to virtually everything. With that in mind, PCMag’s iPod accessories roundup also suggests a new remote, an additional screen and some wireless headphones.

• Kensington Entertainment Dock 500 with remote


• DLO HomeDock Deluxe with remote


• Apple iPod Radio Remote


• ATO iSee 360i 3.6 in. screen (only good with Windows-formatted iPods)


• Logitech FreePlus Wireless Headphones via Bluetooth

Read [PCMag]