You know the Apocalypse is near when you read Walt's buddy Katherine Boehret saying this in today's The Mossberg Solution column:

I really liked the Sansa Connect. It forced me to look at my portable player as an evolving, untethered device that introduced me to lots of songs [...] My iPod suddenly seemed old-fashioned.

Sure, she doesn't like the idea of subscriptions, the need for Wi-Fi for some functions or the fact that the Yahoo! Music Store only has two million songs versus five million in iTunes (come on Katie! I mean, how many versions of Elton John's Goodbye England's Rose do you want?) But overall, she seems to really dig the Sansa Connect for design, functionality, the neat Wi-Fi implementation and a good battery life. But maybe there is more than meets the eye in this review, right after the jump.

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Hurrah for Danish Laydeez Birgitte Smedegaard and Stine Weiss, who have knocked up these Jamo i200 iPod speakers in their garden shed. And they're not too pricey, either—we found them for $149—which is not bad for the crisp sound they will give to your choons. Available in black and white, you can either wallmount it, or stick it on your shelves and have everyone admire it. Remote controlled, the sound system has separate woofers and tweeters, and you can even connect it up to a separate subwoofer should you want more power, Captain.

And while we're at it, hurrah for Brigitte Nielsen too—I'm pretty sure you could wallmount her if you ask nicely. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [B&H Photo Video via Crave at CNET.co.uk]

Although this Security Camcorder Clock won't transmit video over power lines and is not water-proof like the WiLife Spy Cam, it can be activated when it detects any movement to record 320 x 240 pixel full motion video files AVI files. Then, these files can be transferred to your computer using the included USB cable.

The only bad thing is that this $180 spy gadget will only record 12 minutes with its built-in 64 memory, so whatever security thing you have to record, you better do it fast. Fortunately, it has an SD slot, so you can buy 4GB card and record enough material to open your own homegrown porn video site. –Jesus Diaz

Product page [Skymall via Uberreview]

Portable air conditioning used to mean something Marshall amp-sized (preferably on wheels) that you could fill with water, hoick from room to room, dangle the hose out of the window and plug in. Well, my friends, those days are gone, and instead you can lower the temperature with air-con in a can. For $5 you get a 220ml can filled with all sorts of lovely chemicals, including ethanol (so no smoking while you're spraying or you might find yourself flambéing your armpit hair) to keep your temperatures crypt-like in the summer months.

A Gizmodo tip, though: Don't give up the deodorant in the meantime—while the air-con in a can might provide relief for you, it won't help your fellow travelers on the subway if you are a smelly fella. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Strapya via Akihabara News]

This is a bit like watching paint dry. The Everlast Circle Clock is a one-handed time-telling device that draws circles on your wall. Which to me sounds like all the hassle of having a destructive creative toddler at home with none of the benefits (dirty nappies, repeating rude words they heard from you in front of Granny and Pa, discovering that spoons make very effective catapults, especially when teamed with carrot purée).

Stick a pencil in the arm, stick the clock on the wall—or against a piece of paper if you live in a minimalist's loft—and watch it draw a circle. I'll leave you with the guff from the website. "Are you the sort of person who projects to those around you an affinity for temporal illustrations?" Er, I think the answer is 42. The Everlast Circle Clock is $21&madash;plus the cost of an quarterly paint job for the wall. – Ad Dugdale

Product Page [Everlab via Oh!Gizmo]

The power of Web 2.0 is in full effect over at Digg, where users are revolting over Digg's decision to pull a story (that netted over 15,000 diggs) and reportedly boot a user for posting the HD-DVD AACS Processing Key number, which would allow someone to crack the copy protection on an HD-DVD. The front page of Digg consists entirely of stories flaunting the number or criticizing Digg for its actions.

[UPDATE: About two hours after posting the above, Kevin Rose, Digg founder, reposted the HD-DVD key himself, in response to the massive negative reaction to pulling the original story. A snip of Kevin's statement, and the original screen grab we had of the fallout, are below the fold.

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Technically this is called the JohnNXT 5, though even Steve Guttenberg's minority friend won't be fooled that this isn't the real Johnny Five. LEGO fan Daniele Benedettelli built this entire thing out of LEGO Mindstorm NXT parts, which if our calculations are correct, means this probably costs as much as an actual robot to make.

If you want to build your own (who wouldn't), check out the materials list to get started. – Jason Chen

Project Page [Danielle via MAKE]

Are you a bad enough dude to own this clock? Not everyone is capable of withstanding the eight-pointed shuriken frame, the Yin/Yang face, the nunchuck hands, the chopstick second hand, and the ninja figure that's incessantly kicking its invisible enemies in the face before winding up and kicking some more.

Just pony up an Andrew Jackson (who's not very awesome) and you'll get one of these. We bet if if there were Native American ninjas back then, they would have taken out Jackson with a well timed kick to the groin. *Guitar RIIIFF* – Jason Chen

Product Page [Dannabananas via Nerd Approved]

See that glossy little fella right there? That's Axiom Audio's sexy new M0 PC speaker. The complete package will consist of two satellites and a sub that combined wil deliver 225 watts of power. The M0s will come out this June for $599. That's a lot of money to ask for a pair of cans (the only other pair I can think of priced that high are these), but Axiom is betting the house on their first PC-based speakers. The company also has a wireless (and solar powered) outdoor speaker planned.

The outdoor speaker will cost around $500 to $600 for a pair and it'll come with a 4- to 6-hour battery. They'll connect to an optional solar panel that'll keep them juiced while you enjoy your cup o' lemonade.

If you can't wait for the wireless version, Axiom currently has the water-resistant Algonquin speakers ($300/pair) which are basically wired versions of the latter. It has a 1-inch titanium tweeter and a 6.5-inch aluminum woofer. We didn't get to sample the M0s, so you may want to wait before you spluge, but we hope they sound as good as they look.– Louis Ramirez

Axiom Audio

The WMF 1 is a coffee pad/pod/whatever-based single-serve coffee machine, which integrates your cup into its minimalist cubic design that's not much bigger than a couple of books. The cliche Mac-whiteness can be livened up with your choice of four colors for the lining. Exciting, I know. After dumping in the water and pressing a button, it only takes a minute to brew your coffee.

Personally, I prefer a French press, which is equally minimalist and probably brews better coffee, if you know what you're doing. No price for the WMF 1 yet, but minimalist + white = not cheap. – Matt Buchanan

Product Page [WMF via Nerd Approved]

We covered a bit of the Harman Kardon HS500 and HS300 back in March, but the latter has gone on sale now in the US. To recap, the HS300 has a built-in DVD player with HDMI, DVD-Audio, MP3, WMA, JPEG, AM/FM Tuner, USB ports for music and photo viewing, and 5.1 audio.

Compared with other HTIB (home theater in a box) units with DVD players built in, the price may be a little high (even though the player outputs up to 1080i), but nobody ever said Harman Kardon was cheap. Except maybe Mrs. Kardon. – Jason Chen

For those unfamiliar with TVersity, it's the app you run on your PC that lets you transcode just about any format into a format your Xbox 360 can understand. Essentially, this means you can watch DivX, XviD, and other media files on your consoles on the fly. Good news, because now it's available for the PS3 and the Wii.

However, since the Wii and PS3 have limited format support already, TVersity transcodes into flash video (FLV) format in order to play back on these two consoles. But, you can also play back YouTube, Yahoo, and Google Video on your consoles now with TVersity. Now your grandmas can record and play back internet videos. The cycle is complete. – Jason Chen

Product Page [TVersity]

Rubik's Cubes too hard to solve? Try out this Idiot's Cube, and you'll never feel inferior to Will Smith again. Plus, it's a pretty inexpensive way to tell someone they're too stupid to figure out a real puzzle. Just in time for Mother's Day! – Jason Chen

Product Page [Cool Things]

The first thing I did after I installed Windows Vista was disable User Account Control—it's pretty much the most annoying OS feature I've ever dealt with. Microsoft's Chief Security Advisor in Australia, Peter Watson, however thinks that it's "a great idea and strategically a direction that all operating systems and all technologies should be heading down."

Yeah, because I want every action I take to require slugging through a slew of pop ups asking if I'm super-duper sure that I really want to do whatever it is I'm doing. Every other OS should totally follow suit. – Matt Buchanan

Microsoft: All operating systems should use Vista's UAC security [Builder via Ars Technica]
Image via Flickr

Everything fell into place post-lunch yesterday, so here's a quick list of links to what we covered in the latter part of day number one.

Jabra's Golden Headset for red carpet night.

Panasonic's 108-inch plasma. Monstrous.

Internode's network map poster.

Wallet Flash: credit-card shaped flash drives.

ATEN bring the simple, effective HDMI switching.

More when we hit the floor again later today.

Some real crackers came through overnight. Here's the wrap:

Fighting robots ready to take the field.
Just like the MULE from GRAW 2, only these are smart and can shoot. Say your prayers.

Fujitsu UMPC / tablet hybrid.
Clever designs that fit in the palm of your hand.

Awesome new cables can disappear under paint.
My wife hates cables. Now no one ever has to see them again. Pictured above.

Concept turbines for wind power from car turbulence.
See, more highways could be good for us... or not.

DIY solar heating system.
Macgyver would be proud.

If your mother's one of the few in the country who still wants a RAZR, this limited-edition Mother's Day one makes a decent gift. Get it before Prince stockpiles them all. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Motorola via Mobile Tech Review]

Panasonic demoed a "No-Constraints Carpet" concept recently, and for once we're glad this thing is still a concept. It's a carpet/rug that's shaped like a furry snake in order to mimic the feel of a hot pet. The hot part? That comes from small heating elements buried inside.

In essence, you've got a gigantic furry snake thing you can step on, wrap around, and caress whenever you want. Hmmm, on second thought, Panasonic? Make these now! – Jason Chen

Panasonic puts the "pet" in hot carpet [Pink Tentacle]

Come on, Times. Not only are you guys one of the top newspapers in the world, but now you are taking over the portable gardening database gadget market with this thing. The Garden Expert is a database chock-full of information about gardening. The device scours decades' worth of gardening factoids from Times gardening columns to find the tough answers you are looking for. Oh, and it looks like a watering can—how cute. $20. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via bookofjoe]

We covered the Energizer USB charger before, but we've got some new details on how it interacts with the software.

Energizer has two widgets, one for Macs and one for Windows, that let you monitor the charge as it's happening—in real time. It's like a mini-episode of 24 happening in your own machine, except instead of bombs getting found, you're making sure you have enough batteries for your Wiimote. Price is still $14. – Jason Chen

Energizer Duo [Energizer via Everything USB]

Even though it doesn't rain all that much here, we're suckers for an awesome umbrella design. Whether it's the lightsaber-grip umbrella,the lightsaber-shaft umbrella, or this Sprout umbrella, we're all for umbrellas.

What's special about this umbrella is the way it unlocks. You turn the knob to unlock the canopy, which then forces the knob down the umbrella and the canopy up through the shaft. You get the idea, so we'll quit all this knob and shaft talk now before someone gets hurt. – Jason Chen

Matt Swinton's Design Site [Coroflot]

Sprout Umbrella [Yanko Design]

These CeraLight Xeno speakers from Ceratec may sound good, but their main draw is the way you can adjust their color or brightness just from your remote.

Couple this with a Philips Ambilight—or maybe even your own homemade ghetto ambilight, and you've got yourself a party. A really nerdy party. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Ceratec via Fresh Creation]

We've been following Novint's Falcon controller since its birth, and now the folks at Novint tell us their pasty white baby is ready to make its debut. The Falcon will be out June 18th for $239. In a nutshell, the 3D controller lets you play games via a handshake-like grip that offers a more realistic experience via force feedback and tactile sensation. The Falcon will come with 24 mini games and a four-game sports pack, which will include titles like air hockey and tennis. So how does it play/feel? For the most part, it's pretty smooth.

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If you had a hard enough time wading through the millions of horrible home videos to get to the good ones on YouTube now, wait until old people start putting stuff up there. Pure Digital's Flip Video camcorder is designed to be easy to use for non-techies, complete with built-in USB adapter and software to make it easy to upload to YouTube, Google Video or Grouper.

The devices themselves will come in two versions, one with a 30-minute capacity for $119, and the other 60-minutes for $149. When tested, Flip Video really was as easy as it sounds to use. So get ready for some grandma videos, and we don't mean the good kind. – Jason Chen

YouTube for soccer Moms [CNN]

Good news, media pirates/porn addicts: you can now get an external drive that can hold a whopping 1TB of your illegal/illicit materials. OWC is releasing its Mercury Elite-AL Pro "Quad Interface" 1.0TB External Drive Solution for $600, and it's loaded up with connectivity options. You can plug it in via FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, or eSATA ports. It's your choice! Just go wild!

Best of all, it's styled to go great with your Mac Pro tower (not that it won't work on Windows machines; you'll just look like a poser). Finally, something to hold all your porn and look good while doing it! So long, ratty DVD-R binder! –Adam Frucci

Product Page [MacSales]

Apple just released some more official details on WWDC, including the time (10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a,m)., the date (June 11), and the topic (a feature-complete version of Leopard). Attendees and developers will get that same feature-complete beta to take home in order to test, and will ship—this is in their own words—this October.

We'll be there in full force to cover the entire keynote as usual. And if you're there, stop by and say hello. – Jason Chen

I personally enjoy getting my paws dirty scrubbing the grill down, but for those uber lazy types this motorized grill brush is fantastic. Push the button and the roller spins, cleaning up all of that leftover meat, grease and hooker spit from the grill. It is available for $25 and includes years of ridicule you will endure for actually using a motorized grill brush. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Product Page]

SkiBob is like a miniature jet ski that can pull you along on the surface or under water. It uses a combination of a 5hp electric motor along with an electric jet stream to propel you through the water at a brisk 12.5mph, letting you swim faster than all but the quickest fish.

It's safe, too, turning off and floating back to the surface if you let go of it. If you're not wearing scuba tanks, you can set it to automatically turn off when it gets to a depth of around 8 feet, but then you can set it for a maximum depth of over 120 feet if you're a brave soul with air tanks on your back.

How does it work?

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If you hide your gaming habits like a leprous half-brother in order to protect your image as "the cool one" on your high school's math team, you know how embarrassing it can be to have controllers strewn about your bachelor pad. You can't let the ladies know that you spent $600 on a Playstation 3 rather than on hair gel and fancy pants!

That's why you should invest in these Game Shells. They're classy chrome cases for your controllers, and while they won't fool anyone but the dumbest of guests, at least you'll show people that you're making an effort to class up the joint. Or you could just put your controllers away in a drawer or something when you aren't using them, but that solution isn't shiny and doesn't cost $138, so screw it. –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Nerd Approved]

If prize-winning security researcher Dino Dai Zovi is correct, it's time for Mac fanboys to stop being so smug about Mac OS X security. Dai Zovi says Microsoft Windows Vista slam dunks Mac OS X 10.4 when it comes to vulnerabilities:

"I have found the code quality, at least in terms of security, to be much better overall in Vista than Mac OS X 10.4. It is obvious from observing affected components in security patches that Microsoft's Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) has resulted in fewer vulnerabilities in newly written code. I hope that more software vendors follow their lead in developing proactive software security development methodologies."

Should we believe this guy?

Yes, actually.

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Today marks the first day of YouTube competitor Joost's commercial availability. That's right, it's out of "expanded beta" and open to an "unlimited number"—cue record scratch noise—"of friends, family and colleagues of existing beta testers." Maybe it's not beta, or expanded beta, but I am going to call this interim period "expanded expanded beta."

The dudes who brought you KaZaA and Skype also announced new content for the "TV anywhere" service, including Hasbro, the NHL, Sports Illustrated (that's the one with the ladies rolling in sand, right?), Sony Pictures Television, CNN and our favorite, Adult Swim. (Carl is so dreamy!)

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Designed by Matthew Swinton, the Axis camera fits in your hand vertically (like a cellphone) to let you take pictures with one hand rather than two. One side of the camera holds the lens (along with the protective lid) while the other packs a massive LCD for viewing your pics and videos. I like it 'cause it looks more natural for one-handed picture taking, but I'd also like to see this concept camera slimmed down (Exilim style) or maybe just a tad smaller. – Louis Ramirez

Axis, Cellphone Like Digital Camera [Yanko Design]

Annoying timekeeping schemes are not just for watches any more, as evidenced by this minimalist LCD E8 eight wall clock from Lexon, a company that also makes a watch with this same goofy layout.

How does it work? Each of the four columns represents a digit, and sure, it's confusing but we hear it's easy to get used to after a short while. The little indicator halfway up makes it a bit easier, showing you the spot where the 5 is.

Either mount this baby on the wall or prop it up on its own built-in stand, and keep everybody guessing about what time it really is. If all this annoys you, avoid its steep $203 price and use the clock on your $600 cellphone. – Charlie White

Minimalist LCD E8 Wall Clock [tfts]

The great thing about infomercial kitchen products is that, generally speaking, they seem like they solve some grand problem, but in reality they end up sitting in the back of a drawer, only to be used once or twice.

Take the Tater Mitts, for example. They're rubber gloves with an abrasive surface, allowing you to peel a potato with your hands in, according to their accurate speed tests, a mere eight seconds. That's pretty fast, but unless you're an Irish chef or a misbehaving army recruit then I don't know how often you'll be busting these out. But hey, more crap to spend money on, stuff into drawers, and never use! It's the American way! –Adam Frucci

Product Page [via Book of Joe]

While some of the highest technology in the world is being brought to bear on the problem of saving energy, here's a guy who painted 50 soda cans black, drilled holes in them, stacked them up inside a box he made out of two-by-fours and some plywood, and what do you know? Wafting out the top was air that's 15 degrees warmer than the air going into the bottom.

He vented that warm air from the top of this box into his garage and got himself a homemade solar heater that cost less than $50 to build. The same design can be used as a solar water heater, too. It's Yankee ingenuity at its best. – Charlie White

Almost free garage heat - just drink a lot of soda [Hemmings Auto Blogs]

Well, consider my mind blown. Yes, that's a picture of a dog in a rainbow afro wig riding in a doggie stroller you're looking at. What has the world come to when there's a market for strollers so people can walk their dogs without their dogs actually walking? When did we decide that dogs didn't need and enjoy exercise? Will people actually buy and use this crap? Are these truly the end times, and, if so, what can I do to prepare for the rapture?

So many questions, so few answers. –Adam Frucci

AfroPets Products to present its baby stroller for pets [Aving]

These crazy turbines, designed by a University of Arizona student, get juice from the wind created by passing cars and trucks. As vehicles fly by, the breeze they create is harnessed by the overhead turbines to power what we can only assume would be more rest stop Roy Rogers and McDonalds.

Able to generate an estimated 9,600 kWh per year, these wouldn't replace surrounding power plants anytime soon, but they'd be a great way to supplement existing plants with eco-friendly energy. Wind power FTW!–Adam Frucci

Archinect [via AutoblogGreen]

Light Wind is an innovative luminaire design concept you could keep on your patio to catch those summer breezes, gathering energy from the wind and giving you a bit of illumination at night. With its six-foot prop, it'll look like a gigantic propellerhead in your back yard. Now the neighbors will really wonder what you've been up to. Just tell them you've erected an idol to your patron saint. – Charlie White

Design Page [Demakersvan, via Neatorama]