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Crystal Chameleon Case for Wii Shows Its Colors When the Heat is On
Posted by Seamus Byrne at 11:58 PM on May 30, 2007
If it gets a bit too hot inside that Nintendo Wii of yours, this ii-case Crystal Chameleon Hot Rock Case will let you know at a glance. It has a built-in digital LED thermometer, and you can tell how hot your Wii is getting by looking at its color. Every time the Wii gets 5° hotter, its LED lights' color changes to a hotter hue on the color spectrum. By the time it's up to 55°C, it'll be glowing red as a beet.
This is actually a plastic case that replaces the one surrounding the innards of the Wii. It'll take a bit of disassembly to take out the Wii's components, and then install them in this case, but from the looks of it, that might be a task that's well worth it. On the next page, there's full close-up view of this handsome case mod, along with pricing and availability info.
Now you can click on a street in Google Maps and you're virtually there. Street View, a limited feature that could be called experimental because of the paucity of cities available, was just rolled out by Google a few hours ago. But that lack of imagery doesn't make this any less cool. Click the Street View button on the top, select one of the camera icons then you can do a virtual walk around that city.
It doesn't give you that virtual race car that you get with Microsoft's 
Just a quick note for those of you who are looking forward to the 
Project Milan is in fact a touch-sensitive table. Dubbed "Surface" and five years in the making, it's set to establish a paradigm of what Microsoft calls "surface computers" which use touch as the sole method of input.
Painting with surface sounds particularly intuitive (and fun): you can use a paint brush or simply dip your fingers into virtual paint cups. Photo resizing and stacking works much like the iPhone's zoom gestures. Also cool is the capacity for multiple users.
Such sweet tech comes at a price, naturally, with the units running $10,000 a pop. But, Microsoft expects prices to plummet over the next three to five years to the point they'll be in your homes. In the meantime you'll be able to play with them at T-Mobile stores, Harrah's and Sheraton hotels. Got more questions? Hit the jump for a FAQ and (naturally) a boatload of pictures. Update: And a video!
This is a Japan-only thing for now, but Nintendo's just announced two brand spankin' new colors for the DS Lite. The two colors are Metallic Rose, which looks reddish-pink, and Gloss Silver, which looks silver.
Although we'd really like both of the colors to hit the US, Nintendo's held off Japan colors before. Ice Blue showed up last year and still hasn't reached us yet. Then again, Ice Blue looked like 2000 flushes, while these two look classy. 
Remember the Leapfrog Fly Pentop? The educational toy that can answer math problems and translate words you write on the special dotted paper? This LiveScribe is the grown-up version, and I believe it's going to sell like hotcakes. In a nutshell, the most critically cool thing it can do is link audio recordings you make as you jot written notes to the actual text you're writing. And it can later all be indexed on a PC, and played back on the computer. Or by clicking on the notepad. Completely useful for students, journalists, lawyers—anyone who takes a lot of notes. And it works.
Remember the XG Station we spotted back at CES? Well, Asus is releasing a desktop version that'll connect to one of Nvidia's 8600 GT cards. The breakout box will let you overclock your video card without having to rely on any software. It fits into a 5.25-inch drive bay in your PC and also keeps track of your card's temperature, fan speed, and overall performance. No word on pricing yet, although Asus plans on demoing the device next week. 
We just received word that the 
theANEMIX is a modular, customisable lighting system inspired by the bioluminescence of deep-sea creatures that produces 3D effects in space. It uses an easily modifiable panel composed of a reflective and a luminescent layer, which is LED-powered, to produce its effects. However they do it, it looks pretty damn sweet, as you can see in the gallery below. 
When we saw these Fragpedal USB Gaming Footpedals back at E3 2006 buried in Kentia Hall, we thought the concept was interesting, but reserved judgment until we could get our feet on them. i4u just got a pair and they seem to really like them.
The Fragpedals are essentially four buttons that you hit with your feet that you can map macros to. It's useful when you map functions that are either inconvenient to hit with your keyboard or ones that you want to hit simultaneously with your keyboard.
Kudos to Dell, who over the weekend gathered up 35 tonnes of old computers in a free recycling day - their most successful to date.
According to an assortment of unrelated sources, the best guess is that Microsoft is finally launching its PlayTable concept as a full-blown entertainment product. 
With this $15 set of 4 steak thermometers, you'll no longer have to yell at your kids whenever he or she cooks your steak the wrong way. Just plop the reusable thermometer inside your steak and watch as the gauge goes from Rare to Medium to Well.
We've been cooking steak for a while and still don't know what the "optimal" temperature for it is, so an easy-to-read thermometer like this is perfect for idiots like us. And your kids. 
The Moshi Celesta keyboard has two things going for it. One, it looks very nice with its blue LEDs and "diamond-cut" aluminum frame. Two, it has laptop-styled keys to make typing quieter and faster. Yes, we know some of you like to type at 90db with your click-clacking IBM keyboards, but not everyone does.
Lord Percy tested out the keyboard and said it was easy to use and had the full amount of keys. This is important, because many laptop-styled keyboards don't have the numpad—this does. It also supports OS X's function keys and comes with a black pouch if you want to travel with it. But for a price of $120, only the people who use their computers a lot can justify buying the Celesta. 
There are certain members of the Windows coding community that just can't seem to let go of the fact that Windows Vista isn't quite the Windows Longhorn OS that Microsoft demoed to them back in 2004. These nerds have gone and created a new build of "Longhorn," complete with Windows File System (WinFS), and other stripped-out features.
What's the point of this?
Planning to redecorate your place with a Villain-esque theme? Then this old-school TV/Liquor Cabinet should be just the thing for you.
You can set up a CCTV camera feed from your front door to this TV and know exactly when your mother-in-law arrives. Once she's inside, activate the Auton lift system to reveal the booze underneath. That'll keep her from yapping about how you should get a better job. 
It seems ridiculous to compare tech moguls to pro wrestlers and prize fighters, but I can't stop.
In my mind, tomorrow's Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs is the tag tech team matchup of the century. For geeks, it's like Hulk Hogan vs Macho Man, or Ali vs Frazier. But, hmmm.....the WSJ is in the ring, so does that make it Bill Gates and Steve Jobs vs Mossberg and Swisher? No one knows, and that's the beauty of the royal rumble format, first pioneered by the World Wrestling Federation. The time, Wednesday, May 30th at 7:15pm EST. The Venue: The Octogon-of-tech, All Things D. Which makes Mossberg the new Don King.
Turning the debate into a deathmatch also begs the interesting but extremely immature question that no one is asking. Who is going to Win? And by what metrics?
To answer, I call on the help of some friends. Wired News has a great collection of past pot shots from Bill and Steve. The Seattle PI has a piece analyzing the density of big words in past Steve and Bill keynotes. And of course, Fake Steve Jobs has his own unbiased take, entitled "Bill Gates, I am going to make you my bitch!".
My problem with webcams is that most have no way to record the happenings in the dark. How am I supposed to sell my completely legal home movies without the other finding out that I'm recording said legal movies? This USB Snakecam solves that problem with two IR LEDs that make it possible to record what is happening in the dark. It also has seven white LEDs on the underside so it can function as a USB lamp when not recording hot and steamy 350k pixel images. $22. 
It's not convenient to take a tripod everywhere you go at night in order to take good pictures. This is especially true when you're trying to keep a low profile in the bushes. So what do you do? Adjust stuff like ISO, exposure and aperture. If you don't know what those are, the instructions will fill you in:
If it's compatibility you're after, Sharp's new stereo has you covered on all fronts. In addition to docking with your iPod, the DK-A1H can play MP3s/WMAs, CDs, and even FM/AM radio (remember that). The stereo has a built-in sub that should provide you with enough audio oomph to fill a studio or a bedroom. It's going for around $300 across the pond. 
The reason why we're so into cellphone straps here is for their ability make otherwise boring cellphones slightly more interesting—or great cellphones a little greater. Case in point? This chalkboard cellphone strap.
It's a miniature chalkboard complete with chalk and eraser so you can doodle or write little notes to yourself while you're out. Need to take down a number? Write it on the chalkboard. Just be careful when you put it into your pants or you'll have a pocketful of chalk and no date for the weekend. Sounds like all four years of high school and parts of college for us. 
Everyone's favorite game console mad mod genius, Ben Heck, has a new project, and it's something that you and I might actually get a chance to play with for a change. Instead of a one-off like the Xbox 360 Laptop, he's designing the case for the GamePort, a handheld emulator designed to play retro games.
So he's designed it for a reputable company rather than just for fun, so we should be able to buy it, right? Well… maybe. According to the GamePort site, " the company that would have distributed the GamePort in stores perished after legal problems. Several other options are being discussed, including selling directly online." Awesome. Not exactly something to fill us with confidence, but who knows, maybe it'll go up for sale at some point. 
Although the idea of an in-ear alarm clock that doesn't bother your roommates is sound, this implementation is quite poor. The Mini Alarm does go inside your ear, but it hangs out so much that it's bound to fall out when you're flopping around like an injured whale during REM.
On the other hand, if you use it for other purposes like making sure you don't fall asleep too long on the subway or reminding you to take a break when working or studying, it's much better. But if you've got a cellphone from the last five years, you can easily set that on vibrating alarm, put it in your pants, and accomplish the same thing. 
The Meizu M3 is a player that seems like it always 
I'm told that tonight, at 12:01am EST (okay, so tomorrow), the division of Microsoft that launched the Xbox and the Zune will unveil something very special . What it is, we do not know for sure, but it's "something totally new coming out of the Entertainment and Devices division, and it's going to change the way people interact with technology." The email (which was not a tip but rather was mistakenly sent to me through official channels) also stated that "you really have to see it to believe it." How tantalizing.
The race toward affordable solid-state notebook drives is about to goose itself into hyperdrive, but PQI is coy about the pricing of its SSD Turbo+ line of solid-state storage, starring its latest 256GB solid-state notebook drive. What's so great about that? It's a speedy Serial ATA (SATA) drive, and it's in a 2.5-inch form factor, the perfect size for just about any notebook. Oh yeah, and the main thing is that it's not a spinning, noisy, hot and power-hungry hard disk.
How speedy? How's about 60MB per second, plenty fast for almost anything you want to do? Plus, the thing will probably last 10 years, certainly longer than you'll hold onto any laptop, and it uses less power, too. PQI rolled out two intriguing external drives at the same time:
Sometimes you can't annoy the other patrons at the coffee shop with a puny iPod speaker. The PodXtreme Sound Box is a small add-on speaker for the iPod that is capable of generating a "powerful sound" and "powerfull bass boost" even though the device is half the size of your actual iPod. It runs on lithium-ion batteries and is juiced with a USB connection. And it really isn't limited to the iPod, given that it plugs in via the standard audio jack, but they have to milk the iPod market somehow. $30. 
There are a few things weird about this phone. First, if we were to design a cellphone to smell foods and keep track of your diet, we probably wouldn't design it like an avocado. Second, on the off chance that we were to design it like an avocado, we probably wouldn't make it an avocado with a bite taken out of it. But that's just us.
The idea itself—keeping track of what types of foods you've eaten by its chemical signature and telling you what foods you're lacking—is pretty sound. Why not just integrate it into a regular-looking phone? 
Can't afford one of those fancy widescreen 
Apparently the 
Looking for a quick way to connect a secondary display to your PC? LG's new L206WU can be hooked up via DVI, VGA or USB. Like the Samsung LCD we saw earlier, this display can let you daisy-chain up to six units all via USB and without the need for a monster graphics card. Spec-wise, it's got a 1680x,050 resolution and a 2ms response time, which along with the larger screen size is more than enough to give that Samsung a run for its money. 
Budget GPS units are popping up everywhere, and the latest one to enter the arena is Acer's V200. It's packing a 3.5-inch screen and 64MB of onboard memory (along with a memory card slot for expansion). There's no official word on when/if they'll come to the States (we'll update when we find out), but they're selling in France for about $200, which is a great price if you're buying your first GPS. 
Plasmariser holds a flat panel TV inside, rising up on command like on the Tonight Show. Now you can roll that TV from room to room, protecting its delicate screen from scratches on the way. Then when you want to watch it, simply plug it in and push a button and it magically rises out of its protective sheath. There's even a voice control option, raising the screen when you yell at it. Now, that's power!
In addition to protecting your screen in transit as you roll it on its four locking wheels, Plasmariser raises it up to a higher level, probably a good thing for corporate boardrooms. Looks like a great toy for the CEO to play with, or for those technophobes who want to hide away all their gear until they're actually using it. 
Here's a PC with a 1-inch-thick case by Trident, and it's so quiet and well-hidden that the company calls it "invisible." You don't see it? It's right there, attached to the back of that monitor pictured above. It has the industry-standard VESA mounting holes on either side, so you install it in between a mounting arm and the monitor itself. Its fanless design keeps things super quiet, and you can also put a 40GB hard disk inside.
This PC is not exactly a powerhouse—it has a relatively lame 1.5GHz Via Eden processor on board and is designed for digital signage and retail displays. However, it's just a hint of how PCs will be embedded and invisible in the years to come. Soon we'll be knee-deep in ubiquitous computing without even knowing it, where the PCs will be everywhere and appear to be nowhere.