When Should You Buy Your Next Gadget? 
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Top 10 Pervasive Tech Myths That Are Only Wasting Your Time Pink and blue Xbox wireless controllers. Coming October for $50. Europe and Japan get light blue. Great. What’s next, matching wireless pacifiers?
That green Xbox we saw earlier today with matching controllers, and Halo art all around. Launching with the game. It’s got gold trim. And a whooole lot of Halo accessories (below). It has an HDMI port (yay) but only a 20GB HDD (only the elite has the 120, which redefines it as the HD movie box) and get this: IT DOESN’T COME WITH HALO 3. ROTLF-UPSELL-MERCHANDISE. Jason says, “The crowd reaction was horrible. Utter silence, and some sparse laughter.” But I don’t care what you guys say. I think this thing is pretty cool looking for the person who doesn’t have an Xbox 360 yet, who loves Halo…wait a minute.
You know companies are always trying to wine-and-dine tech reporters, but this has to be the weirdest example. Tonight I received a package containing this bottle and nothing else.
Clearly, the message on the label is the important thing: there’s a Sony VAIO event in New York City next week that I should attend. But the label says nothing about the contents of the bottle. Nothing. Is it alcoholic or non? Is it real or is it a prop? What would the VAIO division of Sony Electronics be putting in a bottle? And, finally, should I drink it or pour it down the drain?
It appears Microsoft’s co-founder is a big fan of things that sink. Obviously an avid Beatles fan, Allen’s latest toy is a fully functional 40-foot yellow submarine (not to be confused with a 40-foot Yello Sub, which would be an even worse investment). He’s now a member of a small, exclusive clique of ultra-rich underwater explorers; about 100 personal submarines are floating around our oceans. Hopefully it came with better drivers than Vista (zing!). [Paul Allen's New Sub via Valleywag]
The Supreme Edition Darth Vader Costume is the full package: you get a jumpsuit complete with fake leather pants and sleeves (though the codpiece is real leather), Darth’s signature cape, and all of his armor cast from the original Lucasfilm molds. Our favorite part: the suit has a custom apparatus to mimic Darth’s breathing. It can be toggled off if you want (but why would you?) And on top of that, it will only cost you $850 and comes with a cool freebie.
I don’t care how hot you are, your laptop is probably hotter, especially after a half hour of hard work. And if you’re like me, you literally use your laptop atop your lap half the time, and on a desktop the other half. That’s why I’m digging this LapWorks Laptop Desk Futura: it stretches open for laptop laptopping, then snaps (toothlessly) into a wedge for desktop use. Best of all, it breathes.
Thanks to elongated ventilation slots and rubber feet that hold it 1/8 of an inch above the desk, heat is carried away with normal airflow. At just over 16 ounces (that’s a pound where I’m from), the Futura is not as light as a blogger might prefer. But it does fold up to be a half-inch thick for storage. Now available in gun-metal gray for $29.95, LapWorks is saying it will be out in “bright fashion colors” in the months to come. [LapWorks] galleryPost('LapWorksLaptopDeskFutura', 4, 'LapWorks Laptop Desk Futura');
Some good news for the iPhone’s battery. Everyone, including us, originally reported that the iPhone battery loses life after 300-400 charges, needing to be replaced. People were mad. The mainstream media picked it up, getting all huffy. Turns out, that’s bullshit. Apple’s site clearly says that the battery life “is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles.” Even if that statement is filled with hedging, it’s clear that the battery should be very much alive after 400 cycles, and we were wrong. I’m sorry. The source of the error?
As home theater systems get increasingly complex, the standard issue remotes that come with each individual component just can’t get the job done. Philips’ latest universal remote solution is the TSU9400, a palm-filling beast with a 3.7″ TFT color touch screen display that runs at a crisp 640×480 resolution. But can it run your entire living room from across the house?
The basic remote functions are handled via run-of-the-mill infrared technology, but it doesn’t stop there. In the habit of carrying the remote with you when you leave the room? No worries, the TSU9400 is equipped with 2.4GHz wireless capabilities to operate your home theatre without line-of-sight. The 64MB of onboard memory will remember all of your programmable macros so you can turn everything in your system on/off with the touch of a button. Good things come in small but pricey packages: expect to pay around $900 when this gizmo hits store shelves in the near future.
Full Specs: [Philips TSU9400 FCC Release Info via Technabob]
Talk about a modern-day masterpiece: a four-tier wedding cake featuring no less than four game consoles. GameDaily contributor and self-proclaimed “games junkie” (no doubt about it: just check out her wedding cake!), Carol Orsini, got hitched in true geek style.
Highlights: “If you look closely enough, you can see the DVD remote sensor in a controller port. Such attention to detail! Topping the entire masterpiece (as it should) is the limited edition ‘Legend of Zelda’ gold GameCube.”
Debate’s raging as to whether that bloke with the look of exhilaration in the background is her “non-gamer” husband. -Anna King
Have your games and eat them too! [GameDaily]
All too simple, but damn if I don’t like it! Take a humble calculator, and redesign it to suit single-handed use. It ends up looking a lot like a mobile phone. Sure, your mobile can do calculator stuff (if it can’t, yours sucks), but having a handy calculator around the house is always a good idea, right?
Available in white, black, yellow, or pink.
Fine. Don’t buy one. I don’t care. I like it. -Seamus Byrne
