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Congratulation to Deb from Debmomof3girls! She is the new owner of our giveaway product the  Rocketfish TM Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse.

At the beginning of this month I was contacted to review Best Buy's wireless keyboard and laser mouse. Rocketfish is Best Buy's internal technology brand.

The first thing that I was impressed by was the ease of installation. Simply, plug in the USB Bluetooth device and your on your way. After installing the included CD, the mouse and keyboard pair automatically.

The next thing I noticed was the easy touch to the keyboard keys. It has a very sleek, flat design that is easy and comfortable on the wrists. I actually noticed myself typing faster and more accurately with this keyboard than with my previous big name one. This keyboard is lightweight at 1.6lbs and the mouse weighs only 3.2 oz. The range is also a plus reaching as far as 60'.

Now for the fun stuff....The Bluetooth technology actually acts as a hub, providing instant access to music, the internet and more. You can even transfer photos to your Bluetooth enabled phones. The mouse, in addition to a scroll wheel, offers control buttons for media commands. All of this and more with NO WIRES!

I have to say I highly recommend this product. So much so that I will be purchasing one for myself immediately. I can't bare going back to my old one! If you are in need of a new keyboard, this has an affordable retail price of $99.00 at Best Buy.com and is well worth every penny.

Congratulations again Deb! Hope you enjoy this product as much as I do.

You’re going to be up and down all night. Answering the door, feeding children candy, watching scary movies… if you stay home, you’ll be busy, and you won’t be able to really sit down and pay attention to any one thing.

That’s why Game Balance has put together their 10 favorite zombie flash games, including many of my favorites. These adventures are both engrossing and easy to pause, without making you think too much or work too hard. Just click and shoot (most of them) and avoid the difficulties of a Resident Evil in favor of something as mindless and violent as the zombies themselves.

If you get bored with that, my good friend and fellow zombie fanatic Newscoma has been putting up her favorite scary scenes from TV shows and movies, and Sarah Hates Your Movie has made a Flektor slideshow of her favorite horror films.

Image:  Best Horror Movies

Apparently, in Great Britain, they don’t celebrate Halloween as awesomely as we do here in America. That’s not just my opinion, that’s the opinion of the good people over at Den of Geek. But, because they’re geeks, they get into the Halloween spirit a bit more than, say, your average Briton.

That’s why they’ve got both a list of Halloween gadgets and appropriately geeky costumes to give you some last minute ideas on what to do for Halloween. If you’re a slacker like I am, then you’ll appreciate the help in figuring out what you’re going to do tomorrow!

Though their Ghostbusters costume highlighted is nowhere near the coolness level of this Ghostbusters costume, it’s still fun.

Image: Amazon.co.uk

Everyone loves the Wii. It’s easy enough to use, has innovative motion capture controls, and after you’ve been at it awhile, you find yourself sweating as if you’ve actually, gasp, exercised. Maybe you’ve even lost a few pounds from gyrating around while playing Wii Sports. Perish the thought that non-Dance Dance Revolution games might cause some accidental fitness!

There have been other attempts to connect exercise to video games, mostly involving stationary bikes used to power video game consoles, but that’s way out of the reach of the normal consumer, right? Wrong. If you’ve got $159.99 - $179.99 to spend, ThinkGeek has a Gamercize GZ Sport with your name on it.

The Gamercize GZ Sport is an attachment for the PS2 or original Xbox (either stair stepper or exercycle style that monitors how hard you’re working out. If you drop below a certain level of work then the system cuts you off and you have to kick it up a notch to get back to fragging noobs. It’ll burn up to 600 calories an hour on the highest setting, so if you don’t lose weight, you’re not trying.

Get fit!

Every day when I trundle off to work, I pack a lunch. I have some salad, maybe a can of soup, and always a couple of pieces of fruit. Depending on the season and how I’m feeling this might be apples or oranges, but my favorite portable fruit is that most yellow and delicious of all foodstuffs, the banana. I love bananas (possibly because my self portrait resembles that of a silverback gorilla).

So of course, at least once a month, I let my lunch bag fall to the ground and realize that, wait a minute; I have a banana in there. Then I tear open my lunch to find a bruised, battered, and beaten banana. Tears ensue.

This is why I’m going to invest a few pennies in a Banana Guard. A durable plastic case that snaps satisfyingly shut, the Banana Guard is designed to keep your fruit fresh and firm, rather than lumpy brown pudding in a slick peel casing. Pick one up today for the low, low price of $6.99 (for one), $12.99 (for 2), or $29.99 (for 5 of them, for real banana lovers).

Check out the Banana Guard website for all the pertinent info.

Bored Night has one of the most awesome art shows I’ve ever seen; in fact, I daresay it is a perfect blend of geek culture and modern art. Here’s the scoop, gang. My only complaint might be that they don’t identify who did what helmet.

Those photos are from Star Wars Celebration IV convention. Frank Kozik, Paul Frank Sunich, Marc Ecko and Urban Medium (among numerous others) gave Darth Vader’s helmet a hipster makeover. As fans walk through the exhibit they can see the artist’s own unique style featured on each helmet. Whether it’s a Tiki-inspired design from Shag or a girlie 1940’s style pinup from Marc Ecko — it’s apparent each artist took time to pay special tribute to the headwear of the Sith.

Go check out the rest!

Found via Ozymandias, Evil Avatar has the goods on a sweet deal for those of you with/wanting to buy an Xbox 360 or an Xbox 360 HD DVD Player. It’s actually tempting enough to make me part with money, so you know it’s a good deal!

As most of you already know Best Buy had an awesome promotion this week. With the purchase of a Xbox 360 HD DVD drive you would also recieve Heroes Season 1 for free (a $99 value!). Yes, great deal, but was that not enough for you?

In this same ad there was another HD DVD deal which allowed you to pick two free HD DVD movies with the purchase of any HD DVD player. Originally Best Buy intended this deal to only apply to Toshiba set top boxes, but due to poor word choice they have chosen to honor the promotion for the Xbox 360 HD DVD player due to being overwhelmed with complaints.

Now with the purchase of the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player you receive:

• King Kong (packed in with the      drive itself)
• Heroes Season 1
• 2 Free HD DVDs of your choice      priced $34.99 or below
• 5 Additional free HD DVDs      (via mail in rebate)

That is 9 Free HD DVDs with the purchase of the drive. If you've already purchased the drive just take in your receipt to receive the two additional free movies.

Thank goodness for poor proofreading, huh?

Do you have a cool toy or model that you have to display for all your friends? Something that is so cool it merits more than a simple shelf to sit on? The answer, dear friends, is rotation. Everything cool deserves to rotate for maximum viewing potential.

This is where the Eco-Power Display Turn Table comes into play. It’s powered by the ambient light in the room, so you don’t have to worry about needing batteries or eating up precious power, and you can pick which way you want your die-cast Japanese catgirl figurine to spin! If you’re the sort of person who makes a centerpiece for the holidays, this is a great way to attract attention to it.

H/T: Gadget Madness

Now, I don’t want to judge anyone for their taste in gadgets. I mean, I know I like some pretty strange things, but… a hot pink Barbie iPod dock is just slightly overkill, right? Am I alone here in thinking this is about as crazy as a Hello Kitty assault rifle?

I’m sure it’s great. I bet those parents with little girls would love to have it; all I’m saying is that just looking at the thing gives me a headache. Then again, what else would you expect from a woman who owns a pink Corvette and dates a eunuch?

Photo: AVING

Is it a gadget?  No.  Is it the scariest thing ever?  Yes.  Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!  I won't even post a picture of it.

Just click here.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

Hat tip:  BoingBoing

Hey. Hey kid, c’mere. Listen, I know what you need. I got your hookup, right here in this bag. Check this out. PS3, baby. Got all the juice you’ll ever need right here. And I’ll give it to you for only $599.

What? Wii? Whaddya mean you’d rather buy a Wii and an Xbox 360 for a few bucks more?! This is-… really? Not a lot of good games? No interest in Blu Ray? Outrageously high price point?

Huh. Never thought about it that way. How about this: The PlayStation 3 with an 80-gigabyte hard drive? I’ll cut the price by $100, just for you. $499 from $599.  If that’s not enough, how about a $399 model with a 40 gigabyte hard drive (less features, and no PS2 backwards compatibility) starting November 2?

Just in time for Christmas. Of course, we’re still losing a more than $300 on every PS3 sold, but… at least maybe we’ll get rid of them and up our chances of winning the Format War.

Image Credit: Eternal Gamenation

With a hat-tip to Coolest Gadgets, I extend to my faithful readers a story about scented cell phones. Of course, if it’s a weird piece of electronics, it comes from

. I’m sure you were already expecting that part. 

Standard features for these and most other late-model Japanese cellphones include GPS, TV and music player functions. The cases come in your choice of 9 quite attractive colors and patterns including Romantic Gold, Exotic, Twilight, Flow and Gorgeous. Their words, not mine.

I lived with Japanese students for 4 years in college. If there’s one thing you can expect from

, it’s a strange combination of the technologically advanced and the weird. These cell phones are the best of both worlds. 

If yesterday's Apple iPod Touch update wasn't enough for you Cupertino-flavored gadget heads, there's lots more Apple news today of the non-hacking kind (for all three of you I know who use Macs). 

If you used iJailbreak yesterday to unlock your Apple iPod Touch, you need songs to put on it.  What better way to celebrate your DRM-free iPod than with some DRM-free music from iTunes?  Don't want to pay the extra $0.30 per song?  Now you don't have to!  Apple has announced that they are dropping the price of its DRM-free tunes to the same $0.99 cents you pay for your worthless locked-down iTunes tracks and expanding the selection available  (thank Amazon MP3 for this one).

In other locked down gadget news, those of you who have been waiting on the next <s>Service Pack</s> new version of OSX can start pre-ordering now, because OSX.5 Leopard has a release date.  Your new big cat will be in the wild on October 26, 2007, at a price point of $129 for a single-user license ($199 for a five-user family pack) from your local Apple Store, or cheaper from everywhere else (thanks again, Amazon). 

The Apple iPod Touch is one of the hottest new products on the market. Combining the iPhone’s touch screen and the iPod’s ability to play music, the iTouch is slimmer, sleeker, and even more desirable than the other devices. However, any real gadget fan is slow to embrace the iTouch, simply because of Apple’s restrictive policies towards third-party software and high developer’s fees, which severely limits the actual usefulness of the iPod Touch and iPhone.

Fortunately, if you put a product out there and lock it down, someone will rise to the challenge and figure out a way to free the device from the constraints the original manufacturer has put it under. From converting a diesel engine to run on old French fry grease to copying legally-purchased DVDs, if you try to stop hackers you’re doomed to fail.

A 13-year-old coder that goes by the name AriX has released an application called iJailBreak that allows users to install third-party applications on the iPod touch. The application was just updated to version 0.2.1, which fixed several bugs.

According to the developer, The only user interaction required is for you to restart the iPod Touch. The software works on Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X Tiger — a PowerPC version is in the works.

Not that I recommend this sort of thing officially, but feel free to pick iJailbreak over at Google Code.

It says a lot about Apple’s supposedly secure software to see how easily the iPhone and iPod Touch were hacked, doesn’t it?

HT: ars technica

Raychul over at GameGirl has put together her list of the 7 scariest video games in honor of the Halloween season. It seems like a good list, but it leaves out pretty much anything made before the PlayStation 2. Normally I might complain, but I don’t remember any scary games from the dark ages of 16-bit consoles, so I’ll just pass on the link. 

Check out this snippet of her review of the game Fatal Frame:

Nothing has ever made me as uncomfortable and actually given me nightmares like Fatal Frame did.  When you give me a game that puts me in an abandoned old house full of ghosts with no eyes, or ropes marks around their necks, or even broken necks hanging oddly to the side, a damn scary soundtrack that involves giggling children, and to top it all off I am only given a camera to defend myself with, then you have a terrifying mixture for pure scary fun!

Anything to get in the spirit of the season, right? These games are definitely scary, and they’ll definitely put you in the mood for Halloween. 

Normally I’m all over the newest and best products from ThinkGeek, but I must’ve fallen asleep at the wheel when they announced this neat little thing, as I had to get my tip from I4U News. Still, this is the most awesome thing ever.If you’re a wireless junkie like me, you’re always looking for hotspots. Even in my own house, I’m constantly walking around with my laptop, trying to find the best spot for work while still getting great wifi reception. It’s crucial for basically anything you want to do on a laptop to have a good internet connection, and in places like libraries or coffee shops, you don’t always get the best signal without a little trial and error.

With this wifi-detecting tee shirt from ThinkGeek, all you have to do is look down at your chest and figure out if you’re good to go.

A hot knife through butter is all well and good if you’re baking a cake, but what if you’re playing hockey? Well, how about a hot blade through ice? If you’re a hockey fan, but not quite the most graceful skater on the pond, why not check out the Thermablade?

From the Toronto Star:

The Thermablade inventor, Calgarian Tory Weber, says the steamy steel is not a novelty item, like Cooperalls, nasal strips or pyramid power. The 43-year-old, who spent more than $5 million over five years to bring his idea to market, believes the “fairly simple physics” behind the electronic blade will revolutionize hockey for competitive players.

“I had a basic understanding that if you put something hot on ice, it’s going to melt and be slippery,’’ said the former steam engineer at the Banff Springs Hotel.

“It’s not super technical. We heat the blade and it creates a thin film of water between the skate blade and the ice and gives the user substantial performance benefits.”

Basically, the Thermablade works in quite the same way as wax on a surf board or ski, or like the Zamboni machine. The Zamboni smooths out the ice, and the Thermablade does the same thing, melting out all those little imperfections that slow down skaters and trip toes. That layer of water cuts down on resistance, which increases speed and reduces friction.  

While the NHL hasn’t approved the product yet, I have no doubt that one day soon players will be zooming around on Thermablades. In hockey, faster is always better. Harder hits, more scoring, more excitement, and crucially for the struggling NHL, more fans.

HT:  Engadget

My cell phone, if I’m lucky, makes it from the time I leave home until the time I get back into my car to come back home without losing power. That’s roughly 8 ½ hours of charge for a fully-charged cell phone batter.  Usually, it powers down about 3:30 every afternoon, leaving me out of touch for at least an hour and a half.

That’s why I’m seriously considering investing in a Turbocell Charger, like the one available over at ThinkGeek. Basically, you slide a fresh AA battery into the unit, plug the unit into your phone, and you get two hours of talk time per battery. It works with at least 9 different brands of phone (see here for the complete list), and there’s absolutely no risk of fire (unlike with your laptop battery).

Tis the season for all sorts of creepy crawly products for decorating the home and office, so when I saw this awesome zombie-themed outdoor light from Nerd Approved over at Curbly, I knew I’d have to write about it. This 16” tall resin creep juts his lantern-clutching fist high over head as he makes his triumphant escape from his grave, which just so happens to be your front yard.

Not only is it an awesome Halloween decoration, it is also solar powered, so it’s both green in color and green in terms of being environmentally friendly! He may be a brain-hungry corpse straight out of “Night of the Living Dead,” but he still cares about the environment!

Buy this awesome Halloween decoration (though I’d probably have it up at my house all year long, since you can put a Santa hat on him and make him a Christmas spirit) here!

One of the things most parents do every Halloween is take a ton of pictures of their little one in his or her costume, out trick or treating, stuff like that. Well, what better way to give your kids a thrill than by capturing evidence of a real, live ghost hanging around in the picture behind them? That’s what makes the Ghost Finder Camera from Halloween Only such a neat idea!

Here’s what they have to say about the camera, which you can get at FindGift.com: 

Just point and shoot. Tell them you saw something spooky as you take the shots. Camera automatically adds an eerie ghostly image to every scene. 35mm single use indoor/outdoor flash camera with 27 exposures.

Cool stuff, huh?  Perfect for Halloween fun without being any more expensive than a normal 35mm disposable camera!

One of my favorite shows as a child was Dr. Who. I ate the episodes up with a spoon. Every Friday night at 10 PM, I’d plop down in front of the television and follow the adventures of the Time Lord and his crew of flunkies, traveling through the universe in their TARDIS. That’s why, when I saw these products from ThinkGeek, I knew that gang over at Den of Geek would appreciate it, since we share a love of all things Who.

So we have two computer peripherals. One of them is a USB hub that happens to be the home of the last of the Time Lords.  One of them is a webcam housing that just so happens to be shaped like Dr. Who’s mortal enemies, the Daleks. If you plugged the Dalek webcam into the TARDIS USB port, would there be a device conflict?

Get it, conflict?  Since they don’t get along?  Aww, well… *I* thought it was funny.  Check out the TARDIS USB Hub here.  If you’re feeling more evil, check out the Dalek Webcam here.

So are you looking to take along flight to Japan any time soon and need something to eat up all those long, boring hours on a commercial airliner? Well, don’t look to your Nintendo DS or any other portable video game system or wireless-enabled device to take up that slack for you any time soon. Japanese lawmakers have completely banned the use of all wireless gaming systems.

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Playing wireless hand-held video games on Japanese airplanes no longer will be allowed after a revised law enforcing an earlier ban went into effect Monday.

Previously, passengers were asked by airlines to refrain from using gaming systems with built-in wireless functions, like Nintendo's popular DS.

But Japan's transport ministry has concluded that the electromagnetic waves emitted by the consoles have the ability to interfere with aircraft navigation systems and other devices.

Passengers still will be permitted to use game systems that lack integral wireless communication functions.

The law also has been relaxed to permit the use of electric razors, calculators and cassette players.

Wireless computer mouses have also been banned aboard flights, along with headphones that are not provided by the airlines.

Battery chargers and toys that give off electronic sounds can't be used during take-offs and landings, the ministry said.

Now here in America, we’re only limited using that sort of stuff during takeoffs and landings, and we can’t use cell phones at any time, but the kicker to me is banning headphones not provided by the airline. Obviously this is meant to force the rider to buy those expensive airplane headphones during the flight, forcing the user to depend on the airline for entertainment.

Why can’t all airlines be as progressive as Virgin America, who plans to offer wi-fi service on all flights starting in 2008?

ANOTHER TERRIFIC SHAKTRONICS GIVEAWAY!!!!!!! October 2-30th

I am so excited to bring you yet another Shaktronics giveaway! This is such a cool product. It is a  Rocketfish™ Wireless Multimedia Bluetooth Keyboard and Laser Mouse Combo. Rocketfish™ is part of Best Buy's internal brand.

Here is all you have to do to enter:

*Leave a comment on this post about your newest technology purchase. There will be other posts that refer to the Shaktronics Giveaway but only comments left on this post will count as an entry.
*Link back to this post using the "Another Shaktronics Giveaway" banner in a post on your blog or site.
*If you do not have a blog, leave your e-mail address and tell your friends. 
*All comments must be entered by midnight, October 30th.

The President of Shak Media, Kathy Helbig, is currently using this product and reviewing it. We will announce the winner in a post on October 31st along with her findings about the product for our readers and winner.

(This is a "sticky" post and will remain at the top of the page for the duration of our Shaktronics giveaway, but new posts will be written daily and published underneath this post).

Do you have a Nintendo Wii? Lots of you do, I know, and at every turn Nintendo has addressed your concerns with the Wiimote. Thin wrist straps get upgraded, clips are added, and now, because those hard plastic Wiimotes get slippery while you work up a sweat with Wii Sports, Nintendo is now offering Wiimote jackets that both protect the remote itself and anyone you happen to throw it at when you get frustrated by a topspin lob.

And the best part? Those Wiimote covers are absolutely free, straight from Nintendo to you. Just go here and fill out an order form, and your Wiimote will be in the mail by October 15, 2007.  Enjoy!

Weather is strange this year. I want to write about stuff that should be useful for fall (because I’m finding a lot of stuff that would be useful for fall), but I look outside and it is 85 degrees and sunny, the trees are green, grass is growing, birds are really confused, and it feels more like summer than fall. A glance at the television weather report shows that it is going to remain sunny and warm until this weekend, maybe longer.

Rest assured, fall will come. Everything will recede, the leaves will fall from the trees, and I guarantee you it is going to fell like all those leaves have fallen into your gutter. Then you’ll have to climb up a ladder, sit on the roof, and scoop out nasty brown gunk for a whole Saturday when you should be watching college football and grilling out burgers.

That’s why you need to make the investment and buy yourself a Looj, from IRobot Corporation. What is a Looj? Why, it’s a gutter-cleaning appliance, kind of like a more disgusting version of a Roomba.

From PC World:

The $99, 2.25-inch high Looj drives under gutter straps propelled by a three-stage auger that sweeps out dirt, leaves and debris.

Users control the Looj from the ground, though they need to climb up and down a ladder at least four times -- to place and remove it.

Hey, even if the Looj only works for one year, it’s worth it not to have to climb up onto the house, risk falling off, and spend a whole day cleaning my gutters by hand. Not to mention cleaning out the gutters in the garage, too.

Image:  UK Home Ideas