Best New Technology

If you’re tired of using your Wii to get a workout, you might try something a bit bigger.  This SNES controller is fully functioning and 40in long.  Which means you’re going to have to work a little harder to get through all of your favorite classic games.  Having to reach that far across and effectively press down on the buttons would probably prove to be more challenging.  If you look closely you can see the normal sized SNES lying on the enlarged version.  Which only makes this giant reproduction look even bigger.

It was made by SCAD Inc, who hasn’t quite gotten around to posting videos on their project just yet.  The main guy on the team, Matt LaBoone, does say that those will be coming soon.  Which means you can enjoy watching others fumble around to reach the oversized buttons.  I’d imagine anyone with a bad back would grow to hate this mod.  However, for everyone else it would be cool to show off to friends.  He of course has all of the steps to create it shown in several pictures.

Source: SlipperyBrick

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This may appear to be just a regular pop can.  One with odd and cheaply done artwork along the sides.  However, this can is another mini humidifier in disguise.  It’s meant to sit on your desk just like the Personal Humidifier that utilized a water bottle.  However, this can will blend in with your daily caffeinated beverages instead of stick out like the other humidifier.  The only thing to set it apart is the USB cord and on odd looking top.  Well and not to mention it puffing out bits of steam.  I suppose normal cans don’t do that, so that would look a little odd.

While puffing out steam it also uses anion technology to purify the air.  Which removes things like dust, odors and mold.  The anions will not only purify your air but improve your metabolism and relive fatigue.  It will also, obviously prevent diseases from getting into the air around your desk.  Which means you can use those sick days for something a little more entertaining than just lying around with the flu.  To pick one up it will cost you $24.99 from Sourcing Map.

Source: CraziestGadgets

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Remember the good ol’ FCC leaking out the new Zune 120GB? Well, now there have been some pictures released by the Canadians that show off two new larger capacity Zune players. The image includes a 16GB flash based model and the new 120GB model.

The pictures show up pretty clear considering they were taking from a phone, and you can see that the 16GB Zune has a glossy screen. It would make sense that Microsoft is updating their Zunes, as there have been rumors of what Apple plans to do come their special event. If Apple decides to update their nano, Microsoft will want to have something updated in their Zune line up as well.

Stay tuned for any further developments.

Via [Zunited]

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El ZULO means “the hideout” in Spanish, and one look at it will tell you why. The design is a brainchild of Frank Ehners as part of his industrial design project at the Halle University of Art and Design in Germany. It targets an office environment, but somehow it looks more suitable for high-powered executives who return home after a long day at the office. El ZULO caters for multiple users, relying on fingerprints to identify the right person, automatically adjusting itself to cater to the back, knee, foot and head positions accordingly. Hopefully this power napping device of the future will be manufactured soonest possible for all the zombie-like workers worldwide.

Source: American Inventor Spot

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by Darren Murph, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 3:25PM

CTL, the same cats who brought us the 2go PC laptop, are apparently working up an equally cheap and not-exactly-flashy nettop PC. The 2go PC Nettop will reportedly range in price from $149 to $299 depending on specifications, and the baseline model will feature Intel’s DG945GCLF motherboard, Intel’s Atom 230 processor, 1GB of Kingston DDR2 RAM, a GMA 950 graphics accelerator, support for one HDD and one optical drive, six USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet jack. The Essential Plus Edition ($199) adds in Ubuntu and an 80GB 7,200RPM hard drive (while slashing RAM to 512MB); the $299 Essential Performance Edition comes with Windows XP Home, a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. There’s no word just yet on when the 4.5-pound boxes will be released, but we’d expect ‘em to surface pretty quietly.

[Thanks, Nate]

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Filed under: Desktops

by Joshua Topolsky, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 10:54AM

Worried that retailers might be running out of utter crap to sell? Been looking for that perfect accessory to go with your “You don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps” sign? Enter the USB-powered, soda can-shaped anion humidifier. Not only will this magical and totally necessary device clean the air around you and re-energize your fat, lazy body, but it will look cool while doing it — you know, just sitting there being all soda-can-badass. When you absolutely, positively can’t find anything else to do with $24.99, the “Portable Can Shape USB Office Home Miniature Anion Humidifier” is there.

[Thanks, Simon]

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Filed under: Misc. gadgets

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 7:26AM

While MSI’s 8.9-inch Wind U90 first made an appearance in June at Computex, it took MSI this long to flesh out all details — which is actually a relief, given the ridiculous quantity of Eee PC SKUs ASUS has managed to pump out in the meantime. We just got to handle the new laptop, and we think MSI might have a winner here. The laptop is shipping with SUSE Linux exclusively to start, with an XP version in the works, and boots quite rapidly to the full OS. SUSE has never looked better, and we think these two might be quite the pair. MSI has kept the full keyboard of the 10-inch Wind, and merely bumped up the bezel while cutting the price; all the other specs are the same. MSI is planning on shipping this at the end of September or beginning of October for 339 Euro (no word on a US release), and is also working on a six cell battery to fix the paltry 2 hours of battery the Wind currently gets from the three cell.

Gallery: MSI’s 8.9-inch Wind U90 in the flesh, Linux version shipping for 339 Euro

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Filed under: Laptops

by Nilay Patel, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 5:44AM

Toyota hasn’t made a huge secret of its plans to develop and sell a plug-in version of the Prius, and it the wheels are turning a little faster than we’ve heard — fleet testing of plug-in models has been pushed up to early 2009, with the goal of having “several hundred” on the road by the end of the year. Still no timetable for actual retail sales, so you’ll have to be a wheelman for a government or commercial fleet to get your hands on one — good thing all those modders have the rest of us covered.

[Via Autoblog Green]

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Filed under: Transportation

by Paul Miller, posted Aug 31st 2008 at 6:27AM

Toshiba is offering up a nice respite from the inane quantity of LCDs and, um, more LCDs at IFA this year. The SD Multi Tool and the SD Photo Editor are two touchable handhelds, offering up some beefy features where similar devices lack, and also skipping over some of the more traditional MID OS features that might put these over the top — a confusing mix, but again, not an LCD, so we’re hooked. The SD Multi Tool is the real wild one, offering dual 3.5-inch touchable (finger or stylus) LCDs, rated at 960 x 480 each if the spec sheet is telling the truth — that could be a combined resolution. The device offers wireless connectivity of some sort, and can handle web browsing, email, videos, photo editing and pretty much anything else that isn’t an actual phone call — though it can’t be tough to squeeze some VoIP in there. Meanwhile, the SD Photo Editor really earns its “SD” moniker with dual SD card slots, while the Multi Tool just has one microSD slot. The Photo Editor runs a similar OS, but seems distilled down to mainly the photo browsing and editing functions, with a bit of PMP functionality thrown in we hope. A 5-inch WVGA screen with 16 million colors should be plenty of room to work your magic. No word on what OS is under the hood, but it seems to be mostly homegrown Toshiba fare. We know the Multi Tool does HDMI out, and we’d hope the Photo Editor does as well, since they’re both supposed to hit in 2009 for a similar price point: around $300 US.

Gallery: Toshiba’s SD Multi Tool and SD Photo Editor are a nice, touchable surprise

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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Handhelds

Doorbells are normally pretty ordinary but designer Li Jianye has different ideas with the ‘Enter’ doorbell. Doesn’t really words to describe it, it’s just a cool idea.

Enterbell via designzen via Home Tone.

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