After decades of keeping your valuables in a shoebox rather than, say, a safe, someone has latched onto this age old storage device and decided to capitalize on it by adding some special features such as folders, an integral ring binder, and space for CDs, memory sticks, credit cards, foreign currency, keys and anything else you decide is worthy of shoebox level security. But let’s be honest, the only thing that would make stealing this any easier is if you write “thief care package” on it and leave it gift wrapped in your driveway surrounded by getaway cars and stacks of cash.
Product Page: (Price available upon request)
Even if you are not a fan of the BBC’s Top Gear show, you have to appreciate a USB Memory Stick that is a race car driver that you just have to break in half to use. The lower half is pretty much useless, which many women would argue is about the same for all men.
Product Page (£12.99, about $19, release date June 12)
Somewhat turning the tables on the ubiquitious iPod, this look alike memory stick will let you save data with your faux miniature iPod. Unlike the iPod, this one has some eyes pasted on the screen area that make the whole front look like a face. And the flexible silicon coating makes it simple to get at the USB connector without a removable cover that you would eventually lose. If you are buying this purely for use as a memory stick, it does use USB 2 for faster transfers. That makes it more useful for the people buying it for its novelty appeal as well. Because anything even resembling an Apple product makes it that much cooler.
Product Page (£19.95 1GB, £24.95 2GB)
Segatoys special edition “Grand Pianist” miniature piano is a functional instrument – but each of the 88 keys are only 4mm wide. So it looks like you will have to play your epic rendition of “Chopsticks” with a stylus.
“…like a real piano, it delivers natural sound through the speaker when you press on the miniature key. Grand Pianist keeps more than 100 player-piano-mode tunes in its memory, and the keys will move according to the music. User can also play tunes by directly pressing on the keys. Every single material is carefully chosen and put together to finalize the perfect scale. An one of a kind electronic, beautifully crafted and with high quality sound.“
As you might have guessed, tiny Grand Pianos don’t come cheap – $549 at Audiocube.
I’m a nerd – that’s why I write for this site. But you have to draw the line somewhere, and the Cyber Snipa is so far beyond the line that I can’t even see it.
“The hardcore tag houses a 512mb USB memory stick, with an in use status light, ideal for storing all your top secret files. For the old school die hard battle fans out there, the USB Dog Tag has a secondary feature list that would have John Rambo drooling…the seemingly bullet proof brushed steel design is further enhanced by the fact that it houses a stainless steel screwdriver, pliers, and can opener as well as a super bright push button torch light for those moments when the enemy has plied you with weapons, grade cocktails and you can’t find the key hole in the dark. To complete your fully functional field bling, there’s even an authentic army style chain to hang around your neck, just don’t let it fall into enemy hands!”
The Cyber Snipa USB Dog Tags are available for £26.95 ($54), which is probably a little expensive for most 12 year old boys (which I can only assume is the target demographic).
RFJ
If gaming on a cellphone type of device is ever going to take off, something like the CompactAnalogThumbstick from Industrial Design is going to be necessary. It’s sports a nice design to minimize size while still giving joystick functionality.
It’s in the concept stage right now, but it has all the elements to be picked up in a form very close to what you see here.
If you think about it, holding the cell phone in one hand while operating the joystick with your thumb would seem to be a very comfortable way to play. So I think it is about time to get some decent screens on cellphones, throw in some memory and a decent processor, and let’s use this joystick to play some good games. Just throw in a wireless off switch so I can play with this thing on a plane.
Core77 via Gizmodo
If your into the whole convergence thing, Sunyang DNT has unveiled the “Volvox” USB memory stick with built in VoIP camera feature.
With 512MB of flash memory and a 0.3 megapixel camera with 540X480 resolution, the Volvox could be a cheap, convenient camera solution for laptop owners.
The Volvox is available for 55,000 KRW ($59). 1 and 2GB models are expected this January.
AVING
Sony announced that they will offer a movie download service for users of the PSP. With 20 million PSP’s in circulation, they already have a good base of possible users. Given the option of watching video on an iPod or the PSP, I think the PSP wins hands down being 1 inch larger with good resolution.
The fact that the PSP has no internal storage is a wash as far as I am concerned. It is a nuisance to have small capacity removable storage like the PSP does with memory sticks, but the ability to have a few memory sticks preloaded with movies could be seen as an advantage by some.
Sony says users should be able to store up to 10 movies on one 4 GB memory stick, and that seems more than adequate to me. The only question is, how long will it be before they ruin this out of fear of movies being shared among PSP users?
As a basic service I think they have a shot to get a foothold in the market, but if they make it cumbersome by enforcing some draconian DRM scheme, they will be just shooting themselves in the foot. It wouldn’t be the first time.
E-CommerceTimes
Today Sony released the 1.30 firmware update for the PS3 and if you think that they would finally fix the 1080i problem, think again.
What they did was offer a half-assed solution to the problem. Now your PS3 will prioritize 1080i over 720p which means that if you have a game that supports both 720p and 1080i, the PS3 will default to 1080i. If the game is native 720p it will display in 720p only. In other words, gamers do not have a choice about what resolution they would prefer to play games or watch Blu-ray movies in. There is no support for upscaling or downscaling and if you try to disable the 1080i output so everything will play in 720p, Blu-ray movies will revert to 480p.
Sony has promised that updates will be released on a regular basis, and hopefully they can get this whole mess ironed out. Still, you have to wonder, does Sony even know how to fix this issue?
Other “fixes” in the 1.30 update include:
- RGB and Y Pb/Cb Pr/Cr output selection over HDMI
- A backup utility to get your removable media data — that’s SD, Compact Flash, and Memory Stick — to the HDD
- HDD formatting option
- Support for a Bluetooth remote control
Joystiq
