Awesome Gadgets

Clearly targeted towards MacBook owners, Western Digital’s My Passport Studio not only looks the part but includes a FireWire 800 interface; it’s available in 500GB and 400GB sizes.

Motorola’s ZINE ZN5 camera phone is now available through T-Mobile; the phone starts at just under $100 with a two year contract, and sports a 5 MP camera, FM radio, Wi-Fi and xenon flash.

Olympus’ E-30 dSLR competes with the EOS 50D and D90, except it’s a bit pricey for the features: a 12.3MP sensor, fast AF, flip and twist 2.7″ LCD, and updated Zuiko 14-54mm lens.

Alienware’s M17 is their first CrossfireX capable notebook, with support for up to two ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics cards; it can also handle Intel quad-core CPUs and 4 GB of RAM.

Developed by MIT and UMass students, the Mobile Dextrous Social (MDS) Robot is now available for sale. It can manipulate objects, as well as interact verbally and with facial expressions.

OCZ’s line of 15″ DIY notebooks have been updated with the Centrino 2 platform; although the video card is locked in, owners can choose their own CPU, hard drive and RAM.

Like their Eee notebooks and PCs, Asus’ Atom powered Eee Top is not a powerful system. However, its clean, all-in-one form factor and touchscreen LCD make it an ideal second PC.

We have to admit we’re mostly smitten by the Pro-Idee MP3 Radio/Alarm’s looks; it’s got a swanky analog meets modern style, with chrome buttons, a usb port and SD/MMC card slot.

Weak wireless no more: Ubiquiti Networks’ Bullet gives wi-fi capabilities to any antenna; it packs 1000mW of power, an Atheros processor, 16 Mb SDRAM and 4 MB of Flash memory.

William Kang’s 9999 Boom Box concept is updated for the 21st century; not only does it have a design that Apple would be proud of, but it sports both video and mp3 players.

Looking like a dumbbell and weighing only 1 lb, the Recon Scout is actually a remote controlled robot with a built-in camera that SWAT teams can chuck into hostile environments.

With a 3.8″ 1024×480 touchscreen that rivals that of netbooks, Sharp’s Aquos Fulltouch is arguably the world’s highest res cellphone; it also sports a 5.2 MP camera and 3G speeds.

Mixing a bit of the old with the new, Sanyo’s R227 tabletop radio gets FM tunes as well as internet stations and podcasts via Wi-Fi or ethernet; there’s also an input for your iPod/mp3 player.

Obi Wan paging Leia: RealFiction’s Dreamoc projects holograms that appear to interact with real objects; in other words, the cellphone above is only for aesthetic purposes. Thanks, Alex!

If Dell’s XPS One left you wanting for power, the XPS One 24 answers with a 1080p 24″ screen, Q8200 quad core CPU, 4GB RAM standard and optional GeForce 9600M GT video card.

JBL’s Eon 510 is their next gen portable speaker, perfect for impromptu parties and performers; with 280 W of power and a sturdy composite copolymer case, they’ll blast and last.

Jian Guan’s “Feldar” Walkie-Talkie concept is part compass, part tracking device; using built-in GPS, it locates nearby Feldar units so that you can find/hunt down nearby buddies.

Despite its humble workhorse purposes, we’re actually liking the industrial design of Dell’s new OptiPlex 960 series; they’ll come in three sizes which are designed to be power efficient.

We kinda wish we had some Mac Classics lying around, because these custom Mac-O-Lanterns are pretty easy to make: just some epoxy, spray paint and a JPEG jackolantern face.

Get me a frickin’ laser beam: Mitsubishi’s 65″ LaserVue HDTV is hitting retailers now; it sports 120Hz tech and a 1080p DLP display at roughly half the power of an LCD or plasma.

GamePack is an Arduino-powered Game Boy that is as open source as it gets: there’s nary a case to be seen, with all the internals laid bare. It’s sold as a DIY assembly kit.

Its official name is FieldCREW User Research Workstation concept, but “tricorder” works for us: it’s made for researchers, with subvocalization and wireless tagging.

HP’s Mini 1000 is a 10.2″ netbook that stands apart from other offerings, with a sleeker “clutch” style form-factor and your choice of XP or a custom HP MIE OS that uses Ubuntu Linux.