Posts Written by Paul Strauss

European favorite Cape North Vodka has crossed the pond to the States; it’s a wheat-based vodka made with Swedish spring water, with hints of vanilla and citrus notes.

Just released: Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 laptop throws its hat into the netbook market. $349 gets you an Intel Atom N270, 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB SSD, 802.11g card and Ubuntu. $449 for XP.

Nokia’s E66 NAM is now available at Nokia flagship stores (and for preorder online). The cellphone is wrapped in stainless steel and gets quad band GSM + dual band WCDMA.

Doug Chiang is an accomplished artist who has worked on Star Wars, Terminator 2, and even The Mask. His latest book, Mechanika, is a must-read for sci-fi artists and fans.

Whether you’re a fan of the Man or not, Matador Nights has a gallery of the 13 coolest structures ever built at the Burning Man. Big Rig Jig (2007), above, is our favorite.

The De Witt WX-1 concept is watch pr0n at its finest: sheathed in titanium and rose gold, the tourbillon timepiece has a pop-out mechanism that lets you observe its inner … workings.

Talk about sealing the deal: Resistance 2 is getting a Collector’s Edition which includes an awesome 5.5″ DC Universe Chimera Hybrid figure, art book and bonus DVD.

Portable DVD players aren’t new, but we’re digging the efficient form factor of the LG DP889. It not only plays DVDs but can be propped up on its side as a digital photo frame.

Chinese mythology buffs (you know you’re out there) will love this Lei Gong, God of Thunder vinyl. A bird in a Charlie Brown shirt with a bomb and flip flops: works for us.

These aren’t your dad’s cleats: Oakley’s Tour Jacket golf shoes are made with waterproof top-grain leather and easy to replace cleats. Available in two colorways.

Created by German graphic designer Heiko Klug for Desktopography, Tiny World is a brilliantly executed wallpaper, even with all the balloons. You can also purchase a print here.

The Audi R3 above is just a photochopped Saturn Sky, but we can’t help but drool over news that Audi will replace the TT in 2013 with the R3, a proper mid-engined sports car.

Sonny is a fun and free Flash-based RPG a-la Final Fantasy; you start off as an amnesiac zombie armed with an iron pipe. The production values are surprisingly high.

This Space Invaders-themed keyboard has uber geek written all over it; actually called ElectroJoe’s Bendiboard, they’re flexible, water resistant and come in black or white.

We have to admit the Climbatron is utterly pointless (and likely annoying), but it is pretty cool. Using suction cups, it climbs on vertical surfaces–great for driving friends up the wall.

Valt Vodka is the world’s first single malt vodka by Scottish distillers. It’s made from many of the same materials that are used in Scotch whisky, including barley sugar and cream.

Ashley Payne’s Zune Bug is a modern take on the nightlight. The concept is actually a speaker that streams music from your Zune; it adjusts its volume based on ambient lighting.

Logitech’s Illuminated Keyboard has backlit laser-etched keys for working at night. Only 9.3 mm thin, it also has laptop style scissor-switch keys for crisp, low-travel typing.

Not that Japan doesn’t have enough monsters, but the Water Dragon hologram above was filmed in Tokyo Bay. It’s actually part of a Sony ad campaign for The Water Horse movie.

This badass zombie-killer t-shirt is available at 200 Nipples, who sells their first shirt for $1, the second for $2, and so on. It’s a pretty cool concept, just be sure to get in and buy early!

It’s not a DSLR, but the Olympus SP-565 UZ’s anti-blur tech and impressive 20x wide-angle optical zoom make this perfect for “close-up” shots–the non-peeping kind, of course.

Just launched: Google’s brand-new browser, Google Chrome. It aims to minimize memory bloat (you can selectively shut down tasks) and is lightweight, with a 500KB install file.

We’re totally digging these fantastic lightpainting photos by artist Andy Hill, who makes and sells retro sci-fi Saucerbots from LED lights, leftover CDs, DVDs and hard drive platters.