Awesome Gadgets

With an HP Scanjet 3C on vocals, Atari 800XL on piano and TI-99/4a as lead guitar, James has the ultimage geek orchestra; he puts it to good use with Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

Although its 700 MHz Pentium III and 512 megs of RAM are a bit out of date, Megalex’s Yellow Bulldozer case mod instantly scores points for looking like WALL-E’s long lost brother.

Talk about “iconic” design: beyond looking like a familiar desktop element, Tryi Yeh’s Apple Mac Folder features a multi-touch screen and ultra-thin design; still, what’s with that keyboard?

While their performance may be suspect with only 10W of power, Kenwood’s Odelic Speakers are lookers with optical glass housings; choose from blue or white LED lighting.

3DConnexion’s SpacePilot Pro 3D Mouse is more rodent than most of us will ever need, but we still want it: CAD-friendly buttons and knobs, function keys and an LCD screen, oh my!

It’s tough to find any real differences between Dell’s Vostro A90 and Mini 9, because there aren’t any: the real changes are the lack of bloatware and North American tech support.

Mesmerizing to watch, interactive artist Tobias Revell’s Patachronic Clock consists of 60 clocks in a circle; each clock ticks roughly one second faster and slower than its neighbors.

The folks over at TechRestore have taken a stop motion sledgehammer to a Nintendo DSi, compiling over 1,000 images of Nintendo’s latest pride and joy in various states of undress.

T-Mobile’s Sidekick LX launches 5/13: much needed improvements include 3G, a 3.2MP camera, a 3.2″ WVGA screen and a Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace support. No Wi-Fi, though.

A shot across the MacBook’s bow, Acer’s Aspire 3935 apes the unibody with a brown brushed metal chassis, 13.3″ LED backlit display, chiclet keyboard and multi-touch trackpad.

It’s total viral bait, but we’ll bite: Samsung’s i8910 Omnia HD is up to some interesting tricks in the video above, where the phone disappears yet still records; add your own theories here.

Now this is what we call circuit bending: the Speak n’ Spellbinder is a Rock Band guitar and Speak and Spell mashup that includes tone triggers, variable pitch and whammy bar.

Microsoft’s Sidewinder X3 is gaming on a budget; it packs eight buttons, ambidextrous layout, and on-the-fly sensitivity switching with a laser sensor that ranges from 400 to 2,000 DPI.

Brando’s latest cheaptastic gadget is the USB Cubic Card reader, patterned after a Rubik’s Cube; it allows up to 270 degrees of rotation and includes SD, microSD, MMC and XD support.

Iriver’s LZR Racer Aquabeat is an MP3 player that is designed for underwater use; it’s good at up to 3 meters and features 2GB of storage with up to eight hours of continuous playback.

Sanyo’s short focus laser projector is a gamechanger: it only requires 24″ of space between itself and the wall, yet manages to project a 100″ 1080p images with 7,000 lumens.v

Available at the Maker SHED store, this Truth Wristband Kit lets you build your own lie detector; it measures galvanic skin response and goes from blue to red if you’re a big, fat fibber.

It’s just a single function MP3 player, but the Little Sleep Machine makes an ideal gift for insomniac friends and family; it broadcasts three hours of soothing music designed to induce sleep.

A modern update of a classic 1965 Italian radio, the Brionvega RR227 includes an AM/FM radio and can play MP3 or WMA files through its 3W speaker via SD card, USB or Line-In.

Now official after a leak yesterday, Nikon’s D5000 DSLR packs a 12.3MP DX-format sensor, 2.7″ swiveling display, Live View, 11-point AF system and a 720/24p movie mode.

Bridging the virtual and physical worlds, Mike Neumann’s Poly.Touch concept is a “tangible” synthesizer which lets you dynamically configure real objects to serve as controls.

From cans to blocks: WeSC’s ALP Horn headphones feature funky square earcups; they also sport a convenient dual headband system, with a flexible inner band that fits your head.

Not too shabby: The DXG-125V is a 720p camcorder for less than $100; it also happens to be waterproof, includes a compass/lanyard, uses SD cards and runs on Li-ion batteries.