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Dude, who’s move is it again? The centuries old game of Kings and Queens enters the ’stoner’ age. This totally awesome set includes 32 ’smokin’ pieces, full colour playing board and instructions. Try to wrap your head around this classic game of strategy where you and your opponent do battle with only one goal in mind, to capture each others King. Keep in mind, it will take all of the braincells you have left to smoke your opponent under the table! ($35)

Originally by Chopper from GadgetryBlog on October 12, 2005, 6:00am

How does a chair made of working New York City signs take your fancy? Sporting a custom modified metal frame with galvanised self adjusting feet, adjustable flash speed and remote control to turn it on/off, this $3700 item would certainly add a conversation piece to your chic apartment. The chair can come complete with all the genuine scuffs and stains of its New York City roots or can come ’squeaky clean’ with a fresh coat of paint. The seating surfaces have been reglazed with one inch-thick polished resin, cushioned with felt suspension. The chair plugs into a standard 115V AC outlet, and the standard bulbs (included) are replaceable.

Originally by Chopper from GadgetryBlog on October 12, 2005, 6:10am

Check out this Internet kiosk. How gorgeous!?! Designed for indoor usage in posh hotels, museums, schools (you’re kiddin’ me, right? - Ed), banks, offices and shops, the kiosk ($3482) is available in several natural wood colours to match your company’s branding. It also comes with an Apple iMac G5 inside (can be sold without), 17-inch LCD screen, wireless network, full-size keyboard, and integrated touchpad with scroll and click function.

Originally by Chopper from GadgetryBlog on October 12, 2005, 6:20am

Seems like the week of Zen here, with all kinds of news about Creative’s latest products (our own Zen Micro Photo review, video of the new Zen Sleek Photo, Zen Vision review, etc. Adding to the Zen-ness is an article from TrustedReviews of the “plain” old Zen Sleek. The verdict: Not an iPod beater in terms of style or ease of use, but for large hard disk based storage this is a respectable challenger. A colour screen would have been nice and software to truly rival iTunes would have been icing on the cake but this is still a very decent, if unexciting, MP3 player. That’s worth a decent 8/10 score. LINK

Originally from dapreview.net on October 11, 2005, 9:40am

We took a look at the Frontier Labs Nex3 this summer, and saw it for what is was - a competent player with a couple of annoying issues (no built-in memory, no continuous scrolling in menus). Of course, no two opinions are alike, as evidenced by this Nex3 review from The Gadgeteer. Here’s what they had to say: “The Nex3 really has a lot of built-in features and included accessories for such a little player, if you think about it! Perhaps it is because of the bright yellow color, but I kept finding myself underestimating the Nex3 much of the time I was testing it. It looks like a toy to me, but it definitely did not perform like one. While testing, I found myself continuously impressed with the Nex3’s features and durability.” Pros: Compact size Good battery life Built-in FM tuner Built-in FM transmitter Included car charger Complex features for such a compact player None And I thought perfect scores were reserved for the iPod…

Originally from dapreview.net on October 11, 2005, 11:28am

We’re still waiting to publish our own lengthy review of the iAudio X5 until Cowon releases the DRM-compatible firmware (soonish) but in the meantime, you can check out DesignTechnica’s new review HERE. They score it as an 8 out of 10. Pros • Awesome sound quality • Compatible with OGG, MP3, WMA, and FLAC audio formats • Quality build construction • Beautiful, albeit small LCD display • Easy navigation • Works well with digital cameras Cons: • Limited video compatibility • Videos must be converted • Cannot output pictures or video to a TV • Not compatible with online music services. • Requires a goofy adapter for charging and transferring music

Originally from dapreview.net on October 11, 2005, 11:38am

The guys at DesignTechnica are keeping busy these days. Besides the iAudio X5, they recently reviewed the Creative Zen Vision as well. See HERE. Pros: • Small, attractive design • Easy to use and excellent navigation • Supports the important video codecs • Expansion slot (but why only compact flash?) Cons: • Poor software • Very directional screen, prone to a lot of glare • Bass distorts at high volume with supplied earbuds • Video require conversion before they will play • Included ear buds are too large causing ear pain Pretty much the same stuff we’ve heard from other reviewers…

via digitalmediathoughts.com

Originally from dapreview.net on October 11, 2005, 1:18pm

You know the story. It’s cold wet and you are gasping for a cuppa, yet as you enter your front door you know it’ll take a couple of minutes for the kettle to boil and that’s without taking into account the time it’ll take for the tea to brew. Nightmare!
Well it appears Orange has heard your pleas for, in collaboration with Great British tea maker PG Tips, it is to launch a new service called ReadyWhenUR. It is based around a regular silver teapot that’s cleverly been kitted out with a radio receiver, As soon as it gets the word ‘switch on’ via text it does just that ensuring that by the time you reach your abode the water is piping hot and ready for that tea bag. It goes on sale in January and costs £100.

Originally by Chris Price from Tech Digest on October 11, 2005, 12:12pm

If you fancy watching a bit of TV on your mobile and don’t yet have a 3G phone, here is some potentially good news. Rok, who you may remember as offering storage cards for phones pre-loaded movies and programmes, is now offering a TV streaming service to GPRS handsets. I’ll believe the quality when I see it, but the company says that once the user has downloaded the ROK player they can stream up to 10 live and on-demand channels including the Cartoon Network, CNN and ITN.

Similar to Orange’s rival 3G TV service it is free to try Rok TV, but after a month or so unless you pay £9.99 per month your screen goes blank.
While it sounds great in theory there is a drawback or two. Firstly the service is only available on certain Nokia phones. Also users will also have to pay their network for the data they download on top of the £9.99 per month. Apparently it is around 10MB of data per hour of viewing at a claimed 15fps.
Hopefully I’ll have a go with the service shortly. More here.

Originally by Chris Price from Tech Digest on October 11, 2005, 12:28pm

The annoying thing about Canon’s Expo, a showcase for its new products and upcoming technologies, is that it visits three countries in the space of a few months, so anyone who visited the Expo in New York last month got all the scoops. Nevertheless Paris did offer the opportunity of seeing some new technology close up and some of it was mind-blowing.

The big story is Canon’s alternative to LCD and plasma - SED or Surface-conduction Electron-emitter Display. Until I saw a demo of the sets I hadn’t taken the company’s claims that SED offered superior resolution to LCD and plasma very seriously. Yet in a direct comparison with LCD and plasma (and yes they probably had chosen cheap models and had tweaked them to deliver lower quality footage) SED looked far sharper and more detailed. More here. and here

Originally by Chris Price from Tech Digest on October 6, 2005, 10:10am