Author: ChipChick.com

Green solar technology has kind of taken a back seat as of late because of everyone’s obsession with eBook readers. Well Scosche hasn’t lost their green thumb and is introducing the solBAT II – solar powered charger and battery backup.   The solBAT II will work with almost any handheld device that can be charged via a USB cable. The solBAT II also features a windshield mount and a universal carabineer mount, making it easy to soak up the sun’s clean energy. Just recently the solBAT II was used to help doctors in Haiti doing relief work keep their phones powered.The solBat II retails for $29.99 and is available now.

Every new digital audio player that comes out gets slicker than the previous one, but there is still something to say about the beauty of the old analogue machines of yore. The Gakken Premium Gramophone Retro mechanical record player is one such an example of a piece of practically ancient equipment that you’ll want to use nowadays, even in a world of touchscreen PMPs and smartphones. The record player is nearly an exact replica of the gramophones that were used in the early 20th century and it comes complete with a bamboo needle and a hand-cranked mechanical action. The player also supports all record sizes and even lets you record music. You can pick up the Gakken Premium Gramophone Retro mechanical record player at Japan Trend Shop for $143.

“Danger, Will Robinson!” is what you may be tempted to say when you wear the new Locked ON- Proximity Sensing Shirt from ThinkGeek. When you and a bud (or an enemy) get within a few feet from each other, the sensors on the shirts will begin to fluctuate and then lock on, depending on how close the other shirt is. This means in order to do this successfully, you both must be wearing matching shirts. Throughout the day if your target isn’t in close proximity to you, the sensor will just randomly scan and show a fluctuating pattern.Really, this is like an updated version of laser tag, minus the toy laser guns.  The Locked ON- Proximity Sensing Shirt requires 3 AAA batteries, and the design peels off so you don’t have to worry about killing the whole shirt in the wash. The Locked ON-Proximity Sensing Shirt retails for $19.99.

Sometime ago we wrote about Designer Dr. Romanelli’s take on Hello Kitty and the special collaboration with Sanrio and MEDICOM TOY. Well we never really expected it to be available for purchase, but low and behold it seems that Mimoco has really caught the Hello Kitty bug and is now selling DRx Hello Kitty Anatomical Blue Version and DRx Hello Kitty Anatomical Vintage. The design is still intact showing all of the world Hello Kitty’s guts. So for those with a bit of twisted humor, you can purchase them for $99 each. It’s just too bad a USB flash drive wasn’t added somewhere.

Casio has always been forward thinking with their watches and their newest Baby G watch is no different. Inspired by the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day, Casio has announced the Eco-Baby-G BGR300GR-3.  Eco-Baby-G incorporates Tough Solar Technology and a recharging capability that eliminates the need for battery changes. The Eco-Baby-G  BGR300GR-3 is green from its head to its toe because not only is watch earth friendly, but so is its recyclable box. Available in green, the BGR300GR-3 will be available in March, and will retail for $110.

InteraXon is a company that has worked extensively on developing thought-controlled computing. Just in time for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, they plan on putting together the world’s largest thought-controlled computing installation. Their Bright Ideas installations will allow visitors of the Winter Olympics to control the lights at light displays at Toronto’s CN Tower, Ottawa’s Parliament Buildings, and Niagara Falls, just by using their thoughts. The installation uses a headset that measures the brain’s electrical output and reacts to alpha waves, associated with relaxation, and beta waves, associated with concentration. As users relax or focus their thoughts, the computer will send a message over the internet to the site they are viewing.  InteraXon’s custom software connects users thoughts to the lighting controls to change the display on the landmark site. The outcome is a thought-generated light show in all of the participating landmarks.

We’re geeks, so we cant help but think that these Star Trek plushes are pretty adorable. So go ahead and get your arms around Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. These 9″ plush toys are quite the charmers – Mr. Spock’s ears are even super pointy and he has his “Live Long and Prosper” hand sign out. Meanwhile, Captain Kirk is busy looking smug as ever, guess that is because he really does get all of the chicks, and he knows it too. Both Star Trek Plushes retail for $6.99 at ThinkGeek.

Geek Squad wants to make it possible for six couples that live 3,000 miles apart to celebrate Valentine’s Day over a candlelit dinner… with the help of technology. Geek Squad will host two simultaneous dinners at BLT Steak in NY restaurant in NY and BLT Steak in NY LA. At each site, there will be one side of the table set for a person and the other side set with a computer. Geek Squad Agents at both sites will set up Skype on the computers, so the couple will be able to share candlelit dinner together. All participants will receive a netbook and $150 in Geek Squad service to help them stay connected throughout the year. The event will be on February 12 (Friday) at 9PM EST/6PM PST. Please note that media will be attending the event, so participants should not be the camera shy type.

Are you in the New York City area or in the Los Angeles area, and your Valentine lives far way in the NYC or LA area? Then you’re eligible to win this awesome Valentine’s Dinner for you and your Valentine! We’re looking for two couples to participate. Just send us an email with the subject “Geek Squad Valentine’s Dinner Giveaway” or tweet at us saying “Calling All Long Distance Valentines: Win a Netbook and a Dinner for Two to Celebrate Valentine’s Day http://bit.ly/cotrZD“.

LAST DAY TO ENTER IS FEBRUARY 8TH, 2010.

Regulations: The contest is only open to residents of the U.S.A. ChipChick.com and Geek Squad are not responsible for any lost packages or incorrect shipping addresses. The prize is not redeemable in cash and must be accepted as awarded. Approximate value of prizes may vary. By claiming the prize, the winner authorizes the use, without additional compensation of his or her name and/or likeness and/or voice/photograph and municipality of residence for promotion and/or advertising purposes in any manner and in any medium (including without limitation over the internet and picture data storage).

USB keys come in all shapes and sizes nowadays, but while they’re often pretty, they’re not always all that practical. Fortunately, Too Late’s USB Memory keys are both practical and stylish. These colorful memory keys have a built in digital LCD watch, and a keychain holder. To top it all off they even come in a selection of 10 vibrant colors and they sport a nice 4GB capacity. Pricing is TBD.

Chances are you’ve heard of, or seen those little stickers that supposedly reduce the electromagnetic radiation on your cell phone. But the HARApad is the first time we’ve seen something be developed to reduce the amount of radiation on your laptops. Actually, it does make a lot of sense – if you believe that the radiation coming from your cell phone is hazardous to your health, than the radiation from your laptop isn’t much different. After all ,besides its regular components, your laptop has Wi-fi, and maybe even 3G data on it. According to HARApad, Laptop computers emit Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) up to 100 times the safe amount and this EMR may be linked to serious health issues including cancer and infertility, or cause less-serious symptoms of electromagnetic radiation sickness. The HARAPad counteracts the radiation by providing protections, and dissipating heat away from your body. It also provides your laptop with a sturdy working surface, it’s able to fit into most laptop case for easy carrying, it even doubles as a dry erase board – and last but not least, it even comes in several color including white, black, red, green and blue. There are two kinds of HARAPads, The Original HARAPad  for $49.99 claims to block up to 80% of the EMR, and the HARApad Elite claims to block nearly 100% of EMR and costs $74.99.

You may or may have not seen a mouse from a while back that was designed to have the body of a scantily clad woman. Fortunately, the folks over at Pat Says Now have finally come to their senses and have come out with a male version. Their Toy Boy mouse is designed to have the body of a muscular man – that includes six packs and all. “A women’s cyber fantasy. The dream man nestles into your hand, moves the way you want him to and delights you with his well-shaped figure.” The Toy Boy optical mouse features 800 dpi and retails for 29,90€ (about $41 USD).

[VIA 69adget Warning, site is NSFW]

Well if you are in the need to listen to your music 75+ feet away from its source, then the next generation i2i Stream XR is for you. It’s basically the same concept of the original and still available i2i Stream, it just features nicer looks and probably a bigger price tag. Just like with its predecessor, you can still stream your music from basically any audio device in your home and share those tunes with others using the i2i Stream XR. You can also broadcast music to 7 different color channels, its still lightweight, the sound  is CD quality, and it will last up to 9 hours on a single charge. Pricing and availability is TBD.

Just a few weeks ago at CES, the portable Kula TV was unveiled. Many couldn’t help but compare it to FLO TV’s portable television that we recently reviewed. But in all honesty, the design that Sungale showed off at CES wasn’t all that hot. Their new black design on the other hand, is much slicker with its modern black design. To recap, the Kula TV sports a 4.3″ touchscreen display and a Wi-fi antennae for accessing streaming TV stations from around the world. For the new design Sungale has also added a pop-up antennae for better wi-fi performance. Meanwhile, the TV’s menu interface lets you browse by country, language, or topic. The Kula will come with 2GB of built-in memory and will also work as a PMP that can play music, movies and photos. The device is scheduled to go on sale in early March for $199 with no subscription fees. There is no doubt that the device has two things that FLO TV doesn’t – and that is it can double as a PMP, and it has no monthly fees. But time will tell if the device works as well as it looks.

iMovee Mobidik is a wireless Mobile TV device that is able to receive Mobile TV broadcasts which it then streams to portable devices via wifi. That means that it can stream TV to an iPhone, BlackBerry, and all types of wifi enabled devices that have a web browser – including PCs, Macs, and netbooks. For those using an iPhone or iPod Touch, all you need to do is download and run the Mobile TV application that can be downloaded from the App store. There is no word on pricing, except that it will range somewhere between $129 and $499.iMovee Mobidik will be available next month at several electors stores in the U.S.

POKEN is a cute little gadget designed to make sharing your social networking contact details a lot easier. In essence, POKEN is really a modern day version of the business card. Just hold 2 of them together and you’ll be connected through all of the social networks you already use such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and 45 others. In Japan and Europe these little guys have already become very popular. Now they are finally available in the U.S. for $20 a pop. There are two kinds of POKENs. First there is the adorable “the Spark” which comes in an adorable design including a Geisha, a Rap Star a Panda Bear and an Alien. The second type is the pokenPULSE which looks much like an ordinary USB key and it also has 2GB of memory. But despite the fact that the pokenPULSE resembles an ordinary USB key, it actually isn’t drab at all – it comes in several colorful designs, but you have to remove its cap to actually see the designs.

Quite some time ago we wrote about some adorable iPod Hoodies that keep your iPod or iPhone, or any other smartphone for that matter, safe and snuggily. These hip little cases are essentially tiny classic gray hoodies made of soft sweatshirt material, so that your iPod will be as comfortable and ready for a jog as you are. However, since we’ve written about them back in ‘07, the company has gone MIA and many people have emailed us asking about them. So if you’re still on the look out for an iPod hoodie, you just might be in luck. Paramont Zone in the U.K. has them for £8.99 (about $15).

So you shelled out the big bucks for an expensive DSLR like the Canon EOS 7D or the Nikon D300? Chances are if you have own one of those cameras, or any other new DSLR that uses a compactflash card, that you’re someone who is serious about photography. SanDisk’s Extreme Pro 32GB CompactFlash Card has been designed specifically for pro-level DSLR cameras. Using its Power Core Controller, SanDisk claims that it can achieve read and write performance up to 90MB/s. In comparison, SanDisk’s older Extreme card boasts up to 60mb/s. The Extreme Pro is available in 16GB, 32GB, 64GB capacities, so you’ll have plenty of room for files, including large RAW files and HD movies. The card is also supposed to be able to withstand extreme temperatures ranging from -13°F to 185°F, so you can be sure that your photos stay safe. The card also features “Shock protection and RTV silicone coating added inside for protection against moisture and humidity”. A lifetime warranty comes standard with the card.

What is included:
The device comes with a plastic case and a serial number to use to activate Rescuepro recovery software for those times when you accidentally delete important photos.

Real world tests:
Highspeed performance in a CompactFlash card matters most when your shooting in burst mode which is when you take one continuous shot after another. When shooting in burst mode, bottlenecks can happen which cause a slow down when the memory card doesn’t have sufficient performance to keep up with the cameras continuous stream of shots. So burst mode is especially important for capturing high action shots like those taken during sports events. When shooting in burst mode with the Nikon D300s, we got about 3fps (raw + jpeg file mode) using the Extreme Pro card. In comparison, our older card from a different brand, was doing about 1.5fps in burst mode.

Benchmarks:
We received a sample of the 32GB SanDisk Extreme Pro along with the SanDisk Extreme Pro ExpressCard Adapter ($49.99) which is one of the few card readers out there that can actually take advantage of the Extreme Pro’s full speed. Unfortunately we experienced a weird error with the Extreme Pro ExpressCard Adapter on my MacBook Pro. The card would cause a Kernel Panic on my MacBook Pro (Late 2008). We did everything we could to try and figure out what was causing this issue – we looked on forums, referred to SanDisk’s support site, updated our firmware, but in the end we couldn’t resolve the issue. SanDisk sent us out a second ExpressCard Adapter which we were able to use without a problem. It could be that the first unit we tested was defective. The first one we received actually did not come in retail packaging, so it could have been an earlier unit of some sort. In any case, we finally got to testing the Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card using Xbench for Mac. The results below were on par with SanDisk’s 90MB/s claims.

Conclusion:
The SanDisk Extreme Pro can be compared to filling your car with premium gas as opposed to regular. Will your car drive with regular gas? Yes, but with premium it’s a smoother ride. So yes, the Extreme Pro card is definitely on the pricey side. That said, if you’ve went ahead and spent that much on the best DSLR and lens, you ought to spend the extra bucks on a fast performance card to match it, that will really take advantage of the camera’s burst mode so that you never miss that important shot. Serious professionals, especially those who shoot sports photography can not afford to not have this card. But there is no denying that this card is definitely aimed at professionals and pro-sumers, where money is no object for quality and performance. The SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB CF Card retails for $365 at Amazon, while the 64GB version runs for $615 and the 16GB for $205.

The Good:
Unlocks the full potential of your DSLR, fast shooting speeds during burst mode, can withstand drops and extreme temperatures in order to keep your files safe, comes with lifetime warranty

The Bad:
Expensive, for day to day shots you wont really notice the performance gains unless you are using burst mode

So Hello Kitty is too pink for you, eh? Hey, we can totally agree with that sentiment. Many of us prefer black over pink, yet we still have a fondness for Hello Kitty. The new Hello Kitty Music Player Premium DX might be perfect for those of you who agree with that sentiment. This MP3 player from iriver Japan is available in 2 versions – one with Hello Kitty’s signature bow, and one where she is wearing a simple flower. Both the flower and the bow are covered in Swarovski crystals, because it couldn’t be complete without over the top Swarvski crystals! Inside you get a not too shabby 4GB of internal memory, and support for MP3 and WMA files, all in a very small body measuring 45.2×35.5×18.0 mm and weighing just 16g. Matching black headphones and a USB cable are included as well. The Hello Kitty Music Player Premium DX retails for $110, but unfortunately at the moment it’s only available in Japan.

(Via CrunchGear)