Author: ChipChick.com

Urban Collector has a bunch of geektastic keyboard and mice up for preorder. For Trekkies, there is the Star Trek Ncc1701 Warp Wired Keyscaper keyboard for $45.99, or the Star Trek Ncc1701 Warp Wireless Mouse for $26.99. Both are covered in images of the U.S.S. Enterprise taken from J.J. Abrams’ film. But if Start Trek isn’t your thing, there are also colorful Iron Man and Wolverine keyboards and mice up for preorder at Urban Collector.

The moonlight cushion isn’t an ordinary cushion, this a light-up color changing cushion is sure to give you some super trippy dreams. Made from ultra-soft plush fur, the pillow has an internal light source that illuminates the whole cushion with a gently shifting light that shimmers between various different colors. You can pick up the Moonlight Cushion for £24.99 ($37 USD) at Thumbsup.

The USB Jewel Phoenix Necklace Flash Drive has been designed with decorative crystals and a phoenix shape. It’s the kind of unusual USB key that you can wear on you as a necklace and no one would ever guess that it’s actually disquising a flash drive. So in a way, you can kind of consider this an equivalent to a pocket protector for girls. That said, it’s design isn’t for everyone, but the pricing is as much as any costume jewelry would be. You can pick up the 2GB version of the USB Jewel Phoenix Necklace Flash Drive for $22, the 4GB for $25, and the 8GB for $36.

Looking to style your fridge to look like one big iPhone? Well no need to buy the handmade stuff over at Etsy. The App Magnets are the first of its kind that are authentic to the actual iPhone applications. Now you can hold up a piece of paper that says ‘get milk’ with the notepad magnet or maybe hold up another note with the phone magnet that says ‘call mom.’ Either way you’ll probably of have the coolest fridge in the neighborhood especially if its a black one. The magnets even come packaged in a blister pack resembling an iPhone – I mean come on now – that’s classic! The App Magnets retail anywhere for $12.99 and can be found at Jailbreak Toys.

We always love us some Star Wars around here and what a better combo then Star Wars and headphones. Coloud has made three pairs of headphones that feature Darth Vader, the Rebel Alliance, and the Star Wars Logo. Each one is styled to look like the name or imagery on it. I’m personally so digging the Darth Vader pair of cans – love the red and black.  The headphones consist of some specific features like 40mm power drivers, padded earcups that look like they pivot, a coil cord, 3.5mm plug, 32 OHMs, and basically one size fits all. All three pairs of headphones retail for $39.95 and are available directly from Coloud.

The next time you are stuck inviting people over to your house that you don’t want, why not sit them in a dimly lit room and and put this bad boy on. The new Terminator 2 Judgment Day T-800 1:1 Scale Endoskull Replica is bound to scare the crap out of them and send them running out of the room or curse at you like Christian Bale. Not only is this realistic looking replica badass to look at, you can switch it on and its eyes light up and the Terminator theme emanates from it too. It’s the T-800 in all its Terminator 2 glory, but it doesn’t come cheap as it retails for $599.99 and is currently on pre-order at Entertainment Earth.

The New T3-B table from Digital Touch is a coffee table sized unit with a built in 26″ LCD and lets people browse, select, and interact with the different types options available on a screen at their table. This table also has an “orientation switch” so you can view your content from any side of the table and a built-in PC and wireless access are both standard. Currently dual touch capable and comes in 2 different colors. This unit also has an optional receipt printer, credit card reader and TV tuner. You can use it any setting but it looks like a Hotel or restaurant would probably be the most useful even though they can customize it for your home office if you like.  This product is currently featured in a handful of the nations top 100 venues. It features a touch screen drink menu, table to table chat and game function. DJ song request application, advertisement placements and POS integration. Social interaction is the latest craze, with a network of these tables you are guaranteed to be the talk of the town.

l

To be honest I have been so ensconced with games like Heavy Rain and Mass Effect 2, that I haven’t even bothered to pick up my plastic ax to jam to Rock Band lately. But with this latest news I may have just gotten the jolt I needed to play again because Lady Gaga is coming to Rock Band!! So be it, I’m a loud and proud  ‘Little Monster’ and the ability to play just a few of her songs is like a kid in a candy store. The four pack will be released next week and will debut with her biggest hits:  “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance,” “Monster” and “Poker Face” and you will be able to download them separately as well. In addition a  special version of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face,” famously done by South Park’s Cartman, will also be available next week.

Some other highlights to take note of for next week’s launch is:

·  MTV: “Bad Romance” video rotation during music hours, 30-minute Lady Gaga video blocks on MTV Hits, the debut of Lady Gaga’s new video “Telephone,” a collaboration with Beyonce, and an airing of the Lady Gaga episode of America’s Best Dance Crew March 16 (also on MTV2)

·  Palladia: Airings of Lady Gaga performance specials including,London Live (airing March 10, 13, 16, 21 and 24),VFest (March 20 and 26) and the2009 MTV Video Music Awards (March 19 and 20)

·  Logo: An airing of London Live and NewNowNext Pop Lab Lady Gaga Edition (March 16)

The Lady Gaga pack will cost you $6.99 and to buy each song separately it will cost $1.99.  I can only imagine the hysteria in people’s homes as they jam out to Lady Gaga, but nonetheless Lady Gaga might have just saved Rock Band from collecting any further dust.

Well I expected someone at Etsy to do something with Alice and Wonderland and low and behold they did. The Mad Hatter Jr. is a handmade mod of a 2GB USB flash drive. It even looks creepily close to Johnny Depp’s version in the movie. There is also one of Alice called Lil’ Alice with a cheshire cat. Both flash drives come with a grosgrain lanyard (green, brown or red) decorated with a green spade-shaped button and underneath is a SanDisk Cruzer 2GB flash drive. (more…)

The Warpia Easy Dock is a new USB device that allows you to wirelessly stream your laptop/Macbook desktop to any full-size monitor, keyboard, mouse, and speakers.  The Easy Dock lets you work and surf comfortably on a bigger screen and keyboard, or enjoy your music on high-quality speakers. The Easy Dock consists of a USB dongle that connects to your laptop and a receiver that connects to your monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers.  Your laptop will recognize the Easy Dock and begin submitting a wireless signal to the receiver, transmitting the image with a resolution of up to1400×1050 to your monitor’s screen. The Easy Dock retails for  $149.99 and works with Windows 7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X Leopard, and Snow Leopard.

Samsung’s E6 e-reader that they announced back in January at CES is finally getting ready to be released this spring. Now Samsung has announced that they’ve formed a partnership with B&N to bring all of their ebooks and magazines to the E6. The e-reader will also use B&N’s Lend Me technology to share ebooks with you friends. The E6 will retail for $299, which is a $100 price drop from the original price mentioned at CES. Should the Nook be nervous?

As much as it seems like portable media players are slowly dying, it’s about time some slick new ones were released. Originally spotted last summer, Samsung has finally announced pricing and availability for their Beat R1 media players. Measuring 8.9mm thick, and weighing just 50 grams, the R1 is smaller than the size of a credit card, yet it packs in a 2.6″ LCD touch screen, a 50 hour battery life of audio, 4 hours for video, an FM radio and recorder, and bluetooth.  The R1 will be available in pink, black, and silver.The player features DivX support for video files, as well as Samsung’s fantastic Digital Natural Sound Engine (DNSe) 3.0 sound enhancement technology. The player will be available in April, with the R1 retailing for $149.99 (8GB) and $179.99 (16GB).

 

3D televisions were the talk of the town at CES this year, and today in New York at Samsung’s 3D Wonder event they announced more initiatives committed to 3D HD television. For starters, they announced the world’s first available 3D LED TV, along with a full lineup of other 3D Home Entertainment products. In order to make 3D TV more accessible, Samsung will be giving a 3D starter Kit out to anyone who purchases a Samsung 3D TV, 3D Blu-Ray Player or Home Theater System in 2010. The 3D Starter Kit includes 2 pairs of Samsung active shutter 3D active glasses and a first-time, a 3D Blu-ray version of DreamWorks Animation’s 2009 release, Monsters vs. Aliens – which is a Samsung exclusive.

 

Steve Katzenberg of Dreamworks was also on hand to announce that all of the Shrek films will now be available in 3D, and they’ll be exclusively compatible with Samsung’s 3D Home Theater products.

Samsung also announced their “Dedicated to Wonder” new marketing campaign. This campaign will promote their new 3D products, and it will also make 3D stations available at retails stores so that customers can easily try out 3D home theater products before making a purchasing decision. Samsung will also be rolling out 3D advertising displays in IMAX theaters in April. Meanwhile, at the time Warner Center in New York, they’ve set up a massive 3D installation where folks can put on 3D glasses and come check out walls of 3D LED TVs.

Overall, we’re excited to finally have 3D LED TVs starting to make their way onto store shelves. Color us opportunists, but we’re even more excited by the fact that this probably means that LED TV prices for Samsung’s non 3D TV’s will come down in price.

Other news items:
·   Samsung’s 3D TV lineup includes the LED 7000/8000/9000 Series, LCD 750 Series, and the Plasma 7000/8000 Series.
·   Available this month are the 3D capable 46” and 55” LED C7000, with the remaining 3D TVs rolling out over the next several months.
·   In the US, Samsung is launching a holistic marketing campaign under the name “Dedicated to Wonder.” The high-profile marketing effort will include television advertising and the first 3D Cinema advertising for a consumer electronics brand.

We’ve seen lots of jewelry over the years that use keyboard keys as their focal pieces. But this is the first time we’ve spotted a bag mad out of recycled keyboard keys! In particular, this is an eco-friendly clutch purse that has been made out of black recycled keyboards. You can pick up the Recycled Keyboard Clutch Purse at Perpetual Kid for $39.99.

This Pharaoh-style massager called the Tap Tech wraps around your back and shoulders for an on the spot-massage. It uses a Elector-Magnetic Tapping technique, and comes with over 20 pre-programmed massages built-in. It also features an auto timer, and it’ll provide you with heat. But wait, there’s more! You can use the Tap Tech to get a foot massage or a waist & calf massage too. The Tap Tech Massager retails for $88.99.

It was really just a matter of time before the iPad clones started showing up. Fresh from somewhere in Asia, is the Ezy Tablet PC. With a design reminiscent of the iPad, this tablet features a 10.2″ multitouch screen. Under the hood the system is running Windows 7 with Wi-fi and 3G support, 2GB Ram, a 250GB hard drive, a 1.6 atom processor, 3 USB ports, and a 1.3MP camera. Over all, these specs aren’t too bad for a $679 price tag. Now we dare you to go ahead and order it.

These little guys called the Auto + USBoombox, have heads made of a cassette tape and they’re carrying around a smiling boombox that conceals a 1GB USB flash drive. On each edition of this Auto + USBoombox, you’ll also find an exclusive soundtrack. So what are the points of these little guys? None really, except that they’re collectible and adorable. The Auto + USBoombox 5-Inch Striped Edition and the Auto + USBoombox US Edition 5-Inch both retail for $60.00 from Kidrobot.

Surely there has been a time where you’ve needed to control your computer when you don’t have physical access to it (also known as a remote connection). Maybe you forgot to email yourself a document or maybe you wanted to start downloading a file so it’s complete when you’re finally back at your computer. There are 1001 reasons to connect to your computer remotely and it couldn’t be easier using the LogMeIn Ignition iPhone app. Using the app, you can easily control all of your computers, whether Mac or PC, from anywhere! The best part is how easy it was to set up. There is no need to tweak router settings, forward ports, or fiddle around with IP addresses.

Set-Up:

LogMeIn was designed for even the least tech-savvy of us to use. Here was the process….

Step 1: Go to LogMeIn website and click Create Account

Step 2: Select the “Product Group” and choose “LogMeIn Access, Management and Networking”

Step 3: Enter in the usual information: name, email, password, country etc… and click Create

Step 4: Choose ‘Add this Computer’ and install the file

Step 5: Log in from LogMeIn Ignition on your iPhone

Step 6: That’s It!
There are some other settings and preferences you can tweak, but that’s all it takes to set up an easy to use and safe connection. After those 6 steps you’re ready to control your computer from virtually anywhere with your iPhone (over WiFi or 3G) or iPod Touch (over WiFi). You can even control your computer from any web browser. LogMeIn will run quietly in the background on your computer. It will display a transparent overlay to alert you of any active connections. Once again, there are no advanced router settings to fuss around with to get this to work.

The App:
Once you sign in to the app with your email and LogMeIn password you will see a list of your computers and their online/offline status. To login to one of your computers just click it’s name and enter in the log in info specific to that computer (LogMeIn will remember these credentials if you choose). At this point you will see your computer screen….on your iPhone….from anywhere…updating in real-time. It’s a beautiful thing. By default the mouse is always in the center of the iPhone screen and you use your finger to move the computer display (rather than moving the mouse). My recommendation is to change the default control setting so the mouse will move with your finger. It works very similarly to how your laptop touchpad works. Tap the screen to click, double tap to double click, two finger tap to right click, and use three fingers to scroll up and down (like a mouse scroll wheel). You can adjust mouse sensitivity, and the size of the screen on your phone, by pinching and zooming. There are a set of buttons on the bottom of the iPhone screen including disconnect, keyboard, right click/left click toggle, zoom, settings, alt-tab, and ctrl-alt-del. The keyboard button brings up the regular iPhone keyboard on the bottom half of the screen along with a row of other keyboard buttons not included on the iPhone keyboard.

I expected the control over WiFi (same network as computer) to be pretty smooth and fluid, and it certainly was. However, I did not expect the control over 3G to be almost nearly as fluid. It doesn’t react quite as quickly, but it comes very close. If I hover my mouse over an icon from my iPhone over 3g the tooltip pops up in under a second. You can also adjust the display resolution on Ignition. So if you find it’s too laggy, you can just lower the res, which will speed it up a bit.

Conclusion:
I’ve said it a couple times now, and I’ll say it once more: this app could not be easier to get up and running to control your Mac or PC remotely. The downside however, is that you’re certainly paying the price for the ease of use at $29.99. So it’s certainly one of the most expensive apps you may ever buy, but it very well might be one of the most useful. If you have a need for remotely controlling your computer(s) it will pay for itself rather quickly.
One feature I did not mention is LogMeIn ignition will also function as a pretty nice mouse and keyboard combo for your computer. This is great for media centers. Over WiFi the mouse movements are pretty smooth, although I will say they could be smoother. If you’re looking for just a mouse and keyboard combo to control your computer over WiFi you can use TouchPad Elite ($.99), which I highly recommend, or the Logitech Touch Mouse (free), which I’ve never tried. All in all I’m very excited that I have LogMeIn Ignition running on my iPhone; and I cannot wait to start using it on an iPad, controlling my computer with a big beautiful multi-touch screen.

The Good: Easy to set-up, easy to use, works with both PCs and Macs, very responsive over wi-fi

The Bad: Slight lag over 3G, $29.99 is much pricier than most iPhone apps

Well the Oscars are upon us once again and not only are the Swag bags going a bit techie, but so is the broadcast. Let’s get to the swag bags first – Lauren Bush’s FEED Haiti tote bags is also a 2010 Oscar Goodie bag that will be stuffed with Bye Bye Bunches, a new fashion accessory designed to eliminate bunches;  The Oscar goodie bag also includes ‘must have’ travel accessories, such as: Virgin Atlantic Gold Cards – providing access to world class lounges, priority check-in, upgrades, limo service and more miles; Morgans Hotel Group’s eclectic compilation CD No 4 played at MHG hotel properties around the globe; Vineyard Vines whimsical ties and preppy boxers; and Frank O’Hara’s acclaimed book of poetry entitled, Meditations in an Emergency.

Then there is the Distinctive Assets gift baskets for those nominees who don’t take home the statue.

For us mere peasants who want to keep up with everything Oscar tonight,  you can using Twitter, Facebook or some iPhone Apps. The one app that’s been getting a lot of traction is the Vantiy Fair App and there is the live Oscar Twitter feed. Wolfgang Puck has already divulged what food is good for watching the Oscars and what he is preparing as the meal after the big event. Then of course there is the Official Oscars’s app.

For those who have cablevision and lost ABC a few minutes ago, they will probably appreciate these alternative ways of viewing the show and there is always the live webcast via the Facebook that will let you ask the celebs questions on the red carpet.