Gadgety News

At the start of Spring (I think it was) this was a mere concept.

Now the rain-stopping thuggery better known as the Umbuster is official - things are looking nasty for bad weather!

It is now available as a bespoke item so you can slip your fingers through that metal ‘handle’ and give those other pedestrians that look that means “please remove yourself from my path. I do believe I have the right of way old chap” with a certain glint in your eye.

This level of inclement weather smugness will cost you around £190 and be sure to check weather (arf!) you’re legally permitted to own one.

Apparently it is classed as a Class 5 weapon in parts of Australia-a-a-a-a-a! (just for those Rhianna fans that were waiting for a pun )

Srulirecht

Well, the first lot of Asus Eee Top’s have hit the UK and even though I’m digging it at the mo I’m gonna hang on a while longer.

I’ve chatted about the 15.6-inch Eee Top before and, as far as I can tell, the touchscreen PC looks a decent bit of kit. 

You get a budget PC-based alternative to the iMac with a 1.6GHz Atom processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB hard drive, Wi-Fi, 1.3MP webcam, stereo speakers, plenty of connectivity plus Windows XP for your OS.

Don’t forget you still get a keyboard and mouse so can navigate your way round even when your hands are covered in jam.

But if you think that the 15.6 inch screen is letting down the whole package there is good news on on its way.

According to Asus CEO Jerry Shen, the  Eee Top is being outsourced to Quanta Computer, which will be producing new 20-inch and 22-inch models for 2009.

And this aint no limited edition. Five million of the things will be produced in the next couple of years - so says Mr Shen.

If you’re cool with the 15.6 model Eee Top you can grab one from this month for around £399.

We are all aware of the little yellow signs with the accident prone fella tripping over something, slipping on something or generally coming to grief in one way or another.

Chances are that the more creative souls out there have one or three more humourous but equally perilous positions to put that stick figure into.

Well, that chance has arrived!

For the princely sum of $12 you can get yourself (or a friend/loved one) a completely posable figure and yellow triangle with which to devise funny and instructional warnings for as long as you have an ounce of cruelty in your diabolical hearts!

Now if there only one with a huge potted flower so I could recreate the ‘Heavy Plant Crossing’ sign………….

ThinkGeek via bbGadgets

When Asus mentioned that they were gonna produce an Ultra Mobile PC that was going to be priced somewhere around the €500 mark I thought to myself, “well it had better be good”

Well, they’ve  done it and the Asus R50A is actually shipping at €1,475!

It’s up to whether you think that a pocket PC that runs Windows Vista with a 1.33GHz Intel Atom processor, a gig of RAM, a 32GB SSD hard drive, a 5.6” screen at 1024 x 600, three USB ports, a microSD slot, a wireless keyboard, and an external DVD reader / writer is worth the cash.

You get hooked up to all the good stuff via 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and 3G.

All in all it reads like a netbook but in a hand held stylee.

If you wanna earn those Geek-Points and have the cash - well, why not eh?
Pocketables

iPhone owners - it’s time to get your chops, riffs, and deep-knee-bends ready as Guitar Rock Tour has finally made it onto the JesusPhone!

Gameloft have made it pretty much a mobile alternative to Guitar Hero - the app let’s you choose your weapon - Drums, Guitar or Bass.

It’s pretty easy to get into and the game definitely makes the most of the iPhone’s touchscreen - you’ll soon be finger tapping, sliding and scrolling away.

Become a virtual career-muso: Start off in a garage and, if you’ve got what it takes, end up by gigging in the biggest stadiums around the world!

Ah - the dream!

Living the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle means that the game throws in infrequent alcohol, cigarette and drug use references as well as the occasional sexual reference and a bit of nudity - but obviously nothing that will scare the parents!

There are 17 tracks to play along to including the great ‘Rock You Like a Hurricane’, get your Ed Van Halen on with ‘Beat It’, wear a grungey cardigan for ‘Heart Shaped Box’ and of course jam out the hallowed ‘Smoke on the Water’.

It’s available at the iTunes app store - Part with £4.99 and Rock on! \,,/ \,,/

After quite a lot of teasers, rumours and a smattering of hype RED just this moment went official with their eagerly anticipated DSMC (Digital Stills and Motion Camera) System.

There’s many, many combinations to this thing, be warned.

Let’s start with your choice of the professional Scarlet or “master professional” EPIC brains which can then be configured into about “2,251,799,813,685,248 possible camera configurations” - so says RED in a half-jokey manner ;) 

These ‘brains’ are built upon Mysterium-X and Mysterium Monstro sensors which start at 2/3-inch and end at a whopping 6×17-cm!  Good news is that when a new sensor comes out all you do is just upgrade the brain.

Scarlet will launch in 4 choices ranging from $2,500 (maybe less) to $12,000 with a variety of lens mounts (Canon and Nikon) capable of shooting 3K @120fps on up to 6K @30fps.

If that is still a little on the cheap side Epic will offer similar mounts with capabilities spanning 5K @100fps ($28k) to 9K @50fps ($45k).  Want more? A 28K system hitting 25fps is expected in 2010 for $55k

The first Scarlet systems could come as early as Spring of 2009 while EPIC should arrive by summer. Of course, the brain is just the beginning of the costs.

Just to confuse me even more RED has also introduced a 3D camera today.

RedUser

I’ve just been told that the 2.1 software is update is now available for download.

This is supposed to be the “big update” that comes bundled with Steve’s personal promise of “….significantly improved battery life….fixed a lot of bugs….. backing up to iTunes is dramatically faster.”

I’m out and about so if you’re updating let me know how it was for you

Remember back in January I reported about Tri-bot and Rovio?

Well it looks like Rovio is available for pre-order from Red5! :0)

Just to remind you lot why you should get this bot - you can control it from anywhere in the world and keep an eye on your home via streaming video and audio through a built-in camera via the interweb it does also come with its own remote control.

The neck-mounted camera is adjustable as are its audio settings and different movements.

You can also set Rovio up to patrol set routes so that you can get sloshed and still know that your faithful security-guard will be looking after all that tech you have back at home - it will even recharge itself when getting low on juice!

Ok, I’m not a sports fan.

The only things sporty I enjoy are martial arts and driving but I can hardly ignore this Olympics thing that’s taking place on the other side of the globe.

Because of that time difference people will probably need one of these things so that they can watch the action live from where-ever they are.

Stick it in the USB slot of your lappy and you’ll be able to watch niche sports on the sly and see what London has to compete with for 2012.

Pinnacle PCTV Nanostick - Price: £40.99 and it’s available now so go contact Pinnacle!

Conversions of big console titles to the Nintendo DS continue.

Following the transition of Guitar Hero to the handheld the next in line appears to be none other than R* Games - Grand Theft Auto, with Chinatown Wars being released later this year on Nins pocketable.

A gamer survey from Rockstar Games lifts the lid on what DS’ers can expect from the small screen adaptation.

By the sound of things you will partaking in the world of a young soldier seeking to make his mark within a gangland power struggle, with over 70 missions giving you 20+ hours of gameplay.

There’ll be online and offline co-op and competitive multiplayer modes thanks to the DS’s Wi-Fi connectivity. 

Also there’s a host of DS-specific stylus mini-games that make it a little more special.

One such game is where your young ne’er-do-well has to construct a sniper rifle and hot-wire a car.

More complaints/free publicity to follow shortly methinks.

Tech Radar (via T3)

Image thanks Electric Pig

Those clever people at Blaze have announced that they’ve crammed the 16-bit Mega Drive into a handheld console.

The Blaze portable game player offers classics such as Sonic and Knuckles, Golden Axe, Shinobi and Ecco the Dolphin that can all be re-lived in true Nineties style.

Other games on the list include Alex Kidd - Enchanted Castle, Alien Storm Altered Beast, Arrow Flash, Crackdown, Decap Attack, Dr Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine, Ecco Junior, Flicky, Gain Ground, Jewel Master, Kid Chameleon, Sonic Spinball and Shadow Dancer.

The handheld boasts built-in speakers, a colour LCD screen and TV out.

Power comes via three AA batteries, and is available now from games stores and online at SegaRetro for £29.99 plus P&P. 

Coolio!!

Acer are flashing around their three mini-PCs that are rather port-tastic.

With dimensions of 10.6″ x 4″ x 14.4″ (the old “same as a hardcover book” sizing) the X1200s have an HDMI port, two PCIes, nine (yup, 9!!) USBs, FireWire, front and back audio jacks, a DVD SuperMulti drive and a 14-in-1 card reader.

That should keep you going I reckon.

It runs with 4GB RAM as standard which powers the AMD dual-core processor with Nvidia GeForce 8200 integrated graphics and runs Vista (with SP1).

The PCs are out now for $450 to $700 including a 500GB drive and 22″ LCD monitor.