Crapgadget: 'Gee... thanks?' edition

If you need a flash drive or USB hub there are many useful and, more to the point, tasteful options out there. But if you want to saddle a hapless co-worker or relative with a silly, embarrassing, or just plain crapulant gag gift suitable for the current technological moment? Look no further than the following assortment of crapgadgets. Your illustrious Engadget eds have hand-picked a wonderful assortment of devices tailor-made to evoke awkward responses at office birthday parties and the like. So, without further ado...

[Via: Engadget ]

Timex Expedition WS4 can't wait to get you outdoors

Timex has always had a thing for pumping out wristwatches that cater to argonauts, and it's doing so yet again with the totally bodacious Expedition WS4. Aside from telling time and withstanding minor bumps, bangs and raindrops, the piece also features an altimeter, barometer, thermometer, chronograph, alarm and compass. It'll also resist water intrusion for up to 50 meters, get lit via Indiglo and arrive in a variety of hues to match your favorite day pack. Word on the street has it that the watch will be widely available in May for around two bills, and while it won't play back MP4 files, it can be worn in public without embarrassment.


[Via: Boing Boing ]

Samsung unveils Blue Earth, a solar-powered mobile phone

Samsung's Blue Earth handset might just be taking the green thing to a whole new extreme. Made from PCM, a recycled plastic from water bottles, the phone boast an "eco" mode for efficiently adjusting screen brightness, backlight duration and Bluetooth usage, and an "eco walk" app / built-in pedometer to tell you how much CO2 emission you've saved by walking instead of driving. The best part? It's got a giant solar panel on the back that'll apparently charge it enough to make a phone call anytime the sun's peaking out. Of the form factor, Sammy says it "symbolizes a flat and well rounded shiny pebble" -- which we hope means it can skip puddles with the best of 'em. It'll come in recycled packaging with an energy efficient charger. What we don't know, unfortunately, is what makes this phone tick, neither OS nor hardware specs. Not a word on price yet, but UK environmentalists can look forward to this one second half of this year.


[Via: Engadget ]

Large Hadron Collider restart delayed till September

Oh, bollocks! When CERN's Large Hadron Collider started up this past September, we figured it was only a matter of time before the world as we knew it imploded. Thus, we did as any reasonable group of individuals would do and evaporated our life savings before being beamed up. Now, we're stuck waiting around (with four or five pennies) for this September, as that's the new restart date following the LHC's run-in with bad luck late last year. If all goes to plan this go 'round, the machine will run into autumn of 2010, when engineers will hopefully see collisions of lead ions. Needless to say, gurus are implementing a new enhanced protection system to keep things from going so wrongly again, but you never can tell what'll happen when smashing atoms, now can you?


[Via: CNET ]

IPEVO's WiFi handset lets you Skype like it's 1999

Now, this might not seem as futuristic as a videophone, or your own USB powered Star Trek communicator, but if you're in the mood for some VOIP (feeling frisky, are we?) IPEVO's newest is definitely worth a second look. The S0-20 is a stand-alone Skype handset that boasts a 4 hour talk time, backlit keys, a 1.8-inch color LCD, support for both G711 and G729AB codes, and both WEP and WPA/WPA2-PSK encryption -- all in a package that would look at home next to a ten year old pre-pay cell phone. Available now for $129.


[Via: Engadget ]

5-in-1 Spy Pocket Audio & Color Video Recorder Writing Pen Is the Ultimate Spy Gadget [Gadgets]

This 5-in-1 Spy Pen is every secret agent's wet dream. It functions as an audio and video recorder, USB webcam, 2GB USB flash drive, and works as a fully functioning pen too. Using a single rechargeable Lithium-ion battery, the pen can record up to 60 minutes of color video, and can be charged using a USB charging cable or an emergency AC power adapter. Also included is a special stand, which converts the Spy Pen from a simple video recorder into a webcam. And as for hiding all your important documents? Simply unscrew it in the mid section, and voila! The Spy Pen is now a 2GB USB flash drive. It'll cost you $99 for the 5-in-1 Spy Pen, but if you pay just 10 bucks more, you can own one with 4GB of memory. Listen and sniff closely, do you hear/smell that? It's a collective orgasm from millions of spies around the world.


[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

Pizza Pro: like a circular saw for your pizza pies

As with the tried and true toaster, the traditional pizza cutter has gone far, far too long without a redesign. Don't get us wrong -- the standard cutter seems to slice through Digiorno pies just fine, but it really doesn't add too much fun to the whole process. That's where Fred & Friends comes in. The unimaginatively named (and currently unpriced) Pizza Pro beautifully weds a circular saw with a pizza slicer, and while this thing doesn't actually rev up and send shreds of cheese, pepperoni and burnt crust flying when making its way from one side to the other, it certainly makes the art of carving up a pie for eight infinitely more enjoyable.


[Via: GearDiary ]

Pizza Pro: like a circular saw for your pizza pies

As with the tried and true toaster, the traditional pizza cutter has gone far, far too long without a redesign. Don't get us wrong -- the standard cutter seems to slice through Digiorno pies just fine, but it really doesn't add too much fun to the whole process. That's where Fred & Friends comes in. The unimaginatively named (and currently unpriced) Pizza Pro beautifully weds a circular saw with a pizza slicer, and while this thing doesn't actually rev up and send shreds of cheese, pepperoni and burnt crust flying when making its way from one side to the other, it certainly makes the art of carving up a pie for eight infinitely more enjoyable.


[Via: GearDiary ]

Cold Steel Pocket Shark Pen Is Literally Mightier Than Some Swords [Death By Pen]

We Gizmodo bloggers often kill people with our snarky words. Slay them, if you will, with gadget humor. That's figurative, of course. But today, with this Pocket Shark pen, we can finally kill for real. And at $7, it's never been easier to dispatch an adversary with a writing utensil. The product description, provided by maker Cold Steel, is as cold and ruthless as the pen itself:

“[The Pocket Shark] features walls that are 4 times thicker than similar markers. This means it’s built for impact and, in a self-defense emergency it can become an efficient Yawara stick for driving off an attacker. Plus, the screw-top cap will stay in place and won’t pop off like a regular marker’s cap would when you strike a percussion blow, or when obtaining joint locks or submission holds."

Great for firing off an expense report and defending you in a dark alley after leaving the office, all in the same day. Sign me up.

[Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ]

Apple teams up with Adobe for iPhone Flash at long last

With Android getting all Flash-ey, Apple's "Goldilocks" position on Flash -- the full Flash player is too hefty, Flash Lite is too weak -- seemed pretty untenable. Now Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen has revealed that Apple and Adobe are "collaborating" on making Flash a reality on the iPhone, citing the technical challenge it presents. What's clear is that with all this work to do, it doesn't seem they're going the watered-down Flash Lite route, but we're trying not to hold our breath for a full-on, Hulu-friendly version that will finally help us get that Doogie Howser fix on the go. Naturally, there's no word on when this will hit.
[Via: Engadget ]

Soundbulb serves two great purposes, at least in theory

If we had to name two essentials to any geek home, well, we couldn't. But if we were jacked upside the wall and forced to, we'd likely pick sound and lighting. It goes without saying that designers Hoang M Nguyen, Poom Puttorngul and Anh Nguyen would agree, as they've dreamed up the conceptual Soundbulb that you see above. Essentially, what you're looking at is a light bulb that includes a small driver along with an embedded wireless module that would enable it to receive streaming audio from a transmitter. Oh sure, you wouldn't get any of that soul shaking bass from these guys, but just think of the convenience factor.

[Via: Electronista ]

Quantum Concord C Lab QuantumGravity watch "defies all laws," common sense

We'll be straight with you -- while the Quantum Concord C Lab Quantum Gravity "watch" does, in fact, look pretty slick, we're mostly taken with its marketing materials, which claim that the "aerial bi-axial Tourbillion mechanism" and "structure that makes emptiness its core material" grants the timepiece the ability to "defy all laws, including that of logic, and most of all, of gravity." Yes, logic is being defied here. We're not sure what other laws owning a timepiece valued at "infinite preciousness" allows you to defy, but we've got a stack of parking tickets, a Windows 7-related indecent exposure and at least one semi-legal Mac cloning operation going on here, so we'll see how many flying clocks make it out of Switzerland when this thing goes on sale in March.

[Via: WatchLuxus ]

Sirona dental digitizer makes cavities look better than ever

We may not all be getting dental examinations at home just yet, but we can at least be thankful that companies like Sirona are doing their best to speed up our visits to the dentist and, frankly, make them a little more awesome. Their latest device is the CEREC AC, which makes use of the so-called Bluecam pictured above to capture images of "near inaccessible areas with the utmost precision." That's apparently made possible in part thanks to its use of a blue LED that illuminates the area, and some built-in shake detection and automatic image capturing software that ensures that just the right images are captured. The main CEREC AC unit comes into the picture to work some CAD/CAM magic on those images and, as you can see after the break, it seems more than ready to handle a few late night games of Marble Madness should the urge arise.

[Via: Medgadget ]

Isabella Products intros cellular-connected Vizit photo frame

There's certainly no shortage of internet-connected digital photo frames out there, but those looking for a truly out-of-the-box experience may want to keep an eye out for Isabella Products' new Vizit frame, which ditches the usual WiFi and Ethernet in favor of a more convenient (and more expensive) cellular connection. Unfortunately, Isabella Products doesn't seem ready to get too specific with things just yet, with it only saying that the frame boasts a "high resolution" 10.2-inch touchscreen, and that it'll be tied to the as yet non-existent
[Via: LetsGoMobile ]

Panasonic introduces standalone paperless fax machine

Standalone fax machines may have long ago lost the momentum game to multi-function devices, but it looks like Panasonic is doing its best to pry things back away from the printer and scanner, with its new PW608DL offering one stand-out feature that's sure to attract a bit of attention: paperless faxing. Apparently, you can either send faxes cellphone-style using the machine's built-in keypad, or send documents stored on an SD card (but not a USB drive, it seems). Any faxes received are simply displayed on the device's 3.9-inch LCD and, yes, they can be printed out as well. Unfortunately, it looks like this wonder of technology is exclusive to Japan for the foreseeable future -- please try not to be too envious.
[Via: Tech Digest ]

Vuzix to unveil new, less cool-looking HMD at CES

Looks like we'll all get our first good look at Vuzix's newest head-mounted display -- the Wrap 920AV -- at CES in a few days. They're apprarently very similar to the company's previous offering, though they boast a totally fresh appearance. Vuzix promises that the optics have been improved and will offer a better viewing experience, but we don't have any other specifics about the device yet. We'll definitely check them out in Vegas, but we have to say: the Geordi La Forge look was way better than the new wrap-shades, guys.
[Via: Engadget ]