Hasta La Gadget!

Ever struggled to find the perfect adjective to articulate your admiration for a given article of awesomeness? Matt Richardson over at Make felt exactly the same way, so he perfected himself an Awesome button, designed specifically to spit out synonyms for his favorite descriptive word. To accomplish the task, he had to gut a Staples “easy” button and arrange a Teensy USB microcontroller inside it, before making the resulting mini-thesaurus compatible with his computer. Don’t worry, full instructions are contained in the video above. Just mash the play button.

The Awesome button is… originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 09:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With this pink tactical pen, you can invite your girlfriends to a slumber party, and then pay them back for fooling with your boyfriend

Tactical pens: Who knew? This sweet-looking, $23 ball-pen can be used to sign checks and faxes, and craft long letters, just like any other pen. But once the cap is screwed back on, you can flip it around and come out fighting.

The pens come from Schrade, are made from CNC-machined 6061 aluminum, and can be had in two designs. On features a heart motif stamped on the outside, presumably reminding you which vital organ you should be aiming for. The other is a much more practical fluted design, with four blood gutters running down the shaft.

Of course, you don’t really need to buy a tactical pen to get all “tactical” on someone’s ass. Anyone who has watched Scorsese’s awesome Casino will already know this, having watched the unforgettable scene where Joe Pesci goes crazy on that idiot in the casino bar, and almost kills him with his own pen. Clearly a true “tactical” master can turn anything into a tool.

Still, if it makes you feel tough to carry around a weapon, you’ll find them — appropriately — at the Knife Center. This may sound like a cool-sounding place to shop, but for every Kung Fu Sword there’s a pair of nose-hair scissors. And what on Earth are “baby scissors”?

The pink death-dealing pen is available now.

Schrade (Pink Hearts) Aluminum Tactical Pen [Knife Center via Book of Joe]

See Also:

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• Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella Splits Watermelons, Defends …
• British Police to Get Superhero-Style Weapons

Acer’s Honeycomb-powered Iconia A500 is the latest Android tablet to hit the market. Photo: Acer

With the debut of the Iconia Tab A500, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Acer is the latest to throw its hat into the tablet ring.

As of Friday morning, the 10.1-inch, Android 3.0-powered A500 is up for pre-order on Best Buy’s website for $450. It will be ready for purchase in Best Buy retail stores beginning April 24.

The price is less than the cheapest iPad 2, which costs $500 for a Wi-Fi only, 16-GB model. The Iconia A500 also has 16 GB of storage.

Most comparable tablets have had difficulty matching the iPad’s price. For instance, Motorola’s Xoom (the only other Honeycomb tablet currently available) costs $600, although that gets you a full 32 GB of internal storage, among other things.

Acer’s tablet will run Android version 3.0 (Honeycomb) on its NVidia Tegra 250 1-GHz dual-core processor, supported by a gig of RAM.

The Iconia A500 will be available in a Wi-Fi version first, and a 4G version will eventually make its way to AT&T’s network.

The A500’s 10.1-inch display boasts a 1280×800 resolution ratio (equal to that of the Xoom, and better than the iPad 2). You can watch HD 720p video on the screen, or use the HDMI output to view stored media on external screens. A 5-megapixel rear-facing camera comes for shooting photos and video, while the 2-megapixel front-facing camera allows for video chat.

Like the other Android tablets to debut in 2011, the A500 will trail Google’s flagship Honeycomb device, Motorola’s Xoom, to market. Samsung’s currently available version of its seven-inch Galaxy Tab runs Android version 2.2 — not until the 10.1-inch version will we see Honeycomb on a Samsung device (although delays have pushed back the larger version’s release).

The A500 will support Flash eventually, but won’t ship with it. Motorola’s Xoom, which debuted six weeks ago, also launched without Flash, though a beta release is currently available for Honeycomb in the Android Market.

With the BlackBerry Playbook set to debut on April 19 and a number of offerings to follow, Acer’s will be entering the tablet market just as it heats up with some serious competition.

See Also:

• Motorola Xoom Launches Without Flash
• Motorola Xoom, Atrix Too Pricey for the Public
• iPad 2 Cover Is Smart, All Right — If You're Steve Jobs
• Hands-On With Apple's Skinnier, Faster iPad 2
• 10 Apps You Should Download for iPad 2
• Want an iPad 2? Be Prepared to Wait
• HP Launches WebOS-Powered Tablet, Phones
• HP Says WebOS Will Land on PCs in 2012

Ladies and gentlemen, the days of spending $600 for an Android Honeycomb tablet are nearly done — on April 24th, the Acer Iconia Tab A500 will wash that price away with waves of brushed aluminum. That’s when the WiFi-only version of Acer’s Android 3.0 tablet will hit Best Buy and online retail for $450 sans contract, but with the same basic raft of specs as the WiFi-only Motorola Xoom: a dual-core 1GHz Tegra 250 SOC, a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 LCD screen, 1GB of RAM, a 5 megapixel camera around back and a 2 megapixel imager up front, HDMI-out, not to mention a pair of 3260mAh batteries that Acer claims are capable of eight full hours of life while playing HD video. Sure, it’s a wee bit thicker and heavier and only sports half the flash storage (16GB), too, but if you’re attracted to shiny things, look for our review in the coming weeks — or wait until this summer to get one with AT&T. PR after the break.

Update: As Acer mentioned in its press release, pre-orders for the device are beginning exclusively at Best Buy today, and you can now get your order in online.

Continue reading Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 soaks up the WiFi rays, hits shelves April 24th for $450

Acer’s Iconia Tab A500 soaks up the WiFi rays, hits shelves April 24th for $450 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Apr 2011 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With B-Reel’s multitouch video chat system, salespeople can sling graphics around on your monitor.