Hasta La Gadget!

After ditching USB for an iPad-like 30-pin port, Samsung will now charge you $20 to add it back

Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab Adapter adds a USB port to your ten-inch tablet. Just like Apple’s camera connection kit, it hooks into the 30-pin connector and provides a USB port. Unlike Apple’s connector, it will let you hook up pretty much any kind of USB device, including but not limited to “keyboards, mice, thumb drives,” according to Samsung’s blurb.

Mice? Yup. The pitch continues “Insert a USB mouse or keyboard to improve enterprise efficiency at the office or at home.” I did a little digging and it turns out that if you hook up a mouse to the Tab (via USB or Bluetooth), a mouse pointer will appear on the screen.

This could actually prove pretty handy. Whenever I use my iPad along with a Bluetooth keyboard, it’s jarring to have to reach up and touch the screen for editing. While I know that Apple will never, ever add a mouse pointer to iOS, I can appreciate that the feature would be useful on occasion.

The dongle is designed only for the Tab 10.1. The seven-inch Tab already has its own USB port, so you don’t need this anyway. $20.

Galaxy Tab Adapter USB [Samsung via Engadget]

See Also:

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• New Galaxy Tab 10.1 Thinner, Lighter Than iPad 2
• Samsung Chief Calls Galaxy Tab 10.1 'Inadequate'
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Hands-On: A Plastic Toy With a Gorgeous …

Pioneer’s waterproof headphones can survive a trip through the washing machine

Running your iPod through a washing machine cycle might not be fatal, but it’s certainly not a good idea. On the other hand, sometimes I wish I could wash the earbuds I use with it, especially after they get to be a few months old and end up caked with wax and fluff.

So I’m very interested in Pioneer’s Washable Inner-Ear Sports Earphones, which are rated as waterproof to one meter. You might not want to swim with them (your MP3 player is still not waterproof, remember?) but you can throw them into the washing machine or just rinse them out in the shower after a workout. Better still, you can sweat as much as you like while wearing them. I’m sure I have killed at least one set of ‘buds with excessive perspiration.

Pioneer’s earbuds are available now, for $60, and come in a bewilderment of hideously bright colors.

Washable Inner-Ear Sports Earphones [Audiocubes]

See Also:

• Earbuds Beat Depression by Shining Lights Into Your Brain
• Noise-Canceling Earbuds Have Got Your Concha Covered
• Note-Worthy Panasonic Earbuds Have Best Packaging Ever
• Vacuum-Packed: Waterproof Case for Tablets
• Darwin Award Nominee: The Waterproof Power Strip

The Eatensil puts all the tools an English glutton needs into one hard-to-use package

This is the Eatensil, a multitool for fast food. Currently being hawked to manufacturers by British takeaway (takeout) website Just Eat, the tool is obviously designed to tackle British-style takeout, but I’d argue that the idea is flawed from the beginning, whichever country it is designed for.

The oversized Swiss-Army-Knife style tool includes a knife, a fork and a spoon, a beer-bottle opener, a pizza wheel, chopsticks and a small wooden fork for eating fish and chips (which is totally the best way to eat fish and chips). In short, everything you need for an impromptu meal (unless you prefer wine).

But who would use this? First, every takeout comes with its own utensils. Even pizza can be pre-sliced at the restaurant. If you’re going to carry knives and forks, why not carry real ones? Also, you can only use one tool at a time. How would you use a knife and fork together, for example?

And the inclusion of the disposable wooden chip-fork and chopsticks seems gimmicky at best. Are you really going to wipe these clean and reuse them? Which brings us onto washing this whole unhygienic mess. Finally, the small, easy-to-wield wooden fork has its entire point undermined when saddled with this giant handle.

Then again, it may just be a publicity stunt to drum up some extra hits for Just Eat, in which case it has been perfectly designed. And in which case it will probably never be made, a boon to the world’s resources of plastic, metal and cheap splintery wood.

Eatensil becomes ultimate cutlery for take away fans [Pocket Lint via Oh Gizmo]

See Also:

• Trinacrina Cutlery Cuts Three Ways
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Do you like the clean, classic aesthetic of book-binder style iPad cases, but also crave the utility of cases with built-in stands? Pad & Quill has you covered with its new Contega, a “bookbindery handmade” case with some fancy extras.

The Contega is made from card and leather, with a wooden interior frame to hold your iPad 2. Closed, it looks almost identical to any other bookbindery case. When you open it, though, you see that there is a second hinge around back which lets the section containing the iPad swing out. The two parts of the cover then form a triangular easel which holds the iPad up for watching movies and the like.

The pocket from Pad & Quill’s other iPad 2 case — the Octavo — has been moved from the inside cover to a hidden position behind the iPad itself. This should stop annoying flapping.

The man behind Pad & Quill, Brian Holmes, tells me that the new case holds the iPad 2 even more firmly than before. Given that the Octavo I tested is the snuggest case I have ever used, this means that you can be fairly confident that your tablet won’t take an unexpected dive.

The Contega comes in three internal color options and costs $90. Available June 23rd.

Contega [Pad & Quill. Thanks, Brian!]

See Also:

• Pad & Quill Octavo Case for iPad 2: Thinner, Lighter, Pocket-ier …
• Pad & Quill's Book-Like Cartella Case for MacBook Air
• iPad Case Smackdown: Dodocase Vs. Pad & Quill
• Moleskine

2-D Glasses cut out a dimension and protect you from pinkeye

Imagine the scene. You show up at the cinema to meet your so-called friends and they have decided to go watch the 3-D version of Thor. Aside from the fact that they should have taken you weeks ago, this presents a problem. You hate 3-D, but you love your idiot friends despite their tardiness and poor taste.

What do you do? Do you buy a cheaper ticket for the 2-D version and go in on your own, therefore enjoying a brighter picture and a nausea-free evening? Or do you suck it up and don the filthy, bacteria-ridden rental specs and sit with your friends (probably next to the one who eats his popcorn too loud)?

Luckily, there is a third choice: 2-D glasses. These specs won’t help with the dim picture you see from a 3-D theater screen, but they will cut out the stomach-wrenching effects some people get from 3-D. The technology is simple. 3-D works by sending a different image to each eye. Without any glasses, you can see both images on screen together, and they are blurry and impossible to watch. 3-D glasses filter these in various ways to send the correct image to the correct eye. 2D glasses filter out one image from both eyes, so you see the a 2-D movie.

The other advantage is that you won’t have to pay a rental fee for the theater’s own 3-D spex. In fact, you’ll pay back the cost of the 2-D glasses in a few weeks, as they cost just $8 a pair. They also have some other magical properties according to this amazing review on Amazon by Quindraco:

I ordered two of these, one pair for myself and one for my father. They both arrived at the same time, so naturally I put them on immediately. I forgot to remove the first pair before putting on the second, which is when I discovered a hidden feature of these glasses.

It seems obvious now that I think about it, but it turns out, when you wear 2 pairs of 2-D glasses at once, they effectively become 4-D glasses! I found myself able to see through both space and time, something I had only previously experienced while under the effects of completely legitimate medication.

Suddenly I was able to see the seconds ticking away as the universe aged, and I must say, they’re very pretty-looking. These glasses are definitely a solid buy, especially in pairs. I want to buy a third set as I am very keen to see what the world looks like in 6 dimensions.

Available now.

2-D Glasses [@-D Glasses via Harry McCracken]

See Also:

• 3-D iPad Head-Tracking App Now in App Store
• Youniversal 3D Glasses Tailor-Made for Your Eyes
• One Pair of 3-D Glasses to Bind Them All
• Goofy Glasses Hold Key to 3-D's Future