Hasta La Gadget!

One of the better tactics that publishers use to entice gamers to pre-order is by creating special bundles that include real goodies. The notable ones include the PIP-Boy 3000 clock from a Fallout 3 bundle and the loot chest from a Borderlands 2 bundle. But no bundle can compare with the Grid 2 BAC Mono Edition. It comes with an actual car.

And not just any car, mind you. The BAC Mono is a street-legal race car. It has a 2.3L 280hp engine and a carbon fiber body, for starters, allowing it to go from 0 to 60mph in just 2.8s, with a top speed of 170mph. The popular British car show Top Gear named it one of their top picks in 2011. It should come as no surprise then that the Guiness World Records hails the bundle as the “Most Expensive Video Game Commercially Available – Special Edition.”

And yet for some reason the car isn’t on the game’s cover. The bundle is a one-time offer and costs £125,000 (~$190,000 USD). In case you were wondering, the car alone costs £96,495 (~$146,000 USD). That means the game on its own will retail for $44,000. Just kidding. The deep-pocketed gearhead who claims the Grid 2 BAC Mono Edition also gets a PS3, a racing outfit (a helmet, a suit and a pair of gloves) and a day at the BAC Mono factory. The buyer will meet with BAC personnel to tour the factory and personalize his new ride.

Ask your assistant’s assistant’s secretary’s butler’s falcon breeder’s son’s geeky friend to contact BAC at sales@bac-mono.com to order the bundle. But just for kicks, check out UK store GAME’s pre-order page for the game as well. The six-figure tag is just sitting there as if it were a pre-order for any other game. Deadpan humor at its finest. Seriously go to the page and get a screenshot of it.

[via BAC Mono via Gear Diary]

Thanks to the pathetic speakers on iOS devices, we’ve seen many types of passive speakers come about. A sub-type of these passive speakers are ones that repurpose other items. We’ve seen one made from an old gramophone horn, a trumpet and even a piece of bamboo. WAAM Industries’ Shellphone speaker is a modified seashell.

I really want to hear the sound that’s been amplified through a Shellphone.

Does it also sound like it’s coming from far away? Does it sound like the ocean? Is it as soothing and calming as the sound that you hear when you put a shell up to your ear, the air caressing its cool and smooth walls? Most importantly, does $75 (USD) sound like a fair price to you? Because that’s how much WAAM Industries is asking for one.

[via Geekologie]

I’ve often wished that I could combine the speed of my cable Internet connection with my phone’s data connection to form one supercharged slightly above average connection. If you’ve been wishing for the same thing my wish buddy, take a look at Switchboard. It’s a subscription-based cloud service that will let you tap into multiple Internet connections at once.

The Switchboard service is currently being developed by a company called Connectify. The company claims that its servers can spread the packets that you upload or download across multiple Internet connections. All you have to do is link your computer to these connections; the Switchboard software and Connectify’s servers will do the rest.

Switchboard is actually similar to one of Connectify’s other apps called Dispatch. Dispatch can also send data to and from your computer through multiple Internet connections. The upside to Dispatch is that it doesn’t need to pass through a server. That means you only pay once – just for the client software. But Connectify says that Dispatch is only good for applications or processes that use multiple sockets at once, such as web browsing or peer-to-peer connections. Programs that use single sockets like Netflix and Hulu will gain nothing from Dispatch. Also Dispatch doesn’t have a Mac client, whereas Switchboard will have one.

Pledge at least $60 (USD) on Kickstarter to be one of the first to try out Switchboard. But with great speed comes great expense. Not only is Switchboard a subscription service, its plans also have data caps. The limits range from 10GB to 2TB per month depending on your plan. I’m not saying that’s unreasonable, but now I have another wish: I wish that future computers had this functionality baked in.

[via Tom’s Hardware]

Bang & Olufsen has been known to occasionally lower the price floor on its line of A/V gear. Continuing in that direction, the company just unveiled its Beolab 14 surround sound speakers, an entry-level offering starting at $3,995 for a 4.1 setup. The rig centers around a petite cylindrical tower that houses a 280-watt amp for its eight-inch down-firing bass driver and connections for up to five individually powered (140 watts) and equalized 2.5-inch satellite speakers. The circular drivers can be wall-mounted or set on stands, and those aluminum enclosures act as heat sinks (in addition to looking dapper). While B&0 anticipates that the soundbars on its existing TVs will act as a center channel, a 5.1 setup will be available for $4,395 if you need an independent middle speaker instead. The Beolab 14 will come in black or white when it launches in June and additional grille clothes will be an extra $99 per set, should you want to change the colors. You can find more details in the press release after the break while you start saving up.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Here’s a coffee table that would go well with the steampunk NES. It was made by Charles Lushear of Bohemian Workbench using found items. I wouldn’t disagree if you think it’s more junkyard than steampunk, but either way it’s an impressive piece.

The cedar wood tabletop used to be part of a fence, the A and B buttons are antique clock movements and the Start and Select buttons are vintage rifle magazines. But the most intriguing part is the directional pad.

Apparently that piece of metal is a Katanga cross or a handa, a copper cross that was used as a form of currency in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the 19th to the 20th century. Katanga Katanga cross, y’all.

Lushear is selling it on his Etsy shop for $2,600 (USD). That’s a lot of Katanga crosses.

[via Apartment Therapy]