Hasta La Gadget!

In September of last year, Sony threw in an interesting nugget when it shipped the third-generation PS3: there’d be a unique, more affordable 12GB flash-based unit exclusively for Europe and Hong Kong. Sure, it doesn’t do much good for those who boast huge game libraries or prefer to store odds and ends locally, but Sony clearly determined that there’d be a real market for such a product. Sony Computer Entertainment America VP of marketing, handhelds and home consoles John Koller sat down with us following the launches, and made a point to tell us the following:

“The smaller Flash drive isn’t coming to North America, and a lot of that reason is the digital consumer. We really want to make sure, out of the box, that there is an option for them to be able to download that content. That is really critical for us, very very important.”

180s happen quite frequently in the technology world, and it seems that we’re peering at another here. Canada’s own Future Shop has the 12GB PS3 listed right now as “In Stock” for $199.99, and a number of stock trackers are confirming that units are trickling into brick and mortar locations across various provinces. This all jibes nicely with a recent PlayStation Lifestyle rumor that suggests the system is coming to both Canada and the United States on August 18th, leaving us to assume that this particular store simply managed to get a jump on the competition. All that said, you can get a new 500GB PS3 with Grand Theft Auto V for just $70 more (or another, more sizable unit for even less on the secondhand market) — but hey, options!

Update: We’ve received an image (shown after the break) of the 12GB PlayStation 3 in a Kmart stockroom here in the United States. The “do not sell until” date is predictably labeled as August 18th, which means that Yanks should be able to get their hands on one of these without an impromptu road trip up north in just a few days.

[Thanks, Jean-Philippe]

Filed under: Gaming, Sony

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Source: Future Shop

It’s been a while since I featured a product from Brando, and I have to say I’m slightly disappointed with what they recently showed to us. It’s a USB drive shaped like a king chess piece. I know right? A perfectly reasonable, gift ready gadget that doesn’t make you want to bash your head against the wall in confusion? What’s going on at Brando?

The only weird thing about it it’s that Brando calls it a Chess Flash Drive. And it’s not even that weird! They just accidentally a word.

If you’re looking for a gift for a chess fan, get this from Brando. It sells for $16 to $38 (USD) depending on the capacity you want. Meanwhile I’ll be here mourning the end of an era.

I am quite sure that in the history of Coolest Gadgets, you would be hard pressed to find a longer product name in our vast catalog of gizmos covered compared to what we have today – the $44.99 UFO Robot Grendizer Flash Drive With Saucer Docking Station. Even the most hard hearted person at the office was once a kid, so you might want to appeal to his or her childhood moments by getting the UFO Robot Grendizer Flash Drive With Saucer Docking Station. After all, all work and no play makes Jack (or whatever your colleague’s name is) a dull boy, so getting this unique desktop accessory could very well help lighten up the mood at the office.

The UFO Robot Grendizer Flash Drive With Saucer Docking Station will feature everyone’s favorite Super Robot from UFO Robot Grendizer, where it is not only a 4GB USB flash drive in its own right, the robot can be considered as a collectible action figure, sporting limbs that can actually be articulated for different poses, and there is also the infamous UFO saucer that is not just there for cosmetic purposes, but for desktop USB docking as well. There is also a double harken that can be broken into a pair of axe weapons, so let your imagination fly this time around.
[ UFO Robot Grendizer Flash Drive With Saucer Docking Station copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I’ve seen my fair share of incredibly odd devices for computers over the years, but most of the really bizarre stuff is rather cheap. You have to figure that the stranger a device is, the less money it has to cost for people to be interested. That isn’t the case with a company called Shawish that has just unveiled some new USB flash drives that look like mushrooms.

First off, I don’t think there are a lot of mushroom enthusiasts out there that have been sitting around counting the days till they could find a fungus-inspired storage device for their computer. Oh, did I mention that these drives cost up to $32,000 each? Yep, these aren’t any old mushroom-shaped storage devices, they’re made out of precious metal encrusted with real gemstones.

The mushroom flash drives are made from yellow, pink, or white 18 karat gold. They’re also bejeweled with rubies, sapphires, or diamonds. The flash drives themselves have just 32 GB of storage space. You’d think for this price, they’d splurge for a 1TB model at least.

I just don’t see anyone buying one of these for that kind of money. Who knows, maybe there really is someone out there with more money than sense. And who also loves mushrooms.

[via EverythingUSB]

So, you have started to realize that you use your iPad a whole lot more than the notebook that the office loaned out to you for your productivity needs on the go, and with that, you might want to take note that sometimes, carrying around large sized files on a USB flash drive and transferring them to your notebook might be too much of a hassle, especially when your notebook does not come with a SSD and takes like forever to boot up. How about transferring those files to your iPad instead? That is made possible with the $169.95 The Only Read And Write iPad Flash Drive, where this is touted to be one of its kind where flash drives are concerned.

It will plug into a Mac or PC’s USB port, and is capable of carrying up to 16GB worth of files, be they documents, photos, videos, or music, before being hooked up to an iPad or iPhone. This would pave the way for a direct transfer of files to your iOS-powered tablet or smartphone, and it even comes with a free app that allows you to make a back up of your contacts or save email documents that are no larger than 10MB in size directly from the app itself. The Only Read And Write iPad Flash Drive can accommodate more than 35 file formats including Microsoft Word and Excel documents, PDFs, JPGs, MP4, and MP3.

[ The Only Read And Write iPad Flash Drive copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]