Speeding tickets are about revenue, not safety. (That was probably among the Wikileaks the government considers confidential.) You can protect yourself, some, with most any radar detector. The gold standard among radar detectors has long been the Valentine One. Valentine Research does the best job of sniffing out radar and provides the most intelligent warnings. The Valentine One uses front-side-rear warning arrows to show the location of the signals
You can pay your dealer as much as $100 to tell you what the Check Engine light means each time it comes on, or you can buy a handheld diagnostics tool such as CarMD for about the same price ($120 direct) that plugs into your car for a quick good-not good indication, then into your computer for a detailed rundown of what’s wrong, time after time. CarMD works on up to three cars, does more emissions and safety checks than earlier models, handles hybrids, and the site provides more how-to-maintain-your-car info to keep you involved in between plug-in diagnoses.
We all know how unsightly it can be when you have six different gadgets all plugged into one power strip. The cords are all tangled up, and it can really throw off the feel of a nice, neat room. Thanks to the good people at ThinkGeek, you can hide all the clutter with a nice planter full of luscious fake grass. The Grassy Lawn Charging Station gently cushions your electronics while they charge in the bed of greens.
A compartment underneath the grass hides all of the power adapters and cables. You just have to run a standard extension cable into the bottom of the base, plug in all your power adapters, and then snake the charging cables up through the grass. The planters is 11-by-7-by-4.35-inches in size. It costs $24.99 at ThinkGeek.
This is the perfect gift for that plant-lover in your life who likes to keep things clutter-free. No one needs to know the grass is fake, right?
As mentioned earlier, we’re gearing up for the holidays here at Gearlog by bringing you the top titles for each of the top consoles. On Friday it was the Xbox 360. Today, it’s the Nintendo Wii.
As always, Nintendo’s library tends to skew a bit younger than its Sony and Microsoft counterparts. The list is full of familiar all-ages heroes like Kirby, Donkey Kong, and even Mickey Mouse.
But don’t worry–we’ve got something for the grownups, too.
It’s holiday season crunch time. As always, we here at Gearlog are dedicated to helping you pick out the best gifts for those gamers in your life. We’ll be offering up lists of the best holiday gifts you can buy on each platform, including the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, and PC.
We’re starting off our roundups with Microsoft’s console, which is sure to have a banner year thanks in no small part to the introduction of the Kinect for Xbox 360, and the continued success of Bungie’s Halo Line.
After the jump, check out some surefire hits for the holidays.
James Bond is back, sort of. Goldeneye 007 for the Wii is the long-awaited remake/reimagining/re-release of the classic Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64, still recognized as one of the greatest multiplayer video games in history. If you’re expecting a nostalgic romp through the big set pieces of Goldeneye while engaging in a run-and-gun-and-sometimes-sneak gameplay worthy of James Bond, you’re going to like it. If you’re looking for a graphically improved remake of the original game that’s virtually identical to the Nintendo 64 release, however, you’re going to be disappointed.
Goldeneye 007 for the Wii is a completely different game from the N64Goldeneye. The story, the maps, the action, it all hits the same notes as the original game, but with some major structural differences. Besides a few landmarks, the maps have drastically changed. The characters have been reworked into virtually unrecognizable versions of their movie/N64 counterparts; Pierce Brosnan’s likeness has been replaced by Daniel Craig’s as James Bond, Valentin Zukovsky has morphed from a stocky, limping gangster into a night club-dwelling party animal, and Joe Don Baker’s Jack Wade (absent from the N64 game) has been replaced by a military contractor George W. Bush analog.
Every year, kids across the world mail out letters addressed to Santa head up to the North Pole, but how many kids receive a response from Santa? Could you imagine the look on a child’s face when he finds a postcard from Santa in the mailbox addressed to him. Well, there’s an app for that.
The Postcards From Santa app lets you send a real postcard addressed from Santa with your iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Android device. It’s simple; you pick out a Santa image, chose either a pre-written message or write your own, and enter the child’s name and mailing address,and, viola, a personalized postcard from Santa is on its way. It takes 3 to 5 days to reach U.S. and Canadian addresses and 5 to 14 days to reach the rest of the world. the cards are printed on high quality, thick paper and the images are high resolution with a glossy finish.
The app, which USAToday calls a “Top Tech Gift of 2010,” is available in the App Store and the Android Market for free or you can now also make one online with an app like simulator if you don’t have an Apple or Android device. Each postcard costs $1.99 including postage. So for only the price of that you can dig out of your couch cushions, you can help spread the excitement and spirit of Christmas by sending a personalized gift that a child will remember forever. Or you send one to an adult that’s still a kid at heart or swears to still believe in Santa.
I have a very fear real that, when we’re all long gone, archeologists will unearth a treasure trove of informercials and use them as the basis with which they reconstruct our culture. What if one day all of our great works of art and literature are gone and all that remains are long, eerily cheery ads for products like the Snuggie?
On lazy days when it’s chilly, turning up the heat costs money, and wrestling with blankets is silly. This one’s too big, that one’s too small, and a blanket can’t cover it all?
Is this the poetry of the 21st century poetry?
It’s the opening line to a two minute ad for a new product called “Forever Lazy.” Consider it something of a Snuggie alternative. It’s an adult onsie. It was created by two Wisconsin dudes in their mid-20s attempting to nab a little piece of that sweet, sweet “As Seen on TV” cash.
It’s the self-proclaimed “one piece, lie around, lounge around, full body lazy wear.”
You can pick one up now from the Order Forever Lazy site for the low, low price of $19.95 (plus $9.95 postage and handling). Act now and they’ll throw in a neck pillow and matching footies.
Remember, only 22 shopping days ’til Christmas. Snuggie-like ad after the jump.
Bose, Altec Lansing, Logitech, and all the other high-quality iPhone speaker manufacturers better watch out; there’s competition in town, and this one doesn’t even need power to impress. The Phonofone III ($195 CAD) looks like a gramophone from the future. Just like the smaller, less elegant-looking Bone Horn Stand ($25), the Phonofone amplifies the volume emitted from your iPhone’s internal speaker without any electronics.
Though the Bone Horn only magnifies the sound to 13 decibels, the Phonofone III amplifies the speaker roughly 4x, or about 60 decibels. And, unlike the Bone Horn’s silicone body, the Phonofone is handmade from ceramic. If you think it looks heavy, you’re wrong; the Phonofone weighs only 1.75 lbs.
This is the third model in the Phonofone series from Canadian designers Science and Sons. According to TreeHugger.com, the first Phonophone was released three years ago. It had a larger body and an even heftier price of $875. You can see the Phonofone I and Phonofone II at Scienceandsons.com.
This is the first batch to be released, and there are only 50 pieces to be sold at the moment. If you’d like a Phonofone by Christmas, make sure to get your order in before December 5.
Some may think it’s too much to spend on a 230 (with shipping) iPhone speaker that has no other features besides making your music louder. For example, for about the same price you can get the Altec Lansing Mix iMT800 iPod dock for $199 down from its $299.95 list price at Amazon. This is a PCMag Editors’ Choice due to its tremendous power, built-in subwoofer, user-adjustable EQ, two aux inputs and cable for additional MP3 players, and its FM tuner.
Just think, you can get all that for the price of a really, really cool-looking iPhone “speaker.” So, the question is, do you choose beauty, over bells and whistles? Let us know what you would pick in the comments below.
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