Hasta La Gadget!

Instructables member cunning_fellow made brass belt buckle with a crude handheld gaming device built-in. He calls it the Asteroid Belt, probably because the first game he’s making for it is an Asteroids ripoff.

I really like the brass case that cunning_fellow made for the device. It seems to be upside down in the pictures though. Or did cunning_fellow make it that way so it would be right side up from his point of view when he’s wearing the belt? Cunning fellow.

Head to Instructables to see more of the Asteroid Belt. Cunning_fellow clearly didn’t bother explaining his process in layman’s terms because the project requires advanced tinkering and programming skills. He did say, “If 1000 people all moan at me at once I could be persuaded” to make and sell more of the belt. He clearly underestimated the average Internet user’s moaning capability.

As more publishers make the move to digital publishing, it seems like print publications are dying a slow death. Some magazines have resorted to including a small freebie with every issue, from free posters and coupons to pens and now even Wi-Fi routers. The last one only applies to select issues of Forbes which were sent to various technology and business professionals.

Each of these issues had a special four-page insert that provided the reader with 15 days of free wireless Internet care of T-Mobile. The insert was part of a promotion for Microsoft’s Office 365.

The compact router inside has to be charged up first before usage. After that, users can expect to get up to three hours of access from each charge. Wi-Fi is meant to be shared, so they made sure that the mobile hotspot can provide Internet access for up to five different devices.

This is one of the cooler tech gifts I’ve seen being given away in a magazine, so you might want to grab a copy of the May 6, 2013 issues of Forbes before the Wi-Fi-packed ones run out.

[via C|NET]

Bodelin Technologies has unveiled a new product that turns your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad into a fully functional microscope. The microscope itself has precision optical glass and supports magnification of 20x to 80x.

It has 12 white LEDs arranged into alternating circles to provide polarized or reflective lighting. The lighting intensity is adjustable via a three-way power switch. Power for the LED lighting system comes from an internal rechargeable battery good for up to five hours of continuous use. The battery charges using a USB port.

The microscope hardware is the same for any of the Apple gadgets. The part that differs between devices is the sleeve that connects the microscope to the device’s camera. The company offers sleeves for the iPad, iPad mini, iPhone 4/4S/5 and the iPod Touch fourth and fifth-generation.

The new ProScope Micro Mobile will begin shipping on May 1 and can be pre-ordered for $149(USD).

It makes sense that phones with lots of bells and whistles are among the most expensive that you can find in the market. But if all you want is a phone to call people or send them a message, then this $12 handset might be for you.

The big catch is that it’s pretty hard to find, because apparently, it’s only available in China.

This is no smartphone by any means. But if money’s tight and all you need is a basic cellphone, this could very well do the job. Hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang came across this particular cheap phone when he was at the Mingtong Digital Mall in Shenzhen, China and was impressed at the extremely low price of the device.

Of course, you get what you pay for. While the device is an unlocked, contract-free quad-band GSM mobile that comes with a charger, USB and microSD ports, and Bluetooth connectivity, it’s also built with a meager two-color OLED screen, and only has 8MB of storage. Plus all of the components are soldered in place, so it would be very difficult to repair or replace any parts. But for 12 bucks, you can just buy another phone if anything goes wrong with this one.

[bunnie:studios via Boing Boing via Dvice]

I have a feeling I’m not the only one who’s ever needed to move information to or from the iPhone and felt like Apple played some sort of cruel joke on us. Without a memory card slot or some sort of data transfer application, you can’t just move files back and forth easily. This is one of the big benefits of most Android phones in that they have a built-in memory card slot so you can just copy files to and from that card as you need to.

A company called Apotop has unveiled a new accessory aimed specifically at iPhone users that should make it very easy to move your data around. The product is called the DW-09 Wi-Reader and it has a built-in USB port and SD memory card slot. The device is designed to allow you to plug in an SD, SDHC or SDXC memory card or a flash drive. When using the companion application that runs on your iPhone or iPad, you can transfer data to and from that memory card wirelessly.

Powered by an internal rechargeable battery, the device can also be used with external USB hard drives as long as the drives are externally powered. Another cool thing about the Wi-Reader is that it supports content streaming for up to three users at the same time, and you can also use the DW09 as a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect wireless networks when traveling.

Pricing and availability for the Apotop DW09 have yet to be announced.