Hasta La Gadget!

Having enough power to get us through the day can be difficult. Wall plugs elude us, or are taken away by coworkers or coffee-shop homebodies. We’re always looking for a good charger to keep us going for as long as possible so we don’t have to rely on the grid, but what tips the scales for you to make a choice between one backup battery or another?

I would say Mjolnir would be heavy enough to tip it right? Seeing that the latest super hero movie was Thor, it shouldn’t be surprising that a whole slew of related merchandise was going to pop up. Seeing that he’s the god of thunder, a backup battery seems appropriate, and it’s always better that you get something useful and referential. This USB battery pack comes in three different versions, ranging from 2600 to 10400 mAh. While the higher end will take up to ten hours to charge, it will obviously pack more of a punch too. You can connect via micro USB or 2.0 USB, and it can take on anything from a smartphone to a tablet.

This is made of aluminum, zinc, and plastic, which is actually pretty heavy-duty for a charger. For novelty, every time you swing the hammer, it will light up and make sounds. This is great and all, but do try not to drop it, or it will likely go off and scare you out of your skin. While these are around $125, they are sadly only available in Asia at the moment. You can do special shipping, but it will cost an ungodly amount.

Found via EverythingUSB
[ Thor’s Hammer Charger – By the Gods, my phone is fully charged! copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I can’t speak for the rest of the world, but the steady approach of the end of October has me a little uneasy. For the past 2 years the Northwest has been hit, and hit hard, by snowstorms and hurricanes. The memories of sitting around for weeks without power still makes most folks a little uncomfortable. This year we’re ready (which of course means it’s not going to happen) but we’re ready nonetheless.

Check out Hyperjuice 2, an amazing little external battery pack for your Macbook, iPad, iPhone or Smartphone. The Hyperjuice 2 isn’t just your everyday back up battery, this attractive aluminum box is quite possibly one of the world’s most advanced battery packs, Equipped with 2 high power 10W (5V, 2.1A max) USB ports that can charge any 2 USB devices (even 2 iPads) simultaneously!

Hyperjuice 2 has an 85W output that is actually capable of handling a Macbook Pro with Retina display for up to 18 hours, or run your brand new iPad for around 34 hours (and an older one for up to 50) or fully recharge your phone about 19 times. The cool low profile, rectangular design allows the casing, lithium ion battery cells or the logic board to be replaced separately, making the unit maintainable and environmentally  friendly. OLED displays on the face of the unit provide detailed battery information like status, power percentage, temperature and even the time it will take to fully charge or discharge.

So, if you don’t like being off the grid, for any reason, the Hyperjuice 2 might be for you. It’s important to note that Apple has required that for the battery to work with your MacBook, you will also need the Do-it-Yourself Magic Box kit which is sold separately. The cost of this much power doesn’t come cheap however, with a price tag around 300 bucks at amazon.com, but next time you’re sitting in the dark trying to read by candlelight, you’ll wish you had it.
[ Hyperjuice 2 – Tech Charging Powerhouse! copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Everyone loves statistics, especially the superlatives, and hence it is no wonder that each year’s edition of the Guinness Book of World Records have done exceptionally well for itself. After all, we as humans seem somehow obsessed about stuff like the largest and the fastest, and new records which are set are always celebrated as another notch in the realm of human achievement. It is no different then, for Mushkin, an industry-leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance and mission-critical computer products, have just announced yet another feather in their cap – the official availability of the fastest USB flash drive in the world, which happens to be known as the Ventura Ultra.

Originally shown off at CES 2013 earlier this year, the Ventura Ultra happens to be a USB 3.0 flash drive that carries a whopping 240GB of storage space, making it the fastest in the world of its kind. This particular flash drive would obviously boast of extremely fast data transfer rates of up to 380 MB/s read and 325 MB/s write (theoretically speaking, considering these are well within the limits of the USB 3.0 standard, but in real life one might experience something different). Not only that, it comes with a rugged aluminum casing to deliver additional durability and resistance. Just a reminder for the masses, the USB 3.0 standard is up to 10 times faster compared to USB 2.0, and best of all is, it happens to be backwards compatible with legacy USB ports and devices.

Best of all is, the Mushkin Ventura Ultra is a dying breed, being one of the few USB flash drives in the world that does offer USB Attached SCSI Protocol support, so that it paves the way for command queuing so that it can maximize the transfer rate potential. Each purchase will arrive with a 2-year warranty when it becomes available worldwide this coming October 7th.

Product Page
[ Mushkin at the forefront with Ventura Ultra USB, the world’s fastest flash drive copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

We all want things to be as easy as possible. Just browsing through this site, you’ll likely find a few things that were only made to make our lives easier for simple tasks (for a price of course). We have a few go-to items that we always keep around like our phones, e-readers, and laptops. While they make some aspect so our lives easier, the transition between them can be a bit difficult. Take playing a round of League of Legends for example.

When you’re playing, you can’t very well pause the game and talk on your phone, especially when you’re in a call with your teammates. This is the case for just about any other multiplayer game as well. Plantronics must have seen our woes, and decided to make a headset that would take care of this and many other issues. It is called RIG, which is a headset and mixer combination that will work with your Xbox 360, PS3, PC, Mac, and mobile devices.

This allows you to seamlessly move from one device to the other with a single touch. You can take a call or adjust your music volume to your liking in the middle of a game. It has an inline mic as well as a detachable boom for on-the-go jamming or stationary game time. This is great for those of us who like to have a lot of different devices handy, and don’t want to have to stop and make a shift to change between them. This will cost you around $130, and seems like it might be worth the expense.

Available via BestBuy
[ Plantronics RIG is a headset and mixer for gamers on the go copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

We do know that in Japan, that is where one is able to find some weird and quirky USB-powered gizmos and toys. However, these toys can sometimes be purchased online, such as the $19.99 Muscle Wire USB Powered Moving Butterfly. The name of this particular gizmo gives itself away, where it will be powered by your USB port and flap its wings slowly, as though a butterfly is flitting in a stationary position right there and then on your desk. If you want to mesmerize new job applicants in your office, then this would be better than some of those kinetic sculptures. Available in three beautiful species, I guess you can also say that this is some form of stress relief device worth having.

The three species that you can choose from would be available in monarch, blue morpho, or swallowtail, and it flaps its wings not at a preset speed, but rather, deliver realistic random patterns and speeds so that it is as lifelike as possible. The movements are made possible courtesy of the application of electrical current to a Flexinol actuator wire. Do you think that this is worth a purchase if your desk looks pretty bare?
[ Muscle Wire USB Powered Moving Butterfly does not sting your wallet like a bee copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]