Hasta La Gadget!

Scanner-printer combos are one of those gadgets that gather dust in most houses. But Doxie, a lightweight portable, paper scanner that started shipping this week, could just make scanners cool again.

“Document scanners are frustrating and poorly designed,” says Travis J. Hicks, chief operating officer of Doxie in a statement. “Doxie is portable, USB powered, and comes with elegant software that scans paper directly to web apps like Google Docs, Evernote, Acrobat, and Flickr.”

Apparent, the company which makes Doxie, had announced the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The $129 device works with both PCs and Mac. To scan, plug Doxie in, insert the document and the device draws up a PDF copy.

At just about half a pound (10.9 ounces) Doxie is easy to carry around and can scan documents in full color at up to 600 dpi. The software bundled with the device has photo editing features and an easy way to connect with online photo sites such as Picasa and Flickr. And it can save files in PDF, JPEG or PNG format.

The ability to upload files to sites such as Evernote and Scribd is neat and Doxie also offers users a short URL that they can use for sharing files. There’s no wireless connectivity so you will have to plug the scanner into a USB port to upload files or photos.

Still, the Doxie seems like a handy device to have and could probably make itself much more useful than conventional scanners at home.

There’s one weird thing about it. It has Pepto-Bismol pink hearts over it and a button with a large heart etched on it that starts the scanning. We understand Doxie wants to be cute but really pink hearts?  It’s difficult to understand why anyone who doesn’t watch Hannah Montana might want that on their gadget.

Photo: Doxie

Joypad is an iPhone app that does one very simple thing: It turns the iPhone into a touch-controlled gaming joypad, with a D-pad, A and B buttons, plus select and start.

Joypad connects to your Mac (we realize the irony of being Mac-only when all the good games are on the PC) via Wi-Fi, either over a proper network or a direct ad-hoc connection. You’ll need the free helper app running on the Mac to talk to your Joypad, but otherwise, that’s it: a $2 game-controller.

As you see in the video, with its total lack of features it makes a great companion to some emulated retro-gaming, especially if you are out and about. At home, a USB pad is probably a better bet. Then again, this is only a couple of bucks, and if I can play Streetfighter IV on the iPhone with a touch-screen, then Mario should be no problem.

Joypad [iTunes. Thanks, Todd!]

Joypad product page [Get Joypad]

See Also:

• Fingers-On with Streetfighter IV for iPhone

This fixed/single speed mountain-bike hub from Affix has a few things to dislike: the weird, oversized pie-plate-style ring for one, and the weight (570g or 1.3-pounds) for another. But if you can get over that it could be a rather useful, if niche, piece of bike gear.

The hub’s purpose is to eliminate the need for a flip-flop hub. A flip-flop hub has threading on both sides so you can remove the wheel and quickly change gears on a single speed bike, either to use a slightly smaller or bigger fixed-gear cog, or to swap to a freewheel. The problem: it takes a minute or two, and you get dirty grease on your fingers.

Affix’s solution is to have a convertible hub. You press and twist that big ring and the hub locks or unlocks, allowing you to coast or to skid-stop on the same side. This could be handy a few ways: for bike polo (I told you it was a niche product) you could ride around on a fixed but switch to single-speed on the court (many polo players use a rear brake). Or you could put it in the mountain bike for which it is designed and just choose depending on mood.

The cog comes in 14 or 15-tooth sizes, and is splined for a slide-on fit (you still get a lock-ring, though). And here is probably the biggest practical objection: Many people choose a bigger cog on the freewheel side of a flip-flop to make hill-climbing easier. With the Affix hub, you are stuck with one gear ratio.

The aluminum, 32-hole hub comes in 120, 130 and 135mm spacings to fit any frame, and costs a rather scary $270.

MTB SS/Fixed Hub [Affix]

Affix Free and Fix Hub store [Ben’s Cycle]

See Also:

• Hands-On With the Sram Torpedo Hub
• Sturmey Archer Three-Speed Fixed Gear Hub

If you thought the handlebar-mounted cup holder was a bad idea, then you’re going to hate the Beltclip, a $5 cup-holder which mounts on your belt. Yes, this plastic bracket will precariously hold scalding coffee mere inches from the exact place on your body on which you don’t want to spill a boiling beverage.

Now, it’s not all bad. If the idea of a flimsy paper cup shaking on your hip terrifies you (and it should) then consider some alternative uses. Carrying a bottle of mineral water on a hike through the city would be a practical if dorky idea. And keeping a can of your favorite beer at your waist whilst speeding through downtown traffic on a brakeless fixed-gear bike is clearly a fantastic idea.

To this end, the Beltclip comes with a koozie included in the price. For those who don’t know what a koozie is (including me, up until Wikipedia told me a moment ago), it is an insulating cover for canned-drinks, usually fashioned from neoprene. Australians will know it as a “stubby-holder”, a much better name. It will keep the PBR cool and also stop it slipping from your belt and being crushed under an onrushing automobile.

So, if you can’t go anywhere without having a weak and watery bucket of Starbucks at your side, or if suicide-by-drunken-cycling is your game, head over to Drinkclip and grab one of the multi-colored holders.

Beltclip [Drinkclip via Book of Joe]

The Universal Wrist Charger is not, tragically, a motion-powered generator which tops up its battery from the movements of your wrist. That would make my job way too easy, and would pretty much write its own rather juvenile jokes.

Instead, the Universal Wrist Charger is simply a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack with a mini-USB output and 1,500mAh capacity. The wrist-mounting is merely for convenience, but the simple addition of the wrist strap appears to make this a whole lot better than the usual re-juicer. The use-case that the seller ThinkGeek pushes is that of charging a Nintendo DS as you play, but any handheld device that can be charged with 5.5v will work, from cellphones to cameras to media-players. To this end, the charger comes bundled with nine chargers, from the PSP and the DSi to the iPhone and both Nokia adapters.

At $35, it is similarly-priced to other device-specific solutions. That is looks a little like the teleport bracelets from 1970s kitsch-fi Brit series Blake’s 7 doesn’t hurt, either.

Universal Wrist Charger [ThinkGeek]