Gadgets Inspector | Hot Gadgets and Gizmos

Many inventions are quite useful in everyday life, but these 5 (link) could quite possibly be the most outrageous ever…

Then again, there’s always Japanese Chindogu.

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

The Federal Communications Commission approved Apple’s iPhone, clearing the way for the combined phone and music player to hit the shelves. Apple expects to begin selling the iPhone in late June.

Some of the FCC documents confirm a few features of the phone, including it will have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and will operate in the 1900MHz and 850MHz frequency bands.

That means that despite the phone’s high price, users won’t be able to roam with it into Europe, where operators use different frequencies. The phone uses GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology and the EDGE (Enhanced Data Rate for GSM Evolution) wireless data standard. Apple has said the phone will ship initially only in the U.S. but many GSM phones today, even on the low end, are capable of operating in both Europe and the U.S.

Eager potential users who hoped for a faster data connection will be disappointed that the approval is only for EDGE. Many operators, including Apple partner AT&T, have upgraded their networks to deliver download speeds of about 500K bits per second or more, more than twice as fast as EDGE.

[Via PC World]

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

Yesterday, the NPD Group released video game hardware sales data for April. Nintendo’s Wii and DS consoles were again the big winners, as both platforms dominated all competitors. This marks the 4th month in a row that Nintendo has nabbed the top spots with its respective systems on the hardware sales charts.

The Nintendo DS was the overall best-selling system of April with approximately 471,000 units sold — more than twice that of the Sony PSP, which only managed to sell 182,000 units.

Despite being in limited supply, the Nintendo Wii was the best-selling console for the month. More than 360,000 new consumers purchased Nintendo’s home console in April. The second best-selling home system was the Sony PlayStation 2 with 193,000 units sold. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 managed 174,000 units sold and Sony convinced only 82,000 people to purchase a PlayStation 3 for the month, lower than all analyst estimates.

Nintendo was also the #1 software publisher for the month, releasing the top 4 best-selling games — Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl for DS, and Super Paper Mario and Wii Play for Wii. The Pokemon titles sold a combined 1.7 million games in about a week.

According to VG Chartz, the Nintendo Wii has sold 2.5m consoles in Japan, 2.8m in the US and 1.79m in the rest of the world since its official launch late last year.

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

Tired of the boring movie trivia slide shows that theaters play before the movie? How about an interactive game that the entire theater can play at the same time?

MSNBC.com has this live video game experience called NewsBreaker Live that has entire theaters acting like Human Joysticks.

NewsBreaker Live is modeled after the classic video games like BrickBreaker and Arkanoid. The game combines live msnbc.com RSS newsfeeds, the movement of the audience as a human joystick, and the big screen as a game board. Groundbreaking motion-sensor technology dubbed “CrowdGaming” tracks the entire audience’s collective movement (watch video clip). Audience members control the game by moving in sync to smash up msnbc.com’s colorful brick spectrum of news with a bouncing ball and paddle.

As far as I know, this is the first in-theater, audience participatory video game. And honestly, I think it’s pretty cool. Way better than being forced to stare at slides of movie trivia and ads for local used car dealerships. You can play an online version of NewsBreaker Live at newsbreakergame.com.

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

The person who packed up and shipped this TV must have been a professional… idiot. They might as well have shipped this HDTV using bowling balls or, I dunno, hammers as padding.

For future reference, here’s a photo tutorial on how NOT to ship a Plasma or LCD HDTV.

More Photos: How NOT to Ship a HDTV

BeSocial: digg it | methodshop

According to Billboard magazine, a deal to make The Beatles’ back catalogue available for sale online with iTunes is “virtually settled.”

Paul McCartney told Billboard, “I don’t want to pre-empt anything, but we’re well on the way to something happening there, which is very exciting.”

Some reports say McCartney is rumored to be making over £200 million from the deal.

Efforts to clear The Beatles’ music for digital distribution have been previously held up by a long-running feud between Apple Inc and The Beatles’ label, Apple Corps. Both sides finally settled the dispute in February, paving the way for distribution via iTunes and other digital retailers.

McCartney is doing a press tour for his new album, “Memory Almost Full,” his first to be made available for download and streaming on PCs and mobile phones. The album is due June 5 on Starbucks’ new Hear Music label. Starbucks previously announced that the McCartney album will be available on its Hear Music section of Apple’s iTunes Store.

BeSocial: digg it | methodshop

One of the new features of the Nintendo Wii, is the ability to create avatars (a virtual representation of a person) using the platform’s “Mii Channel.” The avatars can be used in various Nintendo games and even shared with other players. But creative Nintendo Wii users aren’t just creating Miis of themselves. They’ve started making avatars that resemble famous people. Wii users have dubbed the celebrity avatars “CelebriMiis.”

Many Mii creators share their CelebriMii techniques online so others can duplicate the effect and use their avatars in games and Mii parades.

The image below is Hiro Nakamura from the NBC TV series Heroes.

BeSocial: digg it | methodshop

It premiers in 10 weeks, but the writers, animators and director of “The Simpsons Movie” are still working out the basics… including the storyline. It’s hard to believe, especially since they first started working on the screenplay in late 2003. The deadline is going to be pretty tight, but the writers and animators of “The Simpsons” have assured audiences that “The Simpsons Movie” will be released on July 27 (US) no matter what.

What can we expect to see in the movie? Judging from snippets of movie trailers, news releases and Internet chatter, the plot seems to involve the town of Springfield dealing with an environmental disaster that Homer accidentally starts. Further details are scarce, but look for a giant mob scene that will include every Simpsons character ever. Also, apparently Homer has a pet pig in the movie.

It will be interesting to see what they come up with before July 27th.

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

Terrified that her 45-day prison sentence for drunk driving will plunge her into a world of daily beatings, group showers and a total absence of anything that’s even vaguely “hot,” Paris Hilton is doing all she can to get out of jail before she even goes in.

So what does Paris have up her sleeve? What is she doing to stay out of the Century Regional Detention Facility?

• Expensive legal advice from a team of the world’s most expensive lawyers? Nope.
• Displaying genuine remorse for her crime in order to show the appeals court that she’s learnt her lesson? Are you kidding?
• A half-baked MySpace petition? Bingo!

The ‘Save Paris Hilton from Jail MySpace Petition’, calls on California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to terminate her jail sentence because she “provides beauty and excitement” to everyone’s lives. This is what the petition says:

“Paris Whitney Hilton is an American celebrity and socialite. She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as to the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton. She provides hope for young people all over the U.S. and the world. She provides beauty and excitement to (most of) our otherwise mundane lives… We, the American public who support Paris, are shocked, dismayed and appalled by how Paris has been the person to be used as an example that Drunk Driving is wrong… This petition is to ask Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon Paris Hilton for her mistake. Please allow her to her return to her career and life.”

If you are interested, you can sign the ‘Save Paris Hilton from Jail MySpace Petition’ here.

[Via hecklerspray.com]

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the latest stats show that Gmail users skew younger and richer than those on Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.

Gmail opened up to all comers in February, with Gmail’s market share of US visits climbing 17% from February 2007 to April 2007. However, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail are still much bigger by comparison, says Hitwise: Yahoo had 13x the market share, and Hotmail had 6x the marketshare of Gmail.

The good news, if you’re a Gmail user, is that you may be part of the elite: while Yahoo and Hotmail users are decidedly average, Gmail users tend to be young, have a high income, and be early adopters of technology. 54% of users are between 18 and 34, while 18% have an average annual household income between $100,000 and $149,999 (compared to 15% for Hotmail and 13% for Yahoo Mail).

Another stat, probably related to the young age of GMail users: they’re more likely to be Facebook users than those on the other services.

As for performance in the bedroom - well, we kinda lied. In fact, the stats show that solitary Gmail users are far more likely to Google themselves.

[Via mashable.com]

BeSocial: digg story | methodshop