GadgetReview

Today, Cloud Engines announced an updated version of their popular NAS networking device, the Pogoplug.  This version adds 4 USB ports to the mix, which means you can now share the content of even more hard drives or USB sticks over the Internet.

I’m about to write a review on the Seagate NAS that uses the Pogoplug software, and while it’s not bad it’s not stellar.  But from the sounds of it, Pogoplug might have updated some of the software, such as the ability to automatically sync your photos and other media with the NAS device.

The 2nd Pogoplug will ship sometime soon for $129. …Continue reading: Clound Engines Intros Second Gen. Pogo Plug, Now With More USB Ports

Totally ready for dubious acts of all kinds comes this mini-USB voice recorder from some generic company.  You can record up to 40 hours worth of audio on the 2GB’s or memory though it will only record 4 hours on one charge.

The audio is stored as WAV files and also takes 4 hours to fully charge when connected to a computer or a USB wall adapter.  Seems pretty cool, but anyone looking to seriously record stuff on the sly might be already attuned to different gear with expanded functionality.

On sale now for $45.

[via TechFresh]

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Late last week ioSafe announced a larger version of their waterproof/fireproof hard drive, the 2TB version.  Previous versions were available in 500GB, 1TB and 1.5TB capacities.  Cost for the super tough hard drive is $399 and it’s said to be available at all major online retailers, including Newegg and Amazon.

ioSafe’s external hard drives can survive 30 minutes in up to 1550 degrees fahrenheit or 10 feet of fresh water for 3 days.  In event that either disaster occurs you’ll need a SATA dock to retrieve the drive’s content or you can use their hard drive recovery system which is included in the price.

And speaking of ioSafe, were giving away one of their disaster proof hard drives.  I’m not sure on its capacity but in order to win just drop a comment below and well select a winner at random.  If you become a fan of their Facebook page we’ll consider it a second entry, which will increase your odds of winning!

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Soon to appear in the style section of a men’s magazine, these new external hard drives from Brinell ooze some serious swank.  Available in leather, carbon, wood, or stainless steel, these drives go from 160GB’s to 500GB’s.

Each drive comes with a cleaning cloth for first impressions, a mini-USB cable, and back-up and sync tool software called PureSync by Jumping Bytes.

What won’t be so cool is the asking price:  Starting at $277 and ending at $337.  Boo!!  Better check if these things fit in your suit pocket before purchase.

[via GearDiary]

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Way back in the depths of 2005, we talked about a kind of ultra portable scanner called the Docupen.  Well, the company that makes these has just released a brand new kind that they’re hoping will be so extreme you’ll likely ignore the mostly pointlessness of the device and buy several.  It’s the Docupen X-Series, and the X is almost certainly for X-treeeeeeme.

The Docupen is essentially a scanner the size of a standard ballpoint pen, and allows you to scan a document or a photo into JPEG format by rolling the scanner part along the surface of the thing you want scanned.  It has 64 gigs of internal memory, microSD card compatibility, and can scan to 600 dpi, which is no mean feat for a pen-sized scanner.

If you do a lot of photo manipulation or deal with a lot of actual paper documents–like, say, business cards at trade shows–then you might feel pretty good about the Docupen X-Series.  But you likely won’t feel good about its price, a whopping $369.

Chances are you’ll almost never need to use this, and chances are even greater that you’ll lose it in short order anyway, so it’s probably not what you’d call a good investment.

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As the list of creative USB flash drive hits beyond endless, this is the first tried and true instrument I’m seeing as a storage device.  Measuring in at a tiny 3 1/4″, you can even get one preloaded with a QuickTime instructional video to help you play it.

Handmade in the USA by some rusty barnacle, you can get this USB Harmonica multiple GB sizes at various price points.  Another cool holiday 09′ gift idea!

[via CoolestGadgets]

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Coming to you today from the folks at fu-bi is the Retro Cube Mini Speaker With MP3 Player.

Basically, it’s pretty much what it says on the box.  It’s a speaker that hooks to your iPod or your PC, with either a headphone jack or a USB cable, and will give you about three hours of music for roughly every hour spent charging the battery.  You can also fill up a USB stick, MMC card or SD / SDHC card with music and play them directly from the speaker itself.

It looks like nothing so much as a old fashioned guitar amp, and this is probably where the “Retro” part comes into play.  They sell for about fifty bucks each, but only can be had in Japan for right now.  It’s kind of a nifty idea, but it’s a little bit short on execution.  I mean, great, congratulations. It’s a speaker.  I’ve got several.  But I like that it can be taken anywhere and will play music from outside media, turning it into a pocket stereo.  It’s the kind of thing I could’ve used back when I was in high school.

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So remember just yesterday, when I was getting all poingy happy about the half e-reader / half netbook hybrid?  Well, I think I may have just beat that level of awesome but in a totally different direction.  Today I’m talking about the Kohjinsha PA, a combination netbook and tablet PC.

No, seriously–this sucker has a 4.8″ WSVGA touchscreen, 1.33GHz Atom CPU, 512 meg of RAM and a 32 GB SDD.  The battery is slated to run for 7.5 hours, and it even comes with an SD slot and a 1.3 MP webcam, all in a netsurfing portable tablet PC.

I am profoundly impressed by this, even though my chances of ever using such a device are so slim as to approach zero.  I draw like a cat with a pen in its mouth after ingesting large quantities of peyote, so a tablet PC to me is almost less than useless. But still, I’m impressed–and the price is pretty impressive too.

If you want one of these bad boys, you’ll have to shell out a whopping $758 in Japan.  Preorders are going on, and the prices range between $867 and $921.

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I thought Thanko represented the weirdest gadgets Japan had to offer until I heard about Chindogu, a concept that describes that special kind of gadget that defies all description.  You read about one such gadget right here with the Baby Mop, a onesie that featured dust mop fibers, allowing your baby to crawl around freely and clean the floor while doing so.

Another Chindogu gadget is the Hay Fever Hat, a picture of which you can see directly above.  It’s basically a toilet paper roll mounted to a hat, so that the toilet paper flows down your face and allows you easy access to a way to blow your nose, as well as possibly being able to block sneezes.  It’s enough to make you wonder if someone’s just trying to pull one over on us.

As useful as it is to have an easily reached quantity of nose wipes handy, especially during hay fever season, there’s no way to avoid the fact that anyone wearing this hat winds up looking like a complete tool.  That and the paper in question is actually toilet paper, so you’re basically wandering around with a roll of toilet paper on your head, plus the hat is chinstrapped into place, so now you need a chin strap to cart around your roll of toilet paper.

This kind of thing apparently only happens in Japan, because I’ve never seen anyone walk around with one of these on their head, and I visit Wal-Mart on a regular basis.

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So the early word is that, finally, we may have a Kindle killer on our hands, and it’s from a little known outfit called Plastic Logic.

The Que, as it’s called, will see the light of day for the first time ever at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (booth 11840, in case you want to know exactly where to go) on January 7th.

What’s interesting about the Que is that it’s less than a third of an inch thick, yet is WiFi enabled and can handle PDFs, Word documents, and Excel documents.  Plus, the battery life, according to reports, will be measurable in days, as opposed to hours.

The early reports that call this a Kindle killer have one significant hurdle in front of them–namely, answering questions about the price of the device.  The Kindle runs $279, and Sony’s model runs $199…but how much does the Que sell for?  No one knows yet, and we likely won’t know until we can hit booth 11840 for ourselves.

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