This weekend, I’m going to be sparking up the grill with the Looftlighter, an electric firestarter that looks like an oversized curling iron, sounds like a hair dryer, and gets a good-sized pile of charcoal briquettes ready to grill in just a few minutes. I’ll admit I was skeptical about the $80 Looftlighter , which comes from Sweden and whose name, I believe, must be pronounced with as much Nordic accent as you can muster. It’s... 

                    This week’s episode of the Gadget Lab podcast is heavy on fruits. High on vitamin A, Dylan Tweney gushes over the pluot, a plum-apricot hybrid, while yours truly dishes out this week’s announcements of brand new Apple gear. Apple’s iPod family all scored major upgrades. The iPod Nano has become a puny touchscreen badge with a built-in clip that should be ideal for athletes, and the iPod Touch is now... 

Interactive Map of Afghanistan for iPad. Image By/Used Courtesy Of Development Seed GPS maps for smartphones generally require a fairly high-speed wireless internet connection, consume significant processor resources, and are optimized for driving. But what if your 3G connection is unreliable or unavailable, and you still need to get from point A to point B — perhaps on foot? Last week, I spoke with Eric Gunderson and Ian Cairns at Development... 

The official Twitter app for iPad is finally here, and star developer Loren Brichter has polished yet another gem. Twitter for iPad sports a really elegant interface that’s significantly faster and more intuitive than competing Twitter clients we’ve tested (such as Twitterific and Tweetdeck). Formerly called Tweetie , Brichter’s popular iPhone app impressed the big wigs at Twitter headquarters who ultimately hired the talented... 

Arc Touch Mouse Promotional Photo from Microsoft.com Microsoft has made two new controllers — one for your computer, one for your XBox 360 — that can switch into different shapes depending on your needs or preferences. The well-leaked, much-anticipated Arc Touch Mouse is shipping now; the new wireless XBox Play and Charge kit will be out stateside in November. Exactly a month ago, Microsoft Hardware teased their new mouse on Twitter... 

Just when you thought the only differences between the iPhone 4 and the iPod Touch were the size and the phone, a closer look reveals that the Touch actually has a different camera. Apple’s specifications page for the Touch lists a resolution of 960-by-720 pixels for the rear camera, which is roughly one megapixel. That’s several steps below the 5-megapixel camera seen in the iPhone 4. Then again, the iPod Touch is about one millimeter... 

> > View all SAN FRANCISCO — In a sign that its television “hobby” has turned into serious business, Apple announced an aggressively-priced new set-top box that takes aim at the heart of the cable TV and DVD rental industries. The new Apple TV, which will go on sale at the end of September for $100, is a puny box just 1/4 the size of the previous model. It has an HDMI port, a power supply built in it, an optical audio port,... 

Since his company was bought out by HP, Jon Rubinstein and what remains of the Palm team have kept busy. Due out later this year is WebOS 2.0, the OS that we expect HP to use on a tablet device, and Palm has given us a sneak-peek of what’s new. Stack was the thing we liked best about the original WebOS. It puts each app or task onto a &#…  Read More →

Mojowijo is a teledildonic accessory for the Nintendo Wiimote, which is somewhat ironic given the console’s family-friendly reputation. The device, currently in private beta, is very simple: You hook the hardware components to two Wiimotes. Wiggling and thrusting on the first remote are detected and sent via Bluetooth to a nearby PC (you don’t need the actual Wii itself). From there, your movements are sent over the internet and... 

The clickety-clack of manual typewriters have long been replaced by PC keyboards and even that is now disappearing with touchscreens. But for those nostalgic about old-school manual typewriters, a hack lets you update and make them compatible with PCs. Jack Zylkin worked for nine months to create the design and schematics for a USB-based typewriter that can replace the keyboard on your PC. “Typewriters are a lasting marvel of classic engineering... 

If you want to know just how fast you can go on your vintage fixed-gear conversion, but can’t bear to put an ugly plastic computer onto your beautifully curated bike, this concept bicycle speedometer could be right up your bike-lane. It comes from Estonian designers Redfish Creative and, despite some flaws, looks pretty gorgeous. The computer works just like any other wireless bike-computer, with a fork-mounted sensor that detects a spoke-mounted... 

Combined with a party-keg, Griffin’s recently-outed Party Dock for the iPad should make some great, well, parties. As long as you like quiz games, that is. Thanks to an FCC filing, the iPad accessory was leaked last week and Griffin quickly took control of the situation. Now you can read preliminary details and sign up for future updates at the site. So just what is the Party Dock? It’s a dock for…  Read More →

This rather familiar-looking tablet is in fact one of the first Android tablets in the wild. The Identity TAB comes from South Korea’s KT and will cost 300,000 Won, or around $250, and is almost identical to the upcoming Galaxy Tab from Samsung. The TAB runs Android 2.2 Froyo, and the TFT LCD (multitouch) screen measures seven-inches, which seems to be a sweet spot for Android tablets. It runs on a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, is packed... 

Limor Fried’s MintyBoost project is a great example of DIY and commercial tech working together. Take an Altoids tin, a couple of AA batteries, and some very smart hackery, and you’ve got a lightweight USB charger that you can use to charge/run your handheld iWhatever, or almost any other phone, camera, or small device that can take a charge off USB power. About a month ago, she released this video outlining the Apple hackery needed... 

Electronic waste can sometimes find a surprising second lease on life, as designer Tina Sparkles has proved by making a dress using recycled wires. “I read how e-waste is being shipped to developing countries and how people are melting it at homes there,” says Sparkles. “I was inspired to make this dress to address the issue of e-waste in the form of an art project, not to make a dress that was literally meant to be purchased...