The Ion iCade, our favorite April Fools’ joke turned actual product, has just passed through the FCC and moved one step closer to retail reality. The arcade cabinet for your iPad had all its Bluetoothy bits laid bare and even brought along its user manual, in case you’re the type who bothers to read those sordid things. There aren’t too many surprises here except, perhaps, the inclusion of an Ikea-esque hex key — some assembly required. With the green light from the feds, though, that means the iCade is right on schedule for its May 31st release. If you want to ensure you nab one of the first batch, you can pre-order it now for from either GameStop or ThinkGeek. And, while you wait for the blissful marriage of Atari’s Greatest Hits and Bluetooth joystick, you can peep the pics in the gallery after the break.
Continue reading iCade hits FCC, gets torn asunder
iCade hits FCC, gets torn asunder originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The coolest gadget ever to noodle out a jam. Dozens of instruments all controlled with a touch-pad mixed together into your own musical creation! thinkgeek.com Video Rating: 4 / 5
I’ll admit to being somewhat tempted by the Samurai Sword Handle Umbrella that ThinkGeek’s been selling. But when it’s raining I like to carry an umbrella that can be easily stashed in my bag, and that’s just not going to happen with one that’s 40 inches long. This miniature version however might just fit the bill. It’s got a faux samurai sword handle just like its bigger brother, but a compact, though historically inaccurate, design that I think I can live with. I just wish it wasn’t $50(¥4,650) when the ThinkGeek version is just $29.99.
If someone had a gun pointed at my head, demanding to know the time, and the only methods I had at my disposal were reading it off this Darth Vader Japanese Desk Clock, or somehow gauging it from the position of the sun and other stars in the sky, I’d definitely be reaching for my sextant. Because given the fact that Vader is 13-inches tall, reading that minuscule LCD display with the naked human eye is just not possible.
I don’t even know why they bothered adding a clock to the base anyways. If they had just left this is as a Darth Vader statuette, they could have easily charged way more than the $14.99 it’s currently on sale for at ThinkGeek. It’s definitely one of those instances where more is less. Oh and not surprisingly, it’s an officially licensed Lucasfilm collectible.
(And couldn’t they have just slightly adjusted the stance of Vader’s legs so the unsightly black support rod isn’t needed? I guess I’m just going to have to stop thinking about this… I’m choking on my own disgust here…)
I’ll be honest… I usually carry around three (yes, three) different mobile charging apparatuses when I know I’m going to be out with my gadgets all day: one of these, one of these, and this. Is it overkill? Probably. But being a ::cough:: professional journalist, running out of batteries is simply not an option. Even I, however, would not wear a universal wrist charger. It’s just too dorky, and I’m really more of a geek. Or I like to think so, anyway.
If you just look at the numbers, this universal wrist charger is actually pretty decent: it has a 1500 mAh battery, weighs 82 grams, and will charge anything that only needs 5 volts (same as a USB port). Since most of your gadgets are probably hand-held, it’s a convenient way to be using something and charging it at the same time. Problem is, there’s really no getting around the utter dorkiness of this thing. If it also had a little LCD on it or something, you could at least pretend that it was some kind of ridiculously fancy watch, but as it is, it just has 4 little lights to indicate what level of charge it has. Wait a sec… Random lights? Weird design? I’ve got it! Just tell everyone that you’re sporting the latest and greatest from Tokyo Flash, and wear the universal wrist charger in anonymous pride. Problem solved!
The universal wrist charger is available now from ThinkGeek for $35.
There’s an endless supply of lustworthy concept gadgets on the web that will never come to fruition, but this is the first concept hoodie I’ve come across. deviantART member ‘bmansnuggles‘, aka Brendon Phillips, originally submitted his awesome and totally doable Mega Man hoodie concept to Fashionably Geek in the hopes of one day seeing it become a reality, so here’s another endorsement Brendon, hopefully one day you can put me down for a medium. (P.S. ThinkGeek, are you reading this?)
The Ion iCade, our favorite April Fools’ joke turned actual product, has just passed through the FCC and moved one step closer to retail reality. The arcade cabinet for your iPad had all its Bluetoothy bits laid bare and even brought along its user manual, in case you’re the type who bothers to read those sordid things. There aren’t too many surprises here except, perhaps, the inclusion of an Ikea-esque hex key — some assembly required. With the green light from the feds, though, that means the iCade is right on schedule for its May 31st release. If you want to ensure you nab one of the first batch, you can pre-order it now for from either GameStop or ThinkGeek. And, while you wait for the blissful marriage of Atari’s Greatest Hits and Bluetooth joystick, you can peep the pics in the gallery after the break.
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