Ford rolls out Mustang GT "California Special"
 Ford is planning a series of "Feature Cars" for the V8 Mustang. The first off the line is the 2007 Mustang GT "California Special" shown. The Mustang GT/California Special is actually a reprise of the original 1968 GT/CS that added Shelby-like styling cues to California-market coupes. Unlike the original, this year's GT/CS will be available nation-wide, in both coupe and convertible versions. A $1,895 option package, the GT/CS features redesigned front and rear fascias, 18-inch polished wheels, an interior trim package with exclusive "Dove" or "Parchment" themes, and retro-look "California Special" bodyside racing stripes, and the engine bay gets a unique trim kit.
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Surf the net without a connection - Webaroo
 Webaroo is a little software tool that'll grab chunks of the web and download it for you, compacting it into neat little bundles, and placing it onto your PDA for later, unplugged, access. And yes, there are lots of ways to do this, but what makes Webaroo different, according to the developers, is it's smarter. The idea is, most methods involve a lot of user configuration. Webaroo "scours the internet" and creates "web packs" which you can download onto your mobile devices. The packs are compressed, and most of the links are "live" within the boundaries of what you set. Read more..!
'Skipee', the eco-friendly trike concept from Down Under
 BusinessWeek Magazine recently weighed in on 'Skipee', the three-wheeler concept seen here, designed by Australian Dimitrios Scoutas. Scoutas envisions his curious trike as an alternative form of transportation produced primarily from recycled materials, with a battery-powered motor contained within the rear wheel. Skipee debuted as part of the 'Forecast Motors' exhibit by the Monash University Art Design Faculty at the Melbourne International Motor Show. Other displays by Monash included the Tribe and the Triad 2-seater sports car. Read more..!
Sony's HDD/DVD recorders directlyr to PSP'ers
 Sony has announced three new HDD/DVD recorder additions: RDZ-D97A, RDZ-77A, and RDZ-87. The new RDZ-D97A (pictured) and 77A bring 400GB and 250GB of storage respectively, one digital Hi-Vision (1080i HDTV in Japan) tuner and two-analog tuners allowing you to record three teeveelicious broadcasts simultaneously. They also feature the ability to record directly to your PSP to take your recordings on the go. And in what appears to be an industry first for HDD / DVD recorders, these two also feature DLNA’s DTCP-IP (Digital Transmission Content Protection over IP) to legally stream Hi-Vision recordings to other designated, media kickin’ boxes on your home network. Rounding out the lot is the RDZ-87 which packs in a 500GB disk like the D97A but lacks direct PSP recording and DTCP-IP support. Expect these to drop for an as of yet unannounced price on May 19 in Japan. Read more..!
Gallery of Photoshopped Mega Man powers
 Something Awful's Photoshop Phriday makes for some really good browsing. The latest feature was "Mega Man Gets Equipped," wherein they "decided to give Megaman a few abilities and traits not depicted in any of the games. Abilities that, unfortunately, are not very likely to help him in any way, shape, or form." Entries reference everything from the Toxic Avenger (New Jersey's only superhero) to Monty Python's Black Knight to that song from the Transformers movie and Boogie Nights (lending Mega Man abilities like "The Touch" and "The Power"). Read more..!
 Los Angeles-based designer Tracey Tanners wallets, come in leather or cork, measure about 7'' by 4'', so they're small enough to fit in your back pocket, but large enough to hold credit cards and cash. Inside, the wallets are lined with interesting materials (prints with skulls or flowers, for instance), while Tanner also makes bags, wristbands and t-shirts. You can find a list of stores that sell Tanner's stuff on her web site; Sirens & Sailors in Los Angeles and Cog & Pearl in Brooklyn both stock her goods. The shimmery gold wallet pictured here is $65. Read more..!
Starck Alessi Salif Citrus Juicer
 The innovative designer Philippe Starck has designed this truly unique citrus juicer. The juicer does not seem to have gotten the most positive feedback at Amazon.com, where users found the design a bit difficult to work with. Using a long pointed juicer, and tall pitcher to catch the fresh juice as it drips down the cast-aluminum, should help things along considerably. Price: $79. Read more..!
 The Jet Age Furniture company is the work of two metal-loving childhood friends, Damien Mavis and Pat Arnold who both wound up with degrees in Mechanical Engineering. They have created a line of sleek and simple aluminum and glass desks and tables that are meant to match with Emeco chairs. The dining table/desk shown here sells for $1995. They also sell an aluminum and glass table that can be purchased with separate Tic Tac Toe Xs and Os. Read more..!
 Adagio Teas latest addition to their line of interesting tea makers is one of their most stylish. The Glass Water Kettle not only allows you to see the progress your water makes as it heats up - a process more interesting than you might imagine - but it glows with the light of both electric and gas burners. The writing on the sides of the kettle explains the process of boiling water, but you'll look right past it once the bubbles start dancing around inside the glass. Price: $29. Read more..!
Audioengine A5 Speaker System
 The Audioengine is a new mini stereo system for your iPod. The iPod Garage recently gave a good review to the Audioengine A5. The relatively compact system has a USB port and audio-in port on top of left speaker for your own iPod dock. Unlike many iPod systems, the A5 is a pair of speakers that are connected with speaker wires. The white and black speakers aren't portable but having two speakers means that you can separate them and provide higher quality sound. It requires an iPod Universal Dock in order to work (which kept the iPod Garage from giving it a five-star rating). The A5 also works with televisions, DVD players and sells for a quite reasonable $349 per pair. Read more..!
Xbox 360 Quick Charge Kit rocks and shocks
 Here's the 30-second review on the just-released Xbox 360 Quick Charge Kit. - FAST: It charges batteries fast (two hours per battery)
- SEXY: It'sleek, small, and well-designed. It can be placed in an out-of-the-way spot.
- BETTER: The wired Play and Charge Kit that's been available since launch is inferior and annoying compared to the Quick Charge Kit because the play-and-charge cables muck up the clean look of the beautiful Xbox 360 controller with a mess of tangled, ugly cords. This kit solves one of our chief annoyances with the Xbox 360 wireless controllers.
- EASY: Like any good charger, the LEDs indicate when the battery is charging. Each of the two LEDs (shown above) glows a steady red or green depending on the state of the battery that's charging. Batteries snick-snap into place easily and are simple to remove as well. The unit is smart enough to automatically power down after batteries have been topped off.
- BOTTOM LINE: Free yourself from the tyranny and mess of cables and pick up a Quick Charge Kit.
- VALUE: Microsoft's being coy about pricing (for now), but this is worth at least as much as two of the now-antiquated Play and Charge Kits. We're guessing it'll come in at between $30 and $50. If that guess is accurate, it's worth the money.
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Novotable's ergonomically-questionable retro, PC gaming console
 A new product called the "Novo Infotainment Table" (or Novotable for short) is offering to bring spine-curving videogame action for yesterday's hits and today's PC and console titles right to our homes. The Novotable is basically a 32-inch LCD mounted horizontally onto an articulating stand, attached to a pair of arcade joysticks, and stuffed with a subwoofer, Shuttle PC, and your choice of PS2 or Xbox. You also get a a stainless steel keyboard to swap out the controllers in case you want to use your multi-thousand dollar device (actual price: unknown, but presumed high) for something other than playing the biggest pixelated hits of the 80's, plus the usual lineup of PC features that you'd expect to find on a Shuttle, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, and FireWire and USB ports. Read more..!
 Here's what to do with that old DS once you upgrade to a Lite, the DS Tank. The link will take you to several mech-inspired DS mods turning your DS into something that not only plays great games, but could double as a mobile combat unit for your GI Joes. It would appear these mods were made as a part of a contest, but that doesn't mean you couldn't give it a whirl. Read more..!
TDK begins shipping 25GB Blu-ray media
 TDK has begun shipping blank single-layer Blu-ray discs with a 25GB capacity. The discs are available in BD-R (recordable) and BD-RE (rewritable) formats, for $19.99 and $24.99. That's per disc! That's about 79 cents per GB for the BD-R, which does come out to a bit more than the roughly 10 cents (or less) per GB of budget DVD-Rs. But those prices are sure to come down by the time TDK begins offering these in 50-disc spindles later this year. (By then, TDK will also have dual-layer 50GB discs available, for $47.99 and $59.99.) And maybe by then you'll actually be able to use these in some kind of drive. Read more..!
Monaco - Microsoft's GarageBand?
 We can only suspect that Monaco, or Vista's answer to GarageBand, will be at the least just a bullet point on the back of the vistabox. There's a heated discussion on this topic over at ArsTecnica's M-Dollar. One comment to note: Microsoft set out to dominate the office, which they did. Apple set out to dominate the creative studio, which they did. Now we see each traveling to the other corner of the ring (Apple's got rack-mountable servers, a true server OS, and iWork for what its worth), what will be the result? I can't wait to see the Monaco interface. I have been intrigued with Max, and it'll be interesting to see what Vista technologies are leveraged by Monaco in a similar fashion. So far not enough details have emerged about Monaco to make a call... Let the Studio battle begin! Read more..!
iAlertU MacBook alarm software available in beta
 A program called iAlertU is software that claims to use the tilt sensors and camera in your MacBook Pro for triggering an alarm if someone tries to snatch your laptop. While feedback so far indicates that the code is still pretty buggy, the program seems to actually work, with users generally pleased about the overall operation (for the five minute usage limitation of the beta, anyway). Developer Slapping Turtle says that once all the kinks are worked out, a non-time limited version will be available for $10, which seems like a good deal once key features are implemented -- most importantly, headphone jack and other overrides, because even the most dim-witted thief may somehow stumble upon the "force restart" key combo in mid-heist. Read more..!
Varibel glasses sport eight conversation-enhancing mics
 The Varibel hearing aid eyeglasses, unlike, regular in-ear models that pick up conversations as well as ambient noise, the four mics on each arm of Varibel's glasses supposedly separate the two types of sound, enhancing the former while dampening the latter. Developed by the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, these devices will initially be limited to a Dutch release, but because of Varibel's partnership with Phillips and Frame Holland, they may end up seeing a wider release. Integrate these with a pair of those bifocal-eliminating LCD glasses, and you've got something that actually makes us look forward to old age. Read more..!
Meet Jupiter, Korea's smiley led, domestic servant
 Korea's planned robot-in-every-home initiative, has come a long way in just a few short weeks. It now has a name -- Jupiter -- and there are photos of what looks to be an actual working prototype interacting with a human. Jupiter can reportedly emulate emotions, body language and do lots of other stuff, including recite stories to the kids. It also comes equipped with a handy flip out LCD display, so it can double as an entertainment unit -- and boasts pointy appendages that we can only assume are used both as sensory devices and for defensive (and offensive) purposes. Jupe is able to plug itself in to recharge without help, and can respond to voice commands. The bot will get its marching orders wirelessly over the net. The invasion begins in October. Read more..!
Maxtor shows new storage products
 In Maxtor's latest press release, it turns out the company is announcing some new products the Maxtor Shared Storage II, a NAS for home and office users, offering RAID storage, gigabit Ethernet and up to 1TB of space. The other is the One Touch III Mini Edition (pictured), a one-inch thick drive that can hold up to 100GB of data. Maxtor's working with Fabrik on something called "Project Fusion," which sounds like an online backup service that will take advantage of Maxtor's One Touch interface to make it easier to store and share files on a hosted server. Pricing is expected to range from a free service to one costing about $50 a year, depending on storage and feature needs. Read more..!
Dolphin Stadium gets world's largest 720p display
 The newly unveiled display at Miami's Dolphin Stadium is a 720p display and a whopping 137 feet wide by 50 feet high, making its diagonal dimensions 1,750 inches. So, when stadium officials boast that it's the world's largest HD display, we really don't think we can argue with them. Read more..!
Olympus' water/shockproof Mju Stylus 720SW
 The Olympus Mju Stylus 720SW 7 megapixel cam seems to live up to its pretty steep claims, including waterproofing up to 10 feet deep and shockproofing for up to 5 foot drops. Available in pink, silver, or blue, the camera's metal housing is the main story here, with claims to be the world's only shockproof digital camera. With all this banging around we would hope for some optical image stabilization, but the digital version seems to do a decent job. The pictures are generally low noise, the camera does a good job of focusing, and the small flash manages to light up an indoor scene quite well. The reviewer liked the 2.5-inch screen, though the resolution was a bit low, but found the workings of the camera quite quick, and the camera body easy to use and comfortable to hold. You could easily find a 7 megapixel shooter for less than the 720SW's $410 asking price, but good luck with dropping one of those in the drink. Read more..!
iRiver N12 pendant MP3 player with OLED
 The iRiver N12 pendant MP3 player looks like the N11, but the new version has headphones integrated into the lanyard, N10-style. It also apparently starts at 1GB capacity, while that's where the N11 maxed out. Should support MP3, WMA and PlaysForSure, like earlier models in the series, and sell for about W198,000 ($209), and will probably never be released in the US. Read more..!
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-Lytir1
