Crave

Road warriors come in all shapes and sizes, and their equipment reflects that diversity. Nowhere is that more evident than the stalwart mouse, where functions can range from built-in VoIP phones to back massagers while looking like a George Foreman Grill the whole time.

But those who truly love to boast of their worldliness would probably want to get one of these: a GPS wireless mouse. The Bluetooth Navilock BT-451, according to OhGizmo, has been released for would-be Magellans on the European market with a "SuperSense" chip that's capable of indoor and outdoor tracking.

Why one would … Read more

Tetramine Day! All Tetris lovers should get over to Bologna Italy for this giant meetup September 30. The catch? All you have to do is bring a tetramino made out of 60x60x60-centimeter squares, like the one you see here to the left. Designers, i think this means you can get creative on it, and decorate your tetramino as you wish... Still baffled as to how to make a giant tetris piece? Check out the video!

… Read more

The first iPhone lawsuit might have been somewhat laughable, but the second one may be a little more serious.

An outfit called SP Technologies has sued Apple over the touch-screen keyboard at the heart of the iPhone, claiming Apple is infringing on a patent held by SP Technologies for a similar keyboard. AppleInsider dug up the SP patent filing from 2000, which claims the company developed a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area."

Patent suits, of course, are a dime a … Read more

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Eric White believes the future of sex technology lies in a 16" red-and-black cylindrical device that he sells for $439.69 from his office in rural Pennsylvania.

White's device is aimed at men and, to put it delicately, is designed to provide pleasure through an ingenious combination of a vacuum pump, a back-and-forth motor, and a stimulator at the business end that he says "adds a little extra zing."

Similar devices have been around for years -- there's the perennial gag of an inflatable sheep, of course, and the non-programmable Venus 2000 … Read more

Blue Raven Technologies just announced the release of a substantial 2.1-channel iPod speaker system called the Maestro 1070. With a composite video output, auxiliary input, and a remote control, this 70-watt, 18-pound speaker box looks like it could do some serious damag--and for only $200. Might this be a worthy, chromed-out adversary to the Apple Hi-Fi?

One of Crave's many obsessions has long been the "convergence" of various products and technologies into all-in-one devices, whether it be a refrigerator TV or an air-purifying speaker lamp. (We didn't say these were useful combinations.) But here's one mashup we didn't see coming--battery-powered cars and rodent birth control.

Now that we've got your attention: Panasonic, which recently introduced its version of a battery-powered plane, has applied the alternative-fuels technology to the road as well with an electric car powered by 192 AA cells that it says can reach 100 kilometers per hour, … Read more

Plug-in hybrids have emerged as the favorite form of transportation for reducing greenhouse gases in the near term, but calculating their energy efficiency can be a little complicated.

Plug-ins won't conk out after 130 to 200 miles, like electric cars, and they don't require major technological breakthroughs, like hydrogen cars. Converting a Prius to a plug-in hybrid costs about $10,000 to $15,000 now--that's part of the reason only about 50 exist--but if car manufacturers decide to make these at the factory, the additional cost may only run $6,000 or so, say proponents. That'… Read more

Imagine our surprise when we were surfing around the Web this weekend and found some alleged top-secret leaked info about a new upcoming 17-inch gaming laptop from Dell, reportedly called the XPS m1730.

Of course, after all the previous leaks about Dell's 13-inch m1330 and the rest of Dell's current laptop lineup, you'd think the company would pretty much expect this kind of thing.

In any event, our favorite French tech Web site, LesDeLLiens.com, reports that the XPS m1730 will be released (at least in France) on August 27, and it supposedly will offer Intel's … Read more

Lenovo will offer a version of Linux on its ThinkPad notebooks beginning in the fourth quarter, the company announced Monday.

The Chinese PC maker has selected Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 from Novell as its first supported entry into the world of open source. Though ThinkPads have been certified to run Linux in the past, this is the first time Lenovo will support the hardware and operating system directly. Novell will be responsible for providing operating system updates to Lenovo's customers. ThinkPads with Suse Linux will be available to Lenovo's commercial customers and individuals.

The announcement coincides with … Read more