Crave- Page 4146

Let Navy SEAL gear improve your golf game

The gnomes in the itty-bitty Swiss hamlet of Ibach have come up with yet another Swiss Army essential, the GolfTool. It features 10 tools, including a tee puncher ("for the frozen ground"), a groove cleaner and the perennial toothpick and tweezers. Of special interest is the accompanying range finder;good for up to 1000 meters.

Of course the Crave crew won't settle for that. So we asked ourselves, what would a US Navy SEAL use? Well, that would be the PLRF15C Pocket Laser Range Finder, also by Vectronix. This model, while lacking a toothpick and tweezers, will … Read more

Teen spirit we don't need

Our feelings about student gear with external speakers should be fairly clear by now, so one can image how we reacted upon learning of a binder that comes with stereo satellites, as seen on Electronista. We're thankful, at least, that it can take headphones as well, so the rest of us won't necessarily be subjected to our kids' blaring tunes.

We can't really blame school supplies companies for keeping up with the times, but we can't help but feel somewhat betrayed by the one that makes this binder--Mead--because it used to make classroom products that were … Read more

Sony finally genuflects before the iPod

It's about time that Sony acknowledged reality. Rather than acting as though it's still king of the hill in entertainment hardware, the proprietary-obsessed company has finally broken down and released an iPod docking station (only a few years late, but no one's really counting anymore).

The speaker station even has the official blessing of Apple, according to Electronista, so compatibility with all iPod models should be ensured. There's just one problem--the price. At $250, this has about as much of a chance of succeeding as the Walkman's transition from CDs to MP3s.

One for your American Idol training

For those karaoke aficionados who want to break out of their nerdsome image, there's hope from the land where it all began. CMtech has released a new digital player that resembles LG's Chocolate, with touch-sensitive buttons and a sleek profile that's less than half an inch thick while weighing about 1.6 ounces.

The K7 has a TV-out connection, FM radio and storage up to 4GB, Akihabara News says. Or it can just be used as an MP3 player if you've strained your vocal chords the night before doing Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a … Read more

Verizon PN-820 launches; first decent-looking clamshell smart phone

I like flip phones. I like smart phones. But I have yet to see a cell phone manufacturer successfully combine the two into a nice-looking package. Motorola came out with the i930, but there's no way I was going to carry that big honkin' phone around, and it was definitely catered toward the Nextel bunch. Then, HTC had a go at it with the Cingular 3125, but I don't know, I still find the design just ... weird. Now, Verizon Wireless has picked up the clamshell Pantech PN-820 (aka Verizon Wireless PN-820) smart phone, and it actually looks decent. … Read more

Jamming with 3jam: 'reply-all' for phones

The presenters at the AlwaysOn conference earlier this week might have primarily consisted of companies that are marketing toward the advertising and media communities, but there were still plenty of consumer-oriented start-ups. So many, in fact, that we still aren't finished writing about them. Here's another one you all might find interesting--3jam, which allows you to send reply-all text messages to a group of your friends.

There are a bunch of different ways to use 3jam. On a basic level, you can start reply-all groups by simply texting 3jam's number, or you can use a downloadable … Read more

Shield your passports in style

Months ago we mentioned the "Passport Stronghold," a reinforced pouch designed to protect your personal information from ID spies. It might work just fine, but it looks like a burlap sack with an amateurish logo slapped on it--hardly a fashion statement.

"Lifestyle gear" company Kena Kai may have a solution that bridges security and style for carrying the new RFID visas. Gearlog says its "DataSafe" passport wallets block radio signals that could be intercepted while featuring Italian leather finishes of various stains and colors for men and women.

But will anyone come up with … Read more

Crave likes cats

I'm never going to convince anyone that I'm not a crazy cat lady if I don't stop talking about cats all the livelong day. Luckily, Ariel is here to try to bring me back from my cat psychosis. Here are the links for today's show! His home is a shrine to the Mac Charge up your cell phone while you ride a bike Gucci does BlackBerry 'Ghostbusters' Ecto 1 up for auction Video time: wet cat gadgets Enough with the spy bots already I don't want to laugh at that cat in the scuba suit, … Read more

First new Super 8 camera in 20 years

It doesn't exactly qualify as a comeback, but film is far from dead. Retro Thing says Sweden's Ikonoskop is planning to introduce the first new Super 8 movie camera design the world has seen in more than 20 years.

Like its earlier 16mm sibling, the A-Cam DS8 will have interchangeable lenses and a parallel viewfinder. It also weighs a manageable 3.3 pounds, including lens, battery and up to 100 feet of film. The camera uses 16mm-wide film to capture Super 8 frames in a hybrid format, reportedly making it far more stable than the old Kodak Super … Read more