ie8 fix

Crave

Phonebook for the Paris Hilton in you

Trying to keep up with new cell phone releases is like counting raindrops in a thunderstorm. And for some people, the constant flood of new handsets is just too tempting to resist.

So if you're one of those junkies who must get a new phone or five every few months (you know who you are), then the "USB Phonebook Flash Drive" from Brando might be just what you need--or not, depending on whether you're seeking help with your addiction. This key stores your address book information and, with the adapters that are included, transfers it to … Read more

Give your lighting a Hollywood closeup

Whenever we'd stuck around long enough to see a movie's credits in the past, we always wondered what a "gaffer" was. Finally, thanks to research for Crave (and Wikipedia), we know now that the term refers to the lighting guru on the set.

The "Gaffer's Bounce Lamp," according to Hammacher Schlemmer, was designed by gaffer extraordinaire Edward Cohen, whose works include Spider-Man 2 and A Beautiful Mind. It apparently owes its name to the process of bouncing a 20-watt floodlight onto a "flexible, sanded polycarbonate reflector that directs a soft, diffuse light.&… Read more

Quake detectors to accessorize with

Even if the world is crumbling around you in a massive earthquake, there's no reason to lose your fashion sense in the rubble. You can still be the best-accessorized refugee in the bunker or tent city with one of these quake detectors from Japan's Ubukata Industries.

I4U News says these devices, which also double as smoke detectors, are equipped with sensors that will warn of temblors with magnitudes of 5 or more. (For those of you outside earthquake country, anything beyond 6.5 or so will likely give you religion in a hurry.) At $124 it's not … Read more

Whatever it looks like, we don't want it

We'd been staring at this photo for awhile, trying to figure out what it looked like. Then it dawned on us: an ice cream maker. (We could have said a toilet, but that might be rude.)

Having solved that burning mystery, we then turned our attention to a more useful question: Does anyone really need an iPod FM transmitter specifically designed to fit in a car cup holder? The answer then came in a post by Newlaunches, which reported that the "Trinity" is made by the same company that gave us the "Lumi Flasher." Need … Read more

Roomba, meet the Wiimote

Already bored with playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on your new Wii? You might try using using the console's already legendary remote to control a household robot.

One person who did just that is a young man named Chris Hughes, who hacked the Roomba vacuum cleaner so that he could make the rugbot do his bidding. And he's posted the modified source code online so that you can do the same.

Hughes, who bears a strong resemblance to Matt Damon, offers a quick intro to the Wii-Roomba hack in a YouTube video that can be found … Read more

Dine with the fishes at Hilton Maldives' underwater restaurant

What I really should be saying about this, just to tick off fellow Craver Mike Yamamoto, is that I wish this underwater restaurant were off the coast of Antarctica, so that I could go and see some penguins swim by. Alas, I don't know how well that could be accommodated with all the, you know, heating that'd have to be installed. But I digress. The Hilton Maldives Resort & Spa has recently opened the Ithaa Undersea restaurant, which is indeed underwater. A blogger at Table of Malcontents seemed rather disgusted at the prospect of dining in an establishment … Read more

More stuff to Crave

--YOUTUBERY: Welcome to the YouTube Nation

--JUICY GOSSIP: Microsoft bribing bloggers with laptops (Slashdot)**

--GAMING: Newsmaker: Drawing on the Wii, reality TV (CNET News.com)

--WEB 2.0: Web 2.0 bubble talk hits mainstream media (HipMojo)

--GAMING: Roomba, meet the Wii remote (CNET News.com)

--GAMING: Fox Sports to launch full game downloads (PaidContent)

**Actually, according to CrunchGear, Microsoft wants them back. Oops.

Must-have item for car phone addicts

If you think you need one of Novomax's "Bluetooth Soundstations," you're spending far too much time on the phone while behind the wheel. According to the product description on its Web site, the car kit "displays caller ID, battery status, phone book downloading, etc." (We can only speculate what the "etc." stands for. Doing laundry?)

It's frightening that some people would find the need to have all this information constantly within their line of sight while they're supposed to have their eyes on the road. And as if that's … Read more

The world's thinnest slider phone

Thin isn't all it's cracked up to be, despite what Kirstie Alley might say, especially when it comes to phones. Nevertheless, Samsung claims to have come up with the slimmest slider phone of its kind, the "Ultra Edition SGH-Z720," which measures a wispy 0.54 inches thick and weighs just 2.8 ounces.

The phone's design is still wide enough to include a 2.1-inch screen, a 3-megapixel auto-focus camera and a second camera for video telephony, according to Fareastgizmos. Notable software features include preinstalled Google mobile search and Gmail, as well as support for … Read more

Solar Webcam's price out of orbit

Solar power may be making great strides in mainstream usage, but energy efficiency doesn't necessarily translate to fiscal conservation. The "Ultimate Outdoor Webcam" by DigitalXtractions, for example, runs on the sun's rays but costs $450 plus another $150 or $250 for a solar panel, according to The Raw Feed. But here's the kicker: Not only do you have to pay those exorbitant prices up front, but you also must shell out $60 a year for a "data subscription" that includes Web hosting. We think we'll keep a USB port open for the &… Read more