Crave

Not all gadgets are the technological equivalent of genetic mutations. Some hybrids actually make sense and don't even look like lab experiments gone awry.

On paper, at least, Hitachi's hybrid camcorder appears to be one of these exceptions. Gizmag says the video camera, which Hitachi calls the first DVD/HDD product of its kind, can easily burn videos directly onto a DVD inside the camcorder, bypassing the need for a computer altogether. It comes in 1.3- and 3.3-megapixel models, each with an 8GB hard drive that can store 110 minutes of video, at about $1,450 … Read more

Last night, a mixed bag of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, publicists, and geeks flocked to a lecture hall at Manhattan's Cooper Union for the 2006 year-end edition of the NY Tech Meetup, hosted by Meetup founder Scott Heiferman himself. Okay, it wasn't really a mixed bag, as I was one of about a dozen females in the room. (CNET TV's Chris Parker taught me that the proper term for such a situation is "brodeo.")

Usually the NY Tech meetup consists of six five-minute presentations by local entrepreneurs. But last night's event had a special appearance … Read more

Most drivers have desired at one time or another to send messages to other drivers with more content than they can manage with hand gestures. And various solutions have been tried. It's probably good that no solution has been overwhelmingly successful, as incidents of road rage could catapult. The latest car-to-car communication solution, called Drivemocion, has an LED module that can show up to five different messages. The messages consist of emoticons such as a smiley face and a frowny face. It can also show text messages, such as "Thanks," "Back off," and "Idiot.&… Read more

Forget the Navy bar. This is what I call a "target rich environment"...for puns.

The Trend Hunter blog has dubbed Maverick Jets' new SoloJet the Top Gun of executive aircraft. (What an original pop culture reference.) Considering the glaring irony that Tom "Maverick" Cruise has traded in his F-14 Tomcat to become TomKat, one can't blame the Top Gun references from jumping into the blogosphere.

The single engine jet holds a 3,190-pound Pratt & Whitney JT-15-5 engine, enabling the jet to climb 8,000 feet per minute. It flies at 472 knots--that is … Read more

Samsung showed off phones for the coming HSUPA (that's High Speed Uplink Packet Access) standard at the ITU Telecom show in Hong Kong this week, paving the way for universal understanding between nations and fast video downloads.

HSUPA will deliver downlink speeds of 14.4 megabits per second, but a 5.76 megabit uplink. That means uploading five MP3 songs will only take about a minute. By contrast, the same procedure takes about five minutes on the WCDMA standard.

Samsung is one of the more aggressive cellular companies and for the past few years has tried to leapfrog past … Read more

Forget those wimpy remote-controlled pests that seem to be proliferating by the minute. You really want something annoying? Get an RC Hummer H2 replica that's a full 2.5 feet long. That's easily big enough to knock over your idiot uncle before Christmas dinner has even begun. Making this beast even more irritating are flashing lights and spinning rims, so it might be tough to sneak up on guests. But at cruising speeds up to 20 mph, you won't need too much stealth to catch them.

We dredged the series of tubes for you! Here's some other Craveable stuff that's going on around the Web.

--GAMING: Strengthen that Wiimote strap (Kotaku)

--JUICY GOSSIP: Is Apple going gaming with HDTVs, iTunes Video Game Store? (CrunchGear)

--POLICE BLOTTER: 12-year-old boy arrested for opening Game Boy before Christmas (GameLife)

--GADGETRY: Mi-Flower (Outblush)

--FUTURISTIC STUFF: Interactive Pillows (Information Aesthetics)

--FOLLOW-UP: Colbert vs. the Decemberists (Stereogum, see CNET News.com coverage here)

The Apple iPod is, far and away, the most popular MP3 player on the market--less a product and more a way of life for many people. But just how reliable a product is it? That's the question posed by Nick Wingfield's article in today's Wall Street Journal. "When iPods Die" (which, like most WSJ content, is locked behind the paper's subscriber firewall) compiles some compelling iPod war stories. Among the frustrated 'Pod users chronicled is Tom Westrup of Austin, Texas, who--after suffering from repeated freeze-ups during playback--is currently awaiting his fifth replacement iPod. There'… Read more

There are some pretty lame ripoffs, spinoffs and ostensible updates of the classic Swiss army knife on the market, but this isn't one of them. The "Cyber Snipa Dog Tag" combines the most essential of the knife's features--including our personal favorite, the scissors--with 21st century elements such as an ultra-bright LED flashlight and a removable 512MB USB drive, according to Slashgear. (Why a USB key? We have no idea, but we've already demonstrated a demand for them in rugged terrain.) All this in a package that capitalizes on the dog tag trend.