November 13, 2006 7:44 AM PST
835 Sudoku puzzles in the palm of your hand
ThinkGeek, Brookstone and others are now selling a touch screen Sudoku handheld for about $20. The Excalibur Electronics device is filled with Sudoku puzzles chosen by legendary New York Times crossword editor Will Shortz.
(Credit:
ThinkGeek)
For those of you unfamiliar with the brain game, Sudoku consists of an 81 square, nine-by-nine grid pre-filled with a few numbers. The player fills in the remaining squares by determining what number each square needs in order to create a balance of numbers 1 through 9 for each row, column and nine-square block. (The game can also be played with nine shapes.)
The New York Times Touch Screen Sudoku Handheld takes 2 AAA batteries and holds 835 puzzles, including a timer and optional hints feature.
In a software-driven world, it's easy to forget about the nuts and bolts. Whether it's cars, robots, personal gadgetry or industrial machines, Candace Lombardi examines the moving parts that keep our world rotating. A journalist who divides her time between the United States and the United Kingdom, Lombardi has written about technology for the sites of The New York Times, CNET, USA Today, MSN, ZDNet, Silicon.com, and GameSpot. E-mail her at candacelombardi@gmail.com. She is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not a current employee of CNET. 
