All posts from OhGizmo!

By Andrew Liszewski
No longer is how deep you can dive while wearing it the benchmark for a well-made watch. Seiko’s raised the bar with their Spring Drive Spacewalk Watch which was specifically designed to withstand the extreme temperatures, pressures and radiation involved with taking an EVA or ‘extra-vehicular activity’ spacewalk. It was first worn by private space adventurer Richard Garriott back in October of 2008 who spent 12 days at the ISS, and was subsequently worn a few months later by a Russian cosmonaut on an actual 5 hour and 38 minute spacewalk, on the outside of his suit, performing flawlessly the entire time.
So to celebrate its success, Seiko is making a limited edition version of the watch available to the public. Made of lightweight titanium the watch doesn’t actually have a lot of features to justify its $28,000 price tag, besides a chronograph, date function and oh, the ability to survive the harsh conditions of space! The run is being limited to just 100 pieces, which is probably a safe bet given the price tag, but I’m sure they’ll still sell out.
[ Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk Watch ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Andrew Liszewski
It’s not the biggest globe your money can buy, but the 6-inch City Lights Earth Globe makes up for it with some clever tricks. Once placed on its base the globe not only begins to rotate on its own, but it also lights up, providing a glowing view of our planet during the day, or at night. That’s right, at one time or another we’ve all had a poster or desktop wallpaper featuring that mesmerizing photo of our planet’s cities lit up at night, and now you can have a 3D representation of it sitting right on your desk. The product shot is a bit misleading since you can’t actually show both at the same time, it’s either day or night, but for $49.95 it’s a minor misrepresentation.
[ City Lights Earth Globe ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Evan Ackerman
If you’ve been reading OhGizmo for the last 5 years, you might recognize VirtuSphere from this 2005 post. Since then, not too much is different, besides that VirtuSphere seems to be trying to open up to a new market that’s not the US Army or NASA: gamers.
VirtuSphere is at GDC hoping that someone will step up and port some worthwhile games to their system. Like, you know, Halo 3. Meantime, what they have in the works is a gameshow that (as far as I can tell) involves two people in two VirtuSpheres trying to virtually kill each other or something. If you want to try one of these out, you’ll be able to find it in the Excalibur in Las Vegas in about a month, or if you just can’t wait, expect to pony up about $55,000 for one of your own.
[ VirtuSphere ]

By Chris Scott Barr
When I first saw the Iron Man movie a couple years back, I thought it would be cool to have that original arc reactor sitting on my desk like Tony Stark did. I figured that in no time Marvel would cash in and start selling replicas. Apparently they decided to wait until the second movie was getting ready to come out, as they’ve finally decided to put one on the market.
For $150 you can have your own aluminum and stainless steel replica arc reactor. It’s even got a number of LED’s to give it that wonderful glow, if you’re into that. The full-size prop replica comes in the same plexi-glass case that you saw in the movie, though you can take it out if you wish. Sadly, it will not power your own homemade Iron Man suit.
[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Andrew Liszewski
Billed as the “World’s only Apple-certified solar charger carrying case” the new Solar Surge from Novothink for the iPhone 3G/3GS and the iPod Touch lets you harvest the sun’s energy to replenish your device’s less than epic battery. According to the Novothink website, “2 hours of direct solar exposure provides about 30 minutes of talk time on a 3G network or 60 minutes of talk time on a 2G network”, but if the sun hasn’t made an appearance you can always fall back to the included USB cable for charging its built-in lithium-ion polymer battery.
A series of 4 multi-colored LEDs on the back of the case lets you see the battery’s remaining charge, and they’ll also let you know if there’s enough light available to actually take advantage of the built-in solar cell. In fact Novothink has even gone above and beyond the call of duty by providing their free Solar Planner app for either device, which provides an estimate of how long you’ll have to leave the Surge in the sun to maintain your iPhone or Touch’s battery level, depending on the current weather conditions and your location.
Eventually available in 6 different colors, the Surge for the iPhone runs $79.95, while the single colored iPod Touch model is currently on sale for $52.95.
[ Novothink Solar Surge iPhone & iPod Touch Charging Case ]

By Andrew Liszewski
Since the movie’s release date is still something ridiculous like 15 years away, these images are just Photoshop mockups at the moment, but eventually Disney World in Orlando will be promoting the upcoming Tron Legacy sequel by converting their monorails into light cycles. And by ‘converting’ I of course mean just covering them in light cycle graphics, but if you have a Disney vacation planned in the very near future, make sure to include Epcot where the upgraded monorails could be running as early as sometime this month.
[ Disney Parks Blog - Disney Monorail Trains to Feature ‘TRON: LEGACY’ Art ] VIA [ Sci Fi Wire ]

By Andrew Liszewski
I know those little yellow sponges you cram in your ears aren’t the most advanced way to protect your hearing, but these Sonic Defenders make them look like they date back to the age of cavemen. When worn the SureFire EP-3 ear plugs let you hear safe and routine sounds like normal conversation, but potentially harmful sounds above 80dB are safely reduced via the company’s special design that incorporates the patented ‘Hocks Noise Braker’ filter. They also feature a small removable stopper that will block out nearly all sounds when you want some real peace and quiet, and they’re available for a mere $12.95 directly from SureFire.
[ SureFire EP-3 Sonic Defenders ] VIA [ The Awesomer ]

By Andrew Liszewski
Yep, we’ve already brought you insanely expensive watches constructed with remnants of the Titanic, or specks of moon dust, but the Jurassic Tourbillon from Louis Moinet trumps them both with one simple yet awesome addition. Dinosaurs!… Or at least their bones.
The Jurassic Tourbillon, whose dial contains fragments of authentic fossilised dinosaur bones, takes us on a journey into the past, around 130 million years ago. Qualified as exceptional by experts, the colour and veining of these precious witnesses to our past underwent a meticulous process of preservation.
Of course it’s not like they’ve just pried open the case on your average Timex and crammed some bone fragments in there, the watch is still a luxury item made from 18K white gold with 56 Top Wesselton VVS baguette 3.46ct diamonds, and while it’s water-resistant to 30 meters, I highly doubt, like the dinosaurs, that it’s giant asteroid resistant. As for the price, I’ve no idea, but I assume it will be comparable to the aforementioned Titanic and moon dust models to give you a rough idea.
[ Jurassic Tourbillon ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Evan Ackerman
One of the biggest announcements at this year’s Game Developers Conference here in San Francisco is the Move, Sony’s new motion control system for the PlayStation. It’s generally similar to the Nintendo Wii, in that you hold a thingy, and something attached to the game console watches that thingy (in this case, it’s the PS Eye camera), and can tell where the thingy is being moved and translate that motion into in-game actions. Here’s the thingy in question:

More, including hands-on impressions and video, after the jump.
There’s a trigger on the reverse, at the top near the glowy ball, which changes color to differentiate one remote from another. Depending on the game, you can use one remote or two at the same time. It’s very light, lighter than a Wiimote, which makes me think it must have a rechargeable battery inside. I got a chance to test the Move out for a while last night, and it’s pretty impressive. It’s less forgiving than a Wii as far as where you can stand, but it’s much more precise and gives you a huge range of motion. You can rotate the controller vertically (twist it) or horizontally (make it do flips) and the system has no trouble tracking what it’s doing. This means that for fighting games, you can pull all kinds of moves just like you (hypothetically) would in real life: for example, you can spin around, and the tracking handles it perfectly. Or, for games like table tennis, you can actually put spin on your shots buy angling your wrist just like you would in real life. It’s a lot of work for a video game, and a lot of fun.

While the technology is great, in my opinion, the actual gaming software isn’t quite at the same level. What I was hoping for was a system that would take my motions and integrate them into the game directly. What happens currently (and it’s worth noting that all the demos were pre-alphas) is that the system reads the motions you make, and uses those motions to trigger preprogrammed actions. The Move is supposed to be very easy to program into games, though, so hopefully we’ll be seeing some innovative titles in the near future.
As far as pricing goes, a bundle with the PS Eye camera and one Move controller (and a game) should go for under $100, which usually means $99.99, but it could be less. You’ll also be able to get the Move controller by itself, and as part of a PS3 bundle. Look for launch late this year, in time for the holidays.

By Evan Ackerman
Guitar Hero and Rock Band are fun games, but after you master them, you’re left with little more than a staggeringly useless talent for pushing little plastic buttons. Game developer Seven45 Studios is aiming to change all that by partnering up with instrument manufacturer First Act to create a music game for the Xbox 360 and PS3 that uses a real, playable six string guitar as a controller. Plug it into a console, and it’s a control. Plug it into an amp, and it’s a guitar.
The game is called Power Gig: Rise of the SixString. I got a brief demo at GDC yesterday, and while they wouldn’t discuss the game itself in a ton of detail, we did get a good look at the hardware. The big draw, of course, is that it’s a real guitar that you get to play with. The only difference between the controller and a normal guitar are the additional buttons on the body (to duplicate the full functionality of a game controller) and a special string dampener that pops up to keep the strings from vibrating too much when you’re playing the game, since it would confuse the sensors. Otherwise, all of the clever stuff is internal, and the guitar can sense both string movement and finger position.
Seven45 stresses that this is not an education game: it’s not designed to teach you how to play the guitar. That said, as you get comfortable with the game, you do slowly learn the fundamentals of playing the instrument, and as you crank up the difficulty, the game will demand more real world skill from you. And it’s not just about playing the guitar, either: the game is somehow adventure based, and part of the storyline includes teaching you how to tune yourself and change your own guitar strings (spare strings will be included).
There are a lot of things still to be finalized, including song content, but as far as pricing and availability goes, look for Power Gig sometime this fall at a price that will be “competitive with other game band packages.” If the gameplay stands up to similar titles as well, the choice is going to be an easy one: why get a game that includes a fake guitar and teaches you to push plastic buttons, when you could get a game that includes a real guitar and teaches you how to play it, instead.
[ Power Gig ]

By Andrew Liszewski
In general I find cuckoo clocks to be kind of creepy and disturbing, with that little obsessive compulsive bird that has to pop out every hour on the hour, but this one takes it to a whole new level. It’s a miniature diorama of the famous “Heeere’s Johnny!” scene from The Shining, but instead of a little bird making an appearance every hour, it’s a little Jack Nicholson who breaks through the door with his famous catch line. And if that’s not creepy enough, there’s also a miniature terrorized Shelly Duvall there for good measure, who follows up with a blood-curdling scream… every hour.
The clock was created by Chris Dimino, who thankfully doesn’t seem to have any intentions of mass producing it.
[ Chris Dimino - Shining Cuckoo Clock ] VIA [ /Film ]

By Andrew Liszewski
Remember the Canon zoom lens thermos we brought you last week that was exclusively given out to members of the press at the Olympic Press Center in Vancouver? Well it turns out in the very near future they’re not going to be so exclusive. You can actually pre-order one now from Canadian photography store Vistek for $29.99 (Canadian dollars of course) and they’re expected to be available around mid-April. Quantities will be limited though, so if you saw my post last week and were kicking yourself for missing out on getting one at the Olympics, you’ll want to act fast.
[ Vistek - Canon Thermal Travel Mug EF 70-200 f/4.0 L IS USM Lens ] VIA [ Doobybrain ]