Lifestyle

This is how I know I've gone off the deep end. It's not enough that my apartment is cluttered with all kinds of knob-covered music devices. Now I'm actually considering buying little miniature versions to populate my cubicle at work. What is broken in my brain that makes me want to drop $20 on a small paper version of a vintage Arp 2600 modular synthesizer? And that's the budget version! Those of you for whom money is no object can commission Dan McPharlin to create your own Lilliputian fantasy recording studio. Now I just need to … Read more

I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who are hesitant to go camping these days because of their overwhelming dependence on gadgets: digital cameras, iPods, BlackBerrys, cell phones, and the like. Spending several days without the ability to charge said gadgets would be, well, torture on the level of being forced to listen to that Darwin audiobook. But now there's a solution: the Eureka N!ergy tent, which comes with a "power pack" to keep your electronic gizmos juiced up. It'll set you back $300. (Pocket change!)

The catch is that the Eureka … Read more

Office food thieves, beware. Your illicit supply is about to run dry.

That's because co-workers no longer need to keep their food in the communal fridge for microwaving at lunchtime. Instead, they can just keep it at their desk and microwave it inside the lunchbox itself. The "WaveBox," combined with its "CoolWave" liner, is an all-in-one food receptacle and cooking appliance. The latter keeps the contents fresh until you're ready to eat, when you can then flip a switch and microwave your grub right inside the WaveBox, according to Popgadget.

Billed as the "… Read more

It's karma: As the ravages of age befall us, products for the elderly that we used to mock suddenly don't seem so funny anymore. (It starts with bifocals.)

Nowhere is that truer than in Japan, where the aging population has become a source of national concern. So it's appropriate that NTT DoCoMo has developed the "Raku-Raku," a mobile phone designed specifically for people with impaired eyesight and hearing. The phone can slow down the words of an incoming call, read text and numbers aloud, and adjust ringtones and volume according to external noise, according to … Read more

Construction workers appreciate music on the job as much as anyone, as we were reminded recently with a Makita radio designed specifically for building sites, so it makes sense that someone would eventually come along and market a music toolbox for them as well. The "G-Tech Tune Time Tool Box" not only has plenty of space for power drills and wrenches, but it also comes with built-in NXT speakers and an abundance of pockets for digital accoutrements.

Tech Digest says the $108 bag is made of "durable double-layer 6006 polyester," which means that it would survive … Read more

When people say "geek chic," they're usually referring to hipsters in black Dolce & Gabbana glasses typing away on their MacBook Pros. But everybody knows that your average legit geek is more in the mold of Dwight Schrute than Gideon Yago (I bet that guy doesn't even know what PHP stands for).

Want to go for some real geek chic? Check out ProductDose's feature on nerdy neckties. My favorite is the binary tie, which probably looks like a normal blue tie from more than three yards away. But up close, it's clearly a bunch … Read more

In Crave's eternal quest to find the latest trends, this is one discovery that we're particularly proud of: excuses.

Let us explain. It seems that an entire cottage industry has sprung up around people who want to call in sick or need excuses to get out of other commitments. And now there's even a gadget to help fulfill your mission.

ThinkGeek's "XCuse Box" plays all manner of sound effects in the background of a phone call, ranging from traffic jams and crying babies to car-repair noises and final boarding calls. Its uses aren't … Read more

We know that stranger things have happened, but let's hope that headlamps don't become a fashion trend. We're a bit worried after having just seen a 24-LED version a few days ago, only to find another fetching piece of illuminated headgear pop up on in the gadget blogosphere. Shiny Shiny rightly notes that "you'll look an absolute twit" wearing one of these items from the U.K.'s Millets outdoor store but, if you do happen to get lost or fall into a ditch, its flashing mode would probably come in handy. Or you … Read more

Forget about all those traffic radar detectors that have come on the market recently. The truly paranoid need far more sophisticated equipment to find out who's watching them, such as this "All in One Professional Counter-Surveillance Device."

The $350 piece of hardware can supposedly detect GPS trackers, wireless hidden cameras, audio bugs, phone taps and laser eavesdropping systems, as well as disable their transmissions. There's just one problem: As Navigadget points out, it may very well jam every other digital device in your home.