Charlie Brown Laptop: Why not?

If you’re like me, you grew up with Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy, Snoopy and the rest of the gang. You also may have found that you could relate to Charlie Brown, who seemed to fail at everything he did but was by no means a failure.

Fortunately you can grab yourself a special edition Peanuts/Charlie Brown laptop with some exclusive Peanuts cartoons right on the front. Well, maybe not exclusive, but just watch someone else have some just like them.

The computer has a 1.73 MHz processor, 1 GB of Ram, an 80 GB hard drive, CD burner, but if you’re a diehard Peanuts Fan, you’re not interested in that. You want the pre-packaged Peanuts screensavers, backgrounds and more.

I can’t imagine that if there were laptops in the Charlie Brown universe, Snoopy really needed one. I imagine he would continue to type unpublished manuscripts as he precariously balanced himself from atop his doghouse.

Perhaps Charlie Brown would have found some support and comfort from a chatroom. Hopefully he would not be looking on certain myspace sites to help cure is inner lonliness. I would be interested in seeing Linus and Lucy’s personal blogs.

But enough reminiscing. If you’re interested in this laptop, you can purchase it for about $2,800.

Latest Tech News

Queen Elizabeth goes for YouTube

I must admit this is a move that many people surely didn’t expect, having the Queen Elizabeth sending a dedicated message on YouTube, but taking in consideration the number of people she can affect this way, instead of going for the traditional route of the television, it is certainly a smart move.

So what it the message about? Christmas, of course! As far as I can tell, the video isn’t live yet, but you can check other Christmas messages and broadcasts of previous years, in the recently created YouTube channel - The Royal Channel.

According to the Queen, she expects this new kind of video Christmas message to be more personal and direct. If she is using YouTube this year, what did she use on 2006? Believe it or not, the message was in the form of a podcast.

FBI and the $1 billion project

The new $1 billion project for the FBI is suppose to be have the final result as the “world’s largest computer database of biometrics”, in other words, it will have fingerprints, among other biometric information, of plenty of people.

What good is it for? To offer the government a better way to identify people. Other details, such as digital images of faces, and palm patterns, are already on the compilation mode.

Dell PCs in Tesco stores

Starting next year, in January, the Tesco stores will begin selling Dell computers. With stores mainly located across Europe, the Dell XPS and Inspiron computers will be available in the UK, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, and other countries.

3-in-1 Watch: Exchange unwanted Christmas Gifts for This

Ah, now that Christmas is, for the most part, over and you’ve opened all your gifts, you should concentrate on what you are going to exchange the unwanted gifts for.

Might I suggest you satisfy your inner geek and use that disposable income to purchase the 3-in-1 watch that has a ruler, calculator, and oh yeah, there’s a watch too.

To be honest, this is the first watch that I have seen to ever have a ruler attached. Even though it can only do about six inches, sometimes that is all you need. I suppose a tape measure would have been asking too much.

Even though this is the first watch I’ve seen with a ruler, it is of course not the only one with a calculator. I mean, that really is old news! I remember there used to be this one add on television where you could get it for $19.99. Heck, Michael J. Fox wore one in the Back to The Future films, if you look really close.

This calculator can function with eight digits, with E Error signs, and a decimal point. You should be able to get these Stanley Calculator Watch for about $26. So get going to the returns counter and get some cold hard cash for this classic timepiece.

CD Carousel Plus

Are you one of those types of people who really, really need their CDs or DVDs organized into some sort of jukebox formation? Or maybe you got a lot of CDs and DVDs for Christmas, and you need a place to store them.

I really like this because it can store 150 discs, and it looks kind of compact. You might want to connect it to a computer, create a database, then you can search your collection by title or keyword. Then all you need to do is double-click the title you want, and I imagine the thing just wheels around to you.

As far as I can tell, you just dial the number of the CD or DVD that you want, and it comes to you. Hopefully it somehow lifts out of there.

Well, isn’t that some convenience? Hey, is that a lock on that thing? It would be handy to lock them in. That way a burglar can’t take any of your CDs. Unless the burglar just takes all of them and shatters the glass top later or cuts it open with a hacksaw.

Well, if you are interested in this guy, which I kind of am, you should know that you can get it for about $200.

iPod Travel Pillow

iPods are meant to be enjoyed anywhere, but what happens when you’re stuck in an airplane seat (no Business Class for you)? The iPod Travel Pillow makes it much easier on your neck in a long haul flight.

Think you can’t relax in an airplane seat? This two-way pillow makes it possible! As it supports your neck, its built-in speakers let you enjoy your favorite iPod® tunes or the audio from your DVD player—in stereo!

This nifty little device retails for $24.95. I wonder if Santa could make do with one of these considering the distance he had to travel all night long.

Coolest Gadgets in National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Recent weekend stats have shown that National Treasure: Book of Secrets has surpassed its predecessor.

As a gadget blogger, I was amazed at the amount of cool gadgets displayed in this film, and would like to review several of them at once. None of these contain any spoilers to the film.

The Resolute Desk Collection: Made after some ship that I have never heard of before I saw this movie, the drawers in this desk are specially numbered so that something special will be revealed when the proper code is entered. Perfect for when you’ve got something to hide, and you don’t think anyone would have the nerve to crack open the desk to find it.

The President’s Book Vault: Even though the President has given you the location in the Library of Congress for this ultra secret book that has been passed down from president to president, you should probably keep it locked in the shelf itself. Who would think of looking for it where it would actually belong? Comes with old-school dialing lock mechanism.

The Big Balance Platform: If you have some lost treasure, and you need some deadly trap to guard it, what better than a Big Balance Platform? The Big Balance Platform cannot hold everybody in the raiding party, and thus some perhaps all members will fall off the edge to their death. Unless they figure out basic physics principles and shift their weight around.

Anyway, I have no availability date or price on those things, but hey, they’ve been around for quite a while.

Hyper Dash game from Wildplanet

Okay, I’m probably overdoing the whole “I’m reporting on products from Wildplanet” thing, but I like this product almost as much as I liked the whole Spy Video Car.

This Hyper Dash game is one of the coolest simply because it is so limitless as far as its gameplay. You see that long joystick-like object up there? You have to take that, and slam it onto the numbered discs up there.

Yes, it really is that simple. The thing is battery operated, so it shouts out what disks to slam, and you slam them. Settings can make it so a player can slam it down by number, or by color.

Just think of it as a kind of Whack-a-Mole that you can play from across the room. The points are all based on the time it takes for a player to whack all the targets, so as long as you don’t change the playing field, each one should have an even chance at targeting it.

I tried this out at my five-year-old’s birthday party, and it was quite a hit. Something tells me it would have been a hit at a party of people of any age.

You should be able to get it at WildPlanet’s Official Site for $24.95.

Spy Video Car from Wildplanet Spy Gear Collection

I’ve got to like these new Spy Gear toys from the Wildplanet company. One of my favorites, and I am told, a lot of people’s favorites is the Spy Video Car.

Unfortunately, a Spy Video car isn’t one of those cool cars with lots of built-in gadgets like you would see in a spy video, but it is just as cool.

Simply put, this toy is a dream come true. It is a remote control car with a camera attached on the front. Unfortunately, the camera is a monochromatic job, but it does shoot in infrared.

The Spy Video Car comes in two parts, first the car itself, which has good controls and runs easily across carpet. I never tested it on rocky terrain, but I imagine in might do pretty well.

The controls have a specialized headset that attaches to the eyes like half pair of glasses. The result is kind of like seeing the image on the side like through your peripheral vision.

Granted, I’m not certain what kind of professional spywork you could do with this…toy, really, but hey, it’s loads of spying fun from up to 75 feet away.

You can get it on the Official Wild Planet Site for about $119.95.

Vulcania Watch

I’m wondering if this Vulcania Watch isn’t some Star Trek reference to the planet Mr. Spock is from. After all, it does seem logical for a company to make a watch that looks this cool.

Apparently, the Vulcania is some sort of steampunk reference. I’m clearly not getting this, but perhaps designer Fabrice Gonet was going for something like that.

You can view the time in a few different ways. For example, the hours are seen on the wheel, and the minutes are on the circular dial. There is even a small window to display the day.

The coolest thing is that the owner can view the inner mechanisms of the watch. This is done with some very cool sapphire glass panels on the front, back, and even the sides.

That might come in handy in case the watch breaks, all the watchmaker has to do is just look inside it without opening it up. Okay, maybe not, but that is a good idea, you have to admit that.

If you want it, you might not get it. So far, I’ve heard it’s a limited edition with only 11 being made, perhaps ever. It is intended to be first shown in Switzerland at the Salon Internatinal de la Haute Horlogerie come April of next year.

USB Punch Head

I don’t know if this next product is such a good thing, as I’m not certain if it will release or increase aggression.

Here is what it is. You plug the little and ugly Punch Head to a spare USB port and just wail on it like a punching bag. Not only will you hear the proper “Off” and “Oww”, but on your screen you will see a photo contorting, as if you were actually punching them.

You can actually upload a picture of your favorite (or in this case, the least favorite) person and beat them up vicariously.

According to the company’s site, this allows you to “let off excess aggression in the comfort of your own home office” and to have “instant relief and gratification”.

Is it just me, or shouldn’t we be concerned about any product that offers this? Hey, introducing the Slaughterer! Kill your boss vicariously with this knife that connects to your USB port. Some of you might be thinking a product like that is taking it too far, but you can’t tell me that this has already crossed a line somewhere.

Well, you can get it at the Punch Head website. Or maybe your enemy is doing the same thing and is now uploading a photo of you.

Text Thumb Epidemic Sweeps the World (Soon, maybe.)

It has now official: texting is bad for you. You see, this New Zealand student had been diagnosed with the country’s first known case of text-messenger’s thumb.

This condition, known as texting tenosynovitis, is an inflammation of the tendons in the thumb caused by text messaging. There is only two reported case of this, and a school-aged child in Singapore is the first one. As for the second aforementioned New Zealand student, she apparently texts 100 messages per day.

Something tells me this is just the beginning. After all, I never heard of carpal tunnel or repeated wrist syndrome before the 1980s, and now it feels like everyone who has a computer has one.

So I’m guessing this texting tenosynovitis will sweep the nation, especially our youth. It is a small price to pay for all the important text messages sent by them each day. Oh, who am I kidding? Lighten up on the text messages, or you’ll get visited by the texting tenosynovitis curse. Now parents have a good reason not to allow their kids to text message.

I’m really just waiting for Dateline NBC or Nightline or 60 Minutes just itching to make a news feature out of this. This isn’t the last time you will hear about this soon to be hot-button item.

Simple adapter turns your SD card into an IDE drive

Flash memory is becoming cheaper every day. You can pick up a 2GB card for your camera for a little bit of nothing. With the ASUS Eee PC only having between 2GB and 8GB of storage, it makes me wonder if it wouldn’t speed up my computer considerably to get a small SSD drive for my computer, as they’re generally faster then traditional hard drives. Thanks to this cool adapter, I’ll be able to use one of my SD cards to do just that.

The adapter is about as basic and boring as it gets. All you have to do is insert an SD/MMC card, hook up a power cord and plug it into your IDE ribbon inside your PC and you’re all set. The adapter doesn’t require any special software or drivers to work, as it is simply recognized as an IDE drive by your BIOS.

This gadget isn’t going for most people. Tech enthusiasts and people looking to create embedded solutions will likely get the most out of it. The best part about this IDE to SD Card Adapter is that it won’t break the bank at $24.99.

Heated bed keeps your pup warm and comfortable during long trips

I love my dog. He’s a Basset Hound that’s just over a year and a half old. He’s a spaz, but I love him just the same. I take good care of him, he’s got his own bed and plenty of toys to play with. Sure, I buy him new stuff now and then, but I’m not one of those people that goes overboard with their pets. You know the type, the ones that get the gourmet food, dress up their dog, and even carry around a special purse for their pup. That’s why when my dog rides in the truck with me, he sits on the seat just the same as anyone else. Other people, however, might be tempted to get them a heated bed in the back of their SUV.

The SUV Heated Dog Bed sits in the back of your vehicle and provides a comfortable, and warm place for your dog to lie during long car trips. You’ll have to run the electrical cord all the way up to your cigarette lighter, but otherwise, it’s a piece of cake to install. It’s made of orthopedic foam padding with a waterproof liner and a stain and scratch-resistant removable nylon cover.

My dog doesn’t seem to get too upset when he sits in the front seat of my truck, and rarely even uses his bed at home, so I think I’ll have to pass on this one. The good thing is that if you want to quickly get rid of that dog smell in your car, just take out the bed and spray some air freshener. The bed will set you back $190.

TopTag Pet ID helps keep tabs on Fido and Fluffy

No matter how careful we are, there is always a chance that our pet may get out of the house or yard and get lost and then found by someone that doesn’t know your pet. Or, you may be going out of town for a family vacation and leave your pet with a pet sitter or boarder. In these situations, your pet could be in the care of someone that is not familiar with your pet, their dietary needs, medical conditions and general behavior. What’s a pet owner to do?

All of this information and more can be stored on the top tag ID so that it is ready and available if your pet’s care-giver needs it. If your cat won’t eat a certain kind of food or your dog needs a certain medication for heartworm treatment, they be able to check and know for sure. The Top Tag Pet ID is easy to use - simply plug it into the USB port on your computer and the program starts automatically. Next, simply click on the button for your type of pet: Dog, Cat, Bird or Other. The program will then automatically configure itself to fit your pet.

The Top Tag Pet ID can contain 7 main categories and 14 sub-categories of information about your pet including: Basic Information, Food and Diet, Behavior and Personality, Words and Commands, Nature’s Call, Medical Information, In Memoriam and a Photo Album.

Also, it allows you to have all that information on your pet without having to go through the surgery (or expense!) of having a microchip implanted. Pick one up for your pet for just $39.95.

HyperDrive 4 will blow your old drive out of the water

In the computer industry, everything is about speed. Well, lately people have been focusing a little more on power efficiency, but the main goal is and always has been more speed. Normally we look to faster processors, better video cards and more RAM to give your computer a performance boost. However, people rarely consider their hard drive to be a limiting factor. The sad truth is that your hard is almost always a bottleneck. This awesome new SSD drive shows you just how much your old drive holds you back.

The HyperDrive 4 doesn’t look like your average internal hard drive. In fact, with the cover on, it looks like an external backup drive. This strange-looking drive actually slides into one of your standard CD drive bays. Inside you will find eight RAM slots. Each slot can be filled with a 4GB stick, creating a 16GB drive.

What sort of performance boost would you get with such a drive? Lets just say it would take around 7 minutes to install Windows XP, whereas a regular drive could do it in about 40. Boot times for Windows average around 2 seconds. Speed isn’t cheap though, the 16GB model starts at around