The Geek Church

Now here is a PC accessory/toy that every kid (and possibly every parent) needs to have. This is the Chatman, who is “destined to become every kids’ new best mate”.

Yes, it would be better if your child got him or herself some real friends, but if the little ones are on the Internet, then perhaps this could keep your son and daughter from friending someone they really shouldn’t.

The Chatman is designed for concerned parents to spy on their children’s instant messages, web surfing, games, and social networks. Apparently, Chatman is able to tell the young user exactly what it thinks and how it feels about the present discussion.

Yes, I really have no idea how this work, and I wish that my sources had a video of this at work. I have heard that Chatman has moving eyes, arms, ears, and a mouth with appropriately lit LEDs to show its emoticon mood.

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I just recently checked out a product known as the Pogoplug that allows you to put your hard drive (even a thumb drive) on the Internet.

All that is required is plugging the Pogoplug into the wall, and then into your router. You then have four USB ports to plug in hard drives, and you can access the info from these drives anywhere after you set up a secure Pogoplug account.

I was surprised that it worked, and worked well. If you want to check it out for yourself, feel free to read my review here.

Wacom tablets are very good for when you want to pen your thoughts onto your computer, and their most recent offering is the Bamboo Pen and Touch, which accepts multitouch.

I get the feeling that Wacom looked at the iPhone and iPod Touch and said: “hey, let’s give our customers some of that”. The Pen and Touch is about the end result, and it has some very lovely pen and touch features.

You can read my review here to find out more about it.

This is an interesting concept PC that clearly heralds back to an era when TVs looked like this.

Even the keyboard and its base look like something from the fifties. Is that a dial that I see on the right? I am guessing that the button on the left is for power.

Of course, this comes from Yanko Design, which is usually good at creating concept devices that usually don’t end up seeing the light of day.

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I’m not certain why anyone would want to make a keyboard where every letter looks like it has been clipped out of a magazine or newspaper, but I suppose we should be grateful that someone did.

I realize that this is a little dark, bleak, and downright creepy, but hey, if you want to see this Retro Keyboard Blackmail Text again, then send the amount of $45.00 to the Conran Shop Online.

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All I’ve got to say is: isn’t this Lego mouse cute? Oh yeah, it is definitely twelve levels of cute, but is it comfortable on the hand?

We’ll you can try it out by spending $32 for this mouse with the left and right mouse buttons, a scroll wheel, and optical sensor.

I don’t know if it can work with other Lego blocks, but I’m guessing no.

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Okay, let’s take a poll. How many USB to mini-USB cables do you have?

I think I have one for my camera, and a few for other devices. Not all of them are compatible, but usually the mini-USB is standard.

So why not have Disney versions of these cables? Perhaps the better question is “why”, and the best answer is “because we’re Disney, and we want to sell some stuff”.

Well, if you want to donate $7 to the House of Mouse, you can get versions of them that include Toy Story, Cars, Stitch, Mickey Mouse, and those inevitable Disney Princesses.

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I had a chance to try out two of Belkin’s products this weekend, the CushDesk and the Universal Media Reader. The Cushdesk is essentially a laptop rest for your lap, and it is about as technical as a crowbar. It says on the package Ease, Comfort, and Cool, and as Stan Lee would say: “‘Nuff Said”.

As for the Universal Media Reader, I had a little bit of a harder time getting it to work. It also had some things with it that I wouldn’t call design flaws, but I probably wouldn’t have designed it that way.

Anyway, you can read my full review on the products here.

Here is a gadget for all those who need an iPod dock, a card reader, and two extra USB ports by their computer. This is the Simpifi, and it is designed to simplify your life! Yes, that is a deliberately poor pun, but I had a chance to try it out, and it works really well. You can read an extended review here.

Some of you might not know what I’m talking about with Intel’s “Rock Star” ad, but you can watch it right here.

Yeah, it’s pretty weird. I used to watch it a lot whenever I was watching anything on Hulu. Intel sponsors a lot of stuff on NBC, apparently.

According to Conan O’Brien, the man that you see in this ad is not the real Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of the USB. He is actually a paid actor. Say what now?

Conan actually interviewed the real Ajay Bhatt, and hilarity ensued. You can catch it after the jump.

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One of the sources that I view daily has stated that they have seen what looks to be HP’s Winter 2009/2010 catalog, and it reveals the specs for the Pavilion dv3 with TouchSmart. I suppose this picture says a thousand words, and this particular one has specs on it, so it probably states volumes.

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Every once in a while, some company comes out with a product that we really should have had a long time ago. Case in point, this new laptop board from Logitech.

I have used laptop boards before, and I enjoy that they take the heat off my (ahem). However, I like using my mouse, but using it with my mouse doesn’t really work. If only someone made some retractable mouse pad for my laptop board, and that is just what Logitech did.

Thank you, Logitech, for giving us a feature that we not only want, but we desperately need.

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The USB Windows Icebox is a device that looks like a flash drive, but it can do a lot more. It has a unique ability to plug into your computer, and it will immediately “freeze” any changes on the hard disk. So another user can jump on to your laptop or PC, but after you turn it off, your computer will return to the state it was in before you stuck in the Icebox.

This is good for parents who have kids who love to play on their mommy or daddy’s computer. The little tykes can do anything they want on purpose or accident, and the parent can simply turn it off at bedtime to eradicate any non-parent approved changes. All of this for just $18.99.

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