DreamGear Action Pack Plus for the Wii

DreamGear puts out a lot of interesting video game accessories, and I got a chance to try out the Action Pack Plus for the Wii. These Wiimote accessories have a rubberized surface for better grip, and work well with the Motion Plus.

I liked some of the controls like the racing wheel, which I used for theCars 2 game. I also enjoyed the classic mod controller for games such as Super Mario Wii. The gun mount that you see in the picture made me wish I had more FirstPerson Shooter (FPS) games as it had dual triggers (one for the B trigger button and another for the A button).

The only thing that I could get to work right was the archery casing. I tried it out on a Wii Sports Resort, and I just couldn’t get a good shot in. The Action Pack kit also had a housing for the Wiimote that attaches to a racket, baseball bat, golf club, as well as a lightsaber that uses two AAA batteries to glow.

All in all, the Action Pack Plus for the Wii makes the Wii even more fun for the entire family. You should be able to get it for about $59.99 on the official DreamGear site, but just make certain that you have a Wii Remote Jacket.

Bergmonch scooter can strap to the back

I’ve been wanting to take a bikeup a mountain for a while now. Ofcourse, I am out of shape, and probably won’t do those uphill pedals very well.

Fortunately, this Bergmonch (German for “Mountain Monk”) has got my back. In fact, it can fold up and be put on my back like a pack. So if there is a hill that the bike can’t climb, it can just go on the back. I suppose that I could walk it up, but the terrain might not allow that.

Granted, this Bergmonch does create a burden on my back that could be worse than Christian’s from The Pilgrim’s Progress. By the way, the Bergmonch isn’t really a bike, as it is technically a scooter.

Despite the heavy load, it would be very fun to scoot down a mountain after the long hike is over. Devices like these make me want to adopt one of those “Extreme” lifestyles that you see on TV commercials. Since I am not a skater, bungee jumper, or surfer, this set of wheels might be my only option.

Of course, I don’t think I can afford this, as it costs about $2,150. Hopefully, I have some money for a hospital bill should the worst happen.

Plick is a new kind of building block

This is the Plick, and they are a building block toy that are quite electronic. Similar to the Lego Mindstorms NXT, Plick allows the user to build mechanical toys like a functional robot.

You can watch a video of it after the jump, and you can see that it has these stretchy connector things for powering engines and sensors. The stretchy connectors act as rubberbands so you can strap them to all kinds of things.

For example, the Plick bricks (for lack of a better word) include an engine that spins like a propeller, an LED light, a sound sensor, distance sensor, and much more, I’m sure. These different bricks can be linked together to create all kinds of contraptions. It is a great way to teach about how electronics work.

I don’t know how hard it is to learn this particular toy, but it definitely beats Lego as it can work with more than just its own brand of brick. After all, the video shows the Plick can be strapped to wooden toys, for crying out loud!

So far, there isn’t any word on when the Plink will be released to the market

Jawbone’s Up wristband tells you that “you need to be on a diet”

I’m sure that you’re probably familiar with Jawbone, makers of some quality Bluetooth headsets like the ERA. This particular wristband is made for those who want to lose weight.

Simply known as the Up, this wristband is filled with sensors, and it is designed to be wirelessly connected to a smartphone App on either iOS or Android so you can track sleeping, eating, and other activities thanks to its accelerometer.

The App allows the user to take pictures of his or her meals, and I am guessing that it counts calories. I’ve heard of healthy Apps that can do that, but I can’t vouch for their accuracy.

Apparently, the user is supposed to wear this wristband all the time, but I don’t have any word about how to recharge it. It had better not require to much charging, or it will be too inconvenient for the user. Of course, isn’t that the definition of a diet?

According to my Source, Jawbone has been working on this Up for the past two years. I wonder if they originally made it as a waistband. I mean, if you are going to make agadget for watching your weight, you should put it where it counts: around the belt.

Darth Vader DJ Stereo Headphones

I guess that one of the compulsory musical tracks that need to be listened to if you were to join the Imperial Army when Emperor Palpatine and his trusted right hand man, Darth Vader, ruled the universe, would be the Imperial March. If that is the case, then what better way to listen to such an awe-inspiring piece of music than with the Darth Vader DJ Stereo Headphones?

Boasting 40mm thumping power drivers that has the Dark Lord of the Sith himself being “attached” on the side of each headphone, you will also have the Empire insignia printed on the soft pliable headband to show to the world, nay, galaxy just which faction you are rooting for. The headphones itself will be black in color – no questions about it, sporting a 75″ long insulated cord, and will play nice with smartphones, MP3 players and other devices that rely on a 3.5mm port.

It won’t cost you any Republic credits for the Darth Vader DJ Stereo Headphones, but rather, you will have to part with $49.99 to get this, you Star Wars fanboy.

FINIS introduces AquaPulse Heart Rate Monitor

They say that swimming is one of the better sports to get yourself involved in – after all, there is no impact on your joints, and you get a total bodyworkout. Even better is this – you will end up as hungry as a horse right after your exercise since you’ve burnt up so many calories in the process, making you look slim and trim in no time at all. For those performance enthusiasts who want to make sure that they maximize their fitness regime viaswimming, FINIS might have just the thing for you – the AquaPulse Heart Rate Monitor.

This is an interesting device since it is an audible version of a heart rate monitor. Small enough to fit into your goggle strap, all you need to do is attach the soft rubber clip to your earlobe, and take to the water like a duck. The infrared sensor is able to pick up your heart beat via your earlobe by capillary activity. Such information will then be relayed to you in real time audibly, now how about that?

Just how does the AquaPulse Heart Rate Monitor do so? For starters, it will rely on bone conduction technology. Heard of that before? Surely – after all, you must have seen the Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth headset before somewhere. The AquaPulse Heart Rate Monitor works on the same principle, doing away with the need for chest straps or ear buds. Even better is, you need not stop whatever you are doing to check your heart rate, as the AquaPulse Heart Rate Monitor will do the job on your behalf.

There is an Instant Heart Rate Button that will let you hear the last recorded heart rate reading, while Heart Rate Fluctuation Monitoring will deliver audible updates at selected time increments. Just in case you are wondering whether the function still works because there was no update, this is because your heart rate did not change. Of course, since you are supposed to wear this while swimming, it is waterproof – and not just water-resistant.

Sony HD-PG5 external hard drive

To hear the name Sony associated with the world of external hard drives is something not everyone has come across – in fact, many of us would be wondering, just what the heck is Sony doing in the world of portable storage? Sure, they have had their fair share of fun with the Memory Stick range, but apart from flash memory, what else do they have on offer?

The order of things seem set to change as the consumer electronics giant has started to bring its first external hard drives to the market in the form of the HD-PG5 series, where these drives are compatible with the BRAVIA TV range as well as other devices from Sony’s catalogue. To know more about what the Sony HD-PG5 is capable of, you can always check out the extended post.

The new Sony HD-PG5 series will have on offer another 500GB of storage space at your disposal – while it is still a far cry from the 1TB and above models that you see on offer by other manufacturers, at least it is a start. Heavy torrent users would definitely welcome this additional space, although I believe that they will fill it up far too easily with the amount of content available these days.

Using USB connectivity, the HD-PG5U will be able to hook up to compatible BRAVIA models, which means you can directly record HD TV programmes from the TV’s tuner or connected cable/satellite service – sounds like the perfect gift for dad who keeps on missing his shows, no? Another advantage is this – there is no need for you to experience a steep learning curve.

Apart from that, the included USB adaptor cable will also pave the way for easy �PC-free� transfers of video footage from compatible Handycam camcorders with Direct Copy function, where among these include the new DCR-SX21E and DCR-SR21.

You can choose from black or white finishes, where the Sony HD-PG5 will be a snap to tote around at just 180 grams. Placing them beside your PC, BRAVIA TV or PS3 doesn’t matter, it will still look as though it was part of the consumer electronics ecosystem. No idea on pricing as at press time, but it will arrive in the UK, France and Germany from the middle of this month onwards.

SensoGlove helps improve your swing

If you are a huge fan of golfing, and practice your swings religiously, surely you are always on the lookout for something better to help reduce your overall score. It can be said that the game of golf does subscribe to the adage “practice makes perfect” in some way, but not 100%. After all, once you have conditioned your muscles to swing in a certain way, correcting or improving that swing could prove harder than expected.

Well, good thing there are tools out there which might help you improve your swing to a reasonable level. We are looking at the �49.99 SensoGlove, where it was specially constructed from ground up to help you improve your game. After all, the right grip goes a long way in the make up of a perfect swing, and a slight miscalculation or overexertion of strength might send the ball flying far from where you intended.

To put things in a nutshell, the SensoGlove is proud to be the first and only golf glove that sports built-in sensors. These sensors will go about reading the pressure of your grip constantly, where all information will be relayed to an on-board computer which will send a warning whenever your grip ends up like that of Emperor Palpatine’s – which is too tight, thanks to a system of beeps and visuals.

It is hoped that the SensoGlove will slowly but surely condition you to stop gripping your clubs far harder than you need to, resulting in a smoother and more consistent swing so that your resulting scores will tumble just like Humpty Dumpty. There are sensors built right inside every finger, with the SensoGlove�s LCD display letting you know just which finger is working too hard.

Even better is the SensoGlove’s ability to read your grip pressure whenever you address your swing, letting you change and adapt from old ways at it happens, without having to recreate such situations. Talk about neat!

Smartfish Whirl Mini Wireless Mouse with matching Mouse Pad Travel Pouch

We have written about the Smartfish Mouse Pad Travel Pouch before, and it was made for products like the Whirl Mini Laser Mouse.

I got a chance to try them both out. I can honestly say that I like the Whirl Mini Laser Mouse with its patented ErgoMotion pivot system. The company says that it is like “floating in air”, and the mouse tilts to adapt to your wrist, which helps eliminate static joint pain.

The Mouse Pad Travel Pouch is also handy, as it can zip up to become a pouch for the Whirl Mini Laser Mouse. When unzipped, the Pouch becomes a 9-inch diameter mousepad, which is also handy for when your mouse doesn’t react well to your table surface.

The only thing I didn’t like about using these products together is that the Smart Whirl Mini Laser uses a wireless dongle. I am not comfortable with the idea of storing the Whirl Mini in the Travel pouch with the very small dongle. I feel like the dongle is just doing to get easily misplaced in the pouch, and then what will I do with the mouse? Does anyone know if it is easy to replace those wireless dongles?

Perhaps if there was a zipper pocket or even a small-sized pocket to store the dongle, then it would be a marriage made in heaven. As it is, it is quite a good marriage here on Earth.

If you want to try this out for yourself, feel free to head over to the Whirl Mini Laser Mouse for about $49.99 here and the Mouse Pad Travel Pouch for about $14.99 here.

X2 Water Blaster

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Since we are right smack in the middle of summer, surely the rising temperatures will send you to cool off somewhere at a retreat, or perhaps for you to take up the sport of swimming, and even chilling out at a nearby waterfall. For those who have kids who do not want to go out and smell the flowers, but prefer to remain cooped up at home, enjoying the latest video game, here is the �9.99 X2 Water Blaster to help entice them to do so.

This device is actually a 2-in-1 blaster – not only does it send streams of water at your target, it will also be able to shoot foam darts. The working range for foam darts stand at 35 feet to soften up your opponent from afar, while it also has a 30 foot range for its jet of water. Splat or splash – it really depends on how merciful you are feeling that particular day, just make sure you have good aim.

Too bad there are only four foam darts to play with, and you have got to collect them once they’ve been fired. Best to just stick to the water option which comes in a removable water clip.