
The guys at TomTom accidentally leaked an ad for their new Rider 2, a GPS unit for motorcycles and scooters. Not that many details were revealed from the Flash animation (other than the fact the Rider 2 will have a redesigned mount), but if it follows in its predecessor’s footsteps, chances are the Rider 2 will be water resistant, feature built-in Bluetooth, and sell for around $600, though hopefully TomTom gave their pricing a redesign too.

This has to be the 15th thing this month I’ve sene go up in flames. This time it’s an iPod nano that sets on fire.The owner says that the force sent his iPod flying to the ground, where it started smoking and sparking until it was unplugged. Unfortunately, the iPod was out of warranty, so the owner wasn’t able to get an immediate replacement. But let this be a lesson to all of us: Always keep an eye on your charging gadgets, ’cause you never know.

Following on from the Ferrari-Acer tie-up and the Lamborghini-Asus, here comes another.
German über-limousine company Maybach and Hewlett-Packard have gone all loved-up on us with the NS42. For $4,000 you get a leather-trimmed notebook, complete with Maybach logo, sensory buttons with amber-colored lighting under the touchpad and a spanky case with wheels, seven-speed gearbox and sunroof. Pics and info are from Russian site Tech2, and the most we can get on the specs side is an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, built-in SSD-store of 64 GB and video adaptor.


If your current drives are just stuffed the the gills with 10 megapixel photos you never resized and episodes of Still Standing that you forgot to erase, Iomega’s got a new RAID array that’ll bulk up your storage by two terabytes and let you continue living your carefree, digital pack rat lifestyle. With four independent, lockable 500GB drives, though, you could just as easily shift the Power Pro Desktop Hard Drive into RAID 1 and make sure that your 1TB of never-used files are doubly secure; RAID status plus free space, fan speed, and temperature are all displayed on the built-in LED. Connectivity options are also plentiful here, with the PPDHD offering both the 400 and 800 flavors of Firewire and, of course, USB 2.0 as well. Mac and Windows compatible, this one will set you back $1,700 when it hits on April 10th.
If you live in an apartment or building with a water heater from 1901 (like me) you know how long that sucker takes to heat up the water. The Shower Start is a little device that can detect when water is warm and turn off the flow. Confused? Yeah, me too. Apparently you turn on the water then go about your regular business of making breakfast, shaving, whatever, and the Shower Start will flip off the water flow when hot water is detected. When you are ready to hop in just flip a lever and rub-a-dub-dub. No more wasting water or time waiting for the vintage water heater to do its job. $50.

This is the latest DAP from Iriver. The T50 is 2.8 inches long, weighs 1.1 ounces, and can store up to 1GB of MP3, OGG, or WMA files. I don’t know why it is triangular, but it is. Maybe DAPs taste better if they’re triangular, or perhaps they blend better. This is such a hideous product that I am wondering whether it is an early April Fug—sorry, I mean April Fool. I know it’s not the first triangular DAP, but Iriver, what were you thinking?
AP Nike President and Chief Executive Mark Parker recently said that all Nike running shoes will become compatible with the Nike+iPod sensor by the end of the year. There were no other details offered, but I would suspect that over the year Nike will slowly phase out the old kicks in favor of new ones that are Nike+ compatible.
This is especially nice to hear given that the average Nike running shoe can cost as low as $50 or so while the Nike+ compatible shoes push the $100 price tag.

Figla, this is a vaccum on steroids. This was the gadget that beat up on the Roomba during recess.
Guided by a combination of infrared, gyroscope, camera and ultrasonic sensors, the Figla cleaner can apparently navigate sidewalks with relative ease, picking up trash along the way. The robot can operate for up to 2 hours per charge, covering 1,000 square meters per hour.
Oakley is pushing out farther into it’s “Wearable Electronics” with their newer Mp3 sunglasses: The Oakley Thump Pro. What’s new about them you ask? They are thinner, more light weight and durable.

Athletes train all the time, any weather any conditions. These are designed to be water resistant of any kind. Rain, Sweat, Snow any kind of moisture these glasses will repel to the best of their ability. They also have more of a tight grip and the rubber really clings so that if you jump make quick head motions they wont pop off.