For those of you show-offs who find a regular Rubik’s Cube too easy, there’s the Simplicity Cubic 3x3x7 Uneven IQ Brick from Brando’s toy selection.  Brando says this toy offers left and right brain training, and IQ & EQ training.  They also say that it will provide fun in your home and at your office.  (I think that perhaps this toy was really designed as an instrument of torture. )  The Simplicity Cubic 3X3X7 Uneven IQ Brick is $26.90 at Brando.

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Tagged: Geek toys

When a Regular Rubik’s Cube is Just Too Easy originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 27, 2011 at 9:23 am.

When the irritations of the day get too much for you, take out your frustrations on the RageGage.  It claims to be a “marriage of cutting edge psychological research and modern high tech electronic device design. The device is designed to detect whether you are adequately and healthfully releasing your pent up anger.”  If it determines you aren’t hitting the soft gel pad hard enough, it will taunt you until you hit harder; if it “detects unsafe rage levels, it will begin to issue calming instructions to bring your blood pressure back down.”  You can add character voices like “POTUS”, “Lush Rimbaugh”,  and “Valley Girl”, and you can even create your own voices.  You can use the pad as a game controller for online and downloadable  games.  RageGage is available in 10 different designs.  It usually sells for $24.99, but it’s available now for $19.99.  Add-on voices are usually $0.99 each, but they are available free right now.

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Tagged: Gaming gear, Geek toys

Take Out Your Frustrations on the RageGage originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 13, 2011 at 9:00 am.

Bobble heads.  Cool, right?  How about a trapezoidal-shaped bobble head that you construct yourself by downloading a template, printing on cardstock, cutting, folding and gluing it?  Too good to be true?  Check out Pally Pal Paper Toys.  They have a growing inventory of Pal designs in several categories or download a blank template and create your own.  You can even submit your own designs to be added to the site.  Funky DYI papercraft toys.  And they’re FREE!

Got a favorite?  Who would you submit?

Filed in categories: Do-It-Yourself, Geek Toys, News

Tagged: DIY, Geek toys

Pally Pals: Trapezoidal, Foldable, Bobbly & Fun originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 26, 2011 at 12:30 pm.

Add some fun to your desk with the Galileo Gravitator from ScientificsOnline.  The Gravitator comes with four spheres decorated to look like Saturn, the Moon, Mars, and Jupiter.  The spheres float within the brass-colored cage of the Gravitator.  The base of the Gravitator have LEDs to illuminate the suspended globe, so it can be used as a nightlight.  The Gravitator is $59.99.  (I think we can safely ignore the claim that the desk toy can help us prove Galileo’s theory that all objects in a vacuum fall at the same rate, however!)

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Tagged: Geek toys, magnets

Galileo Gravitator originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 17, 2010 at 10:17 am.

The Mr. Robot Head game from Ecotronic Toys is fun and ecologically sound.  The game requires no batteries; you provide the power by turning the hand crank.  The object of the game is to move the metal wand from one side of his antenna to the other without touching.  If you touch the wand to the antenna, Mr. Robot’s eyes will flash and he’ll buzz his disapproval.  It can’t be any more annoying to listen to than those Operation games, and you’ll feel good about giving it as a gift because you’ll keep some batteries out of the landfill.  Mr. Robot Head is available at Solutions for $34.95.  (Yes, I’ve been catalog shopping.  Why do you ask?)

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Tagged: Geek toys, Spotlight Gadgets

Ecotronic Toys Mr. Robot Head game – Planet-friendly toys originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 8, 2009 at 5:12 pm.

Click to enlarge

Here’s another idea to help you with your holiday shopping.  You’ve probably seen those floating globe desk toys, haven’t you?  The Levitron Revolution World Stage takes it a step farther.  The globe is floating above a 7.25 inch square platform with eight blue LEDs to illuminate your world.  If this isn’t cool enough for you, you can open up the globe and remove the 2.25 inch magnetic disk.  This disk becomes a platform to “levitate” any item weighing up to 3 ounces.  Click on the picture for an enlargement, and you’ll see the Starship Enterprise hovering above the platform.  ThinkGeek sells the Levitron Revolution World Stage for $99.99.  Solutions has it for $89.95.

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Tagged: Geek toys, Spotlight Gadgets

Levitron Revolution World Stage originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 7, 2009 at 6:17 pm.

At first glance Cornfield Electronics’ Trip Glasses look like a throwback to the X-Ray specs offered in the back pages of comic books.  Despite cartoons showcasing the lascivious properties of the specs, they didn’t actually do anything, whereas Trip Glasses purport to bring the user on a crazy head trip.  It’s not called a “brain machine” just for kicks!  When the glasses are on and activated, dual tones play out of the attached headphones while red lights repeatedly flashes in the lenses of the glasses.  These combined stimuli are supposed to cause your brain to see images and colors as well as relax your entire body.  But does it really work?  More on that in a bit.

In the package are the glasses, headphones, instructions, and white oval stickers.  The stickers are for placing over the red flashing lights to reduce the brightness.  Even though the user is instructed to use the glasses with closed eyes, the lights are still very bright.  For very sensitive eyes, it’s suggested that two or more stickers can be used over each light.

The glasses are made of black hard plastic with a “trippy” design sticker on the front.  The instructions mentioned this is removable, but I couldn’t easily take it off without leaving a sticky residue behind.  There are small holes in the center of each lens where the red lights will blink.  The headphones are about on par with the quality you find included with a generic walkman or what is given to you on an airplane.  They rest on the ear rather than over.  Luckily, they are not permanently attached and a swap with your own preferred set of cans will make your “trip” much more pleasant.

Using the glasses is pretty simple–put the glasses and headphones on, close your eyes, and press the on button located on the frame of the glasses.  This initiates the 14 minute cycle of sound and flashing red lights.  A very long 14 minutes.  According to the site’s FAQ you could use the device for as long or as short as you’d like and still receive an effect.  Unfortunately, there is no off button; the glasses shut off only after the full cycle.

But there actually is a bit of science behind the glasses that I’m going to try to summarize without butchering too poorly.  The glasses “work” off of the use of binaural beats, where two tones of slightly different frequencies are played in each ear.  The brain processes this as a single mixed “phantom”  tone.  Binaural beats are thought to have the ability to induce pain relief and relaxation and will supposedly even work at frequencies below the human range of hearing.  If the science interests you, there are open source (and free) binaural beat generators available on the Internet that will have the same effect as these glasses.

This was a very difficult product to review.  Not really knowing what to expect, I put the glasses and headphones on and after about fifteen seconds of extreme discomfort, I threw them off.  For me it felt like I was staring at a strobe light and the audio (for which there is no volume control) sounded like the tone that plays over color bars when a TV station goes off the air.  My brain wanted nothing to do with it.  Trip Glasses sell for about $40 through ThinkGeek and the manufacturer, which feels a little pricey for what you actually get in hand.  As the saying goes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so for some this may be quite a cool little machine.  For me though, it was a migraine-inducing miss.

Filed in categories: Geek Toys

Tagged: binaural, Geek toys

Trip Glasses Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 7, 2009 at 11:59 am.

If you have a strong fear of storm activity and an extra $599.99, you should check out the Thunderbolt Storm Detector from Edmond Scientific.  The Thunderbolt works from any land-based location on earth, and uses “you as the center, and detects all activity based on your location.”   It doesn’t rely on any data from any weather transmissions.  It uses an LCD text display, red and green LEDs, and an alarm to warm you of a storm’s approach.  It detects storms up to 75 miles away, calculates speed of approach, range of the storm, and strike probability.  It claims accuracies within 5-10%.   The Thunderbolt is powered by batteries or the included A/C adapter.

Filed in categories: Gear, Home Tech

Tagged: Geek toys, weather

Track Thunderstorms with the Thunderbolt Storm Detector originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 20, 2009 at 9:35 am.

Notepods are notepads that look like that ubiquitous smartphone.  The Notepods are from the Jacky Winter Group and Inventive Labs, two companies based in Melbourne, Australia.

You get 3 60 X 110 MM 100-page Notepods for $17.95 USD.  The front looks like the iPhone, with a white area for notes.  The back of the page has a 6mm grid.  Payment is through PayPal, and they ship world-wide.

Since I’m already doing my Christmas shopping for this year, I’m thinking these would make really cute stocking-stuffers!

Filed in categories: Geek Toys

Tagged: Geek toys, Spotlight Gadgets, stationery

Notepod – Now there’s a PAGE for that! originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 2, 2009 at 6:17 pm.