Misc Gear

HipShotDot Laser Sight Accessory Review – Advanced Aim for FPS Games

I never thought I needed a special accessory to play First Person Shooter (FPS) games, until now.  The HipShotDot is a tiny red LED light that’s plugged into your console or computer’s USB port.  The LED enhances your view of your weapons crosshairs in order to improve accuracy and reaction time.  HipShotDot is a brand new product retailing for $29.99.


I Can’t Wait to Go Camping with the Power Pot V

A really cool review item just came across my desk: the Power Pot V, which turns your campfire or any other heat source into juice for your USB-powered device.  All you do is fill the pot with water, heat it up, plug in your device, and the Power Pot charges your device. The Power Pot sells for $149.00.


Passport MAX Wins SEMA, Heads Out on Road Trip

I had a chance to see the new Passport MAX from Escort last night. It is a huge leap forward in radar detector technologies. It is so advanced that it just one “Best New Product” at SEMA. With scanning technologies that separates real threats from RF interference, the MAX “sees what others can’t”. We will have much more soon.




Polar Introduces the Loop Activity Tracker

The Activity Tracker market is getting crowded with new releases from Nike, Jawbone and FitBit offering more and more features and integration into our lifestyle. Is there room for another one? Polar hopes that by offering more features, they can expand the market further. So they have introduced the Loop – more than just an activity tracker.


PAFERS XSPIN Takes the Drudgery out of Indoor Cycling

With the weather cooling off, it gets harder and harder to convince myself to take my bicycle outdoors for an exercise ride, but spinning for miles on an indoor bike can be a mind-numbing bore. Fortunately, the gear heads at PAFERS have released a new exercise aid to help add some motivation to indoor cycling. Their new XSPIN is a Bluetooth enabled device that works with many exercise apparatuses to inspire harder training.


BLOW Hookah Brings an Old Smoking Tradition into the 21st Century

WARNING: The products discussed may contain or use nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical; in many cities and a few states, you must be 21 to purchase vaping products and/or products containing nicotine. Please familiarize yourself with and obey the law in your location. Did you know that, in a typical hookah smoking session, you inhale up to 180 times more smoke than you would in a single cigarette? That’s… Bad. In addition, traditional hookah smoke contains the same carcinogenic components as cigarette smoke. One could simply avoid hookahs entirely, or one could check out the 21st-century BLOW Hookah.


Coin is Trying to Bring Credit Card Payments into the Future

There have been attempts to unify all of your payment methods in the past using Near Field Communication technology (NFC).  However, NFC really hasn’t caught on like some had expected.  Coin is trying to bring to market a truly universal product that will unify all of your credit cards, gift cards, and loyalty cards into one swipeable card.


Poo-Pourri – Using Potty Humor to Sell a Great Product

While waiting for a Lenovo video to load, this hilarious Poo-Pourri ad popped up. Usually I click SKIP as soon as the option is available, but not this time. Maybe it’s the 5th grader still trapped inside of me, but this video made me laugh; even funnier is that it’s a product I know works as advertised. Don’t ask; just enjoy.


PWRglass Triples Google Glass Battery Life While Tripling Your Time in the Tool Shed

Other than looking like a tool, the main thing I really worry about when wearing Glass is how to best manage battery life, because it doesn’t take long before the battery withers — especially when filming video. PWRglass is a prototype product that aims to triple the Glass battery’s life. It looks like a lanyard and empowers Glass. Worth it? PWRglass via Joe from Book of Joe


MapMyFitness Bought by UnderArmour

When I bought my second pair of Nike Free Run shoes last year, one factor was that the shoe had the slot for the foot pod that connected to my Nike+ GPS watch that hooked into my laptop to help me track my workouts. Under Armour lacked such a tie-in, so they bought MapMyFitness.


Equil Jot Smartpen Review – A Great Way to Digitize your Handwritten Notes

Equil’s smartpen offering, the Jot, is a truly useful tool, especially for those who often take handwritten notes.  With Jot, your written notes are digitally translated to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac in order to collect and organize your ramblings.  There are two free companion apps, one for writing and one for sketching.  The Jot retails for $149.99.


Lems Primal2 Minimalist Shoes Let You Tread Lightly

Most days I wear dress shoes. I hate it, but they go best with a suit. When I’m not dressed up, I tend to wear a favorite pair of low-rise boots.That may change thanks to the lightweight, minimalist Lems Primal2s I’ve been trying out. Honestly I don’t think I’ve ever worn a pair of shoes quite as so comfortable!




MeCam Wearable HD Camera Review

MeCam is a wearable 720p video camera that can also record video and has Infrared LED lights to be able to shoot in low light and dark conditions.  The small camera comes with a pin and a lanyard so it can be pinned to fabric or worn as a necklace.  The MeCam starts at $49.99 with 4GB of memory.


Flipside 3X Wallet Offers RFID Shielding for Your Cards and Much More

I’ve been carrying the unusual Flipside RFID-shielded wallet or another since first writing about them three years ago. Now they are back with the 3rd generation Flipside 3X Wallet. It improves upon its predecessor through structural reinforcements a redesigned and stronger lock, an enlarged cash slot, a new clip system and more. Available in numerous colors for $39.95.



Evercontact Flashback Mined My Contacts and Found Treasure

Most of your business contacts probably include their contact information in their email signatures. But unless you have an assistant, mining all of that incoming data and inserting it into your address book would be a huge chore; trying to glean that information from past years’ emails would seem incredibly daunting. But not if you use two magical products from Evercontact.


Contort Power Solves Two Powerful Travel Dilemmas

It seems like all the hotels I’ve stayed at in the past few months have only had one free electrical outlet near the bed. That would be fine if I didn’t have a phone, iPad, and sometimes a laptop that all needed to be charged from the same plug. The $24.99 Contort Power from Quirky might just be my solution.