When charging gadgets such as phones, an AC adapter still continues to consume some power when the gadget finishes it’s charging cycle.

Some phones carry warnings when charging starts reminding you to disconnect the AC adapter from the wall when charging is finished. The Leech Plug was designed to do all that for you in a new approach. The Leech Plug has a timer built in that you set, when the limit is set the leech plug drops from the brick on the wall allowing all power consumption to stop. [Read more…]

XPAL have created a new solar charger that is capable of reaching full charge in just four hours. What makes the XPAL solar charger more impressive is that the four hour charge can be achieved in indirect sunlight where as other chargers rely on direct sunlight to charge.

The system uses what it calls “magic SunBoost solar conversion technology” that uses medium levels of natural light to charge the device. That particular technology was created by a company called Intivation who are based in the Netherlands.

So that the XPAL Solar Egg charger functions more it has the ability to detect what type of device it is connected to and can change the output to not waste energy. An example could be an MP3 player that requires less power than a digital camera to charge. [Read more…]

Doodle Track Cars are similar to Slot Cars although they travel at a lower speed and don’t run in slots. Instead, you simply doodle a track on a large sheet of paper and let the cars follow the track.

The downside of Doodle Track Cars are that you don’t control them as they just sit and follow your doodled track. If you don’t want to sketch a course on to paper then the other option is to create a track in the software and print it out on to multiple bits of paper stuck together. [Read more…]

Perplexus is a handheld game that you can easily carry around with you due to it’s small size. The aim of the game is to get a ball bearing from one side of the sphere to the other side without it dropping off the track. The Superplexus is almost the same other than it costing $30 grand and being about 10 times larger than the original smaller model.

It’s a full 3D spherical labyrinth that requires you move a large 5/8″ wooden marble through the course. A number of obstacles need to be passed such as hairpin bends, spirals, stair cases and a vortex. It takes around 400 hours to build a single game, hence the $30k price tag, and the whole puzzle sits inside a sphere measuring 3 feet in diameter. [Read more…]

HP have built their latest netbook device that actually is a smartbook crammed in to a netbook if that makes sense. The device is called the Compaq AirLife 100 and it runs the Android OS, is powered by a Snapdragon processor (rumoured) and uses an SSD for storage.

The new device, perhaps a smartbook, includes always on connectivity and can run all apps that Android based phones do to allow for email and instant messages to be sent along with access to social networks, media and other information you typically keep on your phone.

By mixing the phone with a netbook profile it allows for a larger screen, measuring 10.1 inches and a larger keyboard that measures 92% of a full sized device. [Read more…]

TwoNav have unveiled a new GPS unit called the Sportiva GPS. The device is quite small measuring 58x105x23mm and it weighs 124 grams. It has an IPX6 rating meaning that it’s protected from jets of water allowing it to be used outside in certain conditions.

The device is made by TwoNav and is also built along with Holux who are also another name in the GPS market. Technical specs show that the device has a 3 inch transreflective touchscreen along with 2GB of memory as well as a microSD card slot allowing up to 32GB of extra storage to be added. The GPS receiver uses a SiRF III chip. The battery has a rating of 1050mAh. Details on how many hours of navigation can be achieved are not provided just yet, although it will be several hours. [Read more…]

The Garmin nuvi 285W is on offer over at Amazon at the moment bringing the price from $249.99 right down to just $99.99 giving a 60% saving.

The nuvi 285W satnav device has a 4.3 inch widescreen that’s a touchscreen. Maps can be seen in detail in both 2D and 3D formats and street details are also complimented with over 6 million points of interest.

The 285W satnav also has text to speech allowing street names to be spoken by voice rather than the older way of turning left in X yards. [Read more…]

If you’re a World of Warcraft fan then you might want to check out the World of Warcraft competition running on our friends site Zath.co.uk.

The competition ends this weekend, so get yourself over there now if you want to be in with a chance of winning one of the many WoW prizes on offer. Entry is quite simple too in that you just need to leave a comment, tweet or join the Zath facebook group. Good luck!

We mentioned project needlemouse a few months back which at the time the very limited information said that we could expect Sonic to return in 2010. We now hear that the new side-scrolling game is returning this year and Episode 1 of the game has been confirmed for the Wii, Xbox 360 and Sony PS3.

The game is classed as a proper sequel to Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and due to it following on has given the name as Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1.

A video, available after the jump, shows the official trailer that gives an overview of previous Sonic games starting with the original that was launched in 1991 then on to the second and third instalments that were launched in 1992 and 1994 respectively. The new 2D Sonic 4 is set to be released this summer as a downloadable title on all three of the major consoles. [Read more…]

The H-Cell 2.0 is a new system built by Horizon that aims to bring more charge to an RC car by adding portably hybrid power to the said car.

The system sits on the chassis of the RC car above the battery and has two hydrogen tanks with one on each side of the car allowing even weight distribution. By adding the H-Cell 2.0 to your RC car you can increase run times by a factor of 3 to 4 times.

The battery provides the acceleration power, while the fuel cell provides cruise power as well as extra energy for the battery. This decreases the amount of batteries needed, eliminates the need to charge batteries, and provides much longer run times for the vehicle (factor of 3 to 4).

[Read more…]

Apple [AAPL] will have us wait another couple of months to get our hands on an Apple iPad here in the UK, but there is an alternative that you could get now… as long as your happy with it being built of Lego, and not working like an iPad of course.

The whole fake iPad is built of Lego and even has a lego screen that can be replaced to show other images on the device.

It’s kind of a crazy idea if you ask me, but still interesting enough to post here at Gadget Venue. More pictures after the jump. [Read more…]

For those who are lazy a unique RC Helicopter has been made that works by speaking to it. If you want it to go higher you say “higher”, lower you say “lower”… you get the idea.

It is built by Nikko and is called the Voice Controlled Voice-Heli and although it is voice controlled it still comes provided with a traditional RC unit allowing you to fly it with a controller rather than voice. [Read more…]