The much anticipated pair of custom Evangelion Rei Stratocaster and Telecaster from Fender Japan which I mentioned here is finally on auction in Yahoo! Japan. But before you get all excited about wanting to bid and win one of these, I’d like to point out that with a little less than a day left in the auctions (ends 12th Dec 09), the price of the Rei Stratocaster is currently at 9,082,000 YEN ($100,000.00) while the Rei Telecaster 7,756,000 YEN ($86,000.00). No, your eyes are not deceiving you…the bidding on the Rei Stratocaster is already up to a little over $100K! You could almost buy a (cheap) apartment with that money!
So I guess most of us mere mortals will just have to sit back and let the Evangelion fanatics with deep pockets to fight it out. Any guesses how much these will end up going for?
It’s been awhile since I last did any review, so here’s one on a neat little device I picked up recently. This is the Buffalo Ministation Pro TurboUSB 500GB Portable Hard Disk. The Ministation TurboUSB was actually my last pick of the lot when I initially set out to look for a portable hard disk. The other storage devices I was considering included the Seagate Freeagent Go, Transcend StoreJet 25M, Toshiba Portable External Hard Disk Drive, and the Western Digital My Passort Essential. My initial dislike of the Ministation TurboUSB was due to its thickness and weight, which at 23mm and 225g was the thickest and heaviest of all the portable drives I had in mind. I then realized the thickness was due to its anti-shock protection design, as the drive itself is suspended in a shock-absorbent inner floating structure within the case, great for butter fingers like me! And although it was the heaviest device on paper, when I did a comparison by holding all the devices in my hand, I hardly noticed any significant weight difference. After all, we’re only talking about 20-40g differences between all the units here.
The Transcend StoreJet 25M and Toshiba units came with anti-shock protection as well, but the Toshiba was more expensive and I didn’t see a point in paying extra for the same amount of drive space. The Western Digital Passport Studio II came with a Firewire 800 interface which means it’ll have much faster transfer rates than the Buffalo Ministation’s USB 2.0 interface, but again that meant the WD Passport was much more expensive and I don’t think I’ll be doing nearly frequent enough transfers to justify that price difference. The feature which pretty much convinced me that the Buffalo Ministation should be the pick of the bunch was its very clever way of keeping the USB cable neat and tidy. If you look at the first picture I posted, you’ll notice that the cable can actually be securely wrapped around the unit itself for storage. I thought it was a simple but brilliant idea, and since I can’t stand messy cables this was an absolute Godsend!
The unit also comes with AES 128-bit encryption which is available by default without having to install any additional software. This means that the drive will automatically encrypt data so they remain safe if the disk is lost or stolen.
However, the TurboUSB feature which was supposed to be a selling point of this device really didn’t make much of a difference for me. I didn’t notice any significantly faster transfer rates with TurboUSB. But I ain’t complaining as long as it’s not slower! Couple all the above mentioned points with an attractive price and the Buffalo Ministation TurboUSB became my pick of the bunch and so far, I’m pretty happy with it.
Update: The Ministation’s Secure Lock Ware data encryption utility as well as the Memeo backup utility do not work with Ubuntu Linux, or other flavors of Linux. If you’re a Linux user and would like the data on your Ministation to be encrypted, use TrueCrypt instead. It’s open-source and is compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux. I use it on my Ministation and it works flawlessly.
This here is probably one of the best, if not the best iPhone App I’ve seen to date. The fact that you can’t buy it just yet doesn’t make it any less amazing. Appirion, a German company which makes various iPhone apps created the iDriver to control a car remotely using, yep you guessed it, an iPhone. The steering is remotely controlled using the phone’s accelerometer (what ingenuity!) and the acceleration and braking is controlled via two buttons on the phone’s touch screen. Just watch the clip and pick your jaw up from the floor when you’re done.
This one is for those die-hard Eva fans as well as those who are into electric guitars. Naturally, both the Rei Stratocaster Type01 & Telecaster Type02 will made by Fender and built by master builder Yuriy Shishkov. These beautiful works of craftmanship apparently took 3 years from conception to completion. I’ve seen conflicting reports floating around that the Stratocaster & Telecaster could either be a limited edition item or they could each be one-off items which would be auctioned off in December. If it’s the latter then expect both of these to go for stratospherically insane prices, considering the number of Eva fanatics out there. Here’s hoping for the sake of the masses of electric guitar and Eva fans that these will be limited edition items, at least it will end up in more hands eventhough the price will most likely still not be cheap.
I love Evangelion, but for once I’m glad I’m not that fanatical about it. Detailed specs of the Fender Rei Stratocaster & Telecaster available here.
Here’s something for the iPhone users. The Viper SmartStart is a module which installs into your car and allows you to perform the following: The range is effectively infinite too, since all communication is carried out over cell networks—no line of sight contact necessary, not that the iPhone has the IR hardware for anything like that anyway.
Lock/arm
Unlock/disarm
Remote car starter
Turn on the heater & A/C
Trunk release
Panic or car finder
Communications between your iPhone and the SmartStart module is done over cell networks so there won’t be any range limitations, unlike traditional IR remotes. However, it got me thinking…what happens if we leave our car in an area without cellphone signal such as an underground carpark. Does this mean we’d be pretty much screwed? Will there be an override mechanism for such situations which I assume, do happen in the real world?
Aside from that, this does appear to be a very functional application to have. The SmartStart module itself will cost $300 while the iPhone app is free. Oh, and there’s a $30/year service fee. Bummer.
If you enjoyed the Terminator: Salvation movie and can’t get enough of all things Terminator related, here’s an exclusive item to add to your list of must-haves. This 2GB USB flash drive from Solid Alliance has red Swarovski rhinestones for eyes to give it a menacing look (and crazy price tag). At 15,000 YEN ($160) for 2GB worth of capacity is by no means cheap, but that’s what you’ll have to pay for exclusivity as these are supposedly being produced in very limited numbers. It’s for sale only in Japan but if you really want one, GEEKSTUFF4U apparently will be stocking some in September for us not living in the land of cool gadgets.
I had no idea who (or what) Rilakkuma was up until I came across this uber cute netbook. I did a quick Google, and found out that Rilakumma is a Japanese character produced by the San-X company. This too-cute netbook is available for sale until 31st August and features 1GB RAM, an Intel Atom N270 (1.60 GHz) processor, Windows XP, and 5 hours of battery life. It also comes with its very own adorable yellow carrying case, and has built-n Rilakkuma-themed wallpapers, icons, and screensavers among other things. Click here for the product page.
Whoa…here’s a good one..Kotobukiya will be dropping these Star Wars Lightsaber chopsticks in November for 1,050 YEN ($10). The Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker chopsticks will measure 23cm while the green Yoda version will measure 20cm long. Hrmm..not only is Yoda vertically challenged on film, now even his eating utensils has to be shorter. Sadly, I can only seem to find them on Amazon.jp, and they don’t offer shipping outside of Japan for these awesome sticks, so I have no idea where to get them. If anyone’s lucky enough to get these, be prepared for some chopstick wielding duel on the dinner table for that last piece of sushi.
I’m a big rhythm game fan, and I’ve been waiting for this little baby to finally get released. It’s the DJ Dao Empress Style Beatmania IIDX ASC Controller. DJ Dao manufactures high quality, arcade-like IIDX controllers for the Beatmania (Bemani) games. They operate out of China, but don’t let the manufacturing location fool you. Ask any Bemani enthusiast and they’ll tell you the DJ Dao ASC controllers are without a doubt the best Bemani ASC controllers out there. The quality and workmanship is second to none, and they are stunning to look at. The only downside? Well, they cost a pretty penny too.
The controllers come in 4 variants. The FP7 ($180), which is the most basic unit, the Platinum Edition Evolution 2nd ($310) which is basically a larger variant of the FP7, the Real Edition Single ($375) which is the flagship model, and 2-player version called the Real Edition Double ($715). Everything from the background to the type of keys to the LED lighting color can be customised. The soon-to-be-released pink colored Empress Style Themed controller just took it to a whole new level of desirability. The Empress Edition is based on Konami’s Beatmania IIDX 16: Empress game which was released in arcades last year and will see a Playstation 2 (PS2) release on October 2009.
They also make a Pop’n Music ASC Controller for Konami’s other rhythm game, Pop’n Music.
Attention: The pictures below were taken from the Bemanistyle.com forum a while back, so if the pictures belong to you and you would like credit for it or would prefer me to remove it then please let me know.
A robot enthusiast has found yet another use for the iPhone 3GS by using it as the head of a miniature humanoid robot. This somewhat lovable robot is named “Robochan” by its creator, and is actually based on a Kondo KHR-2HV humanoid robot. The iPhone head is attached to the body via the dock connector, and its functions which include an alarm clock, and “dancing” (ie. series of servo movements) are controlled via the iPhone 3GS’ touch screen.
Now this is a robot I wouldn’t mind having if only for its wacky (but useless) functions. It’s almost like the shortlived Sony Aibo, only less troublesome. Wonder what other uses other people are gonna come up with their iPhones?! I love creativity, don’t you?
Couple all the above mentioned points with an attractive price and the Buffalo Ministation TurboUSB became my pick of the bunch and so far, I’m pretty happy with it.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=0850d8d2-532b-4b1b-b06b-297ef73b0906)
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