Well that’s what my friends seem to think, the mocking has been relentless. I could have done myself a favor by not asking people to bring and appetizer. But hey, I would rather get mocked a little bit than pay for all those freaking ingrates! The great thing is I get the fully baked version of the new Windows 7 Ultimate two weeks before anyone else does. So that’s going to be cool because for a little while I’m going to be the popular kid.

I’m particularly interested in a few specific things Windows 7 should be able to do. The recording TV shows should be awesome, I don’t watch much TV but it’ll be worth going out and buying the accessories just so I can mess with that for awhile. Searching and accessing documents on Windows OS has always been somewhat cumbersome, so the new search features they boast should be really refreshing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to spend time searching for something I had just saved, and a few times even needing to completely recreate the document because the original went into the abyss.

Of little interest to me is Microsoft’s attempt to boost up its Live division through Live Mail, Live Photo Gallery and Live Family Safety. I hope I’m wrong, but the Live group seems to be floundering for an identity and this appears to be more of the same. But I’m all for being proven wrong and finding out that this is the greatest thing ever.

I plan on coming back the Hi Tech Gadgets blog prior to the full release and giving my opinions as an average user. I intend on loading it up and running it on the 8th, wish me luck!

There have been a few offshoot products that are slowly gaining popularity and are actually fun, enjoyable and send out more than one message. My personal favorite is the Bullshit Button. Yea, it’s just like it sounds, each time you push it a different comment is made, calling out the BS. Next time somebody comes to your desk, say your boss and they start spouting off random crap you can just push the button and get some quick and witty comment back like, “that was bullshit”, “bullshit detected take precautions”!, “bullshit level defcon 5”, “oh come on now, that ain’t even bullshit, that’s horseshit”!, and “Warning, Warning, Bullshit alert”! It’s the perfect way to get your point across with humor.

This one isn’t my favorite, because I’m not unusually obsessed with farts. But, if you are or some you know is then this is a great gift to get or give. The Fart Alert Button is just that, an alert to nasty, noisy gaseous events that take place in all our lives. There are several of these manufactured, so the saying will vary, but a few you might here are, “ouch, that one burned”!, “aw, see a doctor, will ya”? “oops I think I’ve messed myself”, “man I thought I smelt something”, “Ooooo Silent but deadly”, and “Ooooo that’s going to leave a mark”.

Last is my favorite, the Insult Button. How many times have you wanted to deep six someone with an insult and it just wasn’t there? Only to be driving home from work when this great response comes to your mind? This little gadget will give you some clever little responses, such as “you’ve obviously mistaken me for someone who gives a damn”. , “did you eat paint chips when you were a kid”? “she’s got more chins than a Hong Kong telephone book”, “are you always an ass or is today just a special occasion”?, “you’re depriving a village somewhere of an idiot”, and “you’re about as useful as a windshield wiper on a goat’s ass”.

True, the only thing that remotely qualifies any of these toys as a hi tech gadget is the two AA batteries it call for. However, these are some really enjoyable ways to add a lower, inexpensive gadget to the life of someone you care about…You!

One of the most popular grills on the market is the Coleman Road Trip Grill, which gives you an authentic open flame grill that’s compact and easy to store. It’s a 20k BTU, with two powerful burners that gives you several burner tops. So if you are looking to cook burgers, steaks, pancakes, fry eggs or just boil water this grill has you covered. It’s great whether you are looking for something to take to the pregame tailgate party or out on the camp out where you’ll need to feed plenty of hungry people this grill is going to have you covered. This unit is completely portable and cleans easy for quick transportation.

There’s always the debate, propane or charcoal? The Hotspot Notebook Portable Grill not only gives you the portable charcoal grill, it’s true to its name and folds down like a notebook computer, about one inch thick and extremely portable. It provides you with 192 square inches of cooking space on a stainless steel grate, providing you with real charcoal flavored meats. Since this grill is made entirely from stainless steel you will be able to enjoy it for years.

Hotspot Notebook Portable Grill

For those individuals that want to step up their tailgate cooking to the next level consider picking up The Hawai’i Tailgate Cookbook. Hawaiian’s love their tailgating and Jo McGarry, who is a food writer and radio personality, put together some amazing grilling secrets from some of the islands top chefs. You get 70 amazing recipes that have been taste tested by tailgate experts.

There’s nothing like tailgate grilling, these are just a few options that will allow you to step up your grilling from the basics to something that will make you the envy of your tailgate community.

The entire time he was talking I was wishing I had one of those cell phone blockers, also known as cell phone jammers.  I would have loved a cellphone jammers, turning that thing on and watching him drop his call.  To be honest, I might like to have it so I can be proactive and just randomly jam people for kicks.  Imagine having one of those when you are with a buddy who is on an important business call, you keep jamming him, all the while he’s about ready to pop a vein in his forehead!  Good times!

If you are considering a cell phone jammer think about a few things, often walls or even the antenna being blocked inside a purse can keep it from working.  That may frustrate some people who want to keep it completely concealed.  Something else is the range, a few are as low as a 12 meter radius while others have a much stronger signal.  If you are looking for one to carry with you and want something portable you can find 12 meter range products for under $100, while 25 meter range go for less than $200.  If you own a store, or work in a library as an example you may want to consider a mountable version that offers greater range.  Whatever your need there is a cell phone blocker product that will work for you.

For recommendations take a look at the Mobile Phone Signal Jammer – High Powered Cellphone Jammer that works within 20 meters that only jams cell phones and nothing else.  It’s portable and only slightly larger than a standard iPod.  If you are looking for something with greater range and you have the ability to mount it consider the High Powered Phone Blocker Shield that has a 75 meter radius.  Either one of these would be considered a popular gift for a high school teacher in need of a cellphone blocker.

It all started back in 1989 when a co-worker had a Mac Plus and brought it to work.  I had no idea really what it would do or why I needed it, I only knew that I needed it.  I drove from Seattle to Portland to buy it so I didn’t need to pay sales tax.  I had made sure that I purchase the external floppy drive, which was about 4 or 5 dollars as I remember because I needed to be able to copy and transfer data easily.  I had no idea what that meant at the time, only that I needed that too!  Later, I decided that I couldn’t handle the transferring of data so I purchased a 20 MB hard drive that was about the size of a shoe box and clipped onto the back of my computer.  With amazement my friends looked at it in wonderment exclaiming there was no way I would ever need that much storage space.

I also purchased a carrying case which allowed my computer to be “transportable” so I could use it while in hotel rooms on business travel.  I had become the master of spreadsheets and voiced that I no longer needed manila folders!  All was fine until I discovered a little thing called AOL, this allowed me to communicate to the world.  Back in the day AOL charged by the hour, not monthly.  I had bills that were $150 a month cranking out data on a 2.4K modem I had picked up.  And you didn’t need the World Wide Web because AOL had everything anyone could possibly ever need contained within its imaginary walls.

To my amazement there was life outside of my Mac Plus, I discovered a car phone!  This was a cool phone that came in a bag that looked like a purse that allowed me to plug it into my cigarette lighter and make calls.  I carried that around with me for fear someone might steal it from my car, it looked like a man purse.  But the first person to say something would have to deal with me pulling out the phone like John Wayne pulling out a revolver.  Meer men would fear me.  Add another $150 a month to my growing list of gadget bills.

Here I am today 20 years later, I know longer use a Mac and have transformed myself to the life of PC (for better or worse) and carry my iPhone around.

I say to the group as I finish my comments, “I don’t have a problem; my laptop next to my bed isn’t an umbilical cord.  I can leave it at the office whenever I want”.

I venture that some people might say their HDTV, laptop or cell phone.  The interesting thing about technical gadgets is that functionality and feature rich are things that companies and consumers tend to look for.  HDTV or TVs in general are really one dimensional.  You still need other gadgets to make them reach their full usefulness, such as DVRs, Blu Ray, cable boxes, etc.  As a stand alone product it misses the mark.  Your desktop or laptop computer really adds functionality and features in well, so you can do work, watch TV programs, surf the Internet and many other things.  So in my humble opinion this is the better choice by far of the two.  The third option and in my opinion is a fully functional cell phone.

Cell phones not only allow you to talk, but you can run work applications on them, check email, play games, watch TV, track your position, monitor your children and many, many other things.  But not only is the product feature rich, it’s reliable and small.

So for me, if I was playing the children’s game ‘what if’ I would definitely choose the cell phone.  Somehow it doesn’t seem nearly as difficult to come clean with this as it did for me when I was a kid and had to come clean with the object of my affection.

Time Wasters

I know I will catch a little from people that love this game (my wife included) but solitaire has to be the most pathetic waste of time of any app.  Here’s a game that you can only play by yourself, which basically means you are void of friends and the game is so repetitive that you seemingly get caught in a never ending cycle of mind sucking numbness.

Wacky World Records is like having a train wreck on your iPhone.  If you have this app on your iPhone you are definitely one of those people who slow down to see a car accident and make the entire freeway back up.  In truth, the bizarre can kind of grip us all, which is what this app is going for.  Just don’t get sucked into the Borg of this time waster.

Mouth Breather Applications

Email ‘n Walk is pretty much a joke that started as just that, an April Fools joke.  But what happens?  Now you can buy an application that basically allows you to walk and chew gum at the same time!  Your camera is on, basically making your screen see threw so you can email and watch your step all at once!  Maybe this is how clear glass bottoms got there start, walk and drink at the same time!

How hard is it to look at your restaurant tab and figure out what 15% is for a tip?  Tip Calculator allows you to forgo those most difficult math problems and it does it for you!  Think of it, if you actually can figure out how to use this app you can pay 18% too.

You Are WAY too geeky

Dude…be cool and do rock, paper scissors it’s way slicker than flipping a coin.  That is unless you have Heads Tails on your phone, now you can simply click a button and decide things with your friends, you don’t even have to use a real coin.  FYI…this tool may be directly related to not having a girlfriend.

Whiteboard has to be one of the geekiest apps on the market, seriously you can’t stand being away from the real whiteboard so you have to have one on your iPhone?  And you can collaborate with your other geeky friends too!

Now for the truth, I have most of these apps and the whiteboard has to be my favorite.  There is nothing like sitting, waiting for a meeting and pulling out your iPhone whiteboard and playing a little tic tac toe.

The great thing about applications, even the seamingly silly ones is that everyone enjoys them  and even if they are mindless they are fun!

The SVAT GX5204 is a wireless handheld color pinhole camera, it’s not ultra small like other ones that look like writing pens, and however the clarity, picture quality and distance from camera to handset are pretty amazing.  The camera is tiny and is as powerful as many full size cameras and boasts a great 360 lines of revolution.  The great thing is it can be hidden anywhere without easily being detected.  It’s not as easy as carrying it wherever you go and walking out with it in pocket, but for planed infiltration it’s the better option!  The monitor comes with a 2.5” screen for viewing, but you can also connect it to a TV, VCR (do people still have these?) or DVRs.  For ultimate spying you can actually hook up a total of three cameras and toggle back and forth for the ultimate in spying!  This comes with everything ready to go, now you just need to know what to spy on.

Video Camera Watch

Let me get this off of my chest right now, this has to the single coolest spy tool ever.  This isn’t just any camera watch; it’s a classy, fully functional watch too.  This surveillance watch has both audio and video recording camera built in, camera is tucked in between the 1 and 2 of the watch face and not noticeable.  It includes an impressive 8 GB of flash memory that should give you hours of recording pleasure.  Personally, I can think of plenty of candid camera type entertainment I could get by having a watch like this.

Night Vision Goggles

First, this is not a toy! Well, it is a toy, but not a toy like many you will find in the market.  The NZT 22 by Newcon Optik is the highest quality, clearest optics and is probably the best overall performance in its class.  This is one used by law enforcement agencies, but can easily be used for recreational, personal or spy use.  Two image intensifier tubes provide real stereo vision.  It’s completely hands free, water resistant and has up to 50 hours of viewing when the infrared is in use.

As you can imagine there are many other spy gadget tools available, these just happen to be a few of my favorite ones.

Pattie Maes

The device hangs around the neck, is obviously a proto type but works amazingly well for just adding technologies together.   In the video you see Pranav doing various tasks from making calls, buying items, playing tourist and others.  Take a look at the video; it’s amazingly easy for Pranav to use.

Pattie Maes demos the Sixth Sense

You can see from the video that he can walk up to any wall, project and then start to manipulate the information through the use of the caps on his fingers and thumbs.   Although the phone and watch are cool for most geeks to watch, the taking a picture with your fingers and thumbs in a square and then projecting them on a wall and manipulating them is awesome.

But seriously, projecting your phone keypad onto your hand?  How cool is that?  That sent my geek meter through the roof.  I want to run out and piece this thing together just so I can do that in public places!

Pranav Mistry

But the potential service offerings this holds is what really gets me, the example of understanding the toilet papers eco value or the ratings of a book really open up information at your fingertips possibilities.  One of the things that will be and has been debated on multiple blogs will surely revolve around chip implant into the brain to make this fully functional.

I personally hope it doesn’t take 10 years for this product to reach the market, I need the functionality yesterday!