Rob and I are both under the weather today, so pardon if we’re not up to our usual military-grade precision. Swiss watches we are, of normal. But today our clockworks are busy churning up phlegm. Gross! Why am I… So anyway, what do you guys know about Royal Enfield motorcycles ? I have been toying with the idea of getting a motorcycle for a while, and I’ll probably just try to pick up an old Honda or BMW or Yamaha or Suzuki or whatever since I haven’t ridden since I was a kid on the farm, and even then not much. But then I saw this Bullet 500 and it’s a real looker, plus it’s MSRP is only $5,500, which may be about $4k more than I intended to spend, but it’s certainly not wildly expensive. And it’s apparently got a modern engine, too, and isn’t just a cast-for-cast recreation like those Russian BMW clones—Urals, right?—so you don’t have to deal with weird stuff like paper air filters and the like. [via Uncrate ] Probably a stupid idea. Parts are probably a bear to get. I really should just get an old Magna or something and call it a day.

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Royal Enfield Military 500 motorcycle

The Nyko Metal Pedal , an aftermarket upgrade for your Rock Band or Guitar Hero drums with metal plating and “hard rock design”, is now hitting stores for $20. I’ve finally upgraded fully to Rock Band 2 gear, but I’m more concerned with my drums sliding all around my hardwood floors than I am breaking the kick pedal. I think I need to add some rubber—and get a proper drum throne.

See the article here:
Nyko Metal Pedal can handle your videogame rocking

Behold! Dell’s new Inspirons come in a range of colors, again reminding the world that its days of gray ‘n’ beige are slipping into history for good. But are they the right colors? To my eye, almost all of them are a shade too clever by far, reminding me of odd names seen on paint swatches at Home Depot . Dell at least gave them relatively plain names (Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Promise Pink), sparing us the likes of “cognac” and “palm frond.” I would have picked these for my summer correction: Dell’s press release, with specs, is after the jump. Dells new Inspiron desktop lets people express themselves through choices of color (eight options), size (slim or mini-tower) and configuration. Vivid color palette to express your personal style: Piano Black, Pure White, True Blue, Formula Red, Tangerine Orange, Spring Green, Plum Purple and Promise Pink. Dell becomes the only major consumer desktop manufacturer to offer color options for the entire front of the machine. Customizable options to meet individuals budget, lifestyle and usage needs. Ideal for common tasks including email, Internet, blogging, entertainment (movies, music and casual gaming) and productivity. Features available on the new Inspiron desktops include: o Intel Celeron, Intel Core 2 Duo and Intel Core 2 Quad options or AMD Sempron, Athlon X2 and Phenom X4 processor options o Integrated Intel or ATI Radeon graphics* on select systems with discrete graphics options available o Up to 8GB* memory on select systems o Up to 750GB* storage (slim tower) or up to 1TB* storage (mini-tower) o Optional 19-in-1 media card reader and optional HDMI connectivity o 6 USB ports (2 front, 4 back) o Dual optical options (mini-tower only) including Blu-ray Disc drive o Small form factor with its versatile horizontal or vertical placement is designed to easily fit into your home media center (slim tower only)

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Dell splashes color onto the Inspiron desktops

Both kettle and pitcher, the One from Vessel Ideation can be set on a gas hob, its blue porcelain-like print becoming apparent when the water is at the right temperature for tea. Then place the pot on a trivet that attaches magnetically to the bottom and keep it on the table next to you. Neat, pretty, and nonexistent. (My apologies for posting a concept device, but I’m a sucker for housewares. As are others, apparently, as the One won an award at a recent Tea-Off design competition.) [via Cool Hunting ]

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Elegant One tea kettle does not exist

It plays Sega Megadrive, NES, SNES and Gameboy games, has a wimpy camera, and can do the tunes. Chinagrabber’s Game-800 even reads plain text files out loud, perfect for those upset by Amazon’s kill-switched Kindle 2 . You bring your own games to the machine via SD card (”You can freely expand your library of emulated games by downloading new ones,” the sellers naughtily declare) and there’s a TV-out function, too. The display is 320×240, perfect for the old raster stuff from the 1980s. It’s offered in a bunch of virulent colors. The only downer would be those controlsI can’t imagine beating any high scores with ‘em, even if it is just $70! Product Page [China Grabber via technabob and Nexus 404 ] Update : Here’s what you want, Rob: Doug Aamoth says it can play “NES, SNES, Sega Genesis, Game Boy Advance, Neo-Geo, and certain Capcom arcade systems”, plus it’s just under a hundred bucks shipped. (Which actually seems a bit spendy and the 340 x 240 pixel screen is probably junk, but at least it has a proper D-pad.)

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Game-800 has camera, media player, retrogaming … and text-to-speech ebook reading!

James Randi’s YouTube account got suspended . A dollar says it’s another specious DMCA takedown.

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Randi off the ‘Tube

Dotdosh imagines the next iPhone with an unsourced pic: Could this be the next iPhone? A photo that was recently posted shows these images, but are to be taken with a grain of salt. If this is the next generation iPhone its pretty sexy and it looks to have a bigger screen and the silent toggle switch moved. As said before, take this with a grain of slat until Apple finally announces the next iPhone. It won’t be that thin, and that complicated speaker grille between bezel and touchscreen doesn’t look very Appley. Apart from that, though, it’s a damn good mockup! [via Gizmodo ]

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iPhone 4G: will it slice bread?

Though I thought Microsoft’s ad featuring Lauren De Long was its best yet , its reality TV scenario set off the internet BS alarms. Seth Weintraub found that the HP laptop she selected is junk with terrible reviews . Even the pretty star, presented as a random consumer given an impromptu shopping challenge, turns out to be a SAG actress doing a standard TV ad: Lauren’s under NDA not to talk about her experience . [Gizmodo]

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NDA! Laptop Lauren can’t say what she thinks of that $700 HP

Of course no one would actually use the MingleStick in real life . I’ve got a similar application for the iPhone but I’ve never once thought to use it when I meet someone else with an iPhone. But for conventions, which seems to be the main market that its gunning for, I could see the goofy little point-and-click radio fob actually being fun. Of course, web site copy like this is ill portent: “FAQ’s: Does the MingleStick work with all computers? Coming soon….”

Link:
MingleStick, an electronic business card for serial schmoozers

Teenage Engineering is building a relatively small portable synthesizer and controller, the OP-1 . Here is their display test using a high-density OLED (I think). ( Thanks, Tom !)

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Teenage Engineer OP-1 synth & controller (sound test)