George Lucas is a marketing master mind. Star Wars shop has begun taking pre orders for a Wii’s sensor bar that features Darth Vader holding the bar as a light saber. Problem is that it costs $49.99. Available in November.

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Obsessed with the iPhone or have iPhone envy? Maybe Notepod may help you get an ifix! The Notepods are available in packs of 3, and even though they’re being sent from Australia, they’re just $17.95 shipped anywhere in the world.

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This has to be the coolest free find that has crossed my inbox in awhile! FontCapture is a website that allows you to create your own custom handwriting font, for free.

All you need to do is download a provided template, fill it out letter for letter and scan it in at 200 DPI and within moments you will have a Mac and Windows formatted font available for download. I love it except for the fact that it points out my handwriting is on par with a kindergartner.

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LogMeIn is the remote access solution that I swear by. You can use a web browser (LogMeIn has a JAVA, HTML, ActiveX and Native plugin for access), iPhone or Blackberry Storm. It is also completely FREE.

But a good product has gotten even better. The folks over at LogMeIn are adding support for a Flash-based control (no plugins!) and they are retooling their control website to be more user friendly as well as beefing up the features available to LogMeIn Free (include the ability to wake some computers) from sleep.

Absolutely worth checking it out. To access the new interface visit beta.logmein.com.

Although they have nothing to do with each other its fitting to put both these web sites together.

The New York Times has a slideshow of famous faked photographs, which is dated back to Abraham Lincoln’s day. Kinda interesting how photos have always been used for propaganda [Read More].

But I can assure you that the pictures in this story are real! How many times have you passed a sign that made you do a double take and laugh at what is a seemingly funny name. Matt Wilson found 21 funny named places and actually researched WHY these places were given the names they have.

Located in the southeastern region of the Golden State, Zzyzx (pronounced “zi-zix”) was given its name by founder Curtis Springer, claming it would be the last word listed in the English language. Springer set up shop there with a mineral springs and health spa, an exotic animal zoo, and rest area where he sold water from nearby Soda Springs to desert travelers. He was later arrested for misuse of land. Today, Cal State University manages the area as part of its Desert Studies Center.

Really interesting read. [Read More]

Software updating is TOUGH! We covered how to get SMS Updates when your software has a wating update, but even that option is too complicated.

A “new to me” software pick is AppFresh. Totally free, this program scans your hard drive and comparing to a database on “iUseThis” it will notify you if any of your applications need to be updated. Not only will AppFresh tell you the new version number it will also download and INSTALL the updates if you want.

How do you keep track of the latest versions for all your installed applications? Apple’s built-in Software Update helps keep software like iTunes and Mac OS X updated, but what about the rest? A lot of applications on your Mac don’t include their own update checker and even if they do, they don’t work from a central place. We believe updating an application should not be done at the moment you want to use it. That’s why AppFresh provides a central place to control the software updates available to your Mac, integrating most popular and most common update checking technologies such as Apple Software Update, Sparkle, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Adobe Updater, osx.iusethis.com and more.

But to top it off AppFresh also checks Widgets, PrefPanes, and Plugins on your machine making sure you always have the fresh feeling!

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I’m a huge fan of useful handy little gizmos and gadgets that I can easily carry without adding too much unsightly pocket bulge.

I have my little Lacie imakey always by my side but it will soon be accompanied by Screw Key. For $5 you get two screwdrivers (one Phillips and one flat head) roughly the size of your average key. Perfect for when you need screwdrivers in a pinch.

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As a New Yorker I’m used to getting gouged on the price of liquor – especially at restaurants. Who knows what those bar tenders pour when you are not around. With this little handy dandy little gadget you can now KNOW you are getting what you paid for.

The Rotgutonix can taste the difference between the good and bad booze. Right now it can spot six specific brands of alcohol being Johnnie Walker, JB, DYC, Havana Club, Pampero and Brugal. Though they promise the Rotgutonix will be able to analyze the chemical composition of over 20 well-known brands, mainly rum, whisky, gin, and vodka.

Hey, If you are charging me $15 for a drink I deserve the right to test it! :P

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Not everyone can afford the latest and greatest TV, especially if you just dumped a ton of coin on the latest video game system. Here is how you bridge the gap between your modern console and your legacy TV.

The AT-HD530 from Atlona Technologies accepts a 1080P connection via HDMI or DVI and downconverts it to a standard definition signal with and S-video or RCA connections.

Sadly it wont work with HDCP-enabled devices, so that means no breaking of copy protection for you. Will set you back $299 sometime at the end of this month.

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Trouble in Palm land! Seems that the Palm Pre and its WebOS is quite a tattle tale on its user.

Developer Joey Hess started noticed his Palm Pre was sending something to Palm once a day. After some traffic sniffing Joey discovered the Pre was transmitting a list of every application installed as well as how long the applications were used and crash logs. To top it all off the Pre also sends to Palm a list of third-party applications you installed. Shameful!

Palm chimes in on the whole privacy matter:

Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off. Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust.

Palm also went on record to say that these reports are permitted in their TOS. Kinda makes me think twice about my Pre.

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