If you've been to Europe or Japan, you've probably seen the source for this uniquely designed USB hub. In the US, exit signs are just the word "EXIT" in a boring block font with a red and white color scheme. Whoopdie-doo. You'd think with all of the different nationalities that call America home, the US would have a more universal way to announce just where you should run in case of an emergency. Sadly, this is just not so. In Europe and Japan, they have this little green fella to tell folks where to dash in case of a need to leave quickly.

Now, this universal green man can also represent and exit from a lack of USB ports.

Sorry, that was a supremely bad segue.

ANYway, so this USB hub features four ports and a single LED to let you know when the thing is plugged in and ready to have things plugged into it. The ports are interestingly dispersed throughout the hub. One is on his leading hand with two on his brief case. The final fourth is in the leading edge of the base.

Creative, the company generally best known for it's PC cards, has produced the Voda, a nice little competitor to the Flip, the low-end, low-price camcorder from Pure Digital. Up until now, the Flip had pretty much cornered the market on low-end, economy-class video cameras (even though it's Pure Digital is fairly new to the business). With it's simple features and easy-to-use controls, it's been a hit amongst the "I just want a video camera that works" crowd.

Originally, the Flip was just a more commercialized version of a "single-use" camera sold at drug stores like Rite-Aid and CVS. Hackers proved that the single-use camera could have a market without the user being forced to bring it back to said drug stores for processing onto a DVD. So, Pure Digital, essentially, created a sub-genre for camcorders, doing for portable video shooting what the OLPC XO laptop did for UMPCs. Since then, the Flip has taken on nearly iPodian significance in the world of low-end cams.

Vita Audio has announced their new audio deck--er--their new "R4 Integrated Music System." Rather than calling it "a stereo," Vita Audio makes it sound so upper-crust and elite. Sure, it's got a built-in iPod dock, but what makes this thing so classy? No, it's not a cousin to R2-D2 (how cool would that be??).

No, as a matter of fact, it does quite a few other things. Like what, you ask? Well, it can play MP3s, WMA files as well as standard audio CDs. Snack on those specs all of you other iPod docks!

Oh yeah, and it's got an FM radio and can do DAB, as well.

Sorry AM radio fans! No lovin' for you.

After all that you're still not finding the R4 to be your cup o' tea? Well, you haven't even gotten to the payoff if you're wood-grain fan! So, what ever you do, don't stop reading!!

The DVR-BP from DigitalCowboy.jp represents the eventual destination of all technology. Well, short of "obsolete," anyway. See, when a new technology comes out, it's huge--literally. It's big, as in, size. In the case of video cameras, they needed massive stands and their cost to purchase was equally massive. Slowly, over the decades, cameras got smaller and smaller, cheaper and cheaper. Until finally, we have Digital Cowboy's video camera "spy" pen called the "DVR-BP".

Simply by looking at the pictures on the DVR-BP's official product page one can get the idea that this thing is not exactly sporting a Karl Zeiss lens or can shoot video in 720p. That said, it still is a pretty cool idea. Any other kind of camera would be something you'd need to intentionally hide. With the DVR-BP in your breast pocket, you need to make no excuses when you're caught with it. Ignoring the picture quality, it's ideal for life-vloggers who like to record every last interesting thing they do.

You know, in a world that puts so much emphasis on iPods, the "Homade" MP3 i-Player from Brando almost has the potential to steal some of Apple's thunder away from them. With the addition (and success) of their iPod Shuffle, Apple proved to the world that you didn't need a display screen to enjoy your music. While most people agree that a display is nice to have, the economical gadget addict is fine without a way to see what audio track is playing. This has given gadget makers on the lower-end of the price/quality spectrum to get creative with their MP3 player designs and this is where Brando's little device comes in.

The Homade MP3 i-Player from the Hong Kong-based company best known in the electronics world for its fairly bizarre and bizarrely cheap USB products, has come up with a product that could be tempting lawsuits from a number of different places. Designed to look like a LEGO-brand building block, this "i-Player" is so similar, pictures not providing scale to a real 8-studded Lego piece might lead one to believe this is a licensed product--which it is not. In fact, if you buy two or more of these you can't even stack them.

Yep, that's right, this is a post about bootleg iPod Shuffles. Not the new 2GB iPod Shuffle, not the iPhone, not some new, super-secret iPod, yet to be released--this is a piece about cheap iPod Shuffle knock-offs you can find on eBay for anywhere from $10 to $30 (and up, if the seller is greedy).

For starters, some are almost identical to the real thing. Just looking at the pictures of them on eBay will tell you that the bootleggers did a great job of copying the original. The only give-away on a few of them is the coloring of the main controls. On a legit Shuffle the center circle is the same color as the Shuffle casing. Many bootlegs color both the inner circle and the outer ring white.

But that's not the only tip-off--not by a long shot.

Sanyo's latest offering in their palm-sized digital video camcorder Xacti line will be the CA8 and seems to include almost everything a camcorder freak could want--almost. The Xacti CA8 camcorder--how do we love thee? Let us count the ways! Well, for starters, you are tiny--you fit in the palm of my hand like all of my favorite gizmos. Next, you are waterproof. That's right, waterproof--not water resistant, but air-tight down to 1.5 meters beneath the water's surface. That means you can shoot video to a depth of about five feet and still come back with footage. Not bad, right?

You've got a 5x optical zoom--which isn't amazing, but perfectly reasonable. You have an 8 megapixel CMOS that is certainly nothing to sneeze at--though not exactly mind-blowing. (Read more about CMOS vs. CCD, the other kind of camera sensor). You can shoot mp4 format video files using the AVC/H.264 codec which is all the rage, these days, and you can do it at 60 frames-per-second, which is actually pretty gosh-darn impressive.

The Phonofone II from Science + Sons is the iPod speaker dock you want if you positively want to own the coolest, most eye-catching PMP speaker dock ever designed--that doesn't need an external power source. What's even better is that it will work with just about any audio source, assuming you can plug earbuds into it. If you're the average gadget freak, you're probably wondering why the PMP would need to have earbuds plugged into it and how the Phonofone II is supposed to work without a battery or being plugged into the wall.

According to the official Phonophone website, the device uses "passive amplification" all by its lonesome to create sound through it's old-school horn-style speaker. Remember those old record players from the time of the dinosaurs? Those worked similarly--but the Phonofone II uses, earbuds instead of a record needle.

You might be tempted to call the Nikon CoolPix s52c the super-hero of point-and-shoot digital cameras thanks to it's wifi ability. That is one heckuva super-power, isn't it? Say you're on vacation, shooting some amazing shots of the ocean, the mountains, the landmarks, or anything else, but you still have to waste valuable time sitting at home on your computer uploading those pictures to your favorite image-sharing website.

That was the big omission when digital cameras became the rage. The only way to share these new-fangled pics was by taking the time to "develop" them yourself by printing them out or keeping your laptop with you. Sure, with the advent of digital picture frames and gadgets like the iPod and other portable picture viewers, it's a little easier, but sharing snapshots with friends and families in other cities requires that online element. The Nikon s52c has that online element covered. Apparently, it's capable of uploading to the web directly from the camera. No PC required. That just sounds like crazy talk, doesn't it?

Most of the time, when the average gadget freak thinks about gadgets in general, if there is a fictional person they most closely associate with those gadgets, that character's name is probably going to be James Bond. However, the very next person you simply must think about is Batman. For eighty years, that utility belt of his has provided a gadget for just about every tight spot Batman could get himself into. Now, compliments of DC Direct, you can own some of the Batman's gadgets.

OK, they're not the actual gadgets, but replicas released to help you "pretend" you're a caped crime fighter. For instance, Batman's Batarang replicas and a replica of his grappling hook launcher are both available. Each was made directly from molds used to make props for the Chris Nolan film The Dark Knight and will run you "just" $125 and $195, respectively. Yes, that is on the pricey side, but hey--you didn't really think it would be cheap to be a (pretend) masked vigilante, did you?