Solid Alliance Strikes Again with an USB Engine Hub

As if I haven’t posted enough about stupid products from SolidAlliance, it appears as if they’ve done it again! This time, they’ve released a three-port USB Hub designed to look like an engine. Plus, as if the sticks-out-like-a-sore-thumb oversized hub wasn’t enough, it comes complete with sound effects as well as a kick start and gear shift pedal.

Check out the video below for a quick demonstration by the president of SolidAlliance. After seeing this $43 hub in action, I’m sure you’ll see why they expect it to be their “best seller in Japan and also worldwide.”

USB Engine HUB, plug an Engin to your PC
Uploaded by AkihabaraNews

[Via Engadget]

Brando Wii Light Gun

Here’s a two-part follow-up post. The first part is yet another Wii accessory from Brando. When I was checking out their page when posting about the Cooking Mama set, I noticed several other zany Wii accessories. They’re all pretty novel and fairly interesting, so I think I’ll be doing several posts about these random products. The second part of this follow-up is to the Wii-Blaster that I posted about a couple weeks ago.

Just looking at the Brando version of the blaster, it looks a lot sleeker. Its solid white design is a lot simpler and fits better into the Wiicessory look. Essentially the functionality is going to be the same because you’ll still be using the Wiimote and Nunchuck. The $17 price tag also gives it a $3 advantage over the Gamestop version. So, this one might be the light gun conversion kit to buy if you’re planning on getting the new on-rails Resident Evil for Wii.

The Brando Wii Cooking Mother Kit

Just in case you didn’t believe me when I said Brando made some weird stuff, here’s your proof. Brando has a collection of Wiimote accessories to spice up the Cooking Mama experience. Just incase your imagination is a little bit broken; the set will let you have a slightly more authentic gaming session.

According to Brando the set includes a “Frying Pan, Knife, spade & Fork” with odd capitalization choices included. I don’t exactly know what a spade is as far as cooking is concerned, although Google reveals that it might be an ice cream scoop. However, judging by the pictures on the Brando site their spade looks more like a spatula, or is it a Spatula? They also claim: “Making the game more realistic, increase the fun of the game.” So if you’re into wielding plastic cooking utensils for your Wii, the set is available now for a mere $17.00.

[Via Engadget]

Brando’s Solar Powered USB Charger

Hot on the heels of certain other solar powered products comes one that’s a little more compact, a bit more useful, and a hell of a lot less stupid looking. Brando (the king of many useless gadgets, like SolidAlliance) has released a compact solar powered USB charger. The charger unfolds to reveal two solar panels that can be used to charge your favorite USB gizmos, like an iPod or a cell phone. It also comes with an AC adapter to use it indoors and its wide variety of voltage settings lets you adjust it to fit your gadget.

The use of solar power makes this charger perfect for bringing along an iPod or a cell phone on a camping trip, if you want to rough it, but keep a few tech goodies handy. Plus, because it is relatively small it would fit easily into a backpack or any other luggage. It isn’t the cheapest of gadgets, but at $69 it is certainly affordable if you’re just dying to keep your tunes going on that long camping trip.

[Via Engadget]

Samsung X820 Takes a Beating

There isn’t a whole lot to say here. The picture just about says it all. I’ve always thought Samsung stuff (phones in particular) did a pretty solid job at standing up to a beating and this just about proves it.

[Via Engadget]

SunRed’s Solar Powered Motorbike

Equipping a car or SUV with solar panels would be relatively easy seeing as there is plenty of surface area. Just think, the latest incarnation of the box-like hummer sporting solar panels head to toe. Anyways, SunRed is attempting to create a motorbike that is fueled by solar power. The only problem is that motorcycles don’t exactly have enough surface area to cover with solar panels. The solution? Turn a relatively sleek craft into a big, honkin’, snail-esque, monstrosity.

That’s right. If you’re looking to cut your bike’s dependency on gasoline you’re going to have to sacrifice the wind in your hair and look like a total moron. What’s more SunRed claims that the bike’s new 25 square feet of solar paneling will harness enough of the sun’s energy to let you about 13 miles at up to about 30 miles per hour. Groundbreaking and world changing! Not quite. Most sport bikes today get average MPG somewhere in the 30’s and 40’s, not to mention they can go four times as fast. Plus, this means that I would hardly be able to make it to Wawa and back on this thing, and it would take me almost twice as long to do it. Plus because this thing requires sun to charge up you’ll have to leave it in your driveway for all of your neighbors to gawk at.

[Via Engadget]

Take Two Takes a Break on Manhunt 2

This news is a bit old now, but since I posted about Manhunt’s shaming earlier this week, I thought I would let everyone know that Take Two will be shelving Manhunt 2 for the time being. Reportedly a Take Two representative was quoted as explaining that the company “has temporarily suspended plans to distribute Manhunt 2 for the Wii or PlayStation platforms while it reviews its options with regard to the recent decisions made by the British Board of Film Classification and Entertainment Software Rating Board.”

Interestingly this news musters up a bit of speculation. The whole ‘AO’ rating debacle gave the game a ton of press. So, down the road when Manhunt 2 does get released as an ‘M’ rated game, (assuming it will) it will have garnered tons of publicity and will have the potential to sell in impressive numbers. While it will take a bit more time and money to revamp the game, it could end up making Take Two tons of money. However, because the game is currently being shelved there is no solid evidence that Manhunt 2 will ever see the light of day.

[Via Wii Fanboy]