Crave

(Credit: eBay Motors)

It's presumably in good shape, with the auction stating that its engine was inspected a couple of years ago, but if you plan on flying this car anywhere I'd recommend a tune up first--the engine hasn't been officially inspected since 1976.

Of course, for that money you could buy a top-of-the-line personal jet as well as a rare super car, but that wouldn't be nearly as neat as this thing. I want it.

Pick your C905 carefully.

(Credit: Sony Ericsson)

Q: I currently have an iPhone 3G but I'm considering purchasing the Sony Ericsson C905. This would be my first time using an unlocked phone and I'm a bit skeptical that it will work. What steps do I need to take in order to make the switch go as smoothly as possible? And will I be able to use AT&T's 3G network?
- Nacor

A: Buying an unlocked phone needn't be complicated as long as you consider a couple of points. Most importantly, the phone will need to support the GSM bands used in the United States. Since the C905 is a quad-band GSM phone, you'll be able to make calls here without any problem. Just pop in your AT&T SIM card and you can start dialing. Yet, the 3G compatibility is another story. Sony Ericsson makes two versions of the C905, each with support for different 3G bands. The C905i will support only European 3G bands, while the C905a will work with AT&T's 3G network. So when buying your phone, you'll need to make sure you have the correct model.

Once you get the phone, you'll also need to program it with the correct multimedia settings to send picture messages and browse the Internet. The settings are unique to every phone and carrier but you should be able to download them from the support section on Sony Ericsson's Web site.

Q: I'm new here in the United States, and I would like to know if I can use a prepaid SIM from Verizon Wireless. Is that possible?
- Chaya

A: Verizon Wireless is a CDMA carrier, which means that its phones don't use SIM cards. Verizon does offer prepaid phones, but you'll need to purchase a phone from the carrier if you want to use the service. And in any case, Verizon does its best to downplay its prepaid service.

(Credit: WowWee)

When I was a kid, I was almost grounded for life by my parents for nearly breaking a large hanging lamp...while playing with a remote-controlled helicopter. Finally, a flying toy safe to play with in the house. WowWee's latest addition to its Flytech line of remote-controlled flying toys, the Flytech Bladestar, claims to be the first flying toy with sensor-based navigation. The Bladestar flies using two wings that spin (similar to a helicopter), and with its built-in infrared sensors it can detect and avoid ceilings, walls, and other solid obstacles.

Constructed from light and flexible materials, it is designed to be crash resistant. The Bladestar has a three-channel infrared remote control that has two flight modes. In autopilot mode, it will fly autonomously using its sensors to avoid obstacles and ceilings. In RC mode, you have complete control over it using the throttle and directional-pad controls.

If you have a friend that also has a Flytech Bladestar, there is a dogfight option that allows users to duel two Bladestars in aerial combat. The fire button on the controller allows you to fire invisible infrared beams at an opponent's flyer, a total of three hits will knock the player's Bladestar from the air.

The Flytech Bladestar sells for $49.99, and is available online and from major retailers. It comes with two spare wings, two spare propellers, and a protective carrying case for easy storage.

The Bladestar was first shown at CES. You can even watch a video of CNET's Tom Merritt demonstrating it.

A variety of off-grid devices use the wind, the sun, or fuel cells to power up small electronics. But what if you could charge your cell phone just by talking into it, eliminating the need for batteries or cords?

What if power cords and batteries were a thing of the past?

(Credit: CBS Interactive)

What would make this possible is piezoelectricity, in which a mechanical force is converted to electricity. Car cigarette lighters are a common example. When they're punched in, pressure on a crystal within produces voltage, creating a spark.

In principle, the pressure to power a device could come from sound vibrations.

Crafting such piezoelectric electronics would require sensors with a specific size of crystal or ceramic material. Engineers say they have taken an early step by identifying a sweet spot at which a crystal could produce energy.

The capability of barium titanate crystals to harvest power doubles when they're about 23 nanometers in size, according to an analysis led by engineer Tahir Cagin at Texas A&M University. A human hair, for contrast, is about 100,000 nanometers wide.

However, it could be years or decades before scientists and entrepreneurs apply the findings to consumer products, he said.

"There are limitations to how much power you can generate at a given size," said Cagin, adding that an iPod or cell phone may require nano-sensors at a scale and composition different from what his research suggested.

When Apple finally announced the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch, the door was opened to many possibilities. With its huge library of applications, the one thing that seemed to be missing was a World War II shooter. I'm sure many keen minds tried to bring a real game experience to this portable device, but a good control scheme is essential for a real gaming feel. Because of its lack of buttons, this posed a problem until now. On December 2, Gameloft's Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes landed in Apple's App Store.

This is the first WWII shooter to debut in the App Store; it also captures all the action from the Brother in Arms franchise and brings it to your iPhone.

• 13 missions in across 3 historical campaigns: Normandy, Ardennes & Tunisia
• Impressive 3D graphics and crisp clear audio
• The capability to command Jeeps and Sherman tanks to help advance the Allied forces across the battlefield
• A wide range of weapons at your side (bazooka, sniper rifle, machine guns, and so on)
• Use of the iPhone's accelerometer controls to launch grenades and the touch screen to aim at and shoot enemies

This game (check out the video below) will definitely make your morning commute seem a lot quicker.

(Credit: JVC)

I recently posted a blog about JVC's new 19 foot by 34 foot, 12,500-pound LED-based screen--which JVC says is the first true 720p screen in Times Square--that debuted on December 2.

Well, now that it's up, we can finally take a gander. Hmmm, this strikes me as the type of thing you'd have to see in person and in motion to really appreciate, cause pics just ain't cutting it.

This reminds me of the 2D age in video games and how you could look at a screenshot of a game and estimate, pretty accurately, its graphical quality. Then the 3D era was ushered in, and when screenshots of games looked like crap, the most widely used defense was, "I know the screens look like crap, but you really need to see it in motion to appreciate it." JVC should totally take the gaming fanboy stance on this pic.

The video below is pretty cool though. It's a time-lapsed vid of the screen's construction. Hey look, it does look good in motion!

It's a speaker...and a case.

(Credit: CBS Interactive/Corinne Schulze)

Who says you can't get gifts for your MP3 player? Accessories for the iPod Classic make perfect stocking stuffers, especially since you can find many of them for well under $50. First things first, though--replace the subpar earbuds that came with the player with something that has a touch more class, say a pair of CNET's top headphones?

Once you've gotten that out of the way, check out our roundup for ways to dress up and protect your iPod. Plus, see some speakers that'll let you rock out loud.

Accessories for the Apple iPod Classic

(Credit: Magneat)

The Magneat headphone organizer provides a solution to the most annoying accessory attached to your music player: the headphone cord.

The industry is a few years away from offering high-quality, inexpensive Bluetooth earbuds, so for the time being we're left untangling and tripping over long wires. As a matter of fact, just today I was walking into the bathroom (keep reading, it's OK) and my headphones got caught in the door handle. My headphones nearly pulled me to the floor and strangled me to death. Granted, Kimmy Gibler and I share a similar center of gravity, but my to-do list is long enough; I don't need to add "wired asphyxia" to the end.

(Credit: Magneat)

Save me, Magneat! It's actually very simple, as all great ideas tend to be: you clip the device to your shirt, coat, or jacket via magnetic fastening and simply wind your headphone cord around the cylinder until it runs taut, eliminating excess cordage and preventing tangles. And that's it!

Rest assured that the Magneat isn't nearly powerful enough to erase your player and certainly won't leave any marks on your garments. The device is available now in a variety of colors and designs for $10 each.

The delightfully cheesy Gun O'Clock alarm clock.

(Credit: Gizmine.com)

Thousands of delightfully inexplicable gadgets made only for the Japanese market are hard to come by outside the country. A new site from Japanese importer Dynamism is making it easier for us gaijin to get our hands on them.

Gizmine.com is the new specialty gadgets site from Dynamism. (Dynamism.com sticks mostly to laptops, phones, and watches--"luxury goods," in other words--sold only in Japan.) Gizmine allows the import company to expand into categories of products like alarm clocks, robots, and USB-powered toys.

The site is easy enough to navigate. You can sort by product category, theme ("Kawaii," "bling," and "wacky," to name a few), color, and price. Plus, like parent company Dynamism, there's a 24-hour 800 number to contact customer service. There are 500 products available for shipment anywhere outside Japan right now, and that number should double by next year, according to the site.

Tuttuki Bako, or "Poking Box."

(Credit: Gizmine.com)

I'm particularly interested in the site since I asked my boyfriend to pick up the Gun O'Clock alarm clock when in Tokyo last week. He hunted all over the gadget-laden Akihabara district for one, and to my chagrin, it was completely sold out. Gizmine to the rescue!

Of course, there's a slight catch: Gizmine marks up the retail price you'd get in Japan. It's an import service, so it's to be expected, but while the wonderfully weird Tuttuki Bako toy can be bought for between 3,000 and 4,000 yen in Japan (about $32 to $43), Gizmine offers it for $50, plus $19 in shipping costs. (Most products ship to the U.S. in one to three business days, according to the site.)

Still, it's cheaper than a trip to Japan.

(Credit: Logitech)

Hunting down mice isn't my personal idea of fun, but this mouse mission might not be so eek-worthy. Logitech has launched a contest inviting people to track its billionth mouse shipped, a milestone announced Wednesday.

A PR stunt to be sure, but also a nice chance to reflect on Logitech's 20-plus highly successful years in the mouse-making business (check out this cool PDF of Logitech mice that never made it out of the lab--hockey puck design, anyone?).

But back to the billionth mouse. The milestone mouse's journey will be chronicled on Logitech's blog, Blogitech. Each day, the notable mouse (named Billie, naturally) will post online mouse-related questions. Get a question right and you can enter a daily drawing to win a Logitech product.

Founded in a Swiss farmhouse in 1981, Logitech introduced its first retail mouse in 1985 and reached the 100 millionth mouse mark in 1996. Today, it says it sells mice in more than 100 countries worldwide and manufactures an average of 376,000 mice per day and 7.8 million every month.

The company timed its billionth-mouse announcement to coincide with the upcoming 40th anniversary of the first public demonstration of the computer mouse (which, coincidentally, some might also peg as the 40th anniversary of RSI).

Of course, with input methods like touch screens and gesture recognition becoming more common, it'll be interesting to see how many more mice from Logitech (and others) roll off the assembly line in years to come. Is Billie becoming anachronistic?