In addition to the big news about Project Natal, Microsoft announced today that Xbox360 is getting substantial upgrades:

All of my geeky childhood dreams of commanding the Enterprise were dashed by Tyco's fantastically, fatally flawed "First ever Flying R/C Enterprise". Did anyone test this thing before putting it in a box?

I've been very busy, in the best sense of the word, building a new computer based on the EVGA X58 motherboard. It's the first system I've built in some time, and I thought I'd give Vista SP1 a try. The experiment has lasted less than a month. I'm sorry Microsoft, the lack of an up button in Windows Explorer is a deal breaker and it will probably keep me from upgrading to Windows 7 as well.

Nothing has made me long for the end of winter like my first glimpse of Jakks Pacific's new line of Star Wars 3-D Kites at this month's Toy Fair. Bigger than any other Star Wars toy vehicles (except my 7' long display models that used to hang at Toys R Us) these would be fun to play with on the ground, or hung from a ceiling. But, these really fly!

Steampunk, you ask?  Ever seen the Enterprise sporting propellers?

Taking a cue from Scaled Composites static display roll outs of its spaceships, Tyco rolled out full sized prototypes of the new remote controlled Star Trek spaceships today at New York’s Toy Fair.

At a preview of what is to come at the 2009 Toy Fair, Mattel showed off a high tech toy that prints fashion designs right on little girls finger nails.  Featuring more hi-tech bells and whistles than many printers, the new toy is something of a technological marvel.  Here's how it works:

On December 8, 2008 I showed off some great family friendly hi-tech gadgets and games for the holidays on the Today Show. To view the segment click here.

Energizer has several recharging systems for the major next-gen gaming systems and they recently sent the Xbox 360 recharging station for me to take a look at. They stylish $29.99 stand can charge two Microsoft controllers simultaniously in about 2 and a half hours. It can reduce clutter and simplify the chore of keeping your gaming platform in an "always ready to play" state.

UPDATE: Media Monkey has launched a beta version of their program that purports to correct the problem addressed in this article.  I'll be posting a review soon.

Note taking was was a problem that plagued my career as a student. "The five principle causes of the Civil War were..." would intone my professor. While I was writing I was also thinking about what was being said and invariably I'd end up with four of the five causes. If I had the Livescribe Pulse digital pen I wouldn't have had the problem. You see, as you take notes with your Pulse it is also digitally recording what is being said as an audio file.