Gadget Digest II

Some gadgets that grabbed my attention lately:

1. Scramble any GPS - do you drive a company or service car, with a GPS system allowing your boss to monitor your moves on a map in his lair? Well worry no longer. This $300 gadget can attach itself to the car lighter and scramble any GPS signals around it. The question is: is hiding from your boss woirth $300?
   
   
2. Watch your movie files in HD - this 500Gb external hard disk from Iomega packs a twist: the Screenplay can connect directly to your TV and play all known formats, video and audio. It comes with a remote and does not require a computer. It has an HDMI output, so you can enjoy full 1080i video. And it'll only set you back $200 - very reasonable for its capacity.
   
   
3. Read, Write, Talk? - the last gadget has to be seen to be believed. The Pulse smart pen (link works better in IE than FF) allows you to write and record at the same time. It also has a tiny video camera, allowing it to read what you wrote, and put it together with the sound.
   
   You could use this to gather your written and spoken notes, or to run applications on the platform (2 examples provided with the pen: draw numbers on the paper, put an operator like + between them, and the small screen would show the result; draw a piano keyboard, tap the pen on the "keys" and it'll start playing.
   
   What I like about it is that you can dump everything you've written or recorded to your computer, or the web. And, of course, the fact that it's an open platform, so you can start develop apps for it.
   
   Watch David Pogue demo it here. This will set you back $149 (1GB of memory) or $199 (2GB). I'm seriously considering getting one and starting to play with the SDK.