Laptops with Extendable Screens & Other Tech You Didn’t Know You Needed
This Laptop Is Too Tall
We’re truly in the age of “how do we make screens bigger without making the rest of the thing bigger. That usually amounts to foldables, but scrollable are also making a break for it in the form of the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 by Lenovo. Simply slide your screen upward to gain an aspect ratio heretofore unseen in the laptop space. You can either use it as one single tall monitor or make a virtual second monitor to split off tasks. It’s powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, With Intel Arc graphics and robust connectivity options including Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 7 (5 Gig. The ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 also includes an edge-to-edge keyboard, a 120Hz OLED display with 400 nits brightness, and 100% DCI-P3 color accuracy.
Available from June 2025, with an expected pricing of US$3,499.
Lenovo.com
Ergo, It’s a Good Mouse
Logitech are back at it again with a set of ergonomic peripherals to make the lives of the carpal tunnelled among us breath a sigh of relief. The first is the Logitech Wave Keys, an ergonomic keyboard made in a wave pattern with a wrist rest to die for, or to sleep on. More on that when I have more column inches. The second is the Logitech Vertical Ergonomic Lift Mouse which is like a mouse tilted on it’s side to an exacting 57 degree angle, otherwise known as the ideal handshake position. It has a soft texture grip so feels good in the hand, and isn’t overly heavy. It keeps things simple with the buttons but you can mix things up with customised keybinds using the Logi Options+ app. It’s perfect for small to medium sized hands. As a standard (perfect specimen) sized guy I found it an easy hold, but if you have big mitts you might have to consider the MX Vertical instead.
Not unique to Ergo-mice, but something I can no longer live without is the easy-switch button on the underside, which allows you to quickly pair your mouse between three different devices via bluetooth. If you don’t want to mess with that it also comes with a Logi Bolt USB dongle and a compartment for storage on the underside. A single AA battery will set you up for two years of use. Perfect.
RRP$179.95 Logitech.com
Halo There
8Bitdo seems to make it into every gadget section, but I’m so enamoured with them that I’m not going to stop due to gratuitous favouritism. Their latest offering is an officially licenced retro keyboard based on the transparent green OG Xbox. Just looking at it transports me back to afternoons wasted on Halo 2 and Burnout 3. They’ve captured the aesthetic perfectly, even including an integrated Xbox button in the top right. The double-layered crystal arrow keys are reminiscent of the chubby clear coloured buttons of the original controller. The keys have eight RGB lighting modes with hot-swappable PCBs. The switches themselves are Kailh Jellyfish X’s.
The top left has a switch for bluetooth and 2.4ghz, that’s followed by a dial for volume and three shortcut keys. It also has plugs on the back to pair it with the matching Dual Super Buttons for when you need a gigantic button to do a macro with.
The matching mouse has a tilted charging base which also doubles as a signal extender meaning you’d have to be doing something pretty bizarre to have a dropped connection. It has four programmable side buttons, two on each side, again double layered. The clickiness is achieved with Kailh Sword GM X Micro Switches, engineered for up to 100 million clicks. On the technicals the symmetrical design is carried by a PAW 3395 sensor which supports 6 sensitivity levels from 50DPI to 26000DPI, with polling rates ranging from 125Hz to 8000Hz.
Hit it in the knees Chief!
8bitdo.com
The Kompakt Option
There’s been a dumbphone revolution lately as people look to find healthy ways to unplug from the perpetual rage motion machine of the internet. The Kompakt is riding this wave as an 4.3” E-Ink smartphone that encourages you to slow down, get off social media, and look up from your phone once in a while. Perhaps the biggest sell on this phone is that it’s power draw is so tiny it can go six days without a charge. It takes USB-C as well as wireless charging, so as long as you remember to chuck it on a charging base occasionally you’ll probably never have battery anxiety.
It comes with it’s own custom OS built on top of the Android Open Source Project with all the Google services that usually suck all your data away removed. If you’re truly paranoid it has an Offline+ mode, which doesn’t just knock out wifi and bluetooth, but also connection to the cell network, mics and cameras, making it truly blind to what’s going on around it. This means you can really go distraction free while keeping your phone on playing some chill music or reading.
It has a camera, but due to display limitations they’ll come out black and white on your phone, but their colour files are saved, and can be seen in all their glory later when you upload them to another device.
They’ve also gone back to basics with a 3.5mm headphone jack for people that don’t want to dick around with earbuds, but do want to dick around with wire spaghetti.
This could be the perfect phone for someone looking at getting an E-Reader, but not wanting yet another device to tote around. Just don’t expect to get anything done quickly on this phone.
mudita.com/kompakt RRP$577
The Playstation Hut
The Playstation 5 has become a meme for it’s thin on the ground game library but don’t worry Pizza Hut has found a way to make your PS5 useful again. Sony may have sold you the most expensive pizza warmer ever. As part of a promo the Canadian branch of Pizza Hut has spun up a website pizzahutpizzawarmer.ca where you can download the 3D printing plans for what they’ve dubbed the PizzaWRMR. It’s a pizza tray powered solely by the vented heat from your PS5 when it’s struggling to hit a stable 60fps. It only holds a few slices, and it’s terrifying to imagine an oily piece of bread and cheese hovering mere inches above your console, but think of all the benefits. Warm pizza, that’s it, that’s all you get. If you’ve ever opened up a console and checked the fans you’ll know that thing clogs up with dust and dirt pretty quickly, so imagine all that warm air getting filtered through dead skin cells and carpet fluff. Yum!
Also we have no idea what this would do to your consoles heat management, so it could possibly make the situation even worse. But at least it’s finding some sort of way to upcycle the wasted power I guess.
pizzahutpizzawarmer.ca
Beating Your Meat
Dalstrong has released a massively popular meat pulveriser that looks more like a tool for gang warfare. The Dalstrong Meat Knuckles are the first and last tenderiser you need in your kitchen complete with a four knuckle grib and two textured surfaces, the bottom for big broad strokes and the rear side for finishing details. It’s made of cast Aluminum Alloy and finished with a silver paint coating. That means it has excellent stain and corrosion resistance.
You’ll never feel more manly smashing potatoes or pulverising your meat with this bad boy.
The site is currently sold out, so if you were hoping to pick one up ASAP, I’m sorry you’re probably going to have to go on some sort of list.
dalstrong.com
My Pet Drumstick
Finally KFC has released their healthiest menu item to date, a Tamagotchi knockoff available only in Spain. Relive the 90s by raising a piece of fried chicken on a tiny LCD screen. Clean it’s poop up and take care of it. Dubbed the Eduardochi after Eduardo, a meme gone out of control a while ago.
Sure it’s silly, but it’s better than whatever passes for toys in most fast food happy meals these days. Unfortunately we probably won’t be seeing these show up anytime soon at our local chicken bucket merchants.
This follows the hugely popular launch of the Tetris Nugget in China late last year. You can buy these on the black market for about $25 plus shipping.
Making Bank With The Nerdcore
Do you find yourself yearning for oversaturated rolling green hills? Have you developed a life destroying phobia of spinning beach balls? Boy do I have a wallet for you.
In recent years the nostalgia for early 00s desktop aesthetics has exploded. Jump on youtube and search Frutiger Aero or Webcore and you’ll see the time period positively fetishised into shapes both alien and disturbingly uncanny. Gen Z has put on their nostalgic glasses for a time they hardly remember and it’s awesome. I guess the 80s had it’s turn. Fashion nick nack house Nik Bentel Studio has designed a range of folders covering Windows 95, Windows 11, and MacOS. They’re made of vegan leather, have two pockets, and are sized 4″ x 3″. Most of the nerds I know are on an escape trajectory with wallets as they whittle down the number of cards and cash (if any) they carry, so this is a pretty good slimline size for that group. Dubbed the Untitled Folder Wallet Collection it’s currently on it’s second edition due to popular demand. Also while you’re on their website check out the leather Hotdog/Pizza Holsters.
nikbentel.com
Big Times for The Little iMicro Q3p
Weighing half a gram and sitting on the tip of your finger the iMicro Q3p isn’t much to look at. But if you’re looking at it you’re doing it all wrong, you’re supposed to look THROUGH it. Clip on smartphone lenses have become ubiquitous, but I don’t think I’ve ever bumped into one that’s so incredibly good at photographing things at the submicron scale apparently. It can clearly pick out objects at the 0.75 micron level. For reference a micron is 1/1000 mm. That means photographing a pixel on your monitor would look gigantic, and you can clearly make out the crystals making up things like soy sauce or urine (look I didn’t take the photos I’m just reporting what I’m seeing.)
Developed by I-Seeing this is the 6th iteration of the iMicro, and they’ve developed a good reputation over the years for successful kickstarters. This iteration also includes a focus stand, cause there’s no way you’re going to be taking photos at that level barehanded without discovering you have a jitter because it’s picking up all the blood pumping through your fingers.
Satellite Coms Anywhere Anytime
If you have a hot phone like the iPhone 14 and up or the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra you don’t need to worry about it but for everyone else with a smartphone it might be wise to consider the ability to do emergency texting and tracking when you’re away on big hikes. OffGrid offers this ability to any mobile with the ability to update your position for your support network once every 4 hours or up to every 3 minutes if you want to really drain the battery. Texting isn’t limited to just emergencies, but you will have to use their proprietary app as well as pay a subscription for the pleasure to connect to their networks. The HMD lasts 10 days off it’s 600mAh battery, weighs just 60 grams and comes with a big old SOS button for when things really hit the fan.
hmd.com
Faster than a Speeding Bullet
One place I don’t expect to find a McLaren is on the kitchen counter, but this is the world we live in now. A limited time collaboration is being launched between McLaren F1 Racing and Nutribullet blending (pun sort of intended) high-performance kitchen appliances with the precision engineering of motorsport.
Inspired by McLaren’s iconic style and nutribullet’s engineering, this collection delivers unmatched power, efficiency, and race-inspired innovation as well as some snazzy McLaren colourways.
The McLaren x nutribullet range officially launches on February 20, 2025, with Australia and New Zealand leading the way just ahead of the Melbourne Grand Prix in March.
“We are delighted to partner with McLaren F1 Racing to create a product range that embodies speed, strength, and precision,” added CDB Group. “For this partnership, we’ve selected nutribullet’s most iconic and high-performance products, elevating them with McLaren’s sleek design to deliver a bold new look on trusted favourites”
The limited-edition McLaren x nutribullet collection includes four co-branded blenders, such as the nutribullet Ultra 1200, nutribullet 1000 Series Essential Pack, and nutribullet Portable Blender.
These exclusive products will be available through Briscoes, Noel Leeming, JB Hi-Fi, Harvey Norman, Farmers, and Heathcotes in New Zealand.