Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger anyone?

by Scott Carmichael on

When I read Meg’s article about the largest burger in the world, I remembered seeing a photo last year of another burger that somehow got stuck in my head. May I present, the “Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger“.

I’m not afraid of trying something really unhealthy and I grew up in the village where the deep fried Mars bar was invented, but this just seems too much, even for me.

Sadly, you won’t be able to savor the delicate aroma of deep fried glazed yeast rings covered with bacon, cheese and meat, as they are only served at the staff restaurant of Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.

So, if you found this on the menu, would you go for it, or is this the kind of food you’d only consider at 3AM after a night of heavy drinking?

More Gadling burger articles:

(Krispy Kreme burger image source, Flickr user ccaviness)

Daily deal – Panasonic Palmcorder mini-DVD camcorder for $180

by Scott Carmichael on

My daily deal for today is for the Panasonic VDR-D210 Palmcorder miniDVD camcorder. This camera has a 2.7″ flip-out LCD screen with a joystick for operating the camera functions. The optics are equally impressive. 32x optical zoom, and the well rated Panasonic optical image stabilization.

The VDR-D210 is still listed on Amazon for $339, but you can purchase it from Circuit City (online only) for just $179.96. Included in the box is the camera, a battery with recharger and the user manual. Shipping is free, and tax is charged in all states with a Circuit City physical store.

In order to use the camera, you will have to purchase some mini DVD discs. Recordings can be written on DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW and DVD-Dual layer. Once you are done recording, you can playback the discs in your home DVD player (if it supports mini DVD discs).

The camera is in the Circuit City outlet, so inventory may be running low. If you are interested in the camera, don’t wait too long, as it probably won’t last till the end of the day.

Source: Circuit City, via FatWallet

Big in Japan: Overheating iPods irk Japanese consumers

by Matthew Firestone on

Japanese consumers love their electronics, and they take incredible pride in being one of the world’s most technologically literate societies.

Indeed, the Japanese have traditionally been extremely loyal to their domestic brands, especially since companies like Sony, Nikon and Canon produce some of the finest electronic goods in the world. In recent years however, foreign products have started to make significant advances in the Japanese consumer market, particularly anything made by Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc.

In a society where image and fashion are paramount, Apple’s stylish products speak to Japanese consumers looking to distinguish themselves from the masses. Despite the fact that Sony invented the Walkman, the vast majority of Japanese consumers rely on iPods for all of their personal music needs.

However, Apple is currently in danger of losing a percentage of their market share, following reports that a couple of iPods in Tokyo overheated, igniting stacks of nearby papers. In a society where safety and harmony are also paramount, potentially dangerous consumer goods are quickly shunned, even if they actually pose a minute risk.

According to reports that are quickly circulating through the Japanese media, a small number of first generation iPod Nanos overheated this past week, resulting in nearby papers being scorched. While no one was hurt in any of these incidents, the issue was serious enough to draw the attention of Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry official Hiroyuki Yoshitsune, who immediately demanded that Apple investigate the defect.

Apple responded by stating that the overheating problem was the result of a defective lithium-ion battery that was being traced to a single supplier. However, they emphasized that the problem was extremely rare, occurring in approximately 0.001% of first generation devices sold between September 2005 and December 2006. They also stressed that no one had been harmed in any of the incidents, and that any customer worried about their device should contact customer services.

Unfortunately for Apple, this is not the first time that they have had to deal with the fall-out of spontaneously combusting personal electronics. In 2006, the company received quite a bit of negative press over the faulty lithium-ion batteries found in a number of its laptops. Following reports by various media outlets of small laptop fires breaking out, Apple quickly removed 1.8 million units from the global market.

With that said, it’s worth emphasizing that you don’t need to rush to the store to trade in your black MacBook and iPod Touch, especially since the Dell Inspiron and Microsoft Zune are (at least in my humble opinion!) somewhat inferior products. However, it will be interesting to see what the fallout is amongst fickle Japanese consumers, who are famous for seizing and abandoning products in a moment’s whim.

** All photos are courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project, and are trademarked images of Apple Inc products. They are are being displayed here on this website for the purpose of critical commentary. **

Gadling goes camping (win free Coleman stuff!)

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Every once in awhile, when the writers over at Gadling get tired of the same old motorcycle rides across Asia and space flights, we just want to travel “simple.” And that’s when a camping trip can be great. Most of us, no matter how large or small the city we live in, are within a few hours’ drive of some great unspoiled wilderness where we can pitch a tent, get a nice fire going and spend the night gazing up at the stars.

With that instinct in mind I set out on a camping trip of my own last month to the great New England state of Vermont. But it also goes without saying that I am not really the camping type – leave me alone in the woods for a day or so and I would probably end up squatting in a ditch with nothing but a few strategically-placed leaves to wear as underwear. It soon became clear that I would need some good camping gear for my trip. But how does one pick appropriate gear for camping? If you work for a travel site, you just make a few calls. Soon I was chatting with Dawn at Coleman, who generously provided me with a few products to test out during my trip.

How did these products hold up in the wilderness of Vermont? Would my camping trip end with me trapped up to my neck in a sleeping back unable to get out? Read on to see what happened…Coleman Propane Grill Stove
Don’t get me wrong, sitting around a roaring campfire represents the quintessential camping experience. But when it comes to cooking, camping novices are not going to want to waste their time with anything more than hot dogs or s’mores on a big open flame. The fire either burns everything to a crisp or doesn’t cook it well enough.

That’s where a portable stove like Coleman’s unit came in handy on my trip. Combining an open stove-top burner with a grilltop, it’s just what you need to make yourself a halfway decent meal out in the open. I was quite pleased with the stove’s open burner, which quickly boiled water and made short work of sautéing some vegetables. But the grilling side? Forget it. It barely ever got hot enough to burn my hand. It’s best to keep to simple easily cooked items – so leave the soufflés at home.

Coleman Dynamo Lantern
I live in New York City, so the concept of total darkness is quite foreign to me. Out in the woods though, when the sun goes down, forget trying to find your way around by the light of the moon. You’re going to need a flashlight or a lantern. The nice thing about the lantern I brought was it was powered by hand-crank – you just pull out the handle and crank it around a few times to give it a charge. That’s both a positive and a negative – any time I needed it, I would crank my lantern for a good minute or so and be reward with a small match-size flickering beam. It’s enough to find your way back to your tent but don’t count on it to read Call of the Wild.

Interestingly enough, Coleman’s lantern has another feature – it apparently charges cell phones. My problem with this? Neither me nor any of my friends was able to find a compatible phone among the 5 of us. Best check your phone model before counting on this baby to give your handset some juice.

Coleman Cool Zephyr Ceiling Fan with Light
Perhaps I’m just naïve when it comes to camping (the answer is yes) but this little unit was a godsend. Clipping easily to the roof of my tent with a magnet, this hanging unit not only provides a powerful light beam to illuminate your tent interior – it also has a built in fan to keep things cool. Trust me, when the sun hits your tent at 7am, and the huge down sleeping bag and nylon tent you’re inside turn you into a human baked potato in a convection oven, you’re going to want some ventilation. This unit is fairly small, inconspicuous but still highly useful.

Wrap-Up (and a contest!)
So did I discover any truths about the universe while I was out communing with nature and my new camping gear? Not really, unless you count the 20-30 mosquito bites I got as some sort of perverse, itchy knowledge.

What I did learn however, is that we like to give things away here at Gadling. Want to do some camping of your own? How about a portable stove, hand-crank lantern or light/fan unit to get your trip started right? Just leave an entry telling us about your favorite camping experience in the comments below and we’ll draw a lucky winner by Friday, August 29th.

Now get out there and commune with nature!

  • To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us about your favorite camping experience.
  • The comment must be left before Friday, August 29th, 2008 at 5PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • Three winners will be selected in a random drawing.
  • Three Grand Prize Winners will be randomly selected to receive one of the following: a Coleman Propane Grill Stove, Coleman Crank-Powered Lantern or a Coleman Interior Tent Light/Fan
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
  • Grill-Stove is valued at $79.99, Dynamo Lantern at $34.99 and Ceiling Fan with Light at $19.99.
  • Click Here for complete Official Rules.

To save weight, airline removes life vests

by Grant Martin on

In an attempt to cut as much weight as possible from their aircraft, Jazz Airlines, a subsidiary of Air Canada, recently decided to pull all life vests from their aircraft. Now, in the unlikely event of a water landing, passengers will be advised to use their floating seat cushions for buoyancy.

Will this affect the safety of the passengers? Well, purely from the flotation standpoint, life vests have an advantage in that they don’t need to be held onto, which can be tough to do when you’re in ice-cold Canadian water. They also help the passenger’s body face upward, out of the water versus the opposite position that holding a seat cushion would require (an article on TheStar has better diagrams). But government regulators don’t require one or the other.

How much do these life vests weigh? About a half kilogram. For the seventy five people that might be on this Jazz aircraft, that’s a total of thirty-eight kilograms or about eighty three pounds per flight.

It seems to me that there’s enough swing in the passenger and luggage loads such that the weight shouldn’t make much of a difference. Suppose a men’s rugby club books a dozen tickets instead of a middle school girl’s gymnastics team. Each one of those guys could weigh three times as much as the girl. What do you do about that?
Sure, many domestic airlines no longer have life vests, but for the eighty pounds of weight saved, is it really worth the drama and customer disgust?

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5 steps to smarter packing