From CrunchGear – this is a solar battery charger. Comes with two batteries, a solar charger cell and can be plugged into the wall to charge those batteries if there’s no light available. It has a USB out, which means it can then be used to plug almost anything that charges via USB (iphone, blackberry, etc.). Don’t know what the actual charging output is, but it will “debut” shortly at CES and then sell in the US for $50. Could be a handy little toy.

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If you’re traveling through London, more specifically Heathrow Terminal 5, Gordon Ramsay’s got his own take on fast food and take away in the terminal, called Gordon Ramsay’s Plane Food. As reported on Serious Eats, you can get a 3 course meal in an insulated bag for 12 pounds. And it looks like this:

and this:

In other words, a definite step up from economy class food.

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Here is something I am buying later today, Western Digital’s WD TV. I’ve bought units like this before – generally a box that you slip a hard disk into and then connect up to your TV and/or stereo, allowing you to watch media you’ve downloaded on your home entertainment center rather than on your computer.

Previous boxes I’ve owned all come from Korean companies that went out of business rather rapidly – which translates to no firmware updates. The current box I’m using can’t handle MKV files and can’t deal with subtitles on AVI files. And as it happens, the remote is on the same frequency as my NOW TV set-top box, which as you can imagine is a pain.

The WD box is different in that you don’t slide a hard disk in, you can connect any USB storage device. (They’d like you to use a WD one but you don’t have to.) And it handles all those options with a variety of outputs including HDMI at resolutions up to 1080p. And since this is Western Digital, hopefully they won’t go out of business in six months and I can get ongoing support and updates. Costs between HK$800-HK$900. Here’s CrunchGear’s review.

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The new must-have free iPhone app? Pundits are saying it’s Animoto, which takes the photos on your iPhone and turns them not just into slide shows, it turns them into music videos. Free. Will try it over the weekend.

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Here’s another free iPhone app that could be quite useful to us …. Shizhi converts Chinese measurements to western ones. I can never remember how big a catty is supposed to be (and of course it’s always different, especially if you’re a gweilo).

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Last but not least for now, I know this looks like a photo taken in Fenwick’s, but actually it’s the otherwise talentless Pussycat Dolls. Lead singer Nicole Scherzinger (center) is half Filipino.

TTFN!