I start this column with only one aim. I would like to try to impart my love for one of the oldest, and most impenetrable, and aesthetically unattractive, and sociopathic and schizophrenic genres of computer game to a reader who will doubtlessly hate it for all of those exact reasons. I'm talking about rogue-likes, so called because of their ancestry in a progenitor called Rogue. Let's see how I do.

Precorder provides a buffer interface for iPhone video, letting you choose your shots after they've happened. Or seen another way, it's a reticle for aiming special effects at points in space and time.

You bought it? You own it; don't let esoteric screwheads take it away from you. Video after the jump.

In an age of ever-more fantastic gadgets, it's becoming received wisdom that we're all cyborgs now. But as implant hacker Lepht Anonym reminds us, the original vision of the term was dangerous and feral. Videos after the jump.

Even before the viewer catches a glimpse his first Mogwai, Joe Dante's Gremlins establishes the link between the titular goblins and malfunctioning technology by way of Randy Peltzer and his many incompetent inventions. It's a film very much of its time, with many fascinating things to say about the way Reagan-era Americans looked at technology. It's also a movie that would be impossible to remake today, for one big reason: the smartphone is our Bathroom Buddy.

Medical gadgets and the iPhone would seem like a match made in heaven, but device makers have had a hard time finding appealing solutions. Is a blood pressure cuff the perfect fit?

During next week's CES, you'll rarely hear a single word about why you should really care about the devices debuting there... but is that really so surprising when even the electronics makers at CES can't answer as simple a question as why their gadgets matter?

An intriguing concept device called "Thimble" would serve as an interface, text scanner, and Braille e-book reader for the blind. But the crucial technology, a refreshable, haptic Braille display, remains elusive.

This sweat-absorbing, all-natural peripheral promises "a deep feeling of peace, calm and tranquility."

Make the holidays bright for your favorite hacker without spending any money at all. Well, maybe you'll spend a little bit of money�as they say, it's the thought that counts.