Bleep. Bleep. BOOOOP! There was something special about Pole Position. We invested countless hours and mounds of quarters to chip away at our race times and beat new courses. Sure, Pole Position may not be as visually stunning as Gran Turismo 5, but dammit it had the fun factor. Just a handful of pixels, 8-bit sound, two pedals and a steering wheel was all we needed for racing glory.

Since we love illogical manifestations of geek nostalgia, we absolutely adore this Pole Position Racing Quilt as available on Etsy. Thanks to Carolina Patchworks, this game racing nostalgia can become the centerpiece to our living room. Impress the hell out of your friends, scare away potential dates, wear your geek cred on your sleeve (or your lap). The Pole Position Racing Quilt might just be the coolest thing on the internet.

Buy: $375

The Linksys WRT330N Wireless Gaming Router connects you to your home network, ties your Ethernet gadgets together at gigabit speeds using the 4-port full-duplex 10/100/1000 switch, and routs the whole network to your high-speed ‘net connection. A network optimizer helps make your online gaming experience run more smoothly, prioritizing the data that’s most important for maximum performance. It runs up to 12 times faster than wireless G, and features 128-bit encryption to protect the sensitive stuff. Gamers take note!

Buy for $159.99

Swedish company Tonium presents Pacemaker, an ultra- portable pocket-sized DJ system. In spite of its size, Pacemaker is being billed as a pro-DJ system and has 120-gig hard drive. It’s tricked out with basic DJ tools of the trade like the Line Out crossfader, headphone crossfader, song cueing, and sound effects. It connects via USB 2.0 and the battery lets you DJ for five hours before the porta-party ends. This one is in “pre-booking” at press time, but is expected to hit the street at approximately $1040 US.

<<Via Core77>>

Word is out from the Macworld Expo: in two weeks, the world’s thinnest Macbook–thin enough to slide into a large manilla envelope–hits the streets at just under $1800. MacWorld reports the MacBook Air will feature a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution. It’s got an instant-on feature and weighs only three pounds. It’s powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo chip at 1.6GHz, but you can upgrade to 1.8GHz.

The MacBook Air will have a full-size keyboard, brightness sensitivity, and a 64GB solid-state drive option. The standard drive is an 80GB Parallel ATA running at 4200 RPM. There’s no internal optical drive but you can you can pay an extra Ben Franklin for a USB SuperDrive addon. In short, it’s totally geek-tastic if you have a thing about being first. But SOME of us will wait til the next iteration of this when they up the ante in the specs department. You can read plenty of grousing about the current specs–the fur is definitely flying in nerdland. On the upside, it’s got a completely recyclable aluminum case and has a lead and mercury-free display.

<Via Macworld>

It’s true–not everybody is in love with Los Angeles. If you’re feeling trapped in the Schwartzenegger State, you can fly your discontent high with this American Apparel I Stomach LA shirt from Twee Things. Frequent-but-reluctant visitors are also encouraged to pick one of these up, you can never have too many snarky shirts. This one comes in styles for men, women, and a unisex version. Did we mention they make one for New York and New Jersey, too?

Buy for $22.

Sick of tweaking those digital photos with your mouse? Do you like to draw, animate, or manipulate images? The Wacom Cintiq raises the bar for precision, ease of use, and getting rid of your sore mousing hand problems forever. Express keys and touch strips let you toggle between a variety of functions including drawing, editing, even surfing the web using the pen as your mouse. Using the pressure-sensitive pen, you work directly on your image as it appears the screen of this tablet. This Mac and Windows-compatible tablet props up like a cavas, can be put flat on a desk, or rests comfortably in your lap. These are available in a variety of sizes from small and handy to desk-hogging. The one pictured has an active area of 17.0 x 12.75.

Buy $2499.99

There have been a hell of a lot of displays and screens to behold at CES 2008, and we would have to give you an overdose, but this little prototype from Alienware is too tasty NOT to talk about. CrunchGear’s photo of Alienware’s new curved computer monitor pretty much says it all; this guy’s expression seems to say “What else do we need to say? It’s frickin’ CURVED!” Reports from CES say you can still see the seams on this thing when you give it the once-over, but Alienware claims those seams will be gone when this thing actually comes to market later in 2008. It’s true that nobody really NEEDS a curved screen any more than anybody really NEEDS to listen to music. But that’s not the point, is it? When you’re playing Crysis or the new GTA on one of these, you’ll feel just that much closer to the action. And let’s not even THINK about those flight simulations…

<Via CrunchGear>

Sony dropped the Mylo 2 internet communicator at CES 2008, calling it “all the fun of a PC in your pocket.” The updated Mylo 2 includes a 3.5-inch touchscreen, wi-fi, and is AIM, Google Talk, and Skype friendly. Mylo 2 is also fully YouTube-able, and includes a 1.3 megapixel camera and a photo editor. Some reviewers are pointing out that the lack of Bluetooth is a serious bummer, and we have to agree but regardless, it still looks pretty fun. Price? Under $300.

More at Sony.

The Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Vegas hasn’t even officially kicked off yet,and already cool gadget news is trickling from Sin City. Among the early reporters is this sweet iLuv combo DVD/iPod player. We love the integrated iPod slot, and while we’d never encourage you do to anything illegal, this sort of setup does seem to have an appeal to a certain sort of person who might connect a DVD player to a laptop. The player lets you view iPod video onscreen just like an ordinary DVD, so it does have its handy legit uses, too. All those TV show downloads via iTunes and Amazon are now much more accessible for home use, and with a price tag set below $200, this is awfully tempting. This is slated to drop in March.

<Via SlipperyBrick>

The Equus 3120 Car Diagnostic Scanner connects to your car, truck, or SUV and scans it for a variety of problems and routine maintenance issues. Are you in compliance with local emissions standards? How’s your catalytic converter? Is your fuel filter on its last legs? Maybe your idle is set too high? The Equus takes readings on trouble codes in your car’s computer and has a variety of features to help you properly diagnose the problem. If you’ve ever wondered why that “Check Engine” light suddenly popped on, you can learn get to the bottom of the trouble in a snap, thanks to the Equus 3120.

Buy for $166.99