Erstwhile known as Homestar EX, Sega Toys will soon be releasing Homestar EXTRA, a home planetarium system. Aside from being a home planetarium, Homestar EXTRA is also marketed as a system for schools, bars, and other more professional venues. It exhibits five times the brightness of earlier version, Homestar Pro, and hence can be used even in dimly lit rooms.

Additionally, while the Pro version only has 10,000 stars and clusters, EXTRA can have 45,000 to over 120,000. It also has a shooting star function that instructs falling heavenly bodies to appear in random locations on the projection and in random times. Homestar EXTRA will start shipping on December with a multifunction remote control for an expected retail price in the range of $700 to $800.

Thrustmaster announced Wii controller add-ons that may make your wish list for the holiday season grow even longer. Casual and hardcore gamers alike will enjoy these new offering.

If you ask me, “Dominatrix” is a downright stupid name for a mouse, but OCZ’s latest offering does pack a bit of punch. The laser mouse will do you from 400dpi (chuckle) all the way up to a ridiculously fast 2,000dpi, and has independently adjustable X and Y axes. It also packs in some adjustable weights.

This doesn’t seem to offer anything that would compel me to throw away my Razer Lachesis, but if you are in the market for a new mouse, then this might be a worthwhile option, especially if the price is right.

I should’ve seen this coming. After robotic pet dogs and cats, Sega Toys now comes out with a robo-hamster. What’s next for the folks over at Sega Toys; robo-plants? Oh wait, they’ve already done that. Named the “Dream Hamster,” the product would be released on August 8, 2008 for approximately $12 per furry bot. Just press the switch on its abdomen and hold the Dream Hamster on your hand for it to start moving.

There are three different types available for purchase: the Golden hamster, Roborovski hamster, and the Jangarian hamster which is especially famous in Japan. Sega Toys is targeting women 20 to 40 years of age and expects to sell 100,000 Dream Hamster units per year. While I’m squirming with glee over their cuteness, I can’t help but feel a bit sad for the robo-hamsters’ real-life counterparts.

The Ur.Frog wrist rest is made of silicone and features built-in LEDs that will make the frog glow in the dark when it’s connected to a USB port.

Online store GeekStuff4U is selling a USB powered version of a carnival classic, whack-a-mole. For roughly $42(the listed price is 21.00€) you get this little tabletop game where you “whack” little ghosts by pressing them with your fingers when they light up.

It keeps score and has sound effects for the whacking. It’s too bad the ghosts don’t pop up and down like the real whack-a-mole. Then again, I was never good at the real whack-a-mole, so I might have a fighting chance with this version. Cotton Candy and seedy gamer merchants not included.

This digital bingo calling box displays the the selected numbers with large digits on the screen, all to make sure that no numbers are misinterpreted.

Microsoft just announced at E3 that they’ll be giving the Xbox 360 a total software overhaul this fall. “When people turn on their Xbox 360s this fall, they’ll get an entirely new interface and Dashboard, an entirely new Xbox through the magic of software,” said John Schappert, head of Live services. New features will include those fancy new Mii-like 3D Avatars, a new emphasis on community with IM, video chat, and photo sharing, along with a brand new 3D slide interface for the main Dashboard screen. Avatars will be integrated into your GamerCard, but you can also create a “Live party” and invite your friends, with as many as 8 of your three dimensional homies hanging out at once — though you’re not hanging out in an actual 3D environment. You can use your avatar in certain Live Arcade games like Uno, and even in third party titles such as the upcoming Scene It? title. It sounds like Microsoft is taking cues from the Wii, Sony’s Home and Facebook all in one fell swoop, not bad at all.

There was so much coolness at the Museum of Modern Art’s Elastic Mind exhibit, it was hard to absorb it all in one shot, but look what else was there: It’s a Pong table, updated to incorporate the physical world. If you’re old enough to remember Pong, that pioneer video game from 1974 that started in bars and helped pay some of our ways through college thanks to crafty wagering/hustling, you’ll find this modern version vaguely familiar.

The difference is the 2400 LEDs inside that show the puck’s position, and the two track pads embedded in front of each player, giving them complete control over the proceedings. Flip off the power, and the table shows no evidence of the electronic trickery just under the surface, appearing to be a plain white plastic table with oddly splayed legs. Designer Moritz Waldemeyer gave no indication of whether or when this neat game might be available.