All Entries Tagged With: "cool gadgets"
The Clicker Brings Us Closer To A Real Universal Remote
You paid $200 for that super high-tech universal remote and it doesn’t even help you get drunk. You’ve been had. Better trade that useless junk in for The Clicker, a new universal remote that takes the label “universal” one step further: you can use it to pop beers open.
A remote that actually has an integrated bottle opener? Absolutely brilliant. Now, all you have to do is build that RC controlled robot to grab beers from the fridge and you’ll be all set. What if you can’t build a robot? Uhm… I guess you can move the fridge to the living room. All that business of keeping the fridge in the kitchen is overrated anyway.
The Clicker is a nine-function universal remote that can be programmed to control up to eight components: TV, DVD, satellite, cable, VCR, CD, DVR and amplifier. What’s the ninth? [...]
Contech Scarecrow Sprinkler Hoses Down Garden Trespassers
Dogs and cats are adorable, As long as they’re yours. Your neighbors’ pets however can be quite annoying, peeing and pooping in your yard like it’s the city’s designated dump. The Contech Scarecrow Sprinkler doesn’t only keep that from happening, it looks awesome too, looking more like a robot bird head than a tool that just sprays the lawn.
Designed for humane but effective animal deterrence, you can finally get rid of the electrocuted traps you’ve set up along the yard. Make sure you inform the neighborhood association, so they can retract the complaint too. And tell the mailman he’s no longer going to be fried when he tries to walk on your grass. Just really, really wet, but you can hold that part back. Tee-hee.
The Contech Scarecrow Sprinkler is a motion-activated watering device, measuring 24 x 7 x 2.5 inches. Not only does [...]
Essential iPad Accessories You May Need For Your Loving New Toy
After you’ve convinced yourself to get an iPad, you need to decide which accessories to get. Apple knows full well you’re likely not going to use the device as it is. While you can skip getting anything extra, the iPad is one gadget where much of the gear actually sounds requisite. Snagging one or more of these should be included in your “iPad budget.”
1. iPad Dock ($29)
While the iPad comes with a charging and syncing cable, it’s too big a slab of hardware to sit flat. A dock lets you do that upright, all while composing an email, viewing a slide show or reading a document. It can also connect to your stereo system with an audio cable, apart from supporting the iPad Dock Connector to VGA Cable (in case you want to blow-up the screen) and iPad Camera Connection Kit (for grabbing photos from your [...]
City Lights Globe Shows You The Earth From Your Spaceship
You don’t need the earth’s globe to make your study look serious. That went out of style a decade ago. However, the City Lights Globe comes with some clever tricks that might make you want to reserve a space for it anyway.
Like most any globe you can find, it’s got the world map nicely printed on a circular ball representing the planet, with color-coded bodies of land and water adorning its body. It revolves automatically on its axis too, in perfect tune with the earth’s slow movement in space.
The 6-inch diameter City Lights Globe, however, does every globe you’ve seen one better. Once placed on its 5.5-inch mirror base, it shines light on areas where there’s daylight and leaves the rest in darkness. Even cooler, all the different cities of the world are lit from behind, so you can see the different masses of land [...]
Yes, You Can Now Order A Martin Jetpack And Fly It Soon
If you told me fifteen years ago that we still won’t have widely available jetpacks in 2010, I would have cried and then kicked you in the head. Its like telling a little kid that Santa lost his pilot’s license and can’t deliver gifts anymore. . Of course, we’d have jetpacks at WalMart in 2010! Are you crazy?
Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century and we still don’t have the personal flight system that sci-fi dreams are made of at WalMart. But, at least, we’re coming close with the Martin Jetpack, who are now accepting reservations for the first 500 they’re producing in the coming twelve months.
We first featured this commercial-bound jetpack last year, when they announced that the technology is about to be ready before the end of 2009. Well, it took a little while longer than that. After nine prototypes, [...]
ExiTool Cuts Seatbelts, Breaks Windows And Helps You Find Your Way To Safety
Every year, there are more than six million car accidents in the United States alone. Some are nasty that you have no control over and its just bad luck, karma or what ever you wanna call it. Then there are situations that are scary, need quick thinking and action. You never know when you’ll figure in a crazy one, of course – like jumping off a cliff, diving in the water or sliding on a puddle of oil then knocking a giant lorry over before running into a zombie. Just in case you do, it’s always best to be prepared with the ExiTool, an emergency contraption that can help you get out of crazy tight situations.
Created by custom knife-maker Russ Kommer, the multi-function tool came out of a need to provide a simple implement that will allow motorists to bust their way out of nasty road accidents. [...]
Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard Puts An All-In-One PC Accessory In Your Hands
Do you really need another keyboard? Probably not. But who can say no to the Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard, a handheld input device that combines standard computing keys (including F1 to F8), a trackpad, game-friendly buttons and a laser pointer?
Yes, I guess you do need a handheld keyboard. Especially one that squeezes in a slew of all-in-one features that will let you control that multimedia PC you’ve hooked up to the HDTV while you’re lounging six feet away on your gold-upholstered beanbag. Plus, it should work wonders when you’re making that very important presentation at the office. Of course, you should cross your fingers and pray that Brando actually found a supplier whose hardware won’t conk out at the most inopportune time too, but I digress.
The Rii Mini Wireless Keyboard is a pocketable peripheral (151 x 59 x 13mm), with a 2.4GHz frequency USB [...]
The Gakken Premium Gramophone Lets You Make Your Own Vinyl Records…In 2010
Still professing your love for vinyl? Show it like you mean it with the Gakken Premium Gramophone, an old-school record player with the ability to put your music to vinyl.
If you’ve ever looked at one of those vinyl to MP3 recorders and wondered, “Why would you digitize such a pristine art form,” then there’s no doubt about it: this analog music kit is for you. Not only can you play records of all sizes (33, 45, 78 rpm), you can put down your own music directly to vinyl (you sing into the horn and the bamboo needle cuts the track). Finally, you can cut your own independent demo and release it in 1939. If you have a time machine, that is.
The Gakken Premium Gramophone is as authentic as it gets, rocking a metal needle for playing, a bamboo needle for recording, a nickel-plated iron horn and…gasp…a hand crank. Yep, it [...]
PS3 Wireless Visual Interface Lets You Play Your Console While Hiding In The Closet, Taking A Leak And Pretty Much All The Time
Everyone knows the PS3’s hardware is too large to fit into a handheld device. That’s why some dude named techknott from Ben Heck’s forums didn’t even attempt that. Instead, he did something even cooler – he created the PS3 Wireless Visual Interface, a controller with a built-in screen, so you don’t need a separate TV in order to play. Win.
Why did he do it? According to Ben, it’s a happy compromise that allows him to play even though the wife wants to hog the TV. Yep, he’s afraid of his old lady’s wrath just like you. Thus, the workaround. Of course, you can always just get a second TV but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?
The PS3 Wireless Visual Interface is a full-sized, working PS3 controller with integrated display and sound hardware. That way, you can control, watch and listen to any game (or media even) loaded on your [...]
Bliptronics 5000 LED Synthesizer Lets You Make Electronic Music Easily, For Cheap
Always wanted a digital synthesizer but can’t help but balk at their prices? Join the club. Then, turn your attention to the Bliptronic 5000 LED Synthesizer, a $50 box that pumps out retro-style 8-bit tunes.
With a face partly ripped off from the full-featured Yamaha Tenori-On, the music-making gadget makes turning out licks fairly straightforward. Using a pattern-based approach to playing, it ditches all the other complex capabilities that usually comes with sequencer rigs (no MIDI, no in-depth editing), keeping the whole thing simple (not to mention, cheap).
Each backlit button on the Bliptronic 5000’s 8×8 array triggers a note (push to turn on and off), with each vertical row representing one octave. Songs revolve around a constant four-beat pattern whose pace you control using one of the side knobs. Want to play a chord? Press the corresponding notes on the row at the same time. The entire pattern will play till [...]
Tempo Tags Let You Clip On Time, Temperature Anywhere A Tiny Clamp Will Fit
Like small, stylish, single-function products? If you’re nodding your head, then you’re going to love the Tempo Tags, tiny clip-on gadgets that do mundane stuff, like tell time and display temperature.
Don’t have a watch, but want to keep track of time? No problem. Just slap a digital watch Tempo Tag on your pocket, collar or forearm hair to have a time-telling device that displays exactly how late you are for this morning’s interview.
Made out of stainless steel and polycarbonate, each Tempo Tag measures a mere 11 x 28 x 8 mm and looks similar to those single-pencil manual sharpeners you can get a fistful of for a couple dollars. Despite the small size, they pack style in bunches, acting as a unique accessory that just doesn’t come along all that frequently. They come in two functional configurations – a regular one that tells time and a “Thermo” Tag that shows [...]
Intel Reader Scans Books, Turns It Into Audio For The Visually-Impaired
Sure, text-to-speech isn’t anything new. Putting it in a small box that can also scan physical documents, however, changes things up a tad. That’s exactly what the Intel Reader does, helping the visually-impaired listen to books, newspapers and other physical documents using just one self-contained, handheld device.
What exactly can it do? The gadget will readily scan pages off any printed material, run it through an onboard OCR facility, convert it to text and encode it as an MP3. Users can then listen to the resulting audio, effectively allowing those with sight difficulties to work with all types of printed matter, from newspapers to business documents.
The Intel Reader is a small device, measuring about the size of a media player. It holds a small screen, where users can navigate the menu system and access various functions using physical buttons. A 2GB flash storage comes onboard, enough to hold over 500,000 pages [...]
Pocket Light Lets You Keep A Light Bulb In Your Pocket, Perfect For Eureka Moments
Why pack a flashlight in your back pocket when you can slip a light bulb into your wallet? That’s exactly what will happen with the Pocket Light, a concept gadget that puts a working, low-powered bulb inside a credit card-sized slab.
Created by Ryan Harc, the design won a bronze medal at last year’s Koizumi Lighting Awards. While I’m not sure how powerful of an illumination it delivers, it looks decent enough to offer some amount of brightness when you’re sitting in the dark.
The Pocket Light uses a pop-out, bulb-like panel that’s filled with small LEDs inside its slim, transluscent body. He uses one of those round cell batteries (the ones for watches) tucked inside the back panel to provide power. It automatically turns on when you pop the bulb out, which is a fun, clever touch. Imagine pulling it out and popping the bulb while saying something profound – “Eureka!”
It [...]
Entourage Edge Combines E-Reader With An Android UMPC
Why settle for an ebook reader when you can get a full UMPC with it? That’s the whole selling point behind the Entourage Edge, a clamshell-style device that opens to two large displays on each flap.
Able to unfold like a netbook (and it does look like one when closed), the nifty two-in-one integrates a grayscale e-reader on the left side and a functional Android-based UMPC on the other. Both screens display in an upright format, so you can grab it with both hands like an actual book.
The Edge features two relatively large displays, a 9.7-inch e-paper screen and a 10.1-inch LCD. Both panels are touch-sensitive (it comes with a stylus) and can be folded a full 360-degrees (yep, so you only look at one screen). It can handle both PDF and ePub formats, apart from running a full version of Android, so you can use it for regular computing activities, [...]
APSI C100 PND Integrates A Unique Slip-On PMP, Works Like Magic
Personal Navigation Devices, as of late, have largely been no different from each other. Take a slab of brick, add a touchscreen, put in a bunch of electronics inside and load it with all the software it needs. That’s why the APSI C100, which integrates the aforementioned slab into a dock with a bevy of features, is making quite the impression.
Intended for release in the Korean market, with no seeming plans to let the rest of the world in for now, none of the advertising material comes in an English version, so the actual mechanics of how it works isn’t clear. From what we can glean, though, it comes with two components – a snazzy-looking touchscreen handheld and a GPS cradle.
The dock is intended to be permanently installed into your car, adding physical controls, A/V hookups, a DMB TV antenna port, a slot for an optional external GPS receiver and [...]
DORYU 2-16 Pistol Camera Captures Criminals On Film
Sometimes, old gadgets are even more awesome than new ones. That’s certainly true with the DORYU 2-16 Pistol Camera, a police-issue camera gun originally fashioned way back in 1952. Take that James Bond.
Why a camera gun? Barring any Japanese society historians from the post-war around me, I guess it’s so that the police can draw it from their holsters, right at the same time they pull out a pistol. The preserved piece belongs to one Ryu Koakimoto-san (pictured below), who claims it was an actual equipment policemen carried during the era.
According to Ryu, the pistol-shaped image capture device was used to photograph criminals in the act, as well as to record the faces of protestors (who will likely need to be arrested later). The 16mm camera is equipped with a built-in flash system, a bullet clip that holds five magnesium cartridges and a C-mount (like the one used in 16mm [...]
