All Entries Tagged With: "technology"

Samsung Galaxy Tab: iPad, Meet Your First Serious Competition

Samsung has finally made a formal announcement on their poorly-kept secret of a slate.  Called the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the much-awaited device will run Android 2.2 Froyo and own the distinction of being the first DivX-certified tablet.
With the DivX certification, Samsung is obviously positioning this as a capable multimedia device for mobile users.  Unfortunately, it won’t be able to display full 720p video, with screen resolution topping at 1,024 x 600 pixels (HD content will be played, but output will be downgraded). Aside from DivX, it also offers support for XviD, MPEG4, H.263, H.264 and other formats.

Details of the Samsung Galaxy Tab include a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, a rear-facing 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash, a forward-facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video calling, 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, a bevy of onboard sensors (gyroscope, geo-magnetic sensor, accelerometer and light sensor), choice of onboard storage (16GB or 32GB) and microSD [...]

Scubster, A Submersible That Drives Like A Bicycle

We’ve seen folks take a stab at pedal-powered submersibles before.  The Scubster, however, has a real, working prototype that allows its driver to literally bike underwater.
Created by a team of French engineers, the Stephane Rousson design borrows a resemblance to the yellow submarine used in the classic James Bond flick, The Spy Who Loved Me.  It can probably play perfect for spy work too, with the entirely human-powered mechanism running in stealthy silence.

The Scubster is an almost 14 feet long submersible vehicle, designed to sit a single individual inside the water-tight cabin.  You operate it by working your leg muscles (or arm muscles, if you’re driving it while lying on your stomach), activating the pedal belt that’s connected to a twin-propeller system that pushes the craft forward.  Depending on how well you can ride a bicycle, it can reach top speeds of up to 5 mph, along with a maximum [...]

Swimsense Gives Real-Time Tracking For Swimmers

Bikers have bike computers that count wheel revolutions.  Joggers have pedometers that keep track of their steps, along with even more complete solutions, like Nike+.  Now, swimmers get in on the real-time performance-tracking action with Swimsense, a wrist-worn computer that keeps a tab on your numbers while you’re paddling in the water.
Created by Finis, the device incorporates a motion-sensing system that uses accelerometers to not just count your strokes – it can determine whether you’re performing a breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle or butterfly too.  Fill in the other details, such as the length of the pool, gender, age and weight, and it can deliver pretty accurate reports of your in-water performance data.
The Swimsense Performance Monitor comes in wristwatch form and should be easy to mistake as one of the many Casio knock-offs from the 1980s.  More advanced than that era’s digital timepieces, however, the fitness gadget should prove an invaluable tool [...]

Party Like It’s 1929 With Brandy Smuggler Walking Cane Flask

Getting drunk never goes out of style, no matter how old you get. “World-renowned, century-old cane masters” know it only all too well and have come up with your soon-to-be favorite gadget: the Brandy Smuggler Walking Cane Flask, a real cane that lets the you hide flasks of alcohol inside.
Your retirement home too strict with the diet? The hospital won’t allow alcohol in the premises? Your kids are keeping a watchful eye on everything you consume? Life’s too short to stay sober, so fool them all with this clever smuggler’s tool, which discreetly sneaks in up to 10oz of your favorite poison at a time.
The Brandy Smuggler Walking Cane Flask is a genuine, functional walking stick. Made of black anodized aluminum, it measures 36 inches long and can support up to 250 pounds of your body weight as you make your way to the liquor [...]

Bodum’s Upcoming Bistro Line Of Appliances Feature Nubbed Rubber Skins In Pastel Colors

Tired of plastic and tin on your kitchen appliances? Watch out for Bodum’s upcoming Bistro line, which wraps familiar contraptions in colorful rubber, dotted with grip-friendly nubs.
You might have previously seen the same rubber skinning on Bodum’s rubber toaster from last year. As it turns out, feedback from that went very positively, prompting the company to expand the line to cover a whole host of kitchen items that, because of their pastel-colored surfaces, look more like toys than mom’s new favorite home gadgets.
The Bodum Bistro line consists of seven new appliances, consisting of the BISTRO Electric Burr Grinder (which uses conical burrs for grinding coffee, instead of chopping blades), the BISTRO Blade Grinder (a more traditional grinder with stainless steel blades), the BISTRO Electric Juicer, the BISTRO Handheld Blender (a two-speed blending wand), the BISTRO Electric Water Kettle, the BISTRO Hand Mixer (with five mixing speeds) and the [...]

GasCase Diesel And Fuel Bring Gas Station Chic To The Jetset Crowd


Here’s a guaranteed way to get you flagged by airport security: bring along luggage disguised as jerrycans. Infuriating airport personnel is exactly what you’ll do with the GasCase Diesel and GasCase Fuel, two trolley cases that epitomize “gas station chic.”
Okay, I just made up that last phrase. Paired with a service shirt complete with a name patch, though, that’s about the only way I can describe your blue collar fashion aesthetic.
Both bags are made from pickled sheet steel that’s 0.9mm thick, with heavy-duty trolley wheels and an aluminum telescopic handle attached to them. Each case sports 47 x 35 x 16 cm dimensions, painted to a shine in one of seven colors and secured with a butterfly lock. The GasCase Diesel opens to the side with the bag splitting right in the middle like regular travel luggage, while the Fuel opens from the top like a [...]

Scientists Create Universal Mirror, The Exact Opposite Of An Invisibility Cloak

An invisibility cloak reflects light at the exact opposite direction as its source, basically making it look like there’s nothing in the way between you and the object you’re looking straight at. A universal mirror, on the other hand, is its direct contrary, bouncing light back at the exact same location from where it came.
Scientists in Europe and Asia have now been able to produce the latter, a mirror that basically reflects everything back to the same source, regardless of what angle its originating from. Objects it can work on include lights, microwaves and lasers, potentially making them useful for deflection laser weaponry, radar tracking and as a general-purpose shield. Yep, it’s a force field against laser attacks – take that, future soldiers.
The universal mirror (similar to the invisibility cloak originally built in 2006) uses metamaterials, tiny structures that are smaller than light waves, for its construction. [...]

Recycle Technology Into Art

Many people love finding unique pieces of artwork that no one has ever seen before.  Sometimes this means stumbling upon an emerging artist who hasn’t become popular yet.  Other times it means finding something just different enough that no one else will have seen it.  That’s the case with some of this cool artwork created from recycled pieces of technology.
Jeremy Meyer is the creator of some of these cool pieces of art.  He creates robots and other mechanical structures from old typewriters.  He’s done everything from turning a typewriter into an angry, Frankenstein like face to making an entire person out of typewriter parts!  Even more incredible is the fact that he does not glue or weld any of the pieces together but instead finds ways of making the typewriter parts naturally connect to each other.
Ann Smith, on the other hand, loves making owls, dinosaurs, and other fun creatures out [...]