Gadgets Blog

A greener and cost effective way to transport people is always an important issue.  Well this design was entered into the Australian Design Awards competition.  It’d be great for heavily trafficked tourist areas or just spots where a lot of people tend to go on foot.  After a while, walking can become tiring when you’ve got a long walk.  Plus these scooters will get you there slightly faster than they normally would.

The scooters are folded up and placed into the lamp post and then when you want to use them you just take one off of the post.  The electric scooters will go 16km/h, which is at least a little faster than on foot.  It does raise some questions as to how to prevent theft and vandalism.  However, it’s a refreshing new take on public transportation.  For safety reasons there will be a supplied helmet that the user must wear when they register to use the system.  You would also of course be required to follow any existing cycling and road rules.

Source: SlipperyBrick

Whenever I’m in the Apple store, I can’t resist drooling over the Mac Mini.  I already have a tiny PC that does basically the same thing as a Mac Mini hooked up to my TV, but it’s nowhere near as pretty as the Mac Mini.  I know, it’s sad to admit that I want an electronic device mostly because of how it looks. However, let’s face it, I’m not the only Mac fan that way.  A large part of the reason Apple products are such a pleasure to own, is because they have such a nice sleek look to them.  The down side with Apple products is that they lack a decent range of colors.

They all are white or gray with black accents.  All around, nowhere near colorful, but we overlook it because we love the products too much.  Those that can’t take anymore will usually resort to skins to spice up their laptops or iPods.  Sadly though, there’s not much of a way to add color to the Mac Mini, that is until now.  Computer Choppers is not offering to customize that bright white Mac Mini for you and give it a bit of color.  The custom jobs start out at $199.  They offer 16 different color choices and then 6 different patterns (including camouflage).  It’s not something that would be cheap, but if you’re tired of bland colors and have some extra cash it’d be the way to go.

Source: Gearfuse

Imagine a world where robots tend our gardens, helping us grow fresh food while we sit there and do nothing but enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors.

It would appear that students and researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have created robots that can tend tomato plants. The plants are equipped with soil sensors and they can network with the robots, allowing them to communicate when they need water or nutrients.

No human is required for this robo-gardening operation. The robots have watering pumps and arms that can gently pick cherry tomatoes.

The goal of this project is, of course, to “develop a fully autonomous greenhouse”, so there are robots and plants that are connected together by computation and communication.

So, is this the beginning of robots gardening for us? If it is, then perhaps they could do all kinds of agriculture. Can you imagine entire fields of wheat harvested by a robot combine?

A vision plucked from science fiction, to be sure. Still, one has to ask oneself if there are certain things that robots are limited in doing when it comes to agricultural work. Also, it sounds like you have to wire the soil and plants, besides program the robots. In other words, is robot farming more trouble than it is worth?

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Just when you think that nothing can be done with outlets or power strips, two new products come along just to prove you wrong. Okay, maybe you weren’t thinking that anything more could be done with outlets or power strips, but you will be amazed by these next two products.

The first is the Power Shelf, designed by Lynn Fetzer-Westmeister. It is simply an outlet with a shelf. The inventor had the inspiration one day when she realized that she could plug her phone in to be charged, and have a nice place to rest it. They even have a model that is built for laptops.

The Second is called the Movable Power, and it looks like some sort of power strip puzzle game. Why would anyone want this? Think about all the bulky plugs that you have that take up way too much space on the power strip. My laptop cord has an angle to it that only allows it to be used on the edge of the power strip.

Right now, the Movable Power interchangeable power strip is merely a concept from out friends at Yanko Design. As for the Power Shelf, you should be able to get that now at varying prices. The one for the cellular phone is about $15.95, but the one for the laptop is about $59.95.

Source1 and Source2

Dell has a good reason to be excited with their recent unveiling of the Studio One 19. It is designed to look “functional” in any room of the house, and it is made up aluminum, glass, and fabric with an 18.5 inch display with 1,366 x 768 aspect ratio.

The specs look pretty good with CPU options that include Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad Core and either nVidia GeForce 9200 or 9400 GPU option. The hard drive can go up to 750GB with 4G of memory. It also has a 7-in-1 media card reader, and six USB ports. The user has the option of wireless capability and a 1.5 megapixel webcam, as well as Blu-ray and…(wait for it)…touchscreen!

That’s right, this Dell has a touchscreen, just in time for Windows 7. The touchscreen feature allows for “multi-touch photo editing, slideshow creation, playlist compilation, notes, and web browsing”. The touchscreen allows for easy recording and uploading videos on YouTube, as well as Flickr. As for entertainment, the user can have a blast with the multi-touch percussion center and the You Paint finger painting software.

The prices begin at $699, but that price is more with the addition of the touchscreen and Blu-Ray features.

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Digital photo frames are a great way to show off pictures of your kids and family while you’re at work.  The down side is that they take up extra desk space, which isn’t usually an issue.  However, there are some cases where desk space is strongly needed or you just might prefer a work area free of excessive clutter.  This cup allows for you to have a spot to hold your pens and pencils as well as have a small photo frame right there on your desk.

It’s not a large screen, it’s only a 1.5” LCD screen.  It is plenty large enough to still have your little sentimental attachments at work.  It will store up to 70 different photos, which is far more than you could place in non-digital frames on your desk. The cup can also display the time on it.  The bad part is that it only has 1MB of built-in memory and no way to utilize a memory card, which means those 70 pictures are going to have to be fairly small.  However, at $22.99, that’s still not too bad.

Source: CraziestGadgets

There is never a better time than now if you want to start shedding some weight around your waist, and this is where we see the V-Fit Mini Twist Stepper being able to help you. After all, having the ability to exercise right in the comfort of your own home allows you to do so in the buff if you’re so inclined, or even shave some time off from driving to the nearest park - not to mention not having to breathe in all the city smog.

This great piece of home gym equipment is small and compact, so you can jump on for a quick upper and lower body workout in the smallest of spaces and tidy the mini stepper away in between fitness training. Tailor your workouts on the exercise stepper with an adjustable step height and feel the burn from the preset hydraulic resistance. Five functions on the mini stepper record your progress by counting calories, steps, steps per minute, time and scrolling through the lot with function scan. Sculpt calves and thighs and use the bungee cords to tone your upper body. Large non-slip footplates ensure the exercise stepper is safe and easy to use. Park your mini stepper in front of the television for fun and effective workouts â€" no overpriced gym membership required!

The V-Fit Mini Twist Stepper will retail for £44.95 each - be warned though, it is able to handle a maximum load of 110kg, so if you’re heavier than that and want to find a suitable home exercise machine, we suggest you consult your doctor beforehand for professional advice.

WALL-E was one of the better movies that came out last year, not only because of its super cool animation but the cute characters in there are certainly more than memorable, while sending a dire message to humankind that we ought to learn to keep our environment clean for future generations instead of absconding all responsibility by jumping aboard a self-sustaining spaceship. Enter the Japanese WALL-E Mini Figure Set to decorate your desk at home or at the office.

Now you can collect this fine WALL-E mini figure set imported from Japan. It’s WALL-E, Eve and all his robot pals from the movie in itty-bitty-form on a snap together base. Yep you get the full set of figures you see in the image, which would normally comprise five vending machine capsules. So rather than forcing you to stand on a street corner in Tokyo pumping 100 yen coins into a capsule toy machine hoping for the “perfect” WALL-E figure set we’ve done all the dirty work for you. Doo itashimashite!

Bear in mind that when they called this the Japanese WALL-E Mini Figure Set, they mean business. After all, when assembled together, it measures a mere 5.5″ in length. $17.99 is the asking price if you want to bring all 8 robots and their plastic base home.