Gadgets Blog

Cool dads are the ones who spend time with their kids playing and creating stuff. REAL cool dads are the ones that help their kids change the world. And Jon Bohmer is a REAL cool dad. Working with his two girls, Jon has created a solar oven out of about five dollars worth of cardboard, foil, and acrylic which can generate so much heat, it can bake bread and even boil water using nothing but the Sun. How cool is that? Here’s how it works…

With two cardboard boxes, Jon paints the inner box flat black and wraps the outer box in aluminum foil. Then, he slips the black inside the foil and covers it with the acrylic sheet and points it towards the sun. This setup concentrates and captures enough heat to create temperatures in excess of 350 degrees and it does it without burning so much as a stick of wood â€" which contributes to deforestation and global warming.

Scouts have been creating cardboard ovens for years, but not with a solar capability. Just by harnessing the power of the sun in a way that would make any Scout proud, Bohmer’s device will boil water and cook food which will save millions of lives who die from drinking contaminated water.

The Invention â€" which Bohmer said took an afternoon to create and costs less than $5 in materials â€" won the FT Climate Challenge award for the “most innovative and practical solution to climate change.”

Hat Tip - CNN

The National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is working on creating a laser which can compress and heat a single fuel capsule to more than 180 million degrees in order to trigger a thermonuclear reaction. In short, they’re building a Death Star Laser. But for good, not evil. The idea is to create a kind of miniature sun on earth that would supply “limitless, safe, and carbon free energy.”

Normally, fusion â€" which is the bonding together of heavy atoms to create energy â€" takes place in hot environments like stars, but with 192 giant lasers, the NIF is attempting to create the same kind of reaction here on earth. The reaction will be accomplished by superheating the outside of a fuel capsule contining about one millionth of a pound of deuterium and tritium. This will cause the interior of the capsule to compress while the exterior explodes much like a star does. The biggest challenge? Containing the reaction as 180 million degrees will melt just about any known substance here on earth. But the reaction itself may be the key to containing it as, according to the NIF, the reaction consumes the cooler outer region faster than the capsule can release the hotter elements, thereby containing it.

Serious ignition testing is scheduled for next year. Then its’ bound to be a horse race to see if it can beat the Hadron collider in destroying the planet.

Hat Tip â€" Live Science

Most females have been raised with the knowledge pounded in their head that they should regularly be checking for lumps in their breasts.  You’re taught to search for general irregularities, but most are still left wondering if they could miss something.  You may second guess your method or timing, but all around there are a lot of factors that plague the typical female.  Especially those that have a history of breast cancer within their family.  Well now you can purchase the Breastlight that will give you a much more clear and visual approach.

First you shut off all the lights and make sure it’s plenty dark.  Then you apply the lubricant that is meant for the Breastlight.  Turn on the Breastlight and put it on the underside of your breast and look down.  Keep it pressed firmly and for a better full view, use a mirror to make sure you’ve seen all the areas.  Lumps will show up as dark areas underneath the skin.  The light is a bit pricey, but for women with a high risk factor, it might be worth the extra money.  You can purchase it for £77.50 or about $114.

Source: ShinyShiny

Some people just aren’t the greatest with other people, sometimes they’re just far better with animals.  Well for the dog owners out there that have a strong love for their dog, Honda is about to release an SUV that’s worth looking over.  It is created to accommodate those that enjoy driving around with their pet.  It’d be especially great for those that love taking road trips with their pup along with them.

The Honda Element 2009 already was popular with pet owners due to the washable floor, which makes things far easier.  Actually the washable floor makes the vehicle more practical for messy kids as well.  Well now they are also adding a cushioned bed and most importantly, pet restraints.  After all, you wouldn’t want anything to happen to your dog in the event of a car accident.  Other great perks include an elevated platform, second row as well as cargo pet restraint systems, a 12V DC rear ventilation fan, second row seat covers with a dog pattern design.  To finish it off they added an extendable cargo area load-in ramp, all-season rubber floor mats with a toy bone pattern, a spill resistant water bowl and dog friendly exterior emblems.  The car is supposed to be released in the fall.  In some ways it does seem like a bit much, but some people treasure their pets as much as they would children, so it’s nice that there’s an option out there for them.

Source: Bornrich

I realize that I am a week late with April Fool’s Day, but I suppose any time is good for a practical joke. Especially one that involves electricity. Yes, it is easy to go overboard with electricity when you are doing a practical joke, like the Joker did in Tim Burton’s first Batman film.

Provided that you don’t want to kill your enemy, the Electric Shocking Mouse might be the best way to bring aggravation. Apparently, it will give a jolt that will not harm or hurt, but just enough of a shock to make everyone laugh.

I don’t know what the power source is on this guy. I’ve always wondered if you could shock someone through USB power, but this particular shocking mouse is wireless.

Now, the problem that I have with this product is that the desired prank might be difficult to pull off. I’m not certain if this mouse could pass as the victim’s mouse. In other words, that could be a pause for suspicion right there that could spoil the gag. However, some people, like myself, just reach for their mouse without even looking.

So this is how you pull off this gag on a co-worker, just say: “hey, did you get the e-mail saying that our paycheck will be one month late?” The co-worker will panic and grab his or her mouse to check for this terrifying e-mail, and receive a great shock.

Fortunately, the price of this gag is probably worth the price of the joke. You should be able to purchase this at the Sourcing Map for about $5.99.

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If you’re one those types who were drooling over the Star Trek Wallpaper that we posted the other day, then you are going to want to rush out and purchase the new Scene it game with a Star Trek theme.

If you are not familiar with Scene it, it is a board game that is played with a special DVD that is sort of a Trivial Pursuit with a pure entertainment focus. I’m sure that this Star Trek edition will have clips from all five of Star Trek shows, and even some of the movies.

You may notice that the playing pieces are in the shape of Starfleet ships with four collectable tokens. It also has 16 Prime Directive cards. The gameboard itself doesn’t look very Trekkie, though.

As for the box, I wonder how they got all five captains together in one room to pose for the picture? Okay, they just Photoshopped them together, but they really needed a better shot of Scott Bakula (aka Captain John Archer from Enterprise, Sam Becket from Quantum Leap, and now Chuck’s Dad).

If you are interested, you can purchase it at the Screenlife games site. This is one of three new Scene it editions, including the Disney channel and Seinfeld. The Star Trek edition has two collector’s editions like the Captains box and limited edition ships.

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Most first time parents will attest to this - they have purchased more toys than needed for their little one during their growing up years, but here’s one that ought to be on top of your wish list - the Snuza Halo which brings together the practicality of military grade sensing technology, offering a movement monitor that can be used wherever your baby falls asleep.

The Snuza Halo takes the road less traveled by ing small, light and easy to use. The Snuza has many advantages over other traditional monitors, and is roughly 30 times smaller and 20 times lighter compared to standard under-mattress monitors. Cutting edge technology is used in its circuitry to achieve this, and the Snuza Halo also sips very little power when in use. Without the presence of wires on the monitor, the baby’s neck and limbs won’t be in risk of getting caught in cables or straps.

The Snuza Halo is a cinch to use, all you need to do is turn it on and slip it over your baby’s diaper waistband, where the sensitive motion detector will kick in and recognize baby’s tummy movements. Should there be no movement for 15 seconds, it will trigger a vibration so that your little one will move about, imitating a technique called ‘Cutaneous Stimulation’ that is used in many hospitals’ Neonatal Intensive Care Units worldwide. Should there be no movement for another 5 seconds, an audible alarm will be triggered for prompt medical response.

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There is nothing quite like the satisfying sound of listening to insects being zapped to oblivion during the night by an electric-powered Insect Zapper. Unfortunately, that takes up juice which would not go down well with people who want to keep their power bill down, especially in these times of economic hardship. Enter the Solar Insect Zapper which does the nasty job without sipping a single watt of power from the grid.

This set of four solar insect lights simply stake into the ground anywhere in your yard and harness the sun’s energy to efficiently eliminate over 100 varieties of flying insects. The UV bulb turns on automatically at dusk and lures mosquitoes, flies, and other insects to eliminate them instantly with a 300-volt electric charge, providing chemical-free bug protection for up to eight hours on a full charge. An integrated solar panel requires only moderate sunlight and charges the internal batteries in eight hours. A grate surrounds the bulbs to discourage curious hands and protect wayward pets, and the housing is made from 100% stainless steel that resists damage from sun and rain. The units switch from bug zappers to accent lights at the touch of a button.

You can always bring one home for $99.95.

Vinyl, you still got it. Granted, most people have their favorite tunes on their iPod, but some of the old school crowd still have their favs on the LPs. Unfortunately, turntables these days are about as rare as, well, CD players.

Yeah, basic music format is practically all digital these days, which is why devices such as the Denon DP-200USB were invented. The DP-200USB Turntable allows the user to convert their vinyl tracks into MP3s.

All you need to do is put on the disc, and insert a USB flash drive in front. Hitting the start and record buttons is all you need to do from there, and the entire album is stored on a convenient flash drive that you can plug into any PC, anywhere.

The DP-200USB includes a Trans Music Manager, which allows the user to obtain track numbers and information. Trans Music Manager detects silent spaces between tracks, and using a PC will allow the user to access the Gracenote music ID server and obtain track information.

Other features include a built-in phono equalizer which allows the user to enjoy the music on a mini audio system or radio cassette player. The DP-200USB is also a fully automatic player which will automatically adjust its arm for whatever size of record that you are playing.

If you’re one those types that still clings to your old vinyl collection, even though you might not have a turntable, then perhaps the Denon DP-200USB can bring you into the digital age. It costs about $300, and can be purchased on the Denon UK site.

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Just when you thought computers could not get any smaller than netbooks that are proliferating the market at this point in time, along comes Glacier Computer and their Ridgeline W200 wearable computer. Of course, you need not expect this to function as well as a netbook for obvious reasons, but it is interesting to see whether such a device has a place in today’s world of gadgets. After all, there are already tons of smartphones out there which function as mini-computers of sort, keeping track of your Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, connecting to the Internet with a much larger display than the W200 while sporting a relatively speedy processor. Let’s take a closer look at what this Windows CE-powered W200 has to offer right after the jump.

According to Glacier, the Ridgeline W200 is not meant to be used as a mainstream computing device, but rather will target emergency services, security, defense, and field logistics applications. It was meant to keep both hands of a user free, hence the wrist-mounted computer design that further saves battery power by automatically entering standby whenever it is being hung down alongside the body. Glacier also mentioned that the Ridgeline W200 will offer “continuous connectivity regardless of the user’s location” courtesy of its Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS connectivity options. This device tips the scales at 10.2 ounces and will come with 3.5″ touchscreen display accompanied by 11 backlit keys.

Underneath the hood, you will find the W200 wrist computer powered by a Marvell PXA270 400MHz processor, 128MB RAM and 1.2GB of internal memory (now that’s a pretty weird number, don’t you think?), a 3.5″ touchscreen display at 320 x 240 resolution, USB 1.1 connectivity (bummer - who uses USB 1.1 devices these days anyways?) and a tough exterior that allows it to function in a temperature range of -10 to 50 degrees Celsius. No idea on when the Ridgeline W200 will be released nor how much it will cost though.

Source: Windows for Devices

Acer has revealed their latest computing machine, the AspireRevo that is powered by NVIDIA’s new Atom-based Ion platform. What you see here is the official release of Acer’s Hornet concept that was revealed to the world (unwittingly, of course) in a leaked presentation a couple of months back. According to NVIDIA, the AspireRevo will measure no larger than a standard hardcover book, and yet it packs more than enough punch to function as a fully capable desktop complete with advanced graphics and impressive multimedia features.

While Intel Atom-powered netbooks and nettops aren’t exactly number crunchers in their own right (heck, even using Internet Explorer slows down a netbook considerably), NVIDIA claims the Ion-based AspireRevo will be different as it will be able to juggle a range of computing needs including HD video playback and gaming. In fact, NVIDIA is so bold as to proclaim the AspireRevo is able to run Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare as well as Spore on the diminutive system decently, just make sure you don’t turn on all the graphical options while running it at the highest resolution of course - common sense dictates so. In addition, this little machine that could also supports 1080p video playback with 7.1 audio.

Connectivity options are aplenty in the Acer AspireRevo, as you will benefit from half a dozen USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and VGA display connectors, an eSATA port as well as a memory card reader. You won’t find the ultra stable Windows XP operating system here, as it will run on Windows Vista Home Premium as standard, supporting an Atom 230 processor and a maximum of 4GB DDR2 RAM. As for storage options, you can choose between an SSD or a hard drive - unfortunately, you can’t have both inside due to limited space. There is no word on pricing, but the original leaked presentation slides point towards a “couple hundreds [sic] dollars” - would you take the plunge at that price?

Source: Bit Tech

For those aspiring doctors and nurses, here’s a morbid flash drive for you.  When you can’t get enough of jamming the tip of that needle into people at work, you can sit and reminisce over the good times you’ve had with your trusty needles.  The USB drive also leaves the insides nice and exposed, which is likely to appeal to the hardcore geeks that adore seeing the insides of their electronics.

The flash drive is a decent size for a decent price, for once.  It does happen occasionally with novelty flash drives, but just rarely enough to keep it exciting when an affordable one is spotted.  It has 8GB of storage to hold your files and what ever else you think a syringe flash drive should hold.  Perhaps you can store the secrets to some antidote on it or just make it look like you did.  Then leave it lying around for a roommate to find who has played too much Resident Evil.  You can purchase the drive for $29 through USB Brando.

Source: Gizmodiva