Gadgets Blog

Spring is finally here and it’s starting to actually feel like summer might be around the corner after all.  Once the weather does keep warm, you might want some music for entertaining outdoors.  You could set up something indoors and just open a window, but then it’s loud inside and doesn’t sound that great outside.  Instead it’s better to pick up a speaker that can withstand the weather, no matter what it may bring.  Well, ok, so it might not do so well in earthquakes, hurricanes and tornadoes, but what would?

This approximately 1000mm tall speaker is an all weather portable outdoor speaker set up for your iPod.  You just put your iPod on the dock and leave it indoors, then it will transmit wirelessly to this speaker.  It will do so up to 100 meters away.  This is a slightly more high end speaker, so you can be reassured knowing that it will likely have great sound quality.  The speaker is thankfully not affected by microwave ovens, phones or other random wireless devices.  It has an 8” bass woofer and four 3” high frequency treble speakers and a 100 watt digital amplifier.  It will operate for up to 10 hours using the rechargeable NiMH battery pack.    This will cost you £464.89 or about $675.

Source: SwitchedonSet

In a lot of ways it seems as if LED lighting has become a bit of an addiction for designers.  Perhaps it’s still a new enough concept that it’s fun to toss it into every item they create.  Well here’s yet another mirror that comes with lighting built into it.  It has quite a bit of customization for the user too.  You can choose between patterns and coloring, all giving different lighting effects.  You can even leave quirky messages on the mirror.

The mirror isn’t out yet, so there isn’t any word on pricing, you can expect it to be pricey though.  It’s expected to start coming out this year and you can contact the creator, Seura, to find out more information.  The Lumination mirror comes in a variety of sizes so that you can pick the right size to fit your bathroom.  Then you choose the lighting effect you would like.  There are quite a few options already (a total of 12), but if those aren’t enough you can always go for a custom job.  Then you also get frame options if you want them for your mirror.

Source: Ubergizmo

Mannequins are cool, because you get the fun of positioning them yourself.  Although unless you have a small one created for art purposes, most people don’t get to play with them a whole lot.  Typically they’re reserved for stores to display bits of clothing.  Of course you could buy a Barbie doll or something, but that makes you appear a bit juvenile.  So instead we all need a set of these cool lamps to hang out in our living rooms.  They’d make great conversation pieces.

All the limbs move about, so you can position them however you like.  Be it sitting, standing, laying down, it doesn’t really matter.  The top part, being the head, has a lampshade and light attached to it.  Making it entertaining but still functional enough that you can sort of justify it.  Sadly though this is still of course and concept and were it real it’d likely cost a small fortune to own one.  These were designed by Daniel Loves Objects.  You can of course contact him for more information through his website.

Source: BBGadgets

I don’t have one of those stationary bikes in my house. In fact, the closest thing I have to an exercise system is the WiiFit. However, if I did have room in my place for a stationary bike, I would definitely want to have the RealRyder ABF8.

What makes this stationary bike different from all the others on the market? For starters, it feels like the user is riding a real bike. How many stationary bikes do you know that allow the rider to steer, lean, and balance?

So not only are your legs and upper body going to get a workout from this, but you will be improving your balance. A person’s sense of balance is almost just as important as exercise when it comes to physical fitness. I learned that tidbit from the WiiFit.

So, if this is a stationary bike where balance is important, what happens if you don’t keep your balance? Do you fall over? Maybe that’s why this guy in the picture looks so nervous.

Of course, if you want to have the experience of riding a bicycle inside your house. It will cost you. You should be able to purchase it for about $1,995. Yeah, I’m not certain how many bikes you could actually buy for that price.

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If you’re the kind of video shooter who sees his family life through the viewfinder of your camcorder, you know the pain that is associated with wrist fatigue. Even the lightest of camcorders can become quite heavy when taping that birthday party where the action goes on and on and you just don’t want to stop recording. But the problem is, a tripod doesn’t give you the ability move with the kid’s action, and after awhile, the video image becomes to either look like the villain layer in Batman or begins shaking like a small earthquake. The Hoodman WristShot® Camcorder Support System addresses this issue quite nicely.

The idea behind the WristShot® Camcorder Support System is one of weight transfer. The WristShot moves the weight of the camera from the wrist, to the forearm, thereby giving the shooter’s hand both serious relief, but the ability to operate the camera without moving it due to a shift in the center of gravity that comes with pressing buttons and zoom controls. The result is a very stable hand held camera capability. The camera also comes with a quick release mount so that it can transfer to a tripod in a snap.

Fits all camcorders up to ten pounds with adjustment along five axis of movement. Cost is around $200 US.

Cool video here.

Hat Tip - The Ferrett

The following is a deleted scene from one of The Matrix movies, preferably the first:

Morpheus: Do you like the Gesture-based controls on the trackpad of a Mac Powerbook, Neo?

Neo: Yeah.

Morpheus: How would you feel if this control was available on any computer with a USB port?

Neo: Whoa.

Morpheus: Welcome to the age of the SmartTrack, Neo.

Okay, that was probably a long an unnecessary intro to the SmartTrack Neo, but I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce a product that has “Neo” in its name. The first Matrix movie is one of my favorite movies, ever. Hopefully you were paying attention and saw what this device can do.

I’m not a Mac Powerbook user myself, and if I were, I might use the gesture-based movements on the trackpad. As it is, I don’t use the trackpad much on my regular laptop.

If I did use this SmartTrack Neo, I could use gestures for scrolling, rotating, zooming in and out, and even an option for scrolling through songs in a digital music collection.

The SmartTrack Neo has only just been unvealed, so I don’t know a price or availability date. I do know that the dimensions of the track pad surface are at 77.2mm x 45mm.

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Sigma is on a roll in the digital slr world. Seems like after 20 plus years of languishing as a third tier lens manufacturer, the value base glass maker has come across a series of designs that has even Photography magazine buzzing almost every issue. So when they recently came out with a 200-500mm f2.8 lens, the reaction should have been a predictable one. Until the size became apparent. It’s HUGE.

Weighing in at nearly fifty pounds, this Sigma lens is not for anyone with a steady hand and a regular gym membership. In addition to covering the popular 200-500mm range at f2.8, it can double the focal length and still clock in at f5.6 â€" which isn’t too bad if one has a beefy tripod to hold it still. This Big Bertha like lens would be very popular for astrophotography, sports and wildlife shots thanks to its low dispersion glass elements for image correction. The multi-layer coating reduces glare and ghosting, and it’s specially designed lens hood blocks out annoying ambient light. There is also a built in LCD panel for live view when not looking into the camera’s SLR viewfinder or LCD. The lens is powered by a single dedicated lithium ion battery (BP_21) for auto focusing and zooming operations which would make holding this mammoth a heck of a lot easier.

But the cost is equally heavy at a hefty $28,000.

Hat Tip â€" The Giz

Lie Detection. Apparently, it is the latest thing. Just last week, we reported on the Truth Wristband, a device that can detect a user’s galvanic response to a question, and will glow in a proper color if he or she is telling the truth.

It would appear that Spion has created a Portable Lie Detector that works by detecting the tension in the suspect’s voice. The degrees of vibration are enough to reveal whether or not a suspect is calm when answering interrogation questions.

All you need to do is ask the Spion device three yes or no questions to record the voice and “establish a baseline”. Once you have that, you can have the suspect on his or her lies. The display devil’s nose and horns will grow when a fib is told.

Believe it or not, the Portable Lie Detector can be attached to a telephone, and you can actually ask your truth-revealing questions from a mobile phone as well.

I have heard that this device is not 100 percent accurate, but it is apparently more accurate than the polygraphs that the FBI uses. I believe I mentioned this before in the Truth Wristband article, but I’m not certain how accurate those wired polygraphs are.

If you want to find out how accurate the Spion’s Portable Voice Lie Detector is, feel free to go over to the Brick House Security Web site and lay down $79.95.

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Snowboarders, downhill and cross country skiers, snowmobilers, even mountain climbers now have a very comfortable too to help them survive an avalanche. If the initial tidal wave of snow doesn’t kill them, suffocating while trapped underneath the snow is certain to. Not because there isn’t any air to breathe, but because of a local build up of carbon dioxide that super saturates the area where the victim may be breathing. But the Black Diamond Avalung II uses simple misdirection to change all that.

The idea is simple. Breathe in the air that is around you and exhale your deadly carbon dioxide into the Avalung, which then distributes the Co2 away from the “fresh air intake zone,” and gives the survivor more time to wait out rescue.

And as a bonus, the Black Diamond Avalung is made of Nylon and flexible plastic making it both light and extremely comfortable to wear. It weighs all of 9 ounces and fits casually as a shoulder sling around the skier’s upper torso.

And with a price of under $120 from Amazon, it’s so affordable, that any extreme sports fanatic would rue the day to be caught without it in a worse case scenario.

Hat Tip â€" The Grid

There are certain situations that it’s difficult to mess with your iPod Touch or iPhone.  For one, I’ve noticed the car being a little obnoxious.  As of now I haven’t installed the radio in my car that incorporates my iPod Touch.  So instead as a temporary fix I have a device that creates a radio station for my iPod and I listen that way.  The serious downside is that I can’t just skip on the radio or stop it.  I have to unlock my iPod and then try to drive and play with my iPod.  With this inline remote from Griffin you can feel exactly where you’re at and never have to take your eyes off the road.

It also makes it so that you can safely tuck your iPod out of sight in your pocket and still keep control of it.  That’s always nice when you’d prefer not to advertise it for fear that it might get stolen.  To make this gadget all the more useful, when you’re bored of the music on your iPod you can switch the Griffin remote over to radio.  Sometimes it is nice to shut off the iPod and just listen to the classic FM radio.  The device works with absolutely any iPod with a dock connector.  It’ll cost you $60.

Source: GadgetLab