Gadgets Blog

Isn’t it amazing that so many people take so many pictures to “preserve their memories”, only to have digital pics stored all over the place? I’m betting that you have hundreds, if not thousands, of digital snapshots scattered in thumb drives, cameras, and PC hard drives throughout your house. This is not counting the low resolution ones taken by your cellular phone. I swear, the digital revolution was the best and worst thing to happen to photography.

Designer Gregory Siegal has created the LifeMap to solve the tedious problem of organizing the mixup of photos that plague most families. This digital photo album has a touchscreen and keyboard interface, and can hang on the wall or be used on a lap.

As you can see, the user simply attaches the digital camera to the LifeMap, and then the user can tag their pictures with people, places, and keywords. From there, the photos can be organized in a timeline, or even a world map.

According to the official web site, LifeMap will grow as the family grows. In other words, the LifeMap is a scrapbook without the paper, and all the other tools necessary to cut and paste photos and other pieces of paper associated with memories. If you have someone in your family who scrapbooks, then the LifeMap will make their job a whole lot easier.

It is concept for now, but I’m hoping that the LifeMap will adorn my wall one day.

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It has been a while since we heard from Creative and their Zen series of MP3 Players. The Zen Krystal came out a year ago with the Zen Mozaic, and they have recently unveiled two more in the Zen line.

The Zen Mozaic EZ300 comes in 4 to 8 gigabyte models that feature a 1.8 inch TFT color display, an FM radio, a built-in speaker, a voice recorder, as well as an alarm clock. It has a mosaic keypad that is a “one-of-a-kind” design, and uses a plug and play system for dragging and dropping your songs.

The Zen MX is a credit-card shaped player with 8 to 16 gigabtye models that feature a 2.5 inch screen with 320 x 240 resolution. It also includes an SD/SDHC slot, an FM radio,a voice recorder, as well as an alarm clock.

The Zen Mozaic EZ300 is available for pre-order now. The 4GB is available for $59.99, and the 8GB version for $79.99. The Zen MX is also available for pre-order, with the 8GB for $99.99 and the 16GB for $129.99.

Perhaps this would be better time for Creative to make a move to kill Apple’s semi-Monopoly on MP3 players. I’ve said this before: Creative’s Zen Stones are cheaper and better than iPod Shuffles. There, I said it. Deal with it, Apple.

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According to Gary Sharpiro, president and CEO of CEA, Yoostar is “what CES is all about”. I can only assume that the Yoostar was on display at CES last January, but I must have missed it.

What a shame. The Yoostar looks like a really sweet product that allows an ordinary person to insert themselves into a movie. It comes with a portable green screen, a high resolution webcam, and a microphone to make this special effect.

The Yoostar comes with special software that can remove an actor or actress from a scene and insert the player/user saying whatever he or she wants. The example from the official website shows a scene from Witness, with some guy doing a terrible Harrison Ford impersonation.

The system also includes clips from films like The Godfather, Forrest Gump, The Terminator, Employee of the Month, Psycho, Rocky Balboa, and several others. Once the user has created his or her movie parody, it can be uploaded to his or her Facebook site with just a click of a mouse.

The Yoostar is expected to come out in August for $169.95, and it could easily be the next cool thing if it could do every movie. I can think of several flicks that I would love to put myself in.

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Although this looks like the absolutely most uncomfortable mouse I’ve ever seen, it would be fun to have around.  After all, women get those sparkly pink mice, why shouldn’t there be something out there for the kid at heart?  Although at first sight this may seem like something you’d buy for your son, it’s probably not a good idea.  They warn for safety reasons that no one below the age of 16 should play with the mouse.

A warning that seems like a bit much, I can’t see a 14 year old hurting themselves any faster on a mouse than a 16 year old would.  They claim that this is due to the fact that it may contain sharp points, and small parts that would create choking hazards.  There are also other mystery elements that they aren’t stating.  The extra hazardous safety warning might make it even more compelling.  If you want to live on the wild side of things, well then I guess this is one way to do it from the safety of your home.  You can purchase the Trypticon Transforming Laser Mouse for $59.99.

Source: SlipperyBrick

PDAs were all the rage in the 90s. Until the smart phone arrived. Then, suddenly, Palm was on the rocks, Tapwave was out of business, and Handspring just started developing and creating Apps. The PDA was, for all intents and purposes, dead once the iPhone arrived, and even before that. So what is up with the Plan A Electric Planner concept by Andreas Svensson? I mean, it’s rather cool to a tablet like foldable screen which opens into a monthly calendar. But is it really going to resurrect a dead market?

It has twin foldable LCD screens which opens into a monthly calendar in horizontal mode or in daily mode in vertical. There’s also to do lists and address books. And the optional USB Dock enables it to connect to your PC for synching.

Yeah, it looks real sweet and perhaps smaller LCDs and advancements in OLED screens could breathe new life into a PDA like device. But honestly … do we really care? I mean, I have personally found that it’s more work to operate a PDA than just having a pocket Day Runner. And if it can’t operate as a phone, seriously, what’s the point?

Hat Tip â€" Gizmo Watch http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/time-to-get-organized-with-the-plan-a-electric-planner-concept/

If you’ve ever been laid up sick or injured and bored out of your mind, you probably wish you’d have had this around.  It holds your laptop as well as leaves room for a mouse.  It has all kinds of spots that it can bend, which would make it great to use on a sick day.  You could lay in bed and not have to sit up in order to work or do a little gaming.  Actually the more lazy gamers might want one of these purely so that they have more positions they can lazily play their games in.

The Nottable has a robotic arm with three joints, each one can bend up to a full 90 degrees or can be set straight.  Basically all of the joints allow for you to put the stand in all kinds of various positions.  It can accommodate when you’re sitting in a chair, laying in bed, standing or even sitting on the floor itself.  That’d be especially great for those that go crazy if they sit in the same spot for too long.  It can be picked up in graphite, black, red, gold and blue.  They don’t mention a price, but it’s unlikely that this will be very cheap.

Source: Likecool

The winner of last week’s coolest gadget competition is the Amazon Kindle DX.

What do you do when you’ve made the leading product in the market, you’re onto your second version and you’ve sold an estimated 500,000 units? Make it bigger of course! And throw in a host of extra features including being able to view PDF files - surely you’ve now got the perfect electronic reader to replace newspapers and textbooks?

Congrats again to Zath.

In second place we have the Lightsaber Umbrella.

What better way to make you smile while out walking on a rainy day than to get your Lightsaber Umbrella out, flick its switch and voila… Not only are you now smiling and dry, but you are also instantly a bad ass, mofo…Jedi person.

Finally in third place comes the Starry Night Bed.

Are you having trouble getting that good nights sleep that you’re needing? Well not anymore why not take a look at the Starry Night Bed. The Starry Night Bed is a great new invention which will revolutionize the way in which you sleep. Not only is this bed stylish and comfy but it’s also a gadget heaven. With this bed you get many added gadgets including anti snore technology, movie projector with speakers, temperature control and many more.

Thank you to everybody who voted, submitted, commented or told a friend. The randomly drawn winner of the $50 Amazon vouchers is:

Ben (Benr@…), congratulations.

Thanks again everybody and good luck with the next CGOTW contest on Friday.

Want to hear about future contests first? Subscribe to our daily digest via email or RSS.

If you write for a gadget themed blog and wish to be included in next week’s contest check out the CGOTW instructions page.

If you enjoy being under water, then I suppose you should have a way to capture those memories.  Especially if you’re out in the ocean and have managed to find a spot with lots of brightly colored fish.  Thankfully, the infamous Thanko has you covered.  They’ve created a camera to go underwater that won’t have to be held.  This tube camera will take your underwater pictures and give the view from the side of your head.  Which might be difficult if you want a very precise shot, but would be great for general pretty underwater pictures.

The Thanko camera also can record video and has 2GB of internal memory to store it on.  The video records in 320×240 resolution at 25fps.  The camera will withstand the water up to 20m down.  To keep it powered, you’ll need to charge it for 2 hours in order to get 2-3 hours of use.  You can attach this to your goggles or Thanko provides a headband.  Although the headband works, somehow it looks even more dorky than wearing the camera on a set of goggles.  To purchase the camera as of now, you’ll have to be in Japan and pay up $130.  Although it’s possible that it’ll make its way onto the Thanko store branch that allows for the rest of the world to pick it up.

Source: Crunchgear

It would seem something as corrupted as Emperor Palpatine’s regime weed out good habits such as saving cash for a rainy day, but nice to see Darth Vader retain some of his Jedi traits with the Darth Vader Bust Bank.

And now you can save your cash in your very own, Sith approved, Darth Vader Bust Bank. Just cram your change into a slot in Vader’s bank and your coins will be protected by Vader’s saber and intimidating stare. Give the plug on the bottom (of the bank, not Vader’s bottom) a twist and out pours the cash so you can build your own Death Star. The Darth Vader Bust Bank is the coolest bank in any galaxy.

The lightsaber blade is detachable, although we’re not too sure what good that is going to do - perhaps it can be used to stuff down notes that have a hard time making their way inside as the bank gets filled to the brim? The Darth Vader Bust Bank can be yours for just 14.99 Galactic credits - which is the equivalent of the same amount of US dollars of today.

How many of you lead interesting lives that you would love to share with people from the first person perspective? Well, for the handful who answered in the affirmative, here’s the Mini DV80s mini clip-on video camera which boasts an advantage over similar setups by featuring voice activation for true hands-free operation, especially when you’re busy doing something else and want to capture that moment in video for all posterity. The Mini DV 80s seems to be pretty hardy as well, featuring a 2-megapixel camera that has a 72° field-of-view, shooting in conditions of 1 lux. All recorded video is store at 640 x 480 resolution at 25fps, relying on a microSD memory card as its storage medium of choice. It is also pretty hardy, capable of working in temperatures ranging from -10°C to 60°C.

Source: TRFJ

With as many gadgets as most of us cart around, finding ways to charge them in your car becomes an issue.  You could just attempt to spread them out so that you don’t have to have as many things plugged in within your car at once.  However, sometimes you really need your cellphone that happens to be dead and your GPS.  Well this In-Car Splitter would likely be plenty for even the most gadget addicted person out there.

It has 2 regular cigarette lighter sockets as well as two USB ports.  Giving you enough room to keep four gadgets powered up at all times.  The arm on the splitter can be angled in different directions, making it so that it’ll work in any vehicle you own now or in the future.  It also has a replaceable fuse as an extra safety feature.  You can read more on it on Santok’s website, but unfortunately they don’t give any pricing information on the splitter.

Source: GeekAlerts