Gadgets Blog

The Glastonbury Solar Concept Tent definitely qualifies as Coolest Gadgets material, as it has more gadgets on it than MacGyver’s knife. The U.K. company Orange has called the Glastonbury as “the tent of the future”, but this is one that I want to take “out on the rough” right now.

The tent has photovoltaic fabric, specially coated solar threads woven into the fabric. It can capture the rays of the sun and use them for some juice later. Yes, you don’t worry about your GPS or mobile phone going dead on your next camping trip. Not only that, the tent has a wireless control hub that keeps track of the energy generated and consumed. This hub has an LCD screen and even has a wireless Internet signal.

Another advancement is Glo-cation technology. This enables campers to find their tent using an SMS message or automatic active RFID tech. So if you’re having trouble finding your tent, sent a text, and the Glastonbury will glow for you.

There is yet another feature known as groundsheet heat. It is an internal heating element that is embedded within the tent’s groundsheet, and this underfloor heater will automatically come once the interior temperature falls below a certain level.

With all these features, who wouldn’t want this concept to become a reality? I’ll tell you who wouldn’t: those who truly want to “get away from it all” by camping. Doesn’t that usually mean you leave the comforts of technology behind?

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In today’s age of Twitter and Facebook, nothing is private anymore. We’ve already reported on devices like Tweet-a-Watt, that displays a user’s power consumption online for all the world to see. I can only imagine that this leads to tweets like “nice job saving the planet, waster” or “everyone should be as green as you are”.

A company known as BodyTrace Inc, has allowed another secret of yours to go online: your weight. This is apparently for those who are serious about shedding pounds. I suppose there can be no greater motivation to diet than being the star of your own version of The Biggest Loser.

The BodyTrace scale is programmed to sync wirelessly with the Internet, and will send your weight online. I’m not certain where it sends it. I mean, do you really want to receive an email every day concerning your friend’s weight? That would be one of many to check on the “Delete”.

From what it sounds like, you can create social groups for all your friends who want to be on this very public weight-loss program. Of course, does anyone really need to join another social networking site? Perhaps they could make some application that would show up on the more popular ones, like Myspace and Facebook. Better yet, send out your weight as a tweet.

The BodyTrace scale will be available in November for $119. There also a $19.99 fee for a three-month weight loss subscription.

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Have you ever been on your way to an important appointment, and stopped to smell your breath? Pretty impossible, isn’t it? I suppose you could use that trick where you breathe into your hand and sniff it, but the best you’re probably going to get out of that is the scent of your own hand.

This is why someone invented the Date Breath Checker, a technological way for you to check your own breath. All you need to do is turn it on, blow into it, and it gives you the readout.

The frowny face means that you shouldn’t have asked for the garlic and onions on the submarine sandwhich that you had for lunch, and the smiley face…well, you get the idea.

It would appear that this meeting preparation/breathalyzer test is electronic, but that is a shame. Electronic means batteries, which means they will eventually run out, probably when you need it the most. Too bad they couldn’t just make this into something not mechanical, like a PH test, or the meter I use to see if my child’s bathwater is too hot.

Anyway, you should be able to pick up the Date Breath Checker for about $47, and you can even get it in shocking pink. You could also save some money by purchasing some breath spray to insure that you always have nice breath.

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We at Coolest Gadgets love to report on any technology that allows things to float in air. Yes, from the crazy conceptual Void LP Player to the Levitron Revolution, the future is completely “in the air”, so to speak.

So why not have a whole table that can float in air? Well, we are probably a long way from a table that hovers without any legs, but the Levi-Table is probably the next best thing.

I’m sure that you are all aware of a law of physics that says “opposite charges attract, like charges repel”. Imagine if you could charge an object with a positive or negative charge, and then charged the ground with that same charge. Eventually, there would be equilibrium, and the charged object would appear to float in air.

This is essentially the process that keeps the top of the Levi-Table afloat. Those two U-shaped areas are magnetically charged, and strong enough to keep the plank between it floating. Of course, it doesn’t really look like it is floating much, but it is a start.

The Levi-Table is a design from designer Donald Dahl, and there isn’t any information on how much weight it will hold before it can’t float any more. Fortunately, the legs can take the weight of the base, I think.

If I were a big electronics company, I would mass-market this product as soon as possible. I already have plans to use it as a TV tray.

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Now this is a gadget that keeps things nice and simple.  If you for some reason don’t have a sound card, it still allows for you to listen to your music.  It has a built-in sound card along with a tiny speaker.  It’s not going to have fantastic sound, but when you don’t have a sound card, things can get fairly desperate.  This would be a nice and affordable temporary fix for the issue.  That or if you’re not really worried about it, it could be a permanent fix.

The little ball speakers come in 4 different colors, blue, orange, pink and finally white.  With that selection it’d be easy for just about anyone to find a color they’d enjoy.  The speaker itself comes on a flexible cord, so you can adjust it to get it to the most convenient position.  The USB speaker can be purchased for $19 from Gadget4all.  Which really isn’t a bad price, even if it has only mediocre sound quality.

Source: GeekyGadgets

There are already plenty of forms of garden lighting, but now even your ice bucket can add a little mood lighting.  After all, why shouldn’t an ice bucket add to the atmosphere too?  Alright, so it is a little on the cheesy side of things.  However, it’s really no worse than a majority of the lights you find for sale that are meant to be outdoors in your garden area.  Plus, this does have a lot of customization features, so you can play down the cheesy factor.

It allows for you to change the color tone, the speed it changes colors and how brightly it shines.  So you can dim the lights at strategic points throughout the night.  It’s made of plastic and uses LED lights to give you the glow you see here.  It will work indoors or outdoors and is fully rechargeable.  To charge it back up again, just hook it up to the AC power adapter.  The ice bucket comes with a remote control and can be purchased for $67.69.

Source: GeekAlerts

If you enjoy war games, then this USB hub would be great to put on your desk at work.  It can work as your hub and quietly remind you of the fun you can have at home if you just survive a few more hours at work.  Of course this is one of those hubs that won’t look nearly as cool the second it has USB devices plugged into its ports.

It looks a bit more interesting without anything plugged into it, but it’d be the slightest bit silly to have a hub you don’t use purely for that reason.  The hub has 3 different ports, which I’m sure you could probably guess from the picture.  When you plug in the USB device, for 3 seconds it will give a artillery sound effect.  Which you can hear if you go on the seller’s website and watch the video with horrible sound quality.  The Artillery USB Hub comes in green as well as grey.  You can purchase it for $12 from Gadget4all.

Source: TechFresh

An iPhone user proves it’s not the “Jesus phone” after all by dropping it in the pool!

Hat Tip to Crave for this YouTube link of a user videotaping poolside using his iPhone 3Gs. He suddenly drops it and into the drink it goes. But here’s the amazing part. It continues to video tape while in the water and according to C’Net, two days after dropping it into the pool, IT STILL WORKS.

The iPhone comes with a 3 MP video/still camera with autofocus. Now, obviously, since it sunk like the proverbial rock, rather thank walk on water, it simply can’t be called the “Jesus phone” anymore. But considering that the phone continued to record while sinking to the bottom of the pool (including some uber cool underwater sound effects) and even works after the owner dove in and retrieved it (witness his comment “crap! it still works!), and days later it’s still working, it’s pretty amazing and shows how well these phones are put together, especially when it isn’t rated as being water proof.

Only time will tell if corrosion doesn’t set in and brick his iPhone. But if it doesn’t, this is a Timex moment to be sure.