Gadgets Blog

Ninjas don’t wear coats since they tend to seemingly teleport away to another place in a puff of smoke just like now Nightcrawler of the X-Men does, but during those rare moments when they’ve missed their target with a throw of a shuriken, why not parade those dubious assassination attempts on your life by turning the embedded shurikens in your wall into a showcase for all and sundry who drop by, making it impromptu coat hangers for you and your guests at the same time? This deliciously attractive idea will retail for £7.99 a pop.

Summer’s here for those living in the Northern Hemisphere, and what better way than to spend your time frolicking in the sun with family and friends? Of course, it would be better if you had a nice, cold beer in one hand while chatting away, soaked in the pool. The Pool Pong Rack comes in handy then - this perfectly sized contraption will be able to bring your favorite living room party game into the water with you. Each Pool Pong Rack is capable of holding half a dozen 16-18 oz party cups snugly so that the golden liquid will not go to waste due to accidental spillage. Each $19.95 purchase comes with three balls, and it is easy enough to set up within a minute.

As a boss or owner of a large organizations, especially a factory, it can get pretty hard trying to run the operations at its optimum levels all the time. Well, good thing there is always technology to assist us, although I find it rather ironic that the smartest bunch of people on earth create devices and new methods to make living a whole lot easier, dumbing down the general populace in the process with devices that require less and less brain power to operate. DSS Co Ltd. from Japan, however, offers something to make us more efficient. This Japanese firm edits and processes digital maps based on survey data, and have already begun a service of recording the actions of factory workers for long hours and visualize them.

Of course, before it has enough data to play around with, it will require to mine such information, and mining will require the right tools. Some of the tools used for collecting the data include an ankle sensor that can be attached to the leg of a worker for recording his or her movement, while the other is a milestone that will see action throughout various places in the plant so that it is able to find out just how long workers remain in that area of the factory. Last but not least would be the small video camera that can be placed in the chest pocket of the worker to record his or her action(s). All of these will work together in tandem, where data of up to 30 workers can be collected at the same time. After three days’ worth of data, a special behavior analysis report can be yours for around two million yen (that is approximately $20,857), opening up your eyes to see just how many hours are spent by majority of the workers around the water cooler as they trade juicy company stories with one another.

No idea how much privacy intrusion can be calculated into this system, but we suppose it helps management make more calculated decisions when streamlining their processes.

Source: Tech On

Pioneer’s back into its groove not with another GPS navigation system for vehicles or DVD/Blu-ray player, but this time round they aim to raise the bar (and seem to have done so successfully by the time you reach the end of the post) with their new range of high powered A/V receivers, where the quartet of these are targeted to enhance clarity, detail and dynamic “quick response” from uncompressed Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks that can be found in Blu-ray Disc entertainment. For instance, the all-new Pioneer Elite SC-25 and SC-27 A/V Receivers do feature a Direct Energy HD Class D amplifier that boasts ICEPower technology to ensure unprecedented reproduction of high resolution multi-channel, stereo as well as compressed audio and provide premium home entertainment that would even fool some into thinking that they’re at a movie theater. As for the Elite SC-27, this model will leverage the full advantages of this emerging amplification technology, as it holds the position of being the industry’s first Class D amp design to achieve THX Ultra Plus and AIR Studio monitor certifications.

Entertainment purists will definitely be more pleased than punch to find out that the SC-25 and SC-27 utilize Burr-Brown analog to digital converters (ADC) and renowned Wolfson digital to analog converters (DAC), working in tandem to maintain high resolution performance throughout the entire digital signal processing chain from input to output. DAC performance is further brought to another level with the SC-27 as it boasts a professional-grade Burr-Brown 192kHz / 24-Bit sampling rate converter (SRC) for ultra-wide dynamic range and advanced jitter reduction. Guess all of your recently purchased Michael Jackson records are going to sound even better on this, just make sure you have a well defined room to maximize the effect of the audio output.

The other two models would be the Pioneer Elite VSX-21TXH and VSX-23TXH that are lower end and yet pack a punch with its Direct Energy Class A/B amplification, integrated video signal conversion, 1080p video scaling and an abundance of connectivity solutions for current and new high definition as well as standard definition entertainment sources. The Pioneer Elite VSX-21TXH and VSX-23TXH will begin shipping sometime from this month onwards for $700 and $900, respectively, while the Pioneer Elite SC-25TXH and SC-27 will ship out next month for $1,700 and $2,000, respectively.

Press Release