Gadgets Blog

Making an attempt to be a little more eco-friendly isn’t always the easiest.  Especially if you’re not overly into it, you’re just willing to pop in those energy saving bulbs when you can and shut off appliances and lights when you’re not in the room.  While it’s great that you shut off the TV when it’s not in use, that still leaves the gaming consoles and DVD player up and running.  With those type things they usually have lights that stay on even when it’s on standby.  Well this handy gadget would help you to make sure all of that shuts down too.

Just shut off the TV and it will sense that the TV is shut off and shut off the electronics plugged into the device.  No extra effort is required on your part, which makes this an extremely nice gadget to have around.  Especially if you have a 360 you tend to forget to shut off.  This would shut it off and you’ll decrease the chances of getting the infamous RRoD.  It will cost you $34.95, but would in the long run save you money on your electrical bill.

Source: OhGizmo

When Canon isn’t making a virtual reality dinosaur exhibit, they have other things to do, like making printers. In fact, they have made three new printers.

The PIXMA MP560 has duplex printing, photo correction, and Wi-Fi. There is also a USB port for printing directly from external storage. For example, it can do 4 by 6 inch prints in grayscale at a rate of 9.2 images a minute and 6 images per minute in color.

The MP490 (pictured) has a 1.8-inch LCD screen and memory card slots. It is also good for printing photos, and has Auto Photo Fix II software built directly into it. It can deliver 4800 x 1200 maximum color dpi, as well as very fine monochromatic prints as well.

The last is the SELPHY CP790 Compact Photo Printer that can hold the paper and ink cassettes, as well as the AC adapter, cable, and optional battery pack. It is made for printing photos on the go, and has built-in creative options like frames, calendars, and other things for that personal touch. It comes with a 3-inch LCD screen to maximize on photo viewing.

All three models of these Canon printers should be available later this month. The MP560 will run about $150, the MP490 is about $100, and the CP790 runs about $180.

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Imagine a museum that is nothing more than a blank room. Not much to see, is it? However, if you put on a pair of virtual reality glasses, a whole new world opens up to you. A world that is full of dinosaurs who roam freely.

This is part of a new exhibit in Chiba, Japan. Visitors have the opportunity to walk with the dinosaurs, as their virtual reality glasses project these creatures of old in three-dimensions right before the viewer. For the record, I think the technical name for this type of entertainment is augmented reality, not virtual reality.

However, it sounds very cool to look around you and see yourself in a Jurassic Park, with all the oohs and aahs and not the running and screaming. I would imagine that there will be lots of people who will try and “touch” the dinosaurs. They will probably look like freaks to those who aren’t wearing the glasses.

Still, I like the potential of this exhibit. I think it should be taken to the next level, and the user should be able to hunt the dinosaurs like Turok. Just don’t step on a butterfly, or you could change history. You’d have to read Ray Bradbury’s “The Sound of Thunder” to get that reference.

Anyway, if you want to go to Chiba to see over 260 dinosaur specimens, be sure to get there from July 18 to August 1st.

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This is probably one of the most well thought out USB hubs I’ve seen.  A lot of desks come with holes built into them so that you can run cords through it.  Well this hub fits neatly into that hole, so it doesn’t take up any extra space on your desk. It would be a little more tricky to run cords through that hole, that’s really the only down side of the hub sitting there.  However, if you don’t use it or you’re willing to take the extra time to get the cords and the hub to work together it’d work out just fine.

Since this does sit down directly into your desk that also means one less cord you have running across the surface.  The USB cord for the hub just drops directly below it, so that it can conveniently be plugged into your computer.  This is made for a 2” round grommet hole, so you can measure to make sure this will work alright.  It has 4 different ports for your USB devices.  You can purchase the hub for $12 from USB Geek.

Source: GeekyGadgets

I remember when I was a kid, I used to love to look at pictures of The Blue Flame and the Budweiser Rocket. They looked more like rockets than cars, and broke several land speed records.

It would appear that someone has put this speed in miniature remote control form with the Picket Rocket, which is most likely the world’s fastest RC car at 161 miles per hour. Designer Nic Case wants to increase that speed to 200 miles per hour.

A 200 mile-an-hour remote control car? What’s next, an RC vehicle capable of a sonic boom? Man, you had better be in the desert when you are playing with this toy! I mean, this thing uses an RC helicopter-style gyro to help with steering.

I’m not certain whether this will ever be mass-marketed, but there has got to be some sort of safety regulations for a product like this. I mean, can you imagine getting hit in the foot with this 150-foot projectile? Ouch.

Anyway, I’m not certain what the fuel of this fast moving vehicle is. Something tells me that it has to be a lot stronger than usual batteries on Tyco R/C cars these days. I would imagine that some type of liquid fuel would be required.

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Now that the iPhone has video capability with the 3GS, there will undoubtedly be many iPhone-filmed videos on the many video-sharing sites on the Web.

Of course, why would you want to shoot videos on a cellular phone? I’m sure you have seen how jittery they are. This is why a startup company known as OWLE (Optical Widgets for Life Enhancement) has created a mount for the iPhone designed for filming.

I don’t know about you, but I think its shape resembles a controller for the Xbox 360. Not only does the OWLE steady your shots, but it also improves recording quality by including a 37mm camcorder lens with a front facing microphone.

It is a packaged deal for those who want to be video bloggers on the road, and there is planned support of external lighting and power. There is also a plan to make another version that plugs into the 30-pin adapter. As of now, there are only plans to plug the mike into the headphone and microphone jack.

OWLE doesn’t have this device out now, and it will only make it currently available to bloggers who are willing to promo it. There are plans to put out this device sometime around Christmas, with a price for about $30 to $50.

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Take a gander at Project Nomad, a wonderful and artificial horse. As you can see, it looks like a four-legged version of Bumblebee from Transformers.

When I saw this one, I knew it was too good to be true. Sure enough, it is still a concept, but the fact that Jason Battersby saw it fit to put it on paper is a step in the right direction for making all our dreams of riding a robot horse come true.

I’m sure that readers who follow my work know that I love to cover concept tech like this, especially when it seems so futuristic that it could never be built in my lifetime. This one has a very unbelievable feature: a GPS that knows where the plant life is. Project Nomad then eats up the vegetation, and uses it for fuel.

Perhaps this is why the designers might have put the Greenpeace logo on its flank. I’m not certain why a giant stone hand is jutting up from the ground to crush it, but I suppose we’ll find out in Transformers 3.

In fact, maybe that film should feature a race between Project Nomad and Bumblebee. Of course, since they are both the same color, it would be difficult to tell who was winning.

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Previously, on Coolest Gadgets, we covered the LG GD900, a cellular phone with a transparent keypad. So how can I not report on Sony Ericsson’s Kiki, a phone with a transparent screen?

The answer is that I can’t, so here it is. The problem is that I don’t really have much information about this product, other than it’s got a transparent screen. I do know that the information can be seen on both sides, but I’m not certain if the print, when viewed on the other side, is reversed. You may notice the lack of keypad buttons on the Kiki, but they will show up if the phone is on.

So, since that is all we have, let’s go to speculation. For example, can the user watch video footage on this thing? I mean, I didn’t realize that we can watch TV on a clear plate of glass now, but hey, technology gets better all the time.

Also, is the clear glass screen a touchscreen? I see three buttons that correspond to the balloon, mail, and clock icons on the screen, but that is about it.

So, now it is the time on Coolest Gadgets where we add comments. For example, is it possible that the transparent screen could become a standard for cellular phones? Chime in if you agree or disagree.

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Weather stations are one of those gadgets that are always handy to have around.  You don’t have to watch the news to let you know the forecast for the day, instead you can just glance at this gadget.  With this though it even keeps you posted on the temperature and humidity indoors at various places throughout your home.  Which could come in handy in the winter to help you make sure that the whole house is staying plenty warm.

For within the home it gives the temperature and humidity for up to 4 different rooms.  It also has an LED backlight and a mold alert alarm.  In addition to that it’ll give the temperature and humidity of up to three different remote locations as well.  So you could have it let you know the temperature of places like your job or your children’s school.  The best part of this weather station is that it’s actually solar powered, so it won’t require any electricity to run.  You can purchase it for $119.

Source: Gearlog

These Pico Mini flash drives might not look like much, as far as flash drives go they’re definitely much more plain than some of the novelty drives.  However, they would get the job done, even if they aren’t made to look like some stuffed animal or random food.  Plus these are highly portable, the tiny drives would be easily to stashed away, but of course, equally easy to lose.

Super Talent released four new models of these flash drives, there is the 2GB Orchid Pink, 4GB Lime Green, 8GB Sky Blue and 16GB Classic Black drives.  These lightweight drives only weigh 2 grams and measure 32 x 15 x 3 mm.  Luckily there is a spot you could loop a keychain onto them, to make them a little more difficult to lose.  They are fairly affordable though, even if you do manage to lose one it won’t be too bad to replace it.  The 2GB will cost you $9.99, the 4GB $14.99, the 8GB $23.99 and the 16 GB will cost you $39.99.

Source: TechFresh

If you enjoy the bright coloration on your iPod Nano, then you might enjoy these tiny speaker docks.  The colors go along with the ones featured on the Nano, so you can match them perfectly or just pick out complimenting colors instead.  Then with your other normal iPods, you’d have an accessory around that does have color, even though the iPod doesn’t.

The dock is compatible with the iPod 5G, iPod Touch (1st and 2nd gen) and the iPod Classic/iPod Nano (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th).  So if you own more than one iPod or will be sharing the dock with other family members, it will still work just fine with other iPods.  The dock comes in a total of ten different colors, black, blue, gray, green, orange, pink, purple, red, white and yellow.  Even though these are brightly colored, they seem far less feminine than the iLive speakers you might have come across on the site yesterday.  Plus this is far more portable.  These will become available sometime mid-July, but you can pre-order them now for ¥ 4,000.00 or about $42.

Source: BBGadgets

How often do you see games actually help someone’s medical condition? Sure, the Wii and its waggle controls are definitely much more engaging than just fiddling with buttons on the TV’s remote control, but what if you’re diabetic? The Nintendo DS Didget is here to help, being a brand new peripheral ideal for folks who are hooked to the famous handheld console, and yet making the game fun for diabetics as measuring your blood glucose levels with it on a daily basis will help unlock in-game secrets to help you progress further along the game. It will work only with the DS Phat and DS Lite, since the DSi doesn’t come with the relevant Slot-2 to hold the DS Didget peripheral. The big question is this - what happens after the patient has completed the game, staying faithful to measuring his/her blood glucose levels? Will the sudden end in the game make them revert to their previous non-chalant attitude?

Source: Electricpig

Want to do your bit for the environment? It isn’t as hard as you might think, even for a city folk as the new Brammo Enertia electric bike is able to help you get around various blocks throughout the week without burdening our ozone layer with even more deadly emissions. This $12,000 electric vehicle is no pushover, as it comes with 18 horsepower to move you around, capable of hitting a top speed of 55 mph in the process. It takes a mere three hours to juice up fully, giving you a working 45-mile range. No idea how many people will take this up in the long run due to the relatively high price tag that can net you a nice, comfortable car, but then again being a “hero” of sorts always required some form of sacrifice, right?

Source: Cool Hunting

Synology America Corp. has just rolled out their latest device - the new 2.5″ 4-bay Disk Station DS409slim. For folks who are in the know, this is a highly anticipated addition to the 09 series product line where it will tout lower power consumption (a positive point to tout for virtually every device manufacturer these days), virtually quiet operations and an extremely tiny footprint, leaving more room on your desk to place other devices as well as more notes in your wallet once you’re done with its purchase. Don’t be fooled by its size and price though, as Synology isn’t going to shortchange you as they’re offering the same reliable data sharing and backup solutions that the company has built its reputation upon over the years.

Just take a look at the image on the right and you’ll see how small the DS409slim is when placed right next to a 12oz. coffee cup. Inside the DS409slim, you will find 2.5″ hard drives that will further increase shock tolerance and reduce power consumption when in operation. In fact, the DS409slim will sip a mere 19 watts of power under normal operating conditions - and this is when you have all four hard drives installed! In addition, the smart fan design helps keep things within the DS409slim running quietly under normal operations, making it ideal to place on an office desk or in the living room.

Opening up the DS409slim will reveal more than meets the eye as it comes with enough space to hold a quartet of hot-swappable drives, a 1.2 GHz processor, 128MB DDRII RAM, one Gigabit LAN port, two USB2.0 ports and one eSATA port. Those ought to be more than enough to handle all the needs of a small to medium business, where 2TB of storage space ought to be sufficient without taking up too much space in your home or office. There is no word on pricing, but it is now shipping Stateside.

Press Release

The Middle East oil sheikhs and super rich monarchs are certainly pretty shrewd when it comes to investing, as their practically sitting atop gold mines of different colors, giving them acces to vast riches no thanks to the world’s ever growing craving for more fuel. Knowing that many people living in the Middle East do earn more than a comfortable salary, Panasonic has targeted that geographical area in their latest effort to push across another nine LCD and eight plasma high definition VIERA TVs. These new TVs, regardless of technology behind the screen, will offer a trio of distinct advantages for the consumer, including enhanced unique features like ‘Full-time Full HD’ and VIERA Image Viewer function for the playback of pictures and videos by SD card - something Panasonic proudly touts as the first in the world within a flat panel TV context.

This year’s VIERA models will come with the enhanced VIERA Image Viewer function, where it will be standard across all 2009 models. This allows consumers to plug in their SD memory card into the corresponding slot, having the ability to review what they’ve just shot on their digital cameras or camcorders on a huge display, and needless to say the image quality would be superb if you’re using a High Definition camera to record all that video, as the screen’s high resolution won’t do VGA-quality video any justice. As for Full-time Full HD, this unique development by Panasonic will see improved motion image performance, contrast and colour reproduction to deliver a new level of picture quality to consumers. Perfect for folks who enjoy both still and motion pictures, Full-time Full HD will provide razor-sharp motion images, an experience similar to that they enjoy at the cinema.

These new Panasonic panels are made in Japan, and boast a lifetime rating of up to 100,000 hours - that’s roughtly 30 years of viewing assuming you plant yourself in the couch for 8 hours a day, letting the TV feed you with shjow after show. Other features of these lead free panels include being a mere 1″ thin, boasting a wider viewing angle of 178 degrees.

Press Release

There are just a handful of names when it comes to reliable GPS navigation technology, and Magellan ranks as one of them. Having said that, what can you expect from their latest solution to your navigational woes, the Magellan Maestro 4700 GPS device? This is one extremely slim device that will come with a relatively widescreen 4.7″ color touchscreen display, boasting many user-friendly features that are not only helpful but practical which we’ll look at later right after the jump. You will also find Magellan’s OneTouch user interface throw in for good measure, where it enables the user to perform advanced navigation tasks thanks to its built-in voice command capabilities and hands-free Bluetooth calling.

Check out the following premium features found on the Magellan Maestro 4700 :-

• Exclusive OneTouch Favorites Menu: Access favorite destinations and searches with personalized bookmarks. Reach your favorite cafe or restaurant in any city with a single touch. To meet consumer requests, the Magellan Maestro 4700 now offers an additional twelve bookmarks to save favorites.
• Bluetooth Compatible Hands-Free Calling: Make or receive calls using a compatible cell phone. Access your phone’s address book to access up to 1000 numbers directly from your Magellan Maestro 4700. The noise-cancelling microphone keeps road noise down so you are heard clearly.
• Predictive Traffic: Analyzes past traffic patterns when creating a route to help you avoid known delays. Choose to stay on your current route or go with suggested less congested routes.
• Instant Access to All Points Of Interest (POI): Perform one search and get results from both the standard POI database and the Magellan-exclusive AAA TourBook guide. Results are organized in a tabbed format.
• “Find Your Car” with Pedestrian Mode: Remembers the location of your car in parking lots, airports, malls, universities, amusement parks or stadiums. When your day is done the Magellan Maestro 4700 will automatically guide you to your car.
• 3D Landmarks: Displays visual cues to help drivers perform maneuvers and find destinations.
• Larger Fonts: Makes viewing easier and safer while driving.
• Intuitive, Context-Driven Touch Zones: Provides drivers with a completely interactive map screen.
• New Address Book: Makes adding an address a snap with smart address summary that lets users save complete itineraries.
• QuickSpell with Smart City Search: Allows quick, single-address entry or convenient multi-destination trip planning, including route optimization.

Surprisingly enough, this device has been priced at just $299.99, where it will ship with a windshield mount and cradle; 12-volt vehicle power adapter; USB cable, protective pouch, adhesive disk for alternative, on-dash mounting; and quick reference guide.

Press Release

Are you a klutz, or just seem to suffer from a bad case of butter fingers regardless of whether you’re holding your own precious device or belongings of others? For folks who have experienced the pain of dropping their notebooks with a resounding crash onto the floor, might we suggest you take a look at the new Durabook range of notebooks that will definitely be drop-friendly. After all, GammaTech’s Durabook line of rugged notebooks have been certified to be Military 810F compliant by meeting and exceeding standards for drop, shock and spill resistance, and all these without compromising on features that professionals require in order to get the work done. Even better, the prices have not been raised significantly, so you’re able to get your work done without blowing the office budget.

The Durabook line of notebook computers will all be Intel Core 2 Duo-powered, where this platform can then be added with more customizable options that will suit your computing needs. Despite being tough, you can throw the notion out of the window for rugged notebooks which are large and bulky, as Durabooks come in a slim, lightweight design without sacrificing on system performance and compromising on functionality. According to GammaTech President, Steven Gau, “Priced at an average of hundreds to thousands of dollars less than competing industrial notebooks, Durabook truly provides the toughness and functionality mobile professionals need at an affordable price. DURABOOK is born to stretch your budget, tough enough for the real world and provides new business opportunities during this tough economy. With DURABOOK, all mobile professionals can enjoy notebook protection strong enough for military personnel, healthcare professionals, contractors, federal and state employees, and corporate road warriors.”

Features include :-

• Magnesium alloy casing for concussion protection (20 times stronger than ABS plastic)
• Anti-shock material around the LCD display and hard disk drive
• Spill-resistant C-Face design around keyboard, touchpad, speakers, wireless and power switches
• Disk drive lock to prevent unintentional tray and disc ejection
• DURABOOK notebooks come in multiple series including semi-rugged D-series, fully rugged R-series and fully rugged M-series for healthcare professionals (Mobile Clinical Assistant technology)

Press Release

Here’s another set of accessories that look as if they were created for a younger bunch, but are likely marketed towards adults or young adults.  Then again those that own cellphones are getting younger and younger every year.  Cellphones are even created to be marketed towards preschoolers.  So perhaps these were intended for young kids.  No matter what your age though, it’d be hard to deny that these rocking horses are definitely charming.

These are handcrafted using genuine Brazilian leather, so at least they use quality items to create them.  Within the saddle is an area cut out to place your cellphone within.  As you can probably tell from the picture, it’s doubtful that something as large as the iPhone will fit.  It’d have to be a phone slightly smaller, probably about the size of a typical flip phone would be fine.  These are sold for 980 Taiwan dollars or about $29 at the 25TOGO Store.  Which means you’d have to find a way to have them shipped outside of Taiwan.

Source: Technabob

I recently covered the Lightlane, a device that can project a bike lane for bikers. This improves bike safety, just like the new Nike Hindsight.

The Nike Hindsight are special glasses designed to increase peripheral vision on each side by 25 percent. I suppose that these will look better than the mirrors that I see on some types of biker helmets.

I don’t think mirrors are involved in making the Hindsight work. These glasses use Fresnel lenses, which are the same wide aperture and short focal length type used by lighthouses. So you could probably see what is behind you in some sort of curvy fashion, I would imagine.

Want to know something funny? The Nike Hindsight isn’t affiliated with the huge shoe company that Tiger Woods endorses. My source doesn’t have much information on the Hindsight, or why Nike has got associated with it. Anyway, it is designed by Billy May, who is in no way related to Billy Mays, the infomercial king who recently passed away.

Still, the Nike Hindsight is something that is definitely needed. You don’t want to be the biker who bites it on the pavement because you took the time to turn your head to look for traffic. That has happened to me many times before.

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