By Bruce Eaton

Finally a new take on the golf bag. Lighter than a bag of sugar and designed to eliminate stress from carrying clubs, the A Frame Golfbag is an amazing redesign on something so old. Rather than adding lightweight polymers or other expensive items to shave weight off a bag, A Frame eliminates it all together. The design is easy to carry as it spreads weight over your whole body, not just one shoulder, so that back pain and muscular strain will be kept down and thus keeping you feeling fresher on the course.

Holding 14 clubs, 20 tees, 12 balls, and even an umbrella, there is little you will sacrifice by switching. You will be able to hold everything your old bag did except the bag itself. Coming in at only $75 for the A Frame Golf Bag, it is easily 1/10th the cost of some high level bags that are nowhere near this light. Time to hit the links, geekstyle.

[A Frame Golf Clubs] VIA [The Sun Online]

By Andrew Liszewski

There are a lot of things you never realise you need until you see them. For me this isn’t one of them though I will admit that in person this probably looks pretty cool.

From bathroom innovators Kohler comes this ceiling mounted bathtub filler. While this faucet can also be mounted on a wall, installing it on the ceiling is what will get people talking… I guess. I assume this bathtub filler uses some sort of filtering system to smooth out the flow of the water as it leaves the faucet to ensure that splash back when the stream hits the bathtub is minimal.

The Kohler website lists this faucet for $383.70 and up so I can assume the ceiling mounted version falls on the ‘and up’ side. And keep in mind since most bathrooms do not have water pipes running over the top of the bathtub installation will most likely fall on the ‘and up’ side as well.

[Kohler Ceiling Mounted Bathtub Filler] VIA [Home Improvement Ideas]

By David Ponce

Our Japanese cellular overlords recently announced development of acoustic OFDM (Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing) technology. With this, it will be possible to embed data (URL’s, or text) in sound, which can then later be decoded by your cellphone. It’s possible to embed up to 100 characters a second, and the idea is that you could be at, say, the supermarket, and receive shopping information on specials, coupons, etc. directly to your mobile. Of course, it will be necessary for both the broadcaster and the cellphone to integrate the technology in order to be able to encode/decode.

This sort of technology already exists for ultrasounds, but now regular speakers can be used.

[Original Japanese Article] VIA [WMMNA]

By Andrew Liszewski

From what I’ve seen that whole paperless office idea really hasn’t come to fruition yet, but we’re getting closer. Here’s another innovative solution to easily getting paper documents into digital versions.

scanR is an online service that will convert images of documents taken with a cameraphone (minimum 1 megapixel resolution required) into legible, searchable PDF files. Cameraphone images that usually contain a lot of noise, shadows and focus issues are drastically cleaned up during the scanR conversion. As well every document that scanR processes is tagged with keywords extracted from the text on the page enabling easier searching of the PDF files later on.

The company suggests that everything from contracts to whiteboards can be photographed and converted. Emailing digital copies or sending faxes while travelling is especially easy since to use scanR all you need to do is email the images right from your phone to whichever address best suits the document type.

There is currently no pricing information on what the scanR process will cost, but as of now the service is free to try.

[scanR] VIA [Chip Chick]

By David Ponce

I gotta start this review with full disclosure: Wicked Lasers is a sponsor of this site. I think the banners here and there are hard to miss. But, since I didn’t want to give the impression that I’m trading editorial for money or review units, I’ve actually gone out of my way and made a dang video of what this laser can do, just so you don’t have to take my word for it. But, if you do ask me, let me tell you just one thing: that “wicked” is more than deserved.

Most laser pointers commercially available today top out at 5mW. The “Extreme Nexus” model that was sent to me rates at 95mW (they got some 300mW models, by the way). And let me tell you something, that’s a difference that’s really hard to miss. The laser is green, and is plainly visible without smoke, fog or dust, especially in dimmer settings. Not only that, but it actually burns. Yeah, the kind of burning that you can feel on your skin. And yes, it does light matches, it burns through dark plastic things and pretty much looks like a freaking light saber that extends for miles and miles into the sky.

The thing turns heads, no matter where you use it, and it rather makes you feel uncomfortable taking it for a spin in polite settings.

So, the verdict, out here: it’s a truly outstanding (though pricey) laser experience that you can’t buy anywhere else. Come inside for all the gory details and a longish video.

[Wicked Lasers]

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By Andrew Liszewski

After losing quite a chunk of valuable footage at a place I used to work for we tended to stop buying ‘grey market’ external hard drive enclosures. One drive that did serve us well though, especially when on the road was a Maxtor with the OneTouch backup. Unfortunately it wasn’t always that easy to stash in a carry-on bag and occasionally spent a worry-filled flight stowed in a checked suitcase.

Maxtor is now launching the first portable versions of their OneTouch backup external drives with the OneTouch III Mini Edition. Using included software important files and valuable content can be automatically backed up on a set schedule or by pressing the sync button on the drive itself. The OneTouch Mini also includes 2 levels of security for the paranoid among us. Software encryption protects the drive contents in the event it’s ever lost or stolen and Maxtor DriveLock uses special firmware which safeguards the drive if it’s ever removed from the enclosure.

The Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition is USB 2.0 compatible and is currently available in a 60GB version for $149.95 and a 100GB version for $199.95.

[Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition]

By Bruce Eaton

Finally, after a flurry of very un-useful devices comes one I actually want to get: the USB Drink Cooler/Warmer from Thanko. You can just plug it into your USB port and enjoy a refreshing cool can of soda. If it happens that you work in a cold office, switch it to heat, insert your tall coffee cup and it will stay toasty warm. And it is simple to operate as it has 3 settings, Cold/Warm/Off. So no messing up and easy enough for kids to use.

There isn’t much else to be said about this device, which is a shame considering it has some real potential. It comes in at $50 but most desktop coffee warmers are about $15 and they do not cool or operate via your computers USB port.

[USB Drink Cooler/Warmer] VIA [Akihabara News]

By Andrew Liszewski

For the occasional times when you need to transfer a load of files between two PCs and network cables or wireless networks aren’t available it might be handy to have this USB data transfer cable on hand.

It’s as easy to use as plugging each end of the cable into the PCs you wish to move files between. It will automatically display the drive contents of each computer allowing the user to simply drag-and-drop whichever files or folders they need to transfer. It’s also USB 2.0 compliant (what isn’t these days?) and will copy at speeds up to 25Mb/sec.

The USB Data Link Transfer Cable is available now from ThinkGeek for $19.99.

[USB Data Link Transfer Cable] VIA [Popgadget]

By Andrew Liszewski

In terms of image size and quality cameraphones are slowly catching up to their point & shoot brothers. One of their obvious benefits is that most people always have their phone in easy reach which makes grabbing a quick photo a cinch.

Of course there are still some major disadvantages to relying on a cameraphone for all your photographic needs. While a lot of newer phones are starting to incorporate flashes the majority of camera-equipped phones already out there do not, which usually results in some pretty poor pictures. This is where the Phlash Universal Cameraphone Flash comes in, providing that extra bit of desperately needed light when a flash is not available.

For those of you who don’t like to read reviews the Phlash is a pretty effective alternative to a built-in flash. It provides a lot of soft, even illumination which can greatly improve the quality of cameraphone pics, especially those taken in dark situations. It’s a simple solution to a problem that effects a lot of cameraphone users, and is definitely a far cheaper alternative than upgrading your phone. (Review after the jump.)

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