I tend to avoid ‘all-in-one’ devices like this because they always seem to prove the old “jack of all trades, master of none” adage. But the only reason I’d buy a projector would be for portability reasons, so having a DVD player and 8 W speakers built-in would definitely sweeten the deal. Epson was showing off their MovieMate 55 projector at their CES booth this year, and while it’s not the top-of-the-line in any category, it seems like a useful device. At 8.3 lbs is not super-light, but it can produce an image up to 150 inches in size (16:9 aspect ratio) with a brightness of about 1200 lumens.
It’s also got standard video hook-ups like RCA and VGA for connecting a laptop or gaming console, though HDMI would have made things easier, particularly when it comes to hooking up a Blu-ray player since the MovieMate 55′s own DVD player doesn’t do HD. But it does support non-DVD video formats like Divx, so you can enjoy your ‘alternately acquired’ media too. And it’s available now on the Epson website for $699.99.
Tokyoflash once again proves that if telling time is not your number one priority when it comes to designing a watch, you’ll never have to worry about running out of new ideas. However this time around things aren’t as confusing, as long as you’re willing to do a little math. The watch features 4 raised convex bubbles that can each display the numbers 0 to 9, and in order to tell the current time you just hit the single button on the side and add up the numbers that are displayed in each column. Otherwise the watch just runs a little animation where the LED numbers move in a sweeping animation from side to side, “bringing the watch to life.”
The Kisai Keisan’s also got a high grade aluminum band and body with a polished alumite coating giving it that smooth appearance, an energy saving mode to boost the battery life and is water resistant to 3 ATM. It’s currently available from the Tokyoflash website with a black (red or green LEDs) or silver (yellow or orange LEDs) finish for $255.01 each.
I can’t remember the last time I used a map that wasn’t provided by Google or displayed on a GPS-equipped device, but Rand McNally has convinced me that traditional printed maps aren’t dead yet. Of course paper maps can still be easily torn, destroyed by rain, and never seem to fold up the same way once they’re opened, which is why Rand McNally has produced a series of tourist-friendly maps printed on microfiber cloths instead.
In fact during CES they were handing out maps of the Las Vegas strip, and as someone who’s never 2 feet from a microfiber cloth for cleaning my iPhone and camera lenses, I was instantly sold on the idea. I mean think about it, they’re waterproof, they can be easily crumpled up and crammed in a pocket without being damaged, and they never need a couple of minutes to lock onto a GPS signal or download map data. The fabMAPs aren’t for all travelers though, given their size they seem mostly targeted at tourists, and there’s only about 25 of them available at the moment (for cities like New York, Chicago, Beverly Hills, Las Vegas etc.) but at just $5.95 each on the Rand McNally website they could be one of the most useful things you stuff in your pocket.
You never know when inspiration is going to strike, and sometimes an unused napkin at dinner provides the perfect place to sketch out your next brilliant idea. But you have to be careful, if your drawings are too crude you could end up with an 18-inch high model of Stonehenge like in Spinal Tap, or even worse, an eyesore like this. But if you keep a stack of these graph paper napkins on hand, not only will you be ready to wipe the barbecue sauce off your fingers, but you’ll also be able to produce super accurate schematic scale drawings wherever you are. A stack of just 12 of these napkins will unfortunately set you back $7 CDN, but at least they’re made from recycled paper.
The learning curve for flying R/C helicopters can be pretty steep, even for some of the simpler 3 and 4 channel models. Taiyo is trying to make it a little bit easier with this voice controlled heli, which responds to 5 commands: “start engine,” “up,” “hold,” “down” and “stop.” It really should respond to things like “come baaaaack” but with a range of only 30 feet you may not have too much to worry about. The 7 inch long helicopter also comes with a remote control, and will retail for $60 sometime later this year.
MP3 players don’t get much more barebones than this: the Kana Micro MP3 player has no integrated storage and only 3 buttons. You have to stick a micro SD card in to put anything on it (a 2 gig card is included), and it both syncs and charges its 2 hour battery via a USB port. Not bad for only $16 I guess, but I might be willing to splurge a little bit for something like, you know, a display. Or a bigger battery. Or more storage. Or better colors. I could go on… But I won’t, since the Kana Micro is currently only available in Japan.
I’m something of a geek and (as you might have noticed) a writer too. I think there’s something about both of these qualities that attracts one to the game Scrabble. I love learning new words, but even more I enjoy using those words as powerful tools on the Scrabble board. Granted, I don’t actually play all the time, but one aspiring fanatic went well out of their way to show their devotion to this wordsmith’s game.
Apparently one day it dawned on a few people that the little wooden game pieces were small squares, roughly the same size as the keys on an average keyboard. So why not use them to create a custom keyboard? Well there are several obstacles here. Namely, there’s no “Enter” piece in the game of Scrabble. Instead they contacted a friend and persuaded him to hand-craft this masterpiece laid out before you. Each key was hand-beveled, and he went so far as to make the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys have lights that shine through when enabled.
This was originally just a one-off piece, but yesterday the creator put up a little note on his site. Since so many people have taken an interest in his work, he is considering making a small batch of these to sell. The biggest hurdle is whether or not he’s going to have Hasbro banging on his door for doing so.
I could probably go on at length describing the things I love about my iPhone. However, you’ve probably heard enough about it over the last year and a half, so I won’t bore you. No doubt you already know that one of the shortcomings of the phone is its camera. Even the later 3G model takes equally poor snapshots. I’ve seen a few different goofy-looking attachments that promise to help in one way or another, but in the end they just don’t seem practical for use. I mean, who wants to carry around a tiny lens for their phone? At least Griffin seems to have the right idea with their Clarifi case.
Instead of offering some sort of clip-on attachment for your phone that won’t work with a protective case, they built a macro lens right into their own case. Sure, you aren’t always going to want to take close-up pictures, so they positioned the lens on a slider which can easily be engaged when needed. When you’re done, just slide it back over. You would probably pay $25 for a standalone lens attachment, however, for this price you’re getting an entire case as well. Not a bad deal at all.
It’s unclear who, exactly, this transparent bathtub is designed for… Someone who desperately needs both bullet-proofing and bomb-proofing in their bathroom, I guess. Maybe it’s that special tingle you get from being both exposed and protected at the same time. You’ll have to call China to get one of these, but at least the price is negotiable.
Related Tags: Home-Theater, Projectors
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