The Force Trainer from Uncle Milton Industries uses the same concepts and principles as the Mindflex game that Mattel was demoing at CES this year. The Jedi-in-training wears a simple wireless headset that measures their EEG brainwave activity, which in turn causes a ball inside the 10-inch “training tower” to rise or fall. So no midichlorians needed here. Like with the Mindflex game, you’ll need to concentrate on something in order to activate the trainer and manipulate the ball, though it seems to me like you could be easily distracted by the Star Wars sound effects and audio clips that will let you know how you’re progressing from a lowly Padawan to a Jedi Master.
The Force Trainer is expected to be in stores this Fall, and will set you back about 90 to 100 republic credits.
I don’t care how big a fan you are of the Ferrari show Formula 1, this wall clock that features a replica Formula 1 nosecone crashing through a giant steering wheel is nothing short of a fanboy disaster. And while you might think something like this was designed to sit on your desk or on a shelf, it’s actually 3 feet wide and weighs over 35 pounds! So hanging this on a wall is probably going to require a bit more hardware than just a simple screw.
Still want one? You’ll have to contact Yab Design directly for a quote, which of course means since the price isn’t listed on the website, it isn’t going to be cheap.
Well, with a bastardized updated version of Oregon Trail coming to the iPhone at the end of the month, I thought it was only fitting that this week’s ‘The Games We Played’ should cover that classic title that taught us all how easy it was to lose family members to dysentery.
But, I thought I’d do something different this week. Instead of reminiscing about the thousands upon thousands of buffalo I killed (while only carrying 100 pounds of meat back to my dying family) I figured the trip down memory lane would be a lot funner for all of us by simply playing the game again. So if you head on over to VirtualApple.org, you’ll actually be able to enjoy a Java port of Oregon Trail right in your web browser. Now you’ll need to have Java installed, but that’s a minor inconvenience to spend some quality time with an old friend. Just be careful on those river crossings!
All you speed demons out there will be happy to hear that MIT has developed energy harvesting shock absorbers that can boost your fuel efficiency by up to 10%. The new shocks, called GenShocks, can generate power from even small bumps, and smooth the ride more effectively than conventional versions. They work by using an active hydraulic system that forces fluid through electricity generating turbines as the vehicle bounces up and down.
The heavier the vehicle, the better the system works, meaning that hummer owners finally have something to feel a little smug about… A six shock heavy truck, for example, would generate about 1kw of electricity, which is enough to power all the electronics, even if you have one of those super annoying stereo systems with eighty-five subwoofers. The guys at MIT estimate that if a company the size of Wal-Mart outfits its fleet with the new shocks, they’d save about $13 million a year in fuel costs.
Unsurprisingly, the first customer for this technology is most likely to be the military, but it’s certainly capable of trickling down through the commercial market into consumer vehicles, where a 10% increase in fuel efficiency is nothing to scoff at. No word on pricing, but a production version should be ready this summer.
You shot 1342 pounds of meat but were only able to carry 100 pounds back to the wagon.
Your wagon tipped over while fording the river. You lose 3 oxen.
You have died of dysentery.
Ah, Oregon Trail on the Apple II. Possibly one of the best games of all time, the beginning of compuedutainment, and the one thing above all else that convinced me that maybe these computer boxes really did have some potential. And now it’s come full circle, with Oregon Trail on the iPhone.
Except, it’s not. It’s some sort of re-imagining by developer Gameloft. Details are nonexistent beyond four screenshots and an app store availability date of February 28th. Now, I personally feel like the graphics were part of the charm and hence the appeal of the original, and I imagine a direct port would be far more popular than whatever this cartoony thing turns out to be. But what do I know… I still have a good time playing Doom. Three more screenshots, after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Over at Instructables, ‘kirton’ has a great tutorial on how to make your own punching bag like interface for the classic NES title, PunchOut. A foam filled bag provides a comfortable punching material, and inside that bag you’ll find a set of handmade impact sensors wired to a PC game pad which translates the impacts to the game running via an NES emulator. The system can even provide visual feedback whenever the player gets punched thanks to a combination of software that detects when your sprite turns pink (which is how the game indicates a hit) and an arduino which causes an LED indicator to flash. That part is just a proof of concept at this point, but eventually a strobe light will be used to provide some level of real world disorientation whenever your character gets hit.
Because regular LEGO bricks are only so big, it limits the types of technologies that can be crammed inside. So while LEGO flash drives are not uncommon, that’s where the innovation has kind of stopped. But everyone seems to have forgotten about DUPLO, those giant, hard-to-swallow, kid-friendly LEGO bricks that most of us probably started with as a toddler. Everyone except Etsy seller 123smile that is. They’ve managed to retrofit a DUPLO brick with a 4 port USB 2.0 hub that includes 3 x USB type A ports and 1 USB mini port for good measure. And just like DUPLO, the hub is available in blue, orange, yellow, red, green, white and black colors. But unlike a single DUPLO brick, it will set you back $49.95.
Well here’s something I’ve been eagerly awaiting for a few months now. MonoPrice.com(who doesn’t actually make the cable as far as I know) has revealed that come March 15th they’ll be selling a Mini Display Port to HDMI adapter for the low, low price of just $14.25. Unless you can find 50 or more friends who’d also like one, at which point the price drops to just $12 each. The adapter was originally supposed to be available in January of this year, though it’s pretty obvious that didn’t happen. But it’s better late than never, particularly since it doesn’t seem like Apple will be providing one of their own, and even if they did, the ‘Apple tax’ would put it well above $15.
For a solar charger to operate at peak efficiency, it always needs to be oriented towards the sun. So instead of just sitting there, pointed in the wrong direction while the sun slowly progresses across the sky, the SOLAR ChumAlong (chum?) continually re-orients itself so it’s always pointing at the brightest point in the sky. This is accomplished with four optical sensors, and results in a 30%-50% increase in efficiency over conventional, stationary solar chargers.
And while the SOLAR ChumAlong looks kind of flimsy, it’s actually designed to fold-up for easy transport, and can be setup in just a few minutes without any tools, making it a perfect addition to your camping kit. You can get it from Edmund Scientific’s for $399.00, but keep in mind that price doesn’t include the 12V rechargeable battery that’s required for operation.
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