While this cooking timer from Amadana isn’t exactly new, I do like the falling blocks mode where each block represents a second that has passed, kind of like sand falling through an hour glass, though far more accurate. On the other hand, cooking timers are supposed to be a set it and forget it type device, so who wants to stop what they’re doing to count a pile of tiny blocks at the bottom of the screen? Thankfully there’s also a standard digital clock face that can be easily read from a distance, and like an hour glass, this timer can be stopped and started by simply flipping it over. Clever, but not $55 (5,000 yen) clever.
When you think of carrying some sort of weapon for self-defense, what sorts of things come to mind? I’m going to guess that a permanent marker wasn’t at the top of the list. I’m sure that a Sharpie to the eye would probably do some damage, but I hardly think that makes it a weapon. Now this Pocket Shark on the other hand, now that is a weapon.
You’re still going to have to do a bit of work to make this pen do the trick. It’s made from an extremely tough glass-reinforced plastic called Grivory. The company actually makes knife blades out of this stuff, so it’s really strong. A good blow to the temple with this would definitely knock someone out. They also advertise that it is good yawara, which is a Japanese weapon that can be effectively used to perform submission holds and even break bones. At $7, this pen really is mightier than the sword. (I just couldn’t resist.)
I’m sure that everyone has wasted a good portion of their lives trying to find their keys. They only seem to disappear when you’re running late. I recall that when I finally hung up a key hook by my door, I seemed to have a better time keeping track of them, though it took a while to get used to hanging them up every day. I think it would help if you had something a little more interesting than some plain hooks for your keys. Something like this Key Thing for instance.
Rather than just tossing your keys on a small table or hanging them on a boring hook, you actually stick one of them into a small rubber grip on this half-sphere. Sure, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but it is a bit different. It’s just a concept for now, but it seems simple enough that it might just get made into a full-fledged product someday.
Like Star Wars, The Simpsons is probably one of the most heavily marketed TV shows of all time. And while things aren’t as bad as when the show first hit the airwaves, there’s still a steady stream of Simpsons related crap merchandise flooding onto the market.
This particular item is your run-of-the-mill analog wall clock that ups the ante with a Duff beer bottle attached to the second hand which Homer’s eyes will follow as it makes its way around the clock face. You can hang one at work to countdown to when it’s time to head to the pub, or hang one over your TV at home to countdown to when the show becomes funny again. (Exact date to be determined.)
The big reason why it’s not the future and you don’t have a jetpack is fuel. Jetpacks are necessarily a compromise between the amount of fuel they can carry and the amount of weight they can lift, and so far the best you’ve been able to expect is 10 or 20 minutes of flying time. So if somehow you could get the fuel off of the jetpack, you’d be good to go… And that’s what the JetLev does.
The JetLev is a jetpack that’s powered by water. It doesn’t carry the water with it; rather, it’s got a 140 foot long flexible tube attached to a little boat that you drag along behind you. The boat has a 4 stroke 115 hp engine in it that pumps water up into the jetpack at 100 psi, and when that water comes shooting down out of the two nozzles at the sides, it puts out enough force to lift a person up to 50 feet in the air at speeds of 50 mph. Since you’ve got about 326 million trillion gallons of propellant at your disposal (and it recycles!), the only limit to the range and endurance of the JetLev is the gas in the motor boat pod thingy, which currently gives a range of nearly 200 miles.
There are downsides to being restricted to water, but upsides as well… Namely, if anything goes wrong, you’re no more than 50 feet away from a splash landing. The JetLev is reportedly a cinch to operate, and it costs about $128,000.
I’m still finding stuff from CES to write up, and one of the very first gadgets I had the chance to play with was the new Logitech Harmony 1100 universal remote. In fact, it turns out the person I was sitting next to on my flight to Vegas was the Logitech ‘demo guy’ for this product, so I had an ‘in’ even before the plane touched down. The Harmony 1100 is an upgrade to the 1000 model, and features a 3.5 inch color touch screen that’s complimented with a set of ‘soft’ buttons on the sides, and dedicated volume and channel buttons to the right. Now these buttons technically duplicate functionality already found on the touch screen, but I like the fact that you can adjust the volume and change the channel without having to look away from the screen. Who knows when that crazy island from Lost might up and disappear again while you’re not paying attention?
And like with all the Logitech Harmony models, programming the 1100 to replace up to 15 different remotes is easy thanks to their guided online setup that currently supports more than 225,000 devices from over 5,000 brands. But if things get too complicated, the UI on the large touch screen can also be re-configured to show only the commands you want to see, even to the point of choosing a custom icon for each one. Now that large display does raise the issue of battery life, but the remote comes with a docking cradle, so whenever it’s not in use or lost, the battery should be recharging. (I think the Logitech rep suggested 3 or 4 days of use before it needed to be recharged.)
We all spend a lot of money on gadgets, and it’s really damn frustrating when electronics companies seem to do their level best to make things difficult or impossible to repair… If I own it, shouldn’t I be able to fix it? This is what the Maker’s Bill Of Rights calls for.
Some of these things are not entirely practical for some consumer electronics, sure… But come on, why can’t everyone just use USB power adapters? Seriously? The reason, of course, is that every time you buy a new gadget you have to buy a new power adapter for $15 that costs the company a dime to make. Sigh. I don’t know what it’s going to take to enforce this stuff, but if any of our readers happen to be in positions of power in major industrialized governments, you should see what you can do.
Yep, the iPhone isn’t exactly a champ when it comes to battery life, and here’s yet another way to keep it running should you find yourself lacking an external power source. The SOLiCharger is nothing more than a rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack that’s capable of giving your iPhone up to a 50% full charge, which should be enough for a few hours of heavy use. It can be recharged via a USB connection or plugged into the wall, but if you’re lacking either of those options the SOLiCharger also features a solar cell on one side that can recharge the battery in about 4 hours when placed in direct sunlight. And best of all it’s just $39.95 on the SolLight website.
Not all of us are as naturally talented at drumming as Animal is, but thanks to modern technology, who needs natural talent any more? The FielDrum was created by Graham Grindlay while he was at MIT as part of the Magnetic Musical Training project, and one aspect of the project’s hypothesis was whether or not people could learn to play an instrument by feel, which led to this concept.
The FielDrum’s a regular old acoustic drum that’s been upgraded with a system of electromagnets, permanent magnets and various electronics to induce a push and pull force on a special pair of drumsticks, basically guiding a novice drummer to follow along with a beat. The prototype uses MIDI to control the attract and repel states of the drumsticks, but eventually the team would also like to add a position sensing system so the drummer-to-be could easily learn where on the drum they should be playing.
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