If your toddler prefers watching the antics of Jeremy, Richard and James instead of Dora or Big Bird, you might want to consider upgrading their ride-on toy to something with a bit more class. And let’s face it, nothing says your toddler is better than all the other toddlers on the playground than what they’re driving, so for a mere ~$104 you can equip your child with their very own BMW.
The Baby Racer II features actual rubber tires which not only provides extra grip and handling in the corners, but also makes it easier to overcome small obstacles (like a minefield of LEGO bricks) and are considerably quieter than their plastic counterparts. The upholstered bright red seat is damp-wipeable for those nasty spills, and a low center of gravity ensures the racer stays on all 4 wheels even in tight curves. And to top it off, it’s even certified by the German Technical Inspection Association (TÜV).
Headed to Glastonbury this year but worried your cellphone’s battery won’t go the mile? (Or kilometer I guess.) Well once again Orange’s got you covered. Last year they provided cellphone recharging services via their Dance Charger and Recharge Pod tent, but this year they’ll be introducing the Power Pump. It’s basically a compact generator that features a turbine driven by a standard air bed foot pump. So in the amount of time it takes to inflate a pillow, you can generate enough power to make a 5-minute call on your cellphone.
Sadly there’s no word on if or when the Power Pump will be available for sale, so let’s hope the idea goes over really well at the festival.
I’m not exactly thrilled with the ‘Classic Controller’ Nintendo created for the Wii. Sure, all the buttons and analog sticks you need are there, but the design just doesn’t quite capture the feel of the original SNES controller, and doesn’t even come close to the N64′s. But a better solution is on the way. In fact, what could be better than using your old SNES or N64 controllers with the Wii? Come E3 you’ll be able to do just that as Komodo & Innex will be officially announcing their 3-in-1 Retro Adapter.
It connects to your Wii via one of the GameCube ports and allows you to connect either an NES, SNES or N64 controller to be used with Wii Virtual Console titles. And yes, that includes being able to use the N64′s analog stick. At the moment the Retro Adapter has a vague MSRP of around $19.99, and is expected to be available for sale come mid-June.
Short on speakers? How about you try a K-box, a speaker that turns anything you stick it to into a better speaker using some kind of “patented ‘gel-audio’ technology.” Things like this have been around for a little while, but the K-box is supposed to put out clean, powerful bass (that is “guaranteed to deafen your neighbours”) all the way down to 40 hz, something that other stick-on speakers are notoriously lousy at. It’s about the size of an iPhone and comes with a 20 hour battery that recharges via USB.
Although you can supposedly buy this right now, there’s only one picture, and it’s very render-y… There are also no specs on what the audio output power actually is, or even what inputs it accepts. So, I’d maybe hold off on this until someone actually gets a pic of a real one or something. It sells for about $60 from Kerchoonz.com
The Palm Pre is definitely making a lot of buzz these days, what with the official release coming up quickly and all. It certainly has a lot of promise, but what if you’re wanting to buy the phone without re-upping your Sprint contract for another two years? Well don’t worry, if you’re that worked up about being tied down to one network for the next 24 months, you can always buy it sans contract. Of course, like any phone it will cost you. $549 to be exact. And no, for that price it still won’t be unlocked.
You know what I hate? Pushing buttons. Sure, pressing one might save me the effort of doing a task that would otherwise require strenuous amounts of work, but it’s just damn annoying. Take my garage door opener for example. When I’m pulling in my driveway, I have to press the button on my remote two, sometimes three times while still focusing on my very slow driving. It’s so bad that I’ve been tempted just to park outside and go through the front door, but then I’d have to use a key. Don’t even get me started on keys.
The Blueguard Self-opening Door is a handy little contraption that uses a Bluetooth signal from your cell phone to open up the door when you’re approaching. This eliminates the need for one of those little garage door clickers that you’ve got attached to your sun vizor. My first obvious concern was that every time I walked to the kitchen my garage would open, but apparently it’s smart enough to detect whether or not you are approaching in a vehicle. Unfortunately there is no information on pricing. Oh, and just so we’re clear, despite the fact that I was extremely sarcastic in my opening paragraph, I would totally buy one of these if the price was right.
Most of the gadgets we use today have batteries of some sort inside them as do a growing number of cars. Battery tech is an area of intense research and development as an alternative power source for all sorts of products.
The world’s first air-powered battery has been unveiled and is called the STAIR (St Andrews Air) battery. The battery is charged just like any other battery directly from an AC outlet, but when power is discharged from the battery, it draws more energy form the air around it.
At one time, we have all played a game of dodgeball. The game is for some the first experience in the survival of the fittest nature of the world. At my school there were two types of dodgeball players, the sort who aimed for the testicles, and the sort that tried to hide behind the fat kid.
Game publisher SouthPeak Games has announced the availability of a new dodgeball game for the Wii that uses the motion based controls of the console to hurl balls at the enemy. As the title suggests, you can pit ninjas against pirates or chose from other groups of characters including robots, zombies, aliens, and some sort of mushroom men.
I love me a good science center, but I particularly like it when the actual building manages to educate as much as the exhibits inside do. Case in point, the The Swiss Technorama Science Center in Winterthur, Switzerland. Way back in 2002 they hired Ned Kahn to design a unique facade for the building which consisted of thousands of small aluminum panels that move with the air currents revealing the patterns of turbulence in the winds. Obviously the still shots don’t do it justice, so if you have a few minutes I highly recommend checking out the video below to see it in action, it’s quite hypnotic.
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