By Chris Scott Barr

When I was about 12, my parents decided to finally get a pool for all of us. I remembered being so excited when they finally got it put in, however, it wasn’t long before I realized how much work went into keeping that thing clean. I still think that I probably spent more time cleaning it than just enjoying the darn thing. Well for all of the people out there that don’t have children to do all of their cleaning for them, there is a cool little robot that can help out with at least one of the chores.

The Solar Powered Pool Skimmer does just exactly what you think it would. It simply motors its way around your pool, skimming leaves and other debris so as to leave it looking nice and clean. The Skimmer gets around using dual paddle wheels, along with four wheels on its corners to make sure it never gets stuck. The best part is that it’s solar powered, meaning you never have to worry about recharging it. It even will navigate around the pool to find the most ideal charging spot when it needs some juice. The worst part is the $500 price tag.

[ Solar-Breeze ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I’m one of those strange people that will generally do their best to avoid dealing with people when I’m shopping. At the grocery store I always use the self-checkout, since it’s usually much faster. Unfortunately most other stores have cashiers to ring up your purchases, the same goes for restaurants. Thankfully Jack In The Box is doing their part to cut out the middle-man.

Seen to the right is an awesome little kiosk that lets you order your food without the need to deal with some teenager that really doesn’t want to be there in the first place. Sure, eventually these might start taking the jobs of a couple workers, but I doubt they’ll ever really do away with the cashiers altogether. It is, however, nice to see more places offering their customers a choice on how to order their food.

VIA [ Consumerist ]

By David Ponce

Palm recently updated it’s operating system for the Pre to version 1.1. Most notable in the update is that it now re-enables syncing with iTunes 8.2.1. which had previously been deliberately broken by Apple. Pre owners are now able to transfer music, videos and photos directly from the popular software.

While it’s not immediately clear just what the changes consist of, it’s not a complete surprise that Palm was able to pull this off as many of its engineers used to work at Apple. It is believed they were familiar with iTunes hardware identification scheme so were able to once again fool the software into thinking the Pre is a native device.

The update also does a few other things and is available over the air.

VIA [ Electronista ]

By David Ponce

Every now and then you see a product and you just assume that it’s a concept. I mean, heck, it’s just too smart for anyone to be producing it! And every now and then you’d be entirely wrong, like now. The Orb is an actual Bluetooth headset that transforms into a ring and vice-versa. Wear it like a ring and its Flexible OLED (in the Deluxe edition) will display caller info, calendar items and voice-to-text info. Feel like answering? Twist it off and hang it on your ear. Sound is transmitted through bone conduction, so there’s no need to even insert it in your ear. It’s really just brilliant.

The best part is that it’s supposed to be available for purchase in early 2010 for $129 for the regular edition, $175 for Deluxe and going up from there depending on what gemstones people might choose to have embedded into it. It is after all, also a ring.

It’s being developed in partnership between Hybra Advanced Technology and AbsolutelyNew. There’s no product page quite yet.

A close-up picture if you keep reading.

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By David Ponce

[ The following article is sponsored by Yamaha. The device was provided free of charge, and I am being compensated for the time I took to review the product. The opinions expressed are entirely my own. -Ed. ]

Yamaha’s pretty excited about their new Yamaha NeoHD line of media controllers, and for good reason: it works as advertised. If you’re a certain kind of consumer this device will make you smile. If you’re not, (as I am) it might make you wince but it’s not Yamaha’s fault at all. I’ll explain everything in detail in the review, but out here suffice it to say that the NeoHD media controller does a great job of getting rid of your panoply of remotes and replaces them with a simple graphic-based user interface for controlling just about any media source you decide to plug into the device… and one single back-to-basics remote.

The idea is simple: plug your DVD player, your Playstation or Xbox, your cable box and your DVD player into the machine and relinquish their individual control to NeoHD. The device will communicate with them all via IR blasters attached directly to their IR ports. It’ll also take care of your surround sound, whether it be through your own 5.1 set of speakers, or the included (in my package at least) 2.1 virtual surround set. There are enough connections at the back to accommodate just about any setup.

You might say “Hey, but I got a Harmony remote that does all that!” And I’d say sure, but you’d be missing the point. Read on for all the details, plus find out how to win one of these systems (an $800 value!).

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By David Ponce

New Zealand artists have created this massive sterling silver ring shaped like Master Chief’s Mark IV Spartan Helmet that comes in sizes ranging from 6 1/2 to 12 1/2. Engraved on the inside of the ring is a Halo 3 logo and the piece will set you back a cool NZD$275, which translates into about $180 greenbacks. That’s a good amount of change for silver, but hey, when you’re a fan, you’re a fan.

Hit the jump for three more pictures and a purchase link.

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By Andrew Liszewski

Thanks to companies like Eye-Fi, WiFi equipped SD cards are readily available allowing you to upload photos or videos from a digital camera to your PC or online sharing service as you take them. But KDDI has just shown off the first WiFi equipped microSD cards at Wireless Japan 2009, which is currently running until the 24th.

The company actually showed off two different cards, one manufactured by Mitsumi Electric Co. Ltd. and one by Renesas Technology Corp. and while both used different wireless hardware, they were each IEEE802.11 b&g compliant. And while there aren’t any digital cameras that use microSD cards, non-smartphones that don’t feature built-in WiFi should benefit from the new cards, though pricing, availability and even storage capacities have yet to be determined.

[ Tech-On! - KDDI Exhibits microSD Card with WLAN function ] VIA [ SlashGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

You have to really love your local radio morning personalities to shell out $350 for a radio these days, even a sleek designer model like this one. But if you’ve got a thing for vacuum tubes, the Jonas Damon 2B Ltd. Edition radio’s got them in spades… well 3 at least, and they’re viewable from the back so you can stare in awe and wonder while they “broadcast signals in big, warm, radiant sound.” Other features are pretty limited though. You can get an AM/FM tuner of course, and if you’ve completely converted to MP3s there’s also an aux-in jack for connecting your iPod/Zune/the rest.

[ Jonas Damon 2B Ltd. Edition Vacuum Tube Radio ] VIA [ Better Living Through Design ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Having a 3G card can really be handy if you’re on the road a lot. Unfortunately some places don’t get the best coverage. Thankfully many cards have a port to connect an external antenna, which can significantly boost your signal. But what if your’s doesn’t have such a port? In that case, you get a Modem Mate external antenna.

This cool antenna has an adapter that clips onto your 3G card and couples inductively with the internal antenna. That allows you to boost the signal by up to 2 dBi, which should hopefully get you that extra speed to get things done. The antenna itself can clip on the top of your laptop’s screen, where it will likely get the best reception. If you’re a road warrior that needs to squeeze every bit of bandwidth out of your 3G data card, then this might be $56 well spent.

[ Nova Media ] VIA [ Electronista ]