Flud claims their Cartridge line of watches are “inspired by the video games of Old” but I’m afraid I’m just not seeing it. The watches feature a waterproof, polycarbonate case with a glossy rubber strap as well as a “killer” display with vertically oriented numbers and movements. Again, not really seeing how that ties in to old school cartridge games, unless the watch periodically stops working until you blow in it, clean a set of metal contacts on one side or cram a folded piece of paper between it and your wrist. $80 each in 3 different color combos from Flud.
Visitors to this year’s Chelsea Garden Show were left scratching their heads by an unusual fountain created by none other than inventor James Dyson. Inspired by the works of MC Escher, the water in the fountain appears to flow uphill, cascading over the top of a series of four ramps. Wrong Garden, as it’s called, actually took about 12 months to design and build, and the secret to how the illusion is accomplished is spoiled revealed in the above illustration from BBC News. Basically the laws of physics are left in tact, but compressed air is used to create bubbles that provide visual clues that the water is flowing uphill, when in fact it’s not.
Or on top of, rather. The EniCycle is an a prototype self-stabilizing unicycle from Slovenian inventor Aleksander Polutnik. Featuring a three-hour battery, gyroscope and a spring damper, Polutnik claims a 30 minute learning curve. The video we’ve embedded after the jump shows UK “The Gadget Show” Ortiz Deley learning to ride the device. Within a few minutes he’s not falling off and actually steering.
Looks like some kind of fun, but sadly this isn’t a production device unless (like so many things) Polutnik finds some funding to market it. There are currently only two models he built himself.
Flashlights are handy things to have, but they never seem to sit exactly how you need them to. There have been different solutions to this problem over the years, the latest being the Gorrilatorch. Looking at it, you’ll easily recognize it as the brother of the Gorillapod.
The Gorillatorch is exactly what you would expect from Joby. You’ve got a flashlight attached to one of their famous Gorillapods, which makes it easy to point the light exactly where you need it. The light uses LEDs to achieve a maximum brightness of 65 lumens, though it can be lowered if you don’t need anything quite that bright. Two AA batteries are all that’s needed to light up any workspace. For $30, this would be useful in any house, garage or workshop.
Anyone that’s worked in an IT field knows that taking such a position means that you will undoubtedly become your family’s on-call support staff. This means that a quick stop at your grandparent’s house to say hello could turn into a two-hour ordeal battling spyware and a non-functioning optical drive. Over the years I’ve learned to keep a small kit of tools in my car at all times, since I somehow always end up needing them. After seeing these Screw Keys, I think I’ve found a rather handy addition to my tools.
These Screw Keys are a rather simple concept (and likely not an extremely new one, but they were cool enough to mention anyway). They are two screwdrivers roughly the size of your average key. They should be wide enough at the top to get a good grip on, but they won’t be unnecessarily bulky. At $4.50, I’ll definitely be ordering some.
I remember being little and hating my grandparents old grandfather clock. While I enjoyed the pleasant tones it emitted every fifteen minutes, it featured Roman numerals, which were a pain to read. I’d have to stare at it for a moment to really figure things out. I still prefer a standard digital clock, as it only takes a quick glance to tell you the exact time. I’ve often wondered, how much more (or less) efficient would a clock be that spelled out the time in words? Well now there is one that does that very thing.
The QLOCKTWO is a strange clock that tells time by writing things like “IT’S FIVE PAST NINE.” Its biggest drawback is that it only spells things out in five-minute increments. If you want it to be more precise, you have to look to the four corners of the clock, each of which has a dot that represents a single minute. This clock-turned-art-piece will probably be the most expensive thing in your living room, should you choose to buy it. The asking price is just under $1,600. If you’re cheap like me, you can just buy the QLOCKTWO app for your iPhone, which is only a mere $.99.
Earlier this week we covered several different incremental improvements in robot AI, including grasping and object recognition. In the video above, ASIMO is demonstrating another (arguably more) important aspect of robot intelligence: the ability to navigate around a dynamically changing environment. It’s not likely that ASIMO will find itself in a situation where it needs to avoid stepping on whirling pink blades of death, but at some point (soon, please) we’ll have ASIMOs walking around our homes, and…
We have to give Cloud Telecomputers credit for trying to defibrilate a heartbeat into what is clearly a platform in need of change: the desk phone. Sure, businesses still use them as they have massive infrastructures built around them and they’re not going anywhere soon, but feature-wise these machines have nothing on our smartphones. Which is why the Glass Platform looks interesting.
Featuring an 8″ touchscreen and a flavor of Android under the hood, the phone will allow you to dial directly from Outlook, dial by name, link to your cellphone with Bluetooth and answer through the deskphone, even access your mobile’s contacts and dial them through the interface. Finally, since this is a full OS you can also access applications, such as Salesforce integration, find and call taxis, connect to LinkedIn, etc.
“As you probably picked up, however, this is still a platform and not an actual product just yet, but Cloud Telecomputers does have some pretty heavy backers behind it, and it “anticipates” that the first phones should be available sometime in the first quarter of 2010 for between $599 and $699.”
You gotta think we’ve achieved some new kind of sophistication as a species when you see a product like this. It’s quite simply some toilet paper that’s been treated with heaven knows what chemical in order to glow in the dark. Perfect for power outages as the website says. Also perfect for contaminating your posterior with glow-in-the-dark afterwipe.
It appears as though you can only purchase in bulk at £5 per 72-roll carton, with a minimum of 6 cartons. Oh, and they’re out of stock until September 30th.
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