This happy (or is it hungry?) little 4 gig USB flash drive comes bundled with 256-bit AES encryption, and a slick little piece of built-in software that takes over your computer’s webcam when you plug the drive in and checks out your face to make sure that you’re not ugly really you. The setup is simple; all you need to do is take a couple pictures of yourself to familiarize the drive with what you look like, and after that, authentication (which claims to be 98% accurate) takes only about a second. That 2% error, by the way, means that 2% of the time it won’t let you in, and 2% of the time it would let someone ELSE in.
And what happens if you get stung in the face by a swarm of bees or you’re attending a sci-fi convention dressed as a Narn (because come on, everybody goes as Klingons) and need to access the Narn/Klingon translation dictionary stored on your Lockface USB key? Don’t worry, you can also get into it the old fashioned way, with a password.
Which kinda renders the whole facial recognition thing useless as a security measure.
But still, it’s cool. The Lockface USB flash drive is available for $110, so far only in Japan.
Next month I, along with my fellow OhGizmo writers will be heading off to Las Vegas for CES. While I’m looking forward to seeing the city and all of the latest gadgets, I’m not looking forward to the 8+ hour flight. I have various means for keeping myself occupied during the trip, but it’s a pain to keep all of those handy while in your seat. However, this Airplane Seat Back Valet might make things a bit easier.
I chuckled a bit when I first saw this, thinking it to be rather lame. However, after thinking back to the numerous flights I’ve taken, it would be great to have. I could keep track of my books, DS, PSP, laptop, drink and any other things I’d want during the flight. If you’re forced to fly on a regular basis, you might want to consider investing $40 in one of these.
Electric bikes are nothing new, but this Copenhagen Wheel is one of the coolest ideas I’ve seen along those lines. Whenever you are breaking, the wheel will begin to charge up an internal battery. Then, when you’re trying to pedal up a hill, it will sense this and kick in its motor to help you on your way. It can also be used to increase your speed when traveling over a flat surface. This isn’t the sort of electric bike that lets you rest your legs, but rather increases the bike’s speed while you’re pedaling.
A bonus feature is that the wheel is iPhone compatible. Yes, that sounds absolutely absurd, but it does do something rather useful. It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and records trip information such as speed, direction and distance traveled. It can even pull information from the web to alert you of traffic and weather conditions. Look for this awesome wheel sometime next year for between $500 and $1000.
If you’re looking for a last-minute idea for one of the kids in your life, here’s a cute idea. Get them one of these cool LEGO coat racks for their room. Each includes three hooks, topped with a different LEGO minifig. Of course this isn’t just good for kids, it also works for those still a kid at heart. At $23, it’ll make a great gift.
I don’t have kids, but I do know that there is plenty on TV that I wouldn’t want a small child to see. Most parents seem to have good enough sense not to give their kids control of the remote, which lets them make sure they’re only watching suitable programming. Now if you’re the type that wants to give your child a little freedom to watch what they want at an early age, you have to jump through hoops to make sure that they don’t stumble onto bad channels. Or you could just get the iMote.
I have no idea why they felt the need to use the ‘i’ in the name, but that’s beside the point. The remote has only a handful of buttons, which is all a child needs. You’ve got your power and volume control, along with five channel buttons. You’ll program the five channels to the ones your child watches most, thus assuring they will never see anything inappropriate. If you like to leave your kid alone with the TV for extended periods, it might be worth $30.
S’mores: they’re the most efficient way of getting chocolate and marshmallow and graham crackers into your mouth. And I’m all for efficiency (and chocolate and marshmallows and graham crackers). The issue with s’mores, though, is that making them relies on obsolete technology: fire. And fire is obsolete for a reason… I mean, who really wants to be outside, where it rains, next to a fire that makes you too hot on one side and too cold on the other and leaves everything smelling like smoke and risks getting out of control and incinerating you and all your friends and burning down the forest and contributing to global warming and making baby seals cry? Is your s’more really worth that? The tears of baby seals? Of COURSE not. Plus, there’s like mosquitoes and stuff. I mean, come on. We’ve made progress, people. We’re indoors now and we’ve got microwaves.
The Micro S’mores machine uses “core fusion technology” (which I think is the same stuff that they use in quantum computers and the large hadron collider) to not only keep your s’more components properly positioned in the microwave, but also provide enough downward pressure to ensure that everything sticks together and melts evenly, all in just ten seconds:
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “core fusion technology? I can’t possibly afford that!” But don’t worry, in a noble gesture of goodwill towards humanity Micro S’mores have been made available for only $20 for a set of two. Order them here.
Improving keyboard design seems to be about as challenging as building a better mousetrap. Sure, we see new keyboards all the time with tiny changes here and there, but always they have the same overall look and feel. Every now and then a new strange one will make its way onto the market, only to be forgotten a few short months later. The only one that’s really stuck around in any manner is the split-keys “ergonomic” style. Well the Kinesis Advantage keyboard takes that design to a new level.
I can’t really say too many bad things about a keyboard I’ve never used, but I do have some concerns. The biggest glaring one is that the rows of keys are situated directly above one another, rather than being slightly offset. I suppose that one might get used to it after a bit, but it seems like it would be counter-productive. I won’t pretend to know the science behind these things, but if that were the better option, wouldn’t all keyboards have their rows line up? Another big problem is the price, which is $300. There’s no advanced technology hidden inside of these things. It’s the same as any other keyboard on the market, only with the keys situated differently. Slap a small premium on it to recoup the money you spent researching and designing the thing. $280 is not a reasonable markup for essentially a redesigned $20 keyboard.
If you’re AT&T, chances are you’re like a bunch of other AT&T customers: unhappy. But instead of doing nothing about it, some people are organizing a grassroots uprising called “Operation Chokehold”. Maily spearheaded by Newsweek reporter Dan Lyons of Fake Steve Jobs fame, the so-called operation is a digital revolt of sorts that aims to overwhelm AT&T’s network with simultaneous data usage. Writes Fake Steve:
On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
As Mashable points out, we’re not too sure this will accomplish anything nor whether enough people will participate to make a difference. We’re also wondering just how douchey this could be for other AT&T users who’re just peachy with their service. But there you have it.
German company Citron sure knows how to put the “multi” in multitouch. Where most multitouch systems these days are happy to track 2 points of contact, Citron’s dreaMTouch can track up to 32 simultaneously. It’s neither resistive nor capacitive, but rather uses IR technology which gives it “no special dependency on touch operation medium (stylus, finger, glove, …)”. More specs below:
quick reaction with 50 coordinates per second
optional medium between the display and the user (glass, plastic, air, …)
no shadow spots or blind areas like with other IR multitouches
no drift
no mechanical wear
At this stage Citron is developing this hardware and there are very few software applications using the dearMTouch’s capabilities. Recently, Germany’s Elektrosil partnered with NUITEQ to integrate Snowflake Suite on the dreaMTouch, but that’s about all we know in terms of current software integration. This of course might have something to do with the fact that dreaMTouch won’t officially be commercially available until January 2010. The system is awaiting patent approval.
Related Tags: Security, USB, USB flash drive
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By David Ponce
