By Andrew Liszewski

While the antics at the Bushwood Country Club made a day on the links look somewhat appealing, it turns out that Caddyshack wasn’t an accurate portrayal of what a round of golf is really like. Thankfully companies like LEEV Mobility are hard at work devising ways to make 18 holes seem like fun. And their Mantys scooter is a step in the right direction.

It’s supposed to be used for lugging your golf bag around the course, but with a top speed of 18km/h and a steering-wheel-less design that requires you to lean and carve in order to turn, any clubs that allow these on the course might as well invest in a checkered flag. On a single charge the Mantys can travel around 22+ km, which is good enough for a 36 hole round, and it should be available sometime this Spring with an MSRP of $3,250.

[ Mantys Golf Scooter ] VIA [ Sandbox8.com ]

By Chris Scott Barr

How many of you are guilty of dropping your phone into a pool of water? If you’re one of the lucky ones that have not, just wait. One of these days your precious device will end up in the toilet, sink or possibly an actual pool. Generally when this happens, you’ll try and dry it out and hope for the best (which doesn’t always work out so well). The best method I know of is to toss it into a bag full of rice, which should absorb a good deal of the water. Another option is to have a couple of these Wet Cellular Phone Emergency Kits on-hand.

The bag contains some sort of super-absorbent material that, much like the rice, will take the water out of your phone. When disaster strikes, you simply tear off the top, toss in the phone (or any other small electronic device) and zip it shut for a couple of days. Crossing your fingers and praying to your choice of deities never hurts either. At $10 a pop, I’d say it’s worth keeping a couple around. If it does work, you’ll save a lot of cash over buying a new phone.

[ Dry-All ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If someone had a gun pointed at my head, demanding to know the time, and the only methods I had at my disposal were reading it off this Darth Vader Japanese Desk Clock, or somehow gauging it from the position of the sun and other stars in the sky, I’d definitely be reaching for my sextant. Because given the fact that Vader is 13-inches tall, reading that minuscule LCD display with the naked human eye is just not possible.

I don’t even know why they bothered adding a clock to the base anyways. If they had just left this is as a Darth Vader statuette, they could have easily charged way more than the $14.99 it’s currently on sale for at ThinkGeek. It’s definitely one of those instances where more is less. Oh and not surprisingly, it’s an officially licensed Lucasfilm collectible.

(And couldn’t they have just slightly adjusted the stance of Vader’s legs so the unsightly black support rod isn’t needed? I guess I’m just going to have to stop thinking about this… I’m choking on my own disgust here…)

[ Darth Vader Japanese Desk Clock ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

So it turns out that swapping the location of the buttons and the LCD display on a digital watch, just like O.D.M. (Original, Dynamic and Minimalist) has done with their Reverse Double Digital design, radically improves its functionality. Placing the programming and mode buttons on top, where there’s considerably more real estate, allows them to be larger and easier to press. And the angled time display, which has been moved to the top and bottom of the case’s sides, are easier to read from any angle without having to turn your wrist as much.

The RDD watches also feature a matte plastic finish, making them water-resistant, and are available in your choice of black, red, green or white for $120 from Watchismo.

[ Watchismo - O.D.M. Reverse Double Digital Watch ] VIA [ Cool Hunting ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Best Buy already ruined the surprise, so there doesn’t seem to be much excitement behind Cisco’s official announcement of their new Flip SlideHD camcorder. Like the Flip UltraHD I reviewed last year, the SlideHD captures footage at 1280×720 ‘HD’, though the boost to 16GB of storage means you’ll be able to record up to 4 hours before having to dump its contents off to your PC.

But the most obvious upgrade is of course the sliding 3-inch transflective touch screen which now incorporates all of the recording and playback buttons. When capturing video you use and hold the SlideHD like you would with the previous Flip models, but the addition of a headphone jack and the 3-inch display also makes it a more useful playback device, particularly when the display is angled up to 45 degrees and sitting on a flat surface. Sliding the screen also reveals a touch-sensitive strip which is supposed to make scrolling through all your videos a bit easier.

Gizmodo’s already got a review up of the new addition to the Flip family, and feels the device doesn’t really take advantage of the new touch-screen display as much as it could, particularly given the extra bulk that comes with it. Not to mention at $279.99 it’s now the most expensive model in the Flip line.

[ Flip SlideHD ]

By Evan Ackerman

I’m not going to try to puzzle out whether or not the Muvi Atom is indeed, as it claims, the “world’s smallest digital camcorder.” At 2cm by 4cm by 1.5 cm, it’s damn small, and let’s just leave it at that. Despite its size, it manages a respectable 640 x 480 30 fps video capture, runs for an hour per charge (plug it in via micro-USB), and records onto microSD cards up to 8 gigs. It can be set up to be triggered by loud noises, and has a clip on the back that can attach it to a pocket or shoelaces. Wait, what?

The Muvi Atom is currently available from Firebox for $99.

[ Firebox ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It’s toys like this that make me miss attending the NAB broadcast show going on in Las Vegas right now. (It’s kind of like CES, but none of the electronics are consumer friendly or affordable.) Vision Research’s latest high-speed digital camera, the Phantom Flex, is targeted towards the digital cinema market since it features a 4K, 2560×1600 CMOS sensor with 12bit color depth. At maximum resolution the camera can capture up to 1,560 frames per second, and up to 2,800 when stepped down to HD res, though an HQ mode is also available which boosts image quality but reduces frame rates to 780 and 1390 FPS respectively. And if you were to take the resolution all the way down to 640×480, you’d be able to record at 6,300 FPS to capture every last particle of that apple you just shot.

For low-light situations, or when capturing footage at high speed, the camera can be boosted to 1,000 ISO to compensate, and it’s compatible with 35mm, 16mm and 2/3″ lenses from the likes of Canon, Nikon and Panavision to name a few. There’s no word on pricing at this time, but odds are if you have the need to capture 4K footage at over 1,500 FPS, I’m sure you’ll find room in your budget for one.

Thanks Sam!

[ Phantom Flex ]

By Andrew Liszewski

When it was first announced last Fall, there wasn’t exactly a lot of enthusiasm for Openmoko’s WikiReader in the gadget blog community. I mean who needs to access an offline copy of Wikipedia on a bare-bones device with a monochrome display, when everything from smartphones to even Amazon’s Kindle can access the online version whenever you need to win a bet or a debate? And the whole purpose of Wikipedia itself is to serve as an always-up-to-date, comprehensive encyclopedia that’s perpetually being expanded. With the WikiReader you only get bi-annual updates to keep its database of over 3 million+ topics current.

But at CES earlier this year, when I actually had a chance to use the WikiReader in person, I have to admit I developed a soft spot for the device. The simplicity of its design and ease of use almost rivals Apple’s obsession with minimalism, and as someone who grew up relying on a shelf full of printed encyclopedias to get through grade school reports, holding the equivalent in the palm of your hand provides one of those ‘look how far we’ve come’ moments. But philosophical musings aside, while I can’t say the WikiReader is a must-have device for everyone, I do think it will appeal to some people. And if you think you might be one of them, please step inside for my full review.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Chris Scott Barr

Many cultures throughout history have noted the significance of the lunar phases and their apparent roles in our lives. With so many different groups believing that our moon does more than shine down and effect the tides, it’s hard not to wonder if they’re right. The people over at The Emotion Lab are firm believers that the different lunar phases can effect our emotional state. In an attempt to help people realize these corrolations, they came up with a  concept for this Moonwatch.

There isn’t a lot of information on the watch, but essentially it can show you the current phase of the moon at a glance. It does also appear that it has a secondary feature that tells the time as well. (Who would have thought that telling time would be a secondary feature on a watch?) The ironic thing is that the Moonwatch concept appears to be solar powered. No word on whether they plan to take this design to production.

[ The Emotion Lab ] VIA [ Dvice ]