Free Wi-Fi seems like one of those luxuries that is slowly spreading like wild fire. Yet there are times where you can’t find it to save your life. Sure, there’s a Starbucks on every corner, but you have to mess with one of their cards if you want your internet access. Well, at least you do until next month.
Starting July 1st Starbucks is throwing open the doors on their Wi-Fi service. You’ll be able to enjoy free access for as long as you like (provided you’re still sipping on their overpriced coffee). Just sit down, click on the network and you’re ready to roll. No more dealing with their cards, or AT&T’s login. They’re also going to be launching some sort of Starbucks Digital Network that will give you access to exclusive content, community news and local volunteer opportunities. But honestly, the free Wi-Fi is what’s really important here.
At first glance this small, 10-inch LED lamp appears to be yet another crappy USB gadget designed more for novelty purposes than anything else. But it hides a secret that actually makes this lamp a somewhat useful multi-tasker. The shade pivots to reveal a fan that’s hidden beneath its flowery design, so not not only will the lamp provide a bit of extra light for those late-night WOW sessions, but it will also keep you cool in the heat of battle. Not surprisingly it’s available from Gadget4all.com for just $16, which is probably $15 more than it cost to make.
Here’s a quick tip if you were hoping to pick up a new iPhone 4 on launch day. Instead of waking up at the crack of dawn, or even lining up the night before, just add this Husqvarna 355FX forestry saw to your repertoire and in just a few minutes you’ll have easily thinned even the biggest crowds. (Just remember that before you go through the front door your local Apple Store may have a ‘no pets/no industrial forest clearing saws’ policy.) Instead of a plastic cord or even a chain like your standard backyard weedwackers use, the 355FX has a 22-tooth wood saw blade powered by a 3.8HP, 53cc gas engine. It weighs in around 20lbs so the included back, shoulder and hip harness is probably a must-have accessory, and you can have one hanging in your toolshed for just $1,179.95.
In a few years I predict the ‘pillow hidden inside a random object’ industry is going to explode, but for now it’s just a niche product popping up every once in a while. The last option for those who like to doze off anywhere in comfort was a pillow hidden inside a textbook for the higher learning crowd. But this time around it’s the corporate world getting their much needed rest with the Pillow Tie.
As you’ve probably already figured out from that instructo-graphic, the Pillow Tie features a secret air bladder inside with an easily accessible valve at the bottom. It can be quickly filled with just a single breath, and in no time flat you’ll be fast asleep in your office, at a wedding or even that big job interview. The ties come in a pretty wide range of colors, patterns and designs, and appear to run just $19.95 across the board. And to everyone who forgot to get a Father’s Day gift for this upcoming weekend, you’re welcome.
Continuing on with our ‘completely unrelated to E3′ video game news comes yet another handheld multiplatform emulator from China. But don’t be worried about being mocked by your friends for not playing the latest version of the DS, because once they see you’ve got your hands on a console called the ‘Letcool’ you’ll rocket to the top of the social ladder.
The Letcool’s most notable feature is a set of compact controllers, though it’s not like we haven’t seen that functionality in a similarly sized system before, but otherwise it pretty much goes toe-to-toe with other gray market portable systems including support for GBA, NES, SNES, Genesis and Game Boy roms, with more support coming in future updates. And it can handle all of your media too since it’s friendly with 8 different audio formats and 10 different video, so if you can download it, it will play it. It’s also got TV-out, 4GB of onboard memory expandable via microSD, a digital camera, a 6-hour rechargeable battery and can be yours for ~$70.
If you’ve got a penchant for racing games, hanging around E3, hoping for a scrap of GT5 news, isn’t the place to be right now. Instead, you’ll want to grab yourself a flight to Lyons, France where you’ll find the I-WAY… arcade? It’s actually kind of hard to describe the place, which took 4 years to design and build, since it houses a spa, conference rooms, restaurants, lounges and even office space. But the real attraction of course is the 18 6-axis simulators featuring full-sized versions of Formula 1, rally/touring and endurance race cars.
To me it looks like a Chuck E. Cheese for anyone over 21, and since single races start at around $73(€60) and racing packages run as expensive as $770(€630) for 10 races, you can rest assured the place won’t be swarming with kids with pockets full of quarters.
Unless you’ve been mistakenly told that wearing a Bluetooth headset all day makes you look cool, you probably tend to keep it in a pocket or in your bag when you’re not talking on the phone. While it helps to hide your dirty little secret, the headset isn’t always easily accessible the moment a call comes in. So this watch, which looks like it just fell out of a wormhole connected to the mid-80′s, solves that problem by hiding your Bluetooth headset in plain sight.
As digital watches go the display is pretty basic, though it does have a somewhat unique elongated face which might pass as ‘hip’. And the Bluetooth headset comes with pretty much everything you’d expect these days including a rechargeable battery good for 8 hours of talk and 200 hours of standby, voice dialing, A2DP, and the LCD watch face also provides you with caller ID. It’s available from Lightinthebox.com for $67.99 which seems kind of reasonable since you’re not getting any frills or high-end features like noise cancellation.
With every new iPhone announcement comes a tsunami of new iPhone accessories, and while we try to avoid boring you with news of every single case, dock and screen protector that crosses our inboxes, there are the occasional items worth noting. Like these. Jays, the Swedish headphone maker, has added a fourth version to their a-JAYS product line appropriately called the a-JAYS Four iPhone since they’re specifically designed to complement the new iPhone 4.
The inline 3-button remote, which can be used for making calls and controlling your music, has a design that’s slightly reminiscent of the new iPhone’s updated form, and I can’t recommend the flat cord design enough if you’re tired of your headphones getting tangled. The version Fours will of course work with older iPhones, and really anything with a headphone jack if you don’t care about the remote, and are targeted to be available sometime in the third quarter of this year.
Checking the leaderboard, the last clever business card design we came across was Ramiro Pareja’s PCB board that featured a built-in USB port and on-board memory holding his resume and a cover letter. So while I’m not quite ready to push Matt and Duncan from Metrix Create:Space to the top of the charts for their plywood press-fit business card that turns into a brushless DC motor just yet, their design does have the potential to claim the top spot.
It was apparently created and fabricated in just one night, which is an impressive feat, though the 3mm thickness of the card is a little wallet-busting, and the motor doesn’t actually run without an Arduino controlling it as you can see in the video below. So hopefully their plans of refining the design, including making it out of considerably thinner veneer instead of plywood, come to fruition.
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