Back to the Future promised us a lot of cool technologies in the year 2015. Of course with only five years to go, it doesn’t look like we’ll have flying cars, hoverboards or Mr. Fusion. We may, however, see those self-lacing shoes that Marty McFly sported on his trip to the future. (Let us hope that they’re a bit more stylish at least.)
One Instructables user was tired of waiting for Nike to develop the self-lacing technology, so she did it herself. It operates as follows: “step into the shoe and a force sensor reads the pressure of your foot and activates two servo motors, which apply tension to the laces, tightening the shoe. A touch switch reverses the servos.”
I haven’t quite found my killer app for the iPad just yet, but it looks a few pilots might just have. The new iCub light sport aircraft from SportairUSA features an iPad smack dab in the middle of the cockpit’s instrument panel that not only simplifies the layout of dials and displays, but also provides an almost infinite amount of functionality. The iPad in the iCub comes pre-installed with a host of useful flight-oriented applications including WingX Pro7 navigation software, ForeFlight Mobile HD which provides extensive maps of airports and approaches, iHUD which is a virtual heads-up display and even various apps for emergencies including first-aid and survival guides. Those latter apps of course only being useful if your iPad survives said emergency.
And since the iPad and all of the installed apps will be included in the price of the iCub aircraft, there’s no info on what the whole package would have cost. But suffice to say it’s probably a lot cheaper than your standard aircraft GPS unit which can run in the thousands of dollars, which in turn makes the aircraft itself cheaper.
He doesn’t care about curfews, or what you did to the car, and he’ll never ever ground you, but I still don’t get the feeling this inflatable dad is the perfect substitute for the real thing. In fact, even though he’s not X-rated, I’m still pretty creeped out by the whole idea. He stands just 5 feet tall so he doesn’t exactly come across as an imposing authority figure, and let’s be frank here, every kid likes to think that his dad can beat up another kid’s dad, but this inflatable dad can be easily felled with nothing more than an ill-placed thumb tack. But at just $17.99 from Stupid.com, you can keep an entire cupboard full of replacement dads on hand for just such an emergency.
There’s no denying that Tokyo Flash sells some cool watches, but while they’re fun to look at, I can imagine the novelty wears off pretty quickly. So this Binary Slider watch from thumpsUp! is a nice compromise. On one side you’ve got a couple of sets of numbers with blue LEDs that light-up to indicate the current time at the push of a button, with only marginal math skills required. And once you get frustrated with that, you can just slide the metal panel across which reveals a traditional , slightly easier to read, analog watch face. It’s like having your cake, and knowing what time you can eat it too!
If you’ve permanently made the move to a laptop over a desktop PC, you’ve probably had to give up a few conveniences like ample storage with room for additional hard drives and copious amounts of USB and other ports. But the DeskBook Pro dock from Zemno will give you all of that back, for the price of another reasonably equipped notebook. (Windows-based of course.) As you can see in the product shots it’s designed to complement and match an aluminum MacBook, but it can be used with pretty much any notebook as long as its footprint isn’t too large.
But what does it give you? Well for starters it’s got 7 USB ports, 3 Firewire 800 ports, 1 Firewire 400 port, 1 DVI output, 1 ESATA data connection, 1 ESATA power connection, stereo audio in & out and even a built-in multi-format memory card reader. It’s also got a couple of removable ‘ModBays’ in the front which can be filled with extra hard drives, extra batteries (that only power the dock itself) and eventually even devices like your iPod. While it’s not pictured, I’m assuming there is some cabling that needs to be run including both USB and Firewire, so you’ll need one of the newer FW-equipped MacBooks to really take advantage of the dock. All-in-all it doesn’t look too shabby, were it not for the unfortunate $599.99 price tag. Not to mention the extra $179.99 for the optional 500GB ModBay hard drive, or the $149.99 for the ModBay battery module.
I’m sure if you were to take your car to some sketchy repair shop on the wrong side of the tracks you’d have reason to worry about what the mechanics were doing with your ride. But taking your Audi into the dealership for scheduled maintenance or repairs? I’m not so sure. Nevertheless, the German car maker is introducing what they’re calling the AudiDirect Reception System which will see their mechanics and technicians wired up with video cameras and communication systems, allowing owners to see the work being done on their car and communicate with the person doing the work, all from the comfort of the reception area. On one hand ‘monitoring’ a mechanic while they’re working seems a little overkill given that most drivers will have no idea what they’re looking at, but being able to explain a problem directly to the person responsible for fixing it is probably a bit more productive.
For now the ‘Audi Cam’ service is only going to be available in Europe, but the response from owners so far has been very positive (not sure how the mechanics like it though) so it might be eventually offered across the pond as well.
The TV-B-Gone is one of those must-have gadgets for pranksters everywhere. If you like messing with people, randomly turning off their TV can be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the device has a very limited range. So what if you need to prank someone that’s 110 meters away? You get the TV-B-Gone Pro.
This new gadget has been redesigned to look like an iPod, so as to be more inconspicuous (though the LEDs at the top are a dead giveaway). It also works up to 110 meters away, as opposed to the original, which only got up to 50 feet at its best. You can even set it to turn of a bunch of TV’s in a row, for those times that you need to cause chaos on a larger scale. $50 is steep for a prank, so make sure that you get your money’s worth.
As a kid you might have been mesmerized by the amazing properties of Silly Putty, but a few high school chemistry classes later and you realize it’s just science doing its thing. But this Magnetic Thinking Putty, available from Vat19 for just $13.50, is a whole new world of mystery. Ok probably not, unless you didn’t take any physics classes in high school since it’s basically regular Silly Putty infused with “millions of tiny micron-sized magnets.” But it’s those tiny magnets that breathe new life into those globs of silicone rubber.
Each tin of Magnetic Thinking Putty also includes a super-strong neodymium iron boron magnet that lets you start playing with your new ‘toy’ as soon as you take it out of the packaging. Now given the highly viscous nature of the putty you’ll need a bit of patience to truly enjoy its properties, but if you’ve got a camera with time-lapse capabilities you can create somewhat unsettling videos like this one. Oddly enough the magnet was never seen or heard from again…
And since I can’t get enough of them, and assume there’s at least one or two of you out there who feel the same, I’ve included a couple more videos of Magnetic Thinking Putty in action after the jump.
Even if Bluetooth headsets shrink to the point of being completely invisible in your ear, you’ll still look kind of foolish seemingly carrying on a phone conversation with yourself. That’s simply never going to change. So while it’s not exactly a hands-free alternative, the Moshi Moshi 03 Bluetooth handset from Native Union provides similar functionality to a BT headset, while making it look like you’re actually talking on the phone, sometime in the 1950′s. It’s definitely got a certain retro/modern aesthetic to it, and it comes with a matching charging base (available in a black or white glossy finish) so it’s not just floating around your desk while not in use.
Unfortunately though it looks like iLounge had a chance to put it through its paces and found it hard to recommend. Not only was the sound and voice quality all over the place, and at best just acceptable, but it also wouldn’t pair with the iPad or BT-capable versions of the iPod Touch, making it unusable for apps like Skype. So sadly it seems like the Moshi Moshi 03 is a case of function following form, which makes it hard to justify the $129.99 price tag.
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