Borrowing some design and functionality cues from Philips’ LivingColor lighting systems, the Orb alarm clock features a clear acrylic design with a delicious glowing center that cycles through a rainbow of colors, supposedly helping you drift off to sleep easier. There’s also your standard LCD display slapped on the front that includes the time and temperature (it would be cool if that were tied into the color of the light) and if the sound of the standard alarm clock shriek is too unnerving for you, you also have the choice of six different soothing sounds to wake up to including ‘rolling waves’, ‘dawn on the farm’ and ‘morning chorus’. ~$20 (£12.49) from BoysStuff.co.uk.
As if having to prick your finger on a daily basis to test your blood sugar wasn’t enough, to properly manage your diabetes you also need to double as an accountant or a bookkeeper to monitor your results over time. Thankfully companies like Bayer are aware that it’s not always the easiest thing to stay on top of, so they’ve created the Contour USB Meter which looks like your standard blood sugar tester, except for the addition of a USB connector on one end.
The Contour is able to store 2,000 results, organized and displayed on the color screen by the exact date and time they were recorded, but when it gets full, or at any time actually, you can upload them to Bayer’s Glucofacts Deluxe diabetes management software which provides provides numerous ways to analyze, sort and view the data. While the meter usually sells for about $75 including 25 test strips, it looks like Walgreens has it on sale for just $39.99 right now.
Longtime readers might remember that I was really looking forward to Foxit’s eSlick ebook reader since my biggest requirement for those devices was excellent PDF support. And if any company besides Adobe has an expertise with PDF software, it’s Foxit. In fact I had a hands-on with the eSlick a couple of years ago at CES and the device showed a lot of promise, but unfortunately as of this morning it’s become another victim of the recent ebook reader price wars. Well, unofficially at least.
In a press release this morning Foxit announced that they were focusing their efforts on licensing their PDF and ePub software and technology to other hardware manufacturers, and were ceasing development of the eSlick to ensure they aren’t competing with their partners:
Converging on its core business strength, Foxit Corporation, a leader in PDF software solutions, today announced that it will license its industry-leading PDF and ePub technology to key players in the eBook market to help enhance digital rights management, content management, content distribution and viewing technology in the space. The company will cease development of the eSlick™ Reader, its own electronic reading device, to focus on providing platform-independent PDF technology and multi-device support to leading eBook providers.
“We have been licensing our PDF and ePub technology to a number of eBook vendors. Our decision to discontinue eSlick is to eliminate the possibility of competing with our partners,” said Erik Bryant, Assistant Vice President Sales, Foxit Corporation. “We’re looking forward to making the most impact possible on the growing eBook market by providing our proven, top-of-the-line PDF software technology as an industry standard to the principal providers of electronic reading devices.”
However, even though the eSlick’s $199 price tag at one point made it one of the most affordable e-ink display devices, the release of the $149 Kobo(which is based on the same hardware platform) and Amazon’s recent announcement of budget-friendly versions of the Kindle have made that market extremely competitive. Not to mention the fact that the ebook reader market is also slowly being eaten into by Apple’s iPad and iBooks store. So while it’s not that surprising to see the eSlick go at such a young age, it does make me a bit misty eyed.
So apparently in Japan there’s a market for small wind-up walking dog toys that you have to clean up after. Because that’s exactly what this Oshikko Inu toy does. And it’s not like it just drips water either while it wanders around, every so often it will stop, deliberately lift its leg, and let loose, as seen in this video of it in action.
I guess if people are willing to buy dolls that ‘wet the bed’ small plastic dogs are not that much of a stretch. And if cleaning up faux urine is your thing, you can pick one up from Strapya World in brown, black or white for $15.30 each.
Also, to whoever cooked up that product shot, I’ve got two words for you. Foot & model. They’re real, and there’s a reason they exist.
Besides a slick form factor that won it a red dot design award and a 3-stage Hepa filtration system which removes 99.5% of airborne particles including germs and dust, the Coway AP-1008 features an illuminated hole that will glow a specific color depending on how polluted the room happens to be. Red indicates high levels of pollution, light purple for medium pollution, purple for low pollution and blue signifies the room is 99.5% clean. Of course that last 0.5% of air pollution could very well contain those microscopic bits that eventually get you, but for $279.99 you’re greatly increasing your odds of not getting sick.
If you haven’t caught iPad fever yet, and have a couple of long haul flights to deal with in the near future, you might want to give iLuv’s i1166 portable media player a shot. And even if you do have an iPad, the i1166 still has a few features you might enjoy if all of your movies don’t come from iTunes. At its core the i1166 is a portable DVD player featuring a generous 8.9 inch widescreen TFT LCD display (NTSC resolution I believe) but open it up to insert a disc and you’ll also find an iPhone/iPod Touch dock inside that allows you to control and enjoy content from those devices on the larger display.
On the bottom edge of the i1166 you’ll also find an SD card and a USB port for attaching flash drives, allowing you even more flexibility when it comes to how you access your videos, as well as 2 x 3.5mm headphone jacks for sharing with someone sitting next to you. It also comes with a remote if you have the player propped up on a desk far enough away to not have access to the controls. I’m going to assume/hope there’s a rechargeable battery stashed in there somewhere, otherwise the $299.99 price tag is a little steep.
Remember the Otamatone? It was kind of a bizarre singing musical instrument that was played by squeezing its face to produce a very unique waaaah-like sound. It’s since become available from places like Amazon for around $36, but iPhone and iPod Touch owners can now save themselves a bunch of money because the Otamatone is now available as a downloadable app. $2.99 is definitely a bit cheaper, and thanks to the iPhone’s touch screen and built-in gyro, it doesn’t appear to lose any of its functionality when it comes to playing, as demonstrated in this video.
Since the age of the cassette tape, it’s been pretty easy to make backups of your favorite music. Cassettes, CD’s and straight mp3′s are all easy to duplicate. Vinyl records, however, aren’t so easy to do. Sure, you can make digital copies of the tracks, but many people will tell you that listening to the same track on vinyl makes a huge difference. You’ll a way to make exact vinyl copies of your old records if you want to maintain that original sound. If you’ve ever wanted to do this, apparently it’s not terribly difficult.
The process involves making a silicone cast of the record, then pouring in some liquid plastic to make your own copy. Sure, it’s not nearly as simple as popping a CD in your computer and hitting “copy disc” in your favorite software, but it’s still pretty cool nonetheless.
And to think, a few months ago I thought this wireframe Lamborghini Koenig Countach was impressive. Well by it’s own right it is, but comparing it to this wireframe Chiangjiang 750 motorcycle, created by artist Shi Jindian, is like comparing computer graphics from the 1980′s to what modern 3D packages are capable of today. It was apparently created in a process where the artist crochets steel wire around an object and then destroys and removes it from the inside, kind of like popping a balloon inside a home-made piñata. Now how he did that with an actual motorcycle is beyond me, but the results are certainly impressive.
Related Tags: alarm clocks, Lighting
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