When it comes to living room seating, most people go for the usual pieces of furniture. These generally being a couch, loveseat, recliner and/or some other type of chair. Sure, couches are great because they seat multiple people, and allow for sleeping when needed. Recliners are nice if you want to lay back and watch TV without having to lie on your side the whole time. However, there is one piece of unconventional furniture that can do all of these things. That’s right, I’m talking about a bean bag.
There’s a chance that you had a bean bag when you were younger. They were great for sitting in front of the TV while watching movies or playing video games. Unfortunately, most such pieces of furniture never really lasted all that long. Over time the little beans lose their shape and the whole thing begins to fall, until your favorite seat is the most uncomfortable one in the house. Well in case you hadn’t heard, there’s a new bean bag out there, one not actually filled with tiny beans at all.
Sumo has actually been making their bean bag chairs for several years now, so I wouldn’t exactly call them new. However, they’re still interesting enough to warrant a review. They shipped us over one of their ‘SumoSac Couple’ chairs, which I have been lounging on for a couple of weeks now. Luckily I needn’t get out of it to write this piece.
Ladies and gents, Wednesday’s deal is quoted directly from LogicBuy’s site:
HP direct store is offering up to $308 off + $25 web-use stackable coupon on the new HP Pavilion dm4t Laptop, customizable with Core i5 or Core i7 processors. Or configure over $1,249 and use $200 stackable coupon on top of $150 off instant savings. HP is also offering 50% off 6-cell and 12-cell batteries, FREE 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive, Free 4-year LoJack upgrade from 1 year ($70 value), 50% off 6 cell and 12 cell batteries, $20 off 15-month Norton Internet Security subscription and FREE shipping.
The only place on Earth where I can never relax is in the dentist’s chair, so it would take quite a bit for me to ever fall asleep in Panasonic’s yasumi Relax Chair which looks like it’s also suitable for undergoing root canals. The chair is fully reclinable, features built-in speakers and sub-woofers and is able to rock back and forth on its own as part of three different relaxation programs.
The 20 minute ‘Relax Program’ uses oscillation movements that get slower and slower to put you to sleep while the ‘Refresh Program’ essentially does the same thing to let you catch a few minutes of rest before increasing the intensity about 15 minutes later to wake you up again. And the ‘Comfort Program’ simply runs for about 2 hours providing comforting rhythmic oscillations that are supposed to mimic the movement of the waves. There’s also the undocumented ‘Tsk Tsk, You Haven’t Been Brushing Every Day Program’, the ‘Looks Like Those Wisdom Teeth Are Going To Have To Come Out Program’ and the ‘Braces Will Make You Look Cool Program’.
Tokyoflash is not only responsible for some of the craziest watch designs we’ve ever written about, but they also encourage fans to submit their own unique designs that could eventually see the light of day if they’re popular enough. Now unfortunately we probably won’t be seeing this particular design anytime soon, but if you’ve been awed by ferrofluid videos you’ll definitely appreciate this concept. The watch’s face contains a small pool of the magnetic fluid and when held horizontally a magnetic backing creates animated gears and moving hands that indicate the time. And when the watch is tilted, instead of the fluid all spilling to one side, the last ‘image’ is frozen in place, once again thanks to the magnetic backing.
While the mocked up product shots don’t do a great job at getting the idea across, there’s an accompanying video that actually uses ferrofluid to demonstrate how the concept would work.
I’ll admit to being completely ignorant when it comes to Doctor Who. Like The Prisoner, it was one of those shows that really creeped me out as a kid, and the stigma has stuck with me into adulthood. But from what little I know about the show, it must have somewhat of a following since it’s been on the air for around 120 years and will soon have its own Wii game.
Doctor Who: Return To Earth will be available sometime this Winter and true fans will want to make sure they pick up this Sonic Screwdriver themed Wiimote that will be available a bit sooner in October. I don’t think it does anything unique other than making the game feel more ‘authentic’ but if Doctor Who fans are anything like Star Wars fans, they’ll feel obliged to add this to their pile of Wii accessories no matter what.
Not long ago the Solarbotics company sent us its easiest BEAM robot that they had to assemble. Everything came included in the kit along with a nice screwdriver to put it together. The only thing required is about an hour of your time and 4 AAA batteries. Unpack it all and you are well on your way to building your very first robot.
The kit assembles easily enough and the supplied instructions are very detailed and easy to follow. All of the pieces screw together quite nicely and each part is clearly labeled. I would highly suggest this item to anyone looking to build a first robot. For its size this thing is extremely fast. I threw in some fresh batteries and this bad little critter took off across the kitchen floor bouncing off of everything it could find. The pets have taken a quite an interest in their new floor buddy as well. Both having mixed reactions especially when the BeetleBot seems to go into “Attack” mode.
Nerf guns are the kind of toys that never seem to lose their charm. Much like LEGOs, you can play with them at any age and still have a lot of fun. Of course, when you’re older, you have access to additional parts with which you can modify the guns themselves. This leads to creations that you’d only dreamed of as a kid. Take, for instance, the heat-seaking Nerf Vulcan.
This rather ordinary-looking Nerf gun has been modified to use a thermopile array sensor and an Atmeaga 168 microcontroller to track heat-generating targets. Once the target has been acquired, it will fire until it runs out of ammo, or loses track of the object. If you need the latest in cubical warfare, you can find complete instructions here.
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Fujitsu’s PFU subsidiary, their PFU Imaging Solutions Europe Limited division has commissioned a couple of special edition versions of the company’s ScanSnap S1500 and S1300 scanners. The units will be available in a limited run since they’re decorated by hand with a high-quality Urushi lacquer coating and gold powder embellishments including an eagle and the ScanSnap logo. There’s no doubt the results look fantastic, particularly when compared to the standard gray or black plastic housing of most scanners. So $2,200 for the S1300 and $3,200 for the S1500 almost seems like a bargain when you consider you’ll have the best looking scanner in the office.
Solar powered watches aren’t a new concept, but these days the solar cells are integrated into the faces so you wouldn’t know they were solar powered just by looking at them. That’s not the case with this Sol Watch available from the MoMA Store though. It’s got a tiny solar cell placed front and center below the watch’s inverted LCD display, extending the battery life by an additional 50%. The band and case are made of polyurethane making them water-resistant, and while I like the design, $100 is a tough sell for such basic functionality. I better just order two.
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