They might not be the best accessory for really long bike trips, but if you only cycle to get to work or around the city, Blackburn’s FLEA bike lights will save you from ever having to replace batteries again. They come with a small USB dongle that attaches to any standard USB port, and once again thanks to the power of magnets you simply need to dock either the front or back light to charge them up.
On a single charge the front light, which spits out 40 lumens thanks to a set of 4 super-bright white LEDs, will run for 3 hours steady, or up to 5 hours flashing. While the back light with its 4 super-bright red LEDs will keep on keeping on for 6 hours steady and up to 12 hours flashing. In addition, an extra set of LEDs hidden under the logo on top of the lights will glow green, orange or red indicating their current charge level. ~$30 for the front and rear lights, sold separately.
At this point you know that carrying anything that looks like a concealed weapon isn’t the best of ideas, even if you’re not in an airport. But if you prefer to live dangerously while toting around 4GB of data, here’s another gun-shaped flash drive to add to your portable storage arsenal. It’s “S&W revolver shaped design” is a lawsuit-free way of saying it’s designed to look like a Smith & Wesson revolver, complete with a metal housing. And because the manufacturer doesn’t have to pay any licensing fees to S&W, they’re passing the savings on to you since this will set you back just $23 from USB Geek.
Every so often, video game companies revamp their controllers. They change the color, add a few dollars to the price, and release them with a moderately sized ad campaign. But, more often than not, the “new” controller offers very little difference and ends up falling flat.
Not too long ago, Microsoft launched the new Xbox 360 controller with the new transforming D-pad and color scheme. The price is on average $64.99 and at first glance you would probably have the same opinion I did, “Fifteen more dollars for a new paint job and a fancy D-pad? Forget about it!” However, upon closer inspection of the packaging, you will discover it comes bundled with a charge and play kit which, is normally priced at $19.99. After finding out about the charge kit I decided why not save five dollars on a battery pack and get a new controller?
Even if you couldn’t care less about LEGO and have never heard of Rube Goldberg, I guarantee you’ll find the above video interesting, if not mesmerizing. And at the least, it’s a mindless way to get yourself 13 minutes closer to the weekend. From what I can tell, GBCs or ‘Great Ball Contraptions’ are standalone modules made of LEGO that are designed to get small balls from one area to another in a unique and original manner.
But things get even more interesting when you chain these modules up into a larger layout, and they pass the balls between each other. This particular layout at LEGO World 2011 in Copenhagen actually set a new world record with 93 modules chained together, and I must say I’m pleasantly surprised at the originality of some of these creations and the methods they use to transport the balls.
There’s not a lot of things (besides ill-planned flights) that can get me out of bed early enough to be somewhere at 9:30 in the morning, but the retro charms of FujiFilm’s upcoming X100 digital camera were certainly enough today.
Announced back in September of last year, the X100 is scheduled to be available sometime in the very near future (its original March release date has been pushed back as a result of the terrible tragedy in Japan) but we got a chance to play with a few sample models with production-ready firmware and it’s left us feeling a little disenchanted with the heavy DSLRs and less-than capable point and shoots we usually haul around. While it’s not the perfect replacement for all of your photographic needs, the X100′s design, capabilities and let’s be honest here, all-around good looks, have us wanting to spend as much quality time with it as we can. More of our impressions after the jump.
Not all of us can afford a fancy home security system that’s monitored 24×7. Instead, if we want to deter criminals from taking our possessions, we lock our doors and hope for the best. There are some low-tech alarms that will simply emit a loud sound, in hopes of scaring off burglars, but even those aren’t the most effective. So why not step it up a bit, and make sure they want to get far away from your house as fast as they can.
This Burglar Blaster is one thing that no would-be thief will want to tangle with. Once tripped, it will not only start wailing loudly, but it’s going to shoot out pepper spray. The 4oz container is enough to cover 2,000 square feet with the stuff, leaving the criminal with a good bit of pain in the eyes. Of course, the trade-off here is that you have a house full of pepper spray. I’ve never tried to clean that stuff up, but it seems to be that it wouldn’t be much fun. Also, you’re going to have to shell out $600 for one of these. While I appreciate the harm it would cause to someone breaking into my house, I think it would be more of a hassle than it’s worth.
It’s probably not a guaranteed way to reach Phelps-like levels of performance in the pool, but if you’re curious about your lap times or stroke count and don’t have the sponsorship dollars to pay for a swim coach, this wrist-worn monitor from Finis appears to be just as capable. Using accelerometers, magnetometers and proprietary algorithms the Swimsense is able to automagically distinguish between backstrokes, breaststrokes, butterfly and freestyle strokes, in addition to tracking distance, split times, laps, pace times, stroke rate and even calories burned.
The Swimsense also comes with a charging/syncing dock which replenishes its rechargeable battery for 24 hours of use after a 2 hour charge, and also allows the results of the last 14 workouts (the watch’s max capacity) to be uploaded to an online training log site where your stats and performance vitals can be further analyzed. $199.99 available directly from Finis.
I try not to lose too much sleep over it, but every once in a while the worry that my home will be invaded by a Roman fleet gets the best of me. I’m not proud of it, and I’ll admit there’s a chance I’m maybe being a little paranoid, but I just know the second I let my guard down- BAM!… Roman Centurions knocking on my door. Thankfully I’ll now be prepared though because some clever Greeks (I’m assuming, possibly even the direct descendants of Archimedes, even though their website’s in French) have created a portable solar death ray cleverly disguised as a solar oven.
The horribly named COOKUP200 can be assembled in as little as 10 minutes (I can probably get that down to 8 with years of practice) which should be enough time to get it set up and properly aimed if invading forces are spotted early enough. By default the parabolic mirrors are focused on the cooking plate so that the naive will think it’s designed for cooking, but I’m sure the focal point can be adjusted to cause one’s enemies some real discomfort. It even comes with its own carrying case making it easy to haul up on the roof giving you the high ground, and a built-in orientation sensor helps you properly align it towards the sun. The ~$700(€499.95) price tag does have me a little worried, but I guess you can’t put a price on your home’s safety.
Don’t feel like going to all the trouble and expense of installing track lighting, but still want something that’s customizable? Designer Ron Gilad’s Dear Ingo chandelier features 15 or so articulated desk lamps fused to a central ring that allows them to each be pointed in a different direction. You’ll probably want to be extra careful when it comes to keeping the whole thing properly balanced because you’d hate to have it come crashing to the floor after spending ~$3,700 on it. Available in a black or white powder coat finish.
Related Tags: Eco-friendly, Outdoors
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