If you agree to play along, this clock from Italian clock maker Diamantini & Domeniconi can perpetually give you 3 extra minutes throughout your day. Granting the wish of anyone who’s ever wanted “just a few more minutes!” to get something done. As clocks go it’s got a fairly mundane design, with dots representing the numbers that usually appear around the circumference of the face. But what makes it stand out is the minute hand which bends at the end, making it point 3 minutes ahead. You’ll have to train yourself to look at where the crooked hand is actually pointing for it to be of any use to you. Not where the minute hand naturally directs your eye. But if you manage to fool yourself you may never be late for a meeting again.
It’s available from Rakuten for about $98(¥7,875). And while I’m sure some of you will scoff at the price, you’re clearly forgetting the clock is giving you 3 more minutes of your precious life. (Also, the makers of the On-Time Wall Clock have asked us not to point out that you can simply set the minute hand on a $10 wall clock ahead 3 minutes for an even more convincing effect.)
You know what we here at OhGizmo! love most? Gadgets of course… But if we had to choose a close second, it would be intricately detailed and functional scale models. Whether it’s a 10,000+ piece Jawa Sandcrawler made out of LEGO, or Jack Clemens’ faithful and flyable scale reproduction of the USS Macon. At 20 feet in length the model barely fits in Jack’s two-car garage, but any smaller and the volume of helium inside wouldn’t be enough to allow the mini Macon to actually lift off.
Interestingly enough, the USS Macon pictured here is actually the third model Jack has built. The first was destroyed by a cat jumping off a shelf onto the prototype. The second, possibly the most historically accurate of the three, was totaled in a windy test flight. (The original USS Macon was lost when damaged in a thunderstorm in 1935.) But the third managed to survive until completion.
Eight small propellers, powered by a single 2.5 ounce lithium polymer battery is all that’s needed to propel the mini Macon, which is controlled and steered by a standard RC remote that talks to a receiver in the craft’s cockpit. All in all the USS Macon model represents about 2 1/2 years of Jack’s life, and $6,000. And he eventually hopes to donate it to a museum being built in Moffett Field, California, which is where the original USS Macon called home.
Referred to as the Swiss Army Knife of furniture, the Sasan ‘Magic Carpet’ starts out as what looks to be a particularly comfy padded square rug. But since the base is composed of 4 different sections, the carpet can be folded and contorted into various shapes and configurations of usable furniture, which are held in place by a contrasting set of red straps. Now I get the pseudo couch and bed with elevated footrest configurations, but what’s up with that adult crib setup? A bit of a stretch if you ask me.
The Sasan was created by the Alexander Munk Design Bureau, but since it dates back to 2006 and I can’t seem to find it available for sale anywhere online, I’m assuming it’s sadly just a one-off creation.
They aren’t going to hold a drop of water, so referring to these decorative bowls as ‘vases’ is a bit of a misnomer. But as an eco-friendly way to decorate your home, they’re certainly unique. Each Air Vase starts as a single circle of intricately cut paper (we’re assuming lasers are involved) that can be stretched out to a various shapes and containers with some careful manipulation. And from what we can tell, the Air Vases are probably made from a thicker card stock, given how well they hold their shape. Each side is also printed with a different color or design, so the completed vases will look different depending on what angle you’re looking at them from.
There’s an official Air Vase book(~$27) available which seems to do nothing more than illustrate the various ways you can use Air Vases. But a set of 3, in white, is available from Kaminokousakujo.jp for ~$16.
At first glance you might mistake the Pocket HiFi C4 Pro from Colorfly for a knock-off PMP that someone has given an impressive steampunk facelift too. But that’s not the case. The C4 Pro, which features a luxurious hand-engraved black walnut housing, is actually targeted at audiophiles since it’s apparently the first player capable of playing 24 bit/192 KHz WAV files. Inside the C4 Pro you’ll find CIRRUS Logic CS4398 DAC and CS8422 SRC chips which result in a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 108dB. The headphone jack also has its own built-in amp which outputs up to 13.3mW of power from its 6.3mm headphone jack (it includes a 3.5mm as well) allowing you to use high-end headphones without an external box.
As you can see it also sports an old-school pushrod volume slider, includes an SPDIF port for connecting it to modern stereo equipment (for playback or recording) and as for storage I can’t seem to find too much info on their site as to how much is built in, but I believe it includes a microSD slot meaning you can throw a 32GB card in there. As for the price. The Colorfly website is pretty mum on those details, but a seller on Amazon is asking $799 for a new model.
I still don’t want one on my DSLR, but on a P&S digital camera an articulated LCD display can make framing and taking photos from a low or high angle considerably easier than just blindly snapping away. The same would be great for the iPhone, except that an articulating display just isn’t going to happen. So the Hipoflex is a clever compromise. It’s a small plastic accessory that clips on to the corners of your iPhone, positioning an angled mirror next to the camera lens. So when taking a photo in either portrait or landscape mode, you can hold your iPhone in a more natural position. Not up to your face like with a P&S digital camera.
The Hipoflex also doubles as a stand of course, but I think I’d prefer if the mirrored panel was adjustable, so that when not in use it can at least be folded back against the iPhone. In its current state you have to remove it before slipping the phone back in your pocket, which is a minor inconvenience. Optimistically the creators of the Hipoflex, Clément and Navid, are hoping to sell it for ~$20. But there are a few obstacles ahead of them. They also have to develop an accompanying camera app since the use of a mirror results in images being flipped. And unfortunately their Kickstarter goal of raising $12,500 ended a few days ago with the project getting no where near the required amount of funding. But it’s not like Kickstarter is the only way for a product to come to market, so hopefully the Hipoflex still has a chance.
And if you were wondering where the name Hipoflex came from. It’s a combination of being able to shoot photos from hip-level, and the fact that using a mirror in front of the lens is a standard feature of reflex cameras.
Once a material most commonly used on billion dollar super-secret spy planes, titanium has found its way into consumer products these days like collar stays, iPhone cases and now even water bottles. At a mere 4 ounces when empty the Exotac titanium water bottle, or TiBottle, is not only the lightest metal water bottle you’re going to find, but probably also the toughest.
The bottle is actually made of 3 separate pieces of titanium which have been welded together, and it holds about 650ml of liquid. And as if being made from titanium wasn’t cool enough on its own, it also allows the TiBottle to be heated directly on a stove for boiling water or preparing a meal while camping. But on the flipside, because it’s made of titanium the bottle also starts at $75, with finish and matching cap options adding to the price.
When it comes to reading, I can be very finicky about the experience; I guess I’m the reading equivalent of an audiophile. I’ve spent a lot of time looking for the perfect reading environment, and, apart from providing a nice thunderstorm, the “Long Form Library” seems to meet all the requirements.
You sit reclined, curled up in the middle of the furniture while the overhead lights provide ample reading light and the accent lights in the rim give a dim glow to the rest of your room. The bottom of the furniture is designed to rock gently back and forth without tipping over (For this reason, this might not be a good buy if you have dogs or cats that like to crawl under your furniture). The designer claims that the compartments surrounding the reading area will hold around 400 books or DVDs, but, from the pictures I’ve seen, that number seems to be quite an exaggeration.
The Long Form Library is a prototype; at the moment, only one exists, and it costs $9500. On the designer’s Etsy page he says that his company is going to begin machine-producing these, which should greatly reduce the cost. However, if you’re into handmade things or heavily exhibited original designs, this one’s for you. If you live in the UK, the designer will deliver and assemble the library himself. If you’re outside the UK, there is an extra $500 tacked onto the price, and the shelf comes in 15 “modular boxes” that you have to bolt together, a process that should take about two hours.
The Dell Vostro 3550 15.6-inch laptop is positioned towards small businesses with above-average portability (it weighs just 5.5 pounds) and comprehensive connectivity, but it doesn’t forget that even business types might enjoy some multimedia performance now and then. So not only can you configure the machine with as high as a Core i7 processor, you can also pair it with a discrete AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics card for an enjoyable (if not mind-blowing) gaming and video playback performance. On the connectivity side, you get
on the left, an 8in1 cardreader, an eSATA/USB 2.0 combo, a HDMI out and another USB 2.0 port are found. On the right, there is a slot for ExpressCards (34 mm only), an audio out and audio in and a fast USB 3.0 port.
Even the rear accommodates a few connection options. In addition to the battery, you can find the power socket, a VGA out, a second USB 3.0 port, an RJ45 gigabit LAN and Kensington lock.
On today’s deal you can save $100 on a Core i3 configuration (i3-2310M 2.1GHz “Sandy Bridge” w/2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, Fingerprint Reader & Webcam) for $449 plus $8 for shipping. The Core i7 config will set you back $1,049 after $200 in savings.
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