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Monthly Archives: March 2013

iRetroPhone Brings Back The Rotary Phone For The Apple Age

By David Ponce on 03/20/12 • 3 Comments

By David Ponce

There are certainly some of you reading who have no idea what a rotary phone is. We’re looking at you, 90′s born kids… But for the rest of us, the above iRetroPhone docking station/cradle will either make us cringe or lust. Or leave us indifferent… Really, we’ve no idea how it’ll make anyone react so lets just cover all the bases. The iRetroPhone cradles your iPhone, charges it, lets you sync if you want, plugs into the 3.5mm jack and lets you make phone calls old school style. You can even download an application that will replicate the rotary dialler for an even better simulation.

As a matter of fact, there’s a bunch of features on this thing, much too many to list here. It works with iPods, old iPhones, iPads, even Android devices. There’s a noise reduction system, a radiation absorber… Just hit the link below to see all the features. Out here you get to find out that if this floats your boat, you’re looking at a wallet ding of $100.

[ Product Page ]

Play The Pizza Roulette Game To Decide Who Pays For It

By David Ponce on 03/20/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

The above is a dish with an imprint of a gun’s magazine, with one of the chambers blacked out. Put a pizza/cake/pie on it and use the plate to decide who gets to do pretty much anything you want: pay for it, do the dishes, go fetch more beer, get the dog out of the bedroom… Really, only your imagination is the limit to what sort of things can be decided fairly, while enjoying a slice or two of your favourite sliceable meal.

It’s €30, which is about $40.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

Future Printing Tech May Be Able To Remove The Very Ink It Deposits

By David Ponce on 03/20/12 • 2 Comments

By David Ponce

One day the world will truly end its dependance on paper, but it’s going to take a pretty long time to get there. Until then, efforts continue to be made to reduce the impact on the environment that our need for dead trees has. One recent development comes courtesy of a team of engineers at Cambridge who are in the process of creating a device that can zap ink right off a page, leaving the paper free to be used once more. “The device works by using lasers at the wavelength of green light in pulses of four nanoseconds each, vaporizing the ink while preserving the paper underneath.”

The system is still in development and is not perfect. For one, it leaves a faint trace of ink, though for less than important documents, this may not be a deal breaker. Also, it can only be done a few times on any one sheet since it also strips off some paper in the process. But it is a step ahead of another similar solution on the market because this one can be used on any laser printed paper; one solution by Toshiba relies on a special blue toner.

Sadly, there are no patents or immediate plans to make this available to the public.

[ New Scientist Article ] VIA [ Chipchick ]

Your Rice Cooker Can Now Interface With A Smartphone

By David Ponce on 03/20/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

Rice cookers are pretty important in Japan, so it’s no surprise to see manufacturers pay attention to them and bring them up to speed in terms of their technological abilities. Panasonic’s SR-SX102 is perhaps at the forefront of this trend, with the introduction of a cooker that can play nice with your smartphone. Simply wave your supported FeliCa-enabled Android phone (FeliCa is a contactless RFID technology developed by Sony Corporation) over the blue dot on the lid and you’ll be able to set the rice type, cooking type and timer. Also, the phone can then connect to Panasonic’s cooking cloud server and access up to 100 recipes.

This appears to be a Japan only affair, and if pressing buttons directly on the lid and downloading recipes off the Internet like a regular person abhors you, then you’ll have to shell out $600 and find a way to import the machine.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ CNet ]

Deal Of The Day: $383 Off On Dell Latitude E5520

By David Ponce on 03/20/12 • Leave a comment!

By David Ponce

The E5520 from Dell is a business laptop. This can mean a few things, but usually it stands for larger, uglier laptops with more robust features. One reviewer had this to say about it: “The Latitude E5520 is a worthy expansion of Dell’s business notebook range. First rate input devices in connection with the high-end and plain design make the Latitude E5520 a solid office laptop.” So there you have it, office dwellers. Today’s deal is for the Core i3 configuration, and would usually sell for $882. It’s $499 after today’s $383 rebate.

[ $383 Off On Dell Latitude E5520 ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]

One Handed Bottle Opener

By David Ponce on 03/19/12 • 3 Comments

By David Ponce

Why a bottle opener is better when used with one hand is not clear. Yet someone must have thought this to be the case, otherwise why design an opener made specifically for one-handed use? It’s called The Kebo and is “inspired by the Theodore Low bottle opener from the 1930s.” We admit it looks kind of cool. But are you prepared to pay $25 to open your beer bottles like a boss? It’s a lot of cash to pay for something whose 2-handed version can be bought at a dollar store.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gadget Review ]

Give This To A Creationist, They’ll Be Amused

By David Ponce on 03/19/12 • 1 Comment


By David Ponce

The above is a simple eraser. Apparently these are used to remove graphite markings on thin white sheets made from dead trees. Weird, we know. But there you have it. More interestingly, these particular erasers feature an ape on one side and a human on the other. As you use it, it will either evolve or devolve, depending on which side you prefer. It’s fairy large as far as erasers are concerned, measuring around 60 x 30 x 55mm (2.4 x 1.2 x 2.2″). And it’s also pretty expensive: $25.

[ Product Page ]

Why Isn’t The iPhone’s Unlock Screen Like This?

By David Ponce on 03/19/12 • 4 Comments

By David Ponce

Apple’s design mantra centres around elegance; this is pretty obvious not only in the physical aspect of their products but in the logic and simplicity with which their software is constructed. Sadly no one is perfect and right now the iPhone’s lock screen is a bit of a mess. With the addition of the camera unlock button it’s no longer symmetrical nor are the sliding gestures consistent: unlocking the phone slides horizontally, while accessing the camera slides vertically. The above picture surfaced on Brye Kobayashi’s website and features a redesigned lock screen. Pressing and holding either button would bring up the slider. Slide to the right to unlock, left to access the camera. The buttons are round, to match other round sliding buttons throughout the interface.

It’s smart. It’s simple. And it’s elegant. Apple, what are you waiting for, hire the man!

[ Brye Kobayashi's Page ] VIA [ Core77 ]

HighPoint RocketU 1144A 4-port USB 3.0 Card Reviewed. Verdict: 20Gbps Bandwidth at Your Disposal

By Ian Chiu on 03/19/12 • Leave a comment!

The best you’ll do on most modern desktop computers for USB 3.0 ports today is one or two at most. Yet many PCs don’t even come with a USB 3.0 port. To take advantage of the speedy SuperSpeed USB external storage and flash drives out there, desktop PC users don’t necessarily have to be looking to buy a brand-new rig to get additional USB 3.0 ports. Many motherboards have an x4 PCI Express slot tucked away inside that goes unused. HighPoint has a 4-port USB 3.0 PCI Express 2.0 card that pops into that forlorn slot and that provides a much needed USB 3.0 upgrade for a desktop PC.

The only downside to cards like this for some users is that the computer has to be opened up, which could void warranties. The HighPoint RocketU has 4 discrete ASMedia ASM1024U controllers integrated giving each USB 3.0 port full 5Gbps bandwidth. That means each port has access to the highest potential USB 3.0 speeds. Theoretically, this particular card offers a total of 20Gbps of data throughput. It has out-of-the-box support for both Windows and Linux; Mac Pro users looking for Snow Leopard or Lion support will have to check out the Mac version of the RocketU card. During everyday use, Everything USB found the ports are a bit too close together for multiple flash drives to use at once, but the card is still impressive. Read all the details in the full review.

[HighPoint RocketU 4-port USB 3.0 Card Review @ Everything USB]

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