Oh! Gizmo

By Chris Scott Barr

There are some people in this world that need to be connected to the internet at all times. Sure, I’m an internet junkie, but I don’t think I’d ever go so far as to install a permanent WiFi hotspot in my car. GM announced that they will soon start offering Autonet, an always-on wireless internet solution for your car.

The device can be installed in your new van, SUV, truck or crossover starting later this month. Installation will set you back $499, while service is going to cost $29 a month with a 1GB cap. There is also a 5GB package, though no price was listed. The WiFi signal will reach up to 150 feet away, so you won’t be limited to using it just in your car. Great, now kids can check their Facebook and watch YouTube on long car rides. All my brother and I had was one GameBoy to fight over.

[ GM ] VI A [ CrunchGear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I can’t honestly count the number of times I’ve dealt with a dead car battery. Most occasions were when I was younger, since my first car didn’t make a noise if you left the light on. However, it’s something that happens to everyone at some time or another. It’s not a hard problem to fix, you can just get a jump from another car, or from one of those cool portable batteries. Either way, you’re going to have to lift the hood and hook up a pair of jumper cables.

There are some people out there who are deathly afraid of doing anything under the hood of a car. For those people, there is the Easy Quick Jumper. This works off of the same idea as a set of jumper cables, only you plug each end into the cigarette adapter of the two cars. Turn on the car with a good battery, wait 5-10 minutes and you should be set. Honestly, this would be a lot easier to store than bulky jumper cables, and quicker to get into place. If you’ve ever had a car battery die in the dead of winter, you’ll appreciate it. Just $26 gets you this handy gadget. (An extra $20 gets you a better version that eliminates the need for another car.)

[ VAT19 ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I loves me some pizza, be it frozen, delivered from a local shop or handmade by yours truly. I generally only turn to the frozen stuff late at night when everyone is closed and I’m too lazy to make one up myself. Of course if I had one of these Porta-Pizza ovens I could also avoid the nasty gas station pizza by cooking up a frozen pie in my car.

As I said before, I love pizza. However, I think this contraption takes things just a bit far. I can think of very few circumstances that this thing would actually be useful to the average consumer. Even then it just seems dangerous, messy and stupid. Sure, a pizza shop might try cooking pies on the way to the customer’s doorstep, but even that doesn’t sound too smart. If you absolutely must be able to make a pizza on the road, you can pick one of these up for $36.

[ Stupidiodic ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Chris Scott Barr

You know what I hate? Pushing buttons. Sure, pressing one might save me the effort of doing a task that would otherwise require strenuous amounts of work, but it’s just damn annoying. Take my garage door opener for example. When I’m pulling in my driveway, I have to press the button on my remote two, sometimes three times while still focusing on my very slow driving. It’s so bad that I’ve been tempted just to park outside and go through the front door, but then I’d have to use a key. Don’t even get me started on keys.

The Blueguard Self-opening Door is a handy little contraption that uses a Bluetooth signal from your cell phone to open up the door when you’re approaching. This eliminates the need for one of those little garage door clickers that you’ve got attached to your sun vizor. My first obvious concern was that every time I walked to the kitchen my garage would open, but apparently it’s smart enough to detect whether or not you are approaching in a vehicle. Unfortunately there is no information on pricing. Oh, and just so we’re clear, despite the fact that I was extremely sarcastic in my opening paragraph, I would totally buy one of these if the price was right.

[ EMX ] VIA [ Coolest-Gadgets ]

By Luke Anderson

How many times have you been cruising along, or at least been near your car and thought that you needed a margarita? Sure, not being in your house or a bar will generally tend to make that a difficult drink to come by, but fear not, the Margarator MSB-585 is here to save the day!

This blender was created with the on-the-go drinker in mind. Not only will this blend up a great drink for you and dispense it from the handy tap, it will do all of this from the comfort of your car. Maybe I just don’t drink enough, but I actually can’t think of any time where someone was craving a margarita when we had only a car’s lighter plug for power. I suppose on a camping trip it might be fun, just don’t forget to clean it out before you go driving off. Something tells me that if you get pulled over with that in your front seat, things won’t go so well. Unfortunately the $110 price tag will be enough to persuade most people to just drink something easier to make.

[ BarWare ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Jonathan Kimak

It seems like cars would have already jumped onto the iPod bandwagon long ago but this year just 39% of new cars had built-in connections for mp3 players like the iPod. Next year the number of new cars with iPod connectivity is estimated at 58%.

And while that is a big step up it still seems like the car manufacturers are acting very slowly to adapt to the newer music medium. It could be they don’t want a repeat of what happened to the CD players in cars that became nearly obsolete when mp3 players came out.

On a side note, bluetooth connectivity will be featured in 82% of new cars.

[ Techno Ride ] VIA [ Kicking Tires ]