By Chris Scott Barr

There are a lot of ways to communicate with someone who’s not right next to you. You can call their phone, send them a text message, email, or even a letter. Heck, you can try yelling if you really want to. But wouldn’t it be cool to send them a message by bird like they used to do back in the olden days? Yeah, good luck finding a bird that’ll actually take the job. The closest thing you’re going to get is one of these Chuckimals.

These plush birds won’t fly, but they’ll still carry a short message. Just press the button on the recorder, then chuck it at your intended recipient. Once the bird slams gently into their head, it will repeat your message, not unlike some birds out there. The person can then reply in the exact same manner. You could have entire conversations by stuffed bird! Just $19 gets you your choice between a chicken and a parrot.

[ Red5 ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Autotuning has to be one of the biggest changes to come to music in the last decade or so. Sure, technically speaking, artists have been autotuning their voice for many years. However, it was originally designed to help perfect the pitch of your voice, whereas these days you hear something vastly different from the original vocals. This is sometimes referred to as the T-Pain effect, since he is rather noteable for using the technique. Honestly, the guys over at Autotune the News are the only ones I can stand to listen to who use it.

Last year brought us the I Am T-Pain App for the iPhone, which let you autotune your voice with your phone. Well now you don’t even need a fancy phone to do it. Just get yourself an I Am T-Pain Mic from Jakks Pacific when they come out for $40 this fall. It will record your voice, and play it back autotuned. You can even download the vocals to your computer for further entertainment. I’m still trying to figure out whether or not this will be used better when you’re sober or drunk. Probably the latter.

[ Jakks Pacific ] VIA [ ChipChick ]

By Chris Scott Barr

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got more gadgets than you can keep track of. Unfortunately, almost all of them require a battery of some sort to function. This means you need a lot of free outlets to keep them all full of juice. Thankfully the people at IDAPT have a great solution.

Updating their Universal Desktop Charger, the company has released the i4. This time around you can charge up to four devices, instead of three. You still only have the three docks, but they have added on a USB port to the side for charging another gadget. The three docks have interchangeable tips, which can be used to charge everything from your digital camera, to your portable gaming device or even your phone. If you’re looking to cut down on the clutter while keeping your gadgets in one place, this definitely looks worth the $60 price.

[ IDAPT ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Watermelons are a great summertime snack. My grandparents grow them, so I usually have some in my fridge. However, some people are serious about their watermelon. I’m talking about the kind of person that never leaves the house without one in a cooler. Granted, I’ve never met one of these people, nor have I heard of one. I just assume they exist, because this Portable Watermelon Cooler exists.

This device was apparently designed with the intention of carrying and cooling a single watermelon. Sure, you can put in something else instead to keep it cool. Heck, you can even keep some things warm in it too. I’m still just not quite sure why. Whatever the reason, if you’ve got an extra $230 and an unhealthy obsession with watermelons, this is your gadget.

[ Joybond ] VIA [ Gearfuse ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Have you ever wished that you could be notified when your snail mail arrives? In the age of instant email notifications, the hit-or-miss nature of checking your postal mail can be an annoyance. Even more so if your mailbox is located a great distance from your door. Nothing is more annoying than walking five minutes, only to not find a single letter. Did the mailman come yet, or was there just nothing for you today?

Well now you can solve this age-old problem with a gadget from Thanko. Just pop the Mailbox Sentry into your mailbox, and set the receiver in your house. When a piece of mail goes into your box, you’ll get a notification. The device works up to 100m away, so distance won’t be an issue. $95 is a lot of money to spend to let you know that you have bills waiting for you.

[ JapanTrendShop ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Chris Scott Barr

The TV-B-Gone is one of those must-have gadgets for pranksters everywhere. If you like messing with people, randomly turning off their TV can be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the device has a very limited range. So what if you need to prank someone that’s 110 meters away? You get the TV-B-Gone Pro.

This new gadget has been redesigned to look like an iPod, so as to be more inconspicuous (though the LEDs at the top are a dead giveaway). It also works up to 110 meters away, as opposed to the original, which only got up to 50 feet at its best. You can even set it to turn of a bunch of TV’s in a row, for those times that you need to cause chaos on a larger scale. $50 is steep for a prank, so make sure that you get your money’s worth.

[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Great eyesight is not something everyone is fortunate enough to possess. Heck, even people with great vision have difficulty reading some of the super fine print legal mumbo-jumbo stuff that you see on certain things. If you need to get a closer look at something, you might reach for a magnifying glass. But in this day and age, there’s always a better way to do everything. In this case, you can use a handy gadget to project that tiny text onto your big screen TV.

The Wireless Page To TV Magnifier does exactly what the name implies. You have a small device (which greatly resembles your average computer mouse) which views the text (or images) underneath and transmits it wirelessly to a base station. The base station is hooked to your TV where it is enlarged 25x. While it may come in handy when you’re reading through the finer points of your credit card statements (and that occasional issue of Playboy, which you read just for the articles) I doubt many people are going to justify the $150 cost.

[ Hammacher ] VIA [ SlipperyBrick ]

By Chris Scott Barr

I can’t say that I do much ironing, mostly because I don’t wear many clothes that specifically require an iron to make them look right. I have done a bit and one of the things I am always most paranoid about is knocking over the hot iron when I’ve set it down for a moment. With that hot metal plate exposed while it’s just sitting there, it is rather dangerous. Not only could you bump into it and burn yourself, but since it is resting on one of its smaller sides, it could also be easily knocked onto the floor.

The Auto-Lift iron was designed to eliminate the aforementioned hazards, along with one other. The otherwise-regular iron has a pair of feet on the hot metal part which extend outward when the device is not in use. This leaves less of the iron exposed, and keeps it considerably more stable. The best part is that it actually knows exactly when you are using it. There is a sensor in the handle which detects whether or not your hand is upon it and engages the feet when appropriate. Now you also won’t have to worry about getting distracted while in the middle of ironing. The Auto-Lift currently retails for around $95.

[ Ariete ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Chris Scott Barr

When you’re trying to lose weight, sometimes it’s hard to find the proper motivation. Sure, having a goal in mind, or even a pair of old jeans that you’re hoping to fit into can help. But sometimes you need something a little stronger than your own will to keep you going. I’m talking about peer pressure. No, you don’t need a bunch of people standing around telling you that you’re overweight. However, if all of your peers know your exact weight at all times, you might feel pressured into doing something about it. If that sounds like the kind of prodding you need, then you might want to check out the Withings Wifi Body Scale.

I’m still no fan of Twitter, but this has to be one of the more interesting uses of it that I’ve seen. The scale uses Wi-Fi to send a Twitter update every time you step on it. Now you can send all of your friends instant updates so that they can support you in your effort to reach your goal. You have to wonder how many people will keep an extra scale in their bathroom, just so they can check their weight before broadcasting it to the world. The Withings WiFi Body Scale will set you back a whopping $159.

[ Withings ] VIA [ Dvice ]