Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

For those who never got around to mastering the multiplication tables comes this talking calculator that should help hide your shame. It reads aloud all digits, functions and calculations you enter in addition to displaying them on a generously sized LCD display. But the calculator also includes a headphone jack, or at the least a permanently tethered set of earbuds allowing you to keep your basic math calculations secret from your co-workers. It’s $29.98 from Full Of Life, but I suspect you could probably find a free software alternative if you looked hard enough.

[ Talking Calculator With Earbuds ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Evan Ackerman

What do you do when someone asks you what your favorite color is? Tell them something like “blue?” Bah. That’s an unacceptably imprecise answer. Ideally, you should specify the wavelength, but failing that, you can just use this color picker pen to replicate any color. Place the end of the pen against an object or surface to read the color, and the pen will automatically combine red, green, and blue ink to give you exactly the color you want.

The color picker pen is currently just a concept.

VIA [ I New Idea ]

By Luke Anderson

I’m convinced that I would go completely mad if I had to work in a cubicle all day. The urge to knock down the barricades that wall me in would likely only be surpassed by the desire to throw random objects into the other tiny squares. I’d give myself two weeks until I got myself fired for one of the aforementioned reasons. Now if I was trying to get myself fired, I would do so with the assistance of one of these awesome DIY trebuchets.

I think the best way to go about this sort of task is to start off on Monday by bringing in your kit as discreetly as possible. This shouldn’t be too difficult, as the model will only end up being 26-inches tall. Just toss your coat over the box and you’re good. It will probably take around 2 hours to construct if you pace yourself. This is just enough time to work on it for a half hour during your lunch break. As the week progresses, people will no doubt take an interest in your handy work. Thankfully not everyone knows exactly what a trebuchet is, so you could probably convince them that it’s a really crappy car or something.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Luke Anderson

I’m sure we all have that day at the office where things just never seem to go right. The day where there’s never any coffee, the copier is broken and your boss wants you to stay over late. I believe that’s what is generally referred to as Monday. It’s during those times that you might feel the need to spout off a profanity or two, which probably isn’t the best thing to do in your office. But don’t worry, you can drop the F-Bomb any time you want, and get only a chuckle in response.

Okay, so this plushie toy is a bit cheesy, and having it spout off your favorite word might still get you into trouble. Not to mention that you’ll probably end up throwing the F-Bomb at some point, rather than throwing it. I’m sure that at $10 it would make a decent gag gift for that guy in the corner that’s always grumbling about people stealing his stapler.

[ Stupidiotic ] VIA [ FoolishGadgets ]

By Luke Anderson

Lets face it, it’s November, which also means that it’s really cold outside. If you happen to be one of those people living in a warm climate, you can just go…nevermind. Anyway, for those of you that have trouble keeping your hands warm at your desk, here’s a handy little gadget to help at least one of your hands.

Rather than trying to cram a heater into your mouse, Thanko has decided to make a USB Heating Mousepad. Sure, it’s not much to look at, but when your boss decides to get stingy with the thermostat, you’ll love its 40-45 degree Celsius temperature. This would go perfectly with one of Thanko’s heating keyboards, which between the two, should keep your hands plenty warm in the winter. This gadget won’t even break the bank at just $20.

[ Thanko ] VIA [ EverythingUSB ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I really don’t follow the world of color photo copiers enough to know if Riso’s claim that their new Orphis X9050 is indeed the world’s fastest, but having used some particularly slow office copiers in my day, I’ll admit that 150 sheets per minute does sound pretty impressive. Of course if you want that double-sided, the print speed is halved to 75 sheets per minute.

And as usual, buying the world’s fastest anything will cost you, and the Orphis X9050 comes with a rather steep price tag of just over $46,000. On top of that the ink ‘cartridges’ are around $400 a piece, or $1,600 for a complete CMYK set. But if your budget doesn’t allow for such speed, you can always opt for the Orphis X7250 model which can only handle about 120 copies per minute but comes with a more reasonable $35,500 price tag.

[ Riso Orphis X9050 ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

SureFire is known for their flashlights and other tactical gear that’s specifically engineered for security and law enforcement types. So when they start selling a SureFire branded pen, you know it’s going to be useful for more than just writing parking tickets or issuing citations. It features an aerospace-grade aluminum body that’s been hard anodized to Mil-Spec Type III specifications and while I have no idea what that means, it definitely sounds cool.

The pen comes standard with a high-performance Schmidt Technology easyFLOW ink cartridge, but it’s also adjustable allowing it to accommodate other appropriately sized cartridges if the Schmidt just isn’t doing it for you. But it’s the tailcap that separates the SureFire pen from all the other mundane writing instruments on the market since it features a rounded, polished stainless steel window breaker. At $125 on the SureFire website the pen isn’t cheap, but it’s considerably more pocket-friendly than the Bic pen taped to a brick that I’ve been using all these years. (I forget my car keys a lot.)

[ SureFire Pen ] VIA [ Uncrate ]

By Luke Anderson

I’m not a coffee drinker myself, but plenty of people rely on their morning cup of Joe to get things started in the morning. If you tend to keep a cup of coffee at your desk for the better part of the morning (or day), then why not just brew it there too?

This sleek little gadget will make single cups of coffee right at your desk. This will save you from waiting for an entire pot to brew, or from discovering the hard way that someone switched all to decaf. This little guy will only run you $34 (you get two mugs for this price as well), which you should be able to justify to your boss as a legitimate expense, since it saves you all of those trips to the break room.

[ GeekAlerts ] VIA [ Firebox ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Even though we were promised that innovations like the PC, email and wireless communications would pave the way to a paper-less office, just taking a quick look around my desk alone tells me that dream is still only a dream. Now I will admit that things have vastly improved when it comes to paper use thanks to those aforementioned innovations, but sometimes you just need a hard copy of a receipt, invoice, ticket or other important document. And those ’sometimes’ always seem to pop-up when you don’t have easy access to a printer. So as an alternative to having to deal with the people at Kinko’s, Staples or even your hotel’s concierge when you have a printing emergency, the PRINTSTIK from PLANon allows you to easily carry a printer with you while on the road, just in case.

Now don’t think for a minute that the PRINTSTIK is going to replace the laser printer or inkjet you’ve got at the office. While it does come in a very convenient and easy to transport package, it also has its limitations that will probably prevent you from using it as your default printer. I had a chance to see what the PRINTSTIK was really capable of, and you can read my full review after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »