Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’ve ever looked down at your keyboard and wondered what parasites, bacteria and other forms of unclassified life were crawling all over it, imagine what the keyboards at a hospital must be like. That thought alone is probably what inspired a company called Esterline to create their Medigenic Infection-Control Keyboard. Instead of raised keys, which provides endless places for crud to get trapped, the Medigenic features a flat keyboard design (with fake 3D key graphics) that can be quickly wiped clean with hospital-grade disinfectants.

Supposedly the flat design can still be used by touch typists with “conventional keyboard-like performance” and there’s a dedicated disable button which prevents accidental key presses while the Medigenic is being wiped down. There’s even a backlight allowing the keyboard to be used in low-light environments without disturbing a patient, and a warning light that will flash at user-defined intervals reminding you it’s time for a cleaning.

The Medigenic keyboard runs about $140, while the mouse, which is just as easy to keep clean, is about $80.

[ Medigenic Infection-Control Keyboard ] VIA [ Medgadget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re worried about your electrical devices drawing power even while they’re turned off, this 7-outlet surge and spike protector from Ultra features an individual on/off switch for 6 of the 7 outlets, allowing you to selectively choose who’s sipping from the grid. Each button features an LED, so it’s easy to tell which ones are on and which are off, and the outlets are spaced out allowing them to accommodate wider power adapters side-by-side.

At the moment the only place that seems to have them in stock is Onhop, who’s asking a reasonable $18.76.

[ Ultra ULT31570 Surge & Spike Protector ] VIA [ Cool Tools ]

By Evan Ackerman

Every night, farmer Bob tried to chase down those stupid little gray aliens with the big black eyes who were stealing his cows. And every day, farmer Bob’s friends would call him crazy. Until, that is, they saw the footage from his video recording flashlight with infrared LEDs. Knowing that aliens have deceptively poor eyesight, farmer Bob was able to sneak up to within 13 feet of them and use the 17 infrared LEDs on the flashlight to covertly illuminate the scene. Then, the integrated video camera captured the cownapping shenanigans in 640×480 video at 30 fps onto the 128 mb of internal memory, supplemented by a microSD card slot. Of course, it was easy for farmer Bob to find his way home later when he turned on the bright 3 watt white LED, and he could always look at the flashlight’s LCD screen to check on how much power was left in the 3 C batteries as well as the status of his recordings. All in all, farmer Bob was proud of his $399.95 investment, and it served him well, until one night, farmer Bob never came back.

So, let this be a lesson to you: if you go out stalking cow stealing aliens with a $400 infrared video recording flashlight, and your friends call you crazy, listen to them, ’cause man, you’re crazy.

[ Hammacher ] VIA [ Gizmowatch ]

By Chris Scott Barr

Remember that little chat we had yesterday about robots and zombies taking over the world? Well I’m still convinced that it will happen one day (sooner, rather than later) and take my preparations for the uprising very seriously. One thing that is an absolute must-have in every household is a large safe for storing gratuitous amounts of armaments. Sure, you could go with one of those little stand-up lockers, but those can only hold so much, and are a little to obvious. You need to go with something a little bigger, while still well-hidden. You need the Bed Bunker.

This big-ass safe is perfect for holding guns, ammo, explosives and even a sword or two (those never run out of ammo). It’s fireproof, which means that if there are any documents that you think might still have value after the robot/zombie uprising has settled, you can keep them safe as well. All you need to do is pick the bed safe that fits your size needs and shell out between $2700 and $5200. Oh, and you’ll need to stock up on things to fill it with.

[ Bed Gun Safe ] VIA [ Coolest Gadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

With a price tag of $229.99 the Bird Gard certainly isn’t the cheapest way to keep flying pests away from your garden. But if you’re using it to protect a small airport or a hanger it’s probably not a bad investment given what birds are capable of doing to an aircraft. The secret to the Bird Gard is that it uses the actual distress calls of birds to repel 8 different types of feathered foes including Starlings, Robins and Blue Jays. A single Bird Gard is able to protect an area up to 1 1/2 acres in size when set to full volume, but extension speakers ($39.99) with 100 feet of cable are also available to expand that range.

[ Bird Gard Electronic Bird Repeller ] VIA [ Luxury Housing Trends ]

By Andrew Liszewski

A few months ago we brought you the Light Lane concept which attaches to the back of a bike creating a virtual light-up lane on the road’s surface, supposedly making riding at night a bit safer. Well the Contrail is a similar idea, but better suited for daytime rides. The concept was created by Studio Gelardi, and it consists of a small apparatus that applies a thin layer of colored chalk to a bike’s tire. As you ride, the chalk is transferred to the road, leaving a colorful trail behind you. Over time these trails on the road get more pronounced, which not only encourages other bikers to take the same route, but it also lets drivers know what roads are frequented with bike traffic, hopefully making them a bit more cautious.

[ Contrail - Biking Community Tool ] VIA [ Josh Spear ]

By Chris Scott Barr

It seems like PC gamers are always looking for that next hot piece of hardware (I’d know, I’m one of them), be it a new graphics card, CPU or even a whole new PC. Of course you don’t actually want something that is physically hot, since that generally leads to some major issues. Sometimes it makes a chip fail, other times it makes your freaking case melt. Never heard of a computer that got so hot that it actually started to melt the case? Let me introduce you to the Acer Predator.

Yesterday Acer issued a voluntary recall of around 215 Predator gaming PCs. Apparently some of the internal wiring insulation can become stripped and cause the wires to overheat. According to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website it can result in melted internal components and external casing. So far there have only been two reports of this occurring and no injuries.

[ CPSC ] VIA [ Crave ]

By Luke Anderson

When you think of carrying some sort of weapon for self-defense, what sorts of things come to mind? I’m going to guess that a permanent marker wasn’t at the top of the list. I’m sure that a Sharpie to the eye would probably do some damage, but I hardly think that makes it a weapon. Now this Pocket Shark on the other hand, now that is a weapon.

You’re still going to have to do a bit of work to make this pen do the trick. It’s made from an extremely tough glass-reinforced plastic called Grivory. The company actually makes knife blades out of this stuff, so it’s really strong. A good blow to the temple with this would definitely knock someone out. They also advertise that it is good yawara, which is a Japanese weapon that can be effectively used to perform submission holds and even break bones. At $7, this pen really is mightier than the sword. (I just couldn’t resist.)

[ Cold Steel ] VIA [ Gadgetted ]

By Andrew Liszewski

This one’s for that friend or relative who spends more time wrapping a gift, than shopping for it. You know the type. They hand you a gift Christmas morning that’s covered in perfectly trimmed paper and ribbons that you’re supposed to spend the next 20 minutes unraveling (once everyone’s photographed it of course) lest they give you one of those ‘how dare you destroy my handiwork’ kind of looks. So for those who seem to have more time around the holidays then the rest of us, there’s the OpenX Precision Wrapping Paper Slitter.

It’s apparently not only faster than a pair of scissors, but it also produces a cleaner and more accurate cut. And the recessed blade makes it safer too, since my family people seem to get a little uneasy when you hand them a wrapped gift covered in drops of dried blood. You can pick one up from ThinkGeek for just $5.99, and even if it doesn’t arrive in time for Christmas, there’s still plenty of other holidays throughout the year where we’re forced to give a gift.

[ OpenX Precision Wrapping Paper Slitter ] VIA [ Uncrate ]