Remember the Aerobie? It was a red ring throwing toy popular in the 80′s and 90′s that was the first real competitor to the Frisbee’s throne. When it came to distance it could really outperform your traditional throwing disc, but that also served to be its downfall. As kids we loved playing with the Aerobie, but ‘playing’ only accounted for about 5% of our day. The other 95% was spent trying to retrieve the Aerobie from neighbor’s fenced-in backyards, or off the roof of our house. So I can’t help but look at the Hela Disc with a little bit of skepticism.
Unlike the circular Aerobie, the Hela Disc has more of an oval shape with an arched airfoil design the company refers to as the FlexFoil. The far ends are also slightly weighted, so when thrown there’s a sort of centrifugal effect that flattens the disc out in flight, increasing its stability. In fact it apparently makes the Hela Disc more playable in windier conditions, so you don’t have to put off playing just because conditions are blustery. Of course there’s no reason to think the Hela Disc won’t spend just as much time trapped on roofs given it’s boasted to have a 150 foot throwing distance, but since they’re just $18.95 each, it won’t break the bank to keep a backup on hand.
A can of pop or a candy bar might give you an energy boost for a couple of minutes, but the makers of the RoboPutt vending machine feel your money could be better spent, particularly if you’re an avid golfer with a terrible putting game. Designed to be installed in pro shops or somewhere near a golf course, the RoboPutt machine provides 5 minutes of putting training and instruction for a mere $5.
Users bring their own putter, since it helps to use a club you’re already comfortable with, and in the process of creating their user account they attach a small sensor to it and record the mechanics of their current putting swing. Once satisfied, that information is uploaded to the RoboPutt machine and is stored with their ID for future comparisons. Each user is also provided with a swipe card so their information is available on any RoboPutt machine around the world. For the actual putting lessons they then attach their putter to a mechanical arm which goes through the motions of a proper putting swing so that a user can build up the appropriate muscle memory over time.
There are options to simply go through the motions of the swing you recorded to reinforce what you already feel is an ideal swing (if you’re a professional golfer for example) or to have the RoboPutt machine take into account and correct the swing you recorded to improve your game. And after that more advanced lessons are also available to help you master any kind of putting scenario.
When you think about it, slot car racing really isn’t that exciting. But when you’re younger and lacking a driver’s license, it’s one of the few options you have for racing exotic supercars with your friends. And thanks to a healthy dose of good old imagination, I remember many slot car races being as exciting as an episode of Top Gear. Can’t say I’d feel the same way though if my 1:24 scale Lambo or Ferrari were replaced with a guy on a bike wearing Speedos.
Gearing up for the marketing blitz that will be the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Hornby recently unveiled this new take on the slot car track. It’s a Scalextric Velodrome that features a couple of competitive cyclists adorned in Great Britain livery. They’re still electric powered, so it’s not like racing requires any physical exertion on your part, but all the twists, turns, crossovers and other exciting elements that make modern slot car tracks so entertaining are gone. Instead they’re replaced with a decidedly boring oval with slightly banked corners…
In keeping with this week’s unofficial theme of strange new sports like 360ball, today we bring you something truly unique and original. The sport is either referred to as ‘Sporthocker’ or just ‘Hockern’ for short, and involves the use of a specially designed stool called a ‘Hocker’ that one performs tricks with. Think of it as a hard to describe mix between skateboarding, juggling, hacky sack and um… sitting. The easiest way to understand it is to simply watch the video I’ve included below.
Now here’s the deal, I’ve been on this internet thing long enough to know that you really can’t trust or believe anything you see online. And I’m really trying to find any little clue or hint that this is nothing more than an elaborate prank put together by some European comedy troupe, but I can’t. In fact like skateboarding, there already seems to be a wide assortment of uniquely decorated and adorned Hockers to choose from. So who knows, maybe the fad will soon catch on like wildfire and spread around the world. I mean what culture doesn’t like sitting? It could end up being the world’s most perfect sport!
I’m all about creating new sports. When we were kids my siblings and I were particularly adept at re-appropriating sports equipment for new athletic endeavors, not unlike Calvin did with his greatest creation, Calvinball! So while this new take on racquet sports is probably going to take a while to catch on, I applaud the creators of 360ball for trying something new.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about how the game is played, the overly dramatic video I’ve included below, which makes 360ball seem like a gift from the heavens, does a far better job at illustrating how a match unfolds. But the CliffsNotes version is that after a serve the other player or team is allowed to touch the ball twice before bouncing it off a special plate in the middle of the court, returning it to the other team. If a player is hit or the ball hits the ground, the other team gets a point. It sounds simple enough, but when you watch it being played you can see there’s a lot of room for strategy.
Now obviously 360ball requires a special circular court to be played in. So unfortunately you can’t really use an existing Squash, Racquetball or Tennis court which is going to be a bit of a stumbling block preventing it from catching on quickly. But the first official permanent court has already been installed in Knysna, South Africa where the game was invented, and when you think about it playing in a circular court has a lot of advantages. Both players or teams are constantly moving around its circumference so neither side really has an advantage when it comes to wind or sun, while spectators are able to sit all the way around with everyone having the exact same view of the court. And as a big fan of Squash, I think it just looks really fun!
Yesterday Callaway revealed an updated version of their upro handheld GPS device, now bestowed with an ‘mx’ after its name, and a full-color multi-touch and gesture-friendly 2.2-inch LCD display. Obviously designed and optimized for use on golf courses, the upro mx comes pre-loaded with maps for more than 25,000 courses around the world, including high-resolution aerial photography of each course which apparently only they offer. And while there’s enough content on the device to get you going right out of the box, you can also download more detailed data for where you’re playing including a Virtual Green View with exact putting distances, SmartView which calculates the best virtual view based on where you’re standing and AnyPoint technology for extremely accurate distance measures.
The Callaway upro mx will be available in May for just $199, but I have to wonder why it couldn’t also be available as an iPhone app. I’m sure it’s still a must-have for some professional golfers who need highly accurate GPS distance readings, but I think the casual links player would find it far more convenient to have this built-in to their phone. And if that database of 25,000+ courses is too hefty to download at once, users could simply pull down offline copies of courses as needed. I’m fairly certain even the most avid of golfers won’t be playing at all 25,000 courses in their collection.
They certainly don’t have enough surface area to permanently replace a full-sized set of snow shoes, but if you’re in the backwoods snowboarding or skiing and are trying to make your away across some deep powder, these Small Foot inflatable snow shoes look like they’re far more convenient to carry when not being worn.
When deflated they can easily be stashed inside a set of wearable pocket-like bags, with plenty of room left over for the included compact pump. And once inflated, a set of straps allows the Small Foot to be securely attached to your boots, supposedly providing enough surface area so that you don’t sink to your knees in a deep drift. No pricing or availability info just yet though.
Every year at CES we tend to be drawn to the smaller booths where you can find some truly unique and innovative gadgets if you look hard enough. It’s not that we’re not impressed that Sony or Panasonic has managed to add a couple of extra inches to their flagship 3D TVs, it’s just that we like rooting for the smaller guys too. Like a company called Yurbuds which make silicone ‘earbud enhancers’ that not only vastly improve the performance of the stock earbuds you get with devices like the iPhone & iPod, but also provide a more comfortable in-ear listening experience with a comfortable design that avoids touching sensitive nerve endings in your ears.
Since the Yurbuds come in different sizes to be most effective for every user, we were mostly drawn to their booth last year after seeing a demo of their clever iPhone sizing app. But it turns out the Yurbuds actually work very, very well if you’re still using the stock iPhone/iPod earbuds, and one of our OhGizmo! writers has actually been using his set non-stop since last year’s show.
So this year we were happy to see the company has already grown quite a bit, and now offers an official Ironman-themed version of the Yurbuds featuring a matching set of red earbuds and enhancers. It makes sense too given the idea for the Yurbuds came from the company’s CEO, Seth Burgett, who’s an avid triathlete. In fact besides comfort and sound quality, the soft silicone design of the Yurbuds makes them damn near impossible to fall out, even during extreme physical activities like marathons, or in our case, battling for seats on the subway. Available now for $49.99.
Not to knock those who enjoy a good cross-country run, but skiing seems to be a lot more fun when gravity does all the work for you. But not everyone has access to majestic peaks that make a downhill run possible, so that’s where the Skizee enters the picture. It’s kind of like a snowmobile minus the seat and front skids, which are replaced by a person wearing skis. So what you’re left with is just the tread part, powered by a 10.5 hp 4-stroke engine, which pushes a skier forward at what looks to be a pretty good clip based on the following video:
When folded down the Skizee can easily fit in the trunk of a car making it infinitely more portable than actual snowmobiles, which usually require their own trailer. But not surprisingly something this fun looking doesn’t come cheap. And in addition to buying a set of skis which aren’t included, the Skizee will set you back $2,500.
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