Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

It might seem odd for a company like Victorinox to exhibit at CES, I mean you’d expect to see them at the local Gun n’ Knife show instead, but their line of SwissFlash knives have evolved from simply a flash drive embedded into a pocket knife, to a full-blown office-friendly tool. And their latest model, the Presentation Pro, comes with a flash drive up to 32GB in size that’s now protected by a biometric fingerprint sensor for keeping your confidential documents private.

But it’s also designed to serve as a handy presentation remote, since it comes with bluetooth and a set of emulated left and right mouse buttons. So the knife you probably already carry in your pocket for opening plastic blister packs can now control your exciting PowerPoint slideshows as well. And for pointing out specific items, they’ve even crammed a laser pointer in there too. At the moment the SwissFlash Presentation Pro doesn’t appear to be listed on the Victorinox website, probably because it isn’t for sale just yet, but prices range from $164.95 for the 8GB model up to $329.95 for the 32GB.

[ Victorinox ]

By Luke Anderson

Flashlights are the sort of things that pretty much just sit around on a shelf or in a drawer until they are needed. This is usually inconvenient when the lights go out, but who really wants to stare at a boring old flashlight all the time? Well I think it’s time that we start making flashlights that also function as art. It seems that I’m not the first to come up with such an idea.

This Transformative Robot LED Torch/Nightlight almost looks like some sort of action figure or toy, but don’t let that fool you. While this might look like some sort of vicious creature, it is actually just a flashlight that’s meant to look a little different. I wouldn’t mind having one of these sitting out on my desk, honestly. You can pick one of these up for around $20 (but they’re on sale for $10 until Sunday).

[ MeritLine ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

So far, this year’s OGCC has been all about holiday fun and novelty, but I figured I’d at least throw in one item that was not only practical, but could actually save you from back pain or even a heart attack. Every year we see stories on the news about people ending up in the hospital after overdoing it when it comes to shoveling snow, but the beauty of the Trail Blazer is that you don’t really need to shovel at all.

The scoop and auger design makes it look a lot like a gas-powered snow blower, but instead of relying on a loud engine, you actually just push it along the ground. The turning motion of the auger forces the snow off to the side, and the Trail Blazer is able to clear a 21 inch path in wet or dry snow as deep as 4 inches. Best of all, you never actually have to lift the Trail Blazer like you do with a regular snow shovel, and it works just as well on uneven surfaces like brick, fieldstone or wooden decks. Amazon’s got it for $62.99 which is a little steep, unless you live somewhere where shoveling snow is a daily chore and not just an occasional annoyance.

[ Trail Blazer Snow Auger ] VIA [ Home Improvement Ideas ]

By Luke Anderson

How many times have you been trying to put a screw in the wall, only to drop it while trying to get the darn thing lined up? Yeah, it’s happened to most people more times than they can count, so don’t feel bad. The guys over at Black & Decker have heard our cries (which generally include a profanity or two) and designed a screwdriver that actually holds onto the screw for us.

This SmartDriver is unique in that it has an extendable arm with a small magnet. This magnet is what keeps the screw in place while you’re trying to line it up. As cool as this sounds at first, I doubt that I would end up taking full advantage of this feature. I tend to be a bit anal about my carpentry, so I drill pilot holes. I learned a long time ago that a quick pilot hole can save you the hassle of dropping your screws, and makes sure that they go in straight. If you’ve got a lot of screws to drive, then I could see this coming in handy, but for people like me that don’t do it too often, it’s probably not worth the $40 investment.

[ Black & Decker ] VIA [ Dvice ]

By Luke Anderson

Have you ever tried hanging a bike on a ceiling hook in your garage? Well that’s where my parents kept our bikes in the winter, and let me tell you, they were a pain to use. It seemed like you couldn’t ever get the wheel up and over the the hook. Or sometimes one of the spokes would catch, and that would be even more fun to deal with. Well if you like to store your bikes like this, but want to get rid of some of the hassle, you might check out the Gladiator Claw.

This cool little device has a giant button that you press with the tire of the bike. When this is done, two metal hooks come down and grasp the tire. When you’re ready to take it down again, just push up on the bike so the tire hits the button, and the hooks open up again. No muss, no fuss. Is the convenience worth $60? I guess it depends on how often you have to hang up your bike.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ UberReview ]

By Luke Anderson

Here is probably one of the strangest tool sets I’ve ever seen. What you see is a set of finger-mounted sockets. These plastic tools fit on your finger with what appears to be a zip tie (hopefully there is a mechanism for loosening it, unlike regular zip ties). This allows you to grip a nut or bolt with just a single finger.

While at first pass this might seem somewhat useful, I seriously doubt that it would be. First, the thing is made of plastic, so you wouldn’t be able to put much pressure on it (plus that plastic strip would dig into your finger and become quite painful). Not to mention the fact that unlike a socket wrench, there’s no room to allow the bolt to pass completely through the nut you are tightening. This just means you’ll have to get out a regular socket wrench anyway. Sure, you get 10 US and 10 Metric sizes, but I see this as something that gets tossed in a drawer and forgotten. At least you’ll only have wasted $20 on it.

[ WhateverWorks ] VIA [ BookOfJoe ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Porsche Design has managed to get their hands into everything from sleds, to radios to toasters, but they’re clearly not going to be satisfied until there’s a Porsche version of every single sellable product on the planet. So next up to get the Porsche Design makeover is the swiss army knife. The company has teamed with Wenger to produce a collection of 4 different knives including the P´3711 ‘N size’ and the P´3712 ‘S size’ Executive which are both pictured above.

While the naming convention leaves something to be desired, the contoured handles and “silky finished ruthenium” casing at least makes the knives look like they could open a letter or file a nail in 2.3 seconds flat. Pricing varies depending on which version you get, and the different versions vary in terms of the on-board toolset. The Executive model pictured on the right runs $139.99 while the larger model on the left runs $159.99. The most expensive version is the P´3714 ‘N size’ Cigar Cutter (not pictured) and it runs $240.00.

[ Wenger Porsche Design Swiss Army Knives ] VIA [ Toolmonger ]

By Shane McGlaun

As a professional geek and connoisseur of all things gadget, video game and movie related I tend to get lots of stuff packed in clam shell packages. You know the type I mean, those virtually impenetrable pieces of plastic with the gadgety goodness nestled deep inside. I have tried all sorts of methods over the years to open them without bleeding to death from the resulting nicks and cuts from the plastic packaging once it rips with varying degrees of success.

ThinkGeek has a new gadget opening gadget that anyone like me needs to buy. The Dual Bladed EZ Clam Shell Opener is designed specifically for opening clam shells and other packages. In addition to opening clam shells, the device can open boxes and cut those pesky child-proof labels that hold CD and DVD cases closed. Grab one of these in preparation for all the cool stuff you will get this Christmas at ThinkGeek for a mere $4.99.

VIA [ ThinkGeek ]

By Andrew Liszewski

You might think it’s impossible to recharge the batteries on a cordless screwdriver in just 90 seconds and you’d be right. But the FlashCell from Coleman manages to pull this off since it doesn’t actually use batteries, but instead relies on a large capacitor.

So while the FlashCell charges incredibly fast it also discharges just as quickly. An equivalent-sized battery powered screwdriver might be able to handle 37 screws but you can expect the FlashCell to give up after about 22. (As taken from Popular Mechanic’s review of the FlashCell.) However the advantage is that once you stick it back in the charger you only have to wait a minute and a half before you can get back to work again. Team Products International, the company who actually makes the screwdriver claims it has a life cycle of about 500,000 full charges with no memory effects and will retain about 85% of its charge after sitting unused for 3 months. They admit that the technology wouldn’t work as well when applied to something like cordless drills but for the occasional assembly project around the house this seems like a pretty great idea.

The Coleman FlashCell is available on its website for $99.99 and you can read Popular Mechanic’s review of the screwdriver here.

[ Coleman FlashCell ] VIA [ Popular Mechanics ]