Epoch’s new Sound-Touch Pudding is supposed to be along the same lines as those keychain bubble-wrap simulators, but instead of popping plastic bubbles it lets kids enjoy the feeling of pudding, without getting their hands dirty. Yeah. Apparently my parents were mistaken when they thought pudding was a dessert, and not a toy. As an added bonus when you touch the pudding it triggers a cute female voice, which is another area where my childhood puddings were lacking. Anyways, if you want one you’ll probably have to head over to Japan or have them imported once they’re available on November 21 for about $7.
Whether you can’t afford an iPhone (what are they? like $7 now with a 10-year contract?) and want to look like you can, or you need a prop for a photoshoot or something, iPhoneDummy.net will sell you a non-working iPhone 3G display model for just $19.95 with free worldwide shipping. The iPhone ‘dummies’ as they’re called feel and weigh exactly like the real thing, but don’t contain all the electronicy bits inside that are necessary for them to turn on, make calls, etc. And if you send them videos or photos of your iPhone dummy “smashing/crashing/trashing/microwaving” you’ll get 25% off your next order!
Unless you’re a farmer, meteorologist or umbrella salesperson, I can’t imagine you’re too thrilled when it’s raining outside. But apparently that’s not the case in Japan, where students at Osaka University’s Human Interface Lab have developed the Funbrella which can simulate the feeling of rain, even when the sun is shining.
Using a mechanism not unlike a regular old speaker, the Funbrella can be fed a signal and will reproduce vibrations that feel like raindrops are actually hitting the top surface of the umbrella. The mechanism also works the other way, recording the vibrations created by real raindrops, so the effect can be recreated later. This video goes into a bit more depth about how it works, but you’ll probably want to skip ahead to the 1:40 mark, lest you end up even more confused about the concept.
The Tokyo Motor Show has rolled around again, and like just about everything else, it seems to have been dealt a rather nasty blow by the recession. But despite the massively depleted participant list, it still seems to have mustered up a fair showing of whacky and whimsical concept vehicles. My personal favourite is the electric-powered Nissan Land Glider. It may not be fast, but what it lacks in speed, it more than makes up for with big massive slabs of geek-pleasing hi-tech shenanigans. Plus it kind of reminds me of the Light Cycles from Tron.
The list of cool features is pretty extensive. First off, it’s a bike/car hybrid, so the driver/rider coolly leans into the turns while the tires are held flat to the road – the degree of tilt is determined by some cool sounding sensors that detect vehicle speed, steering angle and yaw rate. As if that wasn’t cool enough, Nissan has also done away with the boring old steering wheel and replaced it with an almost unbearably cool aircraft-style joystick. There’s also a seriously cool camera and monitor setup to replace those dull old rear-view mirrors.
When I first saw the Land Glider I assumed it was a concept vehicle conceived by a wild-eyed designer oblivious to commercial considerations, but in a somewhat surprising turn of events it seems that it may be hitting a road near you in the not so distant future, Nissan even plan to import it to the US.
We love us bacon something rare. Doesn’t everyone? So what better than bacon jam? Bacon jam? Read on:
It is something we’ve been cooking up for a couple of years now on our trailers and for our burgers
…….we take a big bunch of really really good bacon, and render it down…add a bunch of spices..onions, etc..and let it simmer for about 6 hours…give it a quick puree, and blast chill it…and you have bacon jam..
It’s $12 per jar and it looks like they’ll ship just about anywhere. Link to gadgets? None, but it’s bacon so who the heck cares?
I don’t know about you, but anytime I’ve played foosball I’m surprised the plastic balls don’t shatter given how much force they bang around the table with. So using gumballs instead just doesn’t seem like a fantastic idea. But that’s exactly what this Gumball Foosball table does, with a dispenser at each end that come filled with about 1,700 gumballs which are released one at a time and used as the game ball. Obviously the only way to claim your treat is to score on your opponent, or you can just keep one end of the table propped up with a phonebook for when you don’t feel like playing. Get it from Hammacher Schlemmer for a whopping $1,500.
Think you had the world’s greatest treehouse as a kid? Well this guy’s got you beat. Horace Burgess’s treehouse is located somewhere near Crossville, Tennessee and stands over 97-feet tall thanks to the 80-foot white oak tree it was built around which also happens to be about 12-feet in diameter at its base. It has 11 floors, somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,000 to 10,000 square feet, a miniature basketball court and is held together by roughly 258,000 nails. If you can think of a better way to spend $12,000, I’d like to hear it.
Yep, another one to add to the ridiculous Wii accessories list. This time it’s a 1:1 scale Heckler & Kock MP5 that Pocket-lint spotted at a trade show in Hong Kong. The controller was made by a Chinese company, and instead of having to find a place to stick your Wiimote and Nunchuck, the machine gun contains all of that functionality, as well as MotionPlus and a rechargeable battery, built-in. There’s no word on pricing or availability just yet, but the version pictured above with the orange tip was supposedly created for the US market so it wouldn’t look real or anything.
For just $18 Brando will sell you a USB Foot Switch that comes with software allowing it to reproduce any keyboard shortcut when you tap your foot. Now off the top of my head I can’t really think of a keyboard shortcut I’d need to pass off to my foot, but since you can connect more than one switch to any given PC I assume there has to be the potential for something useful here. Internet? I pass the buck to you to figure out what it is.
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