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Gadgets

question of the day

Question of the Day: Does Your Partner Understand Your Gadget Obsession?

It's funny how technology can really put a wedge between two people in a relationship. That is to say, finding a couple where both parties share a genuine love for gadgets seems pretty rare. This issue is especially problematic when video games are involved. We are constantly hearing stories about how some dude is turning down sex and ignoring his family to play games online. As stupid as all this sounds, I'm willing to bet that it is a major problem with a lot of couples. Plus, gadget obsessions can be tied in with spending excessive amounts of money, which only serves to complicate matters. That having been said, I have to ask: does your partner understand your gadget obsession? More »

concepts

Crazy Human-Powered Monorail Would Deliver You to Work in a Sweaty Capsule

How's this sound: rather than hopping on the subway, when in a large city you'd hop into a little pod hanging from an elevated track. It would have pedals. You would then pedal yourself around the city, working up a lovely sweat before you reached your destination. Sound good? No? More »

sticky situation

Pour Thing Keeps Sticky Sodas Off Your Gadgets

Spilling soda is a death sentence for gadgets. Even if it still works, that damn thing is going to be sticky forever. The new "Pour Thing" helps prevent spills from awkward 2-liter bottles using a container that can be manipulated with an easy push. To be honest, it seems that this thing could actually cause more spills than it prevents because you would have to put it on the edge of a table to finish it off. Plus, the physics of the swinging action could catch someone off guard if they are not paying attention. Using 2-liter bottles sucks anyway—I say stick with nerd-friendly cans. Available for $19.95. [Solutions via 7 Gadgets]

cleanliness

Shopping Cart Washing Machine Ensures at Least One Thing in the Grocery Store is Safe to Put in Your Mouth

Shopping carts are festering hotbeds of germs and disease, or so one would think seeing the expense Chevy Chase Supermarket has put into installing shopping car washing machines in their store. More »

usb

USB Watch is Deconstructed Electronic Geekiness In Action

This concept USB watch, dubbed "Timeless" is either a fabulously ironic piece of deconstructivist electronic art, or a geeky overload. Whichever way you look at it, it's kinda neat: basically it's a simple digital watch, with an internal battery that's charged when you plug it into a USB socket. And then the same USB socket plugs back into the watch face, secured with PCB mount-style latches, with the ribbon cable as a strap. It's a concept... but I could rattle off a pretty long list of people I know who'd probably love to own one. [DesignBrothers via CoolestGadgets]

lasers

DIY Home Laser Show Reacts To Music, Probably Won't Incinerate Your Eyes

For those of you who're into a little bit of creative electronics as well as fancying yourself as a bit of a mean DJ, this DIY laser light show may be just the thing to spice up your parties. Not only will the project spray laser light around (and who doesn't like laser light shows?) but it also reacts to music, so you'll have your own laser visualizer. Check out the video to see it in action. More »

transistors

Scientists Make First Paper-Based Transistor

A team at Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal have produced the world's first field-effect transistor based on paper. The paper layer acts as an "interstrate", with the actual FET components being fabricated onto both sides: so the paper holds the transistor together and acts as an insulator. Amazingly in tests the paper transistor performed better than amorphous silicon transistors and even approaches the performance of state-of-the-art oxide thin-film transistors. Why is this interesting news? Mainly since paper is a lower-cost substrate than silicon, so this invention opens the way for cheap, or even disposable, paper displays, smart labels, RFID technology... basically expect more ubiquitous technology integration in future products. [Physorg]

widescreen

Are Extra-Widescreen 2.35:1 TVs the Future?

Over at Sound and Vision Mag they're asking exactly this question, and there's a lot of logic behind it. Current flat-screen TV tech favors the 16:9 (or 1.78:1) dimension ratio, but many movies are shot in Cinemascope 2.35:1, around 32% wider. That's why you still see letterboxing on your HDTV, or the frames are cropped to fit. High-end home theater projectors already cater for Cinemascope dimensions by using anamorphic lenses and some fancy processing to correct the image. So will next-gen home TVs end up wider too? More »

photoshop contest

40 Honest Gadget Ads That Won't Be Convincing Many People to Buy Anything

Last week, I called on you to create and submit some brutally honest gadget ads. And you did! While I'd say about half of the entries were ads for the iPhone 3G (I get it guys, you want copy and paste), we also got some pretty awesome ads for other devices. From the predictable (red-ringing Xbox 360s) to the completely unpredictable (White Castle Slyders, last time I checked, aren't gadgets, but I let it, uh, slide), we have some great entries here. Hit the jump for your top three winners and all the rest of the top entries in the Gallery of Champions. More »

fonts

Font Conference Shows Your Fonts as People, and They Are Ridiculous

In a world where fonts are people, Times New Roman is king. But also, Wingdings is annoying and talks in gibberish, Arial Narrow is a racist, and Futura is a sexy lady from the future. How awesome is this? More »

nokia

Nokia E71 to Hit Flagship Stores This Week

We'd previously suggested a May 8th date for the much-anticipated Nokia E71 cellphone, but it looks like the actual US launch is about to happen. Rumors are that Nokia's Flagship Store in Chicago has already got its first shipment, and has been contacting customers on the waiting list. The dual band WCDMA phone is apparently to be unveiled at a launch party this Thursday. So if you're on a list, for $480 you could be clutching the QWERTY keypad, GPS-enabled device in just 48 hours. [BoyGeniusReport]

advertising

NEC's Minority Report-Style Display Tailors Adverts For You (Verdict: Frankenads)

It may be tired to bring up Minority Report, but remember the scenes in the movie where our hero gets bothered by interactive targeted advertising wherever he goes? Thanks to dear ol' NEC, this nightmare of advert pestering may really be in our future: its new ad display panel watches its watchers with a camera, then tailors the adverts to the audience. The 50-inch plasma's camera and software doesn't quite go so far as identifying specific people, but it does guess at age and sex and then offers you the chance to grab data on the products wirelessly to a cellphone. It'll be demoed at Fuji Television's festival in Tokyo: go along and see how irritating (or not) the future of advertising may be, if you're interested. [Times of India via Dvice]

gps

Garmin's New Nuvi 500 GPS Does Driving, Walking, Boating Nav in One Unit

Garmin has just announced a new member of the Nuvi GPS range, the 500 series. In a first for Nuvi, the rugged, waterproof 500 units are specifically designed to be multipurpose, with maps for driving, walking, cycling and boating built in. For out-doorsy types, there's a shaded digital elevation map option, and a dedicated compass page and tracklog. Plus the battery is a swappable 8-hour Li-ion type, so you can carry a spare for extended trips away from a power source. The 500 comes with City Navigator, and topographic maps of the US, while the 550 has highway coverage of the US and Canada, but no topographic data. The units are on show at the British International Motor show in London form today, and go on sale soon in the US for $499. Press release below. More »

IDEA 2008 awards

The Best, Weirdest, and Most Wonderful Gadget Designs of 2008

The 2008 International Design Excellence Awards are in. These are like the Oscars of the industrial design world, taking the pulse of what's going on, highlighting tons of weird and wonderful gadgets. We have picked the best, the weirdest, and the most wonderful, from laser liners that look like Wall-E's Eve evil twin, microwave containers with lids, and wall-mounted home server enclosures straight out of Star Trek, to self-propelled sprayers (like me), NYC condom dispensers/wrappers (no connection there), a "vibrating massager" that looks like an aubergine, and even a precision timing detonation system. More »

guns

Toy Rocket Inspires Design of Variable-Speed Bullets

Repurposing the design of a kid's toy rocket into an innovative gun may sound pretty dark, but it creates a weapon with selectable lethality. Rockets made by Lund and Company Invention of Chicago use a liquid hydrogen variable fuel-air mix to give a selectable-power launch, and now the US Army is funding research to apply the tech to guns. The Variable Velocity Weapon System uses a similar liquid or gaseous fuel-air mix in a combustion chamber to propel bullets from the rifle, which lets you set the bullet speed as non-lethal at 33 feet to lethal at 330 feet, for example. Current research VVWS are .50 calibre rifles, but the design is scalable from "handgun to howizter." Sounds like a useful addition to a soldier's arsenal, though I suspect there'll be plenty of worries of the "I used the wrong setting" type. [New Scientist]

gps

Rear-View Mirror GPS To Come to US, Named SmartMirror

Previously named the DS400GB, the SmartMirror is a GPS system that is mounted in place of your conventional rear-view mirror, and has a rear-facing cam input. With Navigon Mobile Navigator 6.5 inside, it's got "reality view", a 4-inch touchscreen, integrated speakers and Bluetooth and takes SD cards. It's actually got two inputs for rear-view cameras, which may be good news for the parking-skill-challenged. It sounds like a neat solution, but I'm a little unconvinced that mounting a GPS high up there on the windscreen isn't actually going to distract you from looking in the rear-view mirror— after all, we know how distracting GPS can be. SmartMirror will be available August 1st for $799. [Navigadget]

cellphones

Sony Pushes Out Three New Walkman Phones, the W302, W902 and W595

It's the third birthday of Sony Ericsson's Walkman phone label, and to celebrate it's launching three new music-based cellphones. The W302 and W902 (left, center in the image) are both candybar cells, with the 302 having an FM radio, and 2-megapixel cam, and the 902 with a 5-megapixel cam and apparently matching the high audio quality of the W980 phone. The W595 is a slide phone with built-in stereo speakers so users can "share sounds with their friends" (read: annoy passers-by with irritating tunes) but it also has twin jacks so you can share music privately. All four phones are quad-band GSM, have "shake control," come in a selection of colors and will hit the streets at the end of the year. Press release below, which also details some new accessories like wireless portable speakers. More »

leds

Osram Pushes White LEDS to World-Record Brightness, Super Efficiency

It's an interesting week in the world of LEDs: on the weekend we heard about ultra-cheap ones, and today Osram (yes, the lightbulb people) has news that they've pushed white LEDs to world-record brightness. By optimizing the diode, light converter and the package, their lab test squeezed 500 lumens out of a single LED at 1.4A. That's bright enough for projector tech, and certainly makes the single unit good for car lighting and even interior lights. At a lower, more optimal, current the 1mm-square white LED had an efficiency of 136 lumens/W which makes it about twice as efficient as standard fluorescent lamps and 10 times a normal bulb. Press release below. More »