All Posts Tagged With: "Gadgets"

The umbrella is one of those tools we've created that serves a specific purpose so well it's damned hard to ever improve on it. Over the years people have tried to make the umbrella better. Use of the "umbrella" type device can be found in references dating as far back as the 16th century and pictures from the 18th century look very much like umbrellas of today. It's one of those devices that's virtually impossible to improve upon beyond the basics of style and size.

Until now. The Ambient Forecasting Umbrella (thanks to modern technology) not only serves the traditional purpose of protecting you from the sun or the rain but it can also forecast the weather and tell you if you need to take it along with you. Using a built in wireless receiver it gets a daily weather forecast from Accuweather.com and the blue LEDs will flash when the forecast is for rain or snow. How cool is that? The LED's even flash according to the percentage chance of precipitation, so if there is a 100% chance of rain they will flash quickly vs. more slowly for a lower chance.

I might have to get one of these. Many times I've hit the parking lot of Cubeville in the morning and looked at the sky wondering if I should take the umbrella with me, only to decide not to and end up getting drenched when I came back out. Now maybe I can pawn that decision off on the umbrella. It's available from ThinkGeek Electronics
for a mere $99.99, maybe a bit pricey for an umbrella but just think how cool your gonna be.

Now here's an interesting concept product. The Flameless Rechargable USB Lighter replaces traditional lighter fluid with a battery and uses resistance coils to generate heat. The USB port doubles as (get this, a USB port) and the flame end of the lighter. Not only does it light your cancer sticks, you can store files on it as well. I can see it now, a couple of dudes were sitting around their apartment, drunk off their ass playing Doom when one grabbed the USB thumb drive and tried to light a smoke with it. His buddy, after snorting a couple times and laughing says something like "Dude, a USB lighter would be Kool" and the rest is history.

via: Zedomax

It's a good thing I can't really afford some of this stuff I find because I'd need a warehouse just to keep up with all. Roboscorpion is a detailed robotic arthropod that crawls with scorpion inspired movement is freaking awesome. I'm not sure what the heck I'd do with it but the possibilities for tormenting friends and family are endless. If that's not enough just think of what you could do to your neighbors cat.

via: GizmoWatch

Now here's a gadget that I can really use. The WMF Coffee Pad takes a single portioned coffee filter and can brew a cup of hot steamy coffee in about a minute. Ideal for taking to work or if your lazy and don't feel like walking down to the cafeteria just keep it in your cube. Imagine the envy your cubemates will feel when they smell your freshly brewed cup of coffee. Bewarned though, this is a pricey gadget (a modest $198) so you'll want to be sure and keep it under lock an key.

via: Zedomax

Here's another asinine gadget for your iPhone. Ok, while, technically they're not a gadget they're still a ridiculous notion that will be lapped up by the ubergeeks just so they can sport them off to their friends. Phone fingers or finger condoms as seems more appropriate allows you to use your iPhone while protecting it from fingerprints. Yeah, ok, when I had my demo phone that was freaking annoying, I kept having to wipe the glass on my jeans so it would be clean. While the phone fingers might keep your iPhone glass clean, they'll make you look like some bastardized child of Freddie Krueger at best and worst they get your ass beat in the locker room during gym class.

via: The Gadgets Weblog

The engineers at Ferrari must really be bored or just looking for something cool to do, although I'm not sure breeding a Segway is what most people would call "cool". Seems a rather stupid thing if you ask me. Still, lots of people have them. There's even a guy where I work that scoots around cubeville on a Segway. He's on his third different one so I wonder if this one will show up soon. You gotta admit, if your into the whole Segway thing, it might actually be pretty cool.

via: Engadget

Here's a pretty interesting photo I found on Reddit this morning. It's amazing the size difference in only 20 years. Makes you wonder how big that chip will be in the next 20 years. Click the hot for a larger image.

So I've not posted in a few days, there's a really, really good reason for that. On Thursday of last week it was Christmas at my house because when I got home a box from Apple had arrived. I've been hem-hawing around (yes that's a word) for some time about going over to the dark side and switching to a Mac, something I swore a few years ago I'd never do. Turns out, I had to spend a good bit of time pulling my foot out of my mouth because no less than a dozen people have reminded me that I said that at some point.

Anyway, it was tax free weekend so I broke down and purchased a new Macbook Pro. I spared no expense and got everything but the 4GB Ram upgrade, I can get that cheaper elsewhere. So I've spent the better part of the past few days, getting used to the environment (this thing actually makes me feel like a moron sometimes). After a few days, I can honestly say, I'll be hardpressed to look at another PC if someone isn't paying me to do so. This thing is really sweet and worked right out of the box. No installing components, hunting drivers or any of that stuff, it all just worked. As it should.

Unlike the Toyota Tundra that Google is still making payments on, this puppy is paid for, in truth from a combined savings of Google Adsense money and IntelliTXT over two months time. Sometimes the frustration of dealing with the nonsense that has become Adsense still pays off and this was one of them. So, your are forewarned, there will probably be more than a few more Apple posts (as if there wasn't enough already).

Plus a know of a certain cow that's just dying to get his hooves on one of these, so I feel it my duty to point out just how cool this thing really is, although I'm not sure cow hooves will work too well with the keyboard. I'm sure though, with the onslaught of folks hanging around his pasture, one should be making it way to the barn pretty soon. If not, maybe if he actually used IntelliTXT it would, I'm just saying.

It is a nice machine and so far I'm really enjoying it. Next on the list is probably going to be an iMac for the wife since she's finding all kinds of cool things this will do that her PC won't! Go figure. Here's a few pics taken with the Olympus E-500 Google bought last year.

[youtube]wVyQvgG8FcI[/youtube]

This was pretty good, guess Microsoft really has something here. DOH!

I'm sure it won't be the last crazy accessory for the "almighty" iPhone and I really hope to see some poor smuck running around town with one of these. Watch the video, would you buy it?

[youtube]FNGI4yAgcEM[/youtube]

There's also an iLight, iDrink and iPosition. All really stupid, but insanely, ingeniously stupid.

iphree via Beyond The Rhetoric