Awesome Gadgets For One And All !!
Friday, 15. February 2008, 13:32:59
Hello Kitty debuts remote-controlled belly fat burner
Although I can hardly get five minutes of attention from most of my female friends when I talk tech, for some reason if I mention the name Hello Kitty I get full attention. This belated Valentine’s Day post is for them. The Hello Kitty Slender Shaper is the latest in the trend of belly shakers claiming to burn the fat off your midsection. And, in the tradition of the newly popular Wii, the device even comes with a cute little remote allowing you to shake your booty faster or slower with just the push of a button. The entire package, including branded carrying case will run you just 13,800 yen ($127.52) here.
SHIFT: Are solid-state drives really better than hard disks?
When Apple rolled out the MacBook Air with its solid-state disk (SSD) inside, it felt like a new era in laptop computing had begun. Are solid-state state drives poised to replace those spinning hard disks we've become accustomed to over the past few decades?
Not so fast. Although there's a transition underway, for all that sexy new technology, you'll pay a whole lot more to be an early adopter. In this case, solid-state drives will cost you at least $1,000 more for a 64GB drive in laptops from Apple, Toshiba or Dell, but offer you less space and sometimes slower speeds than conventional hard drives. I talked with experts and analysts about the latest solid-state drive offerings, trying to find out if the time is right to go for the latest disk tech. Follow the Continue link to read my findings.
Kinetic phone is charged with motion and wishes
Boy, do I ever love concept designs like this. Designers just love to create these fantastical designs with absolutely no basis in reality. I mean, hey, that's what engineers are for, right? Figuring out how to make designs work? If so, some poor engineer really has his work cut out for him.
The Kinetic phone only has basic cell functions, no multimedia stuff that might suck up unnecessary juice. Why? Because all you have to do to charge it is "give it a few upside down turns to get the kinetic rotors going again." That's it. You never have to plug it in. Boy, you've got to wonder why no phones work like this if it's possible to do, right?
A real, working underwater convertible
When it comes to vehicles from famous movies, they don't get too much cooler than James Bond's Lotus convertible that can also function as a submarine. Unfortunately, the very idea of a convertible submarine is nonsensical, so we'll probably never see it in real life. Or will we?
We will! Check out this Rinspee sQuba! It's a convertible that's also a submarine! You need to wear scuba masks attached to the built-in air tanks to drive it underwater, but how badass is this? In addition, it's a zero-emissions vehicle, running on a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, so you can pretend to be a secret agent without wrecking the environment. That's it, I'm sold. Where do I sign?
Table with four space-saving chairs makes the most of cramped quarters
Designer Marta Antoszkiewicz unifies table and chairs with Kitchenette, a smoothly rounded set that hides away its four chairs when you're not using them. While it might look a bit like a painted cardboard box, its construction is sturdy with square steel tube legs holding up the heat-formed laminate table and its form-fitting seating.
Conveniently located in the tabletop's center are recessed areas where silicone pads are stored, perfect for placing hot pans without scorching. In case you get into a messy food fight because of those limited confines in which you're forced to live every day, those comfy cushions are washable, and the rest of the table can be simply hosed down. Once the commotion dies down, those four chairs snap into place with their little strategically-placed magnets attracting their metal counterparts on the table's legs. Neat.
Unbelievable animation: close encounters of the desktop kind
http://view.break.com/443897 - Watch more free videos You may never look at your cell phone the same way again after seeing this UFO landing on some innocent soul's desk. What a convincing special effect! Quick, look under your desk to see if any tiny aliens are crawling around down there. It's not only the realistic sounds that sell the visuals, but the camera movement and shifting focus makes it look like it was shot with a handheld camcorder. Remarkable. Order coffee directly from your iPhone
Soon, thanks to Apple's deal with Starbucks for free access to WiFi at their stores, ordering overpriced coffee will be easier than ever. There'll be no more of that undesirable "interacting with fellow humans" that mars any good transaction, thank heavens.
That's because you'll be able to order and pay for your drinks directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch using the fancy new Starbucks program. You can choose exactly what you want in your drink, be it just a normal coffee or some horrible half-caf soy mocha teacchino or whatever it is they sell there. At long last, your dreams of ordering coffee from your phone will be realized. Thanks, Apple!
20 toys for girls that don't look like, er, toys for girls
For all you girls who are alone on Valentine's Day — or you guys who want to get your GFs a little something more than just chocolate and roses — vibrators personal massagers are always a good option. The problem is, vibrators personal massagers aren't something discerning girls want to be seen with. The usual choices are freakish models that look like something out of a David Cronenberg movie, or sleek ones that aren't scary but also aren't going to hide the fact that your date for tonight runs on electricity.
So this Valentine's Day we scoured the planet to find you ladies some better options, discrete vibrators personal massagers that you can have lying around the house and, if they're uncovered, no one will be the wiser to your AAA activities. So read on if you want to cheer yourself up today. Or you can, you know, use them with friends, if that's how you roll. (Note: Some links might be vaguely NSFW, but not by much. Most of these are available on Amazon.com, though.)
Shell-shaped Nautilus House is gorgeous inside and out
Who cares what the neighbors think? Let's build a house that looks like a snail shell! That's just what a Mexico City couple did, with the help of the astonishing imagination of those wild and wooly architects at Senosiain Arquitectos. Unlike that House of the Future we showed you yesterday, this abode is built now and the couple is already living in it with their two small children.
It's more of a sculpture than a dwelling. Taking cues from a Nautilus shell, the house is put together using ferrocement construction, a technique involving a frame of steel-reinforced chicken wire with a special two-inch-thick composite of concrete spread over it, resulting in a structure that's earthquake-proof and maintenance-free.
The open concept inside the house is dominated by smooth surfaces, spiral stairs and natural plantings that makes the inhabitants feel like they're living inside a snail who swallowed the entire contents of somebody's back yard. While the house is surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mexico City, its West side (where most of its portal-style windows are located) has a breathtaking view of the mountains. Wow. Maybe someday all houses will be made this way.
Acne-clearing MP3 player makes us wonder if there really is a sucker born every minute
We've seen some pretty goofy MP3 players in our day, from this one that claims to massage you to this one that claims to help you relax and concentrate. The latest in the "wellbeing plus music" category is the mpion, an MP3 player that claims to fight acne.
Since it costs $184 and only holds 128 megabytes of music, we hope (but seriously doubt) that it actually works. In fact, 128 MB is more than enough memory to hold the twenty minutes worth of music that you'll listen to while holding the player up to your face and thinking positive thoughts. Remember the band Everclear, anyone?
Dual Pizza Oven Delivers Dinner in 90 Seconds or Less
It's not clear what kind of voodoo is working here, but somehow this Dual Pizza Oven can take your dinner from a pile of dough, cheese and toppings to a steaming, crispy pizza in 90 seconds flat. Not only that, but it can do that magic on two 12-inch pizzas simultaneously. We expect frozen pizzas to take a bit longer, but even so, this is the fastest pizza cooking we've seen this side of a microwave, and who would want to destroy a pizza with that food-ruining contraption, anyway?
This oven works by combining 1440-watt coil heating elements with ceramic pizza stones that distribute that heat evenly. The missing number here is the amount of time it takes to cook a frozen pizza, a wildly popular culinary feast that's gone from inedible to mediocre in the past few years. Sure, that 90-second cooking time is impressive, but if you're making your own fresh pizza from scratch, that time savings might be offset. Still, the lure of a 90-second meal is powerful, even if Hammacher is asking $249.95 for the thing.
Nature Aquariums let your fish live in style
That beautiful image you see above isn't a painting or a Photoshop. No, it's an actual fish tank. Created by George and Steven Lo of Aqua Forest Aquarium in San Francisco, these "Nature Aquariums" are built using real plants to create beautiful, natural dioramas for fish to live in.
Sure, putting one of these things together take a lot of time, money, and effort, but your fish deserve the best, don't they? And there's nothing fish like more than swimming around in weird, fake versions of places they naturally are unable to go. Hit the jump for another awesome aquarium shot.
RoboPorter robot caddie is going to make a lot of RealPorters mad
Weary travelers flying into Japan's Kita Kyushu airport will be pleased to know that they can give their arms a rest — on certain afternoons, Yaskawa Electric will have RoboPorters cruising the airport, ready to serve. Each RoboPorter can haul over 100 pounds to any destinations it's programmed to go to. Just tell it where you're headed or, if you're not quite sure, the 'bot has a display on it with a virtual assistant, map of the airport and additional information.
Right now the RoboPorters are only programmed to head off to airport locations for taxis, buses and cars, but, as the tests progress the porters will no doubt learn new tricks.
Although I can hardly get five minutes of attention from most of my female friends when I talk tech, for some reason if I mention the name Hello Kitty I get full attention. This belated Valentine’s Day post is for them. The Hello Kitty Slender Shaper is the latest in the trend of belly shakers claiming to burn the fat off your midsection. And, in the tradition of the newly popular Wii, the device even comes with a cute little remote allowing you to shake your booty faster or slower with just the push of a button. The entire package, including branded carrying case will run you just 13,800 yen ($127.52) here.
SHIFT: Are solid-state drives really better than hard disks?
When Apple rolled out the MacBook Air with its solid-state disk (SSD) inside, it felt like a new era in laptop computing had begun. Are solid-state state drives poised to replace those spinning hard disks we've become accustomed to over the past few decades?
Not so fast. Although there's a transition underway, for all that sexy new technology, you'll pay a whole lot more to be an early adopter. In this case, solid-state drives will cost you at least $1,000 more for a 64GB drive in laptops from Apple, Toshiba or Dell, but offer you less space and sometimes slower speeds than conventional hard drives. I talked with experts and analysts about the latest solid-state drive offerings, trying to find out if the time is right to go for the latest disk tech. Follow the Continue link to read my findings.
Kinetic phone is charged with motion and wishes
Boy, do I ever love concept designs like this. Designers just love to create these fantastical designs with absolutely no basis in reality. I mean, hey, that's what engineers are for, right? Figuring out how to make designs work? If so, some poor engineer really has his work cut out for him.
The Kinetic phone only has basic cell functions, no multimedia stuff that might suck up unnecessary juice. Why? Because all you have to do to charge it is "give it a few upside down turns to get the kinetic rotors going again." That's it. You never have to plug it in. Boy, you've got to wonder why no phones work like this if it's possible to do, right?
A real, working underwater convertible
When it comes to vehicles from famous movies, they don't get too much cooler than James Bond's Lotus convertible that can also function as a submarine. Unfortunately, the very idea of a convertible submarine is nonsensical, so we'll probably never see it in real life. Or will we?
We will! Check out this Rinspee sQuba! It's a convertible that's also a submarine! You need to wear scuba masks attached to the built-in air tanks to drive it underwater, but how badass is this? In addition, it's a zero-emissions vehicle, running on a rechargeable Lithium-Ion battery, so you can pretend to be a secret agent without wrecking the environment. That's it, I'm sold. Where do I sign?
Table with four space-saving chairs makes the most of cramped quarters
Designer Marta Antoszkiewicz unifies table and chairs with Kitchenette, a smoothly rounded set that hides away its four chairs when you're not using them. While it might look a bit like a painted cardboard box, its construction is sturdy with square steel tube legs holding up the heat-formed laminate table and its form-fitting seating.
Conveniently located in the tabletop's center are recessed areas where silicone pads are stored, perfect for placing hot pans without scorching. In case you get into a messy food fight because of those limited confines in which you're forced to live every day, those comfy cushions are washable, and the rest of the table can be simply hosed down. Once the commotion dies down, those four chairs snap into place with their little strategically-placed magnets attracting their metal counterparts on the table's legs. Neat.
Unbelievable animation: close encounters of the desktop kind
http://view.break.com/443897 - Watch more free videos You may never look at your cell phone the same way again after seeing this UFO landing on some innocent soul's desk. What a convincing special effect! Quick, look under your desk to see if any tiny aliens are crawling around down there. It's not only the realistic sounds that sell the visuals, but the camera movement and shifting focus makes it look like it was shot with a handheld camcorder. Remarkable. Order coffee directly from your iPhone
Soon, thanks to Apple's deal with Starbucks for free access to WiFi at their stores, ordering overpriced coffee will be easier than ever. There'll be no more of that undesirable "interacting with fellow humans" that mars any good transaction, thank heavens.
That's because you'll be able to order and pay for your drinks directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch using the fancy new Starbucks program. You can choose exactly what you want in your drink, be it just a normal coffee or some horrible half-caf soy mocha teacchino or whatever it is they sell there. At long last, your dreams of ordering coffee from your phone will be realized. Thanks, Apple!
20 toys for girls that don't look like, er, toys for girls
For all you girls who are alone on Valentine's Day — or you guys who want to get your GFs a little something more than just chocolate and roses — vibrators personal massagers are always a good option. The problem is, vibrators personal massagers aren't something discerning girls want to be seen with. The usual choices are freakish models that look like something out of a David Cronenberg movie, or sleek ones that aren't scary but also aren't going to hide the fact that your date for tonight runs on electricity.
So this Valentine's Day we scoured the planet to find you ladies some better options, discrete vibrators personal massagers that you can have lying around the house and, if they're uncovered, no one will be the wiser to your AAA activities. So read on if you want to cheer yourself up today. Or you can, you know, use them with friends, if that's how you roll. (Note: Some links might be vaguely NSFW, but not by much. Most of these are available on Amazon.com, though.)
Shell-shaped Nautilus House is gorgeous inside and out
Who cares what the neighbors think? Let's build a house that looks like a snail shell! That's just what a Mexico City couple did, with the help of the astonishing imagination of those wild and wooly architects at Senosiain Arquitectos. Unlike that House of the Future we showed you yesterday, this abode is built now and the couple is already living in it with their two small children.
It's more of a sculpture than a dwelling. Taking cues from a Nautilus shell, the house is put together using ferrocement construction, a technique involving a frame of steel-reinforced chicken wire with a special two-inch-thick composite of concrete spread over it, resulting in a structure that's earthquake-proof and maintenance-free.
The open concept inside the house is dominated by smooth surfaces, spiral stairs and natural plantings that makes the inhabitants feel like they're living inside a snail who swallowed the entire contents of somebody's back yard. While the house is surrounded on three sides by the bustling Mexico City, its West side (where most of its portal-style windows are located) has a breathtaking view of the mountains. Wow. Maybe someday all houses will be made this way.
Acne-clearing MP3 player makes us wonder if there really is a sucker born every minute
We've seen some pretty goofy MP3 players in our day, from this one that claims to massage you to this one that claims to help you relax and concentrate. The latest in the "wellbeing plus music" category is the mpion, an MP3 player that claims to fight acne.
Since it costs $184 and only holds 128 megabytes of music, we hope (but seriously doubt) that it actually works. In fact, 128 MB is more than enough memory to hold the twenty minutes worth of music that you'll listen to while holding the player up to your face and thinking positive thoughts. Remember the band Everclear, anyone?
Dual Pizza Oven Delivers Dinner in 90 Seconds or Less
It's not clear what kind of voodoo is working here, but somehow this Dual Pizza Oven can take your dinner from a pile of dough, cheese and toppings to a steaming, crispy pizza in 90 seconds flat. Not only that, but it can do that magic on two 12-inch pizzas simultaneously. We expect frozen pizzas to take a bit longer, but even so, this is the fastest pizza cooking we've seen this side of a microwave, and who would want to destroy a pizza with that food-ruining contraption, anyway?
This oven works by combining 1440-watt coil heating elements with ceramic pizza stones that distribute that heat evenly. The missing number here is the amount of time it takes to cook a frozen pizza, a wildly popular culinary feast that's gone from inedible to mediocre in the past few years. Sure, that 90-second cooking time is impressive, but if you're making your own fresh pizza from scratch, that time savings might be offset. Still, the lure of a 90-second meal is powerful, even if Hammacher is asking $249.95 for the thing.
Nature Aquariums let your fish live in style
That beautiful image you see above isn't a painting or a Photoshop. No, it's an actual fish tank. Created by George and Steven Lo of Aqua Forest Aquarium in San Francisco, these "Nature Aquariums" are built using real plants to create beautiful, natural dioramas for fish to live in.
Sure, putting one of these things together take a lot of time, money, and effort, but your fish deserve the best, don't they? And there's nothing fish like more than swimming around in weird, fake versions of places they naturally are unable to go. Hit the jump for another awesome aquarium shot.
RoboPorter robot caddie is going to make a lot of RealPorters mad
Weary travelers flying into Japan's Kita Kyushu airport will be pleased to know that they can give their arms a rest — on certain afternoons, Yaskawa Electric will have RoboPorters cruising the airport, ready to serve. Each RoboPorter can haul over 100 pounds to any destinations it's programmed to go to. Just tell it where you're headed or, if you're not quite sure, the 'bot has a display on it with a virtual assistant, map of the airport and additional information.
Right now the RoboPorters are only programmed to head off to airport locations for taxis, buses and cars, but, as the tests progress the porters will no doubt learn new tricks.
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