Archive for the ‘Misc. Gadgets’ Category

We all love fireworks, don’t we? The thrill & the spectacle of it all are so enthralling, and who doesn’t like explosions far away in the sky? In comes Sega Toys with its new Uchiage Hanabi, a virtual indoor fireworks machine! Basically, it is a projector which shows fake fireworks on your ceilings & walls, along with sound effects to make it seem like the real thing.

You will be able to create your own fireworks show and display them using this gadget. It is designed to be portable requiring AAA batteries to power it. It will be released on the 1st of August, retailing for about $170.

Using a laptop can become quite hectic and more so if you are using it the entire day round. Stress injuries are the worst effect, and more and more people seem to be suffering from them because of bad sitting posture. Logitech’s Notebook Riser N110 raises your laptop for comfortable viewing  up to a certain height. Combined with an external keyboard and mouse, this Logitech gadget increases the comfort factor in laptop usage. The stand can also be locked at 20 degrees to 40 degrees angle.

The Notebook Riser N110 is priced at $29.99 and is a good option if you want to sit back, relax and work on your notebook. This Logitech product is not the first of its kind in the market but is definitely a good buy.

I haven’t been able to think of one reason why you would need a range of 40 KM / 25 Miles for a KVM switch, although obviously some people have found a reason for it and have had to pay a lot for this. The fact that on the Think Logical website, their is no pricing information, only ordering information suggests that your going to have very deep pockets in order to afford this.

The Think Logical VelocityKVM can pipe two 920 x 1200 DVI signals, USB 1.1 (USB 2.0 is optional), serial, PS2, stereo audio up to 40 KM over single-mode fiber, without any loss in the quality.

Most people have always looked at the ultimate ears headphone range, although this new product doesn’t just look great, it also comes with a built in microphone which you can use with an iPhone and some Blackberry models.

These headphones will send out frequencies as low as 10Hz and as high as 74kHz, most of us would love a pair of these amazing headphones, although not many of us are willing to pay $420 for a pair of headphones, although surprisingly, a lot of people do pay this much for a pair of headphones!

If you are interested about ultimate ears headphones or other products, or even buying these headphones, check out the website http://www.ultimateears.com

This is a updated version of Windows Vista Ultimate, their are not many differences in the operating systems, although Vista Ultimate RED has more updated features, a more colourful version of Windows Vista, but there are not too many extras, a few new wallpapers etc. This is a limited edition copy and is a copy from $219.95 or $64.95 for students. When you buy this operating system, a portion of the profits are donated to The Global Fund, which is a charity which helps to end AIDS in Africa.

The product is set to be released on the 15th of December 2009. You can pre-order the full version here and you can pre-order the student version here.

When we humans finally destroy the earth and its forests with our greedy ways, it looks like there will be robotic trees around to keep the oxygen flowing. Chonam National University developed the robotic plant in Korea, which stands over four feet tall and consists of your regular plant parts, a pot, stem, and five meat eating buds. The robot interacts with humans by bending toward an approaching person and blooming and shaking. If only real plants could do that! It also responds to music and light by dancing in what looks like some weird, robotic mating dance. If these things do replace plants, you’ll have the satisfaction of telling your kids, “I remember when plants didn’t dance!”

It seems these days that the quality of an electronic device is not determined by the parts and quality it delivers, but whether or not it’s covered with crystals. Swarovski crystals, to be exact. If you are in need of a crystal encrusted camera to take with you to cotillions or charity balls, then you should look no further than the Mju 1040 by Olympus. It’s a limited edition camera which features a 10 megapixel shooter which is adorned with ninety-eight Swarovski crystals. The price for the camera is around $303 and will be available at the end of October.

Okay, so maybe that last bit of news has you a bit scared when it comes to the robot uprising. Maybe this will give you a little bit of peace. According to Maryland professor Jaydev Desai, a prototype of a robot being developed at the University of Maryland could one day be used to diagnose, hunt, and destroy breast cancer cells in one sitting and much more efficiently than human beings.

The prototype can work inside an MRI because of it’s titanium and stainless steel construction. Everything from the biopsy to the hunting of cancer cells will be done in the MRI, making it much easier on the cancer patient. The robot kills the cells by using a probe which is inserted into the breast until it comes into contact with the tumor. The probe then burns all of the cancerous cells until they’re dead. This would effectively consolidate three months of trips to the hospital into one visit.

For those of you who are afraid of robot overlords, this probably isn’t the best article for you to read. A computer named Elbot achieved a 25% success rate when trying to convince a human being that they were conversing with another human. Simply put, Alan Turing, the father of the whole test, stated any artificial intelligence need only achieve a 30% success rate to be considered sentient. While Elbot can not officially be considered sentient, this is just another huge step in making computers who literally think and act just like humans. Where’s Isaac Asimov when you need him.

ATM skimmers have been around for quite a while now, but one of the downsides of them, aside from the fact that it’s identity theft and you could serve serious time, is that thieves would have to personally retrieve the skimmer from the ATM it was planted on. A new model of ATM skimmer has been released which sends the information gathered via SMS to the thief’s phone. The go for around $8,500, so it’s not likely you’ll have one used against you. Just remember these devices do exist the next time you go to swipe your card at an ATM.