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DVICE ARCHIVE FOR September 2007
Not all swarming robot vehicles fly through the air like maple tree seeds—some of them creep along the ground on tiny tank tracks, and are so small they're hardly even the size of your high school class ring. This...
POSTED Sunday, September 30, 2007
Gateway introduced an iMac-style "all in one" computer called the One at Digital Life yesterday. Our editor thought it looked promising, and he wasn't alone. Desktop computers, even other all-in-ones rarely garner so much attention (unless they're iMacs, that...
POSTED Sunday, September 30, 2007
The Mio DigiWalker C720t is a touchscreen handheld GPS that will show you a map of where you are on its respectable 4.3 inch widescreen — providing you're somewhere in North America. It does everything a good GPS should,...
POSTED Saturday, September 29, 2007
A smartypants Harvard doctoral student has done the seemingly impossible: figured out how to keep ice frozen at body temperature. The research came out of trying to make diamonds completely smooth for use in medical implants. By placing an extremely...
POSTED Saturday, September 29, 2007
Winter will be here before you know it, so to prepare you for those long nights of chilly Internet surfing we introduce you to the USB Warmer Cushion from Thanko. Attach the cushion to your computer's USB port and...
POSTED Saturday, September 29, 2007
This week was all about spreading the love here at SCI FI Tech. We've got the sweetest 5,000 piece Millennium Falcon LEGO kit to keep you busy, some gadgetry for you crazy cat lovers, and a robot that will...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Even when your computer is off, all those peripherals you have plugged into it continue to suck up precious energy. Be it your printer, your speakers, your monitor, or an external hard drive, they all just love wasting expensive,...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
If you rely on a projector but hate the associated clutter that goes with the territory (the bulk of the unit itself on top of having to lug your laptop and hookups around), you might want to check out...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
This fancy track bike certainly looks futuristic and technologically advanced, but the design is actually inspired by something from nature, not technology: the frog. Once you know that, you can definitely see the resemblance between the bike and our...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Remember the Aptera three-wheeled vehicle we showed you back in March? Well, if you've been lusting at it ever since, today's your lucky day: it's now available for pre-order. As promised, it'll set you back about $20,000, but even...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Sure, pretty much any object can serve as a drum, but that doesn't mean it should. Coming from the other direction, the Lapbeat is a highly specialized drumming instrument, upgrading the common bongo by making it more lap-friendly and...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
We're no stranger to toasters around these parts, so this executive-edition toaster from Siemens immediately caught our eye. On the outside, it has a smooth black finish and knobs that are only fit for an executive. Inside the toaster...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
I think that new smartphone from Palm, the Centro, kinda sucks. Sure, it's only $100, but if you're buying a smartphone, splurging a little wouldn't be the worst idea. I also think that Al Boline's piece on the merits of...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
This Sim Card Spy Ear is basically a phone you hide in a room that you can call whenever you want, but instead of it ringing, it'll automatically pick up and let you listen in on whatever is going...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
There are massage chairs, and then there are massage chairs. Take the Robo Massage Chair for example — not only does it look like a great place to park your backside, the chair also understands a variety of commands...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Skype and other VoIP services are nice and cheap, but you're usually stuck using a headphone attached to your PC or specialized phone. Start-up MagicJack simplifies your VoIP life with a matchbox-sized USB modem into which you plug any...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
We've shown you some hard to read watches in the past, but this Eleeno Lite Radar Watch might require a license to operate. Not to worry, SCI FI Tech has the sharpest readers in the world, so it should...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Samsung has just let loose the official details on the follow up to its Blackjack smartphone. The SGH-i780 will feature HSDPA/WCDMA/GSM/GPRS/EDGE connectivity, allowing you to connect to the web, as well as a full QWERTY keyboard for typin' out...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Your hamster is a fatty. Just look at him, sitting in his cage, nibbling his pellets. He might as well be eating a cake with his bare hands on the couch in front of the TV. He needs to...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
As one of the most earthquake prone areas on the planet, Japan is constantly in a state of alert as most citizens await "the big one" scheduled to hit any day now. Now a new gadget called the GraGraph...
POSTED Friday, September 28, 2007
Imagine life without electricity. The lights go out. Your fridge turns into a petri dish. The Internet becomes an abstraction, a memory. And of course, no TV — ah, maybe there is a bright side! But apart from that,...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Polk Audio's I-Sonic 2 entertainment system isn't an upgrade from the first I-Sonic — it's almost a completely different table radio. First, it uses the latest HD Radio tuner available, which should theoretically make the I-Sonic 2 a better-performing...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Remember the good old days, when there was only one model of each game console? I mean, I had a Super Nintendo, and that was an easy choice for me. I didn't need to worry about a newer, cheaper,...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Since choosing between a Treo and an iPhone is becoming the $400 question for the young glitterati, Palm has created a $100 smartphone, the Centro, available next month from Sprint. Centro resembles Nokia's 5300 MusicXpress saddle-shoe aesthetics, with red...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Want to make sure your dinner is going to be uninterrupted by cell phone calls or text messages, no matter what, guaranteed? Well, you can turn your phone off, but you can't count on your guests to follow suit....
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Spykee, the robot formerly known as Spyke, made its first American appearance today at Digital Life. The 'bot, which you can control from remote locations via Wi-Fi, reminds us a lot of the ConnectR robot that iRobot introduced today....
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
If there is one thing every kitchen needs, it is a good knife, but what if that single knife could do more? BasicKnives is a conceptual design by Caroline Noordijk. It takes the average kitchen knife and integrates another...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Riding a bike is a great way to get some fresh air, some exercise, and get to where you're going on the cheap. It's all well and good except for one of those things: exercise. Who needs that? Not...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
iRobot introduced two robots today. The first was the gutter-cleaning Looj. The second robot, ConnectR is a little machine looks like a Roomba. Instead of sweeping your floor, it has a camera and microphone. iRobot says that it "enables...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
iRobot continues to market its Roomba line, but the truth is that robotic vacuum cleaners have not become a mainstay in the average American home. With that in mind, iRobot is introducing two new household robots today. The first...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Like to play PC games? Like to play PC games when you're on the road? Like to play PC games on the road on a glossy, brightly colored laptop that screams, "Steal me"? Then you're the exact customer HP...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Today in New York City, HP revealed "for the first time outside of the lab" a concept handheld for the company's Mediascape (or "Mscape") gaming software. The handheld has been sighted before, though — specifically in an HP commercial...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
With IceRage, Virtuu USA isn't out to wow you with the technology inside their gadgets. After all, a mouse with a laser pointer isn't exactly new. But the sleek styling of the IceRage Pocket Mouse and Pocket Presenter, coupled...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Sling Media, makers of the Slingbox line of place-shifting devices and recent acquirement of EchoStar, have just announced their new SOLO model of Slingbox. Between the AV unit and the Pro unit on the price/feature scale, it's aimed at...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
This morning Gateway went after the iMac crowd by unveiling an all-in-one PC called… er, the One. OK, the name isn't that slick, but machine itself might be. After all, the screen is a decent size (19 inches), and...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Who says innovative design has to be complicated? The Rocking Kitchen Scale is so simple, we're wondering why no one has thought of it before. It works like a rocking chair, using gravitational pull and a sliding weight to...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
Nothing says disgusting like having an open box full of your cats urine and fecal matter sitting out in your bathroom or kitchen. Sure, a cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do, but try to retain some dignity in...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
WowWee and DreamWorks are teaming up to bring Barry B. Benson, alliterative star of the upcoming Bee Movie, off the screen and into our airspace. We're not talking balsa wood at the mercy of the wind — this thing...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
The new Sony Walkman A910 series has just been announced and while it doesn't offer touch-screen functionality or a Starbucks tie-in like the iPod Touch, the list of what it can do is impressive. The A910 series offers a...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
I can't tell you how many tykes I see running around with cell phones these days. Do they even have anyone to call? Well, they must have a friend or two out there because the Zipit Wireless Messenger 2,...
POSTED Thursday, September 27, 2007
If you go on a road trip into the wilds that lie out past suburbia, you'll soon notice that once you get beyond the reach of cable TV, satellite reception is the only game out of town. In some...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
I think we all know how annoying it is to have to go somewhere for DNA testing. I mean, honestly, how many hours and days have I wasted waiting around for a paternity test? It's a figure I'd rather not...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Lenevo's new office in North Carolina sports a striking installation: this interactive water wall. When you walk by the gigantic screen, motion sensors make the wall appear as if water is rippling along behind you. It's a really cool...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The award for today's most redundant and scarily named gadget goes to Chun-Yen Tsao, creator of the Psychro-Ray. It's an automatic climate-control system for your car that scans the cabin, switching on the A/C if it's too hot. But...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
One problem with working in a cubicle farm is that single person who will never turn their cell phone to silent. An anonymous gift like a Kam Kam Mobile Alert may finally be able to give that person a...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
The personal media player world is still rocking from Apple's avalanche of new releases, and now more than ever it's important for opponents of the immortal iPod to stand and deliver if they want to survive. While rumors hint...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Lego has just released their biggest and most insane set ever: a $500, 5,000-piece Millennium Falcon set so monstrous that the instructions alone weigh a whopping 4 pounds. It's sure to take many, many hours to build, which is...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Pedaling your bike up hill is one of the least attractive ways of getting people to give up driving their car to work. Electric bikes are an alternative, but still consume precious fossil fuel to recharge the battery. Thera-P-Products...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Announcements about an upgrade to a line of laptops usually consists of minor performance tweaks: a faster processor, larger hard drive, and/or a thinner and lighter body. Sony's VAIO G-Series is no exception, with options for faster Core 2...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Drawing with a pencil and a piece of paper is so last century. In this fantastic new age full of technological wonders, isn't it only natural to expect on of the most basic form of the arts — drawing...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Panasonic has unveiled the next generation in biometric security with the release of the BM-ET200 eye scanner. After scanning a person's iris the device can make an accurate identification within 0.3 seconds. Fitted with dual mirrors (for proper eye...
POSTED Wednesday, September 26, 2007
If there's a dangerous situation at sea, you don't want to just get in a rowboat and go out there to check out what happened. No, you want to send the QinetiQ, an unmanned, semi-autonomous, and swift reconnaissance sentry...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
This fanciful Wind-Up Lamp is a concept design by Yuko Taguchi looks like something out of a fantasy storybook, but it actually serves a clever and useful purpose in addition to looking cool. That key on the side can...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Forget everything you learned in science class. Now it is possible to create a rainbow indoors and without having to wait on one of those pesky rain showers and prismatic light effects. This rainbow maker from Discovery projects a...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Amazon has just opened up their new DRM-free MP3 store, aiming squarely at the space between the iTunes Music Store's eyes. Featuring plain-old MP3s encoded at a healthy 256kbps, the store one-ups iTunes with price (tracks are $0.89 to...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Sony's looking to get their hands on the thrifty laptop market, unleashing a new line of cheaper Vaio NRs that deliver some respectable specs without breaking the bank. The $750 laptops sport 15.4-inch screens, Core 2 Duos (on "select...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Riding your bike in traffic while listening to music via earphones is downright dangerous, not to mention pretty frakking stupid. A more sensible way to listen to music on your bike is the cy.fi, which bills itself as the...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Good news for people who pay for labels rather than the items they're stitched to: Giorgio Armani has a phone coming out! Hot damn, it'll go great with those $700 pants you just bought, right? If you're already sick...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Is your calculator lacking pizzazz and attitude? It's taken only a few decades, but now that button-filled desktop companion can finally stand up. This robot calculator only has the bare minimum math functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide), but it doesn't...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
There are altogether too many memory-card formats out there, and if you're somewhat of a gadget fetishist, chances are good you have piles of them that you use for different devices. With all those cards, you'll need a memory-card...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Volkswagens are just asking to be made more environmentally friendly: we've already seen an electric Microbus that uses solar power, and even this high schooler was able to make his 1971 Beetle electric. We were pleased when the head...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Muji, a Japanese store whose name is derived from the Japanese words for "no brand," is finally opening a store in the United States. The company is famous for its simply designed goods, from clothing to furniture and electronics,...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Never have Anime schoolgirls been used so effectively to promote a product than with the new Segnity television tuner. E-Revolution and Tomy have released this portable 1Seg (a mobile digital audio and video broadcasting service in Japan) television viewer...
POSTED Tuesday, September 25, 2007
When news of the new iPod Nano first leaked out onto the tech blogs last month, I was, like many, underwhelmed. Perhaps unconsciously tapping to our hard-wired aversion to obesity, I agreed that the squat design looked like crap compared...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
We've shown you some seriously tiny cameras, but now Lockheed Martin is looking to supply the Pentagon with flying cameras that are many times smaller. A miniature payload module about the size of an Altoid can be carried by...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is so very true. While I could talk until I'm blue in the face about the amazing advancements technology has made over the last few decades, I think the...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
I love downhill skiing, but sometimes I just wish it was a little bit more dangerous. You know, because flying down a mountain at 40 miles per hour on a pair of waxed planks just doesn't thrill me enough....
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
Most of the time, shrinking technology is a good thing. We get tiny phones, thin TVs, and lightweight laptops. But when it comes to sleazebags, small tech means more than just portability; you know what I'm talking about. You...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
On the way back from lunch, I saw Condoleezza Rice's motorcade stopped at the Fox News building (well, at least the bicycle vendor across the street said it was her motorcade). With our Secretary of State in town for the...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
These days, USB memory sticks are so cheap and handy that you might have a few of them lying around — I know I do. While it's nice to be able to carry around several dozen gigs worth of...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
How bright does your flashlight need to be? If you're trying to blind Bigfoot in his tracks you might want to consider the Black & Decker Sport Spot that has an impressive 20 million candlepower rating. It uses halogen...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
The ambitious "$100 laptop" One Laptop Per Child program is finally coming to fruition after nearly 2 years of talk, with a boosted price ($188) and a completed product. While most of these little computers are being sold to...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
There's no room for my subwoofer along the wall where my TV is. And since I need to put it in a corner to get the best bass, there's no escape from stringing a long cable from the front...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
Put your cell phone to work when you get home by parking it in this iHome iHC5S clock-radio speaker system, and it will communicate with this four-speaker mother ship via Bluetooth. Then you can access all the music on...
POSTED Monday, September 24, 2007
This week The New York Times killed its "paid content platform," Times Select, effectively making all its online content free for the taking. For the past two years, news and editorials on the site had been free, but all...
POSTED Sunday, September 23, 2007
Personal-viewing eyewear — wraparound sunglass-type video-projection goggles that create the illusion of watching a movie on a big screen floating before your eyes — has been around for years. None model has taken off because the resolution is too...
POSTED Saturday, September 22, 2007
If you've ever used a laptop as its name suggests, you know that the heat produced can be uncomfortable for your… uh, lower extremities. Embraco, with the help of Intel is trying to solve that heating problem with the...
POSTED Saturday, September 22, 2007
Buffalo just released its own Skype phone for wireless on-the-go phone calls. It's black (a requirement for any truly geeky device), it's slim and lightweight and it's designed to connect to Japan's over 5,400 FREESPOT WiFi access points. The...
POSTED Saturday, September 22, 2007
This week brought some sad news from Japan with the closing of the Nagoya robot museum, but maybe our synthetic cousins will be able find employment with NASA. If you still need cheering up, we showcased some wacky handheld...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
There are so many cell phone manufacturers, and each one seems to have a different-sized plug needed to charge up its phones. Now five of the world's biggest cell phone manufacturers have finally decided on a standard plug size...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Like it or not, models just look better in clothes than the rest of us. If you've never been able to realize your own personal modeling fantasies, a booth at Shinjuku's Takashimaya department store in Tokyo, Japan might do...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
The Climb@Tron R.E.X. — which stands for "Robot EXplorer" — is missing the machine guns and rocket pods its Assault Bot from the Future design begs for. While it won't blow up any of the furniture, it will climb...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Long trips are made more bearable by taking a couple of movies along to watch. Current portable DVD players are still on the bulky side, and watching a flick on a small iPod screen is even worse. Designer Yeon-shin...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Is your urge to be Neo from "The Matrix" films strong enough that the super deluxe Neo Halloween costume just isn't enough? Perhaps you'll soon be able to live out your geeky dreams while lounging around the house in...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Magellan's new rugged Triton line of handheld GPS navigators, ranging in price from $130 to $500, is designed for Daniel Boone types. All six models (the Triton 1500 is shown above) are compatible with National Geographic's TOPO! software packages...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Just when you need to make a call, your cell-phone battery bites it. Just when you're about to trudge home after a hard day pushing paper, your iPod craps out. There are a growing number of pocket widgets that...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
GPS handhelds are improving almost as fast as wandering souls are snapping them up — market-research firm IDC projects 6.5 million personal navigation devices will be sold this year in the U.S., three times as many as last year....
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
That drawer of half-dead 9-volt batteries in your kitchen just got a little more functional thanks to this simple 9-volt battery flashlight. This flashlight takes the traditional flashlight concept and flips it around. Rather than embedding batteries into the...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
The release of this item pretty much seals the deal — the end is near. That fussy dog who is always too hot or too cold can now relax comfortably in the Komfort Pet Carrier, or rather, that overprotective...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Yesterday, M-Audio introduced its latest Session Music Producer USB microphone. At $99, it's less expensive than other M-Audio mics, and has the added benefit of an in-microphone headphone jack, which, according to the company, means that there's a shorter...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Stop hiding that fire extinguisher in the broom closet where you won't even be able to find it when havoc strikes. Winner of a 2007 International Design Excellence Award, this FireHero extinguisher is pretty enough to keep on your...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
Humans can now scratch museum guide (or 'docent' for you arts buffs) off the list of jobs available as yet another robot has stepped up to put us on the unemployment line. Fujitsu's Enon robot landed a permanent gig...
POSTED Friday, September 21, 2007
That's Technology. Those two words by Steve Jobs were the equivalent of throwing gas on the fire that had already been ignited by the $200 price cut of the Apple iPhone. While Jobs was attempting to explain the sudden...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
The last thing you need to be doing when you're driving on a busy highway is rummaging around in your glove compartment for a CD. That's why the Blaupunkt Melbourne SD27 makes sense. It's the first of many car...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
We're not sure if high tech landlines are an emerging trend, or of they're the last, desperate yelps of a technology doomed to obscurity. While GE is making a home phone that checks the weather, landline manufacturer in December....
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Fred and Barney used their legs to propel their primitive vehicles. You and I might start using our arms. Thinking about how sweaty we're all going to be once we get to work makes me wish these designers watched...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
As a self-avowed Coca-Cola fanatic, I'm downright excited about word that the soda giant is preparing to come out with self-cooled bottles that chill on the inside as soon as a thirsty consumer twists off the top. Sodaholics know there's...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
If I say the glass is half empty, you might say the glass is half full. The engineer, however, says the glass is designed to be twice as large as it needed to be. A good engineer, anyway. The...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Audiophile iPhone owners, rejoice. You can chuck Apple's awful included earbuds now that the first iPhone-compatible earphones with an in-line microphone and controls are starting to arrive from headphone manufacturers. Up first: the new Altec Lansing UHS-306 ($90). Like...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Number pad? We don't need a stinking number pad when there's a mysterious "handwritten identity feature" integrated into this keyboard from A1Pro. There aren't a lot of details regarding the specifics of the handwriting pad, but I would assume...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Panasonic's latest pair of HD camcorders, the HDC-SX5 an the HDC-SD5, are pretty damn small. So small, in fact, that they are calling the HDC-SD5 the world's smallest "palm-style 3CCD full-HD camcorder." While that's just a bit of press...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
The iSlide is a new skateboard-like concept that takes all the functionality of the Segway and integrates it into a vehicle that someone might actually ride. The iSlide is the work of industrial designer Ofir Tal. It has a...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
The last time that I burned a mix CD was quite a while ago. Nowadays, if I want to share songs with friends, I'll email the files, or transfer them from my iPod. Which is why I feel a...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
How big a Star Wars nerd are you? Even if you wear a Stormtrooper costume to conventions and sleep in Han Solo bedsheets, you're probably still nowhere near as nutty as Vic Wertz and Lisa Stevens. They wanted a...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Kicking off the Tokyo Game Show Sony's Kaz Harai officially announced the long rumored Dual Shock 3 wireless controller for the PlayStation 3. According to Harai the essential design will remain the same, but under the controller's hood will...
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Psst! You with the laptop. Wanna watch some TV? And I'm talking HDTV, pal, not that standard-def garbage. All you need to do is plug in Pinnacle's HD Ultimate in your USB port and you're done. Yep, that's it....
POSTED Thursday, September 20, 2007
Man, I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to check the weather on my landline cordless phone. Or no. Wait. I've never wanted that. In fact, you could probably substitute almost any other gadget for "landline cordless phone"...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Got an older monitor sitting around in your closet? Chances are pretty good that you might be able to pull it out of retirement as a secondary display using one of DisplayLink's docking stations or adapters. Some desktop computers...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
NASA is hiring astronauts, and if you have The Right Stuff, you might be one of 10 to 15 spacemen and spacewomen who will get to hang out (literally) at the International Space Station, float around in space like...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
So we've seen crazy bikes with too many wheels, but how about a giant unicycle? The Wheelsurf out of the Netherlands is just that. Well, on second thought, it's more like a motorcycle without a backseat to pick up...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
How's this for a nice example of the difference between the technologies here in the States and over in Japan: a watch with 3G web access, a touchscreen, a phone, and an audio/video player. Yes, it's a watch with...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Right when you think you've got a cable standard down that works with most of your devices, some committee or commission of some sort goes and releases a new, better standard to upgrade to. It's pretty annoying, but it's one...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
In Japan, everything is constantly being improved, it seems. They're never happy with whatever the current version of their things is, so they need to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade! And while bathtubs might seem like they're doing OK as-is, these...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
So you ditched your old point-and-shoot and upgraded to a fancy DSLR, did you? And now you think you're some sort of photography expert. Well, let me tell you something, pal: your camera has still got nothing on real...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Forget the pulse-pounding feeling you get from steampunk computers — here's one of the most alluring laptop concepts we've seen in a long time. If designer Eno Setiawan had his way, the Sony Vaio notebook would look sleek and...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Whenever I work out, I have my iPod ritual. Before I put my shirt on, I strap my Shuffle onto my arm and connect my headphones to it. That way, most of the cord goes under my shirt so...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
While we're on the subject of Bose, whose Framingham lair we visited yesterday, we can't help but mention the Bose automobile suspension system. The fact that Bose has been working on a different sort of suspension system for cars...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Flies are quite the menace and now there's a fun, lazy and humane way to eliminate those pests. The Electronic Venus Fly Trap is loaded up with nontoxic bait that lures the flies into the mouth of the plastic plant....
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
In today's installment of "idiotic and expensive things for very rich people to waste many thousands of dollars on," we have a hot tub with a built-in 61-inch flat-panel TV. Sure, having a giant TV combined with a hot...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
This is a sad day in the world of robotics as Nagoya's Robot Museum has announced that the facility will be closing after only one year in operation. The announcement, which expressed embarrassment and offered apologies to fans, appeared...
POSTED Wednesday, September 19, 2007
As we mentioned earlier today, Bose has just announced a new PC-speaker system, and the company staged a huge press event to roll out these tiny, aluminum-encased speakers (whereas last week, it just sent out a press release for...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Now you can have Darth Vader guarding your bedside every night. This Darth Vader Alarm Clock helpfully projects the time of day onto the ceiling, although too bad R2-D2 isn't there to project it in 3-D. When morning comes,...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
There are a lot of places people are prohibited from smoking these days. Trains, planes, elevators, restaurants, offices, and so on and so forth — the list is much shorter if you look at where you can smoke than...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Not all clever gadgets are brand new, nor do they all require a fancy screen and a rechargeable battery to function. Check out this cane, for example, which hides a map of Boston inside it. Not only will it...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
This here is Motorola's upcoming ROKR E8 music phone, a slick candybar phone with a touch-sensitive keypad reminiscent of LG's Chocolate phone. It does, however, have haptic feedback on that touch keypad, which should make it easier to use...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Google has its sights set on Microsoft in a serious way. With Microsoft Office being the clear leader in office software, Google is looking to save people money by giving them the same products for free. They already offer...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Bose made a "major announcement" today, so we're here at the company's headquarters in Framingham, Massachusetts, where we listened to a lecture by Dr. Bose himself. Yes, there is a Dr. Bose — in fact, he's a MIT professor....
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
People have plenty of legitimate criticisms of Apple's computers, but, generally speaking, their design isn't one of them. Apple is pretty much universally regarded as the leader in computer design, consistently raising the bar in terms of aesthetics and...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
The small Dutch town of Makkinga is undergoing an interesting experiment: they've gotten rid of all their traffic signs. Yep, there are no speed limit signs, no stop signs, no yield signs — no signs of any kind. The...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Meet Triops, the work of German designer Franziska Faoro. This Rolly-shaped device is actually a panoramic digital camera. Triops can take pictures normally, but the real action happens when you throw it though the air. That's when the durable...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
There is a great divide between learning to play the guitar and actually being able to rock. The Power Tour Guitar from Hasbro and Tiger Electronics can partially help, by teaching riffs without the needing expensive equipment and mangled...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
There are lots of rumors floating around at the moment about Google possibly working on a client-side version of their super-popular Gmail e-mail service. The standalone program would allow users to store their emails on their own computer and...
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Imagine if you could take your favorite piece of Internet software and somehow seamlessly merge it with the most bad-ass vehicle you've ever driven and you might have the Mozilla Firefox (as in the Web browser) NASCAR style racer....
POSTED Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Our interest was piqued with those radio controlled tanks that fought with infrared cannons, but here's the next step in model warfare, Remote-Controlled Laser Combat Cars that use that same infrared laser tech to vanquish their opponents with even...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
The WD-2 robot is a pretty amazing piece of technology. It can't walk, talk, compute awesomely complex equations, or carry heavy objects. What it can do, however, is morph to look like anyone's face. Created by researchers at Tokyo...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
The Speecys SPC-101C programmable robot includes a feature you might not have known you were looking for in a robotic companion, as you can teach it to laugh at all of your jokes. Imagine every time you deliver a...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
Do you really hate mornings? Do you feel like putting a gun to your head when you get out of the shower and realize that you have yet another soul-crushing day at the office ahead of you? Well, that...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
In May, Helio introduced the Ocean, the world's first dual slider phone (the number pad slides down vertically, the keyboard horizontally). The phone got great reviews, but in order to buy one, you have to sign up with Helio,...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
Fashion-wise, Benjamin Hubert's "Insense" home virtual-reality headset (as opposed to all those office virtual-reality headsets) is miles ahead of other similarly themed gadgets we've seen. But these VR goggles are a little hazy on the function side, with Ben's...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
On Friday, Yahoo started sending out invitations to Yahoo Mash, which will be the company's answer to Facebook, MySpace, and Friendster. The company announced the product one year after it failed to acquire Facebook, exemplifying the philosophy "if you...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
If you have a spare hard drive lying around taking up space, and a bit of time on your hands, you could create a stunning timepiece like the Harddisc-Uhr. The German-made clock is hacked together using parts from a...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
I'm pretty sure this Zyken NightCove alarm clock is way nicer than whatever you use to wake yourself up in the morning. And not just because this thing costs $2,500, although, to be honest, that does have a lot...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
From the technology so scary maybe it shouldn't exist department comes a new photo imaging product called MotionPortrait. Originally developed by the Sony-Kihara Research Center and acquired by a new Japanese company calling itself MotionPortrait, the technology takes one...
POSTED Monday, September 17, 2007
Last week we looked at some comments about Apple's iPod announcements. This week, the professional reviews began to appear. Results aren't conclusive on the iPod Touch, since it's only just becoming available (though PC Mag has already called it...
POSTED Sunday, September 16, 2007
This is Zeno, a lifelike child robot built by inventor David Hanson. Named and modeled after his own real-life son, Zeno is a mildly-creepy little guy with a "frubber" face that displays a wide range of emotions. It's loaded...
POSTED Saturday, September 15, 2007
We saw a lot of insanely expensive items that we wouldn't really recommend to anyone this week. From the mediocre $800 Bang & Olufsen MP3 player to the $41,000 record player to the $28,000 keyboard, there were plenty of...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Getting rolls of sushi to come out right can be a pretty tricky process. Chances are your guests are already vastly impressed that you're even going to try to serve it to them, so once you mess it up...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Don't be fooled. Sure there's a kid in the picture. Sure it's being promoted as a toy for the young. That won't stop a few of these from colliding into one another as they zip around our halls. The...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Meet Lili and Oscar from United Pepper. These two little gems are constructed entirely from sustainable material that won't explode the planet and anger Al Gore to the point of no return. Lili happens to be an octopus and...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
True aficionados understand that beer pong (sometimes known as Beirut) is not just a sport, but a way of life. Portable pong tables are widely available, but they can't go everywhere. Which is why the enterprising young men at...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Until now, the largest flash-based SSD hard drive has been 160GB, and it was insanely expensive. Right now, the largest you're going to find in a consumer product such as a laptop is 64GB, which generally adds around $900 to...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Who hasn't lusted over a Bugatti sports car, hoping someday to win the lottery so you had enough money to buy one? Owning something Bugatti isn't totally out of the question now that the Bugatti Volo Toaster is available....
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
An enterprising hacker has developed a piece of software that makes your Nintendo DS a lot more useful: a VoIP application. Yes, using the DS's built-in WiFi, touchscreen, and microphone, you can now make free calls once you're done playing...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Imagine, if you will, a world where your mother tells you to stay still when a bee flies up not because she's worried about you getting stung, but because the bee is on a mission. A mission to search...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
If you're in the market for a new portable music player, you've probably had your eye on all those new iPods Apple unleashed a couple weeks ago. Yeah, they're alright, but don't you think you could spend more money and...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Some posts are almost completely picture-driven and this one about Japan's Super-Kamiokande is one of them. The Super-Kamiokande, or "Super-K," is a neutrino observatory located one-thousand meters underground in Gifu, Japan. Originally built in 1983, and renovated just last...
POSTED Friday, September 14, 2007
Antarctica is getting slushy, polar bears need a Coke to cool down, and everyone in Miami is keeping an eye on the sea level. Maybe Al Gore is right, and maybe he isn't. But no one can deny that...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
It may not be the Nike + iPod, but the Brando USB Pedometer is quite a bit cheaper and can still keep track of all of those steps. This device can record walking data for up to three days....
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
The idea of an automated lawn mower is nothing new, but it seems we're getting closer to the day when they become commonplace. Instead of shouting at our kids to mow the lawn, we'll be yelling at them to...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
Well stocked wine racks have always greatly intimidated me. All those different years, all that history — how can I be expected to keep them straight? You'd think in this modern age we live in, someone would come up...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
You don't want to be just another sucker on a boring old bike, do you? Of course you don't. You're a unique and beautiful snowflake, and you wanna let the whole world know. That's why this StreetSurfer bike is...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
Generally speaking, webcams suck. I mean, they're fine for what they do, which is take grainy photos of you sitting shirtless at your computer, but they don't take the kinds of shots you'd want to print out and frame....
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
Bone conduction headphones — headphones that vibrate music right into your skull, allowing you to hear it no matter how loud your surroundings are — haven't quite caught on. It might be because people just don't know about it,...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
When you're trying to get away with charging an exorbitant amount of money for a piece of antiquated technology like a turntable, you've got to make it look unique. That's probably the most important thing you can do to...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
PC security is always a cause for concern, but sometimes — check that — pretty much all the time juggling a slew of different software suites can be a pain. This is where the Yoggie Pico Personal steps in....
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
I guarantee that there is absolutely nothing a keyboard could possibly offer that would justify a $28,000 price tag. But hey, that isn't stopping a company named Fairlight from trying, as that's exactly how much their new XYNERGI keyboard...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
Having just re-watched the movie "Tron" (inspired by the news that a remake is coming) I wondered how the video arcade culture ruled by Jeff Bridge's character "Flynn" in the film was fairing in the real-life video game Mecca...
POSTED Thursday, September 13, 2007
If you're so insistent on leaving the confines of civilization to explore the savage beauty of the natural world, at least take this giant cocoon with you. Yes, that's right, a big cocoon. It allows you to hang from...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Great news for humanity: Russia just tested the largest non-nuclear bomb ever, a vacuum bomb that took out an area the size of two football fields. The "Father of all Bombs" consisted of seven tons of some sort of...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
There are a few regions that still prove tricky for scientists looking to set up shop. Icy areas such as those found in Antarctica are especially troublesome for maintaining research stations because of the difficulty in getting researchers supplies,...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Sony may have discontinued its robot dog Aibo, but that has scarcely diminished Japan's love for strange mechanized pets. The latest addition to the automaton menagerie is the Yume Neko Smile (Dream Cat Smile) from Sega Toys. Although the...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
How's this for an unlikely yet extremely exciting potential fuel source: salt water. Yes, the substance that covers 70% of the earth's surface, the most common liquid on earth. A Pennsylvania man has figured out a way to burn...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
There are few things that help cheer up sad people like ice cream. I mean, who doesn't like ice cream? That's why the voice-stress ice-cream dispenser is so brilliant. You need to verbally answer some questions it'll ask you...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Remember how amused you were when Rosie the Robot pushed a button and all the Jetsons' dirty dishes would disappear into a slot in the wall and appear a moment later completely clean and new? Those scenes and concepts...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Cave is a clever combination of bookcase and reading space, designed by Sakura Adachi. Putting a reading chair right in your bookshelf is an incredibly logical idea, even if you'll need a pretty massive bookshelf to do it....
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Just because something has the word "cool" in its title, doesn't mean that it's neat, awesome, or even a good idea. That's how we feel about the CoolTone mini-fridge, which comes tricked out with a CD player and clock...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Despite both HD-disc formats stalling out with mediocre sales due to a justifiably confused consumer base, Sony has gone ahead and announced not one, not two, not three, but four Blu-ray recorders. Keep chasing that shooting star, Sony. The...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Need a home theater system to pump out the tunes from your $150,000 turntable? Look no further — SE2 Labs has the perfect $20,000 system for you. The ITC One is a behemoth of system: almost 2 feet tall...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
If you want to feel more secure when you travel with a laptop and also kind of want to feel like the guy that travels with the president with the nuclear codes handcuffed to his wrist, you'll probably love...
POSTED Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Hard drives are being put into some interesting enclosures these days. Take the fanless Golden Disk from LaCie, for example. Teaming up with designer Ora-Ïto, LaCie continues its practice of trying to rethink the shape of PC peripherals. But is...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
If you've never seen one of the groovy watches Tokyoflash puts out, then chances are you're scratching your head right now. Don't worry about it — we do the same thing. Pictured above is the "Geomesh," and, boy oh...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
If you like the idea of exercise through cycling, but also enjoy the camaraderie of riding with others, here's a product for you. The Ergo Bike Premium 8i is an exercise bike that keeps you inside away from dangers...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Remote car starters are so not in anymore. Sure, they were impressive a few years ago when the notion of being able to warm up your car before you got in it was novel, but it's old hat now....
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Saitek's new Cyborg Rumble game pad is customizable, letting you swap the positions of the left-hand thumbstick and directional pad. It's perfect for people who are used to the positioning of the PS3 or Xbox 360 controller layouts and...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Artist Giancarlo Neri has filled the Circo Massimo, sight of the first Roman Games, with LED orbs. During the day, the installation looks like this famous Roger Fenton photograph of cannonballs, but in the evening the orbs glow disco...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Photoshop is basically the end-all be-all of photo-editing programs; anyone who does anything remotely professional with digital image manipulation has it. It's the best piece of software around for dealing with your casual digital pictures, too, but the problem...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Y'know, I just may have been a little harsh on that iriver B20 portable that I spotted last week on the U.K. gadget blogs. It was the end of the week, I was tired, and I still had a lot...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
It may not be a Mack truck transforming into Optimus Prime, but Plantronics has definitely taken a page out of Michael Bay's book with its latest morphing 855 Bluetooth headset. It's a bit different from the usual array of...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Frequent breast exams help prevent death from breast cancer, while bras (preferably external) help prevent excess sagging and bouncing. Researchers in the U.K. decided to combine the two (breast screenings and bras, that is) to introduce a "smart bra" for...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Shocking pretty much nobody, Ugobe, maker of the much-ballyhooed and oft-delayed Pleo dinosaur robot, announced today that the little guy wouldn't make his targeted October release date, due to issues with the battery. Rated to last an hour of...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Tyler Freeman, also known as odbol, is a musician/artist and has designed a pair of drum machine pants. The pants are loaded up with patches and connected to a small, external MIDI controller that produces a different drum noise...
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
This slick gadget from Korea is a dictionary of all things. I know, I know… in America our dictionaries are big books or just websites, while in Korea they're gadgets that put most of our fancy tech to shame....
POSTED Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The next time you whip out your phone to take a picture of a funny billboard or sexy ad, you might accidentally be about to make a purchase. Advertisers are playing around with the idea including Semacode tags on...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Cell phones are everywhere these days — even kids and robots are running around with them. I guess it was only a matter of time before someone thought to attach them to pets as well. The PetsCell seems at...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Now that Apple's set the tone for the fall harvest of MP3 players, other manufacturers are beginning to make their countermoves. SanDisk, one of the big makers of flash-memory players, today did a decent job of one-upping Apple with...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Boy, is the record industry ever scramblin'. They know the CD is just about dead, and now they're looking for a new way to make money off their artists. Their solution? Ringles. Nope, I'm not kidding, unfortunately for the...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
If you've got a sneaking suspicion that your boss/girlfriend/mom has been less than honest with you, there are plenty of ways to sneak a look at their activities without them ever knowing. If you think what they do on...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Oh, Sony. As soon as it seems like it might be a good time to get a PlayStation 3, your people go and do something that makes it make more sense to wait. First, they launched it at an...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Installing accent lighting in a room or terrace can often frustrate the hell out of do-it-yourselfers. Luna Light Technology has introduced a light that looks easy to install, is completely rechargeable and is safe for the environment. LunaBrites look...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
No, that's not the escape pod from 2001: A Space Odyssey — it's the latest gadget from Sony. On the heels of the Apple iPod Touch debut last week, Sony has unveiled its new digital audio player called The...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
When I shower, I like to feel like I'm inside a spaceship. A spaceship that gets me clean. That's why I'm a big fan of the WMK A-16 shower. It's got a seat in it that, if facing out...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Leatherman is known for being one with the multi-tool and its latest device, the Skeletool, proves that once again. This is the lightest Leatherman to date thanks to the holes chopped throughout the metal, eliminating unnecessary weight. It includes...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
Odd clothes are… fun? Well, if you're a terrible dancer like myself, you've got to find a way to stand out in a crowd. It's been a little while since I put on a dress, but I might just...
POSTED Monday, September 10, 2007
This week, Apple announced the iPod Touch, while new iPod Nanos and "Classics" hit stores. More controversially, the company slashed the price of its iPhone by $200, enraging early adopters (until they were promised a $100 Apple credit). Those...
POSTED Sunday, September 9, 2007
If there's anything that's important to teach your kids, it's the value of saving money and being fiscally responsible. If there's a way to do the exact opposite of that, it's giving them a touchscreen ATM. It makes taking money...
POSTED Saturday, September 8, 2007
We won't even try and pretend that the news wasn't all Apple all the time this week. Besides unveiling not one, not two, but three new iPods — including one with all the cool features