The Red Ferret Journal

This Oregon Scientific Magic Weather Forecaster is actually a tiny nano-powered robot that wakes every morning, shuffles up to the front door, opens it and takes a look outside to suss the weather situation. It then returns to your snoozing body in bed, makes you a cup of tea, delivers the morning paper and tells you to put on your snow-shoes. Now *that’s* magic. £129.99.

 The magic weather station from Oregon Scientific, where the weather icons are built into see through glass. A stunning piece of contemporary art, as well as a highly versatile weather forecaster and radio controlled clock. The perfect additon to a modern home.

Dr Timmy’s Micro Hand-Crank LED Torch is unquestionably a thing of wonder. Small, useful, everlastingly delicious and probably very hard work. But let’s not get cranky, eh? Geddit? $4.99.

  A steampunktastic flashlight that runs for as long as you’re alive to crank it * Small silver & black flashlight fastens to your keyring or the rivets on your costume * Eat food, get energy, use energy to crank the torch, receive light! * Essential for night time safety to prevent banana-motivated muggings * Each torch bears the Dr. Timmy Seal of Approval!

This Mini Donut Maker is perfect for those dreams. You know the one, where sweet, sticky consumables contain no calories, carbs or harmful additives and can be eaten safely in large quantities. Sigh. $29.99.

 Bake delicious donuts without icky frying! Mornings will never be the same once you switch on this donut machine. It’s so easy and convenient you’ll never have an excuse not to have donuts! Makes 7 mini fresh donuts in under 4 minutes. Easy to use non-stick baking tray releases donuts instantly and make clean-up a breeze.

This Magtenlight Bicycle Lighting kit provides zero battery illumination by harnessing the power of magnetism. Just clip the magnets to the wheel, attach a rather clunky generator unit to the front forks and bingo, let there be light. The generator turns at a rate of 150 RPM when the bike is travelling at 15 km/h, but the really cool thing is the fact that the lamp keeps on shining for 4 minutes after the bike has come to a halt. Perfect for staying visible at traffic lights, eh?

 The Magtenlight Company provides a revolutionary system which powers a 15 Lux superlight white LED on the front and a double RED led on the rear, with only one frictionless power generation system, constantly on, for you to see the road and to be seen by others. A constant light is best for the approaching motorists to estimate how far and how fast the bicycle is going. The system keeps illuminating the 2 LED back light for up to 4 minutes when the bike is not moving, attracting attention even at standstill.

The iRecord Pro is a simple way of recording almost anything and cramming it onto your iPhone/iPod/Zune/Blackberry/AppleTV/PSP or PC. It can do most resolutions all the way up to SD (720×480/576) at either 25 or 30fps. You can plug almost anything into it including; turntables, VCRs, CD players, DVD players, cable box or radio. You can even leave it to record programs without you being around and it can time-shift video and radio, encode video and transcode MPEG2 into H.264, have a look here for more information. Sounds very handy. US$259.99

iRecord Pro new features include direct recording to iPhone, iPod Touch, and Blackberry, plus direct recording to a PC or Mac. All this plus new timer recordings and a remote control! You simply connect iRecord Pro to your TV, DVD player, VCR, cable/satellite set-top box or any audio source, and then press one button to record directly onto your iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, USB storage device or your computer. iRecord Pro charges your iPod while connected.

Tags: gadget, irecord+pro, video+recoder, analog+to+digital+encoder

This Flower Design Baby Monitor is what happens when webcam designers make baby monitors. The baby-end of the setup is an adjustable, clip-on, nightvision camera and microphone with a lovely flower design. It still requires AC power but it connects to the base station wirelessly over a choice of 4 channels with a range of 30m. The parent-end has a 1.5″ colour screen, speaker and an AV-Out for connection to a TV. ~US$60

This baby monitor will allow parents to see as well as hear their baby while moving around the house and is ideal for checking on the baby without waking him or her. You will have the freedom to watch TV, listen to music, entertain guests, do household chores, exercise, or sleep with the assurance that you’ll always know when your baby needs you. If the 1.5 inch screen is too small, then use the AV OUT slot to connect the monitor to a television in your bedroom or living room to spend less time worrying and more time relaxing.

Tags: gadget, chinavasion, baby+monitor, flower+design+baby+monitor, baby+monitor+with+camera

Sure, Dustbusters and other cordless mini vacuum cleaners are useful but they’re horrendously noisy and they only give you 5 minutes of vacuuming on a charge. Enter the Miele Hybrid Vacuum Cleaner (warning very painful Flash site), a home vacuum cleaner that can run on mains or battery power. The cleaner is a bag-filtered, 1,800W cleaner with a 9 levels of air cleaning, and a built-in attachment caddy around the hose base.

The lightweight Li-Ion batteries can power the vacuum for 20 minutes (it is 1,800W remember) which Miele reckon is enough to do 100 steps, 80m� or 22 small incidents. The battery recharges whenever the cleaner is plugged in, will fully recharge in 3 hours and are good for 10 years. Sounds perfect for kid-ravaged households and cleaning up the car. �770 [Via Appliancist]

The Miele Hybrid is equipped with a special engine that operates on two power sources: mains operation and battery operation. Draw with or without cable Automatic changeover without interruption of engine operation when the battery cable is disconnected with Non Stop Service

Tags: gadget, eco+gadget, hybrid, miele, hybrid+vacuum+cleaner, battery+vacuum+cleaner

Flair Hair is outrageous hair, supplied in an easy-to-apply sun-visor. There’s a few different styles and a colours and the visor is fully adjustable. Not guaranteed to make you interesting though. US$19.99

It’s not just hair when yours is not there — get stealthy with this new Camo Flair Hair visor. This fashion-forward model will keep you covered without blowing your cover. Fully adjustable.

Tags: gadget, flair+hair, fake+hair, hair+hat

Hot from the ‘oh that’s clever’ dept, comes this Digital Scale Measuring Jug, which not only measures your liquids but weighs your dry stuffs too. Gosh. In fact it’ll also measure your dry stuff and weigh your liquids (keep up at the back) which is even more awesome. It’s at times like this you realise all is well with the world. $39.95.

 A 1 1/4″ LCD on the handle displays digital measurements in ounces, pounds, or grams. The scale automatically converts weight (ounces, fluid ounces, grams, or milliliters) into volume (cups) for water, milk, oil, sugar, and flour, providing superior accuracy when making recipes. A tare function allows you to layer multiple ingredients inside the cup and measure them one at a time. The durable plastic measuring cup has markings for milliliters, ounces, and cups, it holds up to 4 cups or 1 liter, and its weight capacity is 6.6 lbs.

Think you’ve got a smartphone? Think again. This Fujitsu PRIME F-01B handset comes with…wait for it…

• 3.4 inch touchscreen
• 12.2 megapixel camera (with ISO 25600 and 28mm wide angle lens)
• Golf swing trainer (using internal sensors)
• Water resistant to a depth of 1.5 metres
• Fingerprint sensor for security
• Exercise monitor (measures calories burned during exercise)

Now *that’s* a smartphone.

 This application extracts body-motion data collected by sensors built into the mobile, uses it to analyze the arc of the user’s golf swing, and assesses and provides feedback based on the golf principles developed by professional golfer, Mr. Tadashi Ezure. It helps users improve their golf swing by comparing each new swing to the user’s previous best.

The Tomato T99 Motion Controlled DVR takes the security equipment business into completely uncharted new territory. What with the cute name, the range of cartoon colours and the type of design you’d expect to see on a consumer pocket product, this is definitely not yer granpappy’s security cam.

The thing will sit there recording VGA quality 25 fps video of its surrounding triggered by any motion in field of view until its 2 GB memory is full. Complete with auto-switch off battery saver. Oh and it’s an MP3 player too. Total flexibility. $59.99.

  Unique Designs,185*55*13.5mm Slim, 250g, the smallest shadow-controlled DV of the world,you can freely change your preferences, highlight your personality. # High-definition Camera Function. It Can take clear pictures of the mobile environment and beautiful scenery of your car window at a speed of 50 km per hour or more. This DV is convenient to carry, also is the best choice of your travel.

I guess these disposable sunglasses make sense, on some level, somewhere. They’re printed onto sellotape and you just tear off the style you want and stick them onto your face. I’m a bit late though, they’re so totally last season darling.

Since first coming together in 1995, Azumi and David have progressed through a variety of creative projects – initially with limited edition artist’s books and performance art, moving gradually on to fashion and accessory associated ‘things to wear’.

Tags: gadget, eco+gadget, disposable+sunglasses, azumi+and+david