So both Hriders.com and Mailnation.net offer free 1 terabyte email services, eh? Hmm…clever marketing, genuine altruism or common sense ahead of its time? Your call. We have been asked why we would do such a thing. The answer is simple to help people store large amounts of information in a safe and secure environment. We live in a world where natural and un-natural events take place, that can destroy homes or offices, when that happens many people loose all of their…
Read MoreMonthly Archives: October 2005
VR Sk8trboy.
The VR Skateboard. Dogtown & Z-Boys it most certainly ain’t, but one day they’re gonna get virtual reality right, and then we’ll see how it goes. For now, just cough up $59.95 and ignore the headaches. Children steer by shifting their balance on the board base, while the virtual reality screen inside their headset translates their motions into daring maneuvers on a thrilling racecourse…The headset is wireless for complete mobility, and it delivers incredible sound effects and true-to-life, full-color, three-dimensional graphics.
Read MoreMouse manners.
The Reversible Mouse. Oh it may look like an ordinary household wireless rodent, but this one reverses to become a handheld infrared thumbstick manipulator. How’s that for flexible? And apparently in Japan, young ladies do a lot of their computing lying down in some strange reclining pose for some reason. Yeah, beats us too. Around $35.00.
Read MoreBinocular vision.
The Carl Zeiss-Jena Observation Binocular. I was so going to give this ugly green monster a miss when I happened to read the comment review from a user – ‘From my viewpoint , I have a free view of 50-60km.’ Er…60 km? That’s unbe-Peeping Tom-lievable. Anyway if you read the blurb this is the ultimate in optical marvels, only 400 ever made to secret plans and now selling for $2,299.00. Whoosh! [Thanks Jerry]. No finer optical fire control binocular/stereo rangefinder has…
Read MoreRetro headset?
The Retro Phone Headset. From Hong Kong. $20.00. Well there’s one thing you can say about our resourceful cousins in the Far East, they can knock out a cheap, tacky blue, red or yellow copy of something quicker than you can say ‘pass the injection moulding machine, Jack.’ 2.5mm jack will work with most phones (Motorola, LG, Samsung). Connection can also be made using a earphone adapter (not included). No batteries required. Includes: handset and classic curly phone cord with…
Read MoreSongs of pain and laughter…
Singing Christmas Ornaments. Yep, just what you need on Christmas morning, as you emerge bleary eyed and a little delicate after the night before. A tree full of chuffin’ plastic ornaments singing ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’. I’ll be in Botswana for the holidays, so don’t wait up. $9.99. Just clap your hands and our ornament opens his eyes and shouts, “Hey over here! Someone hung me up here in this branch, and well, now I’m just…” – his mouth starts moving while…
Read MoreGooey mail?
Goowy (re – for rich experience) gets the Ferret award for this month’s most inventive…ahem…name. Apparently it’s an online email (100MB), calendaring and contact manager service. For free. Mmm…not sure that the world needs yet another one of these shared life things. Or if it does, it really should be as uber cool as Ning, methinks. And yes, I hate myself for loving the Ning concept, because it’s going to become just so darned trendy! Shame on you Marc Andreessen….
Read MoreLeitra Velomobile.
The Leitra Velomobile. A 21st century pedal powered shopping cart. The inventor has clearly never heard of Clive Sinclair’s doomed C5! And at €3,950.00, perhaps it’s just as well. The LEITRA is a new type of non-motorized vehicle designed for commuting, shopping, distribution of light goods, recreation and touring. The international term for this type of vehicle is a velomobile. It is fast, but not designed specificly for racing.
Read MoreMapbuilder.
Mapbuilder. Create your own Google maps with location tags and everythang. And share them with the unwashed public too, if you like. Awesome example of yet more Google open-ness at work. MapBuilder lets you build your own map with number of location and generate GoogleMap source code for this map. So you will be able to paste it directly into your web page and use it with your API key requested at Google. Also there is veriety of other solutions…
Read MoreMusician’s friend.
The Superscope PSD340 dual drive CD recorder for musicians. This is one cool tool for anyone who’s into creating music. For example, the dual CD lets you listen to an album, remove the vocals, tweak the tempo or pitch non destructively, and record yourself singing or playing along direct to CD-R or R/W. Great for practice or just composing. It accepts direct input balanced mics, guitars or whatever, and has way too many features to list. It’s also got to…
Read MorePopcorn cart.
The Movie Theatre Popcorn Cart. Oh yes, I can most definitely see Mrs F. using one of these alongside the family sofa of an evening watching Star Trek – The Next Generation. No…ahem…doubt about it. $995.00 including 24 free popcorn packs and 100 buckets. Made to withstand the rigors of a theatre or commercial environment; (not to be confused with consumer-level imitations from China.) Makes 100 servings of mouthwatering popcorn/hour (four quarts every three minutes), with a taste unrivaled by…
Read MoreTV Slots.
TV Slots. Why be a sad loser after a long arduous flight to Vegas, when you can be a sad loser from the comfort of your own couch potato? Wireless infrared handset, little slot machine handle and $49.98 says you’ll never beat the house margin! This wireless Video Slots Game plugs into your TV so you can play video slots at home. 5 games with 5 bonus rounds give you a total of 30 exciting games. No software to load; no…
Read MorePedal hover.
Pedal Powered Hovercraft. Such a neat idea, but such hard work, matron! Plans available for $24.95. Pedal powered hovercrafts make great science fair projects for students and scouts as well as competition between schools and other groups. Construction is from bike parts, wood & tarp material. Both models can be broken down for easy transportation. Empty weight – 75 lbs. Payload up to 300 lbs
Read MoreNokia N91 preview
As if to atone for delaying the release of the hotly anticipated N91, the Nokia press office has been surprisingly willing to let us scrubby journalists play around with prototype models. That said, the key word here is prototype, since some of the more exotic functionality – e.g. WiFi – was missing from the product the Ferret got his hands on last week. Still, as I’ve said before, it remains a fascinating product notwithstanding, if only because of the wild promise a…
Read MorePeerflix.
Peerflix. Netflix via your peers and not the net. No, hold on. Netflix with the Net, but also the…. No, wait. List the DVDs you own and the ones you want. Others do the same. Then you swap when you want. Or something. And the Peerflix people charge you $0.99c a trade. So there. Happy? We are a peer-to-peer trading network for DVDs. It’s the new way to get the most out of the DVDs you own by trading those…
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