Monthly Archives: July 2007

Bookmark This! July 27, 2007 posted by

formatpixel – terribly arty online gallery maker

formatpixel is a terribly arty gallery service which offers lots of posh functionality so you can pose with your images and words to best effect. No garish blinking cursors here, my friend. Lots of smooth transitions, curling page turns, and luscious drop shadows. If you’ve got material worth showing off properly, then this is the place to do it, believe me. From free to £40.00 a year and putting the design back into designer.  formatpixel is an online application which…

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Gadgets July 26, 2007 posted by

Sound Studio HS668 – sound and beauty in one glorious package

The Hisonic Sound Studio HS668 hereby receives the coveted Ferret Award for the ugliest digital product of 2007. Heck and we’ll throw in 2006 as well just for the fun of it. Billed as an ‘All in One Digital Speaker System’,  it has clearly been designed for people who listen to their music in the dark. It accepts input from flash memory drives via a USB port, as well as the usual audio in sockets on the back, and the company…

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Gadgets July 26, 2007 posted by

LightCam Flashlight DVR – nightwatchman’s tour de force

The LightCam Flashlight DVR is a strange looking beast which combines an LED flashlight and a Linux powered video recorder into one ugly security product. Up to 15 fps video at 320×240 resolution, so it’s not going to get you an Oscar nomination for cinematography, but hey the most likely shot you’re going to take is some guy swinging a tire iron at your head so who needs HD? The $500 unit also sports an in-built microphone (perfect for those…

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Bookmark This! July 26, 2007 posted by

Make your own BioDiesel – cheap legal engine power on tap

Etruk offers a home biodiesel processing plant so you can make your own cheap, cleaner burning (60% less CO2) renewable fuel for your vehicles. The company also offers training to make sure you get it right. For those what don’t know, biodiesel is biodegradable and can be made from waste vegetable oil (from restaurant chip fryers for example) or animal fats etc. Apparently Volkswagen cars are able to run on 100% biodiesel as standard, which is probably because Germany is ahead of the game…

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Bookmark This! July 26, 2007 posted by

Change Advertising Forever – user generated advertising blight

Change Advertising Forever is another example of a growing number of user generated advertising services which are springing up like mushrooms (‘Folks, get your Marsha Farms mushrooms for 10% off’ at Trader Joes). These services, like Zooppa which we’ve mentioned before, and RealityAdz look set to capitalise on cheaper video equipment (‘Special offer on Panasonic AG-HVX200 prosumer HD camcorder, for this week only, see inside for details’) and the burgeoning ego of 20 somethings who think they can Do It Better!…

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Bookmark This! July 26, 2007 posted by

Chore Buster – organise essential household tasks, you hope

Chore Buster. Automatically create a chore task schedule for the family, which apportions jobs according to ‘fairness’, ‘difficulty’ and pay rates (OK we’re lying about the latter). It’s free and comes complete with a social network forum for sharing the load. If all this works for your family, please let us know because we have a church we’d like to sell you.  Organize your household chores. Does one or more of these things apply to you? * My children and/or…

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Gadgets July 25, 2007 posted by

Kaito MP3 Radio Recorder – listen, record, enjoy…

The Kaito MP3 Radio Recorder combines the best of many worlds. The world of radio. The world of a small detachable MP3 player/recorder. And the world of recording radio onto player to carry in pocket. See, it has it all. $179.95 for a 256 MB version, including 400 preset stations and a digital NOAA weather station band.  This radio has a removable MP3 player that allows you to record AM, FM, and shortwave radio broadcasts for future playback as digital…

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Fun & Games July 25, 2007 posted by

Smart Cookie – Mystic 8 Ball meets fortune cookie

Smart Cookie. Well it had to happen didn’t it? The marriage of the fortune cookie and the Mystic 8 Ball. The offspring is a plastic fortune cookie which you shake to obtain your answer. Be warned, iChing it’s not. $20.43 in Danish stuff.   “Future sweet like cookie!” That is what Smart Cookie says and Smart Cookie knows everything! The classic “Mystic 8 Ball,” meets ancient asian wisdom in the shape of a king size fortune cookie. Shake your cookie…

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Gadgets July 25, 2007 posted by

Dog Humidifier – the pooch purifier

Dog Negative Ion Ultrasonic Humidifier. This puppy – arf, at last – does a lot. Negative Ion air purifier, ultrasonic humidifier, anti-fungus water tank and…wait for it…’nanometer and antibiotic engineering plastics’. Now how could you resist that, eh?  # Auto shut off when water level is low # Advanced noise control design, quiet when operating. # 5 liter water capacity # Moisture Capacity: > 380ml/h Tags: dog+humidifier, purifier, ion

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cool tech July 25, 2007 posted by

Calc-Electric – monitor your electricity consumption using your webcam

Calc-Electric. Nick Taube has come up with a clever way to use your webcam and his software to monitor and analyse electricity consumption in your home. Just install his £5.00 program, point your camera at the nearest electricity meter and his code will give you all sorts of cool charts and figures to help you work out what is costing what. It’s also sensitive enough to identify power usage by products on standby, which is pretty bonza. The only issue I can see is that…

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cool tech July 25, 2007 posted by

Greenbox – turning vehicle exhaust fumes into fuel

The Greenbox, developed by three Welshmen, is designed to trap the noxious gases from vehicle exhausts and use them to process a biofuel made from algae. It’s a pretty clever idea although there are some logistical issues which will need to be worked out. For example, each Greenbox needs to be replaced each time you refuel the car, which could add up to quite a lot of boxes for high mileage drivers. Not to mention the logistical nightmare of collecting…

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hmm..interesting July 25, 2007 posted by

Only2Clicks – new startpage service with site snapshots

Only2Clicks is a new startpage service that is being promoted as a ‘simple’ ‘speed dial’ version of Netvibes. The idea is that you can use it to set up and store your most popular website destinations, along with screencaps and categories etc. You set it as your browser homepage and voila, an instant, easy to navigate startpage. I like the idea of appealing to the less sophisticated web crowd, and the visual benefit of a homepage full of screengrabs is obvious,…

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cool tech July 24, 2007 posted by

Pinqy Fire Extinguisher – tiny but useful anti-fire implement

Pinqy Fire Extinguisher. We’re trying to work out why you’d need a ‘discreet’ tool for putting out fires (is it because you don’t want to scare the neighbours?) but that notwithstanding, we like this product because it just feels right. A quick blast of whatever is in this 14cm tall appliance looks to be enough to smother most early stage flare ups. Which makes it a nice thing to have around for emergencies, eh? £29.95. [Via ILTLI]  With its lightweight…

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but is it art? July 24, 2007 posted by

AeroGem Aerogel Pendants – high tech jewellry for all

AeroGem Aerogel Pendants are handcrafted with stained glass, silver Titanium end caps and 3mm of Aerogel ‘the lightest material in the world’. It’s a long way from a NASA space project, and way away from the early promise of a new substance looking for a problem, but hey, you’ve got to grab your chances right? $148.00 per box of four.  Each pendant consists of a 3mm pure Aerogel core that is fused inside a hand wound helix silver casing [in…

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Gadgets July 24, 2007 posted by

Memole Pad – the ‘etch-a-sketch’ message pad

The Memole Pad seems to be a kind of re-writable message pad which is based around the venerable Etch-a-Sketch technology. Of course, since this is a Korean site we could be completely wrong, but we’re willing to take a risk. Could this type of retro tech find other uses, like note takers and the like? Probably not. $32.57 in Korean stuff. Tags: memole, etch+a+sketch, notebook

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