Monthly Archives: September 2008

Awesome September 25, 2008 posted by

Google 10 to the 100th Project – maximum good for the greater benefit

The new Google 10 to the 100th Project is a great crowdsourcing idea from the search giant. The project is a ‘call for ideas to change the world’. All you have to do is come up with a great idea for helping as many people as possible, and if it gets enough votes, you could receive funding and support to make it all happen. There’s $10 million up for grabs (no, not $700 billion, Frank). Here’s the form for you to fill out. Good…

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Awesome September 25, 2008 posted by

Ponoko Photomake – if you can shoot it, they can produce it for sale

The clever pholks at Ponoko have come up with Ponoko Photomake, which is a new addition to their clever online craft factory. So now you can draw whatever you want to produce, take and upload a digital photo and their 3D laser cutters will produce your product in quickee snappee time. You’re limited by materials and cutter capabilities of course, which is why jewelry and small toys predominate at the moment, but can’t you just see this a few years down…

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Gadgets September 25, 2008 posted by

Smart Candle – waxing-free zone

Battery powered faux candles have been around for years, but Smart Candle has taken the idea a couple of steps further. Primarily aimed at businesses that use large numbers of candles every day, Smart Candle make a range of rechargeable candles for decorative use. For businesses the cost of decorative candles start to add up, especially if you burn hundreds of them a year. When you add on damage to things from wax spills and burns, then something like the…

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Smart Candle – waxing-free zone
Gadgets September 24, 2008 posted by

I-MU Vibro Speaker – turn your flat bits into a speaker

The I-MU Vibro Speaker promises to turn your desktop into a massive 300W power speaker bass woofer megatron. Or your money back. Or something. No wait, it says its ‘patented super-energy crystals’ can turn hard flat surfaces into external speakers for your iPod or other music players. Sorry got that wrong. Anyhoo, from the look of the video, it works best with nasty cheap veneer covered office desk type furniture, so that might be something you’ll want to bear in mind before…

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Gadgets September 24, 2008 posted by

USB Multi-Cellular Phone Charger – out of many, one power…

This USB Multi-Cellular Phone Charger attempts to do things a little differently by embedding all the different plug endings in one blob of plastic, rather than attaching them to cables. Does it work? Mmm…possibly if you don’t mind carrying around something that looks like an alien toilet accessory from Zebulon V. $18.00.  USB Multi-Cellular Phone Charger can charge the most common cellular phones in the market – Motorola, Sony Ericsson and Nokia etc. Convenience to travel. Tags: usb+multi-cellular+charger, gadget, mobile+phone

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Bookmark This! September 24, 2008 posted by

Koloroo – the colour scheme finder

Strictly speaking the Koloroo colour scheme editor is not freeware so much as ‘careware’. Before you download it, you must agree to do something nice for someone. I kinda like it. They claim over 100 million color scheme possibilities, via the six main theories. That should be enough, eh?  Simply drag your cursor over the color wheel and watch as complete color schemes are generated and displayed in real-time. You can refine your color selection with the hue, saturation, and brightness…

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Bookmark This! September 24, 2008 posted by

Joost goes Flash – player download banished to the land of never-never

Whoo, so Joost has finally turned the corner and ditched that clunky downloaded player in favour of a complete Flash online experience eh? Well shiver me timbers and all that. All you need to do now is download a small browser plugin and you’re good to go. The good news? The video quality seems to have survived the transition nicely, and what’s more they’re making efforts to freshen up the content a little. Yay! The bad news? The interface has…

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Gadgets September 23, 2008 posted by

USB Gift Set for Ladies – pink and patronising, what could be better?

The USB Gift Set for Ladies contains a USB mini vacuum cleaner, fan, a lighted mirror, a mood light pen holder and USB hub. All done out in lovely pink. Just to make sure you realise that it’s not for Real Men. Of course RM ™ would not be seen dead with a lighted mirror. Pink or not. $29.50.  USB Gift Set For Ladies includes a USB Mini Vacuum Cleaner, a USB Fan, a USB Lighted Mirror and a USB…

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cool tech September 23, 2008 posted by

SunDanzer Solar Fridge – getting cool from hot

The SunDanzer Solar Refrigerator feature a refrigeration unit which has been optimised for solar power. Basically we’re talking a very low power consumption fridge which will happily run off the power from a single 85 watt solar panel. It’s also a decent sized compartment, with the 8 cu foot version available for around $1000.00 or so. Yes, you will need a solar panel as well and some batteries if you want to keep stuff fresh overnight, so budget in another $1000 for…

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Bookmark This! September 23, 2008 posted by

Splits and joins – a couple of small multimedia tools to make life easier

Not sure about you, but I quite often find myself needing to join and/or split up audio and video material, and so I’m glad I’ve found these freeware tools to help me do it quickly and easily. AVSplit. Let’s you cut and join up .avi and DivX video files. You can also clip (trim) a video and everything is done with minimal loss of video quality and without bloating the resultant file sizes. Shuangs Audio Joiner. Nice small tool for…

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Bookmark This! September 23, 2008 posted by

Favtape – Muxtape on steroids…

OK, so Favtape is not exactly original but it follows on from Muxtape with style. And bags of features. Yes it’s all about creating online mixtapes (aka playlists) for people to listen to, but there’s more to it than that. The developers have managed to throw in a fair few start page features like a Top 100 iTunes chart, a greatest artists list, full search and links with Twitter. There’s also a best song of each year, which is a cool…

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Gadgets September 22, 2008 posted by

Cordless Spy Glasses – built in camera recorder all in one rig for ultimate discretion

These Cordless Spy Glasses are different because they come with the whole camera/recorder unit built in. No separate units, cables and the like. This means ultimate discretion as you film your way onto the integral MicroSD card. You’ll get 320×240 video at 30 fps, with is enough to give a good show of your antics later on. $186.00 buys you the fun and frolics.   Cordless Eyewear Spy Camera # Polaroid Lens # The smallest hidden camera # Microswitch controls for easy operation # Built-in…

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Gadgets September 22, 2008 posted by

Firewire to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable – connect your camcorder to your USB port

The Pixela Firewire to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable is designed to let you transfer footage from your Firewire enabled camcorder to your USB only laptop or desktop computer. It’s strictly for video transfer, and comes with Imagemixer software for video editing. $119.00.  Pixela’s new IEEE1394 to USB 2.0 DV Transfer Cable uses patented micro chip technology within the cable itself to transfer data from a IEEE 1394 firewire to USB 2.0. connection. Tags: gadget, firewire+to+usb+2.0+cable, dv+camcorder+transfer

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Free Software September 22, 2008 posted by

FormatFactory – multifunction media converter

FormatFactory is a freeware media converter, rather like Super. But I prefer this interface, and if anything it works better and faster than Super. I tried a conversion from a VOB video file to avi in low web friendly format and it came out with excellent quality and a nice file size. It includes a DVD ripper for backing up your discs, and has a video and audio repair feature which is nice. Trendy adopters will be pleased to see iPhone…

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Bookmark This! September 22, 2008 posted by

Oosah – 1 TB of free multimedia file space for everyone

Oosah offers 1 terabyte of free storage for multimedia files. If you need more you’ll have to pay. Riight. Anyway the service provides a nice file and folder motif interface, which is just about perfect in terms of ease of use, which is nice. File uploading is slow unfortunately, but it is still in beta, and once your files are up you can share them by linking, embedding or podcasts. Nice. You’re limited to 250MB a file, but that should be…

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