The Studley Toolchest was crafted over a 30 year period by Henry Studley of Poole Piano Co of Quincy, Massachusetts. As an example of the lost art of the master craftsman we think it can’t be beat. What tool kit will they parade in 2030 as a similar example? A mobile phone repair kit? The workmanship leaps out doesn’t it? It’s made of mostly scrap pieces of ebony, ivory, rosewood and mahogany and houses around 300 of the tools he used in the…
Read MoreMonthly Archives: January 2009
Speed Vest – share your speed, cycle safe
Speed Vest is a cool concept product to help cyclists stay alive at night (or maybe even during the day). The vest hooks up to a sensor on the front wheel and displays a large readout of the cyclist’s speed so motorists can make decisions based on fact rather than their suspect judgement. OK, so they’re not claiming any dramatic safety improvements, but it seems fairly logical that it should help. I suspect it could also be a bit of…
Read MoreSchwinn Tailwind – next gen electric bike recharges during a quick cup of tea
The new Schwinn Tailwind electric bicycle may look fairly ordinary but it sports a couple of standout features. For a start it comes with a special Toshiba ‘Super Charge ion’ battery which promises a world leading 30 minute recharge from a standard outlet – and a fast charge in a blistering 7 minutes! – as well as a guaranteed lifecycle of more than 2000 charges. The company actually expect the battery to last for more than double that number, which is outstanding compared with…
Read MorePalm Pre – the secret behind that flashy interface…
The new Palm Pre has been getting some big love from the media since its launch at the CES show, with some good early coverage online already. I thought I’d have a little sniff around too, to see whether it’s really as ground-breaking as everyone is saying, and I did discover something interesting. The thing that’s wowed most people about the handset is the interface, with things like multiple live windows running on screen for each program running in the background. It…
Read MoreFreeLanguageTranslator – because we all just need to get along
Here’s the deal. You can never ever have too many free language translation programs on your computer. It’s a fact. This particular version, The FreeLanguageTranslator, offers a basic but easy to use front end interface to Google translate. Cut and paste your text into the box, select from the large list of Google listed languages (or use Auto-Detect) and press Translate. You can set up custom dictionaries and there’s a translation accuracy bar along the bottom of the results to…
Read MoreLolligift – collaborative gift giving done nicely
Lolligift is one of those ‘why didn’t I think of that’ services which takes the pain out of one simple task – in this case collective gift giving – in a clever and easy to use way. The idea is you set up a gift ‘event’ (say for a colleague who’s leaving the company or a birthday etc), enter in the details of the recipient, dates, proposed gift etc, and the service then does all the collaborative stuff like emailing…
Read MoreWindows 7 beta – hmm….not bad at first glance
Hmm…I’ve been playing with the new beta of Windows 7 on an aging Toshiba Tecra I’ve got lying around and so far…quite impressed. It’s certainly as snappy, perhaps…gasp…even snappier than XP was on the same machine. Plus the interface looks to be much simplified, it doesn’t seem to come with the same level of security paranoia bloat as Vista, and gosh it hasn’t crashed yet. The install was pretty painless, with just one glitch post install when an auto update reset the…
Read MorePulselite – or how to reduce bird strike risks for your aircraft
Apparently one of these Pulselite boxes, which turn standard aircraft landing, taxi and recognition lights into flashing lights could help reduce bird strikes by some 50%. Just retrofit the box to a plane and thereafter it will flash the lights 46 times a minute in a variety of patterns. The result is to increase visibility of said craft to all airborne entities. Which would be useful, no? Around $1395.00 or so. [oh and congrats to the pilot, crew and passengers]. Pulsing the landing lights enhances the…
Read MoreEnso Clock – your yoga, your time…
The Enso Clock is an alarm clock with interval and countdown timers which is designed to make your yoga go with a swing. The idea is you meditate in peace knowing that sooner or later a discreet and harmonious gong sound (or beep if you prefer) will tell you it’s time to head off to your job at the abattoir. Hmm…that didn’t come out quite right. $99.00. The Enso Clock began with a ground-up conceptualization and design for a new…
Read MoreQuickfinder Deluxe Pet Nail Clippers – no more clumsy clipping and angry snarls
The Quickfinder Deluxe Pet Nail Clippers are designed to help you clip your dog’s nails without hitting the quick and causing pain. The clippers have a battery powered sensor inside which detects the right place to snip and displays a green light when it’s safe to go ahead. Sounds like a pretty good idea to us. $79.95. More here. This is the only nail clipper that takes the guesswork and trauma out of trimming your pet’s nails by sensing the correct cutting…
Read MoreAcoustibuds Earphone Adapters – better sound and a better fit from your earbuds
Acoustibuds Earphone Adapters are small add-on thingies made of ‘hypoallergenic silicone rubber’ which help your earphones stay comfortably in your ear and deliver better sound quality. The secret is in the teeny fins which nestle inside your aural cavities. Or something. They’re also being marketed for active sporty types and apparently they do work, at least according to this off-the-cuff review. I’ve got to say that my tiny ears have a lot of trouble with earphones falling out and slipping…
Read MoreDehydrated Water – just add…
Dehydrated Water capsules are the perfect gift for all the sad dry people in your life. Help them get a little less parched, a little wetter. They’ll thank you for it! $9.95. For over a decade, people from around the entire world have experienced the great benefits of our dehydrated water products. Now, through the advent of a sophisticated nanotechnological invention, we are able to provide you with our world famous product inside a tiny, little capsule. We believe you…
Read MoreBoxee – the world’s best media manager. Period
I’ve been Alpha testing the new free open source Boxee for Windows media manager and the more I play with it, the more impressed I get. At first glance it’s just another media center software clone, kinda like MythTV, Tvoon and Front Row (here’s an excellent list of media center software) but dig a little deeper and some awesome features start to jump out at you. The first thing to note is the 10 foot interface. Sure most of the better media manager programs…
Read MoreTiltshiftmaker – transform your photos into tilt-shift style miniatures
Tiltshiftmaker dot com is a cool online service which lets you convert your boring old holiday snaps into tilt-shift type images. You know, so they look like photos of tiny models. It’s all about focus and stuff, but you don’t need to know all that. Just upload your shot, select the focus area (you may need to play around to get the best setting) and presto, one manipulated image. Klever. What are tilt-shift style photos? Tilt-shift miniature style photos are…
Read MoreThe Red Ferret shoots, scores – more top ranking love…
Ooh look, the Red Ferret is now No 6 in the Wikio list of most influential tech blogs in the UK. Wow… We’d like to thank our mothers, the cast and crew, all those who helped us on location… Tags: wikio+influential+blogs+in+UK, red+ferret
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