I noticed a while back that my laptop was running a hard disk temperature of around 56 degrees centrigrade plus. Actually the only reason I noticed was because of installing HD Tune which immediately flashed up a warning. Since then I’ve been on a mission to cool things down, even to the extent of buying a very pink and plastic cooler with a fan. It’s helped, but I’m still plagued with over-heating if I travel with the machine, which is tres annoying….
Read MoreMonthly Archives: April 2009
Tagball – the indoor paintball simulator
The Tagball Indoor Paintball Simulator shoots tiny velcro style ammo balls which will leave you looking clingy rather than splattered. Some would say that’s a good thing, and who are we to argue? It’s rubber band powered too, so you could say it’s sort of eco novelty fun tech, if that’s your bag. Comes with a handy target if there are no people from payroll available. $29.99. Get two and turn the cube farm into your own private military proving grounds. Or…setup some…
Read MoreSunnan Solar Desklamps – eco green-ness arrives in the home
These Sunnan Solar Powered Desklamps come in a range of bright, cheery, IKEA style colours and are remarkable if only to show that green tech is now sufficiently mainstream to hit the shelves in Sweden’s second greatest export. The first being, of course, meatballs. Charges up in 12 hours, gives 4 hours light. $19.99. Recharging time is 9-12 hours in sunlight, but over 12 hours on a cloudy day. When the battery is fully charged, the product will give shine…
Read MoreProPrompter for iPhone – the ultimate mobile teleprompter
Turn your iPhone into a super convenient portable teleprompter with the ProPrompter for iPhone software. You’ll probably need to buy the ‘Wing’ bracket to hold your phone, unless you’ve got a friend handy, but just think of the cred as you come across all anchor person in the video. “And now a special report from our foreign desk…” Use your iPhone or iPod touch as a professional teleprompter for ultimate mobility! For field reporting, corporate video, commercials, video podcasting and…
Read MoreAcoustibuds – hands on with this brilliant earphone revolution
We featured Acoustibuds on the Ferret a few weeks back, and the PR company offered to send me a set to try out properly. To refresh your memory, they are adapters which you slide over your existing earphone ends to improve the sound and comfort. So, do they work? Well let’s put it this way, if you’ve been fretting about the random sound quality, uncomfortable fit and constant adjustment needed with your current set of earphones, run…don’t walk…to your nearest…
Read MorexPUD – ultra fast booting Linux on a stick
xPUD is an ultra small Linux distro which features a web browser, media player and a simple kiosk-like interface. It boots up in around 10 seconds and weighs in at a paltry 48MB. Put it on your USB key, netbook, or wherever you want to Linux your life. Cool. It’s fast, on average booting within 10 seconds (demo on YouTube), and it’s small, too. Weighing in at under 48MB, yet it still remains binary compatible with most major Linux distributions…
Read MoreNanocrowd – crowdsourced movie recomendations
Nanocrowd is a new crowd powered movie finding service which looks very cool indeed. Enter in your favourite film, and the service will give you a choice of similar titles to watch. The key feature of the service lies in the way they link the movies together, they basically trawl the web for user comments, abstract the key words and use them to build a ratings system to lump titles together in similar groups. What makes this a service to watch,…
Read MoreRoad Pilot microGo Speed Camera Alert – world’s smallest GPS warning system
The Road Pilot microGo GPS Camera Warning System is billed as the world’s smallest ‘plug and go’ GPS warning system, and is designed to sound an alert when you’re close to roadside speed cameras. We’re not really down with the idea of stupid spurt driving in between cameras, but maybe this kind of thing could encourage better driving in general? Wishful thinking? £49.99. The world”s smallest ”plug and go” GPS speed warning system # Comes ready loaded with RoadPilot”s database of…
Read MorePhase One 645 – digital and film camera combo for dithering dudes
The Phase One 645 Camera is a component based high end medium format camera system that offers the best of all worlds. Need film? No problem. Digital beckoning? Solved. You can slap on a choice of digital backs up to 60.5 megapixels in resolution, and it accepts Mamiya lenses. Around $5000.00. The camera platform answers the calls of professional photographers or a modular system that offers unprecedented feature combinations and most significantly the freedom to choose individual components rom an open…
Read MoreCeiling Fan Remote Control – sort your environment out at the push of a button
This Ceiling Fan Remote Control and Thermostat gives you ultimate control over your…ah…ceiling fan. You know, to make it spin faster or slower? Actually it’s a bit smarter than that – thank goodness eh? – because it works alongside the thermostat to speed up the fan if things get a bit hot, and vice versa. Swish, swish. $69.99. The Thermostatic Ceiling Fan and Light Remote Control System is a great alternative to an air conditioner as a way to keep a specific…
Read MoreYoono – socialize your browser
Yoono is a free Firefox add-on which lets you collect all your instant messaging and social network services to the browser in one handy window. You can also add Twitter, Facebook and mySpace as well, which really does mean you’ll stay in touch. You won’t get a stroke of work done, probably get fired and have to sell the kids, but at least you’ll stay in touch with your mates eh? Check it out (at your peril). Oh…and expect advertising….
Read MoreWorldNews – addictive global newscasts pushed to your browser
WorldNews is a new and rather addictive global news delivery service which automatically pushes news headlines from the major wire services to your browser using Microsoft’s Silverlight tech. It’s not real time, there’s a 2 hour lag for some reason, but apart from that it’s a really interesting experiment in how to make news more accessible to the web crowd. If they could integrate this with a Twitter news feed it could be a really valuable tool. For now it’s a little limited in the headlines that are…
Read MoreGrooveshark – the incredible morphing music service
What a difference a couple of years make. When we first reported on it back in 2007, Grooveshark was a hybrid P2P and pay per download music service. Now they’ve added a slick looking streaming service which makes use of all that nice music in a Pandora type model. It’s a nice new feature, although we still love the majestic Spotify, and this is a very crowded space right now. Nevertheless they’ve done it well, and deserve top marks for proving that…
Read MoreNikon D5000 – digital SLR with swivelly bits
In a move that has surprised no one, Nikon has once again proved to be the master of the controlled information leak (or really bad at keeping secrets) with the release of the D5000 entry-level digital SLR. Momentum has been been slowly building over the last couple of weeks culminating with a far-from-secret film shoot. Naturally this kind of thing ends up on the internet and the photophiles get all aflutter with anticipation and each new model generating more and…
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DIY Truth Wristband Kit – the liar liar geek out kit
The DIY Truth Wristband Kit will seriously make you the coolest geek in your neighbourhood. No really. Just strap it on, attach the galvanic skin response strap to your finger and you’ll be good to go. “Do you like smoking Smarties”… “Are you now, or have you ever been, a Klingon speaker?”… “Tetris or Pong?”. Yep, absolutely the must have project for the summer. Dull Video. $44.95. [Via] A wearable device that dynamically reflects your psycho-emotional response to the…
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