April 2010 - Page 13 of 15 - The Red Ferret JournalThe Red Ferret Journal

Gadgets April 6, 2010 posted by Dan

Portable iPod PA System and Mic – Spruik, rap and entertain

Hawkers standing outside of shops with PA systems rabbiting on about nothing and telling you to come and look at their tat, are about to get worse. And this Portable iPod PA System and Mic is to blame. Not only will you be able to hear them down the street courtesy of the four microphone inputs and the built-in rechargeable battery, but when business gets slow, they can switch over to karaoke with the built-in iPod dock. Thankfully it’s 110…

Gadgets April 6, 2010 posted by Nigel

Monthly Budget Calculator – scare yourself and save money too

This Monthly Budget Calculator could be rather useful right now. Let’s face it, you’ve just dumped the Merc, pulled the kids out of the exclusive Swiss college and have decided to forego Aspen this year. Perhaps you need to get a better hold on where all the green stuff is leaking? Set your six categories, enter in expenditures (new waistcoat for butler) and gasp as you discover which addiction is costing you dearly each month. $19.98. Set your monthly limits…

Bookmark This! April 6, 2010 posted by Nigel

DIY Solar Panel – build your own cheap sunshine power station

How to Build an Electricity Producing Solar Panel. If you’ve got some time to spare, a little bit of electrical smarts, and a desire to produce some of your own power rather than rely on The Man, this is as good a place to start as any. Using cast-offs commonly found on eBay, this enterprising chap managed to build his own 60W solar panel for around $100. A couple of those should be enough to equip you with enough battery power to keep…

Gadgets April 6, 2010 posted by Dan

Vacu Vin Stainless Steel Pineapple Easy Slicer – Instant tropical holiday

I’m going to get in trouble for blogging yet another kitchen gadget, but I couldn’t go past this Vacu Vin Stainless Steel Pineapple Easy Slicer. It’s like an apple corer, but as well as coring the pineapple it also slices up the heart of the pineapple and pulls it all out in one go. What’s more you can use the empty pineapple hull as a cocktail cup. The picture above says it all. US$12.95 from Amazon. [Via] Vacu Vin’s stainless…

Free Software April 6, 2010 posted by Nigel

Spider Player – yet another free Internet radio recorder

The Spider Player freeware program is an MP3 player, Internet radio recorder and CD ripper in one. The software comes with its own in-built Net radio index of a huge number of stations, categorised by genre. Just pick your genre and station and start recording. The basic free version only records in 5 minute segments, which is enough to grab individual tracks manually, but if you want to suck down large amounts of audio, you’ll need to cough up $19.95…

Bookmark This! April 6, 2010 posted by Nigel

Stain Solutions – the stain remover search engine

We’ve all got stains right? Wine, pen, gum, marker, blood…nasty stuff stains. Fear no more. Hie thee to the Stain Solutions site, enter in your particular nasty and up will pop a state of the art solution (arf!) to the problem. The only it could do with, is a function to let people add their own suggestions, or at least a comments section under each recommendation. It’s one of those sites that one day you’ll really wish you’d bookmarked. Trust…

cool tech April 6, 2010 posted by Nigel

FooFind – the mega media file finder

FooFind is a new P2P search engine that is geared towards finding magnet links from the major file sharing sources. This makes it a) problematical to use unless you are familiar with magnet links and b) problematical to police since magnet links have no home. You may assume that this is the next step in the digital content war, so grab some popcorn, kick back and enjoy the show. foofind is a universal search engine. In foofind we work creating software…

Recommended April 6, 2010 posted by Debra Atlas

Zoomsafer – Speaks your text messages aloud for safer driving

VoiceMate mobile phone software technology, now has expanded capabilities to let drivers send and receive text messages and emails audibly while focusing on the road as well as providing the option to lock the keypad and prevent texting. The new service notifies drivers with sound when they get a text or voice message from a pre-set list of contacts. By touching a key on the phone, drivers can listen to and respond to these messages by voice alone. Zoomsafer’s available…

Bizarre April 5, 2010 posted by Nigel

Laptop Accessory Pouch – piggyback your knicknacks on your paddy shack

The new Laptop Accessory Pouch. You know your laptop screen? Bet you thought it was for reading data, right? Wrong. It’s actually there so you can Velcro a stuff bag full of goodies onto it, like cell phones, memory sticks, happy pills etc. We’re trying hard to come up with a situation where this actually makes sense, but don’t hold your breath waiting. $16.95. The new Laptop Accessory Pouch if the first carrying case designed to attach directly to the back…

Gadgets April 5, 2010 posted by Nigel

Acrylic Cowboy PC Case – your computer…naked

This Acrylic Cowboy PC Case turns it all inside out, baby. We’re talking no walls, no structure, just total freedom. Stick your components in the sockets and flaunt your stuff. Apparently it also makes for much easier vacuuming, which you’re definitely going to need, right? $157.85 in Yen stuff, and available solely where all good Japanese Otaku hang out. Just enough to hold your Motherboard (ATX and Micro ATX), your Power Supply, HDD and ODD, these Acrylic PC Case are extremely popular…

Gadgets April 5, 2010 posted by Nigel

Lap Track – the underwater lap counter and timer

The FINIS Lap Track is an underwater lap counter and timer which lets you keep track of your swimming performance in bright yellow digital. For some bizarre reason you can also keep tabs on the date, just in case you forget someone’s birthday while you’re down there, eh? It features count down as well as count up and records split time and distance. €50.50. The FINIS Lap Track does exactly that, acts as an underwater lap counter and timer –…

Bookmark This! April 5, 2010 posted by Nigel

PicPick Image Editor – cool freeware image editor comes with some very nice tools

The cool new PicPick Image Editor freeware combines a basic image tweaker with a sophisticated screen capture utility, a color picker, ruler and magnifier and a whiteboard function. It’s one of these lightweight programs that is fast to use and ever so functional, although it does need a clone brush to make it absolutely indispensable. I particularly like the opacity slider which can produce instant watermarks or other faded results, and the freehand capture means you can grab any awkward shaped parts…

Bizarre April 5, 2010 posted by Dan

CA LED Notebook Light – Stick your light where you need it

I’m not really sure what this CA LED Notebook Light is for. It’s a battery powered (not USB) LED light that sticks onto you laptop screen to provide light to type or read by. Apart from the inherent danger of sticking a suction cup to your screen, I’m currently writing this article in the dark, with nothing but my laptop screen for illumination. I can see all the non-backlit keys just fine. Anyway, the choice is yours and the damage…

Bookmark This! April 5, 2010 posted by Nigel

50 Free Photography Lessons You Should Take for Fun – grab that digital and get snapping

Strangely enough this useful list of 50 Free Photography Lessons You Should Take for Fun, contains 34 lessons, 7 video lessons and 8 cool photo tools. But hey, it’s a neat resource anyway. So grab that Nikon…Fujifilm…Polaroid and get going. Have a new camera or are ready to dust of the old one? If you haven’t taken a picture in a while, there is lots to learn. But don’t panic. You don’t’ have to re enroll in school or spend…

Gadgets April 5, 2010 posted by Dan

Guitar Tuner Clip – Hands on review with a 3-in-1 guitar tuner

Chinavasion have sent me one of these Guitar Tuner Clips (also known as a JH-30 Clip Metro Tuner) to look at. It’s a clever little number that can clip onto the guitar neck and puts the display right where you need it. It also gives you a choice of tuning modes, using either a microphone or via a vibration sensitive clip. Here’s what I thought of it.

Monthly Archives: April 2010