Monthly Archives: April 2010

cool tech April 28, 2010 posted by

DIY Star Trek Phaser Kit – …set to stun, Mr McCoy

This DIY Star Trek Phaser Kit takes some beating. Actually it’s the Klingons that really need the beating, but that’s entirely another matter. Priced at expensive (and you’ll need your own laser thingy).  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S71mPJ0F0Q Tags: diy+star+trek+phaser+kit, gadget

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Eco Friendly April 27, 2010 posted by

LED Kerosene Lantern – retro lighting swings gently in the breeze

This LED Kerosene Lantern combines all the olde worlde charm of a smelly paraffin lamp, with the clean, eco-lovely of an LED light fixture. Your friends will be amazed when you change batteries and don’t come back smelling of dead dinosaurs. And hey, you’ll get 60 hours of light from 2 AA cells, which has gotta be a bargain. £17.95.  Equipped with everything: A glass tilting mechanism, an air vent, guard wire. Yet instead of having to deal with smelly…

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Gadgets April 27, 2010 posted by

Boss VE-20 Vocal Performer – the ultimate two-timing product

Sometimes a product comes along which is so darn good, it transcends markets completely. One such is the Boss VE-20 Vocal Performer, on the face of it a pretty cool vocal stomp box, which gives your average singer an extremely affordable way to add harmonies, pitch correction, auto-tune and groovy effects to their live performance. And at just about $249.00 a pop, a veritable bargain. But what’s this? Over here in the spy/security market corner? Why it’s the Professional Voice Changer, an ‘entirely new generation…

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Gadgets April 27, 2010 posted by

Android Interface – beware the small print people…

Interesting little note for those adventurers among you who fancy picking up a cheap unlocked Chinese mobile phone. There’s a new trend springing up which involves labelling phones as ‘Google Android Interface’. These are not Android handsets, they are typically phones with an Asian operating system installed – like this SciPhone G15 – which have an Android skin bolted on to make them look and feel like the Google standard. No app support or anything like that. Caveat emptor, peeps,…

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Free Software April 27, 2010 posted by

Fresh Diagnose – lovely little system analysis and benchmarking freeware

Fresh Diagnose is a superb little free system analysis and benchmarking program which offers you just about every data point you are ever going to need. The interface is beautifully simple, and the wealth of information you can access is staggering. It’s the benchmarking which will be favourite with most people though, and boy you can certainly test stuff galore. You need to register to use the benchmarking functionality, but it’s free. Although I have to say that the developers are really…

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Awesome April 27, 2010 posted by

Spotify Next Generation – super music system gets major upgrade

Spotify Next Generation is a major upgrade of the most awesome Spotify music streaming service. What’s new? Well you can use the program as a free library for one thing. That means you can add your own ripped and stored music tracks into the Spotify playlist manager, which is awesome, especially if you find you’re missing some tracks from your favourite. There’s also lots of social networking stuff with Facebook sharing, and a friend to friend track sharing feature which sounds like fun. You can find…

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shanzhai April 27, 2010 posted by

EKEN M001 7-inch MID – an Android tablet for $99?

Today I spotted this cool looking EKEN M001 7″ Android MID, although really the best part was the price, at around US$99 (RMB 680), which was a bit of a surprise. It seems to be aimed at the Western market as the instructions on the package are written in English and the case is similar to a normal e-book, although it is not made with the same quality material. But after all, you get what you pay for. According to…

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EKEN M001 7-inch MID – an Android tablet for $99?
Bookmark This! April 27, 2010 posted by

Video Toolbox – video editing makes an ambitious move online

Video Toolbox is a new online service which aims to provide the kind of sophisticated video editing that usually comes with standalone programs on your computer. When I say sophisticated I don’t mean full on audio editing, transitions and the like, but cut/split, demux, format convert, etc, which is still a pretty ambitious toolbox to move online. So does it work? Well kinda. The interface is great for all you lovers of black backgrounds with white text, for the rest…

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Gadgets April 27, 2010 posted by

LavNav – Prevents little accidents

The LavNav is a motion-sensitive (groan) toilet light that switches on as you approach, and letting you know instantly whether the seat is up or down, no matter how bleary-eyed or hung over you are. It attaches to the underside of the toilet lid and can detect whether the seat is up or down. Red means stop! and think about what you’re about to do. Green means Go, but carefully. Here, it’s all been cleverly summarised in this little animation….

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LavNav – Prevents little accidents
Gadgets April 27, 2010 posted by

Nokia N8 – the best Nokia mobile phone ever? But too late?

So the Nokia N8 has just been announced by the Finnish mobile phone giant, and it looks to be a real doozy, with an awesome specification which will stand alongside any handset in the world. Think 3.5 inch capacitive touchscreen, 16GB mass storage plus microSD support, FM radio and FM transmitter for beaming to nearby radios, 12 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera with Xenon flash and HD video, WiFi n, Dolby surround sound and HDMI video output (!) for external TVs, free…

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Gadgets April 27, 2010 posted by

Action Level Cross – High tech camera leveller

For decades hundreds thousands of years people have been using spirit levels, but they have a problem, they don’t contain enough technology. Instead of using this, you can now use the Action Level Cross (Warning: Bizarre website that needs IE). Instead of always-on, always-ready old-school technology you can have press-a-button-and-wait-two-seconds technology, which requires batteries, and a manual, and is probably hard to see in bright sunlight. If you still want one, they’re �44.95 from Amazon UK A multifunctional and clever…

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Action Level Cross – High tech camera leveller
Gadgets April 26, 2010 posted by

Grace Allegro Portable WiFi Radio – battery powered Internet comes to your radio

This Grace Allegro Portable WiFi Radio delivers Pandora, Live365 and the whole 50,000 Internet radio list from a small box and 6 AA batteries. It’s even got an internal charger if you want to use AA rechargeable cells. Also features 5 presets, a remote control and a full functioning alarm clock which copes with weekdays or weekends. Useful. $169.99.  The Allegro Wi-Fi radio rocks your house and backyard with a built in class D digital amplifier and rear ported full…

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Fun & Games April 26, 2010 posted by

Rockin’ Bowl-O-Rama – the ultimate bowling arcade console

This Rockin’ Bowl-o-Rama is actually not that new, but it definitely looks like fun. Not only do you get to play bowling alleys in your living room, but you get the full 1950’s arcade music to top off the whole nostalgia atmosphere thing. Supports up to 4 players and six game types. Party on. $3495.00.  Rock and roll with trick shots, slow motion instant replays and 30 of your favorite hit songs from the 50s. With a sleek, retro design,…

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cool tech April 26, 2010 posted by

Mini DV80 – Motion sensitive video camera and DVR

This Mini DV80 is a motion sensitive camera and video recorder. Designed as a static surveillance camera or as a driving camera, it records to .avi, supports up to 32GB microSD cards and runs for 4 hours on the internal battery, or 10 hours on standby. Once it’s on, anything moving in front of the camera will start it recording. It comes with a mount and suction cup so you can put it anywhere including a car dashboard. The camera…

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Mini DV80 – Motion sensitive video camera and DVR