Fancy yourself as a bit of a search engine queen? Then you’ll need one of these Google Mini Next Generation boxes. Just plonk the thing onto your network and you’ll be able to hunt for documents with ease and dexterity. And it’s a very pretty blue colour, isn’t it? Price from £2400.00 for the 50K docs model. And no, we’re not sure what the Next Generation means, probably some geeky Star Trek reference. The same reliable results you expect from…
Read MoreMonthly Archives: August 2010
Photoscape – photo editing freeware is jam packed with features
Photoscape is a fully – and we mean fully – featured photo editing freeware program which offers slideshow, lossless image rotation, a complete editing suite, screen capture, batch processing of images and an animated gif maker. Phew! The interface is a little quirky, but still understandable and you get the usual mix of filters and effects in the editor that you’ll find in commercial products. Cool. Photoscape is a fun and easy photo editing software that enables you to fix…
Read MorePandaform – great little online form maker gives Wufoo some competition
Pandaform is a very nice online form generator which goes a few steps beyond vanilla Wufoo by offering a rudimentary payment processor for taking money from people, as well as shared databases and enhanced contact management. There’s even a nice anti-spam captcha option available. The interface is really good, and there’s a great set of ready made templates for common tasks like venue booking and product orders. If you’re in the market for a slick online form manager, this is definitely…
Read MoreNon-contact Sensors – Monitor heartbeats without touching the patient
The Electric Potential Sensors (EPS) is the world’s first electrical heart sensor that works up to one meter (3.3 feet) away from the patient. Created and successfully tested by scientists at the University of Sussex, these wideband sensors can even detect muscle signals, eye movements and brain and nerve-fiber signals. Though still a prototype, researchers are working with smart technology company PassivSystems to determine if an in-home model is feasible. There are still commercial licensing and clinical trials to be…
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Circadian Sleep System – hack your body clock
This Circadian Sleep System is an alarm clock that uses an LED light panel to tap into your natural circadian sleep rhythm. It does this in order to help you wake up more refreshed and alert (yeah good luck with that, chum) as well as help you get to sleep easier at night by dimming the panel at strategically significant intervals. And you get an MP3 player and FM radio thrown in for good measure. $249.95. Gosh. This is the clock that…
Read MoreHandy Sana 210 – the doctor in your pocket
This Handy Sana 210 is a mobile phone based healthcare system which is designed to provide ‘doctor in the pocket’ type health monitoring on tap. The Heart Suite software that comes with the system can take ECG readings, and the system also offers access to blood pressure, blood glucose and other important health indicators. The handset itself sports a 2.8 inch touchscreen, Internet browser, 1.3 camera and microSD storage, and the whole kit is tied together with a 24 hour response…
Read MoreSupra HumBuster – kill the noise on your computer A/V system
This Supra HumBuster is a Swedish box designed to remove the noise and hum from your computer audio visual components. In reality it’s something called a ground separator (or earth separator in English?) which deals with the loop currents which cause those annoying humming sounds in audio systems. Practical and useful. £99.99. Hum or noise? Sparks or wandering picture phenomena? Most likely the culprit is different grounding potentials in the items connected to each other. That creates earth loop currents, which interfere both…
Read More100 Free Open Source Design Tools
This 100 Free Open Source Design Tools list is pretty useful if you’re in the market for some bits to add to your development toolbox. Free web designs and templates, HTML editors, themes and layouts. Should be enough for just about everyone. This pervasiveness of the open source spirit in web design now means that you can use open source software to design both graphics and your CSS and HTML, and you can also use the dozens of reliable open…
Read MoreLuxury Private Jet Interiors – owned by heads of state and dictators
This set of photos of the interior of private jets owned by African dictators and other heads of state really does demonstrate something important. If only we could put our finger on it exactly. More here. Tags: luxury+private+jets, conspicuous+consumption, heads+of+state
Read More5 Eccentric Saunas – some weird hot places to chill
Five Eccentric Saunas. Proof that you don’t have to sweat it out in a boring old wooden box. I particularly like the high flying one in a Gondola. Weirdsville. When you imagine a sauna or an infrared sauna, the most common picture that comes to mind is that of a traditional sauna, which can often be found in a luxury hotel or leisure centre complex. The world of traditional and infrared saunas is expansive and as we delve deeper into…
Read MoreQuirky – crowdsourced product service showing how it’s done
We covered the online crowdsourced product development service Quirky when it launched last year, so it’s pleasing to report that it seems to be going from strength to strength. What’s interesting is not just that people are coming forward with product ideas for the crowd to vote on and promote, but the fact that the products are actually interesting and in some cases downright cool. There’s a lot of creativity out there languishing for lack of a convenient home. Check it…
Read MoreSeat Buddy – seat back iPhone cradle offers hands-free video fun
Seat Buddy is a cute little iPhone cradle which holds your phone up against a nearby seat back so you can watch and enjoy hands-free in peace. It’ll also hold your iPod Touch, and possibly any other similarly shaped /sized smartphone. I do wonder, however, whether you can ensure a quality viewing angle via strap adjustment or whether you take pot luck. Still, I like the idea a lot. $20.00. Seat Buddy holds your iPhone or iPod touch securely as it hangs…
Read MoreOlympus LS-5 Audio Recorder – the mobile sound studio
The new Olympus LS-5 Audio Recorder clearly owes a debt of gratitude to the Zoom product range, while sporting some high quality features of its own. We’re talking 24 bit sampling, WMA, MP3 and WAV recording modes, 2GB internal memory and an SD slot for up to 32GB total. Priced at £199.99. From interviews to the rich textures of nature, the Olympus LS-5 captures the whole range of sound in outstanding quality – thanks to 24bit / 96kHz sampling, high-end Linear PCM recording…
Read MoreCredit Card FM Radio – that’ll do nicely, sir…
This Credit Card FM Radio is cool. That’s all, carry on. Tags: gadget, credit+card+fm+radio
Read MoreShuffler – cool free Internet radio via music blogs
Shuffler is a brand new (in public Alpha release today) music streaming service that delivers categories of music via music blogs. Just select the music type you like (e.g. indie, hip-hop, folk etc) and you’ll be transported to a selection of music blogs via an on-screen player. They’re saying it’s like Pandora for music blogs, and we’d agree. It’s definitely a very cool idea and worth checking out. The only caveat is you should ensure you’ve got a good anti-virus…
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