I like simple things that just work and I’m loving Hit Me Later. A simple email rescheduling service that allows you to deal with emails when you feel like it. Simply forward an email to their address and preface it with the number of hours in the future or following day of the week that you would like receive it. That’s how simple it is. Everything is routed via their secure server and so no one will ever read the…
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Belgian company United Pepper make a couple of cute and “ethical” computer peripherals, the Lili webcam and the Oscar USB hub. United Pepper are attempting to deliver quality technology without sacrificing environmental or ethical principals and supporting local manufacturers in developing countries. Lili and Oscar were designed in Belgium but are manufactured in Vietnam. They are assembled in a Fairtrade certified factory where the local population can work in safe and hygienic conditions while being paid a fair wage. Fairtrade…
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This is a Micro-Jet and it may look like one of those ordinary butane powered torch thingies, and well it is, but with a twist. As well as having a waterproof piezo-electric starter (with safety catch) and a windproof flame, the best bit is you can use pretty much any standard cigarette lighter to fuel it. That’s right, inside that handle is a bog-standard, ordinary/everyday, butane cigarette lighter. The tiny flame burns at around 1,300�C (2,400�F) and is perfect for…
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Crosley have been a frequent visitor to the Red Ferret, but they keep making such great stuff so we can’t help but bring them back! This is the Solo, a high-tech, retro themed AM/FM radio. It’s got a 3″ speaker on top, oversized analogue tuning dial and frequency display, auxiliary input for your mp3 player, auxiliary output and a headphone socket. Its best feature however, has to be its acoustic consistency … Regardless of its placement in a room, the…
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Unless you’ve been living on the sun, chances are you’ve noticed that the traditional news media is being dragged kicking and screaming into a new age. News is being gathered via people on the ground via text messages and mobile phone photos. Events like the London tube bombings, the recent cyclone in Burma and the New York steam explosion are bringing readers much closer to the event than was ever possible before. Instablogs is a news aggregation website that combines…
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Work got you down? Need a little pick-me-up? Then grab some of these rainbow colour spectrum wallpapers compiled by design blog Hongkiat. If your desktop wallpaper is looking a bit dull, perhaps it’s time to add a little spice, make it something more cheerful. Here’s some really Impressive Colour Spectrum and Rainbow Wallpapers we’ve found. We find it not only inspires, also brighten up the desktop. Tags: computer+wallpaper, rainbow+wallpaper
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If you’re offended by the Gracenote music machine being bought by Sony, then a quick Google for “gracenote alternative” brings up a clever bunch of people called MusicBrainz. They make a piece of music tagging freeware called Picard, the so-called Next Generation music tagger. Picard is different in that it looks at your songs holistically instead of individually and chases down and applies album information based on your music. Simply point Picard at your the music library and in less…
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Strapping children into boiling hot car seats in summer is not a great idea. So a Texas mum mom has come up with the Cold Seat to prevent her littlies from sublimating minutes after they’ve been put into the car. The Cold Seat is filled with sealed liquid pouches that can be removed from the car seat and stored in the freezer. When the time comes to pop junior in the hot car, you whip the pouches out of the…
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I love VoIP but I loathe the whole talking in a microphone-on-a-stick while having the person I’m talking to blast through the speakers at everyone in the room, thing. Why can’t we make VoIP phone calls the way grandma used to make them, with a handset and a nice conversation between two people? Well, with the Eutectics Internet Power Phone 200, you can have your VoIP and eat it too. Just plug the USB handset into your PC, attach the…
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Nigel blogged about the Tritton SEE2 USB-to-VGA a couple of years ago, but the Tritton people haven’t been standing around since then. They’ve just released the SEE2 Xtreme USB-to-DVI video adapter and they’ve added Mac OS X compatibility. The Xtreme allows people to add multiple displays to their desktop or notebook even if their video card doesn’t support extra screens. The Xtreme provides resolutions of up to 1920 � 1200 in DVI or VGA with 16 bit colour. If you…
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The Motor Clock is an alarm clock with a difference and I’m not just talking about style. Built into it’s handsome, faux instrument-cluster exterior is a selection of alarm sounds including a V8 muscle car, a turbo charged engine, V-twin motorcycle and my fave, the door ajar alarm. It’s also got an external temperature sensor with a wireless sensor so you know when not to get out of bed, a digital barometer, 9V battery backup and a dimmer button. Oh…
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MakeInstantPlayer is a simple, codec-free, media file creator for distributing video files. MakeInstantPlayer wraps the video file with a playback program called MPlayer and a splash screen if you wish, into a single executable .exe file. MPlayer will be familiar to anyone who has used the indomitable VLC media player in that it just works. Throw any media file at MPlayer (except Real and WMV9) and it will either play it or not, no codec hunting required, just run the…
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Picasa 3 beta has just been released by the Google machine and it’s looking pretty darn good. If you’ve never used Picasa then do yourself a favour and give it a try. As well as having a pretty advanced bunch of photo fixing tools, Picasa keeps your entire photo collection at your fingertips by scanning and organising all the photos on your hard drive or network with just a mouse click. Picasa 3 goes even further with a bunch of…
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Wow, I bet you’ve never seen one of these before, it’s an ATM piggy bank! Really? Everywhere you say? Well do you have to use a keycard with a PIN to get your money out? Ok, well does yours keep a running total every time you deposit money so you always know how much is in your account? Hmm, does it let you deposit coins and notes? Ok ok. Well this one has a little sign that says “OPEN” and…
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I don’t usually call inanimate objects pretty but one look at the Eclipse 400 and I was hooked. This must be one of the prettiest planes I’ve seen for quite a while and I’m not really a plane person. Designed by Eclipse Aviation as a business/sport plane, the Eclipse 400 is a single engine, V-tail jet aircraft. The things is, it’s a sports plane so it’s not very big. In fact it can only carry 3 people plus the driver…
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