Dan, Author at The Red Ferret Journal - Page 8 of 78The Red Ferret Journal

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…

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…

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.

Gadgets April 3, 2010 posted by Dan

Universal Portable Battery Charger – For when you need MORE power

Yeah another rechargeable, go-anywhere, rechargeable battery thing with 972 different tips. Well look again, this Universal Portable Battery Charger (CVPP-S18) is about the size of a DVD case and has a 20,000mAh rechargeable battery. It can provide power at 5/12/16 and 19 Volts up to a maximum of 74W so it should be fine for anything except high-powered laptops. It come with 8 laptop and 5 cellphone charging tips and has built-in overload and short-circuit protection. The power supply is…

Gadgets April 2, 2010 posted by Dan

Tronix Speedfire – Turns your flashgun into a studio flash

At first glance a gadget that turns your expensive, portable flashgun into a tied-down, mains-powered flashgun doesn’t sound that great, but bear with me cos this is quite cool. Modern flash guns, especially Nikon and Canon’s, are pretty darn clever and they can do double-duty as studio flashes via the nifty CLS/E-TTL wireless remote control system. However they’re battery powered so you either need a shed-load of AAs or expensive rechargeable battery packs if you want to use them in…

Fun & Games April 2, 2010 posted by Dan

Reel Marshmallow Roaster – Hand-cranked marshmallow rotisserie

There’s nothing worse than overcooking one side of the marshmallow, burning it through and letting all your hard-earned gooey goodness run out into the fire. Fear not boy scouts, the Wireless Catalog has your back with this Reel Marshmallow Roaster. It’s a telescopic fork that extends out 70cm and there’s a crank on the handle to keep the good times rolling and the ‘mallows a-toasting. US$21.95 Give it a spin, and you’ll never go back to a plain old stick…

Gadgets April 2, 2010 posted by Dan

Levana LV-TW500 Digital Wireless Baby Camera – Webcam for bubby

The Levana LV-TW500 Digital Wireless Baby Camera, is a computer-based, wireless baby monitor. The camera broadcasts wirelessly to the USB dongle attached to the PC, so you’re limited to watching bub via the computer but I guess you can always work the crops in Farmville while keeping an eye on the littlies. What’s more, you can stream the images over the internet to the relatives. US$99 from Amazon, but only ships in the US and it’s not Mac compatible. The…

Gadgets April 1, 2010 posted by Dan

Water Cooled Laptop Stand – Does fishy tech stop your laptop being fried?

I’m having trouble with this Water Cooled Laptop Stand, it doesn’t seem to make sense. On the surface it seems to be a laptop cooling stand that uses a USB pump to circulate water through a grille to keep your laptop cool. And water cooling must be better than air cooling, right? The trouble is the hot water doesn’t seem to go anywhere. The water isn’t heated, moved away from the hot laptop, cooled and returned, everything happens in the…

Gadgets April 1, 2010 posted by Dan

22 Inch Flip Down Car Monitor Player – Home theatre on the way home

Forget your dinky back-of-the-headrest DVD screens, how about an upgrade to this monster 22 Inch Flip Down Car Monitor Player with dome lights? It has a 1400 x 900 screen, two video and one audio input, works with PAL or NTSC signals and has an IR remote control. Best of all it has a built-in dome light which you’ll need, as this thing will take up some serious roof real estate, especially if little Sally and Tommy both want one….

future tech March 31, 2010 posted by Dan

Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap – Sends rodentia down the green mile

Instead of whinging and whining about designing better mousetraps, Victor Pest just sat down and did it, coming up with the Victor Multi-Kill Electronic Mouse Trap. It’s powered by four C batteries which will kill the mouse 100% dead in three seconds and then drop it through a trapdoor into an easy-to-empty dead mouse bin. The trap then resets itself for more mouse-frying functionality and it can vanquish up to 10 of them per setting. A set of batteries will…

Gadgets March 27, 2010 posted by Dan

Satellite Navigation Mat – Stops your GPS from getting lost

The suction cups marks from GPS holders on the inside of your windscreen are a dead give away that you’re packing some easily nicked hardware. This Satellite Navigation Mat might be the solution. It’s a weighted bag of beans with a panel in the middle that can be used to secure the GPS suction cup mounting. It comes in two versions, one for the iPhone (with the phone holder) and one for GPS units (holder is extra). The bag contours…

announcement March 27, 2010 posted by Dan

Earth Hour – Turn off for one hour tonight

Don’t forget people it’s Earth Hour tonight. Starts at 8:30pm at your local time. Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later and Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the, Sydney Harbour Bridge, The CN Tower in Toronto, The Golden…

Fun & Games March 26, 2010 posted by Dan

Ferrety Friday Links – now with 90% more picture love

Last week’s Ferret Friday Links went off a little early but we’ve calmed down and we’re all better this week, so off we go. In order to win an Academy Award, you’ll need to have an Academy Award winning movie trailer . “Friendly concern that a string of heightened and seemingly unrelated plots should suddenly arise…” iPad in the sky with diamonds. It’s not even out yet but the iPad has already been pimped. But that’s okay, it’s only tacky…

Gadgets March 26, 2010 posted by Dan

Smart Energy Glass – Innovative building material idea

Buildings clad in glass look fantastic, however life in a glass building is just that little bit more difficult (especially with stone throwers -Ed). In hot climates, you need adjustable blinds and air conditioning to keep it livable. In cold climes you’ve got to cover them up or all that hard-earned heat just pours out the window. Well the clever people at Peer + might have just found the solution with their, Smart Energy Glass. It looks like ordinary glass…

Gadgets March 26, 2010 posted by Dan

Suncalc – Plants plants properly

Trying to match the right plant with the right conditions in the garden can be tricky, but it’s ok, we have the technology. Stick one of these Suncalc gadgets in the ground where you want to plant, wait 12 hours and let it do it’s thing. When it’s done, one of the LEDs will tell how much sun is in that particular spot and you know what to plant there. Simple. Reusable and just US$20.99 It accurately measures the amount…

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