Nigel

Awesome July 21, 2020 posted by Nigel

Proteus – new un-cuttable material promises to make bike thefts a thing of the past

Bicycle theft is big business. Thanks to the easy availability of tools like battery power angle grinders, even the most carefully secured bike can be stolen in minutes. Now, thanks to Proteus, a new material developed in the U.K. and Europe, these cut and grab days may be over for good. The team behind the new wonder material have shown that while a 10mm military grade armoured steel plate could be cut through by an angle grinder in 20 seconds,…

future tech July 19, 2020 posted by Nigel

The terrifying promise of GPT-3 AI – software’s Manhattan Project?

We’ve been threatened with Artificial Intelligence for decades now, but we’ve just seen the release of something which looks totally terrifying and yet inevitable. The good folk at OPENAI – an open source organisation dedicated to keeping AI development transparent, and featuring supporters such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel – have just privately released the GPT-3 API to selected people. OK, geeks. The terrifying bit is how good this stuff is now. You remember all the furore about DeepFake…

Eco Friendly February 13, 2019 posted by Nigel

New Wash – Forget the shampoo and go totally natural clean

If you’re trying to go properly green and eco, you’ll know that one of the most difficult things to drop is the less than earth friendly shampoo stuff. Sure there are options which don’t involve strange ingredients and horse hair. But for the most part we’ve been stuck with chemically enhanced products only. Until now.

Gadgets February 12, 2019 posted by Nigel

The Tubless Dog Bath – all the fun, none of the mess. Maybe.

Who doesn’t love washing the dog? No seriously. All that water, soap suds, soaked undergarments. It’s just one big happy fun and frolic. But now those nasty spoilsports have come up with a real party pooper.

Gadgets February 11, 2019 posted by Nigel

Acupressure Massage Slippers – stress relief on the move

There’s far too much stress around at the moment and it’s doing us all no good. So it’s nice to know that there are still things we can do, apart from eating and sleeping better and working less hard, which may be able to help. Maybe.

Eco Friendly February 11, 2019 posted by Nigel

7 Ways To Make Your Pet Eco Friendly

We all love pets. They’re cute, cuddly and… um… expensive to run. But maybe they’re also a little bit greedy when it comes to our planet’s resources? So is there anything we can do to help them be more green? Maybe.

Reviews November 7, 2017 posted by Nigel

AutoVox M6 Dashcam Mirror – cool touchscreen recorder for the car [Review]

You know things are getting weird when the accessories in your car are more sophisticated than your original desktop computer, and that’s no joke. We’ve now got to the stage where a humble rear view mirror can ship with a touchscreen and camera combo which would put DELL to shame. Welcome to the future.

huh..? October 18, 2017 posted by Nigel

EAZY Bike – is this another crowdfunding project which is just too good to be true? [Crowdfunding]

We love covering new products, especially when they are eco cool, such as e-bikes. So we were really enthusiastic when we came across a new crowdfunding campaign for a bolt-on electric bike conversion kit called EAZY Bike. It looks very practical, hails from Sweden, and is very cheap. Perfect for mass adoption. But on closer inspection our Spidey Sense started tingling big time. We’re not necessarily saying there’s anything dodgy about the project, just that there are some rather odd…

announcement May 18, 2017 posted by Nigel

Sayso For Good and The Red Ferret team up to do a wee bit of good

Every so often we here at Ferret Towers crawl out of our basement and try and do a bit of good. Just to remember what it feels like. So it’s with pleasure that we announce a tie-up with the Sayso For Good folk, who are also trying to combine commerce with humanitarian causes. Those of you with long enough memories will remember that we used to feature the free Hunger Site banner on the front page, which delivered rice to…

Gadgets December 6, 2016 posted by Nigel

Thinkway Touch Mini PC – Windows 10 never looked so cute

It’s always nice to see folks thinking outside of the box, and this Thinkway Touch Mini PC [translate] is certainly different. This is basically what you get when you cross an 8.9 inch touchscreen with a slightly deranged PC designer living in a dungeon. But it’s cute.

Gadgets December 6, 2016 posted by Nigel

Wolverine 8mm Movie To Digital Converter – don’t lose all that priceless footage in the attic

Rumor has it that if you laid all the old 8mm film footage that is lying around in people’s attics and basements end to end, it would stretch from here all the way round my Aunt Fran’s backyard. Or something. In other words there’s still a lot of important history locked up in dark cupboards across the world. Now you can unlock it.

huh..? December 6, 2016 posted by Nigel

Kids Personal Transporter – Healthy exercise? That’s for wimps right?

So back in the day there were these things called playgrounds. And a certain class of human called kids. And these ‘kids’ used to employ some thin things called ‘legs’ to do something called ‘running around’ as a form of outdoor entertainment. But that was then. Now, we’re in a whole new era. Right?

Reviews November 13, 2016 posted by Nigel

Probox 2 Air – cool Android TV Box is small and delicious [Review]

We’re getting close to the point now where Android TV boxes are actually more of a commodity than anything else, which is always an interesting test for a product type. Will the price plummet, will the build quality go up or down, what extra features will we see in the later incarnations? From the looks of it, we’re seeing a solid set of answers from this market, which is good news. The quality appears to be consistent, the pricing stable…

Reviews October 16, 2016 posted by Nigel

DodoCool Pocket Phone Charger – tiny budget power pack is perfect to keep you going [Review]

Why oh why do smartphones still run out of charge half way through the day? We’re in the 21st century right, so surely they can design these things so they last longer? It looks like every time they increase the performance of a battery, they have to add some stupid new feature which sucks the life out of it. Result? We still all need to carry around spare power packs just in case. It sucks. Anyhoo, rant over. Here’s a…

Reviews October 8, 2016 posted by Nigel

MiTRE – micro turbine could destroy range anxiety in EVs at last [Video Report]

Buried in last month’s news and product launches was this rather clever bit of British engineering, which could mean the end of range anxiety for electric vehicles. The MiTRE (aka Micro Turbine Range Extender) is a tiny form factor motor and generator which can charge up an EV battery as the car is moving. No more worrying about flat batteries!

Author Archives: Nigel