Author Archives: Nigel

Full Name: Nigel Powell Website:
Info: Nigel is the managing editor of the Red Ferret, as well as a freelance columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper in London. Loves tech and fancies himself as a bit of a futurist, but then don't we all?
heh heh! February 29, 2008 posted by Nigel

Electric Police Car – Car 54, where the heck are you?

This Electric Police Car just has us creased up imagining the chase scenes. Tom Cruise leaning out the side, trusty firearm in hand, villains screaming away on their Segways. All in super–real slow motion. Beautiful. Max speed 40 km/h, max range 80 km/h, charging time 7–10 hours.  350kg Motor power: 3.0kw Non-brush Battery: 48v 190Ah Max. Speed: 40km/h Loading capacity: 680kg Travel distance: = 80km Climbing ability: 25° Charging time: 7-10 hours. Tags: electric+police+car, ecological, hill+street+green

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Bookmark This! February 29, 2008 posted by Nigel

Booklet Creator – create simple booklets from standard PDF documents

Booklet Creator. Fab little free online application that lets you create foldable booklets from any PDF document. Upload your file, and print on both sides of the paper to make the end result. Don’t forget your stapler!  Then you print out the document chosing “Print on both sides” in your printer preferences. If your printer can’t print on both sides automatically, print the odd pages first (Acrobat Reader has such option in printing preferences), then put the printed paper back…

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Bookmark This! February 29, 2008 posted by Nigel

Books In My Phone – free e-books you can downlod to your mobile phone

Books In My Phone. A nice selection of e-books embedded in a Java reader for download to your mobile phone, either directly over the air or via your computer. All out of copyright or Creative Commons of course, so no commercial ‘blockbusters’, but it’s a neat idea nonetheless. As someone who read both Lord of the Rings (for the 3rd time) and Harry Potter on a mobile phone, I can vouch that it’s possible.  The books offered here are either…

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Gadgets February 28, 2008 posted by Nigel

ToPlay Earphones – open ear headphones protects your ears but maintain audio quality

TOPlay Earphones. Suspended by a magnetic clip just outside your ear canal, this innovative headphone set promises to safeguard your hearing while still delivering the kind of audio that your brain longs for. They weigh a mere 8g too, which means that the comfort ratio should be right up there with large heavy fake gold earrings. Anyhoo, the audio pressure on the ear drum is reduced 30 fold, which sure sounds reassuring, so colour us impressed. £19.95.  TOPlay is twice as safe:…

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Gadgets February 28, 2008 posted by Nigel

Digital Photo Frame Webcam – watching me, watching you…

The Digital Photo Frame Webcam combines two of our favourite pieces of technology into one delightful and aesthetically challenging package. The idea of sticking a USB webcam onto a photo frame so your beloved can watch you watching them, is…well…pure poetry. The fact that the frame can be carried around in your pocket, and contains a calendar and thermometer too, only adds icing to the already succulent cake. Joy oh joy!  1.Web cam fuction (take photo when connect to PC)…

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Gadgets February 28, 2008 posted by Nigel

Took Beanie Headset Hats – integrate your sound system into your headgear system

Took Beanie Headset Hat. 100% wool, with an integrated but removable headset. Result? You stay warm while your cables stay orderly. Available in a range of tastefully hideous colours and priced at $24.99.   Tooks – Hats You Can Hear! beanie with integrated removable headphones 100% acrylic (wool feel) Wherever you and your music roam, Tooks make the perfect companion to your MP3 or other favorite media player. Compact size headphone speakers deliver superior sound quality. Great gift idea! Tags:…

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Bookmark This! February 28, 2008 posted by Nigel

Fundability – helping startups find investors and investors find startups

Fundability. New marketplace aims to help investors and startups find each other for mutually beneficial relationships based around cash. And options. Super slick interface, very cool feature set and a solid business model (startups pay $49.99 a month for their listings) mean that this one should run and run (if a nasty little recession doesn’t get in the way that is). Exactly the type of online community service that adds credibility to the whole sector.  We created Fundability as a marketplace where entrepreneurs…

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Bookmark This! February 28, 2008 posted by Nigel

Ashampoo Clip Finder – superb freeware program for finding, viewing and downloading video clips

Ashampoo Clip Finder. Freeware program designed to let you locate, view and download video clips from all the major video portals like YouTube etc. You need to register an email address to get the full free version unlock code, but you know how to deal with that by now, don’t you? Superb interface with things like mouse-over preview and right mouse click download make this a fabulous tool if you’re a video junkie. The mouse-over thumbnail previews on their own can…

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Bookmark This! February 28, 2008 posted by Nigel

Frugal living – how to live sensibly, responsibly and still have fun

As we move haltingly into uncertain times, I thought it might be handy to have a few resources at hand to help with living sensibly and frugally for the future. So here they are. Thrifty Fun. Long established and popular community site looks at all the options available for living carefully across a wide range of categories. Frugal Hacks. Small blog offering mom and pop type advice on all sorts of topics related to prudent lifestyles. Totally Free Cr*p. New blog style…

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Fun & Games February 27, 2008 posted by Nigel

Dream Authentics Tabletop Arcade Game – 150 classic games and a jukebox in a tidy sized desktop package

The Dream Authentics Tabletop Arcade Game offers 150 authentic classic video games from the likes of Atari, Namco and Midway, complete with proper controllers and a retro arcade design motif. Powered by a slimline PC and also contains an integrated jukebox MP3 player. Cool stuff. Although for the price you could of course just buy a laptop, a copy of Half-Life and still have enough left for an iPhone and accessories. $2,495.95.  Evoking the pinnacle of arcade gaming during the…

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Gadgets February 27, 2008 posted by Nigel

USB Smart Privacy Mouse – special mouse button hides your illicit surfing in an instant

The USB Smart Privacy Mouse comes with a secret sauce button which you can configure to jump to a work friendly screen in an instant. You know, just in case you’re browsing stuff at work you shouldn’t, and the boss wanders by to ask about the missing TPS Report? $19.99.  This button works – If you use it as an ordinary mouse without installing the driver, it is a short-cut key performs as the short-cut key at your right of…

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Gadgets February 27, 2008 posted by Nigel

Tefal ActiFry – the lo-fat, deep fat, fryer

Tefal ActiFry. A tablespoon of olive oil, a bucket load of fry friendly foods and a lot of hot air. Result? Fast food type substances with very low fat content. Is that good for you? Maybe, maybe not. £149.99.  Imagine being able to fry a batch of real home-made chips with just a tablespoon of olive oil. Sounds too good to be true? Place up to a kilo of freshly cut chips into the cooking pan, then measure your preferred oil with…

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cool tech February 27, 2008 posted by Nigel

Nokia N78 – …and some pointers on GPS and A-GPS cell phone navigation systems

The Nokia N78 is an interesting piece of kit with some very cool features. One of the overlooked ones seems to be the inbuilt FM transmitter so you can beam your music from the handset to the nearest radio tuner. This makes it one hugely featured phone, what with a 3.2 megapixel camera (plus a second camera), HSDPA, WiFi, FM radio, MP3 player, video recording, FM transmitter and A-GPS. And it was actually the A-GPS that got me thinking as to…

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Awesome February 27, 2008 posted by Nigel

EA Sims Online goes free of charge – classic multiplayer game gets freeware play mode

Sims Online Free. Ooh, Electronic Arts has released a free version of the classic Sims Online game. If you’ve been living on Mars for a while, The Sims is one of the biggest game franchises on the planet, and the online version, which used to cost $9.99 a month, was notable for some pretty cool visuals and unique gameplay. Well the developers have now re-jigged the code, updated it all and re-released it in both free and pay to play versions. The pay per…

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