Boating is fun, however if we wanted to use a speedboat greenhouse gases can be our big contribution to the nature. However, we should never be hopeless of experiencing speed boating and being eco friendly at the same time because designer Manuel Schneider has created the 1Liaison paddleboat that can also be enjoyed as an speedboat with the use of its built0in battery that supplies electricity. What’s more good news about this boat is that, the pedal of the boat is connected to a dynamo that will now recharges the battery and when you are tired of peddling, the electricity you earned can now be used for speed boating for a more relaxed boating experience.
[igreenspot]
There is just something creepy about this USB hubthat comes in the form of a forlorn looking cat, as you open up its back downwards to reveal a trio of USB 2.0 ports, while the cover ends up as the tail instead. Pretty clever design if you ask me. In addition, it looks as though it is gazing after its USB cable for the longest time in its life (all nine of them apparently). Too bad you won't be able to pick this up at retail stores since it is only available in bulk purchases via Alibaba. At least this is better than most USB hub designs we see these days.
[ubergizmo]
Why fumble around in the dark when you can use solar power to light the way? This Key Hole Light from Comfort House charges up during the day, and illuminates your door in the dark of night. A quick button push keeps it lit for 10 seconds, plenty of time for even the clumsiest oaf to unlock a door.
Attach it to your door with its adhesive pad or included screws, and it's good to light your way 720 times per charge. Even if your house is like Grand Central Station, that'll be enough power. It even includes interchangeable brass, white, and chrome covers to match your hardware.
Shoveling snow looks like a hell of a job at the best of times, but when faced with commercial sized buildings, apparently it’s so bad it takes up to 25 men to get the job done. That’s where the humorously named “Roofus” comes in.
Roofus is happy to take the job on single handed, collecting and dumping the snow via remote or autonomously. When there’s no snow to move, Roofus can be fitted out with a variety of attachments for more mundane tasks such as mowing and cleaning. Joyriding is not recommended, but who could resist?
It features two electric motors, caterpillar tracks, and sensors on each side of its body for navigation, tips the scales at a touch over 100kg it’s and can take 250kg per load.
Find out more at Robot Escape
[robotescape]
According to our friends over at Tech Digest, LG are set to officially unveil the successor to the original LG Prada, named, somewhat inevitably, as the LG Prada II, this evening complete with the LG LBA-T950 Prada Link Bluetooth watch which will offer call alerts – with sound and/or vibration – as well as caller ID and SMS notifications via its 0.9” 120×56 resolution display.
The designer HSDPA LG Prada II, which is widely expected to retail for (upwards) of £475 when it hits the streets, takes the form of a QWERTY slider with full keyboard and, apart from its 256K color, WQVGA (240×400 resolution) touchscreen TFT display featuring captive feedback also sports a 5 megapixe camera offering slow motion video capture (with DivX support) and, needless to say – as befits a designer cell phone (though not on all occasions, it has to be said) - it looks great, though quite whether the LG Prada II’s looks will, ultimately, be worth the price of admission is quite another issue.
[nexus404]
CNET has decided that South Korea’s next-generation battle gear makes soldiers look Halo-esque. A very 21st-century assessment! But as Yahtzee has pointed out time after time, space marines are perhaps the most ubiquitous character in video game history, and even if you don’t want to go as far back as Space Hulk, you still have to give credit where credit’s due. And in Korea, more often than not, the answer to any given question is “Starcraft.” With channels airing Starcraft matches 24/7 and player count in the hundreds of billions, it’s really the only video game from which the country is likely to take cues for its national defense.
As for the battle gear itself, it looks pretty awesome, although traditionally wraparound helmets have been avoided in combat due to decreased field of vision — troublesome, that. But with a personal cooling system and protection from both missile and laser attacks (!), South Korean soldiers should be sitting pretty even if they do get ambushed from their blind spot. Zug zug!
So, we’ve seen our share of headphones. Headphones have been neat for decades, and personal usage of them, day-to-day street wear-wise, has seen a resurgence in recent years due in no small part to the personal MP3 player. It should come as no surprise then that after their first minimalistic, Apple phase, they flower into a new age of aesthetic excess. Presenting the Flower Vase MP3 player, with earbuds in several different beautiful flora for you to stick in your ears.
Won-Ho Son and Joong-Ho Choi from Sky Designers Community connect again the plant world and the world of beats:
The design uses the image of a flower inside a vase as a motif. Rather than the earphones dangling out when the MP3 is not in use, you can place it in the vase tidily so that it can act as a different object when placed on the floor. The Flower Vase series is not robust in functions, but the mobility and fashionable aspect of it makes it a suitable low price MP3 player for teenagers and young adults.
How pretty!
This isn’t just your ordinary iPhone case, this new one features a built in battery pack that will double the battery life of your 3G iPhone.
This new case will give you an additional 26 hours of audio playback, 5 hours of talk time on 3G, 10 on 2G and up to 7 extra hours of video playback.
Here’s the specs.
- Integrated rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery more than doubles the battery life of iPhone 3G
- Optimized power management system provides continuous charge to iPhone 3G internal battery
- 5 light LED battery status indicator
- Charge and sync without removing iPhone 3G from case using the custom USB cable provided
- Advanced lithium-ion polymer battery cell technology prevents overcharging and short circuiting and provides protection from extreme temperature
- Durable, lightweight hardshell construction with soft-touch coating
- Compatible with USB charging ports that provide 5V at 1A output
- “Works with iPhone” certified by Apple
The Incase Power Slider case will go on sale on the 28th of November, there is no word on pricing as yet.
San Francisco artist Tanya Vlach lost an eye in a car accident several years ago. And now she wants a webcam installed in her prosthetic, because she's a badass.
Tanya reasons that her aesthetic-only eye could become a source of "augmented reality," and she's got a list of possible specs up on her blog for would-be engineers to begin with. Just some of the things mentioned for inclusion are: DVR capabilities, MPEG-4 compression, a microSD slot, A/V out, and Bluetooth.
Tanya,
While a webcam eyeball would be cool, particularly if you spend a significant portion of your day in the women's locker room or staring at your own privates, I believe there are bigger fish to fry -- with a laser eye. PEW PEW!
[geekologie]
The municipality of Rødovre of Copenhagen, Denmark, announced today the Sky Village as the winner of the Rødovre Skyscraper design competition. This 116 meter tall tower will accommodate apartments, a hotel, offices, and a public park and a plaza.
With 21,688m2 of real estate the new skyscraper will be located at Roskildevej, on the East side of Copenhagen. The design is based on a flexible grid, allowing possible modifications by re-arranging the units. Each ‘pixel unit’ is 60m2 square and are attached to the central core of the structure. This strategic design creates a stacked neighborhood, which they call a Sky Village. It will also integrate the most advanced technologies suit to satisfy the Danish environmental standards
[contemporist]
The sleek solar-powered Xof1 car recently rolled into Victoria, Canada to break the world’s record for the longest distance travelled in a solar vehicle! Appearing for all the world like a silvery flying saucer, the single-seat vehicle completed a 15,000 kilometer journey that took pilot Marcelo da Luz all the way across Canada and beyond the Arctic circle.
Weighing in at 660 pounds (with driver included), the Xof1 is propelled by a 96 volt DC motor and powered by a 3.8 kW lithium ion battery. It is capable of traveling from 0-60mph in 6 seconds, boasts a top speed of 75mph, and will run for 125 miles on a single charge. Marcelo invested around half a million dollars into the vehicle and constructed it without any corporate sponsorship - his website offers tips on how the car was assembled. Marcelo plans to continue his trek for as long as his funds last, citing Seattle as his next destination. We wish Marcelo congratulations and the best of luck in his incredible endeavor!
[inhabitat]
It’s easy to just slap a few Star Wars stickers on any old item and sell it as an officially branded product, but recently it seems like Lucasfilm has been going beyond the call of duty when it comes to licensing out the Star Wars brand. This 1 3/4-gallon R2-D2 aquarium is a good example. Just sticking a clear tank inside a plastic R2 replica isn’t that noteworthy, but turning his radar eye into an eyepiece for a built-in periscope that allows you to see the underwater inhabitants up close will guarantee this thing ends up under plenty of trees this Christmas.
R2-D2’s domed head will even swivel at any voice command, and includes overhead LED tank lights that randomly cycle between red, blue, and green
[ohgizmo]
Honda's Walking Assist device have "been designed as a means to offer a helping leg to those who have difficult supporting themselves in day-to-day life but are capable of walking without assistance.
Video after the break
[techeblog]
November 9, 1967, T-minus 8.9 seconds: Thousands of gallons of kerosene and liquid oxygen begin coursing through the giant center F1 rocket engine: The Saturn V's ignition sequence has begun. Next, two outer engines are lit, followed 300 milliseconds later by the other two, ignited in pairs to avoid toppling the 364-foot rocket above. Nine seconds after all five engines go to full thrust, the first Saturn V rocket begins to lift from the launchpad, taking the unmanned Apollo 4 check-out module into space.
The launch was flawless. Forty-one years ago to the day, the Saturn V became the biggest, tallest, largest-payload rocket ever to be sent into space. Even more amazingly, it still is.
If you talk about the Moon landings, some people remember Armstrong and Aldrin landing on the moon, and may think of the photo of that famous footprint, or the planting of the flag. I choose to remember the rocket that enabled it all, the Saturn V, a pretty shocking mechanical masterpiece all by itself.
Nearly everything about it is monumental in scale and historic in importance:
• At 364 feet high, it was roughly as tall as a 36-story building.
• Its launch weight of 6.7 million pounds was equal to about 2,200 average late '60s cars.
• Its orbital payload of 260,000 pounds is the equivalent of about 1,500 average people.
Here's a great comparison chart of the world's biggest and best rockets:
[gizmodo]
The ocarina is an ancient instrument (possibly dating back 12,000 years) that has appeared in Zelda games. Which makes it dear to my heart. Anyway, now there's an ocarina application for the iPhone. It's called SMule Ocarina, and it'll set you back a penny short of a buck. You just blow into the phone's mic, push the simulated holes on top, and look like a jackass. But go ahead, play the Song of Time, I dare you. You know what's gonna happen? I'm gonna punch you in the face. I have a real ocarina bitches! TOOT TOOTLE TOOT DOODLE DOOT!
[geekologie]
Some of you may remember the walking iPhone robot that we featured on the site previously, well it looks like another clever moder has turned his iPhone into a robot.
This clever iPhone robot was made using an Arduino CPU board and development environment, a TA7291P motor and it is powered via 4 x AA batteries.
The robot is controlled via WiFi, here’s a video of it in action.
[robotescape]
The Home Theater Watch costs $120 and brings all (2GB worth) of your favorite shows and movies to you in incredible unstunning quality. Truthfully, I'd rather watch hair grow out the mole on my arm. Or, alternatively, duct tape an iPod to my glasses.
You will have as home theater experience available everywhere you go. You can even use it to show people your favorite television shows or prime time specials. Simply convert your video from any of the digital formats listed above (ASF, AVI, MPEG, WMV, DAT/VCD, and ASX), and you will have your favorite television episodes whenever and wherever you want. Imagine watching your favorite sitcom while stuck on the train commute to work in the morning or while sitting in a traffic jam.Oh yeah, watching tv on your wrist while driving, brilliant. I mean, the drivers around here are almost too good. And on a side note, a home theater watch -- what is this 2025? The future is now folks -- hoverboards, hoverboards!
[geekologie]
See that? That's how far JVC's eco-friendly designers will prostrate themselves in hopes of recycling your paper money into their bank accounts. On display in Tokyo at the Designer's Week exhibition, the Sound Garden "Kirikabu" speaker combines your choice of potted plants with multi-directional speakers consisting of a woofer, and left- and right-channel stereo speakers powered by an internal amplifier. Just add water and let the electrifying fun begin. The pods can also be joined into hives where guinea pigs and other varmints of doom can breed and ultimately wash away the rain of our despair.
[engadget]
Most of us still use ho-hum mobile phones. I don’t say that to be condescending but to create a distinction between most of the mobile concepts we feature - touchscreen pizazz, cameras with crazy megapixel counts, and form factors as thin as crisps. For the rest of us, we still use phones that came free with our carrier plans. Smaller screens, standard numeric keypads, and no fancy software for email and web browsing. Screen2 may just be for you.
Screen2 is a mobile phone dock essentially doubling to tripling your screen real estate. It extends your phone’s standard feature set to include email, web browsing, photo viewing, video watching, document browsing, speaker phoning, and AIM/MSN chatting all via touchscreen. Technically it COULD be used with smartphones like the iPhone or Blackberry but I see a much bigger boon with older mobile phones.
Designer: Lu Le
[yankodesign]
The Pico Media Projector is so small, you're able to slip it into just about any pocket you want. It measures a mere 11.5cm x 5cm x 2.2cm and tips the scales at just 160 grams, while the rechargeable lithium ion battery is good for an hour's worth of playback time. Looks (and sounds) like the perfect device to share your favorite photos and videos stored on a portable media player or cell phone with a small group of friends without having to copy the files over to a computer, saving your friends' from squinting their eyes in the process. Don't expect full High Definition resolution from the Pico Media Projector though, as it won't be able to scale such heights. You will be able to pick up the Pico Media Projector at an extremely affordable £299.99.
[ubergizmo]
The Minoru 3D Dual lens web camera is still at proof of concept stage atm but it can create stereoscopic 3D video which needs those cool blue and red 3D glasses to view.
The camera supports all sorts of video chat services, or you can shoot 3D video and shuffle it up to YouTube
More pricing and availability details when it finally ships the first 3D webcam in December
[gadgettastic]
Considering Japan's reputation for odd erotic animation/manga and advanced robotics, many are waiting to see what kind humanoid robots the country will produce in the not-too-distant future. If commercials are a barometer of local culture, then it looks like we have our answer thanks to the new Tokyo Gas commercial featuring a man who brings an alluring wayward robot into his home to teach him about…gas utilities. The short clip shows off a few cool special effects, but we get our first true glimpse at what salarymen are impatiently pining for from their robots when the human is swiftly rebuffed by the robot after becoming smitten with her tutorial skills. After you've contemplated the population depletion implications of such a twisted future you can check out the disturbingly humorous video here.
[robotescape]
“Music at your fingertips” is sometimes not just metaphorical. With Iwoot’s Piano Hands, you just need to tap your fingers on a flat desk and let loose the musician in you. The gloves have sensors at the tips that get activated when you tap, thus creating music. You can also choose between eight different instruments to produce music.
Pricing and Availability: The Piano Hands glove set is available for £49.99, which is quite competitive for a product that has never been seen before.
When disaster strikes, many of our folks became homeless in anyway, and those homeless victims need some comfortable shelter to live in. This situation made the designer Rafael Smith came into the idea of the Uber Emergency Shelter. Very easy to install, and has a solar panels that can accommodate a small refrigerator and illuminates the whole shelter. The materials for uber emergency shelter can be easily shipped on a compact form, and assembles easily too. The only downside it has is that, it can be a bit shaky to materialize especially in an uneven area. In addition, the price of this shelter can be a big question. Will it be affordable enough as an evacuation area?
[igreenspot]
Check out this new variation on the Rubiks Cube: instead of colors and symmetrical cubes, this beast has all-mirrored surfaces and a bizarre asymmetric rectangular block setup. As you twist it, the blocks poke out in different ways, and its these cues you're supposed to use to solve the puzzle. Bloody hell it looks hard. Apparently it's due for release in Japan soon for around $20.
[gizmodo]
I know that there are environmentally conscious people who perform a whole lot of carbon footprint calculations wherever they go, so what better way to do so than with the Japan-only CO2 Calculator? This nifty device is able to help you manage electricity use, water, trash and gas by keying in the necessary figures before a result is displayed on its LCD screen. Too bad it is limited to the Land of the Rising Sun only, as I'm sure this solar-powered device will also do pretty well outside of Japan.
[ubergizmo]
This hi tech gadget projector cellphone, codenamed CVSL-112, is claimed to be equipped with tri-band technology and an open SIM card slot allowing you to use the phone over more than 100 cellular networks worldwide that are compatible with GSM 900MHz, 1800MHz, 1900MHz networks.
The most impressive part of this phone its the tiny projector affixed at its butt. By switching on the external display option, you can project movies or data loaded on this phone onto a wall.
This tech gadget is also loaded with lots of multimedia goodies, such as MP3 and MP4 players, 1.3mp Digital Camera, Image Viewer, Video Recorder, and rich media environment messaging options.
It’s also equipped with a micro SD card slot which provides the convenience for loading data onto the phone. The touchscreen interface and the iPhone-like OS allows easiness of operation on this phone.[gadgettastic]
The X200T Lenovo Tablet PC features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (up to 1.86-GHz), 4GB of memory max, 200GB HDD or 128GB SSD, 12.1-inch display, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi.
And if you stick with the standard 4-cell battery, the X200 can run for about 4.2 hours with a jump to 10 hours if you upgrade to the 8-cell. According to Lenovo, that's a 50% improvement on battery life from their old tablets
[techeblog]
This Electrolux concept, the Cook Top Vesta from Matthias Pinkert targets folks who are always on the move and about, where no home is permanent. Also ideal for people who live in increasingly cramped spaces where studio apartment designs reign, merging the kitchen, living, closet and sleeping areas into one. This fold-down cooking surface can be flipped open upwards and used as a preparatory surface, where flipping it otherwise will turn it into a cooking surface. In addition, it boasts the ability to read RFID labels on food packaging so that you won't overcook or undercook your food.
[ubergizmo]
Check out this cool LCD watch from designer Philippe Starck, the Crystal Clear LCD Watch
This funky looking timepiece has a bright red LCD display, a hidden clasp and is water resistant up to 3 ATM.
The Philippe Starck Crystal Clear LCD Watch has a polyurethane band, that comes in either a choice of black or white.
[gadgettastic]
TATA Motors first turned heads when they introduced the MDI compressed air car to the Indian market. Now the major auto manufacturer has announced that it will be will be bringing an all-electric vehicle to the masses with their new Indica EV. The hatchback will be able to travel 125 miles on a single 8 hour charge.
he Indica EV will be powered by lithium ion batteries and will join 5 other electric vehicle prototypes that Tata Motors plans to release over the coming years. Currently at the production stage, the hatchback will be debuting next year in Norway because of concerns over India’s energy infrastructure. Tata Motor’s managing director, Ravi Kant has stated:
“Norway has the necessary infrastructure in place to run electric cars which India lacks.” “Right now we want to test it out in Norway with the Norwegian party. Because, you know, lot of infrastructure is required for electric vehicles and … in Norway, they are making arrangements for electric cars.”
If successful in Norway, TATA expects to bring the Indica EV to India in 2010.
Here we see ol' Mercator, if country sizes were drawn according to the amount of discretionary income spent on electronics by its citizens. As the world's largest economy, the US being the biggest blob here at $162 billion for 2007 is not that surprising. But what might be surprising is Japan, who spends more on recreation than clothing, household items and electronics combined—pretty interesting for such a style- and gadget-conscious nation. Also note central Europe's electronics spending, which is clearly becoming a force to be reckoned with if IFA in Berlin was any indication. Head over to the NYTimes for more playing with this cool little flash data visualization with other categories of spending.
[gizmodo]
New iPods mean new cases and boy, oh boy, does Belkin have some new cases. There are about 12 different types of cases, along with many different and varied color options and whatnot. They’ll be available in mid-September (so, like, next week)
[crunchgear]
The BlackBerry Kickstart, also known as the Pearl Flip, says it all. This is the first clamshell handset from Research in Motion, and functions just like its candybar brethren from the Pearl line, albeit in a totally different form factor. The external display is used to preview incoming texts, emails as well as phone calls. Other features of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip include :- 
No idea on pricing, but it will hit the markets this fall.
[ubergizmo]
CERN's Large Hadron Collider went online yesterday and completed it's first major test.
The world's largest particle collider passed its first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile (27-kilometer) underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.
Eventually two beams will be fired at the same time in opposite directions with the aim of recreating conditions a split second after the big bang, which scientists theorize was the massive explosion that created the universe.
We're doomed. And related news, Stephen Hawking is betting against the machine discovering the Higgs boson, aka "God's particle", a particle "believed to give mass to all other particles, and thus to matter that makes up the universe."
"I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of 100 dollars that we won't find the Higgs," added Hawking, "and another 100 that we all fucking die. AAAAHH!"[geekologie]
The electronic reader industry has promised a lot for a long time and despite bullish forecasts, has yet to make mainstream status. That may be about to change with Plastic Logic
previewing a gamechanging new device at the DEMOfall 08 technology conference. With a large 8.5 x 11-inch form factor, the Plastic Logic reader is thinner than a pad of paper, lighter than many business periodicals, and offers a high-quality reading experience aimed at professional users and will be available in Q2, 2009. “Research confirms professionals read much more business content than recreational content. They require access to all formats of digital content at their fingertips, and want a large readable screen,” said Plastic Logic CEO Richard Archuleta. Most significantly, the Plastic Logic display is flexible.
[gizmag]
Suited specially for libraries and archives, this innovative book scanner ‘ScanRobot’ is able to scan 25 pages per minute by scanning and turning two pages at once. It uses patented technology to scan and turn pages easily and naturally without damaging the book. The simplicity makes it reliable and cost effective, and it’s designed for industrial strength book scanning projects.
[robotescape]
In this day of full-out Apple news, let's remember something very important: The iPhone is evil for both reasons that make sense and reasons that don't. Allow this Comedy Central quip montage to wash over you, cleansing out the fanboyism and anti-fanboyism alike, a baptism by b-list comedian.
[CCInsider]
When the new "Wall" Stadium set to be built in Doha, Qatar is completed in 2010, it will be the first underground stadium ever constructed. Nicknamed "The Laptop" for obvious reasons, the stadium will have no traditional floodlights. Instead, the lights will be embedded into the architecture, which adds to the clean futuristic look. Apparently, the unique underground design will serve as a natural air conditioning system of sorts, which saves money that could have been spent on a traditional domed, temperature controlled facility.
[gizmodo]
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