Lists

Gadget Monday – April 6, 2009

Here are this week’s seven cool gadgets.

Dell Studio One

Dell’s design has definitely improved in recent times, and the Dell Studio One is a great example of their new direction. It’s an all-in-one desktop with a 19″ widescreen display. It’s smaller than the 20″ iMac from Apple, but it looks wider because Dell put all the circuitry in the back instead of letting some of it reside under the screen, and because the aspect ratio for its display is 16:9, not 16:10. Hardware-wise, the specs are nice and on-par with the iMac, and the price certainly isn’t bad at $700 for the entry-level model. I do hope, for Dell’s sake, that the Studio One will run Windows 7, not Vista…

dell-studio-one-19

[via LikeCool]

Lenovo Pocket Yoga

This neat device from Lenovo is a cross between a Pocket PC, a netbook, and a laptop. There are no specs or pricing or availability listed for it anywhere, only some photos in Lenovo’s Flickr account. I like the stylish design and the size, but I have many questions about it, such as OS, specs, tactile feel of the keyboard, battery life, display quality, stylus usability, etc.

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[via LikeCool and Lenovo]

LaCie iamaKey USB flash drive

Key-shaped, functional and cool design for a USB flash drive. It’s also a good deal at only $18 for the 4GB version and $30 for the 8GB version.

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lacie-iamakey-2

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[via LikeCool and LaCie]

Zero Mouse by Oliver Rosito

An elegant, hollowed-out mouse concept design, made of aluminum and rubber. I like it, but I do have one question: where will they fit the batteries?

zero-mouse

[via The Design Blog]

JVC Everio X Camcorder

The Everio line of camcorders from JVC have sure come a long way since I last reviewed them. The new Everio X camcorder is both a digital camera and video camera, recording 9 megapixel stills and full HD (1080p) video with a 1/2.33 inch CMOS sensor. One set of features that sets it apart is the ability to shoot photos at high speed. It’ll record 5 megapixel photos at 60 fps (frames per second), and will even go as high as 600 fps, although the image size at that speed is only 640×72 pixels.

jvc-everio-x-camcorder

[via LikeCool and JVC]

Electric Man

A power strip shaped to look like a smiling stick figure man.  You can use it for those bulky adapters, since there’s plenty of space between each grounded outlet. Only $15 from UrbanOutfitters.

[via LikeCool]

Three doors in one by Slam Doors

Did you ever see “The Three Bears” classic cartoon or read the story as a child? Same concept here. You’ve got a little door for Baby Bear, a medium door for Mama Bear and a big door for Papa Bear. Nice!

three-doors-in-one

[via LikeCool]

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Lists

Gadget Monday – March 30, 2009

Here is this week’s list of cool gadgets. Did you see last week’s edition?

Samsung HZ15W Digital Camera

Available starting this month, the HZ15W digital camera has a 12 megapixel sensor and a 10x Schneider zoom lens that starts at an ultra-wide 24mm. The camera also has built-in optical and digital image stabilization, and it records HD video at 720p and H.264 compression. Users can utilize the zoom freely while shooting HD video, which is still a rare feature on digital cameras. The HDMI output allows it to be connected directly to an HDTV.

The HZ15W replaces the HZ10W, which was launched in January at CES and is pictured below.

Samsung HZ10W Digital Camera

2TB Hard Drive from Western Digital

WDC is the first company to have come out with a 2TB internal hard drive. It’s a 3.0GB/s SATA drive that will make a lot of Drobo owners very, very happy.

Western Digital 2TB SATA Hard Drive - 1

Sony Ericsson Idou mobile phone

A new touch screen mobile phone from Sony Ericsson with a 12 megapixel camera and a big 3.5 inch (16:9, 640×320 pixels) display. It has all the goodies you’d expect from a smartphone, and it’ll go on sale later this year.

Sony Ericsson Idou Phone

[via LikeCool]

Canon PowerShot D10 digital camera

This little camera is waterproof (up to 10m depth), shockproof (up to 1.2m fall) and freezeproof (to -10°C). It’ll go on sale in May for $330 MSRP, street price will be lower. It has a 12 megapixel sensor, 3x zoom and it shoots SD 480p video.

Canon PowerShot D10 - 1

Canon PowerShot D10 - 2

[via Canon and LikeCool]

Studio FRST’s 16943 HDTV

The 16943 is a conceptual design for an HDTV that definitely grabbed my attention. It breaks out of the mold of the squarish TV design and allows one to view 4:3 or 16:9 movies at their intended aspect ratios, without letterboxing or pillarboxing them. The designers also want to include a built-in DVD player on the side, which is a nice touch but not really needed, since most people will play their content from other sources, not DVDs, in the future.

Studio FRST 16943 HDTV - 1

Studio FRST 16943 HDTV - 2

Studio FRST 16943 HDTV - 3

[via FRST and The Design Blog]

Interdepartment Mail laptop sleeve by Kena Kai

Made of white Italian leather, this is one beautiful laptop sleeve. Available for $70 directly from Kena Kai.

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interoffice-mail2

[via TrustyPony]

Modular office desk and bed by Florian Jouy

This neat desk can be unfolded and used as a bed at the day’s end. Great for small spaces.

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modular-desk-and-bed-2

[via The Design Blog]

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Lists

Gadget Monday – March 23, 2009

Here are this week’s seven cool gadgets. Did you see last week’s edition?

Terrafugia Transition

I wrote about the Terrafugia vehicle back in March of 2006, three years ago. On March 5th of this year, a couple of weeks ago, their first working prototype, the Terrafugia Transition, made a successful runway-only flight. I’m really glad to see they managed to get their design built and working!

The Transition has foldable wings that extend and lock into place when it’s time to fly. It changes from a car into an airplane in less than 30 seconds. It has a top speed of 65 mph on the ground and 115 mph in the air. Its approximate fuel economy is 30 mpg, and it can fly about 450 miles on a full tank. Retail price is $194,000.

terrafugia_morning_hangar

klwmtaxi

first_flight_chase_plane

first_flight_chase_truck

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Videos (1st, 2nd, 3rd)

[via Terrafugia and Jalopnik]

KOZO Lamps by Design2009

These lamps from Design2009 are hand-made from old-style galvanized steel pipes and feature a faucet-like switch. They can be used with incandescent or halogen light bulbs.

KOZO1

KOZO2

KOZO3

[via LikeCool]

The Jenga Pistol

It’s a coil-action pistol that can be used to knock out Jenga blocks. Watch the video and see, my description is lamer than what this gadget does.

[via Look At This]

SwitchEasy ThumbTacks

They look like thumbtacks, but they’re microphones for your iPod. So cool! At only $13, I’d grab a couple in a heartbeat, except they won’t work with my 1st generation iPod Touch; they only work with the iPod Nano 4G and iPod Touch 2G.

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switcheasy-thumbtack-2

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[via SwitchEasy and LikeCool]

Collapsible Crutch

This may be one gadget I’d rather not use unless it was absolutely necessary, but let me tell you, if it were necessary, I’d rather be stuck with these. I was on crutches almost 10 years ago because of a knee operation, and I found it annoyingly difficult to get them in and out of the car. These collapsible crutches expand and contract very easily, which makes that task a snap.

Collapsible Crutch - 1

Collapsible Crutch - 2

Collapsible Crutch - 3

[via The Design Blog]

D3O

This wonder gel is soft at first touch, but it turns into a solid upon hard impact. It’s already being used in sportswear, and now the British Army has signed a contract with Blue Divine Ltd, the maker of the gel, so it can be used in the helmets of British soldiers. Very cool!

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[via Mail Online and Look At This]

Iglooplay Mod Rocker

Someone tell me why this cool rocker is only made for kids? It’s so nice I’d get one myself. It’s made by ModernNursery of molded plywood, and can take up to 450 lbs of weight.

iglooplay-mod-rocker-1

[via The Design Blog]

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Reviews

Gmail offers another pleasant surprise

The Gmail team has done it again, and they’ve given Gmail users a whole slew of cool new features.

New Gmail features

We’ve now got YouTube, Picasa and Flickr previews, built right into each email message. All we have to do is to put a link to a YouTube movie, or a Picasa or Flickr photo, and its thumbnail shows directly in the message. This feature can be enabled by service from the Labs settings in our Gmail accounts.

I love the “Undo send” feature and have already enabled it. My wife is already using the Offline version of email. It took a bit to sync all her messages, but it’s doing alright now.

Other Gmail features I love are as follows:

  • Superstars, which adds additional stars icons. I organize emails that I need to act on that way.
  • Signature tweaks, which places the signature above quoted text
  • Right-side labels
  • Navbar drag-and-drop, which allows me to re-organize the various items on the Gmail screen
  • Forgotten attachment detector
  • Vacation Time, which lets me specify beginning and ending dates for those times when I can’t get to my email
  • Create a Document, which allows me to create a Google Document right from my Gmail inbox (this is new)
  • Send & Archive, which allows me to reply and archive that message at the same time (this is new)
  • Title Tweaks, which changes the order of the text in the Gmail page title, allowing me to see right away how many unread messages there are (this is new)
  • Google Docs gadget, which displays my most recent Google Documents on my Gmail inbox screen

There’s more information about the new features on the Gmail Blog, here and here.

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How To

How to travel with the Drobo

You might think this is a banal topic, but I don’t. I’ve had to take three of my Drobos with me on a recent overseas trip, and I had to make some clear decisions about how I was going to transport each of them.

The first thing I wondered about is whether there’s a carrying case or bag for the Drobo. I’ll talk about this first, then I’ll give you some practical travel advice.

Right, the carrying case — there isn’t any. There’s a grainy pic on TwitPic of some sort of a large plastic case with foam where you could place the Drobo and its hard drives, but that’s too big to take with you most places, particularly when you have lots of other luggage. It won’t work. We need something slim, something that fits right around the Drobo’s rectangular shape, has handles, sort of like a bowling bag, and yet is well-padded to protect the Drobo. Alas, there isn’t any such thing…

Let me show you a potential design that could work. It’s not something I invented — it’s my travel toiletry bag. Notice its handle is on the front, but I think there ought to be two handles at the top, one on each side, since the Drobo can be fairly heavy with the hard drives inside. The zipper ought to be down the middle of the case, at the top, and the bag ought to have two compartments on each side, or one below, where you can stick the power brick and the USB and Firewire cables.

Potential design for a Drobo carrying case

If Data Robotics or some other company made this sort of a carrying case, we would simply take the Drobo, with its hard drives inside, put it in the bag, and stick the bag in our carry-on luggage. I wouldn’t trust airport personnel enough to check the bag containing the Drobo. Given the way they throw baggage around like it’s bales of hay, they’d likely damage the Drobo and our data.

Now let’s get back to reality. There isn’t any carrying case yet. What do we do? What did I do? I was able to send two of my Drobos separately, by ship, and I placed them in their original boxes, which I packed into larger cardboard boxes with other items. They arrived safely, thank goodness. I love those Drobo boxes, they hold up so well! I kept all of them and used them often for storage or transport.

Original Drobo box

As for my third Drobo, the Firewire Drobo, my current primary storage unit, that had to come with me on the plane. I kept the hard drives inside it, packed it in woolen sweaters and other soft clothes, and put it in one of the carry-on bags. Yes, in case you’re wondering, I had to pull it out of the bag for airport security and show it to them. They kept wondering what it was and what it does, and couldn’t believe it was basically an external hard drive. Expect the same treatment from them, at least until they see more Drobos. As for the Drobo’s original box, I didn’t want to lose that, so I flattened it and placed it in one of the checked pieces of luggage along with the foam holders and the box that contains the wires, power brick and software CD. I’m glad to tell you that it arrived safely with me, and it’s connected to my MacBook Pro as I write this.

One last bit of advice. If you travel by car, and there isn’t yet any Drobo carrying case/bag, make room in your trunk for the Drobo’s original box. Pack it inside, and you’ll know that short of an accident, your Drobo will be well protected.

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