Gizmos for Geeks

CES 2010 Opens Up This Week in Las Vegas

Chief Gadgeteer — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:59:21 +0000

CES 2010, the Consumer Electronics Show put together by the CEA officially opens its doors on Thursday in Las Vegas, NV. However, many press events kick off today at the show, so stay tuned as we bring you the most important news and new gadgets.

Transformer USB Thumb Drive and USB Laser Mouse

Chief Gadgeteer — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:42:00 +0000

Looking for a more practical version of your favorite toy/comic book model? Then how about a Transformer bot that is also a USB drive? Sounds good right? No? Transformer mouse then?

Takara Tomy has made 2 USB drive models – Tigatron and Jaguar, and 2 laser pointer mice – Trypticon and Grimlock.

The USB drive models are 2GB large and the mice are 3-button 800dpi laser mice with scroll wheels.

Buy now!

Price: $42.99 – $59.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Get Your Booze in Pill Form

Chief Gadgeteer — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:47:24 +0000

Looking for an easier way to get your booze in? How about in pill form?

Russian professor Evgeny Moskalev of Saint Petersburg Technological University has developed a technique that turns alcohol into powder which can then be packed into pills.

In case you’re wondering, this technique can be used on any type of alcohol.

via Discovery.com

FaceID – Facial Recognition Security Scanner

Chief Gadgeteer — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:03:00 +0000

Futuristic TV shows and movies show modern authentication systems as either retinal (eye) scans, voice scans, but rarely full facial scans. Well, the future is here today. Enter FaceID, a system that scans your face and matches it against one of up to 500 profiles in its internal database.

Not only that, but these are 3D images captured by using multiple cameras, and must be matched by an actual face. In other words, a photo will not suffice. It adjusts for variances in lighting, and claims a 0.0001% margin of error. Surprisingly, this sophisticated gadget carries a price tag under $500.

Buy now!
Price: $419.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Cooper Mini USB 2.0 Thumb Drive with Union Jack Flag Paint-job

Chief Gadgeteer — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:03:00 +0000

Not interested in those boring USB thumb drives that just look like little rectangular boxes? Need something a little more colorful? Like Cooper Minis? Perfect. Here’s your match made in heaven.

Unfortunately, this USB 2.0 stick only has 2GB of internal storage, but it makes up for that in style!

Buy now!
Price: $29.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

Beamer – iPhone Case with Built-in Light

Chief Gadgeteer — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:20:45 +0000

User-invented product site, Quirky, has another new and useful product, the Beamer which is an iPhone case (skin) with a built-in light. Just press the button and voila, and there was the light.

The bright LED is powered by the Beamer’s case battery and not by the iPhone’s battery. Hit the button and the light goes on for 10 seconds. Hit it twice to turn it on indefinitely. You can use the light as a flash for your photos.

The light is powered by a replaceable Lithium battery that has a 10 hr lifetime.

Buy now!
Price: $38
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

The Switchital Clock’s Digits Morph With Each Time Change

Chief Gadgeteer — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:56:00 +0000

This is just a design right now, but it’s cool-looking for sure. Called the Switchital Clock, the numbers break apart and morph to the next set of numbers each minute. Designer Matthias Pugin has a number of other cool designs on his website.

Looking for a real alarm clock? We got lots of those!

Happy New Year! And our 2010 Gadget Predictions

Chief Gadgeteer — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 13:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year to you, our readers, your friends and family. Here’s hoping that 2010 is a better year for us all.

In the meantime, while we wait another 12 months to see how things will shake out, we dare to give you our humble predictions for what’s in store gadget and technology-wise for 2010. We’re not going to go too much out on a limb with our 2010 prophecies, because we don’t want to be too disappointed if they don’t come to pass!

GfG’s 2010 Gadget and Technology Forecast:

Apple puts out a tablet-based computer
Lots more Android-based smartphones pop up on cell carrier networks around the world.
The iPhone comes to Verizon
A handful of 3D TVs hit the market
The eBook Reader (eReader) market heats up even more. Lots more vendors throw their hats into the ring.
At least one Google Chrome OS based netbook hits

Mobile Desktop Workstation is a Chair on a Tricycle with an Attached Desk

Chief Gadgeteer — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:56:00 +0000

This is probably not for everyone, not even close. This mobile desk pretty much only holds a laptop or a notebook or some papers. I can’t imagine sitting in for very long; after a while, I’d want to lean back.

Also not sure why a site called “Opulent Items” is selling it, although I suppose it is with its price tag.

via Craziest Gadgets

Buy now!
Price: $500.00
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)

NEC Working on Retinal Imaging Language Translation Glasses

Chief Gadgeteer — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:43:00 +0000

One day you may be able to wear glasses that translate other languages in real-time and display them onto the glasses’ lenses so you can read it, if NEC is successful.

Called a retinal imaging display, the glasses incorporate a microphone and displays language as expressions. Surprisingly, NEC plans to have a product out in 2010, although it’ll probably be prohibitively expensive for the general public.

I wonder though about how efficient this would be in a crowded room? We tend to underestimate how powerful our brains are at doing things like filtering noise and speech, even in a crowded room.

via Coated