By Chris Scott Barr

When you’re out playing golf, you usually have two options for getting around. Either you drive around a cart, or just walk your happy self all over the course. If you’re committed to living a “green” lifestyle, then you’ll probably pass up the golf cart. Of course if you don’t want to spend your entire afternoon walking, you could try using this Bicycle Golf Caddy.

This rather simple device hooks up to just about any bike, and carries your clubs along behind you. It seems rather simple to setup, and even collapses to make storage easier. At $200 it’s a bit pricey, but now when you’re getting beat on the course, you can remind your friends that at least you’re not destroying the environment my driving around some electric cart all day.

[ Clean Air Gardening ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]

By Chris Scott Barr

When you hear the term wristwatch, you generally think of a timepiece that you wear on your wrist. Well someone is looking to change that definition. There isn’t a whole lot of information on his design, but I am going to assume for now that it is only a concept. The idea is a subdermal implant or “electric tattoo” that can function as a watch.

It uses your natural kinetic energy for power (not unlike some watches out there) and somehow uses a wireless signal to sync up with an external clock to make sure it is correct. It only illuminates when you hold your wrist up to look at it. A very cool idea, if it could work.

[ Behance ] VIA [ TrendHunter ]

By Chris Scott Barr

You have to give a lot of credit to Netflix. These guys have really re-invented the way we rent movies. First with their idea to let you order movies online and have them mailed to your door. Then they decided to let you stream rentals to your computer. Now they’re offering the same streaming service to other devices like your Xbox 360 and TiVo. Today they announced the latest devices they will be invading, Sony Bravia HDTVs.

Starting this Fall, all of their new internet-enabled sets will be able to stream movies via Netflix. Older models will be able to do the same using the BRAVIA internet link module around the same time. Give it a couple of years and you won’t be able to find a new TV that works with Netflix.

VIA [ CrunchGear ]

Last year URWERK turned heads and weighed down wrists with their UR-202 Hammerhead turbine-regulated watch which, quite frankly, just looked really cool. And so does their latest model, the UR-CC1 codenamed the ‘King Cobra’. Now while it might not look as complex as the UR-202, the King Cobra’s 2 horizontal retrograde cylinders which are used to display the hours and minutes are actually the result of 3+ years of R&D and testing to ensure their rotation and fly-back action doesn’t affect the watch’s accurate timekeeping.

The watch also features a honeycomb patterned rack (visible through a window on the side) used to rotate the minute cylinder that’s actually made from silicon via a photolithography process in order to keep it extremely lightweight but also very strong. Unfortunately there’s no pricing info for the UR-CC1 at the moment if you’ve already got your credit card in hand, but it’s easily another item you can file under “if you have to ask…”

[ URWERK UR-CC1 'King Cobra' ] VIA [ Watch Happening ]

The thing I enjoy most about camping is the sounds of birds and other wildlife at the crack of dawn. Conversely, the thing I hate most about camping is the quiet drone of a single mosquito in your tent while you’re trying to fall asleep. It’s almost impossible to figure out where the little bugger is, and when the sound stops, you know they’re up to no good. And that’s why I think this Mosquito Sound Alarm Clock is cruel and unusual punishment. It would definitely get me out of bed in the morning, though at the cost of emotionally crippling camping flashbacks. $25.95 from Danna Bananas.

[ Animal Sound Alarm Clocks ] VIA [ Nerd Approved ]

By Chris Scott Barr

These days people are all about being “green” and such. One good way to do your part for the environment is by recycling. For most people that consists of separating out glass bottles and aluminum cans from their trash. Well one company is taking those old bottles and turning them into something useful.

Green Glass Company specializes in something rather cool, turning old beer bottles into drinking glasses. They don’t have the largest selection of brands to choose from, but if you like Rolling Rock, Corona or a few others, then they’ll be happy to hook you up with some cool glassware. You can pick up a set of four for $32.50.

[ GreenGlass ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Chris Scott Barr

When you were a kid, how many times did you get home a little late when your parents weren’t home, but lied and told them you were on time? Or perhaps you snuck out, then back in late at night. Fess up, I’m sure that you did it at least once. Well it seems that some parents may be able to keep track of just when exactly their children arrived home. Oddly enough, it comes in the form of a femtocell.

DoCoMo has announced a new femtocell that not only helps your cell phones maintain a great signal while you’re at home, but it also can send out notifications when a phone has entered the area. Essentially, the parents could set it up to get an email every time their child came home. Seems like an interesting idea, until the kid figures out that he can flood his parents inbox by going in and out of the range of the device over and over. Come to think of it, that’s probably the first thing I’d do in protest.

[ FarEastGizmos ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By Evan Ackerman

This little USB accessory from Buffalo has got to be the easiest way to throw an impromptu LAN party anywhere you want without having to resort to something as annoying and under performing as an ad-hoc wireless network. The three port router is powered entirely by one USB port, and means you and two of your friends can get together and frag each other (or exchange massive amounts of porn) at speeds of up to 100 Mbps. It’s nothing particularly fancy, but it works, it’s portable, and it’s cheap, too: it’ll go on sale later this month for about $25.

VIA [ Akihabara News ]

It’s uncertain what affect file sharing and ‘piracy’ has really had on the movie industry, but it’s obvious the studios are concerned and have been trying to find ways to get people back into theaters. Thanks to technical advances 3D has finally become a popular gimmick, and now a Montreal (Longueuil) based company called D-Box is hoping theater-goers will be just as interested in a more moving film experience, quite literally.

Last night I had a chance to try out D-Box’s Motion Theater Seats at the Canadian launch in Toronto which, as their name implies, are special theater seats that can move and rumble alongside the action in the film providing an enhanced movie-going experience. While I don’t think the technology will add much to talking head flicks or anything adapted from a Jane Austen novel, it does give you a good reason to endure the sticky floors of your local cinema when it comes to Summer blockbusters. More after the jump…

The D-Box Motion Seats can kind of be compared to the experience you’d get from a ride at a high-tech theme park, but the range of motion on these seats is far more subtle. In fact, the seats don’t actually move at all, but tilt forward and back and side to side with a total range of about 15 degrees. And while that doesn’t seem like much, it’s more than enough to enhance the action in any film, particularly when you consider you’ll be enjoying the experience for 2+ hours at times. According to D-Box the seats are actually a bit larger than your standard theater seats, and that’s partly because they’ve got 3 brushless electric motors underneath which not only do an effective job at moving you around, but are also completely quiet.

We were shown a 20-minute clip from the beginning of the recently released Fast & Furious which is probably the perfect kind of film for the Motion Seats. The clip included a rather involved ‘car chase’ which admittedly was a lot cooler with the chair pitching and shifting underneath you, as well as a foot chase scene which was a bit subtler, but did a good job at showing off the range of motion the seats are capable of.

Besides its own set of arm rests (which is reason enough to like them) each Motion Seat also comes equipped with a touchpad that allows you to adjust the intensity of the motion effects. There’s 3 different levels to choose from, in addition to being able to turn it off completely, and even at the highest intensity level the motion isn’t enough to spill your drink or toss your popcorn around. But parents might want to tone things down for the younger set, so it’s nice that it’s adjustable on a seat-by-seat basis.

Of course the big question is whether or not theater goers will be willing to spend an extra $7 (Canadian pricing) for the Motion Seat experience. Like I mentioned earlier, the seats won’t add much to more dramatic fair, but for popcorn flicks like Transformers 2 or the next Harry Potter, which is actually when the public will be able to experience the seats here in Toronto for the first time, I’d definitely say yes. But I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a sucker for stuff like this.

[ D-Box Motion Theater Seats ]

Designed by the Netherlands based studio Trapped in Suburbia the ‘Play More’ notepad ended up being a finalist at the European Design Awards according to Top Cultured. And rightfully so! The clever notepad features standard lined paper on one side, but on the other is a series of patterned prints that makes the page end up looking like everything from a soccer ball to a baseball to even a golf ball when crumpled up.

Sadly it’s not available for sale, but I hope Trapped in Suburbia realizes they could probably make a small mint if they managed to produce these and sell them to stores like Urban Outfitters.

[ Top Cultured - Wish There Was A Notebook Like This When I Was A Kid ] VIA [ bookofjoe ]