Craziest Gadgets

Pepper Spray iPhone Case, What Could Possibly Go Wrong with that?

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:33:57 +0000

iPhone cases are a dime a dozen these days but short of going all Naomi Campbell with your phone, there’s few ways to cause serious bodily harm with your iPhone. Until now. A Swiss company is selling the Smart Guard, an unintentionally ironically named iPhone case with a built-in pepper spray canister. The $55 phone case has a safety mechanism so you won’t blind yourself while making a call unless you really want to but do you really trust holding a can of pepper spray mere inches from your eye? Refills are $28 just in case. At least you’ll have your phone handy if you need to call 9-1-1.

(via gizmodo)

Pepper Spray iPhone Case, What Could Possibly Go Wrong with that?

RC Shopping Cart

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:28:51 +0000

Typically we find RC vehicles made in scale models of fast moving cars or cool trucks or other neat vehicles. What we find unusual are RC toys for things that DON’T EVEN HAVE AN ENGINE like the Shopping Cart RC. Sure it’s probably pretty neat to be able to load up the cart with a few things and zoom it around the room but I’m just a grumpy old man and not a kid, so what do I know? I do know that it’s a 1/19 scale and it’s imported from Japan, where maybe they really do have motorized shopping carts.

RC Shopping Cart

LCD Stencil Watch from Tokyoflash

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:51:39 +0000

Tokyoflash has just released yet another cool watch based on a fan designed concept. The Kisai Stencil uses the negative space in the LCD screen to show the time with big graffiti style numbers in a four square arrangement. The time on the watch above is 05:44, don’t look at the lines- look at the blank space between the lines, the 05 is on the top and 44 on the bottom. Easy enough. Check out the video below:

It has a stainless steel face with a leather band and comes in 5 different color choices. The buttons on the side are used to switch it to date mode or illuminate the backlight.

LCD Stencil Watch from Tokyoflash

Schrödinger’s Cat Executive Decision Maker

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:04:00 +0000

Sometimes you need a little help making important decisions. Don’t worry, science is here to help. It’s the Schrödinger’s Cat Executive Decision Maker. Put it on your desk and ask it a yes or no question. If the cat inside, who we will name “Poster Nutbag” for no real reason, appears alive, it’s a yes. If Poster is dead, Poster’s so dead, it’s a no. How about a goldfish?

The video above demonstrates. Now you’re probably scratching your head thinking about who Schrödinger’s Cat was. Click the link for the full explanation but basically it’s a paradox where since we don’t know if the cat inside the box is alive or dead, it is theoretically both alive and dead to the observer. Or something like that.

What you need to know is that when you open the door Poster will be alive or dead, randomly which will answer all your important executive decisions like “should I fire him or not?”. And if Poster is dead, he was likely killed by a vicious bulldog who we will call Harpua. Or he got hit by a comet. Or he was sucked into the depths of hell by an evil vibration of death. Either way you should probably get a goldfish instead. Oh, you want a dog?

Schrödinger’s Cat Executive Decision Maker

Review: Eton Rover Emergency Radio Charger Flashlight

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:05:45 +0000

Are you prepared for an emergency? What if you lost power? The Eton ARCPT200W American Red Cross Rover is a fantastic addition to your emergency preparedness kit. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s really attractive with large analog dial on the face and red and white color scheme with the Red Cross emblem on it. This battery powered gadget has an AM/FM radio as well as a 7 band weather radio, all picking up a signal from the L-shaped antenna that extends upwards. The metallic ring on the face changes it from AM to FM to weather while a pair of red knobs adjust volume and tuning.

There’s a 3 white led flashlight on the front to provide light if the power goes out. We found the light to be adequate, you’re not going to be lighting up a stadium with it but for finding your way in the dark, it works. It has a pretty-good-for-it’s-size sounding speaker built-in or you can use the headphone jack. There’s a USB charging port to charge your phone or any other USB gadget in an emergency. Below you can see another thoughtful feature- the rubberized feet on it’s bottom.

But what makes the Eton Rover truly unique and more useful than other emergency devices is the hand crank. You can extend the handle from the backside and turn the crank to power the internal Turbodyne dynamo and the battery. This means you can power up your cell phone (or any USB device) without electricity! In an emergency or for backpacking or camping that could be huge.

Cranking it at 130 rpm’s gives you about 7 minutes of talk time on your phone with 5 minutes of cranking. One minute of cranking gives you 15 minutes of radio playing. In our highly unscientific test we were able to eek out a little less than 1% of battery increase per minute of cranking on our iPhone (I’d estimate we cranked at only 60 rpms, or 1 turn per second, because we are total weaklings). The red handle on the crank rotates which makes it much easier on your wrist to turn.

While you’re not going to want to go from 0 to 100% unless you want a serious workout, it’s certainly easy enough to juice up your phone enough to get you through any emergency situation. You can also plug it in to power up the internal lithium ion battery (note that you can’t swap out batteries though). Fully charged the radio will play for 8 hours straight. A small light indicates red for charging or green for fully charged.

What we like about the Eton Rover:

What we don’t like:

1. no battery level indicator (however there is a light to indicate when fully charged)

In summary, what’s cool is that the Rover is that it’s an all-in-one emergency device, charger, flashlight and radio and it’s handsome enough that you don’t have to stash it away deep in some closet and then dig for it in the dark when your power goes out; you can keep it out on display and handy. It’s made of solid aluminum machined parts and feels sturdy with well thought out features. It can charge any USB device you have electricity free with the hand crank.

Review: Eton Rover Emergency Radio Charger Flashlight

Be a Pocket Pirate with a Ring that’s also a Telescope

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:44:51 +0000

It’s the ring that transforms into a tiny telescope! Capt. Jules’ Extraordinary Telescope Ring is a cast metal ring that has a pair of flip out lenses. The lenses operate on a slide so you can correct the focal length for whatever you are viewing.

The larger lens can also be folded flat 180 degrees to work by itself as a magnifying lens. There’s even a magnetic compass in the body of the ring. It has a steampunk bronze finish with a rubbed black patina. The ring comes in an attractive tin and has 3 attachments to adjust the ring size to fit size 5, 8, or 11 fingers. Neat gadget.

Be a Pocket Pirate with a Ring that’s also a Telescope

Bazinga! The Big Bang Theory Board Game

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 05:33:08 +0000

Bazinga! Look who we spotted at the Toy Fair, complete with a pass around his neck (Penny’s lucky she’s good looking or they would have given her the boot for not having a pass). By far the coolest board game on display, the Big Bang Theory Trivia Game tests your knowledge of the geeky TV show. In between answering some of the hundreds of questions, you get to play rounds of “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard and Spock”, which you can see in the center of the game board and the like-colored squares.

Clearly this game is for the hardcore Big Bang Theory fan and not just a casual occasional viewer (although you can make up some ground with a few dominating wins at Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard and Spock). The questions ask if something is “fact or fiction” which gives you pretty decent odds at getting it right… or wrong. Good stuff.

Bazinga! The Big Bang Theory Board Game

Lego Hulk from the Toy Fair

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:40:12 +0000

We’re back from the New York Toy Fair 2012 and look what we saw- a Lego Hulk. Now sure, you are probably saying to yourself big deal, I can make the Incredible Hulk out of Legos on my lunch break. Well first of all, how long is your lunch break? Secondly, make sure you eat something with some protein so you don’t get the 3 o’clock lulls. Thirdly, could you really make a Hulk THIS FREAKIN’ BIG?

Yeah I didn’t think so, tough guy. The temptation to just smash that Hulk to bits (uhh “accidentally” of course) or at least karate chop his arm was quite strong. I wonder if they glued the pieces…only one way to find out. Hulk Smash!

Lego Hulk from the Toy Fair

Yo Gabba Gabba DJ Lance Boombox iPod Speakers

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 18:19:30 +0000

Hey kids, it’s time for Yooooooooooo Gabba Gabba. Now you can “break it down” at home, DJ Lance style with the Yo Gabba Gabba musical boombox. This boombox has little figurines of Muno, Brobee, Foofa, and Toodee (left to right) on top (poor Plex got the shaft on this one). This site’s name is Craziest Gadgets and we like to dance. The boombox opens up to reveal a little playset (cool cool cool tricks!):

The boombox lights up and plays four songs on it’s own or you could use a wire to hook up your iPod to play your own music. Cool.

Amazon

eBay

Yo Gabba Gabba DJ Lance Boombox iPod Speakers

Beetlejuice as a Woman Doll

Craziest Gadgets Jeff — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:14:19 +0000

Craziest Gadgets is all for equality but do we really need a doll showing what Beetlejuice (or Betelgeuse for your hardcore Tim Burton fans) would look like as a woman? Apparently yes we do. And if just seeing what it would look like isn’t enough to satisfy your curiosity, then you can shell out $223 and buy yourself the Beetlejuice Ms. Beetlejuice Tonner Doll for your home collection. It is 16 inches high and limited to just 500 pieces. I’m having a hard time believing that 500 people will actually be interested in it at this price, but what do I know?

Beetlejuice as a Woman Doll