Cool Gadgets...

GADGET

A Gadget is a small technological object (such as a device or an appliance) that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a novelty. Gadgets are invariably considered to be more unusually or cleverly designed than normal technology at the time of their invention. Gadgets are sometimes also referred to as Gizmo...

The solid gold Vertu Boucheron 150

You know how you can tell that this is a "luxury" phone? It looks like it was shaped by an overly taut sphincter. The Vertu Boucheron 150 is made from "solid gold" and is meant to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Boucheron jewelry house in Paris. According to the designer, it took 1,000 hours to cut into shape, 700 hours to hand polish, and more than 500 hours to build. Funny, it only took us a split-second to wretch. Do the Japanese really prefer these Vertu designs from Nokia over the E71? No price or any real detail announced, just a picture of the enormous packing box after the break.

Mintpad

Popgadget: If you are a digger for gizmos with small form factors, this first brainchild from the Korean company MintPass will most likely leave you lusting shamelessly for one - the WiFi-enabled multimedia device called the MintPad.

The MintPad is probably the coolest mini-gadget that we’ve seen in quite a while. Though it looks absolutely cute, the device has sophisticated functions. Cut it up and you find that it is somewhat like a mini-tablet PC - a 3-inch TFT screen, 1.3MP camera, and 4GB memory for playing music, videos and storing photos (with support for upto 8GB microSD). The interesting thing however is, you can create notes similar to Post-It notes and send it out to your friends via Wi-Fi. And if you can manage to - have fun blogging, browsing, or chatting with your friends.

Self Filling Water Cooler:

The Red Ferret: This Klimatec Base 1 AirWater Machine is a self-filling water cooler which extracts water from the air, purifies it and serves it up in nice refreshing dollops of goodness. Or something. We’re talking 20 litres every 24 hours, it can be solar powered and you can attach an optional fridge unit for super coldness. Sounds like a pretty neat plan, eh?

Axitron ModBook - The Apple Tablet PC

Axitron is preparing to release it’s Axitron ModBook, a revolutionary slate-style tablet Mac that enables users to draw and write directly on the screen. Until now, with the exception of using a Wacom Tablet, Apple has not introduced a tablet style notebook for their OS X platform.

The Axiotron Modbook boasts a 2.1GHz+ of processing speed, 1GB+ of memory, and the full-range of Apple MacBook connectivity via Ethernet, USB, FireWire®, Bluetooth and AirPort® while running the OS X v10.5 Leopard platform. The tablet is also equipped with a built-in iSight camera, optical drive and internal GPS.

Axiotron’s innovative design and manufacturing process integrates an Apple® MacBook® computer, state-of-the-art Wacom® pen-enabled digitizer technology and Axiotron’s own proprietary hardware and software components into a complete tablet solution, the Axiotron Modbook.

Photovoltaic Mac Laptop

Inhabitat: Well, we just spotted some breaking greener gadget news that are sure to get Apple fans excited! Drumroll please..

Apple just filed a patent to infuse their hand-helds and computers with a thin film of solar cells, paving the way for a new generation of gadgets with battery life boosted by the sun. The patent approaches the prospect from every angle, with schematics to stack photovoltaic cells beneath the entire surface of their portables - including the screen!

The patent states a variety of possible applications: “Solar cells are typically stacked with other layers made of transparent or semi-transparent materials… Some of these layers may be used for display or input purposes, and some layers may be coated with various materials or they may be etched with product logos or other patterns.” It goes on to explain that devices could display the performance of the solar cells on their screens next to the battery bar, or even on top of the cells themselves.

It will be interesting to see if the use of photo-voltaic panels in portable electronics will contradict the current consumer trend towards smaller and smaller gadgets, since a large, flat surface is required for solar to have any degree of efficiency.

Death Note? No, Its Death Watch

Have you heard to the one of the most popular Japanese comic Death Note? A powerful Notebook with the ability to cause the death of a person in an accurate timing written beforehand. Now, we have a Life Index Watch, a concept developed for a Timex competition that keeps track of your remaining days based on personal biometrics. Sounds cool is'nt it!

Productdose: Would knowing how much time you have left make you live life to the fullest or would it paralyze you with anxiety? The technology is coming when your biometrics can give you an approximation of your remaining days. Worn like a patch on the skin, the Timex 2154 watch won't tell you if a truck is going to hit you but based on your fitness, stress, nutrition, sleep, and environment it will let you know when your most important date of all is set to arrive.

Sim Card Reader

Gadgets Review: Are you paranoid about the fact that your girlfriend or boyfriend is cheating you? Do you want to know, what numbers she just dialed and what SMS had sent? You can hire a private detective for all this tasks, but his services may cost you more than expected. Listening devices are expensive to buy and need a special equipment to listen… There is a solution, which is not based on eavesdropping, and uses a very interesting method of spying: it scans the main chip of every GSM cell phone - SIM card!

This Cell Phone Spy Data Extracktor look just like an ordinary USB Flash drive. However, do not judge it by its size - it can be a powerful tool if used correctly. Just insert the SIM card in the device, plug it in the PC and you will be able to see all the numbers that was dialed through that SIM, even deleted ones! It can also restore deleted SMS messages and call logs, so nothing will be hidden from you. The manufacturer claims, this is the first SIM reader in the world that can actually see deleted messages. More than that, this gadget can be used in peaceful ways, to make backup copies of a phonebook or messages. Or you can make a full SIM card backup, buy a clean SIM card if needed and load your stored backup data on it.

Programmable Pet Dish

Coolbuzz: If you own a cute pet and fears about regularity of his routine meals in your absence, then you need something like ‘Intelligent Programmable Pet Dish’ on which you can ensure timely meals by programming up to four time’s meal on a digital programmable timer and self-opening food tray that will automatically serve the pet. On scheduled time it will use your recorded voice for alert.

With four different trays, it can hold four separate dry or moist foods, which automatically opens to expose the material. Water compartment will take care of thirst and moistening of food. It has a digital display for easy programming. It can record a 20 minutes voice file and originate in durable ABS plastic with removable dishwasher safe lids.

Carpet Alarm

CoolBuzz: It’s a wake up call for the lazy people around the world! Sofie Collin and Gustav Lanber thought about the welfare of the late-risers and developed this Carpet Alarm Clock.

It’s not a simple alarm clock, which will turn off by pressing one button with hand, you will have to get-up from your bed and step on it in order to turn it off. However, this smart carpet with in-built clock won’t let you prolong your sleep minute by minute. Don’t you think this is a must-have product for your obese partner and kids?

Anyways, I leave it on you to decide what is best for you; I think I’ll need two or three clocks to wake me up.

Go Green, Go Unplug

Pedal the plug out with Eject Powerstrip. It is a forward-looking redesign of a powerstrip that would allow people to easily, safely and enjoyably unplug their devices.

People don't unplug their devices because:
1) they are lazy
2) they are too old or disabled to bend down
3) their powerstrips are located in areas they can't access without accidents (under tables, drawers)
4) when dealing with cheap powerstrips, unplugging a device can be dangerous.

Pillow Talk

purCushion integrates a microphone that connects to mobiles over Bluetooth, meaning you only have to rest your head on the pillow before you can chat.

The funny shaped pillow is 660mm long and its cotton velvet surface has several buttons for pairing your phone, answering calls and the like. The built-in battery provides up to eight hours of continuous chatter and it’ll snooze in standby for up to 300 hours.

Polaroid Times

NYT: MILLIONS of families once snapped Polaroid photographs and enjoyed passing around the newly minted prints on the spot, instead of waiting a week for them to be developed. Now, Polaroid wants to conjure up those golden analog days of vast sales and instant gratification — this time with images captured by digital cameras and camera phones.

This fall, the company expects to market a hand-size printer that produces color snapshots in about 30 seconds.

Beam a photograph from a cellphone to the printer and, with a gentle purr, out comes the full-color print — completely formed and dry to the touch.

The printer, which connects wirelessly by Bluetooth to phones and by cable to cameras, will cost about $150. The images are 2 inches by 3 inches, the size of a credit card. The new printers are so lightweight that a Polaroid executive demonstrating them recently had three tucked unnoticeably into various pockets of his trim jacket, whipping them out as if he were Harpo Marx.

Weather Forecast Umbrella

Crave: Sure, you can have the weirdest umbrella inventions, but none of these actually tell you when the rain is coming. Which is the whole point of carrying a brolly, right?

Apparently, the Forecast prototype goes all the way back to 2005 and the idea behind it is really simple. The umbrella comes with a docking station which is able to pull weather data off the Internet via Wi-Fi. Electric leads will then light up an LED on the handle with varying intensity to tell you the likelihood of rain. So you know whether to bring the brolly with you on your way out.

Sounds brilliant, as long as it doesn't get us fried in a rain puddle, or make us look like a goldfish-bowl Martian.