10 gadgets you won't believe actually exist

From: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/

Think about what it must have been like to live 100 years ago. Compared to our high-tech lifestyles today, it must have been like banging rocks together in a cave. In that time we have developed cellphones, computers, the Internet, space travel and more. On the flip side, we've also developed virtual kissing machines and portable watermelon coolers. Truly, we are living in a gilded age.

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Severed hand iPhone caseWhat could I possibly do with an iPhone 4 case that has a severed hand attached to it? I guess I could shake hands with my iPhone or give my iPhone a high five when I reach a new level in a game. Maybe I could hold iPhone's hand when I'm scared and lonely or dress it up in pants and a shirt and pretend it's my best friend. After I've earned its trust I can use the hand to frame iPhone for crimes it didn't commit. Yes, this is a brilliant plan that makes complete sense. $64 — Strapya World via Nerd Approved

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Travel Trac bike book holderAs you know, biking and reading go together like peanut butter and arsenic, unicycles and steep cliffs or chainsaws and eyepatches. Despite this fact, someone, somewhere thought manufacturing a book holder that can be mounted to bicycles was a good idea. And lest you think this is just for training bikes in your home gym, the sales promo states "It mounts in seconds to virtually any road, mountain or stationary bike." $14.99 — Performance Bicycle


Wearable emergency toiletWhen you are faced with a bathroom emergency do you go a.) go in the woods? b.) Go in an alley? c.) Go in your pants? The answer, of course, is to squat down in a trash bag that has pellets inside that transform liquid waste into a sold, gelatinous goo. At least that's how they are doing it in Japan thanks to this wearable toilet. Japan Probe via Fashionably Geek

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Goatee SaverSometimes worrying whether or not my goatee is perfectly groomed keeps me up at night. My family has joked that when I die my goatee will be placed in an envelope and willed to my next of kin. Needles to say, I take shaving seriously. Thanks to the Goatee Saver, I have peace of mind because it can be adjusted to fit my beard so I can shave around it with ease and precision. $19.99 — Goatee Saver

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SLR Lens iPhone mountThere have been other, even more awkward SLR mounts for iPhones in the past, but none of them compare to this version from Photojojo. What it does is allow you to mount your Canon EOS or Nikon SLR lenses to your iPhone 4/iPhone 3G or 3GS to give your phone “powerful depth of field and manual focus”. Think of it like ripping the engine out of a Ferrari and mounting it on a moped. That's how little sense this makes. $249 — Photojojo via Nerd Approved

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USB burger hand warmer and massagerRub this USB-powered burger on your tired, aching muscles and feel the tension just melt away like so much gooey cheddar on a grill. It also has a heating element that you can use to warm your hands when it's chilly in the office. Plus, you know it's quality because it comes with a recommendation by both the Hamburglar and Mayor McCheese. $12 — Brando

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Solar-powered bikiniYou may be at high risk for skin cancer, but at least your cell phone is full charged. Designer Andrew Schneider has developed a solar-powered bikini that will absorb the sun’s rays and pass them on to your gadgets via a USB connection. Needless to say, taking a dip in the pool could prove catastrophic. If you would like to wear one of these out to the beach next year, custom orders are being taken. Solar Coterie via Fashionably Geek

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Optical mouse and digital pocket scaleHow many times have you wished there was a more convenient way to weigh your hand? This optical mouse/digital pocket scale combo proves that just because you can converge to products together doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Plus, you're bound to transfer some of that gunk to your keyboard where it will get jammed with "oregano" or whatever other "spices" you choose to measure out with this thing. $22 — Brando

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Portable watermelon coolerThe sole purpose of this device is to transport your watermelon so you can keep it cold on the road. If that wasn't odd enough, you can also tip a switch and use it to keep your watermelon hot (who doesn't love some hot watermelon on a summer day?). It also kind of looks like a spaceship built by some sort of advanced watermelon civilization. $260 — Joybond via That's Nerdalicious

Futuristic sci-fi gadgets, available today

• By: John Brandon
  
• From: http://www.digitaltrends.com/
  

From engines powered by garbage to a ray gun that zaps fat, these futuristic gadgets from movies, TV and novels were once purely the realm of science fiction, but now you can get the real thing.

Far future predictions of tech gadgets rarely work out. Not many of us ride a jetpack to work or step into a transporter to beam over to France on a whim, and the flying car is still a figment of the imagination (if not downright impossible). Even the light saber in Star Wars, which would be really handy as a hand-to-hand combat weapon, has never materialized. (Of course, it also defies the laws of physics.) Why can’t book authors and moviemakers ever get it right?

Well, it turns out that a few “far future” gadgets actually do exist, and you can order them on Amazon. Here’s a quick rundown of the best products and where you’ve seen them.

GE VScan

In the Star Trek movies, a tricorder provided a quick and painless diagnosis. This GE medical scanner uses the same technology. It works almost exactly like an ultrasound, but it can find critical issues such as fluid around the heart without any invasive surgery

. The pocket device, about the size of a smartphone, weighs about one pound. Scans take about two minutes.

Cyclone Power Technologies

In the Back to the Future movies, a DeLorean runs on garbage. Cyclone Power has a steam engine that runs on fuel made from corn husks, orange peels, or just about any biodegradable agent. The engine requires no fossil fuel oils at all, so it’s safe for the environment. Yet, the engine is no slouch: it has enough power for a large farm tractor.

StayHealthy Body Fat Analyzer

In the Doctor Who series, a body fat analyzer could convert your extra fat into an alien creature. This body fat analyzer doesn’t go that far. It sends a “mild” electrical current through your body and measures the amount of fat. That way, you can get a much clearer picture of exactly how much weight loss you really need, as opposed to just the bottom line.

Zeltiq fat burner

Matt Groening’s Futurama presents goofy science-fiction ideas as well-known facts. In several episodes, characters zap fat with a ray gun. Yet, the Zeltiq fat burner does just that, by freezing fat cells so they eventually deteriorate. The product is already in use as a cosmetic surgery aid but will eventually become a home appliance that anyone can use.

Geo-fencing

Arthur C. Clarke famously predicted we’d be using GPS tracking in his many novels, and even nailed the part about triangulation. He wrote about how objects and vehicles would be “geo-located” by revolving satellites. Yet, things are getting out of control: your location can be shared from your cell phone at all times and you can create a constant stream of your whereabouts, using tools such as Loopt and Google Latitude. Next year, your car will also stream its exact location (OnStar service does this already). Eventually, real estate agents will feed listings to you as you walk by a new home for sale. And what’s next? GPS will link more closely to credit card transactions – your Burger King stops will be much faster.

Ionator

In Philip K. Dick’s Zap Gun novel from 1967, he predicted that – in 2004 — we’d still be fighting a cold war with Russia, but our weapons would be consumerized into household aids. The Ionator, from a small Minnesota company, looks like something from the book. It zaps germs by spraying a chemical that separates grime from counter-tops. The hand-held gun is futuristic enough that, when you use one, you feel like you should be wearing a Star Trek uniform.

Paragliding the Himalayas With iPhones, So You Can Go Too

• By Keith Barry

From jagged, snow-capped mountain peaks to peaceful villages adorned with colorful prayer flags, there are perhaps no more breathtaking views on earth than from high above the Himalayas. Five paragliders are right now flying and hiking the length of the Himalayas all the way through Nepal, and they’re sharing the once-in-a-lifetime experience with anyone who has a computer.

While paragliding in the Himalayas is a fairly common trip for experienced fliers, no team has gone all the way through Nepal. These guys are seasoned fliers and between them they have experience flying all over the world. But they’ve never tried anything like this before: hiking and flying more than 800 miles from Dharamsala to Sikkim, India.

“This journey has never been done by a team,” said Nick Greece of the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association. “People have flown from Northern India to the Nepal border but never further. This team will fly across Nepal as well. For a team to do this live tracking is imperative, and it is only in the last year or two that it has become realistic and relatively reliable.”

The Himalayan Odyssey Team is carrying some impressive tech. It has the obligatory iPhones and three solar chargers to keep them going, variometers to track their rate of ascent and descent, two-way radios for staying in touch and GPS for staying on course. When they’ve got cellphone coverage, the team will upload track logs to their website, allowing those of us who prefer our feet on the ground to follow their adventure from our cubicles. SPOT GPS trackers also will update their route every 10 minutes.

“These will allow visitors to reply our flights on Google Maps, or Google Earth and visualize every circle, every zig, and every zag we make, and even what the terrain underneath us looks like while we’re zigging and zagging,” team member Eric Reed said. “It’s beautiful, but it will depend on GSM service.”

Hopefully they’ll have better coverage in the Himalayas (.pdf) than in Manhattan.

Reed, a member of the U.S. Paragliding Team who was laid off last year from a management position at Microsoft, says he’s already received e-mails of support and can’t wait to start offering live updates on his progress. He’s been through the Himalayas before with team leader Brad Sander, and at the end of last year’s trip they decided that this time they’d “take the line as far as we could.”

“All of the communication is great fun — both for the readers and the writers — and I think it does actually improve our safety level, but it also inevitably make the wilds just a little less wild,” he said. “That’s the way with technology. But I’m not complaining. There’s still plenty of wild in the world.”

In addition to letting the rest of the world come along for the journey, Reed says all that technology is essential for safety, helping keep the team connected even when they land in different locations. The Himalayas can be just as inhospitable as they are inspiring, and as they began their journey Wednesday, according to their blog, conditions were already far from ideal.

“We plan to fly and land together as a team, as much as possible, but inevitably there will be days when we get separated,” he said. “Once we’re all on the ground if we’re not all together, communication gets hard via cell or radio. The SPOTs will help us here as well — we’ll use them to send our position via SMS to everyone on our team once we’ve landed.”

Photos: Nick Greece

Read More http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/03/himalayan-odyssey-team/#ixzz0i0AMdGxI

You, Too, Could Own a Working Jetpack for $90,000

From: http://www.gearlog.com/

Near the top of the list of "unfulfilled science fiction concepts," you'll find the jetpack, a staple of future transportation that somehow hasn't arrived yet. (Well, we did get the Segway.)

Nonetheless, Martin Aircraft Company wants to change that with the Martin Jetpack, a $90,000 carbon fiber model that can generate 600 pounds of thrust. Wired reports that the jetpack is self-righting; you can let go of the controls and just hover.

The Martin Jetpack runs on gasoline, and burns through its five-gallon tank in about half an hour. It's classified as an ultralight aircraft, so you don't need a pilot's license, although the company enforces its own training program.

Anyone who wants one faces a 12-month wait; to get on the list, you'll need to put 10 percent down ($9,000).

16 Anti-Theft Gadgets and Designs to Deter Thieves

By Eran Abramson
From: http://www.walyou.com/

We all own many different cool gadgets and items that are important to us either for the utility they provide or perhaps because of an intimate or personal reason. Whatever the reason is, we really hate it when someone comes and touches our personal belongings and worst yet..steals them.

In order to avoid such mishaps and unfortunate events, we have gathered here a great collection of different Anti Theft Gadgets and Bizarre Designs that are meant to help individuals make their devices and belongings less attractive, appealing or desired to a normal bystander. Moreover, there are a few security gadgets and projects that may also interest the more techy of you, who may be looking for some new gizmos to own or security diy to built.

The following aren’t guaranteed to deter thieves or work colleagues from getting at your gadgets but are meant as an additional things to make them think a second time before getting at your personal stuff.

1. Anti Theft Lunch Bags

These amazing sandwich bags are a sure way to keep any co-workers from getting into your lunch.

As if any introduction is needed, some individuals at work are rude enough to touch, get into or even treat themselves to your lunch. I am not sure what drives these folks into allowing themselves to eat someone else’s food without permission, but unfortunately these few do actually exist.

In order to battle them when you cannot install a video camera inside the refrigerator, these Anti Theft Bags could really do the trick. The Sandwich bags contain green splotch marks on both sides of the bag, so when a sandwich is packed in there, it looks as if it is old and rotten.

The design itself is amazing, but it does have a few possible downfalls such as a different person throwing your lunch in the garbage because of the color, or the coworker decides to take an additional step and investigate your lunch.

Source

2. Secret Electric Socket Stash

For a simple and easily accessible place to store your ’stash’, this cool Secret Electric Wall Socket compartment provides a great solution.

It is a simple 2 plug wall socket that is not meant to run electricity throughout it but is an actual hidden wall compartment for individual belongings. You can store cash, jewelry and other ’stuff’ inside that would stay out of harm’s way, and off a burglar’s radar. Plus, it looks just like your other electric sockets, so you are not changing any of your home’s design and characteristics.

3. Fake Cassette Tape Car Stereo

With the innovation of gadgets, let alone music gadgets, most car stereos advance as well, adding CD’s, disc changers, mp3, video and even video games to be played while riding in the vehicle. In order to get thieves to decide to move on to the next vehicle after a glimpse at your stereo dashboard, this cool diy is a funny one.

The Fake car stereo utilizes an old cassette tape deck as a facade that attaches on top of your current stereo deck in your car.

This way, when thieves take a look at your stereo, they would think twice before breaking in for a 90’s car stereo that will be useless in today’s market.

4. Anti Theft Stickers

These stickers don’t seem like much at first glance but then again, a thief would rather go for a ‘prettier’ and newer bicycle then risk being caught for a scratched and old bike.

The Anti theft stickers are great designs that are easy to implement on your bicycle, motorcycle or even automobile. Whatever the reason you are trying to ugly your product, these stickers provide an easy solution.

5. The Anti Theft Plug Mug

This innovative Anti Theft Mug is a cool way to keep your work colleagues from using your mug while you are away or on a sick day.

I am certain there are more than a few out there who get extremely angry when they find their personal mugs and dishes have been used by others in the office. It is a sense of a personal space being invaded and should not be tolerated. For that, the plug mug grants a perfect way to keep your mug at work and know ahead of time that others cannot use it to fulfill their needs and habits.

By a simple ‘plug’ designed in the mug, the owner may remove the plug when deemed needed, and therefor the mug itself becomes useless. That is, unless someone will use their fingers to keep the mug hole filled so liquids won’t spill out.

Source

6. The Brief Safe

The Brief Safe looks rather disgusting when you first lay your eyes on it but please realize it is meant to look so in order to keep people from checking any further. These disgusting looking underwear are actually a storage compartment which has been “designed” with certain marks, so to keep prying hands out.

When traveling and having to carry cash, documents, or checks, you do not always have the access to a safe in your room. In those situations, the Brief Safe is a great alternative, where you may store your personal belongings and could easily imagine that no one would search through it. I mean, just put yourself in the burglar’s shoes…if you ran across someone’s dirty underwear in their room, would you try to see if there are any valuables stored in there…or would you be so disgusted and just leave it alone?

7. Home Security Paintball Gun Turret

For a more colorful solution to Home Security, this Paintball Gun Turret DIY is a great option. It may not be as ‘correct’ or ‘ethical’ as some would expect from home security measures, but then again…are thieves using ‘allowed’ methods?

8. Tesla Car Burglar Alarm

The Tesla Coils Car Burglar Alarm is an innovative and bright project that grants a light show for neighbors, passerby and others who come near this vehicle. Once the switch is turned on, a burglar could trigger the device, in turn locking themselves within the Tesla circle. I am not sure about any of you, but such a method could really be a spectacle for all around which may in fact force some to dare others to do it…just to see the light show.

Anti Theft Laptop Cases

These few cool laptop cases provide some alternatives to regular notebook cases in designs that may help deter onlookers. The choices provided are, again, not guaranteed (just like all the above) but provide a different way to carry your notebook computer. The designs themselves of a daily newspaper or a postal envelope grant a method that hopes will make bystanders disinterested or unknowning of the material or items that are stored inside.

9. Newspaper Laptop Sleeve

The Newspaper Notebook case provides a choice of 5 different newspapers (in 5 separate languages) to choose from and looks like a cool idea. But wouldn’t people actually have a second or third look since the headline doesn’t change…even weeks, months or years later?

Source

10. Postal Envelope Notebook Sleeve

The Postal Envelope Laptop Sleeve is also a fun option and can be folded or rolled when not in use. The thing is, after seeing the old Macbook Air commercials…these kind of envelopes are probably what a laptop thief first looks for.

Source

Security USB Flash Drives

We use USB Flash Drives practically every single day at work, home or at a friend’s house, but this also endangers the documents and files by taking them away from your home into the world. In order to secure your important data, here are two cool solutions with the Ironkey and Biometric USB Flash Drives.

11. Ironkey USB Flash Drive

The Ironkey USB Flash Drive is provide the normal features of a portable USB storage device but with added encryption (military grade AES encryption) and is filled with epoxy based compound, thus waterproofing and preventing many from its internal hardware. Moreover, if it is damaged or the password is incorrectly entered 10 times…the data will self destruct.

12. Biometric USB Flash Drive

The second option is the Biometric Flash Drive, which simply provides the Biometric option to log into the USB Drive. With this, you can rest assured that unless it is you (or someone that has your fingerprints) that attempts to log in…the data will remain secure and out of harm’s way.

13. Ugly Digital Camera

Whether you are traveling, going out for a day or simply like carrying your camera around, I am sure you have been worried about your camera being snatched or stolen. A cool way to deter potential thieves and camera snatchers is to uglify your camera…in other words, make your camera less appealing by making it ugly, old looking and rather worthless.

In this cool image taken by Connors of Jimmy’s Ugly Camera, one can easily exemplify a really ugly camera that was tested in the field. As was mentioned, it was used throughout travels in Brazil and was left behind when stopped and mugged by locals. Seems like they would rather have a few bucks then an ugly camera.

14. 80’s Walkman iPod Case

Although this Walkman iPod Case was made for the classic iPod models, I am sure a different version can accommodate the iPod touch as well. It is a great solution for those that feel threatened by bystanders staring at their new iPods and would rather have them look another way.

This cool case is an ode to old music gadgets by re-using an old Walkman cassette case as a case for a newly innovated gadget. While everyone is walking around listening to their iPods, talking on their iPhones and perhaps even watching a movie on their Zune, you could make sure to remain below the radar, for your music product is just so old…no one would be interested in it. Who even listens to cassette tapes anymore?

15. Anti Theft Bicycle Wheel

A cool and innovative design that provides a bicycle owner the sense of serenity that thieves would not be interested in stealing their bicycle wheel. The collapsing bike wheel design provides the owner the ability to collapse the inside rim with a turn of a key, making the bike wheel unusable, ‘broken’ and a deterrent from thieves.

16. Fake Security Cameras

If you cannot afford real security cameras for your home (or are not interested), then these fake security cameras are a cool, inexpensive alternative that would provide a simple ’scarecrow’ like solution. While it wont’ record and provide any real surveillance, it would assist in decreasing those who may not be interested in getting on film…this could be more than just burglars and criminals.

Read more: 16 Anti Theft Gadgets and Designs to Deter Thieves | Walyou http://www.walyou.com/blog/2009/12/29/anti-theft-gadgets/#ixzz0b6lGTJFB

6 gadgets Japan loves (and the U.S. rejected)

Popular gadgets in Japan often just need a little time to start popping up in the U.S. For instance, most Japanese were using LCD monitors years before they were common stateside. But the rule doesn't hold for every gadget. Every now and then Japan produces a consumer technology that's incompatible with the American populace. Hit the Continue jump for some standout tech absences that are all the rage in the Far East.

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6. Massage chairs

The Japanese buy massage chairs like they were La-Z-Boys. Maybe the stresses of everyday Japanese life encourage people there to put a massage chair in their home, but for whatever reason they're popular enough to have a whole section dedicated to them in many department stores.

Why they haven't caught on stateside: Call us crazy, but the thought of having a chair grip you tightly enough to give you a massage is more than a little unsettling. I tried it once, and I couldn't stop thinking, "Don't piss this thing off."

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5. Elongated phones

Walk down a crowded street in Tokyo and you'll see any number of people holding a phone to their face. What's surprising is how many of those phones are long and slim — often much longer than is necessary for the speaker to be clearly heard by the mike.

Why they haven't caught on stateside: Style, mainly. Super-skinny phones, like the Motorola KRZR, were so 2007.

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4. Blu-ray recorders

Witness this machine, a Panasonic Blu-ray recorder that can hold up to two terabytes on its internal hard disk, ready to burn that video onto a Blu-ray disc anytime. That's pretty impressive technology, letting users save entire seasons of TV shows before archiving them to disc.

Why they haven't caught on stateside: Americans use video technology differently. Setting up a machine to record TV shows to discs — or tapes, for that matter — is beyond many people. The U.S. rejected DVD recorders because we use DVD machines as players only, with the DVR essentially taking over all video-recording duties. By the time Blu-ray came, virtually no one was recording to disc anymore outside of the PC.

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3. Sit-down showers

Need a shower? In Japan, it's not uncommon to be able to kick your feet up while you rinse, sitting on a stool or, as in this photo, a chair built right into the wall. Pretty handy at the end of a long day, or if you simply don't want to get your hair wet.

Why they haven't caught on stateside: Showers in Japan are used before you get in the bath, and in public baths you're supposed to wash only from the neck down. In the U.S. public baths aren't mainstream, and sit-down showers have pretty much been relegated to bathrooms of the elderly and disabled.

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2. Really small netbooks

Yes, you can get mini laptops here in the U.S., but in Japan it's the really tiny ones that stand out. Asus and Acer, known for their tiny (sub 10-inch) machines, have dominated the netbook market in Japan, and other manufacturers (notably Sharp) are following suit.

Why they haven't caught on stateside: You've got us. Maybe those small screens look a little too dainty to American sensibilities. Or maybe we just need to give it a few more months.

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1. Bidet toilets

No list of curiously popular technologies in Japan would be complete without mentioning bidet toilets. As any visitor will tell you, going number two is a whole experience in Japan, from the first moment your behind touches the heated seat to the built-in stereos to the automatic flush.

Why they haven't caught on stateside: Beyond the sheer impractibility of connecting power cables to every toilet in America, here it's more accepted to catch up on some reading while sitting on the throne. That's entertaining enough for us.