This wonderful news from LikeCool. I don’t know, something in me kicks in when people talk about Pong. Maybe because I was one of the “fortunate” few who actually stayed up real late so I can touch that Atari paddle and try a game of Pong. And that was after a long line of 20 elementary school classmates who wanted their fair shot too. Yeah, that was the hip thing my friend… nothing like being there when everything was in their baby stages.This Pong table, boy is something to look out for. Designed by Moritz Waldemeyer, aiming to re-create that feeling way back 70’s when it was a real worldwide hit. This tabletop has 2,400 LEDs and two track pads embedded in its surface. When the game’s turned off, it sits like any other table.I am unsure if this is in its concept stage or would be available soon.
Archives for May 2008
LightTalk II
This tech gadget shouts out “cool”! 🙂
Thinkgeek gives us a “bored” meeting gadget-o-fun. Let me just create some other scene and probably send someone’s proposal to sky heaven. Ok, picture this, you’re on a date and you’re just about to pop the question of the century “I love you, will you marry me?”. You’ve doodled these words and have scanned this into LightTalk II. Now you pretend to be a great magician, go down on one knee and wave the “magic” wand. Out comes the question in mid-air, to your girlfriend’s shriek of admiration.
I think she’ll pull out a hankee, tears in the eyes… musters the words “yes”.
It could happen! Hey, that’s original!
Retails for $39.99 availalbe at thinkgeek.com .
Here’s the tech stuff:
The Retro Alarm Clock/Dock
Here’s a great way to wake up every morning, and it’s not your usual alarm clock at all. A GadgetShop.com find, this slick and stylish Retro Alarm Clock carries what I say is a 1-2-3 power punch for the geekiest person in you. Too your geek friends call it your regular IPod dock, to mom… hey, say it’s an alarm clock. Either way you’d surely hear those ooohhs and aaahhhhs of admiration.
You can configure it to wake you up to your favorite tune. “Say a Prayer” perhaps? Or rock it to Madonna’s latest hit… you choose. Once you plug this into this “dock” the IPod quickly goes into clock mode. It will automatically charge it for you as well. How’s that for a feature?
Omni directional speakers, analog alarm sounds and/or your iTunes favorites… you’re the boss. Available in ebony black, metal blue or cool silver colors, pink… or white.
Retails for about US$70… not bad eh?
Asus EEE PC 900
Taiwanese manufacturer Asus managed to create more than stir last year with the release of the EEE PC 701 – it was more of a revolution. These days, when anything that doesn’t come with an Apple picture tends to get readily forgotten, it managed to make a big hit. No surprise either mind, the little laptop is well put together and with a great number of features.
The release of the EEE PC 900 is designed to go some way to address the (albeit minor) criticisms of the original. Previously, the seven inch screen managed only 800×480 resolution, whilst the new model comes with a nine inch screen with a display of 1024×600 – once again lovely widescreen but with that bit more room to use.
Of course, another issue was storage space of the original. The 4 gig was fine for work, but anything more than that and you could have been struggling. This time round, you get 20GB of solid state hard drive to play with. That means just as before you’ll get a machine that boots incredibly quickly but this time you can stick on films etc and not worry about where that next essay will be saved.
Extras include a 1.1megapixel camera and Wi-fi built in. This is great for your home network and if you’ve got a small study then this would make an excellent addition. Just as previously you’ll get Linux on there for free – something I’d say is perfectly adequate for purpose. However for the die-hards who want Windows, it is possible and it works very well indeed.
Battery life remains about three hours – not too shabby at all for such a useful little machine. The only issue I found was that the keyboard remains relatively small – not too great for my speed typing to be honest! In terms of value for money, you won’t find many other workhorses out there that are so reasonably priced. In fact, I’m beginning to think that everyone should have one…
Verdict: 9/10
Britain’s X-Files Released
One thing that the British are known for is their stiff upper lip – not only that but we’re a nation of complainers. We also like to know things, whether it’s what our government are spending taxes on or indeed, if we’re investigating aliens. On 14th of May, in an unprecedented move, due to a number of Freedom of Information requests the British government has released a large number of papers that reveal how and when UFO sightings have been investigated.
The 160 files – the first eight of which, covering 1978-1987 – throw up no “saucer-in-a-hangar smoking gun” in the skies, apparently. However, the papers, viewable on the National Archives’ website, do show that officials conducted a full investigation into every claimed sighting until the 1980s. The files, one of which is more than 450 pages long, show that since the 1950s thousands of seemingly ordinary people have claimed UFO sightings in this country.
So what does it really tell us? Well, it’s clear from the evidence that the UK had looked at UFO sightings long after the US government had ‘officially’ stopped looking, not that it means very much. There are also some ‘expert witnesses’ in the list – people I’d say who are just as fallible as the rest of us when seeing something that they don’t comprehend.
Whatever the true meaning of these sightings are, these papers make for fascinating reading. I for one will spend the weekend trawling through and trying to make sense of this modern day phenomena with very ancient roots.
Fractal 23 : Furniture for the space home
This is an awesome furniture concept by designer Takeshi Miyakawa. Really cool for urban living geeks who’d like to squeeze every square inch of small dwelling/living areas. It would make a good conversation piece as well when you host those Jengga parties. LOL.
Check out the designer’s page here, and a post from another tech blog right here.
Originally dubbed as Fractal 23, probably because of the fact that there are more or less 23 “ports” or drawers from this cube. As a blog aptly puts it, the only problem is that this space-age furniture should be placed in the middle of the room. It’s definitely not a corner piece, sad to say. Does it rotate though… it would be cool if you have it rotate so to make access to other drawers easier.
Somehow this reminds me of the rubik’s cube toy. Ah this would certainly be a good comeback gimik? It reminds me too that this may be a new “Transformers” gadget? Like legs probably coming out from under and the head popping out.
Life Without A Laptop
Recently, I’ve been out of action with many of my electronic gadgets, including accessing features on my car GPS, changing songs on my MP3 player and taking pictures from my mobile phone. Why is that? Simply put, my laptop, after a struggle, has decided to give up the ghost. Naturally I tried just about everything I could think of before surrendering to this fact, such as a system restore, talking to a specialist and even taking it to the IT guy at work. All, however, to no avail.
Naturally I was upset about my laptop acting up – not one of us would relish a key piece of technology deciding it doesn’t want to play anymore. What made it REALLY bad though was finding out exactly how much I now relied on my home computer. Apart from of course blogging, I didn’t think that it was a 100% necessary bit of kit. I know now how it is.
On the day of sending my laptop off to be fixed, I found that I needed a telephone rather urgently. My first instinct was to was to switch the wireless router back on, almost puzzling why I’d turned it off. I then grabbed the laptop bag and of course it was empty. My laptop was away to be repaired. So what did I have to do? Resort to the phone book of course. You could say that it showed the limitations of the ‘old’ technology of the printed word – I wanted a new company that apparently wasn’t in my latest phone book.
Secondly, I wanted to apply for a job. I had to borrow a laptop, find it one of my old emails with my CV on it and finally manage to send it. I’m now borrowing a laptop of a relative on a regular basis in order to not only keep my online life alive but to also ensure that I can actually do the day-to-day tasks that I need to do more efficiently than otherwise – whether this checking my phone bill, looking up phone numbers or simply keeping up contact with people. The world really has moved on and I didn’t realise how much of a necessary bit of kit my computer was until I didn’t have it any more.
Luckily, it should be repaired in a few days and I personally can’t wait to get it back. I’ll update with a review of the service when it is returned.
Something for the composer in you
I have a few songs under my belt, yes they have seen the inside of a radio station too… played it once or twice actually. But I’m not THE composer, like I have a grand piano in my home ready for my “moment” to glory with that hitsong. This gadget is really handy for those like me who’s not really “there” in writing songs. I am not as gifted, not even a beginner at that.
Yamaha designed this concept portable keyboard cum notebook, dubbed as “key for journey”. I think this will hit it big in the media world. While it’s not your standard full length keys, the most used are there. It’s battery operated (of course) and slots for earphones, in-line, and yes even good ‘ol USB are available.
A great coin saver
We’ve heard stories of moms having a jar hidden somewhere out of site. She would always put in loose coins in there so that she’d have something to pull out say for quick change or to tip the pizza guy. But somehow, if you’re mom is like mine :), instead of pulling out those coins, she’d still use those she would pull out from under the couch cushion or under the chair, above the counter or on the fridge. She’d say that well, I know there’s about $4 worth of coins there, so let me get that instead.
Well, with this coin saving jar, I’m sure mom will always look to put those nickels and pennies where it should be… in the jar. This has a battery powered counting system that you push everytime you put in or take out a coin. Neat eh? I hope in the future, as a development from this model, we’d have a model you can teach to count coins as they all come in.
This is available here for about $20.
Specification
Dimensions: Height: 15.0cm Width: 10.0cm Depth: 10.0cm
Weight: 0.1Kg
Batteries: Energizer Ultraplus – AAA Battery (4 Pack)
Cool wifi sensitive shirt
Really find this shirt cool! Again, sold at ThinkGeek for $29.99I remember 5 years ago, while working as a network administrator for a media company, I’d be bringing my huge laptop around the office. I was installing wifi access points and the laptop was there to measure signal strength. My tasks included giving appropriate signal strength in conference rooms, common areas and of course the manager’s cubicle.That was a huge laptop to carry… they weighed 7+ lbs.Now this t-shirt comes along. What an idea! And I do envy the netadmins of today. You’ve got such an easy job you! Lol. Check out these product features :
Product Features
- Glowing animated shirt dynamically displays the current wi-fi signal strength.
- Shows signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g
- Black 100% Cotton T-Shirt
- Animated Decal is Removable (with hook and loop fasteners) for Easy Washing
- Battery Pack is Concealed in a Small Pocket Sewn Inside the Shirt
- Runs for hours off three AAA Batteries (not included)