Gadgets Control

Coughing Ashtray

This may look like any ordinary metal ashtray but as you put your ash in it, it starts coughing like an old man. Great novelty fun gift idea for the ardent smoker. So if you should you be thinking of quitting smoking, this is the ultimate deterrent mechanism with it’s built-in sensor to detect the ash as it drops and then will cough it’s lungs up when it does!Specially designed for those non-smokers - your guests are sure to get the hint and a particularly nasty shock tactic which will be well effective when revealed!This coughing ashtray really is a fun gift and the ultimate deterrent for all those heavy smokers.

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If you just wish you could translate your finger drumming skills into something more tangible, here’s the USB Drum Kit to help you out. Your USB Drum Kit includes six different pad areas (snare, kick & two toms). Simply install the included software, plug your kit in, and let your rhythmical hammered fists of fury fly. The software will allow you to control and select the various sounds programmed to each pad. You can choose between 50 percussion sounds, 20 preprogrammed percussion sets and 100 preprogrammed beats. If you are a n00b, you can select the ‘learning mode’ and play along to some pre recorded beats. Otherwise, just enjoy the free play mode. (Read the full post about ‘USB Drum Kit creates a ruckus’…)

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So you didn’t keep an eye out for a Sidekick thief while texting on the subway like we told you to and now your Sidekick is gone. After reporting it to T-Mobile and the proper authorities, what is one to do? Well, if you’re like NY teenager Yudelka Polanco you’ll start doing detective work. The great thing about the Sidekick is that you can still log in to your desktop interface and find out how the person that stole it is using it (as long as they didn’t pull the sim and login as a different user). Most thieves are dumb and will leave behind some clues. Yudelka was able to get ahold of her thief’s email address and through a search on MySpace pulled up his profile. (Read the full post about ‘Tracking down a Sidekick thief through MySpace’…)

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Posted Mar 7th 2008 10:25AM by Darren MurphFiled under: cellphones It’s bad enough when exams have to cater to horrific spellers due to their SMS-based vocabulary, but we’re doing everything we can to make ourselves believe this latest report simply isn’t true. Reportedly, a social analyst in Australia somehow believes that the wide range in spellings in a few popular names is due in large part to the fact that we spend way too much time as a whole conjugating and hyphenating in order to get text-based messages across. (Read the full post about ‘Texting generation carrying spelling habits to birth certificates?’…)

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Posted Mar 7th 2008 6:33AM by Thomas RickerDigiTimes is back with another Taiwan industry rumor. This time they have HTC launching MID handsets in 2008. No surprise there as HTC jumped into the UMPC game long ago with the Shift. Of course, the whole thing becomes suspect when their source claims that MIDs will be “squeezing the market share currently enjoyed by UMPCs.” Everyone and their monkey knows that UMPCs don’t account for enough market share to warrant joy.Tags: design, mobile devices, amps, DVD (Read the full post about ‘HTC launching MID devices in 2008?’…)

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Hearing Central LLC has just announced a trio of new models of hearing aids from its Melody range. First off we have the Melody A1 that features two channels and a dozen bands, making it good to counter moderate hearing loss of up to 70dB. As for the Melody A2, you get a quartet of channels and 12 bands, making it useful for moderate to severe hearing loss of up to 80dB. Last but not least, we have the Melody A3 that comes with four channels, 12 bands and omni-directional microphones, and is also good for hearing loss of up to 80dB. All three types of hearing aids tip the scales at less than an ounce, measuring 1″ long and 3/16″ wide. Choose from beige, charcoal and silver colors. (Read the full post about ‘Melody Open Hearing Aids Now Available’…)

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Animal Alarm Clocks You can have this for ?7.99 Tags: digital, hdtv, robots, AAC (Read the full post about ‘Animal Alarm Clocks’…)

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Brano Meres C-Thru Road Frame owes more to bridge construction than to bicycle design. Completely hand-built from carbon fiber rods, the project took Meres over 300 hours: each of the rods were glued with epoxy resin and the joints individually bound with carbon fibers. Only the rear dropouts and the headset cups are made from other materials – titanium and aluminum respectively. Meres is a trained engineer, and it shows. Take a look at the close-ups of his handywork below. His next project, also pictured, was decidedly lower tech. Brano made himself a bamboo bike, which he says gives a better ride than the carbon fiber model. And it’s a lot easier to grow the tubes than to build them. (Read the full post about ‘Home Made Carbon Fiber Bike’…)

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Charles Cooper got to snoop around Intel’s research lab and comes back with some interesting tidbits on where Intel thinks we’ll take technology.  Sure, many of what they research won’t make it to market, but they are driven by the premise , “what if?”.  It is enlightening to see what they are up to. Real-time feedback: So much of public policy is based on best guesses (I fail to come up with a solid example, you’ll have to use your imagination).  How about placing pollution sensors on taxi cabs?  This allows a street-by-street view of how city decisions on parking, traffic flow, zoning laws and much more effect pollution.  A fantastic tool that started off in Ghana and worked so well, San Fransisco adopted the sensors to their street sweepers. (Read the full post about ‘Intel shows off play things of the future’…)

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Posted Mar 7th 2008 4:40AM by Darren MurphFiled under: Robots We’ve seen paintball guns destined for robot mounting, but darkback2 reckoned it was entirely more wicked to actually construct his own paintballing overlord from scratch. Apparently, Gepetto wasn’t born to a be a killer (nor a lover, for that matter), but the idea of remotely controlling a security guard outside your domicile really gets our gears turning. (Read the full post about ‘Gepetto robot fires paintballs, demands respect’…)

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