Tag: gadget

Impact Lab > gadget
Big Problems, Internet of Things, privacy

Will our smart home monitoring devices spend more time monitoring us than our homes?

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Just as people originally bought mobile phones to protect against hypothetical emergencies, so internet-connected smart devices now often sell comfort from fear. Motion cameras that deter evil babysitters. Recording doorbells that stave off solicitors and burglars. Propane scales that avert cook-out disaster. Sensor-tentacled boxes that warn against flooding.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Inventions

Toaster Griddle Is the perfect appliance for lonely breakfasts

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Can you smell it?

If you roll out of bed by yourself in the morning in an empty apartment, breakfast for one doesn’t always have to be just a bowl of cereal. Nostalgia Electric’s griddle packing toaster has just enough room to fry up a couple of eggs or a single pancake…

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Great New Product, Historical Perspectives, Music, New Viewpoints

HIDEOTO: Stylish Gadget To Digitize Your Old Cassettes

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Say hello to the HIDEOTO

Remember cassettes? In case you are one of the people who still owns tapes and now wants to digitize the content for eternity, the so-called HIDEOTO might be the right thing for you. It’s not the first gadget out there that can get the job done, but it’s certainly the most compact and stylish we’ve seen so far.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Inventions, Solar Power

Solar Pebble Lamp Doubles As Gadget Charger

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The new light of your life?

It might not change the world, but it won’t be for lack of trying. Plus Minus Solar has designed what it’s calling the LED Solar Pebble, a multifaceted device that requires just a pinch of sunlight (or maybe gobs of it, actually) in order to generate artificial light. And charge your arsenal of gizmos. It’s engineered to be built at a low cost and used in developing nations, but unfortunately there’s no confirmation on what exactly it’d charge…

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Breakthrough Thinking, Great New Product, New Inventions, Science & Technology News

RCA Airnergy Charges Gadgets with Nothing But Wifi Signals

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Forget PowerMats and wireless charging and the like, because the Airnergy wi-fi signal harvester is my new front runner for the future of gadget charging.It’s not exactly new tech, as ohGizmo notes, but it’s the first application that’s of any real use to consumers. Put simply, Airnergy takes the energy created by wi-fi signals and stores it in a rechargeable battery. At CES, the device’s battery, which we believe was precharged with Wi-Fi power, was able to charge a BlackBerry from 30% power to full power in about 90 minutes.

(video after jump…)

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Business, Culture, Historical Perspectives, Music

Walkman Named Top Music Invention of Last 50 Years

Sony’s music player has beaten Dolby sound, compact discs and the ubiquitous iPod to come top of the list of “ten most important musical innovations of the last 50 years” published by T3 magazine. Its victory comes in the week that the Walkman celebrated its 30th birthday.
The first Walkman was the blue-and-silver model TPS-L2, which went on sale in Japan on July 1, 1979 and started a musical revolution.
Never before had consumers been able to listen to music as they walked down the street, without balancing a tape player on their shoulder.
Within two years of its launch, it had become the must-have gadget around the world, confounding early critics who said it would never take off without a record button.
Kat Hanniford at T3 said: “It changed the way we access music, changed how often we could access music, and changed a generation.”
She said the MP3 digital music format, which came second in the list, and the iPod music player, which came third, would be impossible without the pioneering work of Sony’s Walkman.
The Compact Disc is ranked fourth, followed by Napster the ground-breaking illegal file-sharing site.
Dolby, the British company, which introduced multi-channel sound to cinema, is ranked sixth in the list.
The original Walkman was created for the co-founder of Sony, Akio Morita, who wanted to be able to listen to operas during his frequent plane trips between Japan and the United States.
In Britain the gadget was marketed as the Stowaway and America as the Soundabout but the popularity of the device – one of the world’s first truly global gadgets – meant the name Walkman spread, and before long Sony made sure all were called the same name. Its appeal was helped by the the relatively low price tag of $200.
In ten years Sony sold 50 million units of the device.
It is still a leading portable music player manufacturer, with its latest digital device the X Series acclaimed as one of the best digital video and music devices on the market.
T3’s list of Top Most Important Musical Innovations of the last 50 years:
1. Sony Walkman
2. MP3 format
3. Apple iPod 1st Generation
4. CD
5. Napster
6. Dolby
7. DAB radio
8. Boombox
9. Sonos Multi-Room Music System
10. Panasonic Technics DJ deck

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Top music invention of the past 50 years

Sony’s music player has beaten Dolby sound, compact discs and the ubiquitous iPod to surge to the top of the list of the “ten most important musical innovations of the last 50 years” published by T3 magazine. Its victory comes in the week that the Walkman celebrated its 30th birthday.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Crazy Stuff, Science & Technology News

5 Deadly Sci-Fi Gadgets You Can Build

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Do it yourself can be cool or maybe deadly but hey its always fun to build crazy stuff

It’s 2009. Where are our jetpacks? And laser guns? It seems like the cool stuff of sci-fi movies is now the stuff of the billion-dollar military programs, and equally unavailable to us common folk. What the hell?

Well, if you’re tired of waiting for this stuff to turn up on store shelves, it turns out a whole lot of these working sci-fi staples can be built on your living room floor. All it takes is some off-the-shelf parts, a little creativity and a complete disregard for your own safety. Continue reading… “5 Deadly Sci-Fi Gadgets You Can Build”

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Great New Product, Internet, New Inventions

iFlyz Holds Your Mobile Device While Flying

iFlyz Holds Your Mobile Device While Flying 

 iFlyz

Holding your mobile device in your hand is not exactly hard work, but it can get tiring and lead to hand strain as you browse the internet and play your favorite music while travellng on a plane. Using just a suction cup on a flexible rod to grasp your gadget, the iFlyz can take care of your iPhone for you as you surf the net or watch a movie hands free.

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