Giro Contact Goggles

Never miss a thing with the Giro Contact Goggles for snow sports. Using expansion view technology (EXV), you get a wider range of peripheral vision to get the whole picture. These goggles also feature magnetic interchangeable lenses, a revolutionary feature for goggles in the industry. The Contact Goggles ergonomically rest on your face with triple layer foam finished with a fleece liner, giving you the ultimate all day comfort you need while providing unmatched protection from the harsh elements of the weather and temperature. The frameless design is finished off with an anti-fog coating, furthering your visual abilities no matter what the conditions. Great for skiers and snowboarders alike, the Giro Contact Goggles let you quickly adapt to lighting changes in just seconds.

Continuance Batteries – Give AND Take via USB

We’ve all been there, completely immersed in a long involved phone call and you hear the dreaded battery-beep. “Are you getting another call?” asks the person on the other end. “No, my battery is going dead.” and then you look around frantically, hoping that by some stretch of luck an electrical outlet will magically appear… and more often than not, it never does. You inform the other party that you are going to lose them, defeated, and ashamed.

Well here is a concept that I really hope comes to pass, The Continuance Battery — designed by Haimo Bao, Hailong Piao, Yuancheng Liu and Xiameng Hu, this rather ordinary looking AA battery isn’t so ordinary after all. Not only is it an earth friendly rechargeable battery that can traditionally power any AA hungry device, but it is charged via USB AND has the ability to add some emergency power to any device that can be charged via USB as well!

“Can you hear me now?” Anyway, it’s only a concept at the moment, but it seems like one of those ideas that could change lots of things, and it would certainly be easy to rotate out a spare Continuance battery in my glove compartment or purse and always have an extra bit of juice when I need it. I don’t know how many times I’ve been searching for a free outlet in a restaurant or movie theater. I don’t often venture into the wilderness, but I guess it would be handy there too!

There has been some discussion about higher discharge rates and lower capacity due to the extra circutry, Blah blah blah, I’m not sure I understand most of it, my electronics knowledge barely extends past a rousing game of “Operation” but I sure hope these guys can figure it out, because I need a few dozen.

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Ramos Alarm Clock – When Oversleeping is simply NOT an Option.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but I’m a serial “alarm setter”. What this means is that if I have an important event, like catching a plane or a court appearance (never been to court, and I wasn’t speeding anyway) I not only set my regular alarm clock, but one or two backup alarms, just in case the regular one doesn’t wake me up. Its a horrible little obsessive habit, but I never saw my way around it, until now.

Welcome the Ramos Alarm Clock, possibly the most demanding (and therefore effective) alarm clocks available today. It looks gentle enough, with its lovely hardwood exterior, in a variety of finishes, but “set it and forget it” wont work here. Once it goes off, you’ll know what I mean. In order to disarm this alarm you must first memorize the specially generated code and enter it onto a panel, ideally located somewhere far away from the coziness of your soft, warm bed.

The developer, Paul Sammut, made this clock a Kickstater Project, an interesting concept in an of itself, by which developers require the support of interested parties, or backers in order to fufill orders, or complete projects.

Anyway, this clock, and its independent wireless touch panel will definitely prevent you from just hitting the snooze bar until your flight to who knows where is on the tarmac and ready for takeoff. Of course, now that I think about it, does it have a battery back-up? I mean, what if we have a power failure? Will it work if theres a power failure? The answer is.. YES!

The Ramos Alarm is available in a few different versions, including custom handmade units, with the basic design starting at around 150 bucks. Check out kickstarter.com for more information on the Ramos clock, or to better understand the mission of the kickstarter program.

Transparent smartphone

Transparent anything is cool. Seriously, things that are see through automatically scream ‘futuristic’ based on all the sci-fi shows and movies that used transparent props. They sort of defy all logic, especially when technology is involved. Yet liquid crystal technology and its constant switching open and closed are being put to use to make a transparent phone possible. Which makes me wonder, will we someday lose our phones because we literally can’t see it?

A few companies, including, Polytron Technologies are working to produce a transparent smartphone. Their Smart Glass technology looks cloudy white. But when powered on the switching molecules open up and the device becomes opaque. Obviously other technology in the phone (SIM card, SD card, battery, speaker, camera) are not transparent. Polytron anticipates having an opaque filter to cover those less sexy spots. Working prototypes are expected this year and with any luck Polytron will find some interested phone manufacturers and become an OEM partner. So keep an eye out (if you can see them) for transparent phones in the near future.

BW1 Hovercraft

The game of golf has not had many transportation revelations in its history. The pull cart helped get the bag off the back. And of course the golf cart made the game even easier for lazy people and made long, hilly courses more bearable. But even those have limitations like not driving on the green or not being able to get across water. Hard to imagine that anything else could really change how we get around the course. Until now.

Masters champion Bubba Watson teamed up with Oakley to come up with the next generation golf cart – Bubba’s Hover – the first hovercraft golf cart. Designers took the principles of a cart and the levitation-like technology that a hovercraft uses and combined them to come up with a wacky-looking but functional vehicle. It travels on land and water and even through trees. The footprint pressure of the cart is less than of a human, meaning it could traverse greens. OK, so it may not be the most convenient looking thing to get in and out of, but you have to admit that it does work. There are no plans to manufacture the cart now but boy, wouldn’t greens keepers love it if they did!

Augmented Reality Tattoos work well with the Nintendo 3DS

About one year ago, I did an article about augmented reality tattoos. It was a Beunos Aries-based software producer who had the AR marker on their flesh, thanks to a company known as ThinkAnApp.

A YouTube user name Cranberryzero realized that the 3DS is a terrific excuse to get his own AR tattoo, and he posted his work and the results on I Heart Chaos. You can see the video after the jump, and the results are quite impressive.

I’m not certain what kind of game he is playing on his arm, but you notice the shakiness of it. What is really interesting is the effect of creating a pit on his arm, and it almost looks like you can look through his wrist.

Still, it is pretty impressive to play a game on your arm with graphics floating over it, and this is the appeal of augmented reality. Granted, you might not want a permanent mark there. I don’t know how long augmented reality will be around, and I wouldn’t want to be the grandpa that has to explain to his grandkids why there is a strange tattoo on my arm.

Perhaps this effect could be done with a temporary tattoo. By the way, the video doesn’t show a Mii character on the wrist. I think this is a doctored photo from my Source.

TiGr Bike Lock

I have seen a lot of bike locks in the past, but most of them are pretty tricky when it comes to storing on the bicycle.

The TiGr is a titanium “bow” that its extremely flexible, and it has “lock claims flexibility, hack-proof strength, and a sexy design worthy of your ride”. It can stretch out to about five foot five inches, and then both ends lock together.

As you can see, it is one of those bikes that locks the wheels together so that no one can ride off with it. Personally, I like the type that lock up against something like a tree or a bar, but that is just me.

Pepsi unveils its new Social Vending program

Pepsi has figured out a way to tie-in social networking with their product once again with their Social Vending program.

I believe that this idea actually requires some special soda vending machines that have touchscreens and have to be connected to the Internet or a phone line of some type. Not only will these new machines let you buy a Pepsi product, but you will be able to send one to another location.

All you need to do is enter in your friend’s cell phone number, and soon a text message will appear on your friend’s mobile device that will contain a redeemable code to be used at one of the aforementioned special Pepsi machines. You can even send a 10-second video message, or even send a Pepsi product to a complete stranger at random. I’m not sure precisely how all this works or is supposed to work, but you can see Pepsi’s video presentation of this service after the jump.

Alienware unveils M18x gaming machine

Dell, when they bought over the Alienware brand some years back, had many people wondering whether this is going to be the start of the brand going downhill since Dell doesn’t really know much about dedicated gaming notebooks as their lineup had been more of the casual user types. Well, we’re rather pleased to say that Dell has done a pretty good job thus far, leaving Alienware intact in terms of branding without really interfering on what’s going on, so most users would not really be able to tell the difference in the newer Alienware offerings.

Well, Alienware is proud to attempt to redefine mobile gaming yet again with the M18x gaming notebook, and is proud to announce that said machine is the “most powerful 18-inch gaming laptop in the universe”. We’ll see about that in the extended post as we pore over its specifications, so make sure you’ve got a tub of chips ready just in case there is more than a pinch of salt in that claim that you might want to season those chips with.

The M18x is touted to deliver dual-graphics technology, making it the industry’s only Intel Core i7 Extreme CPU option that has been factory overclocked to 4GHz. With optional wireless HD audio and video that delivers latency-free streaming to larger displays, you will also find that HDMI 1.4 connectivity will be able to send over 3D images and video – over to 3D-capable HDTVs, of course.

Apart from that, SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports ensure you will be able to enjoy up to 10x the speed of USB 2.0 connections, making data transfer a snap even for super large files. Some of the features and specifications of the M18x include :

• An 18.4-inch FHD WLED 1080p display for the best visuals possible
• Powerful Dual GPU options with the fastest graphics memory (GDDR5) on all graphics options
• Both AMD and NVIDIA graphics options, in Crossfire X and SLI, respectively
• New Intel “Huron River” Architecture with a new factory overclocked Intel Core i7 Extreme Quad Core processor up to 4GHz
• Upgradeable to up to 32GB 1333MHz memory
• HDMI/Display Port output & HDMI-in
• Wireless HD & 3D output options, delivering low-latency high-def content wirelessly or output to 3D displays
  
  
  

9 Tools to Help You Stay Green on Earth Day

Earth Day is this Friday. And it's always good to take a moment to think about ways to screw up this planet a little less. Realistically, we're not going to give up our gadgets (which aren't always environmentally friendly), but we can at least come up with ways to make them less destructive, ya know?

Belkin Conserve Socket: Belkin's Conserve line has an array of eco-friendly surge protectors and power strips, but our favorite is the Conserve Socket. Some devices will continue to suck power, even if they're not turned on. The Conserve Socket will cut power to any plugged-in device after a set interval of time. $10.

Naturemill XE Compost Bin: Often thought of as an outdoor activity, composting is a frequently overlooked way to deal with waste. However, Naturemill makes indoor composting units which will take your biodegradable trash (up to 120 pounds a month) and break it down into nutrient-rich soil in as quick as two weeks without making your house smell foul. $300.

Nissan Leaf Electric Car: The Chevy Volt may have come out first sponged up the early accolades, but the Nissan Leaf is actually the greener car of the two. With an equivalent fuel efficiency rating of 99 miles per gallon, the Leaf bests the Volt by 6 mpg. Plus it has an awesome dashboard which pits your own efficiency stats against fellow Leaf owners. It's currently only up for pre-order, but will be eligible for a $7500 tax credit, bringing the sticker price down to the $25,000 range.

Solar Joos Portable Charger: Like its name implies, the tablet-sized, polycarbonate forged Solar Joos will catch a few rays, and turn that into battery life for personal gadgets, like your phone and laptop. For every hour you let the Joos sit in the sun, it will give you two hours of 3G talk time. Plus you can plug it into your computer and keep track of how much energy you've generated. $100.

Smart Faucet: The Smart Faucet may look simple, but this little on/off mechanism for sinks could save you upwards of 5000 gallons of water a year. The time it takes for you to turn a sink faucet on, fill a glass or rinse a dish, then turn the faucet off will always result in wasted water. The Smart Faucet only turns on when you hold an object against it, and immediately kicks off when you move that object away. $29.

Eco Media Player: The Eco Media Player lives up to its name by using a hand-crank for power. Spin the dynamo for a minute and it yields 45 minutes of playback time (you can also charge it via USB for 55 hours of playback time). And it works nice with all the major file formats including MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC and OGG, storing files on SD card or on the 4 gigs of internal memory. ~$165.

PolarMax TransDry Cotton Shirt: LED and CFL bulbs are cool and more environmentally friendly, but they don't offer the same warmth of light as a traditional incadescent bulb...except one. The 12.5W Philips AmbientLED last 25 times longer (around six years) than standard bulbs and uses 80% less power, while giving off that beautiful warm glow. And it's dimmable! $40.

Samsung Reclaim Cellphone: We all switch cellphones so often (relatively speaking), that components and batteries are just piled up into unrecyclable waste. The Samsung Reclaim is made entirely from recycled components, attempting to put those parts to good use. Plus, Sprint tosses a couple of bucks from every phone purchased to an environmentally-focused charity. Free (with 2 yr. contract).

Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard: In the age of living room PCs, and tablet devices, we're beginning to love the wireless keyboard more and more. But Earth hates the endless flow of disposable and lithium-ion batteries that these devices use. That's why Logitech's solar-powered wireless keyboard is a happy compromise. $60