Posts in Gadgets
For the unstable: A self-balancing unicycle
Leslie Katz | Oct 22, 2008
(Credit: Focus Design)
Well, Jeff, if you and your friend had been riding the electric self-balancing unicycle from Focus Designs, half the girls at Monte Vista Middle School probably would have plastered foxy pictures of you and your bud inside their lockers.
Riders of this 21st century bike don't need to pedal; in fact, there are no crank arms, just foot rests. The 24.6lb SBU stays upright using electronics including accelerometers and gyroscopes with sophisticated balancing algorithms.
Still, the "self-balancing" part of the moniker here is slightly misleading. The SBU is actually a rider-assist vehicle that combines at least a bit of the user's balancing skill with control mechanisms. Think of it as the Segway of unicycles.
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Open It protects your hands from sharp plastic
Dong Ngo | Oct 22, 2008
(Credit: Zibra)
One of the things I hate about my job, and there aren't many of them, is opening packages. Especially when I receive one of those products that comes in an annoying airtight clamshell plastic case that requires brute force and a sharp knife to open. I don't like sharp knifes, nor do I like the shape edges of the plastic cases.
For this reason, I was very excited to find out about the new Open It Zibra introduced on Tuesday. It's not rocket science, just a tool designed to open all types of hard plastic cases while keeping your hands free from the edges. The device features patented angular jaws engineered to provide maximum leverage while cutting.
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Move over pinochle, Web surfing stimulates aging brains
Michelle Meyers | Oct 21, 2008
Functional MRI brain scans show how searching the Internet dramatically engages brain neural networks (in red). The image on the left displays brain activity while reading a book; the image on the right displays activity while engaging in an Internet search.
(Credit: UCLA Newsroom)
The University of California at Los Angeles this week gave us the perfect antidote to Nick Carr's musings in The Atlantic about how the Internet is turning us into multitasking scatterbrains with diminishing attention spans.
A group of scientists found that searching the Internet doesn't make computer-savvy, middle-aged and older adults stupid. It actually triggers key centers in the brain that control decision making and complex reasoning. In other words, we might not have to resort to word puzzles and pinochle to fend off senility.
The study, reportedly the first of its kind to assess the impact of Internet searching on brain performance, will be published in an upcoming issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
"The study results are encouraging, that emerging computerized technologies may have physiological effects and potential benefits for middle-aged and older adults," said principal investigator Dr Gary Small, a professor at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. "Internet searching engages complicated brain activity, which may help exercise and improve brain function."
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Noriko-san Goggles for napping commuters
Juniper Foo | Oct 21, 2008
Via Inter News
See the real size of gadgets with Pective
Josh Lowensohn | Oct 21, 2008
Pective does a pretty good job matching up T-Mobile's G1 with the on-screen version. It actually looks closer than this, but it's hard to tell since it's sticking an inch off the computer's screen. (Credit: Josh Lowensohn/CNET Networks)
Say you're shopping for laptops online and you're trying to figure out how big one is just by its product photo and measurements. It's not easy is it?
If you can't make it to a retailer to get your grubby mitts on it, there's a new solution called Pective. Like Sizeasy, which I checked out last year, the site is set up to help consumers find out the general size of something based on its measurements. In Pective's case, the tool goes one step further by using product photos and scaling them to match the size screen you're using.
The site is chock full of cell phones, which you can get a good feel for--especially when it comes to holding your old phone side by side. In the photo below I've matched it up with T-Mobile's G1, which may look a little bigger than it should, but keep in mind that it's sticking out about an inch off the screen. If you find something that's noticeably off you can vote to have it enlarged or reduced, which instantly changes it by one size measurement.
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