Thursday, April 26, 2007
Glo Pillow Simulates Sunrise to Gently Wake You Up
11:48PM Seamus Byrne | Say goodbye to that obnoxious alarm clock, scaring you out of bed every morning with its cacophonous din. Now you can rage against the dying of the light with the Glo Pillow, gently waking you up with soft LED lights, slowly increasing their brightness over 40 minutes just like the sunrise. Also embedded under a few layers of cushiony foam is a digital display, perfect for those who sleep with their heads completely buried face down into the pillow. Even though this tech seems far-fetched, the pillow’s display and lighting are designed around an LED woven substrate that’s been actually demonstrated by Philips. But the Glo Pillow is just a design concept so far, and a few problems have yet to be worked out, such as, would a serious bout of night sweats turn into a shocking experience? It also might be a bit daunting to spend, say, $1000 on a pillow just so you can go gentle into that good night, but nobody’s talking price just yet. – Charlie White Glo Pillow Gently Wakes You In 40 Minutes [Yanko Design] More »
Shock Absorber Pen For Rough Writers
11:27PM Seamus Byrne | This Shock Absorber Pen can smooth things out a bit when you get a little too rambunctious with your writing. We’ve never seen a pen built to look exactly like a car part before, but here it is, a working miniature shock absorber with a ballpoint pen inside. Looks like this might be rather annoying for any actual writing, where you’ll have to go through that entire shock-absorbing gyration just to lift the pen off the page. Anyway, it might look spiffy in a fancy pen holder as a desk ornament. Get yours in silver or blue for $23. – Charlie White galleryPost('shockpen', 4, 'Shock Absorber Pen'); Product Page (Korean) [Funshop, via TFTS] More »
Lomme Bed: More than just an iPod Dock with a Be-Thonged Lay-dee Inside
11:08PM Seamus Byrne | While we at Gizmodo are no strangers to beds, it is with some embarrassment that I feel the need to come clean. Never have I had the pleasure to wake up and find a lady sprawled, all casual-like and thong-tastic in mine. But that’s just me. I’m not sure if this lady comes free with the Lomme bed – but if she does, let me say now that this egg basket-shaped model will be a BESTSELLER. Oh yes indeedy. To enhance your pleasure, the Lomme comes with sexy lighting, a muscle relaxing system (now you’re scaring me) and an iPod dock, so you can thrill your Comes-Free-With-The-Bed lady with that Linkin Park gig you downloaded last week, and recreate how you think the concert lighting should have been. As to whether she’ll stay around or not – well, your guess is as good as mine. The downside? It’s only available in Liechtenstein at the moment, so that probably means it’s ’spensivo. – Ad Dugdale Product Page [Lomme via Sci-Fi Blog] More »
Miuro Robot Speaker: Takes Your iPod and Wireless Music Around the House, Comes in Yellow [verdict: I WANT ONE]
10:36PM Seamus Byrne | Announced last year in Japan, the Miuro is now ready to go around the house on its own. The robot speaker on wheels who follows you about like an annoying child (but with better tunes) is available not just in white but in a number of hot fruity colors like Lemon Sunburst and Acid Orange* as well as basic black. Miuro will connect now to your 802.11b/g wireless network to stream music from your PC or play Internet radio. It will also connect to the PC to use the new Autonomous Motion Package, a $166 PC software that uses Miuro’s camera to map your home or office and allows you tell him where to go. In addition to the PC, an extra $133 will buy you the optional Remote Communication Package, which allows you to use your cellphone to send Miuro toddling off to its destination, taking a photo of the place with his built-in camera on arrival. There’s a gallery below and full specs and pricing are after the jump. galleryPost('miuro', 8, 'miuro'); More »
Korejanai Robo USB Memory Stick: More Stick than Memory
8:16PM Seamus Byrne | Here’s a Korejanai USB memory stick. It’s cute and it doesn’t make me hungry like Solid Alliance’s USB food does. But it cost $59 (plus $12 shipping) and, should you choose to spunk your cash on it, your $71 will only get you 256MB-worth of memory. Bad Korejani. – Ad Dugdale Product Page [Audiocubes via UberGizmo] More »
QED Crutches: Look Good Even When You Feel Bad
7:35PM Seamus Byrne | Great colors, these crutches. They make a change from the usual scratched steel pair with a tatty sticking plaster running up the side with “Weemawee General Infirmary” scrawled on it in biro. These are from German design firm qed*, who like to make everyday life “more pleasurable and sensible” – hmmm. The only drawback that I can see with these, though, is that they are not adjustable. Doctor Ruth and Yao Ming, these crutches are not for you. – Ad Dugdale Product Page [qed design via MedGadget] More »
Rezap: Local battery adapter source
3:48PM Seamus Byrne | A hot tip from Mr Curly pointed us to a great site that does batteries galore for the Aussie market.
Rezap does battery converters like the ones mentioned earlier, but at a cheaper price (scarily plastic, but $5.50 for 2xC and 2xD adapters). There is also a universal recharger station for $79.95, which claims recharging of Titanium, Alkaline, RAM, Ni-Cd, and Ni-MH batteries. Is that for real? How does that even work? Power aficionados, start your engines.
USB and phone adapter battery charges are here too. Definitely worth a squiz. -Seamus Byrne
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PS3 Folding Update Coming Mañana, Adds More Speed
2:18PM Seamus Byrne | Just a quick note about the PlayStation 3 Folding @ Home app that’s been all the rage lately—you know, because there aren’t very many actual games to play on the system. Tomorrow Sony’s releasing an update that both increases folding performance (nice) and improves the user location display map so you can see where you and others are doing their folding. Hit the jump to see the full release. More »What’s in store for .au?
12:02PM Seamus Byrne | We’re getting a lot of questions about what an Aussie version of Gizmodo can do for you. While it’s early days and like any blog we’re slowly finding our feet, here’s a few things that will be hitting Gizmodo Australia real soon:
Dealzmodo Australia: yes, flagging deals that will actually matter to you. If you spot any, feel free to share through the local tips address.
Local competitions: Seen cool stuff on offer at Giz USA but haven’t been able to take out the prizes? We will have stuff to give away very soon, and it is just for you Australians. Yes, we are hoping to buy your love…
When is it coming out here? The classic question, and we’ll aim to get the local knowledge on releases and pricing.
More stuff!:Gizmodo USA + Gizmodo Australia = more stuff! Yes, we’re a bit thin on original content while we get rolling, but we’ll be upping the posts and blogger count as we ramp things up. Local tips help big time, so send ‘em if you got ‘em.
Easier commenting: We want you to get involved, so we’ve got a much easier comment process live right now. Submit, and it’ll appear soon after. Too easy.
Feel free to share any thoughts, by email or comment. Notes attached to house bricks will be thrown out without being read, so you’re on notice.
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