Anyone with a yen for hi-tech wizardry on the decoration front will want to get their hands on Lutron’s Vierti LED dimmers. Touch sensitive, you just run your finger up and down the LED display strip to get the lighting you want. Touch the bottom section of the light strip and your lights go off or on, while the top half works the dimmer.
This 5′ tall animated Frankenstein’s monster will move its arms, twist its hips and play spooky noises through its integrated speakers whenever it detects someone walking past. Adults will get a kick out of it, and children will never sleep properly again. The monster is accurate all the way down to the neck bolts and sutured scars, and runs on AC power.
Set this panoramic camera down on a flat surface and it will spin around like a top to take a 360º image. It will record to a memory card, and can take video, too. Devices like this are fairly limited, but if you regularly find yourself in deserts, up on mountain peaks or in the middle of salt flats, then you could probably justify the cost.
Michael Smith, creator of the Perplex City puzzle game may be a little slow to deliver that second season, but it doesn’t mean that he’s been sitting around doing nothing. His next brainchild is Moshi Monsters, a mash of Tamagotchi, Pokemon and NintenDogs, with heaping helpings of MySpace and LeapFrog ladeled over it for good measure.
Universal announced it will start selling DRM-free music through a variety of outlets, but iTunes won’t be one of them. [New York Times]
Audiophiles will stop at nothing to reach aural nirvana, which is the only justification for RISE’s existence. Hand crafted in Italy, RISE is a CD player in which the various components (power source, control panel, and a Philips CD reader) are stashed in separate aluminum boxes to eliminate all mechanical and electromagnetic interference. Pricing is done on a request-only basis, but like most Italian luxury products, you can rest assured that if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it. galleryPost('risecdplayer', 4, 'RISE Italian CD Player'); [RISE via Gadgetell]
The Microsoft/Ford partnership in-car audio system, officially dubbed Sync, was priced today as a $395 option on this fall’s Ford Focus, Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX vehicles. Sync integrates your digital audio player and/or cellphone with your car’s stereo system, allowing you to control your listening experience via voice commands or the on-wheel buttons. Worried about that looming texting while driving ban? Sync will read your text messages aloud so you can keep your eyes on the road. Ford plans to integrate Sync into nine additional 2008 models this year. [PhysOrg]
iPhoto + .Mac + iPhone = pretty cool syncing of photos to and from your handset and desktop. Couple of things not addressed in the video: a) images sent from the iPhone are actually sent using the mail program, to your gallery’s specific email address, and so images are 640 by 480. When you sync them from .mac to iPhoto, they’re this size, and when you sync images by docking, it’ll dupe your images instead of replacing the smaller copy. But I am astounded by how fast the system works.
I’ve had minutes of fun with Robosapien. Yes, minutes! This latest creation from WowWee actually looks like it could find a place in my home. The Roboboa is a cool robotic snake with umpteen features thrown in (well, 41 is the official count). My favourite is its tracking mode – sometimes it will decide to just lock onto someone in the room and watch them wherever they go. How wonderfully freakish!
This limited edition monstrosity is a tribute to the original, modestly-sized Anglepoise 1227 lamp which turns 70 this year. If you have a giant table that needs a reading light or just some pesky old folks who you’d like to terrorize, you can order one of these handmade gigantic lamps straight from England for around $3,365. [Giant Anglepoise 1227 via Retro To Go]
