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Houdini Pro Emergency Rescue Tool Busts You Out Of a Wrecked Or Drowning Car
Posted by Jason Chen at 9:37 AM on November 20, 2008
The Houdini and Houdini Pro are two emergency car tools that improve your chances of not dying when faced with a crashed or sinking car. It's much like the seatbelt cutters and window shatterers that have been on the market for a while, but also comes with a safety whistle and LED light. The Pro upgrades the seat belt cutter to the big boy status that can get you out of automotive messes that leave you upside down. They're $US25 and $US40 respectively. Until the days when your kung fu training enables you to punch out a window with your fist and clip your seatbelt with "scissor fingers", we'd go with these. [Houdini Tool via Gear Diary]
This pocket-sized mobile charger from Brando not only juices the most common mobile devices on the market--including all iPhone and iPods, any mobile phone by a major company, and handheld gaming consoles--it also acts as an emergency torch if you suddenly find yourself in the dark. The light will last about 5 hours and is charged via USB. If you think you're headed toward a blackout of some sort in the future, pick one up from Brando's store for $US32 (with 
You know how it is: you're camping in the wild, and your iPhone suddenly runs out of juice, just as you get bored stiff with the music selection you've got aboard it. Previously you'd've had to carry a bunch of stuff around to sort this out, but Macally's PowerLink has come to the rescue. With USB plug on one end and 30-pin iPod connector on the other, it acts as a sync cable, but has a battery inside to give you a squirt of extra power if you're in a pinch. It also packs a 2GB flash drive, but you'll need to get mp3's off that via iTunes, sadly. No info on how long the battery lasts, but as a 3-in-1 gizmo it's pretty useful. Out "soon" for US$49.99. [
The British company behind the Juicebar are billing it as "the world's slimmest emergency phone charger." The device looks about as big as a cardboard coaster, but apparently it is capable of powering up a phone for up to 480 minutes of standby, or around 60 minutes of talk time depending on the device. Full charge is reached in about an hour, but you are free to talk anytime during that period. 
This concept is a gizmo which you'd have in a first aid kit to help you if someone collapses and needs CPR. You'd whack it on the chest of the ill person, line it up and follow its instructions. It flashes to give you proper timing, and clicks to let you know you're using the right chest-compression pressure (it's harder than you think). It looks pretty simple, and is exactly the sort of thing that might help save a few lives in an emergency. Best of all, it's a classic case of nominative determinism in action: its designer is Ryan Helps. [
Sure, there are 
You never know when a partying emergency will strike—which is why you must always 
The government is hard at work on updating the Emergency Broadcast System, moving it away from the TV, where you could not see a warning until you watch that TiVo'd episode of Battlestar a week after a tornado swept away your trailer home. It's instead at work creating an emergency text message program, allowing the government to send you a text message if some bad shit starts going down near you.
Perfect for those early Lost-style situations, (if you can convince airport security that you're not going to bum rush the cockpit once you get on the plane, that is) this survival kit-in-a-can has just about everything you need should you be stranded in the middle of nowhere. Airtight, waterproof and crushproof, and with 25 indispensable items from chewing gum to razor blade, fire starter, tea bag and fish hook and line, the kit floats in water. Measuring 4.25" x 3" x 9", the survival kit costs US$12.99, and you can see everything it's got in the gallery below. [
