TechCat

When I reported on the first attempt at an intercontinental jet-pack flight, I stated that it usually takes a Charles Lindbergh transatlantic flight before some new technology literally takes off.

Such was the case of the Scarlet Knight, which is officially the first underwater glider to cross 4,591 miles of the Atlantic ocean. It traveled for 221 days to make the journey across.

The underwater glider was built by a team from Rutgers University, who named it the Scarlet Knight after Rutgers sports even though it is yellow. Rutgers partnered with the Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Peurtos Del Estado (Spanish Port Authority), the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, and many others.

NOAA assistant administrator believes that an important milestone has been achieved, and “opens new frontiers in oceanography”. He went on to say that “it is through efforts like this that we will continue to learn more about the wonders of the ocean at a critical time for our planet”. I’m assuming that by critical time, he is talking about climate change and other environmental damage.

The Scarlet Knight isn’t the only underwater glider that Rutgers University has. Right now, they have seven of them at the cost of New Jersey. The success of the Scarlet Knight will insure that more underwater gliders will be charting vital information about the ocean.

Source

Click here to view the embedded video.

TeleNav GPS Navigator is getting into the holiday spirit in a neat way. All month you can let Santa’s voice guide you as you use the terrific GPS Navigation system on your mobile phone. The seasonal “update” will cost you $.99 but even there the company is getting into the spirit of the month- ALL proceeds will go to Toys For Tots.

A full description follows. Oh, and be on the lookout over the next few days because we are kicking up our holiday giveaway with a few subscriptions to the service!

… [visit site to read more]

Related posts:

1. And Winners Of Our AT&T Navigator / Telenav Giveaway Are…
2. AT&T Navigator Giveaway – Last Day To Enter
3. The iPhone Navigation Parade Continues: AT&T Navigator (Telenav)

Tags: Apple iPhone and Touch Applications, BlackBerry Software, GPS

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I haven’t been skiing in over a decade, and there were times that I got lost on the slopes. They didn’t have navigation units or cellular phones back then, but this new device from Recon Instruments could turn skiing into a very high-tech experience.

The Recon Instruments ski goggles have a miniature heads-up display that can show the skier’s position on the slopes, as well as the location of his or her friends. You can even use the GPS function to guide the ski patrol to you in case you crash and burn on the slopes.

Not bad, but that is not all they do. It can also display altitude, temperature, as well as recording the skier’s speed the height that he or she has jumped.

It also has a camera, CPU, and storage. The controls are conveniently on the side for easy manipulation, but that might be difficult with a pair of thick gloves on.

Man, I remember back when ski goggles with an anti-fogging fan was a technological advancement. This one looks like you could watch a video or listen to music while waiting in the lift line. What I would have given for a pair of these goggles back in my skiing heyday.

Recon Technologies isn’t planning to release these models until next year. The price is rumored to be quite high, at $350.

Source

Dragging your luggage behind you is about the most boring thing you could possibly do.  It’s just barely better than standing around watching paint dry.  Instead of wheeling around your luggage like usual, you could ride on this Samsonite luggage that happens to have a built-in scooter.  It doesn’t get much more awesome than that.  Instead of feeling weighed down and stressed, you can feel years younger as you swerve around the slow people with the normal luggage.

Luckily, if you no longer want to use the scooter or just aren’t allowed to use it in your current location, the scooter portion can be folded up.  Then you just roll it around like you normally would.  The suitcase itself is so small that it’s entirely possible you may even be able to use it as your carry-on bag.  After all, it is actually pretty slim once it’s all folded up.  Certain details on the scooter are limited though, such as where to pick one up or how much it’ll cost you.

Source: OhGizmo

We’ve said it before, the Mophie Juice Pack Air is the iPhone Power-User’s best friend. It looks good, it adds tons of run-time and it doubles as a case. It… is… awesome! And the new soft-touch red Mophie Juice Pack Air is stylish too! At just $79.95 we consider it a “must-have” accessory.

You could order one HERE, but we are giving one away to our friends. Why are we giving one away? Because we love them and we are celebrating! What are we celebrating?

Read on to find out and to learn how to enter and win…

… [visit site to read more]

Related posts:

1. Mophie to introduce Juice Pack Air – thinner, full protection, integrated power switch
2. Mophie Juice Pack for 3G iPhone – Trick or Treat?
3. Day 2: Week of iPhone accessory giveaways – Mophie Juice Pack

Tags: Apple iPhone and Touch Gear, Contests & Giveaways, Facebook, Power Gear

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Stop to think about this for a minute. Your GPS is on your car’s windshield and your garage-door opener is probably on your visor, right? You also probably have the Home location programmed as, well, your home. But what’s stopping someone from breaking into your car when you’re obviously not home and stealing both of them, which will not only give the crooks turn-by-turn directions to your house but also let them enjoy the privacy of your garage? Are you really trusting Paul Blart and mall security that much?

A pair in metro Detroit were just nabbed for using that very tactic. They are accused of stealing property from 17 cities in lower Michigan and one in Ohio. The 23-year olds were caught only after their pawn activity was flagged as suspicious.

You’re better off if you program your home as a local restaurant or major cross-street in the GPS, somewhere well out of range of a garage-door opener. Chances are you probably know how to get home from the local McDonalds anyway, right?

Check out these “Prank Pack” fake gift boxes. Great way to pull a prank on those you love this holiday season. Just be careful, they might get mad enough to throw punches. I know I would be pretty pissed off if I thought I was getting some sweet coffee mugs with built-in walkie talkies, only to open the box to find socks or some other crappy gift. So be warned, anybody who pulls this with me is in for a world of hurt. You don’t mess around with a man’s hopes and dreams.

Also available are: Beer Beard: Sneak beverages into sporting events under a fake beard, Birdie Belt: GPS rangefinder, belt, and buckle with integrated tools and tee storage, Noggin’ Net: Hat that doubles as a fishing net, Motorized Rolling Pin: 1/16-horsepower motorized rolling pin and the Wake & Bake Griddle: Combination alarm clock and breakfast griddle.

$8 each.

[CG]

After more than five years of waiting, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is ready to be unveiled to the public tonight at a ceremony in the Mojave desert. Following on the success of SpaceShipOne in 2004, the six passenger SpaceShipTwo already has a backlog of more than 300 passengers who are waiting for their ride into space.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, legendary aerospace designer Burt Rutan  and a host of VIPs are gathered at a hangar at Scaled Composites in Mojave where SpaceShipTwo is set to have the covers removed later this evening. The spacecraft has been built in almost total secrecy starting in 2007. The vehicle to be unveiled tonight is expected to be the first of six or seven that will make up a fleet of spacecraft operating out of the Virgin Galactic space port in New Mexico.

SpaceShipTwo is larger than its predecessor, SpaceShipOne, the first private manned spacecraft that won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. Using a similar design as SpaceShipOne, the larger SpaceShipTwo will also be dropped from a larger White Knight Two aircraft before igniting a rocket motor that will  carry the two pilots and six passengers to an altitude of  more than 62 miles. From that vantage point, passengers will be able to see the curvature of the earth, the deep black sky of space and will even have a few minutes to unbuckle their seatbelts and float around the cabin.

After the fasten seatbelt sign is turned back on, SpaceShipTwo will utilize the same feather mode reentry where the spacecraft will descend back into the atmosphere similar to a badminton birdie. Once in the atmosphere, pilots will return the wing to its flying position and land SpaceShipTwo on the runway like the space shuttle or any other glider.

Flight testing is expected to begin early next year. First flights will be captive carry flights with SpaceShipTwo staying attached to White Knight Two. After that the flight test team will begin glide flights in SpaceShipTwo and eventually powered flights with the rocket motor. Once flight testing is complete and the government regulations have been met, Virgin Galactic plans to regularly fly passengers into space from the company’s New Mexico space port.

“SS2 has been designed to take many thousands of private astronauts into space after test programming and all required U.S. government licensing has been completed,” Virgin Galactic said in a statement.

Stay tuned for more details after the unveiling later tonight.

Images: Virgin Galactic

A couple of boffins from Japan’s Keio University didn’t have enough YouTube in their lives, so they have developed a microwave aimed at other geeks just like them. I’m talking a YouTube-powered microwave. Because heating up those hotpockets can get boring.

The “Castoven” is based on a conventional, unbranded model of “good quality” and features a 10.4-inch LCD screen in the door panel and speakers. It’s connected to a Mac, but could easily work with Windows computers as well.

The idea is to display a YouTube video whose length matches the time you need to heat up what’s cookin. So if you want to cook a hotpocket for 1 minute and 5 seconds, the Castoven would automatically pull a video from YouTube with that length and put it on the screen. When the Cute kitty video stops, your food is done.

[Crunchgear]

Remember that James Bond movie with the Ice hotel? The entire hotel was sculpted out of Ice and it’s for real too. Everything in the hotel is completely usable. Similarly, artist Katie Paterson taken the idea and made recordings of 3 glaciers (the Langjökull, Snæfellsjökull and Solheimajökull) of Iceland.

She pressed them into three records that were cast and frozen with the melt water from each of the glaciers. When the time came, the records were played on three separate turntables non-stop until they melted. The process took only 2 hours.

Ice ice baby.

[New Launches]

It seems laptop case creators are getting smarter and smarter.  Instead of just doing the usual task of protecting your laptop and making it easier to take with you places, it does an extra function.  Just flip it around and you have yourself a handy little laptop desk.  You may not use the desk all the time, but having the option would be nice.  Be it while you’re carpooling or just lounging on the couch, it’d make messing with your laptop a bit more comfortable.

The case itself is not really anything to look at.  It’s not bad, it’s just nothing impressive either.  Since it is so incredibly useful though, it’d be easier to overlook the exterior of the case.  The bag will hold laptops up to 15.4 inches.  It’s made out of foam and rubber materials, which are meant to make the bag last longer and be more lightweight.  You can purchase it for $49.99.

Source: SlipperyBrick

Short Version: To put it simply, I didn’t know that I needed the Back case until I had one. The idea of a case with a built-in kickstand seemed worthwhile, but I didn’t think it was something I’d find myself using often. I was dead wrong.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Tomorrow could be a very big day for World of Warcraft fans. (And aren’t we all WoW fans?) Yes, players from Tokyo to Toledo, from London to Lima, are terribly excited about the possible release of the latest, and last, patch for Wrath of the Lich King. It’ll bring the game to version 3.3, and, more importantly, bring about the demise of Arthas. Boo, Arthas!

Right, well I mention this on the off chance that the patch might not even drop tomorrow—Blizzard has said it will release the patch provided there’s no last-minute glitches. No such glitches have been reported thus far, so it looks good from the outside looking in.

What can players expect? The big “get” is Icecrown Citadel, the final instance of Wrath of the Lich King. With this, players will link up with their guild mates to down the Lich King himself. (That’s the last “boss” of the game, if case you’re unaware.)

The downing of the Lich King brings an end to the storyline of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Which means Cataclysm can’t be too far away…

The adjustable collar releases an all-natural citronella spray when your dog barks. The harmless citrus smell and quick action of the spray mist startles and confuses the pet’s highly developed olfactory sense, causing him to stop barking.

link

An ideal gift for peanut butter nutters or anyone who enjoys spreading pulverised nuttiness on their toast and bagels, this easy-to-clean, mains powered device is destined to become one of your favourite kitchen appliances.

link

Nokia’s latest concept phone kicks things up a notch. The Nokia Unik was designed by French designer Clement Logereau and consists of 152 small tiles that allow the handset to transform itself. Well, you will have to transform it by adding new squares that are different in material and color.

The squares can be added after you purchase them from Nokia stores. Once they have your money, they come in metal, transparent and rubber. Yeah, it’s easy to see that this one will forever remain just a concept.

Though we do love that Space Invader.

[New Launches]

The push button base will ignite a flame to light your favorite candles, or a romantic fire.

link

Us guys don’t give women nearly enough credit. It ain’t easy being a woman, what with their monthly visits, the pain of giving birth and pressure to be rail thin, just to name a few of the trials they face. Then there are the gynecological visits. They don’t have it easy.

Millions of women go to their gynecologists every year for uncomfortable Pap Smear tests to make sure everything is working. Well, Zilco wants to help reduce the amount of waiting time to get results and eliminate stress with a new device that can do a quick and painless pap smear.

The device has a docking station and a probe. It bounces a mild electrical current across the cervix, so if there are any abnormal cells they will bounce the current back differently, giving you instant results.

[Ubergizmo]

Google Goggles or Visual Search is a new application for Android based phones that can offer a wealth of information about famous landmarks just by snapping a picture. The application makes use of the digital camera found on the mobile phone. Take a picture of something you’re interested in and the GPS-based location service on the phone will tie into the Google image database to bring up relevant search results including web pages and current news.

Google Goggles is being released as a free application through the Android marketplace and certainly, it will have uses in your local city but to someone traveling to a foreign country, this application could be a real asset offering nice touristy information about landmarks and famous places. According to Google, image search can sometimes be easier to perform and at times, provides the most accurate search results.

Via: T3

• Castoven – YouTube Video Playing Microwave
• Samsonite Roller Bag Turns Into Scooter
• Google Improves Customized Search Results
• Acer To Release First Ever Google Chromebook
• YouTube Coming Up With iTunes Killer?

© Coated, 2009.


Coated brings you the coolest gadgets and best geek toys.

Visual Search With Google Goggles |
Online News | Post tags: google, tourist, travel

The top Christmas games for the XBox 360. These choices are based on the chart positions of XBox games as of the week commencing Monday 7th December 2009. Although they may rise and fall I doubt there’ll be much in the way of change – although feel free to pitch in your recommendations in the comments! … [visit site to read more]

Top 10 XBox 360 Console Games for Christmas 2009 is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site – Gaj-It.com