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Archive for December 12th, 2009

Do-It-Yourself Book Scanning

Dec 12
Uncategorized

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you have a library of books that are not available in eBook form? Do you love combining power tools with classic novels? Then give this DIY book scanner a shot! Apparently it can scan up to 1200 pages an hour, depending on how fast you can manually turn the pages.

I highly recommend watching the video, as not only does it explain the reasons why the inventor created his book scanner, but he also gives a succinct, persuasive argument for the proliferation of eBooks over paper books. Plus it’s always worth watching when the instructions for how to build a scanner involve “dumpster diving”!

Remember, this is not for distribution purposes, and Gear Diary does not endorse or encourage anyone to pirate books. … [visit site to read more]

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Samsung release a new custom mobile phone called Samsung My Touch which known as Samsung S5600. Its a Custo Special Edition which include famous Spanish designer Custo Dalmau picture.

samsung-mytouch-custo-edition-phone

This Samsung My Touch Custo Special Edition feature is the same with the original version. It has 2.8-inch touchscreen display (320×240 pixel), TouchWiz User Interface, 3.2M pixel camera, microSD slot up to 8GB, music player and additional module 2GB memory for Samsung phone My Touch European version.

Computer Electronics Review

Samsung My Touch S5600 Custo Edition Phone

Alpine Racing Sled

Dec 12
Uncategorized

alpineDo you happen to reside in a hilly area with plenty of snow whenever winter hits? Instead of moaning about how there is a need to shovel the driveway as well as trudge through plenty of snow to get to anywhere, the Alpine Racing Sled might just catch your attention.

This is the Alpine racing sled with a built-in shock absorber that irons out bumps during rapid, downhill descents. Designed in Germany, the sled’s corrosion-resistant, aircraft aluminum alloy frame uses a shrouded 6 1/2″ spring–the same used in off-road bicycles–to significantly reduce the effect of bumps on the lower back. The wide runners have polyethylene glide bars that provide superior gliding and tracking, and you can even use ski wax to optimize their performance. Turns are performed by leaning to either side or using one’s feet. The polycarbonate seat and footholds place riders 11″ above the ground. The handbrake located between the legs consists of an aluminum claw that grips the snow and ice directly beneath the center of mass of the sled without altering the direction of travel, enabling you to slough off speed, but also providing absolute, confident stops. Supports riders up to 220 lbs.

Each $899.95 purchase comes with a travel bag where you can store the collapsed frame after use. While it might see action for only a few months each year, at least it offers something interesting apart from the usual wooden sled.


Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ Alpine Racing Sled copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]




Fusion Silicon Finger Tongs

Dec 12
Uncategorized

fusion-tongsDo you spend plenty of time in the kitchen whipping up delicious morsels for yourself and the family? Chances are the rite of passage to being a good chef often involves getting burned in the process, and we’re talking about physically as well as the food. With the Fusion Silicon Finger Tongs, things might change for the better, and if you use it from the outset of your cooking ‘career’, you might not even experience the feeling of being scalded throughout your life!

These tongs fit on your hands like a puppet, letting your digits control the opening-and-closing of the silicon mitts. Reach right into the pan, and pull out the bacon, or burgers, or broccoli if that’s how you roll. These Silicon Finger Tongs resist heat up to 500 degrees, so don’t worry about disfiguring burns.

The Fusion Silicon Finger Tongs is dishwasher safe and can resist heat up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, going for $17.99 on ThinkGeek.


Introducing Foolish Gadgets because not all gadgets are cool :)
[ Fusion Silicon Finger Tongs copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]




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It has the makings of a perfect storm and it is headed right toward US iPhone users. It isn’t going to be pretty.

… [visit site to read more]

Related posts:

  1. Verizon Attacks AT&T, Puts Out Welcome Mat For iPhone
  2. AT&T may be adding data plans to iPhone sim swappers automatically
  3. The Palm Pre costs $1,250 less than the iPhone or Droid over 2 years

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Pez Star Trek Figure Menorah

Dec 12
Uncategorized

Pez Star Trek Figure Menorah

startrekpezmenorah 500x375 Pez Star Trek Figure Menorah
Happy Hanukkah! Those celebrating the Festival of Lights are probably lighting their own menorahs right now but none are lighting it in as geeky a style as the guy who made the Star Trek Pez menorah. Since the candles are actually made of LED lights, there’s no worries about this one lasting for all 8 crazy nights. Insert your own Wrath of Khanukkah joke here.

(make)



sunbrite

When I got my first “big” TV, I thought a 36″ screen was absurd.  The durn thing weighed near 700 pounds, needed its own specially built mount, and probably put out enough electromagnetic interference to cause pacemakers to mis-fire at 10 yards.  (At least I was smart enough to get one that was HD-ready.)  Now look… … [visit site to read more]

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Big Belly Coinosaurus Dinosaur Bank

big belly bank Big Belly Coinosaurus Dinosaur Bank
The Coinasaurus is a big belly dinosaur bank that eats coins. Drop your change into his mouth and watch it wiggle down into his big ol’ belly. This bank is big at 20″ tall and can hold a lot of coins- 970 quarters ($242.50). Kids (and kids at heart) will love watching the coins zig zag downwards. You can buy the Big Belly Dinosaur Bank for $42.95 at Vat19.
buy now

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I’m an iPod kinda guy but even I can appreciate the appeal of the Zune HD. The hardware is slick, the screen is gorgeous and the ZunePass is an awesome deal. If you have a Zune no doubt you want to keep it in as close to pristine condition as possible. Speck’s PixelSkin is one great option!

Here’s a quick look and a chance to win one of two Speck PixelSkin cases for the ZuneHD.

… [visit site to read more]

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Another day, another Direct2Drive Holiday Deal! Now in time for Christmas they are back – they are featuring a game a day for now until Christmas! Deals so far have been great, and it just keeps rolling today! Game #12 is the addictive The Sims 3.

Here is the announcement Tweet:

D2D’s 24 Days of Christmas – Day 12- deal is here! The Sims 3 is $10 OFF – now just $39.95! http://bit.ly/5w5ISJ

This special includes the original game … [visit site to read more]

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IMG_0956

I love to play Sudoku. There’s something about the challenge of getting all those pieces of the puzzle into the right combination that appeals to my inner geek. Keeping with the season (if you celebrate Christmas, that is), I felt compelled to check out the release of Christmas Sudoku from 99 Games. 99 Games was nice enough to give me a copy to check out!

… [visit site to read more]

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Gear Diary ereader deal

I already ranted in this week’s “State of the eBook” about Barnes and Noble’s passion for competing with themselves, but they are taking it to a whole new level here. eReader (a Barnes and Noble Company!) is offering the Foxit eSlick Reader for $259.99, the same price as a nook.

But there’s a twist that makes this a significantly better deal… … [visit site to read more]

Related posts:

  1. Exciting Plastic Logic eReader uses Barnes & Noble eBookstore for eReading 700,000 eBooks
  2. More details on Plastic Logic’s Que Reader
  3. State of the eBook: What’s in a Name?

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efo

What with movies and TV shows being available through iTunes, with giant 1 Terabyte and more drives dropping into the “ridiculously affordable” range, BitTorrent, YouTube, and God knows whatever else, there’s a lot more desire these days to hook your TV to your computer and go to town.  One drawback is control–how can you check your playlist on your computer from across the room?

… [visit site to read more]

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Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Huzzah! Our final gift guide of the year- find the rest of our gift guides here. Finding gifts for that difficult to shop for person who has everything is always a challenge. Whether it’s for that wealthy boss/friend/family member or that person for whom you just plain don’t know what to buy, we’ve got a few unique gift suggestions below.
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Color Changing Umbrella – $49

color change umbrella
Color Changing Umbrella changes colors when wet. The umbrellas are printed with special ink that’s white when dry and that comes to life when in contact with water. Why would you buy a normal umbrella again?

Buy the Color Changing Umbrella at Generate Design for $49 (ships free!)
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Create Your Own Hologram Kit – $99.95

hologram kit
This is the kit that allows you to create a hologram of any small, inanimate solid object. The kit includes a small model car (you can use any number of similarly-sized objects) that is placed in front of the holographic film plate. A laser diode illuminates the object and creates an interference pattern that is captured on the holographic film, creating a three-dimensional image of the object. Includes 20 holographic film plates for creating an equal number of images using different objects.

Buy the Create Your Own Hologram Kit at Hammacher for $99.95 Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Timor Perpetual Desk Calendar – $199

timor perpetual calendar
First designed in 1967 by legendary design Enzo Mari, this calendar remains a classic to this day. The calendar uses individual flip cards, which stow in base, to change month, date & day.

Buy the Timor Perpetual Desk Calendar from Generate Design for $199 (ships free!)
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Zipit Motorized Clamshell Package Opener – $19.99

bd7d zipit package opener Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything
The Zipit Motorized Clamshell Package Opener is the first and only motorized tool specifically designed to safely and easily open these troublesome clamshell packages. It is as easy to open these tough packages as pressing a button and guiding the opener around the outside of the package. There are no rough or sharp edges left to worry about. It is powered by two AA batteries, and holding down the button will activate the rollers to easily open most hard shell packages.

Buy the Zipit Motorized Clamshell Package Opener at Think Geek for $19.99
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

DNA Portrait Kit -$129.99

dna portrait Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything
With the advent of forensic electrophoresis, your own beautiful genetic makeup can be your own personalized art. First, we collect a few cheek cells. It’s a painless process – just swipe the inside of your mouth with a cotton swab. Then, you send your sample to our labs where our scientists replicate a few extra strands of DNA, dye them, embed them in a gel, and apply an electric field. Smaller chains of DNA get pulled along the field faster than the larger ones, leaving several streaky rows of genetic markers that get captured on a photographic plate. We take that photo, color it based on your requested color-theme, and in 6-8 weeks you’ll have a beautiful framed 8″ by 10″ portrait that’s as personal as your fingerprint.

Buy the DNA Portrait Kit at Think Geek for $129.99
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Tokyoflash Watches – $50+ up

tokyoflash watches Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything
I bet that person who has everything doesn’t have a watch like these! Tokyoflash makes some of the coolest most unique watches out there. From formal to casual, they have stylish watches that would make a great gift for anyone. For the holiday season they are also offering free 5 day shipping and a buy 2 get 1 watch free deal (plus we also have a special coupon code below!).

Buy Tokyoflash watches directly from Tokyoflash (use our exclusive code: CRAZY for $17 off until 12/18)
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Word Clock $249

word clock1 Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything
As its name suggests, Word Clock tells the time in words. The clock consists of two adjacent rolls, contained in a clear acrylic tube. A red mark indicates the line that should be read to tell the time. The left roll spells out five minute increments of time. The right roll contains the numbers one to twelve, spelled out. The gearing is such that as the minutes turn to “twenty-five minutes to,” the hour roll advances. Classic design.

Buy the Word Clock at Generate Design for $249 (ships free)
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

2 Person 60mph Hovercraft – $13,999.95

2person hovercraft
Able to reach locations traditional watercraft cannot access, this personal hovercraft travels briskly over water and land, powered by a 60-horsepower gasoline engine and an efficient 12-volt battery. The two-cycle, two-cylinder air-cooled engine’s powerful 36″ pulley-driven fan keeps the craft aloft on an 8″ cushion of air while propelling it forward at speeds up to 60 mph. A handlebar-style tiller allows the rider to control the direction and speed as the hovercraft travels over smooth surfaces such as ice, water, sand, mud, snow, and short grass, in addition to short distances over asphalt, concrete, or dirt roads, with 60 separate nylon/hypalon coated skirt segments providing a durable base. It is even able to climb small, smooth inclines up to 20%. In addition to resting on its cushion of air, the craft floats on water and is fully lined with U.S. Coast Guard-approved flotation foam. Two-person, 400 lb. payload capacity.

Buy the Hovercraft at Hammacher for $13,999.95  Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything
buy now
holiday gift guide line

buy now Gift Ideas for People Who Have Everything

Amazon Gift Cards

When all else fails and you really have no idea what to get someone… there’s always Amazon gift cards:

What’s cool about Amazon gift cards is that you can send them electronically via email or print them out yourself, so if you’re still stuck at the very last minute you always have a backup gift idea.
buy now
holiday gift guide line
Didn’t find what you were looking for? Try one of our other holiday gift shopping guides here. If you like this list, please share this page. Thanks!

Last night, we started seeing some Tweets from Google employees and others about a new Android-powered Google phone that was apparently handed out at an “all hands” meeting. Now Google is confirming that this indeed “dogfood” testing a new Android device with employees around the world.

But this isn’t just another Android phone. Very trustworthy sources who have seen the phone say that it is the Google Phone we first wrote about last month (despite the uninformed saying we were dreaming). It will be branded Google and sold by Google as an unlocked phone, which could change everything.

The phone itself is being built by HTC, with a lot of input from Google.



3D Blu-ray ready by summer 2010?

Dec 12
Uncategorized

3D Blu-ray ready by summer 2010?Looks like we might be able to enjoy 3D Blu-ray movies by next summer. According to NVIDIA’s PR manager for the UK and Northern Europe, Ben Berraondo, the Blu-ray Association has finally agreed on the details of 3D Blu-ray.

NVIDIA’s 3D Vision Technology will be able to display this new standard, but most of us would need to upgrade our existing hardware as many HDTVs run at a 60Hz refresh rate, while 3D films require a refresh rate of 120Hz. I’m still not sure this 3D thing isn’t just a fad, but I guess no one wants to miss out, so every company is jumping on the bandwagon.

Who’s ready for geeky glasses?

[Techdigest]

PolyPhotonix OLED dress

Dec 12
Uncategorized



Organic LED dress
Polymer-based OLED panels are super flexible and even suitable to be used to make dresses. UK’s PolyPhotonix has made an OLED dress, which it has flexible OLED panels and low-cost long-life solar cells to keep the dress lit up.

The OLED dress was exhibited at the launch of the the UK’s “Plastic Electronics Strategy’. PolyPhotonix’s production line is currently active for making polymer-based OLED lighting panels. They have used some OLED panels from their first production line to make the OLED dress.

What a coincidence, the OLED dress in the picture happened to look similar to the one shown in the HDBC advert in the clip below. Perhaps the two dresses share the same design by Gareth Pugh but made using different materials.

via oled-info

Written By TechChee.com, PolyPhotonix OLED dress

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you have a Symbian smartphone (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, among others) you are going to want to stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and download Nimbuzz!

Why?  Not only will you get messaging, chat, and cheap international calling — you also get what may be the most powerful Twitter app for the Symbian platform, as well as  pop-up notifications for chats and events — all with Nimbuzz running in the background.  Have a touch screen?  Nimbuzz has added kinetic scrolling to give you the best multimedia experience on your Symbian phone. The Nimbuzz mobile VoIP messaging applicaton integrates these features with your social networks and instant messaging clients (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Hyves, MSN, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, etc).  The free application has been so popular that T-Mobile USA recently launched their TAP phone with Nimbuzz preinstalled.

Nimbuzz is currently being used by more than 13 million users worldwide, with another 40,000 new users being added daily. Interested?  Read on for the full press release.

… [visit site to read more]

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HDI 100-inch 3D laser TV

Dec 12
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Massive 3d laser TV
Imagine that you could watch your favorite action movie on a 100-inch TV screen and some more it presents you with 3D images. This 100-inch 3D laser TV is now on HDI’s plan, which they will start their production for this massive TV in May and they’ll try to make it by Christmas 2010.

The HDI 100-inch 3D laser TV doesn’t come cheap at all. It’ll cost between $10,000 to $15,000, which is simply meant for those who have thick wallets. Since it’ll likely only come next Christmas, perhaps you could start saving now, hopefully you could get one as a Christmas gift for your family next year.

The HDI 3D laser TV is 10-inch thick and weighs about 75% less than normal 100-inch LCD or Plasma TVs. It also draws 80% less power than an 100-inch Plasma. HDI claims it doesn’t contain any harmful chemicals, health-friendly to you and your family.

via 3d-display-info

Written By TechChee.com, HDI 100-inch 3D laser TV

Devon SafeBook E5400X Notebook PC

Dec 12
Uncategorized

Devon SafeBook E5400X Notebook PC
Devon IT, a thin client hardware and software provider recently announced its latest version of its mobile thin client laptop, the SafeBook E5400X. The SafeBook E5400X is built on the Dell Latitude E5400 platform and powered by a 2.20GHz Intel Celeron 900 processor, an 80GB hard drive and 1GB of DDR2 SDRAM.

The SafeBook E5400X is available with Windows Embedded Standard software and is compatible with Dell accessories. It features a 14.1-inch UltraSharp WXGA+ display with a 1440×900 resolution along with other specs such as support for 802.11a/b/g wireless connections, GSM Wireless support, Integrated Web Browser, 7-in-1 card reader, 1 VGA Port and three USB 2.0 ports.