Digital black-and-white clock is a milestone in minimalism

It is sometimes so frustrating to see a thing of beauty locked up inaccessibly with the tag "prototype". Well, life's not always fair now, is it? So it is with this beauty called the "black-and-white" digital clock from Kibardindesign. And designer Vadim Kibardin has created a totally new concept of a digital clock with this one.

The "clock" is actually a collection of four translucent white figures each of which can display a numeral from 0-9, can be independently controlled, and is powered by a self-contained power supply. The figures are made up of a polycarbonate material with the luminous part being an Organic Light- Emitting Diode (OLED). The figures are white in darkness and black at daytime. They can be fixed to any surface, to an alignment of your choice, and voila - you can proudly show off the most elegant clock in the neighborhood. Well, not quite. Remember us mentioning earlier that it is still a prototype? Boo-hoo.

Via Swissmiss.

The Citadel : Europe’s first floating apartment is ecological, recreational and residential

Whoever came up with the proverb "Use your enemy's hand to catch a snake" (apparently Persian in origin) was pretty damn smart. And must've caught a lot of snakes too. Jokes apart, this is exactly what the Dutch have invented in their long quest to ward off the danger of rising tides - a new construction project called "New Water" which has created "The Citadel", an apartment complex completely built on water.

The Citadel, designed by Koen Olthuis of Waterstudio, is built on a floating foundation of heavy concrete and will house 60 luxury apartments, a car park, a floating road to access the complex as well as boat docks. Each unit will have its own garden terrace as well as a view of the lake. The building is designed to float perfectly on the rising and falling water, and makes use of the water to cool itself as it pumped out of submerged pipes. Make that a slash of 25% on your electricity bill as water cooling techniques are far more efficient compared to the ones used by a conventional building on land.

And water surfing maybe just as simple as taking a walk around the block.

Via Inhabitat.

Wi-Fire takes you to hotspots you never knew existed

Connect it to your laptop's USB port and you can not only discover multiple hotspots as far as 1000ft away, but you can also connect wirelessly to the internet even at low signal strengths. That's the advantage which Wi-Fire, a compact, range-extending USB device from hField Technologies, Inc. promises to deliver.

Wi-Fire works by using "a powerful directional antenna, highly sensitive receiver and proprietary software", to find and enhance normal WiFi signals. So that you can peacefully surf at low signal strengths without repeatedly losing the connection, and download large files, stream audio/video at higher strengths. The device apparently uses very little power from your laptop, and is compatible with Windows XP/Vista, Mac and Linux.

At $59, it is an investment that can yield recurrent returns. The best part? Priceless mobility as it lets the virtual world roam along with you.

Via The Gadgeteer.

Frost solar-powered air-conditioner makes your electricity bills lighter

Isn't it a smart idea that you make use of the scorching sun itself to keep you cool during harsh summers? Why not. And it just seems so perfectly logical, I wonder why solar-powered air-conditioners haven't made themselves loud enough (not literally) to be heard by folks like us who spend shameful amounts on our electricity bills all summer.

The Frost is a concept solar-powered air-conditioner designed by industrial designer Philip Stankard that uses stored solar energy to power its fans, and refrigerator freezer energy to provide a source of low temperature for the fans' breeze to circulate into your home. While the unit itself soaks up the sun and converts that into power to operate the fans, there is a removable freezer pack that you can put into the refrigerator's freezer unit for soaking up the ice. All you then need to do is switch on the unit and insert the freezer pack to get some cold wintry breeze.

Apparently it's not only a breeze on your electricity bill, but also an air-conditioner that looks swell. As there aren't more details available yet, one would assume that since this device doesn't seem to have the luxury of temperature regulation, it would perhaps be more appropriate to term it an air-cooler. Which still doesn't take anything away from how cool a concept this is. This time, literally.

Via Ecofriend.

What does the internet think ?

Ever wondered what that huge informational powerhouse called the "internet" thinks about a particular topic, say - Barack Obama, Swine Flu, The iPhone 3Gs, or just Dirty Laundry?

Well, being the powerful entity that it is, the "internet" ought to have a mind of its own now, doesn't it? Which is why this site called whatdoestheinternetthink tries to demystify those nagging questions which have, until now, remained unanswered. whatdoestheinternetthink analyses the search results from popular search engines (Google, Yahoo & Bing), and categorizes the final result on the topic as being Positive, Negative, or Don't Care. It also colorfully depicts the percentage of search results that fall under each of these three categories, along with a short summary of this topic being discussed on Twitter.

Pretty useful and gets quite addictive. Plus, it was quite interesting for me to know that 64.7% of the internet doesn't really care about Michelle Obama, while 71% is actually positive on Lindsay Lohan (according to Google). Hmmm.

Orb Bluetooth Headset is the geekiest jewellery ever

Those sleek-looking futuristic gizmos with superior intelligence (and zero failure rate) need no longer be confined to the enjoyment of sci-fi movie stars, or superheroes alone. Or so it seems, looking at this awesome bluetooth headset called the Orb.

Developed through a partnership between Hybra Advance Technology Inc. and AbsolutelyNew Inc., this overwhelmingly fresh design redefines the otherwise common bluetooth headset completely - when not in use, the Orb transforms into an elegant finger ring which displays caller ID, calendar items and voice-to-text info on its flexible organic light emitting diode (FOLED) display. Activate the headset simply by slipping it off your finger and twisting it into an S-shaped length of silver that can be unobtrusively hung over your ear.

The Orb is expected to launch in two editions next year - the base model in January (without display, priced $129), and the Deluxe model in April (with FOLED display, priced $175). I am keeping my fingers crossed. And ready.

Via DVICE.

Contact lenses that deliver medication

It is a disease that strikes most of us once too often - either forgetting to take the meds, or forgetting the ones that have been already downed, and thereby ending up with an overdose. Well, here's the good news. Patients with eye problems such as dry-eyes and glaucoma can now look forward to some help from technology that promises to take over when you have discovered the imperfections of your own memory. And it is a contact lens that delivers medication gradually over time, and eliminates the need to use messy eye drops.

Heard right. Boston researchers report that they’ve created a contact lens that can deliver a high concentration of antibiotic at a constant rate for more than 30 days. Call this a great boon for eye patients considering the statistics that even if you do diligently put in your eye drops, for every administration, only 1 to 7 percent of the medication actually gets absorbed into the eye, while the rest drips down the cheeks or into the back of the throat. The new contact lens design can apparently provide large amounts of drug released at constant rates for long periods of time, which previous discoveries have not been able to do.

The research is currently being tested in a lab dish and is expected to soon move towards animal testing. Human lenses of this kind? Perhaps well before we set up life on the moon.

Via Medlaunches.

Microsoft Bing search engine review

microsoft-bing-logo

So we have all heard of this new entry into the search engine market called “Bing” or more like Microsoft second crack at gaining more search engine dominance against Google and Yahoo. Microsoft over the last month has been hyping this new search engine as the next revolution in search as its search engine market share has been slipping in the last couple of years and marketing (pay-per-click) struggles to make a profit. At first glance the front page search looks very simple and has an almost google feel to it, doing a search in Bing does reveal the same results or very similar results as it did with the MSN search engine and I can see Bing weighs the domain name quite heavy for search result. The one neet feature I can say was quite helpful was the left hand sidebar with my search history (although if you where searching for something sketchy and forgot to clear the history that might be embarrassing).

Overall I think Microsoft did a decent job making the look and feel of the search engine “Google’ish” but will it gain more market share or increase what Microsoft has now?

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Panda USB hub

Think Panda, think cute. Moreover, the one that we are going to intro is a hassle free pet that lives on a diet of data, not bamboo. Oh well, it is the 4-port Panda USB hub that deserves all the praise because it looks good, is plug-n-play, and is pretty hard to ignore. Plugging your USB drive in adorably lights up its eyes with a cool blue color that, you know, can sorta warm up your heart. At $12 it would have been an easy decision to make, if not for the hugely limiting USB 1.1 interface. Either it is that some people just don't realize what it means to make products of a minimum standard, or they don't expect to sell very much. Your guess.

Via Fosfor.

Bandai's New Notebook: Too Cute for Words

Japan is known for its of out of this world tech and it's obsession with anything cute and animated (Hello Kitty anyone?). And toymaker Bandai, creators of Girlz Connect and the wildly popular Tomagotchi digital pet, sees no reason why cute and tech should ever be separate.

Their latest creation takes the adorable cartoon character RilakKuma, a lovable bear that loves nothing more than sleeping and eating mochi with a netbook creating what could possibly be the cutest piece of tech ever. The netbook is pretty standard fare with 1GB memory, an Atom N270 processor, and 160GB hard drive. Now the 8.9-inch 1024x600 resolution screen leaves something to be desired however.

Juicy Couture Goes Geeky

As if the obnoxious sweatpants with their name across the ass weren't enough, the folks at Juicy Couture have unleashed their latest travesty upon the unsuspecting masses -- the Juicy Couture "Back To School" Flexi Keyboard. Hoping to appeal to the geek girl diva crowd, the rubber and silicone number comes in bubblegum pink, because as you know, women are just suckers for anything pretty and pink (eye roll). The lettering on the keyboard is done in Juicy's usual Old English lettering.

Cheap marketing ploy aside, this USB keyboard does have some good points. The rubber and silicone body lets users roll it up like a yoga mat, making it totally portable. It's also Mac and PC friendly.

The fancy pants keyboard is retailing at Nordstrom for a whopping $45, a little pricey for a keyboard, but such is the price of couture I guess.

Via CoolestGadgets

Birdsong radio woos its fans (for the last time)

Here's a sweet story, or even a "tweet" story... No, I'm not rambling on about Twitter yet again - I'm talking about real birds this time.

After British digital radio station OneWorld was taken off the air, the BBC had nothing to replace it with. So they replaced music with... recorded birdsong.

Almost half a million listeners tuned in over the 18 months "Birdsong radio" was running, many of whom, like author Sir Terry Pratchett, found it "relaxing". Some fans were city-dwellers who never get to hear birds singing in real life.

But at the start of June, the idyll was over: The BBC's new station, Amazing Radio, which will feature unsigned artists, was launched, and Birdsong radio was no more. Huh. I guess it was more of a sad story, really. Shame there isn't room on the radio for upcoming musicians and nature's own, isn't it?

Image: Wikimedia.

iHouse Builds the Better Faucet

Remember that old MGM cartoon "The House of Tomorrow," where we were given a glimpse into the future of the modern household? While it was silly and over-the-top, it got one thing right, today's house is totally different from the appliances of 1949 or even 1990. And thanks to companies like iHouse, the House of Tomorrow is closer to becoming the House of Today.

Olympus announces µ TOUGH-6010 for the adventure hungry

Expect the new Olympus baby - Stylus Tough 6010 (µ TOUGH-6010 in Europe) - to perform just as bravely as it sounds while on rough terrain. This new member of the Olympus rugged and compact series is waterproof upto 3-metres, shockproof upto 1.5-metres and freeze-proof upto -10 degrees Celsius. Which makes it good enough to carry on your next adventure trip without the usual jittery feeling that you get with a normal digital camera.

The technical specifications include a 12-MP sensor, a 2.7" LCD screen with Tap Control, 3.6X optical zoom, 45MB internal memory with xD/microSD card options. The other new features thrown in - an i-Auto intelligent mode which "uses advanced automatic detection technology to allow the camera to recognise the five most commonly used scenes automatically", and Magic Filters which "enable special artistic effects to be created directly in the camera".

While you wait to lay your hands on one this month, we daresay you will need more than just spare change to pamper yourself with this beastie - it costs a whopping $488.

Via Digital Photography Review.

Drape fashion around your ears with Zumreed Dreams headphones

Imagine what a pair of good-looking headphones can do to your personality. The truth ? Not much. Though it wouldn't be an utterly foolish idea to be aesthetically competent now, would it ? The Zumreed Dreams ZHP-005 headphones can perhaps help you along, given that they are striped chic and are available in 5 bright colors to match with your audio player.

These retro-looking colorfully striped headphones are sure to make a few heads turn to ogle your own, and you can pretend to be so immersed in music that the attention hasn't affected you. For the more serious, the headphones specs indicate decent performance too - they have a frequency response of 20 Hz - 20kHz, a 40mm driver unit and 1.2m length of cord, and come padded with soft earpads for a comfortable fit around the ears. Enough said.

Get yours from AudioCubes at $65.99.

Via The Red Ferret.

Powramid is a power strip with a difference

Have you ever seen a multi-outlet power strip that isn't boringly rectangular? Or have you even considered that it needn't always be so? Well, someone else did. And in the process, they probably revolutionized the profile of the plain power strip altogether - by designing a pyramid-shaped surge protector called the Powramid.

This 6-outlet power strip is conveniently shaped like a pyramid, and has a green LED light that acts as a surge indicator. The advantage of the new shape is multifold - the larger AC adapters can fit into the outlets with ease, the power strip itself occupies lesser space, and your device wires can be shorter than those required for a rectangular power strip. Only advantages, this one. The outlets are priced between $24 and $29.

Via The Gadgeteer.

Researchers get ticklish to discover origins of laughter

"Hi honey, how was your day?"

"Oh, pretty good - I tickled some chimps for a bit and then started in on the babies..."

Not a typical day in the office for most of us perhaps, but when British researcher Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth, England began a study to trace the origin of human laughter, she knew she was going to have to get hands on.

She and her colleagues tickled three human babies as well as 21 orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos. They recorded the laughter sounds that resulted from each bout of tickling, and were able to identify some sounds which indicate humans and apes may have a shared laughter heritage. (I'm guessing they also identified that tickling babies and primates is a fun way to spend a day).

To think, at school I was under the misapprehension that science was boring.

Image: Thomas Lersch via Wikipedia.

Dumbbell Alarm Clock Makes Exercise Like Clockwork

With American waistlines on a steady increase, it's important that we use every spare second to fight the battle of the bulge. Fred & Friends, maker of fun and practical products has just what the doctor ordered with it's latest creation, the SHAPE UP. This handy little gadget pulls double duty as an alarm clock and a free weight.

Simply set the alarm for your usual wake up time and catch a good night's sleep. When it's time to wake up, the alarm sounds, but unlike regular alarm clocks, you can't shut it off with an uncoordinated, early morning button push. To turn off the alarm you have to do 30 reps with it.
That's right, you actually have to exercise in order to turn off the racket.

SHAPE UP is as environmentally-friendly as it is health-conscious. The clock comes packaged in a clear recycable box. Perfect for a health buff or someone that needs a little gentle prodding to get to the gym, the SHAPE UP makes a great gift.

BenQ Brings You More "Joy"

Make room for yet another netbook. BenQ, a Taiwanese consumer electronics specializing in LCD monitors, digital projectors, and of course netbooks. The latest release, the Joybook Lite U102 is compact, sleek and shiny just like we like it. The latest iteration of the Joybook is being marketed for the person that's constantly on the go that wants an ultra-portable perks of a netbook without sacrificing the performance power of a laptop.

This obsidian beauty comes with a high polish finish and weighs in at 2.3lbs and is 1" thick making it unbelievably light. The netbook even has a miniature AC adapter. But with all that streamlining, the Joybook still has room for a 10.1" 16:9 WSVGA LED-backlit screen. BenQ also made sure they didn't skimp on the image quality. Videos and images can be viewed in high quality HD, thanks to the 1024x600 widescreen. Unlike other netbooks with small cramped keyboards the Joybook's keyboard is a comfortable fit, 90% of the size of a full QWERTY keyboard. There's also an expanded touchpad for easier scrolling.

Sony Ericsson Wants to Light up Your Wardrobe

As our gadgets have become more prevalent in our lives, it's also become a necessity for our tech to not only improve our lives but look good while they do it. Cell phone companies have answered the call for high-quality tech and aesthetics with phones specifically designed to function as high tech fashion accessories decked out with everything from precious metals to jewelry.

Download file

Another USB hub that's much more

Here's yet another USB hub with a difference - this one has an integrated luminous calculator for number crunching, a mouse pad and a 3-port hub, all rolled (out) into one entity.

The USP of this device is that it lights up with a "blue, moody light" that illuminates the calculator making it look pretty fetching (in complete darkness, ofcourse). And it is super-slim too, measuring just around 4mm in thickness. The calculator can be switched off and used as a mouse pad, or as a USB 1.1 (only ?) hub. The device itself runs either on external power supply or a single battery (power adapter / battery included).

Well, if you haven't bought yourself even one of the zillion USB-hub-cum-this-'n-that devices yet, head on to GizFever and check this one out. Costs $17.99.

Via Engadget.

Every girl's dream: the weightless wedding

It wasn't exactly a wedding in space, which I told you last year will happen in 2011. But it was a weightless wedding, probably the first to be held in the 30-second periods of zero gravity possible when the G-Force One aircraft flies loop-de-loops. Cost: $7500 per person, not counting the photographer.

Thanks to Jennifer Ouellette at Twisted Physics, who provides technical details on the nuptials. For a more traditional account that covers how bride Erin Finnegan and groom Noah Fulmor were dressed, plus a photo gallery, see Australia's Daily Telegraph.

Chanel Brings High Fashion to Automobiles

We've seen quite a few fashion houses work with automakers to create designer vehicles. Usually the fashion house designs the interior while the car company designs the exterior. But if South Korean car design student Jinyoung Jo has her way, high end fashion vehicle will soon be taking their turn on the catwalk.

Xbox360 project Natal

This is absolutely amazing technology from Microsoft called xbox360 Natal. It is an interactive technology with you and the system, no controllers, no wires just you a camera and the tv screen. Big deal right? there has been interactive tv/video games for a while. Well thats not the only feature, xbox has almost created true artificial intelligence and interaction with a character called Milo, he can recognize you, your face, your emotion and even interact with you via the camera on the xbox (just by holding a picture or a drawing to the camera in a split second he can see it and identify whats on that paper). This is absolutely ground breaking and revolutionary technology that I have never seen before and it will change the gaming and AI industry forever. Check out the youtube video: Lionhead Peter Molyneux Milo Demo - Xbox 360 Natal

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Puff your way to better health with chocolate inhalers

Love chocolate but want to lose weight? Or just like the idea of inhalable food? Then the Le Whif (no, really) chocolate inhaler could be the answer to your prayers.

Described as "akin to sucking a tiny bit of cocoa powder through a straw" (and who doesn't want to do that?) the Le Whif gives flavor with next to no calories, and comes in four different chocolate flavors, including plain and chocolate-mint.

It's around $2 for three puffs from the Le Whif shop.

Fulton Innovation Wants to Turn Your Sofa into a Wireless Charger

With our lives becoming increasingly digital, we need an ever growing amount of gadgets to keep up. And where there are more gadgets, there are more wires and clutter. To combat the problem, many companies are going the wireless route using routers to keep our gadgets connected to the net, but technology to wirelessly charge our toys has been slow in coming. But if infrastructure manufacturer Leggett & Platt and Fulton Innovation have their way, soon gadget geeks will have a stylish and comfortable way to keep all their digital necessities charged and ready.

iPhone 3GS pricing weirdness

I know I'm rah-rah about the iPhone 3GS, but my ridiculous geek parade is being rained on, it seems. If you have an iPhone 3G, then the earliest you could have started your phone plan is July 11th, 2008, so you will not be eligible for the upgrade pricing of $199/$299 for the iPhone 3GS. At best, you may be able to get "early upgrade pricing" which is $399/$499 for 16 GB/32 GB, respectively. At worst, you'll have to pay full price: $599/$699.

It seems very odd, as most of the features of the new phone will be available in the free software upgrade, and only the most eager/geeky would care that much about the differences in the 3G/3GS. How many super-geeks don't have an iPhone 3G already?

Weird. I think June 19th just freed up for a whole lot of people.

14 year old girl discovers supernova

We're more used to seeing news stories about teenage girls running up astronomical cell phone bills than having an interest in astronomy, but 14 year old Caroline Moore is clearly exceptional. Caroline, who is from New York, was scouting the night sky with her amateur telescope when she spotted celestial object SN 2008ha (catchy name, huh?)

The supernova is an exploded star located 70 million light-years away from Earth (approx) and no-one had ever identified it before. It appears to be unusually bright.

As Alex Filippenko, the leader of the supernova group at the University of California in Berkeley told Softpedia.com:

“Coincidentally, the youngest person to ever discover a supernova found one of the most peculiar and interesting supernovae ever."

Kudos, Caroline - keep up the great work!

Image: NASA.

Billboards that Know What You Crave

Soon those roadside billboards will be able to tell if they should be promoting those brand new radial tires or a relaxing trip just by looking at you. Thanks to A *Star, Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology, and Research, there will soon be a gender recognition program that will change the way advertising is done.

Using a complex batch of formulas and algorithms, the program can tell the difference between men and women and respond in kind, displaying the appropriate ad. The current version of the program can only scan faces that are facing the camera but the agency is hoping to release a more fleshed out version later in the year.

Via Crave CNet

Samsung, Zet

Samsung’s new touch phone, Zet is unveiled. It has Samsung 6410 processor run with 800MHz, 5-mega pixel camera, 3.1’’ WVGA AMOLED display and Dolfin browser based on web kit.
Samsung makes it a non-smartphone by adding Touchwiz 2.0 UI and Samsung OS. It is impressed that it supports MS Exchange Active Sync that we only use on smartphone even though not concerning DivX Video play function. And it also contains On Board Navigation function with A-GPS. There is no source about release date.
Watch more details of Zet.

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New website encourages parents to Panic About Babies

It seems like expectant parents are always being faced with incredibly scary information (like the fact that if you're pregnant, that baby is going to come out of you, and it is going to hurt, or that you are going to be sole caretakers of another human being, that kind of stuff). "Don't panic!" Parenting books exude, while you're hyperventilating into the paper bag they came in.

Well, a new site launched this week by popular "mommybloggers" Alice Bradley (aka Finslippy) and Eden Marriott Kennedy (of Fussy fame) takes a total different tack.