Odd Gadgets and Objects

My Touch Keys

aranate — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:46:38 +0000

Do you find it rather hard to type with the iPhone’s onscreen keyboard the first time you use it? Well, just like bicycles and their training wheels, we have the My Touch Keys iPhone screen protector that features cut-out QWERTY holes that claim to improve tactile feedback while letting your fingers get used to the relevant on-screen key positions.

Read about it in Ubergizmo

The Tonal Plexus – stand-alone microtonal MIDI keyboard

aranate — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:36:09 +0000

Have you ever considered what kind of music might be possible if your keyboard had more than just twelve keys per octave? If so, you are not alone. In fact, it’s been one of the most enduring and puzzling questions in all of music history. The Tonal Plexus is not just a product of years of research and development, but is a result of literally hundreds of years of experimentation with musical tuning, keyboard design and research in human pitch perception. The Tonal Plexus provides no fewer than 211 keys per octave, allowing the finest discrete control of tuning expression ever available on a MIDI keyboard.

Read about it in H-Pi Instruments

Tetrad Flat – Tetris Shelves

aranate — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:26:07 +0000

The Tetrad Flat Shelving is a modular, lightweight shelving solution consisting of 10 separate blocks with wooden sides and colored metal backings. Blocks can be attached to one another, to the wall or left free floating for life-sized, living room game play. And no, the bottom line doesn’t disappear when you make that perfect configuration.

Read about it in Brave Space Design

SpeaQualiser

aranate — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:19:41 +0000

If you’ve loved the TQ Raver and Chiller shirts, youll love these great new products. Using the same style as the Raver and Chiller T-Shirts we have created these stunning SpeaQualiser Frames.

The functioning animated equaliser turns any music you listen to into an audio-visual lightshow by responding to the rhythms, frequency and beat of your favourite music with classic retro-style flashing, jumping light bars.

Read about it in FlashWear

e-mail goes low tech

aranate — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 13:00:31 +0000

Ready for a strange fact we discovered recently? E-mail has been around since before computers. At first, e-mails were written on rocks and thrown at neighbors. CC-ing a rock e-mail could be dangerous for an entire village. Then, e-mails were written on paper and put in weird paper things called envelopes and the postal system delivered them. This was slow. Finally, e-mail as we know it came around. Well, for fun, let’s take a technological step backwards.

Paper E-mail is perhaps the funniest way to pass messages in your office. Why? Because it will confuse the person you send it to.

Read about it in ThinkGeek

Made-to-order cellphones

aranate — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:54:58 +0000

If you’re like us, you’ve probably brainstormed the “perfect” mobile phone in your head a couple hundred times, wishing you could just convince someone to make it for you. Well, now you’ve got your chance thanks to the unfortunately-named zzzPhone, which inspires fantasies of long naps rather than high-tech gadgetry. According to the company’s website, you can build your own device made to order, using “the same high quality components as major brands Motorola, Nokia, Palm, and Samsung.” Of course, the major brands don’t offer you actual MP3 and video files pre-installed on your device — which really makes our copyright sensors hit the red. Sure, the phone appears to emanate from a dubious Shenzhen-based manufacturer, but once you see all the succulent options available to you, your ethical concerns will melt away like ice cream on hot apple pie.

Read about it in Engadget

Blow your Food to Kingdom Come with the Spice Gun

aranate — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:44:09 +0000

For any would be kitchen maestros out there, this could be the thing for you. The spice gun is a clever little idea that allows you to blast your food with spices.

“Spice gun is different from the other casters, it has more fun! When you pull the trigger to compress the air in the air bag the handspike will push the bottom of the seasoning bottle to make the nozzle in the turntable to retract and spray the seasoning.”

Read about it in UberReview

Sony’s tiny XDV-D500 and XDV-G200 Bravia TVs

aranate — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:39:23 +0000

Let’s break it down TV junkie. Sony’s new ¥38,000 (about $355) XDV-D500 features a 3-inch, 432 x 240 pixel resolution display with 160-degree viewing angle, 500:1 contrast, and a battery capable of about 8-hours of TV reception. It can even record up to 10 hours of scheduled programming to 2GB of internal memory. The itty bittier XDV-G200 brings a 2-inch LCD to the show, AM/FM radio too, then ditches the EPG and recording function

Read about it in Engadget

The world’s smallest nintendo ds lite

aranate — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:32:11 +0000

Check out this tiny papercraft model of an ice blue Nintendo DS Lite created by a really dedicated (and really patient) gaming fan. Even though it’s only slightly larger than a paper clip, this mini DS Lite features an a amazing amount of detail.

Read about it in technaBob

KEYnetik Motion Input User Interface

aranate — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 08:27:17 +0000

KEYnetik, Inc. is a pioneer of motion input technology for mobile handheld electronic devices such as cell phones, cameras, media players, gaming consoles, personal navigation devices and digital assistants.

We specialize in User Interfaces with motion input and provide electrical engineering, industrial design and software development services to help our clients with technology adoption.

Along with our services, we offer technology licenses or our User Interface and Motion Input solutions.

Read about it in KEYnetik