New Home Gadgets

Did you know that Henry Ford was not only the father of modern automobiles, he could be considered one of the first few green advocates? After all, most of the original Model T Ford automobiles ran on ethanol before the era of Prohibition, which banned production of the biofuel along with other forms of alcohol, led to the use of gasoline instead. The EFuel100 MicroFueler could roll back the years, being a home ethanol refinery. All you need to do is hook it up to a power and water source, throw in sugar “feedstock” and yeast/discarded alcohol, and see it produce 35 gallons of ethanol which Quinn claims any car will be able to run on. The price? $9,995 when the EFuel100 MicroFueler rolls out in Q4 this year. (Read the full post about ‘EFuel100 MicroFueler’…)

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(Read the full post about ‘Peekaboo Pole’…)

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In honor of the Big Day - of course, I’m referring to Mother’s Day this Sunday - Sony Electronics is offering a special package for all of you out there who are gift-challenged; the Sony DCR-SR45 Handycam camcorder with the DVDirect VRD-MC5. Tape those priceless family moments with the Sony Handycam camcorder and then transfer them to DVD with the DVDirect VRD-MC5 recorder. The VRD-MC5 recorder can transfer home videos to DVD without using a computer from virtually any camcorder, VCR or digital video recorder. Tthe Handycam camcorder has a built-in 30GB hard drive for storage and up to 20 hours of recording time (LP).

(Read the full post about ‘Mother’s Day Sony Camcorder Package’…)

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by Donald Melanson, posted May 8th 2008 at 12:46PM As we’ve seen, it doesn’t exactly take all that much to whip up a homemade multitouch system, but that doesn’t make Bridger Maxwell’s science fair project here any less impressive, which wraps everything into a fairly tidy, OS X-based package. Like other similar systems, this one relies on a slew of LEDs (28 of ‘em in this case), along with a webcam modded with an IR filter, and piece of acrylic and a spare LCD screen for the surface itself. To show it off to its fullest potential, Bridger whipped up an app of his own for OS X that lets users flip through XKCD comics with suitably fancy graphics thanks to OS X’s Core Animation. (Read the full post about ‘OS X-based multitouch project makes debut at science fair’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted May 8th 2008 at 1:45PM Not like we haven’t seen capable nerds, um, nerd-ify their scooters before, but one of the geekiest forms of transportation just got even geekier. The imaginatively named Geek Wheels scooter possesses more hardware than you can imagine, with a ginormous rear-mounted antenna, Garmin GPS unit, WiFi module, OTA TV tuner / FM tuner, high-resolution webcam, full-fledged Linux-based computer and an 8-inch touch panel to boot. The most amazing part? The creators have promised to provide regular updates and a how-to guide in short order. (Read the full post about ‘Geek Wheels scooter: so many distractions, you’re bound to crash’…)

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by Darren Murph, posted May 8th 2008 at 10:55AM Not to be confused with the absolutely worthless (sorry, the truth hurts) Big Red Button of Doom, the Emergency Party Button has a very specific purpose. Designed to take a vanilla home from mundane to spectacular in just seconds, this connected trigger basically flips a boring crib into a bumpin’ club whenever you see fit. Just to give you an idea of what goes down when you mash the button, you’ll see hallway lights turn off, blinds close, a fog machine come alive, speakers crank up and loads of laser lights turn active. All told, the project cost the builder just north of $600, which seems like a real bargain given what you get. (Read the full post about ‘Emergency Party Button turns cribs to clubs in seconds flat’…)

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While the iphone has been out for about a year now, we’ve seen plenty of custom jobs done on it on an unprecedented level where gadgets are concerned. Knight Creations does not intend to miss out on this money-spinning opportunity, coming up with the Black iPhone custom which has been upgraded with black replacement parts, consisting of an anodized aluminum back as well as TiAlN-treated Apple logo and front bezel. The main drawback I can see is the price - it will retail for a whopping $849, never mind that there is 16GB of memory inside. (Read the full post about ‘Black iPhone Custom’…)

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by Ryan Block, posted May 8th 2008 at 12:11PM A few weeks ago we got a quick tour of the new blackberry 9000’s UI, but now that the folks at CrackBerry have a unit we all benefit by getting a far deeper look at what’s going on. One highlight: (limited) YouTube support! (Read the full post about ‘BlackBerry 9000 gets extended interface video tour’…)

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Gear4 has presented their new audio product made for iPods, that combines a portable speaker and dock in one. To sum it up: there is a satellite speaker that can be detached from the dock itself, so you can take it anywhere you want. Obviously, the portable speaker isn’t as good as the dock in terms of sound quality, because you’re missing a 20W subwoofer if you use the lonely speaker. The Gear4 Duo ipod Speaker is priced at 150, and has a release date set for tomorrow, 8 May. The front section on its own is 18W, and has a flip-out dock connector that makes the whole speaker section flat for easy transport. (Read the full post about ‘Gear4 - Portable iPod Speaker & Dock’…)

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The Mobiado Camo is a luxury handset offering a 1.3 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash as well as the following features: * anodized aluminum shell * stainless steel buttons * individually hand painted camouflage design (each of the 200 limited edition handsets is unique) * tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900MHz) * GPRS/EDGE * Bluetooth * 50MB internal memory * MultiMediaCard slot * 65k colors, 208×208 pixel resolution display * record/playback video Via MobileBurn. (Read the full post about ‘Mobiado Camo’…)

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