Gadgety News

You work hard all week (of course it still counts if you worked hard avoiding work - that can still wear you out) so you deserve to kick back in luxury.

How about some soothing sounds as well to help you unwind?

This is the handy-work of Italian design firm D.sign21.

The Ray Chaise (not to be mistaken with Ray Charles) offers the ergonomic and supporting shape of a classic chaise longue - renowned for being the ultimate chilling device.

It brings everything bang up-to-date with its fibreglass frame and plush leather upholstery and on closer inspection you’ll notice an iPod dock in the arm which is hooked up to a set of hidden speakers.

The minor point of how easy it is to get up from will remain exactly that: minor.  Why would you need to remove yourself from such a comfy position?

The Ray Chaise goes on sale next year for an as-yet undisclosed price.

D.sign21 via Born Rich

What you are looking at is a lovely iPod/iPhone dock that features wireless speakers.

The EOps 124R3 has Just been unveiled at Tokyo Designer’s Week and is quite possibly up for the award for being the best-looking speaker system for the iPod/iPhone ever!

This Michael Young designed idock comes with a woofer-equipped base station and is paired with up to eight remote stereo speakers and rocks a wireless dongle to let you stream music from a Mac or PC.

A full-function RF-remote control is packaged with it as well as having the gesture control of iPhone touchiness - you just wiggle your hand in front of the base station and control volume and equaliser functions.

Nice.

Would you buy one?

When I read something about a new Soundgarden I instantly thought that the band had got back together - but you can blame that on me being of an age and being an 80’s rocker.

Whilst it isn’t news about the Seattle band’s reformation it is the fact that JVC has gone all eco-friendly with its latest speaker concept - the Sound Garden, or rather the Kirikabu, speaker.

This combines a plant pot with multi-directional speakers consisting of a woofer, and left and right channel stereo speakers powered by an internal amplifier.

See, you didn’t realise you needed this did you?

The manufacturer showed off the concept in Tokyo at the Designer’s Week exhibition.

I’m still slightly confused.

Happy birthday to this gadget blog. Happy birthday to this tech blog. Happy birthday dear Jay’s Gadget News.  Happy birthday to yooooooooooooooooou!

Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog! Blog!

Well, what started off as a test to see if there was room for another gadget and tech blog site a year ago has slowly gained enough of you lovely readers for me to carry on writing about things that have caught my eye and that you (hopefully) find interesting.

My first posts (ie not ones dragged over from my temporary test site) were posted this very day 12 months ago - I know, how Goth to choose Samhain/Halloween to start a blog

I would like to take this moment and space to thank all of you for coming here and making this place feel loved - whether you were here from the very start or have only just found this place.

If there are anythings that you would rather see more/less of now is your chance. Either email me or just leave a comment here and I’ll do my best to please - the new look was prompted by a comment a lo, it was done.

So, thanks once more and here’s hopefully to another year of gadget grooviness and tech tremendousness

Much gadgety love

Jay

Hello folks!

My Top 10 Halloween themed gadgets has been posted on the lovely Newslite.tv site.

Pop along there and witness bookmarks, pumpkin carving kits and little Devils and Angels that get shoved in your ears!

What you’re seeing is Sanyo’s newest digital phone frame, the ALBO.

it looks remarkably like a retro-futuristic telebox and wouldn’t look out of place with a JVC Videosphere - perhaps partner it with the RR226?

Personally I rate this as one of the coolest digital picture frames that I have ever seen - and there’s no shortage of frames is there?

As you can see from the photo, it is possible to turn the screen on a swivel for landscape/portrait formats.

It can also display RSS feeds via Wi-Fi and it can receive photos from a phone through an infrared port.

The ALBO comes with 256 megabytes of memory and is pencilled in for release on November 14, for a price of about $422 and probably only in Japan.

DVice

The Mir:ror tag is a little misleading as it’s not reflective (as far as I can see) and you’ll need to connect it via USB to a puter so hanging it on your hallway wall maybe a little tricky.

Instead of checking yourself out before you leave home you’ll be waving your various possessions over its USB-connected sensor.

Why? Well by the magic of small RFID stickers, enhanced-reality style info will be displayed on your computer.

What?

Put simply: Wave your brolly handle over it and get a weather forecast, your TV remote to get tele listings and so on.

An oddly cool concept yeah?

It’s made by Violet who are also to blame for bringing us the animated internet “buddy” bunny Nabaztag.

The RFID bit is in the little ‘Ztamps’ you stick to your gear, and the magic all happens through Violet’s new website.

The mir:ror can recognise quite a few things straight off however with dedicated stamps, but through the site you can configure more of your stuff to work with it.

$70 buys you the sensor, a skin for the sensor “puck”, 2 nanotagz rabbits (those little Nabaztaglets) and 3 ztamps.

You can buy more RFID stickers for the rest of your portable gear.

I’m strangely tempted

Dynamism via Technabob

In my run of Halloween gadgety loveliness I’ve kinda ignored the more creative of you.

Well, why not treat yourself to the Dremel Pumpkin Carving Kit from Firebox?

So, instead of carving your hands whilst trying to get that grin suitably scary and the eyes level this kit is dead easy to use:

1. Hollow out your pumpkin
2. Download the stencils from this link
3. Stick one to your seasonal vegetables
4. Start hacking away at the skin
5. Carve with the pumpkin carver attachment

Then a totally cool piece of vegatitive art is yours

It’s has been a while since I’ve seen anything regarding Jean-Michel Jarre - perhaps ’Destination Docklands’ was the last time.

This time it has nothing to do with his synth pop spectaculars as it turns out that he’s a bit of a gadget designer too! He also happens to be a bit fussy bout the output from his iPod.

So he’s gone and designed the AeroSystem iPod speaker.

Typically understated (arf!) he’s knocked together quite an imposing metal and glass tower that houses 2x 20W speakers and 45W subwoofer for blasting out that laser-synth music of his.  The remote is also a work of gadgety art in itself.

Of course it also charges your player and does have connectivity for other players - I’m guessing that these will require another stand/shelf.

450 Euros is the asking price and it is only available to rich French residents.

JM Jarre Technologies via Engadget

For some reason various Joy Division songs came to mind when I saw this.

Another one for the up-coming Halloween season or for all-year round if you’re one of my Goth buddies.

In a kinda noose-meets-electric-chair stylee Designer, Marie Thurnauer, will be laughing all the way to the bank as the 135-centimeter-long light fixture costs a crazy bananas $6,395!

WTF!!!???!!!

I’ll wait for Ikea or even Habitat knock one of these out for under $50.00………..or perhaps someone in Camden market can make one.

Petites Productions via Cribcandy via Walyou

This is a great idea but not for those who are a bit jumpy.

The Plantbot comes with some sort of solar seeking tech on board which literally moves it around to follow sunlight in the room.

Yup - it moves around on its four wooden, jointed legs to chase the rays of the sun.

I can only imagine that once the days get even darker you’ll be sat typing away on Twitter or something and there will be a ~Thud…….Thud……~ as the door opens and your favourite plant walks in with an unquenchable thirst to photosynthesise………

AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A pool table in the shape of a coffin seems a great idea to me and  Casket Furniture thinks so as well

Their Manhattan Casket Pool Table has a starting price of $4995 but that can swiftly rise depending on various options.

Some of these optional features include 14K gold ($5000), Maple Housing ($4,500) and a granite one piece playing surface ($18,000).

So whether you’re a Goth or just want to throw the bestest Halloween party ever…………..

………this table is dead cool!

Sorry - couldn’t resist.  It was difficult being dead-pan all through this.  Just glad I didn’t corpse…..

errmmm,,,,yeah…I’ll keep a lid on it.

I’ve been noticing that it’s starting to get dark earlier and earlier and that even I, someone who’s lived in Canada and the frozen north of England, need a jacket these days.

Yup, winter is on its way.  Thoughts of keeping warm spring to mind.

Want a rather bricky radiator?

How’s about a LEGO radiator?

It’s colourful, funky and you can’t ignore the geek-factor!

As expected it’s called the Brick and it’s a real radiator designed by architect Marco Baxadonne for radiator maker Scirocco.

Interestingly the LEGO pieces are pretty efficient at spreading the heat owing to their surface area. Inside you’ll find that the plumbing inside allows you to snap them together just like LEGO.

I wonder if you can build extensions coming out of it using ‘oners’ to create an airer for towels and clothes.

Either way it looks pretty cool

Trendir

I love retro hi-fi’s and I’d love to bring the days back when your sound system was also a piece of furniture in its own right.

Brionvega has brought back the 60’s with the very far out groovy RR226 man.

The RR226/RR126 first took the stage in 1965 and was the work of Italian designers Pier Giacomo and Achille Castiglioni.

The new version is faithful to that look.

Those speakers can be worn to the side or on top of the unit.  I am digging the ’smiley face’ controls and even the black trolley base - some how I think it all works

Being a 60’s throw-back you get the two-speed deck (33/45rpm) for your Beatles and Stones albums and the singles as well!

It has a built-in amp and radio but as we’re actually in the 21st Century, just like Buck Rogers, they bring you up-to-date with a CD/DVD player as well.

They’ve not gone as far as wireless/digital connectivity and they’ve surly forgotten the cassette deck.

Brionvega is currently pimping this around the design shows with no apparent signs of retail.

I’m guessing this retro-designer conversation piece aint gonna be cheap though!

Cool Hunter

The average British household will work its way through more than 250 electrical devices over a period of 60 years, according to a new survey.

The poll of 3,000 households by Reevoo.com shows that electrical items rarely last longer than six years - and the kettle is the item Brits use and replace the most.

Over sixty years, each household will get through 20 kettles and spend approximately £1,000, which works out as a new kettle every three years.

The most expensive item is a home PC, replaced around 4 years at a cost of around £500 while the average oven costs more at £545, but lasts around 6 years.

In total, Reevoo.com reckons Brits will fork out £48,940 on electrical devices over their lifetime.

Not one for the light sleeper but definitely one for those folks that yearn to have a railway station style flick over clock.

If you want an audible sign of the passage of time; minute by minute. Flip, clunk, flip, clunk, as the ebbing away of life……..

Ahem.

This lump of retro-inspired horology can be yours for $83.99.

Shop for it here

If, like me, you can’t get your fill of Midway classics by mere emulations.

You need the full controller array and cabinet to get fully immersed!

Most are a little on the expensive side but this officially licensed tabletop cabinet is pretty tempting.

For $200 (and $5 shipping) you get a 14″ CRT, a duo of 6-button joysticks and 12 games like Rampage, Joust and Root Beer Tapper. Plus, there are some A/V-in ports for those of you looking to bring your HD Xbox 360 experience to the small screen.

woot via dealnews

While wine lovers may discuss/argue about the pros and cons of screw-tops and corks most will totally ignore the thought of drinking out of a box or a dispenser!

But that will soon change if the box in question is the Skybar.

The Skybar features a precise temperature control and vacuum system to keep your wine tasting its best for up to 10 days.

The pouring spout delivers wine directly into your glass without disturbing any sediment so, in theory, no need to decant.

This seems a pretty cool system for your chilled wines but I’m thinking the $1000 asking price might change your mind.

Born Rich via Boing Boing Gadgets

Twas only a matter of time.

Kodak have released a new picture frame based on CMEL’s new mass-produced, 7.6-inch OLED panels out into the wilds!

This ultra-thin wireless 800 x 480 pixel frame shall sport 2GB of internal storage, integrated audio, a 30,000:1 contrast, 180-degree viewing angle, and photo service compatibility with Flickr and such.

I just think the tiny matter of requiring to part with $999 may slow sales down a tad.

OLED-Display

I’ve been pretty lucky. I’ve only had to share my house or flat once with someone other than my partner at the time - and then that was with another bassplayer in a West London penthouse.

I did say I was lucky

(Big shout out to Johnny Mac!)

Others I know have not been so blessed; forced to share a house or appartment with half-a-dozen other people whether at University or when they moved to the big city.

One source of contention, other than cleaning duties, is fridge space.

Thankfully the annual Electrolux Design Lab has birthed this modular fridge, designed to keep each student’s bread, beer and red bull completely separate.

With the Flatshare Fridge everyone gets there own very separate compartment that still has a tall section for bottles and a smaller side for veg (students eat veg?).

This design also negates having to share fridge space with Stinky Kev or with the person that just loves Toulouse sausages.

When you manage to get someone to live in the space under the stairs or if you decide to sublet the living room you can just add another unit on top for them as well.

I think this should be fitted as standard in any flat/house share!

Genius!

Electrolux Design Lab