Gadgety News

Passing a lump of shaped metal into a corresponding orifice then twisting it just to open or secure your abode too much for you?

Well those tool-meisters, Black & Decker, are to launch a “state-of-the-art remote wireless residential access control solution” that could see you locking your front door remotely.

Black & Decker’s motorised electronic deadbolts can be locked and unlocked remotely, with no direct human interaction.

Not very satisfying for the almost OCD of you out there who like to rattle the door 5-10 times before leaving but I’m guessing ideal for the more lax that tend to get that  “did I lock the door?” moment when stepping on to the plane.

Word is that it’ll be due in the new year - I’m interested to find out just how secure the remote code signal is.

Here’s another cryptic release from those strange folks at Violet - you know, those that brought us Mir:ror and the interactive bunny Nabaztag.

I remember the original Dal Lamp that was released 4 or 5 years ago had a rather hefty price-tag so I’m hoping that this new version will be a little more wallet friendly.

The all new dal:dal lamp should be ready for release early next year and, just like the original, will change its colours to relay different information.

Violet says that it, converts the “world’s ebb & flow and endless stream of events into halos of living colours and audio micro-messages.”

No exact release date just yet but, according to GeekLifeBlog, it’ll set you back €59, or about $75 - so they’ve actually knocked off a zero from the end of the price!!!

GeekLifeBlog

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

Fancy yourself a butler/maid/skivvy but can’t afford the wages?

Well, a one off payment of around $10,00 could score you the “Home Assistant Robot”.

The housproud bot is the product of joint research between Toyota and the University of Tokyo.  It stands 5-foot tall on its practical wheels and weighs in at 286lb.

The HAR uses five cameras and six lasers to map and navigate round your home and has fairly free movement - the neck alone can be moved in three directions while the arms move seven!

The helpful HAR can open and close doors, tidy up rooms, mop floors, do your laundry and put away dishes - all this without a marriage certificate :P  ~ducks out of the way of flying frying pans~

What impresses me is that mechanical home-help is clever enough to move furniture out of the way to clean floors and such and then place it back in its original position when the chore is done.

I’m not exactly sure how the robot learns from its mistakes but the programming seems to operate on simple “Magic Eye”-type principals distinguishing what’s different about a room from its original room image and correcting the differences accordingly.

You can get between 30 to 60 minutes of graft per charge and can be expected to arrive at homes in the next decade.

So, save a grand a year…………..

Asahi via CrunchGear

3D printers are mainly used by industrial designery types.

Many of these folks get their companies to buy the not so cheap versions of Star Trek styled replicators which is all very well for them but not so cool for regular types like you and I.

Objet’s Alaris30 3D desktop printer is no bigger than a regular printer/scanner combo and plugs into a regular power source, connects to any office network and ships with simple drivers and software that let your send CAD files to be produced from modeling plastic in dimensions up to 11.57 x 7.72 x 5.9 inches.  Alriiiight!!!!

Unfortunately that price is still gonna hovver around the $40,000 mark and still can’t create an army of clones.

If you happen to have that kinda cash check out the details on Objet’s site.

You can marvel at an example of the printer’s capabilities at BBG.

Objet

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

This is kinda like a modern twist to having a candlestick and taking it around the home.

‘Two Lamps’ is a simple click-off rechargeable flashlight that goes from lamp to torch and manages to do it with style.

It will work well for campers as well as those of you that would rather carry a torch around the house on a night instead of turning all the lights on.

I love this idea but, unfortunately, it is only a concept at the moment.

TrendsNow via DVICE

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

Building your own furniture has become fun!

Nope - I’m not being sponsored by Ikea, B&Q or MFI!!

Regress (possibly) and remember the joys of Lego.  Now imagine larger blocks.

You now have Lunablocks.

They’re giant perspex Lego-esque bricks that can be used to build pretty much anything -  a TV stand/coffee table is a good starting point and probably the easiest to construct.

Keeping with the Lego theme the blocks come in the usual format; twos, fours and flaties.  Cool!

The blocks come in different flavours such as metallic, glossy colours or even with lamps inside that illuminate the clear Perspex blocks.

It’s the brainchild of French outfit, Lunatic Constrauction, and on show at the Maison et Object show in Paris.

More over at Lunatic Construction

Belkin are still pushing to make our lives cable free.

The largest glut of wires must be lurking behind your home cinema rig.

Enter Flywire!  Belkins new wireless transmitter and receiver that can send 1080p video over a 5GHz band with a little help from Amimon. This probably means it’s WHDI.

They promise little to no interference and no latency even for gamers.  A recent viewing of a Blu-Ray movie showed pretty much no hint that there wasn’t physical connection.

As for connections you’ll get three HDMI ins, two component ins, one composite, and one HDMI out.

Remote control is done via IR, which should be welcome news to those of you with universal remotes.

FlyWire will come in two flavours:

The FlyWire AV69003 will come somewhere between $999.99-$1,499.99 and is meant for a whole-home solution with an IR backchannel for multi-room control.

While the FlyWire R1 AV69000 at the $699.99 ballpark is meant for a single room without the IR backchannel.

Nope, not cheap but a lot less hassle than channeling your walls to ‘plumb’ everything in or to buy a custom wireless solution.

FlyWire should be in the shops next month.

Styrofoam homes.

Now, that’s not bringing to me visions of a safe habitiat for me and mine.

Japan Dome House Co., Ltd. thinks they’re the future!

Constructed of 7-inch-thick 100% expanded polystyrene foam modules, the company says that they don’t have the maintenance problems of wood or metal structures, and they are “highly resistant” to earthquakes, fires, and typhoons.

Gotta admit tho; there’s a definite Mos Eisley vibe about the 480 domes at Aso Farm Land resort village in Kyushu.

They do, however, look quite comfy and roomy inside :0)

Pink Tentacle

I’ve been looking around at various things to attach an iPod or iPhone to and found this little beauty.

The Belkin TuneStudio looks to be a neat bit of gear.

Just slot your iPod into the socket and you can start recording your musical ideas or, indeed, your band in CD quality.

It has four inputs, 3 band EQs per channel and even phantom power.

All this for a lot less than a ProTools MBox Pro - £179.95.

British Telecom have raised the game with version 2 of their Home Hub.

Using ‘n’ standard Wi-Fi, making them the only broadband provider to do this in the UK, it increases the reach and makes it faster to stream films and music through your home.

It comes in black which for me is a huge plus point - it also looks a lot slicker than the first one.

You can also save whilst you sleep by using the power save which disables the wireless. Less power usage, lower power bills and also saving the planet that little extra bit.

Other additions include four Ethernet ports to the previous model’s two, and a USB2 port allowing you print via the router.

It’s out this Friday, and is free with certain packages, or £90 in the shops.

The sports channel Setanta also comes free with BT Vision now if that floats your boat.

BT will also be providing an HD downloads service.

You pre-book a Hi-Def movie, and it downloads overnight being ready for you in the morning to watch with your bacon buttie and latte if you so desired - like I get up early enough to watch a flick before commuting!!!

VoIP News has listed some well groovy things that I never knew that Skype could do!

These range from LastFM plug-ins to language translation and getting the caller to pop-up on your telebox.

If you’re a Skype user I reckon that these details could prove very useful indeedy!

Go here for the low-down my lovelies!

EuroTech have just launched their new iPod docking station, the movieCENTER.

As the name suggests you can connect your iPod to the dock and then get your iPod content through your stereo or TV.

They claim that the device incorporates

“powerful processing technology that transforms iPod movies and music into a more realistic and immersive experience”.

This technology includes:

• TruBass processing for subwoofer like performance from ordinary stereo or TV speakers.
• Dialog Clarity tool that creates a virtual center speaker “that lets you hear even the quietest whisper in crystal clear detail no matter how much background action there is“
• There is also a tool to process surround sound.

The movieCENTER comprises a compact black dock and remote control, a shielded audio cable with gold-plated connectors, component and composite video outputs and a USB input.

The Xitel movieCENTER is available in the UK now for £59.99.

PlayStation Home will be here later in the year it seems in “open, working beta” format.

I know you’re thinking “Google use this” but in their defense, Sony has actually come clean describing Home’s rollout as “similar to Gmail.”

Could this be a way of covering their backs if parts fall over?  Nah.  Well.  Could be, I guess…….

But hey - Playstation Home is nearly here!

Wired

Nope - the table isn’t on fire and that’s not a burning waste paper basket.

Planika Fires lets you have a fire in the middle of your coffee table (should you wish) thanks to a proprietary liquid biofuel called Fanola, which burns completely smoke and smell free.

Fanola, the company says, is a biologically clean product which emits nothing but water vapor and CO2.

The fireplace technology comes in a variety of designs, so you can mix and match with every piece of Ikea/Habitat furniture ever created.

Pricing info aint available just yet.

Planika Fires via greenupgrader via Gizmodo

With the sweet smell of victory still strong in its nostrils could the winning of the HD format war be short lived for Blu-Ray?

In an interview with Home Cinema Choice magazine a head-honcho at THX has said:

“Personally, I think it’s too late for Blu-ray. I think consumers will only become interested in replacing DVD when HD movies become available on flash memory. Do we really need another spinning format?”

“In the future I want to be able to carry four to five movies around with me in a wallet, or walk into a store and have someone copy me a movie to a USB device.”

This might not be as daft as it sounds as 20th Century Fox will be trialing movie vending machines later this year!