Gadgets

New Video Compression Software Allows Deaf to Sign via Their Mobiles

The folks at the University of Washington are working for a good cause. They’re looking for a way of compressing video so that deaf people could sign using their video-capable cell phones. The catch is, because video is still kinda choppy on most networks, the software they’re working on needs to rely on special skin…

Gadgets Louis Ramirez Feb 23

Attention Photogs: Handy Diffuser Is In Your Kitchen Drawer

Our friends at Lifehacker just pointed out a great use for that common household item, the coffee filter: Use it to soften up your flash photography. Hold the coffee filter in front of that flash to make its light less specular, giving a soft glow to your close-ups. Just be careful not to hold it…

Gadgets Charlie White Feb 23

Discovery Biosphere Terrarium Lets Kids Play God

This biosphere from Discovery can supposedly teach kids important things about nature and the environment and all of that crap, but isn’t it more important that this biosphere allows children to play god with an assortment of insects living inside the biosphere. Making it rain, controlling the temperature and humidity, poking and prodding with tweezers…

Gadgets Travis Hudson Feb 23

Dell Wants You to Make It Suck Less with Digg Clone

A week ago, Dell launched its customer-centered “Dell 2.0” push with its Diggish customer suggestion site, IdeaStorm, where users can post ideas and thoughts on how to improve Dell products. Other users vote on the ideas so that the most popular ones hit the front page, ensuring that a set of eyeballs at Dell scopes…

Gadgets Matt Buchanan Feb 23

Lit-Up Umbrella Shafts Use The Force to Repel Rain But Not Muggers

Check out these umbrellas with lightsaber handles and fully-lit shafts, stealing Star Wars juju with reckless abandon. Pick out your choice of red, blue, or black canopies, and light up the night with that red, white or blue lightsaber look. Walk in a bad neighborhood with one of these lit-up umbrellas along with some white…

Gadgets Charlie White Feb 23

Masquerade Speakers Cover Your Satellites with Paintings

I’ve always liked being able to see my speakers, but if the Mrs. is nagging you about your set up, Masquerades wall-mountable speakers replace your satellite’s front grilles with works of art so no one will know you’ve got a 5.1 set up going. You can choose from various different paintings or send them an…

Gadgets Louis Ramirez Feb 23

Shoe Fetish + Punishment = Punitive Shoes

Know somebody who’s been very, very naughty? Make that bad girl walk around in a pair of these Punitive Shoes for a day or two, certain to elicit laughs or wood, depending on your point of view. Yours for the price of a middling pair of Manolo Blahniks. Product Page [Punitive Shoes]

Gadgets Charlie White Feb 23

Ikea Slabang Alarm Clock Can Take a Beating

Ikea knows that most people get their daily jollies out of smashing their products. Just kidding, Ikea, your desks are the bee’s knees. The clock is wrapped in a rubber skin to protect it during all of the domestic abuse. It also includes the unique feature of an integrated mic for recording your own wake-up…

Gadgets Travis Hudson Feb 23

Eleksen’s Double-sided Keyboard Gives Your UMPC Media Controls

The same guys that brought us the UMPC pouch/keyboard are now bringing us a double-sided keyboard that includes your standard QWERTY keys on one side and a full deck of media controls on the other. The cloth has sensors built in so that when you’re typing on one side, it doesn’t activate the buttons on…

Gadgets Louis Ramirez Feb 23

Adding to Collection of Keyboard Puns: Save Key Piggybank

As a part of our continuing series on useful objects patterned after keyboard keys, our next candidate is this little play on words, a coin bank that looks like a Save button. Ironically, at $9.75 it just about costs more than the amount of coins it can hold. https://gizmodo.com/sit-key-stool-makes-programmers-chuckle-regular-people-239009 Now if someone will make a…

Gadgets Charlie White Feb 23

Lego Toilet Paper Folder: Life-Changing Invention?

Is there no limit to what you can make with Lego? Kyle Yeats and his friends at UC Berkeley put together this toilet paper folder out of Lego Mindstorms and a bit of scrap metal. It folds up a heaping helping of toilet paper for you, and then cuts it, conveniently delivering it to your…

Gadgets Charlie White Feb 23

Microstrain Sensors Measures Fatigue in Both Machines and Your Busted Knees

A small company in Vermont called Microstrain has developed a wireless sensor system that can monitor strain and fatigue in various hardware components, such as large trucks all the way down to welding joints, accurate to millionths of a meter. This is like a nervous system … By predicting when welds may fail based upon…

Gadgets Alexander Yoon Feb 23

Bookshelf Speakers Hide Your Illiteracy

Although if these are the only books in your living room, we think people will catch on. Call it a hunch. Product Page

Gadgets Jason Chen Feb 22

Sit Key Stool Makes Programmers Chuckle, Regular People Groan

In the same vein as the delete key eraser, this sit key stool takes the keyboard and makes it part of your decor. https://gizmodo.com/delete-the-new-erase-237691 Not an actual key on any keyboard we know of—the END key would have made more sense, possibly—it’s still a pretty cool piece of furniture for the nerd in your life.…

Gadgets Jason Chen Feb 22

Cellphone Ankle Strap is Unbelievably Awesome

Heading off to a formal affair tonight? Save room in your purse by carrying your cellphone on an ankle strap. Add some pearls, a little poop cellphone strap, six-inch heels, and you’re gunning set to fit into any crowd. https://gizmodo.com/japanese-golden-poop-cellphone-charm-205693 Hell, if you can carry a gun this way, why not a cellphone? We certainly…

Gadgets Jason Chen Feb 22

Nokia Patent Morphs Your Stylus into a Cell Phone Joystick

Though it bears a very strong resemblance to another joystick/cell phone patent we’ve recently seen, Nokia’s take on mobile gaming is slightly different cause rather than house a pop-up joystick in your cell phone’s mid-riff, they want you to use your stylus as a joystick. Seems like a neat trick as long as it’s a…

Gadgets Louis Ramirez Feb 22

ELITE Bomb Detector Kit Identifies Explosives in a Minute

Now you could argue that a minute is one minute too slow, but for those times when the bomb squad ain’t around, the pocket-friendly ELITE (Easy Livermore Inspection Test for Explosives) detector lets you sniff out up to 30 different types of explosives. Just rub one of the ELITE swipes on the suspicious package (hopefully…

Gadgets Louis Ramirez Feb 22

Frank Buchwald Lamps: Pricing and Ordering Info

Remember these totally awesome lamps that I told you about a couple weeks ago? We’ve got a price list and ordering info from the artist, and, well… you’d better sit down. https://gizmodo.com/coolest-lamps-ever-235028 The lamps are all limited edition, hand made pieces of art. The cheapest one is $3,900 and the most expensive is a whopping…

Gadgets Adam Frucci Feb 22

Twenty-Second Workout Girl

If you thought you were the only one that lasted twenty seconds, check out these desktop workout girls. As the name suggests, they exercise like mad for a third of a minute, stop, and waits for you to wind her up again to repeat the entire process. A tacky gift for yourself, but a brilliant…

Gadgets Jason Chen Feb 22

Future Aircrafts Could Shapeshift (Not Transformers-Style, Unfortunately)

In an article in the latest Air & Space, shapeshifting planes could actually be made a reality. Not shapeshifting in the sense of Transformers, but morphing to alter wingspan, wing area and other features. A lot of this approach on morphing planes is inspired from flowers and batteries. Chiang and colleague Steven Hall took advantage…

Gadgets Travis Hudson Feb 22

New Video Compression Software Allows Deaf to Sign via Their Mobiles

Attention Photogs: Handy Diffuser Is In Your Kitchen Drawer

Discovery Biosphere Terrarium Lets Kids Play God

Dell Wants You to Make It Suck Less with Digg Clone

Lit-Up Umbrella Shafts Use The Force to Repel Rain But Not Muggers

Masquerade Speakers Cover Your Satellites with Paintings

Shoe Fetish + Punishment = Punitive Shoes

Ikea Slabang Alarm Clock Can Take a Beating

Eleksen’s Double-sided Keyboard Gives Your UMPC Media Controls

Adding to Collection of Keyboard Puns: Save Key Piggybank

Lego Toilet Paper Folder: Life-Changing Invention?

Microstrain Sensors Measures Fatigue in Both Machines and Your Busted Knees

Bookshelf Speakers Hide Your Illiteracy

Sit Key Stool Makes Programmers Chuckle, Regular People Groan

Cellphone Ankle Strap is Unbelievably Awesome

Nokia Patent Morphs Your Stylus into a Cell Phone Joystick

ELITE Bomb Detector Kit Identifies Explosives in a Minute

Frank Buchwald Lamps: Pricing and Ordering Info

Twenty-Second Workout Girl

Future Aircrafts Could Shapeshift (Not Transformers-Style, Unfortunately)

The ‘Mass Effect’ Show is Getting Rewritten to Get Greenlit

See the Early Stages of How ‘Project Hail Mary’ Brought Rocky to Life

‘Cognitive Surrender’ Is a New and Useful Term for How AI Melts Brains

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Marshall Acton III Home Speaker Drops to a Record Low, the Deal Countdown Has Already Started

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

I’m Worried About the Helpless AI Disruptors of the Future

Russia Allegedly Swung at VPNs but Accidentally Hit Its Own Banking Sector Instead

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

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Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

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