Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
BEI Offers An Artsy Way To Hide Your Plasma
Posted by Devin Categories: Home Entertainment, Misc. Tech,
I would think most people with a Plasma or LCD television would want to proudly display it on the wall for everyone to see, but for those who are a little shy about showing off, a company called BEI has a solution for hiding your TV without taking it off the wall and sticking it in the closet. The BEI Motorized Artwork System allows users to cover their screen with a choice of either one of 300 different pieces of art - from Monet to Rembrandt to Van Gogh - or a custom high resolution image. This thing doesn’t just throw up some digital image on the screen and leave it at that however. A rolled up piece of canvas slides down over your screen with the image imprinted on it. All the user has to do is simply press a button or flip a switch to turn the TV into a beautiful piece of framed artwork. So how much will this baby set you back? It sells for about $2,600, which is kind of steep, but still cheaper than purchasing that Renoir you’ve always wanted.
Read More 
| BEI Online via Red Ferret
Some Labs Reject Digital Photos That Look Too Professional
Posted by Devin Categories: Cameras, Misc. Tech,
Those of you that enjoy using you digital camera to take high quality images may want to think about how you take your future photographs. It seems some photo labs are refusing to print digital photographs that look “too professional”, fearing that in doing so they may be breaking copyright laws. With traditional photographs, the widely accepted rule was that if you had the negative, you had permission to reproduce it, but in this age of digital photography it can be hard to tell if the photo was taken by Joe Blow, or simply scanned into a computer or downloaded off the Internet. While the photo labs fear being sued for breaking copyright laws, there really isn’t any exact way to know if a photo belongs to the person bringing it in and approval could vary from lab tech to lab tech.
Read More | USA Today
Advertisement
On-board Automotive Computers Could Help Reduce Traffic Jams
Posted by Devin Categories: Misc. Tech,
If you’re anything like me, having to sit in a traffic jam can turn a good day bad rather quickly. Mathematician Dr. Paul Mathias, with Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services Group has a possible solution to help alleviate the traffic jam nightmare. A recent invention of his has the ability to transfer information between your car and the city street infrastructure, allowing you to know what speed will help you catch the most green lights, or alert you of the possibility of another driver running a red light.
“Infrastructure operators could also benefit considerably from this kind of system,” said Mathias. “Standardized vehicle log-on processes with assigned priorities can be used in addition to or as an alternative to conventional traffic detection to provide a more transparent picture of the traffic flow and enable more effective traffic control.” Siemens plans to install and test prototypes of such systems in German cities over the next few years as part of European and national research projects.
Read More | GizMag
Latest Gear Live Videos
Cell Phone Technology Aims To Make Wallets A Thing Of The Past
Posted by Devin Categories: Smartphones, Misc. Tech, Wireless / WiFi,
Pretty much everyone has a cell phone these days, right? Some have cameras, some have Internet and email access, some play mp3’s, and some can even be used to watch TV segments. Heck, some even have the capability to do all of the above. Phones these days can do nearly anything, so why not store your credit or debit card information on the phone, so you don’t even need to take your wallet when you leave the house? The process is quite simple, and it’s already in use in Japan.
At the simplest level, all that’s needed is to embed phones with a short-range radio chip to beam credit card information to a terminal at a store register. It’s not unlike the wireless system used to pay tolls on many highways or the SpeedPass key chain wand used to buy gas at Exxon Mobile Corp. pumps.
Mastercard International has already been testing out this technology, which they call PayPass, since 2003, and they may even conduct a market trial sometime next year.
Read More | USA Today
When I was younger, I always wanted to have porch swing. I also wanted a xylophone. I got the xylophone, but my parents weren’t willing to get me the porch swing, so you can imagine my delight when I came upon the Musical Porch Swing from Musical Furnishings. At first glance, it appears to be no more than a regular cedar swing, but make no mistake, each piece of the swing is hand tuned. Each swing also come with a pair of mallets and a songbook to get you started. While this is a high quality piece of home furniture, the price is also high at $1,000 USD. The company also makes coffee tables, chests, and childrens’ furniture as well.
Prior to these offerings, a person would have to purchase two separate items at a substantially higher cost and still not achieve the space conservation, ease of access, and novelty that of our products offer. Whole sections of musical instrument classifications are waiting to be explored and incorporated into the home setting.
Read More | Musical Furnishings via I4U
Two computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania think that within a human generation we may have the ability to replicate any 3D object out of a material made of small synthetic “atoms”, giving us the ablity to “teleport” over the internet. Professors Todd Mowry and Seth Goldstein first came up with the idea from a process known as claymation, an animation process that uses clay figures and manipulation to produce an images of realistic movement.
Cameras would capture the movement of an object or person and then this data would be fed to the atoms, which would then assemble themselves to make up an exact likeness of the object. ‘When you watch something created by claymation, it is a real object and it looks like its moving itself. That’s something like the idea we’re doing… in our case, the idea is that you have computation in the ‘clay’, as though the clay can move itself.
Read More | BBC
Images can be a bit deceiving, but check out this Citizen clock. If you can’t tell, it is actually almost paper-thin. It uses E Ink imaging film, and is malleable. You can bend it, roll it, etc. - not that these practices would aid in your time checking ability, but it’s cool nonetheless. Citizen hopes to get this thing out in 2005 over in Japan - no word yet on international availability.
Read More | 101 Reviews
Bacteria That Eat Pollution And Also Generate Electricity!
Posted by Kristin Wenzel Categories: Misc. Tech,
Scientists have been experimenting with bacteria in many forms for a long time, for many applications. Some can transform toxic waste into harmless byproducts. Others have been employed to produce electricity. And now, it looks like science hit the bonus round in discovering bacteria that produce electricity while devouring toxic waste.
“The bacteria are capable of continuously generating electricity at levels that could be used to operate small electronic devices,” says Charles Milliken of the Medical University of South Carolina, who conducted the research with colleague Harold May. “As long as the bacteria are fed fuel they are able to produce electricity 24 hours a day.”
The overachieving bacteria are called Desulfitobacteria, and they aren’t picky eaters - this type of bacteria is already well known for it’s ability to detoxify some of the worst man made toxins including many chemical solvents and PCBs. Only recently, though, did research indicate their energetic capability. Could these tiny spores provide a way to clean up some of man’s worst messes, and help prevent new ones from forming?
Read More | LiveScience.com
Finding a good alarm clock is a tough job if you want it to be non wearable. That being said, the iH5 looks pretty neat. This alarm clock radio is brought to us by the iHome division of SDI Technologies. The iH5 allows you to wake up to radio, buzzer, or tunes in your iPod. The best part is that while your iPod is docked and waiting to wake you up in the morning, it is also being charged. The iH5 also has the feature of gradually raising or lowering the sound level when waking and sleeping and has support for 3G/4G iPod, iPod Mini, and iPod Photo. Other non-dockable iPods and audio players may be attached using the line in port. The iH5 is expected to be available in August at a price of $99.
Read More | iPod Lounge
I think we can all agree that the overly bland corporate environment can use any type of excitement boost that it can get, right? Right. Enter these gold plated staples. Has there ever been a smarter way to breathe new life into a product that so many take for granted? Impress your boss by turning in your next report decked out in gold. He will feel you.
Read More | Oooms via Cool Hunting
