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!
Latest Gear Live Videos
This Japanese furniture uses sensors embedded in the table’s top to match the color of whatever has been placed on the surface. Red, green, and blue lights that humans cannot see are then reflected off the object. A Mac placed inside the table sends messages to the four stools which projects light through them, then a pulse is added at around the same tempo as humans’ breathing.
Creator Shinya Matsuyama and his team from the Studio Mongoose have developed the Fuwapica Furniture on the concept that gods inhabit everything that is humanmade and should “be given a chance to interact with the people that use it.” They suggest that several items should be changed around to match its owners’ moods. Although it might be pleasant to play with for an hour or so, we think generally that we don’t want have our moods exposed for any great length of time.
Read More 
| BBC
Gallery: Fuwapica Furniture Reflects Moods
Advertisement
Woody Cool Tunes Cooler Bag
Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Design, Music, Portable Audio / Video,
So we recently told you about the Boombox Bag, which this writer loved so much she ventured over to a local Journeys store to check it out…only to find it was way too small (albeit cute) for her needs. A new contender is the
Woody Cool Tunes Cooler Bag, complete with faux wood grain and built-in speakers. As with the Boombox Bag, just plug in your iPod or MP3 player, and hear your music anywhere you go. And being a cooler, it also keeps your drinks and food cold while your party on. Need more? It even has a built-in AM/FM radio, in case no one “gets” your taste in music. Pretty cool for $45 USD.
Read More | Uncommon Goods via http://geeksugar.com/481037
Gallery: Woody Cool Tunes Cooler Bag
Teleshadow Brings Distance Closer
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Design, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop,
Following the Japanese tradition of Shoji (paper walls) to divide rooms, the Teleshadow turns images made from a video cam in the user’s home into outlines that have been projected in a small, square lamp by way of its software. Designer Shunpei Yasuda says that the shadows fills a gap between live video and static pictures. It is then possible to set up a voice call to the image (which can consist of up to four friends) by touching the screen.
Yasuda claims that the walls offer privacy while the shadows cast an intimacy to remind users that they are not alone. It might be a nice idea to be able to feel another’s presence close by, but we are not always sure that we want the watcher to be able to capture us if we are having a particularly bad hair day.
Read More | BBC
Gallery: Teleshadow Brings Distance Closer
Apple Releases New Aluminum and Glass iMac
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News, Design, PC / Laptop,
We told you new iMacs were coming, and this morning, Apple delivered. With a heavy emphasis on aluminum and glass, the new iMacs have received their first major redesign since August 2004, and are now available in 20- and 24-inch screen sizes. So what can you expect with the new iMacs? Howzabout four USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire 400 and a FireWire 800 port, ethernet, video out, and the like? Not enough? Well, they also throw in a slot loading SuperDrive, built-in iSight camera, and a glossy screen finish. The iMacs also ship with the newly redesigned Apple keyboards which sport two USB 2.0 ports. On the inside, you get up to a 2.4GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, an ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics card, 1 terabyte of storage space, 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.0, and 1GB of RAM (the new iMacs support up to 4GB RAM). As for pricing, you can pick up the low-end 20-incher for $1,199, a higher end 20-inch model for $1,499 (better processor and graphics card), while the 24-inch iMac now runs for $1,799. According to Apple, they are available today.
Read More | iMac Product Page
Gallery: Apple Releases New Aluminum and Glass iMac
Become a South Park Kid on Facebook
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Internet, Misc. Tech,
We were kicking around Facebook last weekend and noticed all kinds of new applications. There are over 2,500 of them now, including fish tanks, gardens, games, video uploading, and becoming a zombie or vampire and infecting others. Our fave, however, has to be making yourself a South Park Character. We have Simpsonized, IMVU’d, and M&M’d, so we figured why not? Tell us what you think of our Goth representative, then head over to Facebook to come up with your own. If you are truly gifted, perhaps you can create your own cartoon character application and share it with us.
Read More | South Park Character Application
Gallery: Become a South Park Kid on Facebook
FreeWebs Make for Simplified Webcrafting
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Home Entertainment, Internet,
FreeWebs not only helps you design and host your own website, they do it in a way that allows any user the capability. Created by the Mokhtarzada brothers, they figured that they would design the site for others so that it would be “easy enough for their mother to use.” You can choose from hundreds of templates, create a single page or full site, then add a blog, forum, chatroom, pictures, videos, and widgets to spice it up with their WYSIWYG editor. Make it personal or turn it into a business site. Our props to those who are most kind to those of us who are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.
Read More | Freewebs
Gallery: FreeWebs Make for Simplified Webcrafting
New Paint Makes Inexpensive Solar Power
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Smart Home, Misc. Tech, Science, Transportation,
Researchers at the NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) have created a polymer-based paint that can be applied to plastic sheeting to make a solar cell for what they claim will be a fraction of the price. The cell developed uses a carbon nanotubes complex which is estimated to be 50,000 times smaller than a human hair and is considered a better conductor than copper. Lead researcher Somenath Mitra says that the panels could be made on inkjet printers in the future, leading us to believe that possibilities of our house and car becoming self-sustaining solar powered machines is not so very far away.
Read More | NJIT
Gallery: New Paint Makes Inexpensive Solar Power
Eternity II Offers $2 Million to Puzzle Solver
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Toys,
For those who were into the puzzle Eternity I, it’s time to get excited. For those of you not familiar with the game, $1 million went to a UK student who successfully solved the first one in five months. This time there is a $2 million prize at stake, and it could be yours if you are the first to figure it out. Once you find the answers to the Clue Puzzles, you receive key locations for the 256 piece main puzzle, which has more than one solution. All entries will be locked in a vault until December 31, 2008, and the first correct answer wins.
The only catch is that you have to buy Eternity II, so we are just not sure if the hype is worth the AUD $39.95 (US $34.76) price with all that competition. Check out the test game with 16 pieces, which is not as simple as it looks, and if you ace that, it might be worth the investment.
Read More | Latest Buy
Gallery: Eternity II Offers $2 Million to Puzzle Solver
i-Limb Works Almost Like Real Hand
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Misc. Tech, Science,
Last week we featured a workable leg/ankle prosthesis, this week TouchBionics has released the i-LIMB hand that allows wearers to move all five robotic fingers digitally and has a flexible wrist with rotating thumb.
Invented by David Gow, an engineer at Scotland’s NHS (National Health Service,) the hand is controlled by the patient’s thoughts, nerves, and severed muscles attached to a socket that conceals a rechargeable battery and a pair of electrodes. Digits are removable by one screw in case they need servicing. The i-LIMB is available to everyone that can afford the £8,500 (~$17,289.) At the rate that robotics is developing, it won’t be long before we can truly have bionic men/women among us.
Read More | TouchBionics
Gallery: i-Limb Works Almost Like Real Hand
Californians Can Watch Quake Within First Half Hour
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Design, Internet, Misc. Tech, Science,
Residents in California will soon be able to watch a 3-D, locally made, super computer-generated earthquake video in about 28 minutes of its initial strike. Scientists at Caltech and the SDSC (San Diego Supercomputer Center) use data from ground sensors and archived information of the region to create images with OnDemand that can be viewed on a PC or TV screen. The information will be made available beginning in October when a quake of 3.5 magnitude or greater occurs. We think we would prefer spending that time getting out if indeed it is the “Big One.”
Read More | Live Science
