You’re probably not going to be excited or interested when I say that this gadget is an iPod speaker system, after all, there’s hundreds of those, all of which are nearly identical. Now, this one won’t toast a bagel, improve your vision, or even dance to your music, but it will wirelessly send your tunes to 4 different speakers. Come on, admit it, you’re a little interested now.
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Nanobatteries, I sure love new words.

A company called mPhase has been developing a nanomaterial based battery with some very amazing properties. When they reach scale for mass production their claims for their nanobatteries are that they will be recyclable, they will have indefinite shelf life (in case you need to use it 50 years from now), and instant usability (which if they are touting seems odd, as that’s what you expect from a battery).

Traditional batteries, according to the mPhase site, have some built in limitations. They don’t lend themselves to miniaturization. They won’t work with production processes that put things on microchips, a big issue for such small things. They see the standard cost of materials as high. Finally, an issue on batteries I was previously unaware of which involves maintaining electrolytic separation (the energy generating chemicals from touching)

The plus side for these little buggers is huge! (follow the jump )

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It looks like Sony Ericsson will not stay watching while Nokia and Motorola expand their product offerings to gain market share on the mobile phone market. The company, in fact, recently announced not one but eight new mobile phones!

Four of those models are targeted at emerging markets (K200, K220,J110 and J120). Those mobile phones lack advanced features like 3G support or bluetooth connectivity, but they should be “good enough” for the average customer since they pack a digital camera and some multimedia functionalities. Read the rest of this entry »

If U.S. State Sen. Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) has his way, a new proposal would make it illegal to walk, jog or bike across the street in New York while using your iPod. Kruger wants to slap pedestrians with $100 fines for using electronic gadgets, like the iPod, while crossing the street. Last year, Australian Police issued a similar law that banned cyclists from using their iPods after a series of fatal accidents.

“This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it’s becoming not only endemic but it’s creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand,” said Kruger in a telephone interview with Reuters. Two men were killed in his Kruger’s borough recently while listening to their iPods – one of which involved a 23-year-old who was killed in traffic while bystanders screamed “Watch out!” Kruger has named this safety issue iPod Oblivion, but the bill goes beyond just iPods. The bill seeks to ban all popular electric devices such as cell phones, Sony PSPs, Blackberries, etc.

“If you’re so involved in your electronic device that you can’t see or hear a car coming, this is indicative of a larger problem that requires some sort of enforcement beyond the application of common sense,” Kruger said.

Is an iPod crosswalk ban a little too Big Brother? Many people online aren’t taking the news of this bill too seriously. “I understand that they’re working on another bill in New York.” commented Digg.com user packernirvana. “A $200 penalty for those caught walking and chewing gum.” Maybe everyone just needs to exercise a little common sense when using their iPod. How hard is it to lower the volume and look both ways before you cross the street? Didn’t we all learn how to properly cross the street before we could tie our own shoelaces?

BeSocial: flickr | digg story | methodshop

This is some what appropriate for today (knee deep in snow here), the robotic snow plough AKA Yuki-taro.

Yuki-taro may look like one of Bob the Builder’s friends but he’s (or should that be it) one high tech piece of machinery. By using a GPS system and video camera eyes Yuki-taro is able to find snow, suck it up and compress it into blocks for easy storage, these are then expelled out of the back, so he craps blocks of snow so to speak.

Yuki-taro is a working concept at the moment and won an award in the recent Good Design Contest . The robotic snow plough is planned for commercial release in the next five years.

Source: Pink Tentacle

You can never be too safe these days when walking around, which is why it is prudent to get this Taser C2 for the lady in your life. It looks like a shaver at first glance, but when one’s eyes glaze over the lightning flash symbol, it definitely spells trouble. The Taser C2 is touted to be the next wave in citizen defense, enabling you to stop a threat that is up to 15 feet away to keep you and your family safe. In case you are assaulted, the C2 can also be used as a contact stun device to repel the assailant.

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How many of you actually own some kind of home weather station at home? Most of the time, these personal weather stations offer nothing more than a myriad of readings that range from barometric pressure to the level where the mercury is at. The Animated Weather Forecaster is slightly different from the rest of the offerings as it comes with a miniature weatherman inside. This digitized avatar actually looks more like a boy who just hit puberty than anything else, but I’ll let that slip by for the moment. I guess the overall kiddy look is due to the fact that this device targets the children’s market rather than adults.

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