The new Power Rake makes fall chores much more efficient

Our friends over at Yanko Design have created an interesting and time saving device to make us that much more lazier. The Power Rake.

How the Power Rake works ...

The Power Rake is designed by Rury Vizcarra, and it not only sucks up leafs like a vacuum cleaner for your front yard, it also has a conveyor belt system that moves the leaves towards the back and into a bag. It rakes up the leaves by clogging them into the teeth of the collection cylinder in front, then onto the belt which moves the leaves and and over to the hopper in the back, which can include a yard bag already in place for collection.

The Power Rake has an adjustable handles and as many teeth as a great white.

And the best part is, it isn’t powered by gas or electricity. Just good ole fashioned elbow grease, like the old days. Although one can incorporate an optional electric blower to speed up the process. Push the Power Rake forward and it not only collects the leaves, but it’s pully system moves the belt. Additionally, the push handle is height adjustable to enable for the best amount of leverage when pushing to collect the leaves.

The downside though, is that even Vizcarra recognizes it won’t work in tall grass or collect wet leaves. But on the other hand, it’s collapsible for easy storage in the garage the other 11 months of the year.

Sounds like the ideal gift for dad … and just in time for Christmas.

http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/10/02/raking-up-some-fun/

With weather cooling down for the year, all of the outdoor plants will soon be dying off.  Instead of just waiting until next spring to have pretty flowers again, you can switch to indoor plants.  The indoor plants will allow for you to keep your home feeling like summertime, even if it is freezing outdoors.  Well this Superior Self Sustaining Indoor Garden will allow for you to keep a variety of indoor plants alive.

Instead of sticking with the usual boring indoor plants, you can have brightly colored flowering ones, herbs and even vegetables if that’s what you need.  If you were to grow vegetables or herbs, in a way you’d be a little more eco-friendly, since you wouldn’t have to buy vegetables that have been shipped in.  Locally grown is always a better option.  This kit has a light bulb that will give the plant as much sunlight as needed.  Then it automatically pumps nutrient-rich water solution on the roots of your plant.  It will make your plants grow up to 50% faster.  You can purchase the kit for $149.95 from Hammacher and Schlemmer.

Source: EnviroGadget

No, this isn’t some sort of waterfall garden in some Land of Broken Laws of Physics, but the Chelsea Garden Show in New York this year. This “Wrong Garden”, designed by James Dyson, took about one year to create, and was inspired by the uphill waterfalls from artist M.C. Escher.

In case you can’t read the tiny print from the illustration, the waterfall works with air pumped from a sealed tank with bubbles rising to make the illusion of uphill flowing water.

It certainly is one of the most creative things that I have seen in a long time. I can’t help but wonder what would happen if you put a paper boat on the Wrong Garden. Would the boat float up hill before it would plummet over the falls? And assuming it survived the fall, would it be able to flow uphill again?

Personally, I wouldn’t mind making this Wrong Garden bigger, and building a house in the middle of it. Of course, I wouldn’t know how to get my car in and out of the driveway. Maybe you can make an arch in one of the ramps.

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A result of pioneering NASA technology this mains-powered box of magic lets you grow plants, all season, without soil. A nifty internal microjet system constantly sprays roots with super-oxygenated, nutrient rich water so crops grow bigger and stronger. All you do is add water to a special nutrient mix (included) and pour it over the spongy strip that sits below the brim of the Power Plant. Next, sow your seeds on the sponge, replace the lid, stick the whole shebang on the window sill, sit back and dream of Alan Titchmarsh. Once the shoots appear, maintenance is minimal. You can even use the Power Plant to grow flowers.

This green growing machine can be used over and over again, making the £34.95 asking price pretty much a bargain considering the virtually unlimited use down the road. Perfect for folks who’ve always wanted a budding garden but never quite had the talent to match their ambition.

This small keyring gadget is like your own personal space monkey. The UV Monkey will assist you by checking UV levels so that you know when to charge solar devices – and when to protect your skin. Once exposed to sunlight, the center will change to different shades of purple to indicate increasing levels of UV light (darker means higher level of UV). The UV Monkey can indicate 4 different ranges of the UV Index (Index 1-2, Index 3-5, Index 6-8, Index 9-11).

Spending $9.99 for a device that could potentially help prevent sun skin damage, why not? The money spent would clearly pale in comparison when placed next to hospital bills involved in treating skin cancer many years down the road.

Because of those slender little legs that lift the Asado high up, you can place the BBQ anywhere you like without damaging the surface underneath – on grass, even on a tabletop. It’s based on a design of portable grill that South American gauchos would carry on their horses as they ranched cattle over the wide plains. They’d huddle together over an Asado each night, sizzling a juicy steak fresh from the herd as they went – then pack up and be off the next morning to repeat the process.

Made from chrome, you can pick up the Asado Grill Instant BBQ Stand for £9.95.

Each ship is presented in all the kite detail that kites can provide. You can choose from either Luke’s X-Wing, Vader’s Tie Fighter, or Han’s Millennium Falcon (hey, he won it fair and square). Imagine the peaceful, floaty dogfights as Darth chases Luke in the trench of a cloudy-made Death Star, with Han zipping in and taking Darth down. Just like the movies, but a lot more relaxing. We love it, the Alderaanians loved it, and so will you.

Imagine having kite fights with these, where fierce battles are not decided by turbo lasers but the sheer sharpness of crushed glass pasted across the entire length of the kite’s line. The 3D Star Wars Starfighter Kites will retail for $39.99 each.

I usually like birds, that is as long as they’re in the proper environment.  I’m not exactly fond of them when they decide to use my car as target practice though.  There are just those times when birds go from being pretty melodious creatures to being a pain.  Well if you have a situation where the birds are causing trouble on a flat surface of some kind, that’s a little out of reach for you, you could pick up this solar device.  It’s a great alternative if you aren’t ready just yet to whip out a gun and camp out.

The device has a 5 foot diameter that it can keep birds out of.  It does so by doing a helicopter type motion and keeps birds on their toes.  It works for birds of all sizes, including the larger sized birds.  It aggravates them just enough that they will fly off.  It has 3 AA batteries within it, that are rechargeable and allow for it to work during the night hours.  You can purchase the Solar Powered Bird-B-Gone Bird Repeller for $87.99 from Amazon.

Source: CraziestGadgets

Who doesn’t need a fully automatic dart cannon that can fire up to 3 darts per second? It’s certainly going to make things interesting in the office. The darts are fed into the gun via a battery powered belt feed (just like the Vulcan M61) giving you a barrage of firepower that no other Nerf Gun can match. If you don’t want to spend the rest of the afternoon scouring the office for spent darts then you can take the more conservative approach and switch over to single shot mode for extra precision. Not all of us can pull off the Arnie ‘hold the machine gun with one rippling arm’ technique – that’s okay though because the removable tripod can be fitted to the blaster in an instant giving you the opportunity to defend a fixed position.

You don’t even need to play with the Nerf Havok Fire Automatic Blaster outdoors as it makes for the mischevious indoor toy as well. Grab a few of these for the office and see the mice come out to play whenever the boss isn’t around! The Nerf Havok Fire Automatic Blaster will retail for £49.99 a pop.

An integrated barometer monitors changes in barometric pressure and cancels a scheduled watering when rain is forecasted, ensuring your sprinkler system will not turn on prior to or during a rain shower. The device automatically resumes watering on the next scheduled day (weather permitting). You can input the day of the week, time, and duration of each watering using the five-button control panel and LCD. The device calculates how many gallons of water it saves and displays the amount on the LCD. The sprinkler controller simply connects to a standard spigot and garden hose and does not require a subscription to a weather service.

Powered by a single 9-volt battery, the Intelligent Sprinkler Controller can be yours for $99.95.

Although it would be great to have the robot solar powered mower that takes off and mows your lawn for you, plus the perk of it being eco-friendly.  However, it’s a bit on the expensive side, so it’s not something that most people can afford.  For those on a tighter budget, this battery-powered mower might be the better option.  It has the perk of being quiet due to being an electric mower, but doesn’t have the obnoxious extension cord to deal with.

The Neutron CE 6 is one of the larger of their electric mowers and cuts a 19” path in your lawn.  The mower specifies that it is only ideal for those with a lawn up to 1/3 of an acre.  Which is about 15,000 sq ft.  Anything above that and you’ll have to recharge the battery to finish the job.  Although it does come with a spare battery, so even if it does run out, you can just switch batteries and continue the job.  To purchase the mower it will cost you $499.

Source: OhGizmo

This is the inflatable speedboat that provides a safe 2 mph speed on calm water, such as pools or small ponds (play the video). The outboard electric motor is controlled by a child sitting in the inflated hull–a handhold with a finger trigger turns the motor on or off immediately; the boat can accommodate two children at once. The motor drives a shrouded propeller with no exposed blades that provides smooth movement over calm water; the motor can be turned 360°, so even backward movement is possible. Requires eight D batteries that provides up to five hours of operation. Deflates for off-season storage. Hull constructed from 3mm thick PVC. Supports up to two children (or 100 lbs.)

This is one $99.95 toy that is worth considering if you want to get your kid to obtain a tan this summer!

Aim, fire, SPLAT! This serious adults-only set of paintball pistols is not for the faint hearted! Complete with safety goggles and two tubes of biodegradable water soluble paintballs so they wash off your clothes, this is quite possibly the most fun we’ve ever had with a couple of pint-sized pistols. Take a few pot shots at the wipe clean target or unleash a multicoloured messy attack on your enemies! The high powered paintball guns are pretty accurate and shoot well over long distances; just pull back the loading lever, push back into position, aim and fire! Your paintball guns require no batteries or CO2 making them very easy to use and lots and lots of fun! All you have to do is make sure your paintball pistols are locked and loaded with paintballs and you’re ready for a quick firing frenzy! Extra paintballs can be bought separately.

Who knows? Instead of playing a paintball simulation on the Xbox 360 itself, your teen might pick up a love for the sport and end up being a professional one day instead. The Patriot Paintball Gun Twin Pack retails for £29.95.

It’s not uncommon to find a garden with a few tulips planted here and there.  It is a little odd to find them shining brightly though.  Although a normal tulip does need sunlight, this particular type runs purely off of the sun.  This doesn’t take any pesky tending or watering.  Instead just sit it out in the sun and it will shine brightly as soon as the sun goes down.

The thing that concerns me is that you choose a pattern for the bulbs to flash continuously in.  Hopefully they allow for them to be flipped to a mode where they don’t flash at all, but just shine.  Otherwise I’d end up wanting to accidentally run this over with the lawn mower.  It has an auto-sensor so that it can automatically turn on when the sun is down.  You can purchase these LED tulips from Amazon for $26.99.  Although I doubt that it’d be enough to replace real tulips out in your garden.

Source: CraziestGadgets

For one the Grilletto Portable BBQ is ready to cook in just seven minutes. Second, there’s a massive cooking area that converts into a roasting oven so you can cook up a feast that includes anything from beef burgers to a Sunday roast. And third, this handy portable BBQ self cleans! With carry handles that double up as sturdy legs, this fold away portable BBQ is perfect for camping trips and tucking into a good old British barbecue from anywhere in the garden to the great outdoors – just unfold and start cooking! Double cast iron grills adjust to four cooking heights so you can really show off your culinary skills, and when you’ve finished cooking simply fold up the BBQ and it burns itself out, preserving the unused charcoal for later. All the ashes collect in the base making for an easy clean up and a snuff out pouch means you can pack the portable BBQ away straight after you’ve finished cooking.

Sounds so easy, although we’re sure that no matter how far self-cleaning technology has progressed in the future, there are a handful of folks out there who still believe that they should do the cleaning themselves to make sure that everything is spic and span. If you fall under the latter category, then the £63.95 Grilletto Portable BBQ is not the thing for you.

Insect Repeller is a small handheld environmentally-friendly gadget that plugs into any UK mains socket and emits an advanced high power variable ultrasonic wave and an electromagnetic wave to ward off unwanted pests and protect you and your home. Inaudible to humans and harmless to your pet cat and dog, the ultra sonic pest repeller consumes very little power and outdates messy traps and chemically-laden sprays. Once plugged in and switched on this 2-in-1 insect and rodent repeller protects 250 square meters, which is roughly the size of the average three bedroom home, giving you a healthy amount of breathing space between you and world’s critters.

Sounds like £12.95 well-spent if you’re going to bring home the Insect Repeller this summer.

Before you head out under the burning, flaming orb we call the sun for some tanning sessions with your mate, expose the UV Monkey to sunlight and give it a few moments to discern just how strong the rays are at that point of time. This process takes but a few seconds, where a simple read out is presented on its purple scale. Individual parts of the scale will correspond to the UV warning scales used in national forecasts too, giving you a goo idea on whether or not to remain indoors and play some Xbox or wear nothing but a pair of shorts and bask under the sunlight just like your reptilian friends.

Since it comes in such a small size, it is suitable to be taken around wherever you go, be it hanging from your keys, attached to your beach bag or if you’re the more adventurous person, hook it to a part of your body piercing like some sort of modern cyber-tribal warrior. Firebox is currently carrying the UV Monkey for £3.95 a pop.

The Moontent is the room with a view that pops up in seconds, no fiddling with tricky spindly things and strange flappy bits that have no apparent purpose. All you do is pop it out of its bag, flip it open, then peg down the corners – it’s a piece of cake (cunningly designed as a tent). It’ll keep you dry and cosy (as long as you’re not caught in a tropical storm), and in the blistering heat that is the English summer it’ll protect you too, as the tent’s material has UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) of 50!

Not only that, the Moontent comes in handy when you’re going to spend some time with your family without leaving the home – after all, give it to a kid and he’ll use his imagination to turn it into some sort of fort or space station. Sounds like £34.99 well spent, especially when it helps pry the kid from his Xbox 360 so that you can have a go at Street Fighter IV on it instead for a change.

What makes this guy unique? First of all, it will text you if there is problems. You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that. After all, most Roombas or other independently automated vacuum cleaners are indoors, and it is easy to check up on them if there are problems.

But an automated lawn-mower? I don’t know if I can really trust that to operate without my supervision. I may be sipping lemonade in my air-conditioned home while the Automower 260 ACX is supposedly doing the work, but for all I know, it could be running over my neighbor’s cat.

In addition to this texting feature, the Automower 260 ACX can work “as a guard dog against moles, slugs, and other yard destroying pests”. I’m not certain how it does that part of it, as that was all my source had to say about it.

My source also didn’t have a release date or price on this texting Automower 260 ACX. I believe the last time I quoted a price on a Husqvarna automower, it was about $2,000. Let’s just assume a little more here.

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