When I first started writing on this blog one of the things I wrote about is why people have such a passion for gadgets. I argued that people bought gadgets because they wanted either to show off, collect them as fashion accessories, or because they hadn’t lost their childhood love of toys.

I missed one class of gadgets that can fundamentally improve people’s quality of life, and this device would fall into that category. It’s a device that enables blind people to “see” by converting light into an audio signal, which with practice can be heard and interpreted as an “image” of their local environment.

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Californian legislators have approved the Vampire Slayer Act!

 The unlikely name isn’t anything to do with Buffy’s campus activities, rather than an Act forcing gadget manufacturers to label devices showing how much energy they consume when on standby. We’ve already discussed the millions of tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere by gadgets on standby, and it seems the Californian lawmakers have listened to the coolest-gadgets.com team!! 

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If you’re a fan of the movie Fight Club (and not just because you like Brad Pit) and want to actually give it a try rather then just watching it.

The fight club, started by Gints Klimanis and located somewhere in Silicon Valley meets twice a month and allows fellow geeks to beat the crap out of each other. Sounds like organised crazyness to me but what ever floats your boat I suppose.

For the full story and more photographs head on over to Wired.

When I got my first mobile phone I was quite happy with an alarm clock and thermometer as extras – and it wasn’t that long ago!

The latest phone models come with digital cameras, MP3 players, internet, satellite navigation, and in March we featured the Samsung i380, which comes with an incredible 8 GB of storage space! As mobile phones come with ever more functions, it’s possible that many users will find their multi-functional phones too complex to use. 

Nokia carried out a global survey of what people want from their mobiles. Some of the results are quite suprising.

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One of the problems with carrying a load of gadgets around is the fear that one may run out of gadget juice and you’ve left your charger at home (or there’s nowhere to plug it in). The UK company BoxBrands have come up with a novel solution that will be appearing all over the UK anytime soon, the ChargeBox.

The ChargeBox is kind of what it sounds, a box you put your gadget in (mobile, iPod, PDA etc.) and leave it to charge. The box is a secure locker, so when you’re running out of juice put your gadget in a ChargeBox, insert a pound, lock the secure box and then pop to the pub for 40 minutes whilst your gadget charges. Is that useful or what?

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Regular coolest gadget readers will no doubt remember the story of the guy who allegedly paid £375 for a broken laptop on eBay from an Amir Massoud Tofangsazan.

When the buyer failed to get a refund on the laptop, he set up a website of pictures and edited personal information that he found on the laptop’s hard drive – the only part of the device that was still functioning.

The story would have been forgotten by now – until it was announced recently that the British police have been called in to investigate an “improper use of public electronic communications network…”

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A new parachute system known as the Gryphon has been designed by ESG Elektroniksystem- und Logistik-GmbH and Dräger (not sure how you’re meant to pronounce that). The Gryphon enables parachutists to fly through the air at high speed before opening their chutes, so they could be dropped miles away and fly to their intended targets.

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A guy bought a laptop on Ebay, that allegedy wasn’t up to the specifications advertised, came without a charger and simply didn’t work. After unsuccessfully trying to get his money back, he took out the laptop’s hard disk and had a look.

Apparently, he found personal details, adult pictures, sneaky hidden camera shots and much more. He published the whole lot on the net.

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