I don’t know whats happened to me over the years but going out to the shopping malls anytime after Thanksgiving is a fate worse than death. I choose instead, to pick out my gifts online and save them on my wishlist, simply adding them to my shopping cart at whatever pace my wallet will allow. The only inconvenience that remains (besides my credit card bill) is actually being there to sign for the stuff, sometimes its truly a hassle… probably for the delivery guy too, I mean how many times does he want to try and deliver my light up faux crystal punch fountain? Seriously?
Well, it seems like Amazon is trying to think of everything this season, by launching its Amazon Locker service. Amazon Locker simply lets you get your packages at secure locker type locations throughout the country. You find the locker that’s closest to where you want to be by using a zip code, address or even a national landmark and then you use that address when you check out. You can even save your desired locker locations for use during subsequent purchases.
Tech News
Personalized Cremation Urn – Comes out a Head
I spend a lot of time searching the Internet for new and different things to write about and for some reason I keep coming across different ways to memorialize our dearly departed. I’ve told you about drive thru funerals, and diamonds made from ashes, and talking headstones, so I figure what the heck… In keeping with tradition I might as well let you in on this too.
An Arlington Vermont company called Cremation Solutions is creating custom made cremation urns in the shape of your loved ones head. Thats right, with just one or two pictures of the persons face, and by using state of the art 3D imaging techniques, the company will make a polymer compound likeness of your loved one’s head and mount it on a marble base. Excellent.
Do you want your Baby to Look like a Celebrity?
There really is no good reason to feel uncomfortable engaging in a conversation about a sperm bank. There are a number of perfectly understandable reasons to utilize the services of such a place, and I do believe that people should be able to have children if they want to, and its certainly none of my business how they go about it. There isn’t too much new in the sperm business these day, but there is something you may not have heard about…
California Cryobank, a reproductive tissue service, is offering a Donor look-a-like program, offering you the subjective input of the Cryobanks’s employees who let perspective parents choose a baby-daddy who they think looks like your favorite star. So if you want a “baby like Beckham” this may be the place for you. If a donor looks like more than one famous person, they will list them all for you, making it easier for you to visualize what your offspring may ultimately look like.
Let’s Pizza Vending machine – Fresh? Pizza Pronto
We’ve covered the Pizza Vending machine here at Coolest-Gadgets before, and I thinks its safe to say that we agreed, if the pizza was any good at all, it could be a hit. Well, I guess people liked the concept, (and the pizza too) as the Let’s Pizza vending machines are about to take on the USA!
Expecting an obviously frozen pie, I was shocked to learn that Let’s Pizza acually vends an authentic Italian pie from SCRATCH in all of about two and a half minutes, complete with the necessary pizza cutter and napkins. The Machines, created by Italian Claudio Torghel, were first made in Europe around 3 three years ago and they have been working their way West, ever since.
Tread Desk – Walk your way to Success
There is no doubt that I spend way too much time in front of my computer screen and not enough time exercising. Truth be told, if its not the computer its the TV. Couple that with paying bills and taking a few calls and its no wonder I almost always have to skip dessert. Well I for one, am sick of it. I like cake, darn it.
Check out the Tread Desk, designed with the busy executive in mind, the Tread Desk allows you to integrate exercise right into your workday, without having to waste time, you can actually walk, while you work. No more giving up your lunch hour to log a few miles, you can easily return a few calls and go over your spreadsheets while doing your body some real good.
NEATGEAR’s Genie app – Printing, No Strings Attached
I use my iPad a lot. I do find that not being able to print from it easily is a bit of a pain. Same thing with my Macbook, I keep finding myself unplugging the printer from my desktop and plugging it into my laptop.. again, just not as convenient as I would like. I wondered to myself, should I just invest in one of those AirPrint printers… but my printer is still perfectly fine. What’s a girl to do?
Well, lucky for us, NETGEAR just announced the release of their new Genie App upgrade that enables printing from an Apple, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to any networked or USB printer. With this nifty NETGEAR Genie App upgrade, iOS device users are no longer restricted to AirPrint-compatible printers. The NETGEAR Genie App upgrade dramatically overcomes previous AirPrint compatibility limitations to give users the freedom to print to any USB or networked printer. Yipee!
BikeGuard – QR Codes for Bike Recovery, will it work?
I have a relatively inexpensive bicycle, my husband wants us to spend more money and get some really fancy ones. I think he forgets about my less is more theory on exercise. I just don’t think having a deluxe bike is going to change how I feel about getting out in the elements and working up a sweat, and anyway, when you have a nice bike, someone will just want to take it… well, there goes that excuse.
MyAssetTag.com, is introducing us to BikeGuard, a new (and free) bike registry and identification program. This service provides its customers with free QR Code asset tags so folks can track and identify their bicycles, and since a bike is lost or stolen about every seven seconds, BikeGuard may just be part of reducing the challenge of locating and recovering bicycles for both the bike owners, and the police.
Earthquake Wallpaper – for when Your World is Falling Down around You
I used to live in California, I have felt my fair share of earthquakes, a short time after I first arrived in Los Angeles a quake woke me up from a dead sleep at around 7 o’clock in the morning. My chandelier broke, and my balcony actually fell from the apartment. My neighbors were standing in their doorways, afraid the walls would fall in on them and folks were trapped in our buildings elevator. Not one of my best mornings.
Luckily, German researchers have recently developed what they are calling, “seismic” wallpaper. This specially reinforced paper boasts the ability to hold masonry walls together and keep them from breaking, falling or crumbling when subjected to an earthquake. That could certainly make you feel safer, am I right?
Classic Manual Typewriter – Complete with Clickity Clack
We reported sometime ago that the India-based typewriter manufacturing company known as Godrej and Boyce had closed its doors, and we suppossed that meant that no typewriters would ever be on the market again. I guess we all felt that way for a good reason, I mean, with computers and notebooks and countless other ways to get your thoughts on paper, who needed a typewriter, really?
Well Hammacher Schlemmer realized that there may be more than just a few old school devotees who pictured themselves click clacking away at the next great novel, and has brought back from the dead, a newly manufactured manual typewriter. Forget about the next great novel, I’ll just be happy to be able to address an envelope without having to read my printers instruction manual and figure out how to use the envelope tray. Geez.
Apple Free – iDevice Protection
I admitted in a recent post that I had yet to purchase an iPhone. While I got the occasional accolade, for the most part people snickered and belittled me for not yet entering the 21st century. Bear in mind I already had an iPad and an iPod and various other electronic items that should have qualified me among the tech savvy, but most folks were faintly ashamed of me.
This weekend I got the darn iPhone. Of course I purchased the optional insurance from Apple, as I saw it, there was no choice. It was very expensive, but I have a daughter that we call “the Crusher”, so a discussion was not necessary. Well, I wish I had known about iSmart Protection, available nationwide, it offers the first ever family, group, small business and large organization plans at discounted prices. Best of all, it actually offers protection to people with UNLOCKED or Jailbroken iPhones who were previously unprotected. (woo-hoo)