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Another week has passed and the weekend has passed. It’s been a quiet one here at Gadgets with Mandy having been out of the office, but I’ve had plenty of new gadgets to keep me occupied!
Whilst I won’t be out trick or treating over the weekend I am dressing up to go to a Halloween party tomorrow evening which should be good fun! Here’s hoping all of you out there have a suitably spooky weekend, let us know what you get up to!
Just two days left till Halloween and my costume arrived safely today, just a couple of minor bits to pick up before Saturday and I’m good to go, will try and get some photos up on Mondays blog. Of course as scary as Ghouls, Ghosts, and indeed Goblins are they are all just made up, or at least a large majority of us think so. What scares a lot of people is things that we have empirical evidence for. For example some people have an overbearing fear of germs. The Howard Hughes of this world who will go to extreme lengths to try and protect themselves from disease.
Of course with things such as Swine Flu still in the news a lot of people are more aware than usual of just how easily bacteria can be spread, and the sorts of places they congregate and multiply. In fact as I sit here typing away my very own keyboard is very likely a breeding ground for microscopic organisms; the warmth of the office, the liberally dropped biscuit crumbs, and safe enclosed environment just underneath the keys I tap away on giving them an ideal little alcove away from cleaning substances and disturbance. In the usual run of things this isn’t anything to worry about, my keyboard gets a clean periodically, and I have as of yet to find fluff or mushroom shaped things growing on it.
If you find yourself feeling uncomfortable reading my description above then I may have found just the Gadget for you in this rather nifty (or should that be ‘niff-less’?) self sanitizing keyboard.
When not in use the Vioguard (product page) Self Sanitizing Keyboard will retract into its housing to be bathed in UV-C light. A special wavelength of light that will kill “more than 99.9% of harmful micro organisms.” Unfortunately at a price of around $900 it may only be the Howard Hughes of this world who could afford it. Of course we at Gadgets.co.uk have an alternative. Whilst it may require you to clean it yourself on a regular basis with an antibacterial wipe or similar, our Portable Flexible Rubber Keyboards are waterproof allowing easy cleaning, and of course have no nooks and crannies for crumbs, micro organisms, or anything else to hide in!
With Halloween being this weekend I thought I’d start off the week by searching for some spooky videos on Youtube, and one of the best I came across was this one, that supposedly catches a real ghost on camera! If you look carefully you can see the blanket on the sofa moving slightly, as well as the chair starting to rock by itself.
Not too sure about this myself, after all it could all be done with bits of twine and similar seeing as the light isn’t all that great, but I suppose you wouldn’t catch ghosts in broad daylight would you? Anyway, have a watch and see what you think.
Hopefully this’ll help get you into the Halloween spirit!
Another Friday is upon us, and what has this week brought us here at Gadgets Towers?
We’ve been getting a cascade of exciting new Gadgets arriving ready for the build up to Christmas with various Remote Control goodies, as well as other great gift ideas in our What’s New section with more being added everyday, so it’s all go here at the moment!
By now I’m sure you’ve seen the new Toy Story 3 trailer, that we here all looking forward to next year. If you haven’t check it out below!
Friday of course also means the weekend is here! Mandy is gearing up for a well earned week off, whilst I am looking forward to trekking to the O2 tonight to see Green Day, which I am really looking forward to as I haven’t actually managed to see them live yet!
Whatever you’re doing have a great weekend!
Ok, so this isn’t really Gadgets related but I thought it was rather fun and bizarre. You have to wonder about the mentality of the person that first conceived the idea of Anvil Shooting as a ‘sport’ in the first place. On the other hand I can think of less fun things to do with a surplus of gunpowder I suppose, and as long as they run fast enough no-one is getting hurt using this method.
The man featured in the video is Gay Wilkinson who is a World Champion! If you’re interested enough to find out a bit more about the obscure but venerable American tradition of Anvil Shooting this article from the River Front Times (who also shot the video) expands on the matter quite nicely.
Have you had the inconvenience of popping your mobile phone or other gadgets into your pocket, or bag and upon taking it out found the screen cracked or broken? With mobile handsets getting smaller and smaller broken screens are becoming more common. Samsung are one of several companies thankfully looking for a solution to this problem, and appear to be well on their way judging by the flexible OLED display in the video below!
According to Wired we can expect devices to start retailing with these sorts of displays in about 3 years. Anyone for a wall sized TV you can roll up like wallpaper?
I was at home one night earlier in the week and I picked up my Gameboy to kill ten minutes or so, and it was then that I realised out of the multitude of original Gameboy games that I own, the only one that I revisit on a regular basis is Tetris. One of the simplest concepts in gaming, and indeed one which has spawned a huge number of imitations, Tetris was possibly the ‘killer app’ behind the success of the original Gameboy when it was released back in 1989 (Or 1990 here in Europe). The story of Tetris doesn’t actually begin there as it was originally conceived back in 1984, yes it may be hard to believe, but Tetris is 25 years old!. Looking back, Tetris was perfect for the period when it was released. Gameplay was simple to pick up, but with increasing levels of difficulty so that it remained a challenge.
There have been many updates and ‘new’ versions over the years introducing new concepts and modes of gameplay, but I don’t think any of them match up to the original, monochrome graphics and all! Below is a video of a game of Tetris played using an entire building and it’s lights.
Oh, and if you’re wondering how they did it, they didn’t have people stood in every room turning the lights on and off, it was all done using a computer programme.
I was greeted this morning by the photo below, and asked to guess what it was. For the life of me I honestly couldn’t even begin to hazard a serious guess. Maybe it could be some sort of space age sieve, magically keeping in the food but letting the water out, or possibly some sort of ‘uber’ magnifying glass? As it turns out both of these suggestions were (predictably) wrong and very very wide of the mark.
Not happy with redesigning the humble vacuum cleaner and hand drier those clever folks at Dyson have now done the same for the rather ordinary desk fan. Now if you just did what I did upon hearing what it actually is, you will at least have glanced back at the photo to look for the tell-tale blades. You will also now have realised that there aren’t any, it is just a hoop on a stand. It works by drawing air through the base and expelling it through the hoop. As this air is pushed through it creates a suction which pulls through more air, hence the ‘multiplier’ part of the name. In fact Dyson state that the Air Multiplier will increase air pressure by fifteen times, and pump through an impressive 118 gallons of air a minute! The Air Multiplier is also incredibly quiet with only the whispered hum of the engine, and ‘whoosh’ sound of the expelled air. In fact, the only real drawback of this blade-less wonder is the price tag, at £199 it’s probably going to be a bit steep for most budgets.
Well, here we are, another Friday upon us already, where has the week gone!?
This week has been a strange one, adapting to life here at Gadgets Towers without our Gadget Girl about keeping us up to date on the latest celebrity shenanigans, and so it falls to me to write our weekly Fun Friday Blog. Flicking through the paper we get delivered here today I noticed the latest article in what appears to be a growing trend of ‘Mini pets’. For a few years now we’ve been used to various Hollywood celebs carrying about very small dogs in their handbags. Well now that appears to have got a bit ordinary for them so the papers have had stories about various other mini pets this week.
First up were the ‘Teacup Pigs‘. Bred from various different breeds of pigs they grow to just 12-16inches high, about knee high, and weigh just 9oz when born. They are already incredibly popular with stars such as Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame has snapped up a couple of the pint size porkers.
Today when browsing through the paper I saw an article about Pygmy Hedgehogs. We’ve known for some time that smaller is better in the world of Gadgets, but now apparently that appears to be becoming the case in the pet world too!
Well, there is no denying that Mother Nature has turned down her thermostat ready for Autumn and Winter, I actually resorted to putting on a jacket last weekend and everything! Now, I’m not the most ‘outdoorsy’ of people, (despite spending the odd weekend sitting in various fields at regular intervals) but if I were I would definitely be interested in a pair of boots such as the Bugathermo heated boots.
These rechargeable boots not only do what you expect of any decent hiking boot such as keeping your feet dry whilst also letting them breathe, with the insulated soles ensuring your feet stay dry and frost free down to -25 degrees. Of course that isn’t all, because these brilliant boots also come with central heating. Rechargeable lithium polymer batteries will give between four and eight hours of foot warming power depending upon the heat level selected. Switches, and LEDS on the ankles let you control things, and keep an eye on how much power you have remaining. Of course at $250 these are probably a little pricey to wear while out walking the dog, unless of course you envisage doing it in the Arctic or somewhere comparable.
Of course if you are like me and would rather be warm and cosy on the sofa when the temperatures really drop then why not try a pair of our Microwavable Cosy Boots instead? They might not be much good for climbing Everest, or even walking to the shops, but they are ideal for helping keep toes toasty on a chilly winter afternoon.
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