Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
Back in the mid-nineties, Tomagotchi virtual pets were all the rage. That was right in the midst of my high school days, when everywhere I turned a girl had one on her belt loop. Bandai is set to bring back the phenomenon with the Chibi line of Tomagotchi’s. These are about two-thirds the size of the original, but seem to be otherwise similar.
Read More 
| Product Page via Gizmodo
Seiko Espon claims that this is the world’s lightest and smallest robot copter - hard to argue, as this thing weighs just 8.9 grams. The helicopter had four legs, four actuators, and two rotors. which allow it to stay balanced in the air. While it requires an external power source, it can be controlled remotely. These little guys were introduced at the International Robot Exhibition in Tokyo.
Read More | Ananova
Advertisement
If there is any country that tries to integrate Internet technology into just about anything they can, its gotta be Japan. Case in point, the i-Pot from Zojurushi Corp.. Not to be confused with the marijuana scented MP3 player, the i-Pot is simply a hot pot which monitors its own usage and posts these statistics to the Internet. The reasoning behind this is that since hot pots are a common household appliance in Japan, one that reports usage results to a web page can aid in determining when someone elderly isn’t doing too well. One can monitor how often the pot is refilled with water, how long it warms water, when it dispenses water, etc. If there are odd breaks in ones tea drinking routine, the i-Pot statistics page will make it known through its twice a day reporting mechanism.
Read More | Product Page (Google Translated) via useit.com
Latest Gear Live Videos
Now this is cool. Dynamic Bicycles has developed a line of chainless bikes. All axles and gears are fully enclosed, which means no oil left prone to getting on your clothes - and without a chain, your clothes have nothing to get snagged on either. The main component here is Shimano’s internal gearing. This is pretty much the equivalent of an automatic car in the bicycle world. The company sells both mountain bikes and the more casual “hybrid” road bike. The bikes range in price from $549-749 USD. Not sure what I am so excited about though, as I never had a need to learn how to ride a bike growing up in New York City. Stop laughing.
Read More | Dynamic Bicycles
We may be close to the day where cars won’t require steering wheels, at least according to Milan-based Parodia Electronica. They have developed a satellite navigation system on test vehicles which responds to data generated from dGPS (differential GPS). Simply put, the software can determine the position of the test vehicles to within +/- 50 centimeters. It uses servo commands from the navigation system to actuate an electro-hydraulic steering mechanism. They have successfully navigated on public roads in Southern Italy between a set of fixed points without any steering input from the driver, as they only control the brake and accelerator. Parodia’s technical director said, “The steering wheels are for show only.” Sounds like in years to come, we may be able to snooze all the way to work.
Read More | Transport Trends
Chalk one up for the people. The Connecticut Supreme Court has proclaimed that a $150 “excessive wear and tear” penalty charged by Acme ‘American Rental’ is illegal. Acme outfitted their vehicles with GPS systems and set them up to rat you out if you drive at least 80mph for over two minutes at a time. Of course, details were buried deep within the fine print, and the GPS devices was never mentioned. The contract simply stated “Vehicles driven in excess of the posted speed limit will be charged $150 per occurrence.” Some customers were fined more than once on the same rental.
Justice David M. Borden wrote, “Using the [consumer department] hearing officer’s calculation, a customer would have to travel more than 1,070 miles at high speeds, without decelerating below 80 miles per hour, to cause $150 of excess wear on the vehicle.” Unfortunately the ruling is in regards to the excessive fine, stating that there really was no extreme wear on the vehicle. The companies’ use of GPS to track a customer’s actions was not touched. So, we won this battle but we have no precedent for our coming war.
Read More | ArsTechnica
Physicists Dr. Tammy Humphrey and Dr. Heiner Linke have discovered that a particular structure and configuration of nanowires can have remarkable thermoelectric properties. Meaning that electricity can be generated from heat differentials across materials. Even better, the thermoelectric effect is reversible. This means that the nanomaterial could operate as a heat pump, in essence transferring heat. What does this all mean? There are a few things this can bring to the table - processors that don’t require fans, precise control over temperature for labs and sensors, and refrigeration without pumps or chemicals. They also say it could have significant uses in energy production and transportation such as transferring engine heat to electricity for hybrid vehicles.
Read More | World Changing
If you are looking to hook up your game room with an arcade cabinet, but don’t have the funds to drop on a retro rig, here is a mod that can get you what you want. All those cardboard boxes you have in storage from the multitudes of gadgets you have purchased in recent times can now be put to good use. Get out the old packing tape, scissors, and your thinking cap and you can build your very own TrashCade - a completely suitable (and horribly ugly) desktop workstation/arcade dream machine. All the instructions you need to build the thing can be found at the TrashCade site. If you build one, point us to the images so that we can all laugh at you.
Read More | TrashCade Carboard Box Arcade Cabinet
All the kids in the 80’s wanted one of those Back to the Future 2 hoverboards that Marty McFly rode oh so gingerly. Now you can finally live out your dream, as you can now buy the blueprints to make one of these bad boys right in your backyard. When you are done, you will be one hoverin’ fool. The blueprints cost $49 USD if you want them delivered by mail, or $39 USD if you don’t mind receiving them by email. Of course, if you aren’t the “building type”, you can also buy a pre-made hoverboard for 9 G’s. Yeah, for $9,000 large, you can order your very own. Check out this video to see how it works.
Read More | Future Horizons via GadgetMadness
Hypersonic Sound Will Change The Way We Listen Forever
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Misc. Tech,
USA Today says, “Rarely is an invention so unique, so visceral and so simple that in 15 seconds most people who experience it realize it could alter everyday life.” I have yet to experience this HSS (Hypersonic Sound), but it does sound truly incredible. American Technology Corp (ATC) has given a demonstration of HSS in it’s back parking lot and it’s being said that this invention does for sound what the laser did for light. Imagine standing 100 yards away from someone and they point this device at you, which allows you to perfectly hear either what the person is saying or any pre-recorded material being broadcast. You step out of the line-of-sight and hear nothing. Step back in and you hear it perfectly again. Someone else could hear something completely separate in a different line-of-sight sent from an additional source. Interesting technology with some profound uses in safety, criminal justice, medicine, automotives, and sound systems. This is one that we’re likely to hear lots more about, as in 2002 Popular Science magazine awarded HSS the grand prize for inventions. The Segway personal transporter took second.
Read More | USA Today
