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!
Latest Gear Live Videos
What’s ugly as can be, has 8 wheels, and goes from zero to sixty miles per hour in 4.2 seconds? It’s Eliica, the $260,000 electric-powered vehicle built by the Keio University in Tokyo. Eliica has been around for a while, but it’s state-of-the-art as it uses nothing but Li-Ion batteries for power and can achieve a top speed of 230mph with a range of 185 miles (obviously not at top speed). For a bit of flair, Eliica even sports gull wing doors. Obviously a case of excess in every way, but it’s interesting to see what can be done with a little know-how and a lot of money. More details can be found on Eliica’s official bog, provided of course you can read Japanese.
Read More 
| Eliico (jp) via Gadget Review
Gallery: Ellica: 8-Wheeled Electric Car
Advertisement
Sekio TR-006 Bluetooth Watch
Posted by John Goulden Categories: Smartphones, Wearables, Design, Wireless / WiFi,
Seiko Instruments has produced a working prototype of thier TR-006 Bluetooth watch; a watch that should probably be sent back to the drawing board for re-design. Seriously, the size of this thing is huge, and while the guy (whose arm appears in the picture above) looks malnourished and underfed, there’s no getting around the watch’s massive dimensions. On the upside, the watch can display your phone’s signal strength, Caller ID information for incoming calls, SMS messages and more. Pre-set rings are available to alert you to the aforementioned calls and messages and for when a bit of quiet is needed, it can vibrate as well.
If you’re into having large objects strapped to your arms,
then the TR-006 might be right up your alley.
Read More | Seiko (jp) via Slashphone
Gallery: Sekio TR-006 Bluetooth Watch
Hidden passageways are the sort of things kids dream of. The ability to sneak from one room to another, a place to hide from your pesky brother/sister, or a cool thing about your house your friends don’t have. Creative Home Engineering creates and installs hidden passageways, and has also designed a DIY kit for those willing to tackle the project on their own.
Imagine every type of hidden passage you’ve seen in the movies, or read about in a book, and the folks at Creative Home Engineering can make it a reality. Revolving fireplace? Check. Stairs that lift to reveal a hidden entrance? You betcha. A candlestick on the mantle as the triggering switch? Piece of cake. In fact, from looking at the movies and animations on their site, you’ll get a glimpse of how varied hidden passages can be. Fulfilling one’s childhood fantasies isn’t the only reason for a hidden passageway. Security plays a major role as thieves can’t steal what they can’t find. Technology also has it’s place with biometrics, optical scanners, and voice recognition as optional items.
Prices can range upwards of $10,000 USD, and the DIY kits start at $1,500 USD.
Read More | Creative Home Engineering via The Red Ferret
Gallery: Your Very Own Hidden Passageway
Concept cars are nothing new. They’re utilized by auto manufacturers to gauge public response to body-styles, used as platforms for new technology and ideas, and sadly, rarely ever see the light of day as real vehicles. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Daimler-Chrysler has seemingly been turning more of their concepts into production vehicles than any other manufacturer.
Daimler-Chrysler released their latest concept car at the Geneva Auto Show - the 2007 Dodge Hornet. Bearing a striking resemblance to both the modern Mini Cooper and Suzuki Swift vehicles, the Hornet is designed as Dodge’s new low-cost vehicle (below the Caliber). Small enough for the European market, but big enough for the U.S., the Hornet is equipped with a supercharged 170hp engine that will zip it from 0-to-60 in approximately 6.7 seconds (firmly in Mini Cooper territory). The grille has Dodge’s trademark look, while the rest of the exterior and interior speak of European influences.
Will the Hornet make it to market? Only time will tell, but given Chrysler’s past track record there’s a good chance. Estimated sticker price will be below that of the Dodge Caliber (which lists for $13,985).
Read More | via Leftlane News and Dodge-Hornet.com
Gallery: Dodge Hornet Concept Car
Awww, yeah! Yet another pink Motorola handset in the house! Seriously though, Motorola has made us all aware that they plan to continue releasing pink versions of their phones to cater to “girls who like to be out and about.” Now, whether that constitutes the necessity for a pink phone over tha standard black is another discussion altogether. For now, just know that it is similar to the standard SLVR: Bluetooth, iTunes, and 10.2 mm thin.
Read More | Pocket-Lint via Gizmodo
Gallery: The Pink Motorola SLVR L6
Walk by your typical window during the middle of winter (assuming you don’t live in the tropics) and you can feel the cold pouring off of it. Even multi-paned, gas filled, low-E windows are still poor thermal barriers and let in as much cold as they let heat out. To increase comfort and efficiency, Engineered Glass Products (EGP) has come out with Hot Glass. Hot Glass is a double-pane window with a transparent film that allows the inside pane to radiate heat. You can set the window to provide just enough warmth to offset any heat-loss, and put the inside of the glass at room temperature. Alternatively the controls can be configured (similar to a standard thermostat) to allow the windows to give off increased heat, helping to warm the room they’re in.
Oh, and that picture of the towel warmer? Well, it happens to be just one of the additional uses of their heated glass technology, and a good looking one at that.
Read More | EGP via Luxury Housing Trends
Gallery: Hot Glass Heated Windows
Apple Finally Selling Quality Leather iPod Cases (That Suck)
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, Design, Portable Audio / Video,
At today’s Apple event, Steve Jobs unveiled a new leather iPod case. The case is hand-crafted from Italian leather, and features a black ribbon that pulls your iPod from within. Nice to see the company finally providing something more than a thin piece of felt to store your iPod in, but couldn’t they have taken the hint from just about every other case manufacturer and given us the option of seeing the screen? Apple’s own case hides the iPod display, and doesn’t even give access to the controls of the device. This one doesn’t get our vote. Still, if you want it, you can get one for $99 USD for either the 5G iPod, or the iPod nano (which requires less material to construct, but costs just as much.)
Read More | Apple Leather Case for iPod
Gallery: Apple Finally Selling Quality Leather iPod Cases (That Suck)
Hide Your Plasma TV Behind a Fireplace
Posted by John Goulden Categories: Design, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Smart Home,
There are those that like to show off their home theater gear, and others who prefer a more discrete approach. For the latter group comes a plasma television cabinet that also happens to be a fireplace. Similar to other motorized display cabinets, the plasma screen is situated on a lift that raises and lowers it on command. Sadly, the included fireplace isn’t really a fireplace by the true definition of the word. Actually, its called a flame effect fire that has no real flame, but does contain an electric convection heater that churns out 2kW (approx. 6800 BTUs) of heat. (So much for roasting chestnuts over an open fire.)
A variety of styles are offered and prices range from approximately $3,700 to $9,100 USD. Ouch.
Read More | Picture House via CEPro
Gallery: Hide Your Plasma TV Behind a Fireplace
The Gorgeous And Sweet Toshiba Gigabeat P5
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Design, Portable Audio / Video,
We have come to accept that fact that over in the Land of the Rising Sun, gadgets are available in more colors than they know what to do with. The Toshiba Gigabeat P5 is already available in a bunch of colors, but Japan is getting two more to add to their P5 lineup. One is a luxurious gold (officially called “Gorgeous”), and the other is cotton candy pink (officially called “Sweet”). The pleasure of owning one of these special edition colors comes at a price. With no feature upgrades from the “normal” Gigabeat P5, the color change alone costs an extra 520 Yen. That would be equal to about $120 USD. Here in the US, that would be akin to paying an extra $120 for a black iPod because the white wasn’t good enough for you. Wow.
Read More | AV Watch via DAPreview
Gallery: The Gorgeous And Sweet Toshiba Gigabeat P5
This aint your momma’s RC Airplane, folks. This here is our US Army’s latest in high-tech surveillance, which is helping our troops lay the smackdown on those evil-doers. This Raven unmanned aerial vehicle is guided by GPS and is so wicked cool, that when you twitch from drinking too much Jolt cola on those late night missions and crash your bird, it pops apart on impact and makes fixing it a whole lot easier than grabbin some balsa wood, Elmer’s and an Xacto knife. Heck, these RC pilots dont even have to fetch the bird, they just call a local ground-pounder unit to fish that puppy out and bring it home.
“I get paid by the Army to fly remote-controlled planes,” says Sgt. Nathan Wyatt from 3-29 Field Artillery. From his post at LSA Anaconda, he operates the three foot-long Raven unmanned aerial vehicle. Almost every day, he hand-launches one of his three Kevlar and Styrofoam birds into the skies over north-central Iraq. Wyatt controls the Raven with a handheld console while, ideally, an assistant monitors flight parameters on a separate console. Each operator has a screen showing what the Raven sees. With a range of up to 15 miles and both day and night sensors, that amounts to quite a lot. The imagery is beamed straight to a display in the tactical operations center.
All things being what they are, this bird isn’t without it’s faults, but flying it sure is a cool way to earn a paycheck from Uncle Sam. Why the hell didn’t my recruiter tell me about this job? Rock on my RC Drone flying troops…Gear Live and America thank you and all of our troops for putting it on the line every day.
Read More | SoldierTech
Gallery: The Amazing, All-Purpose, Styrofoam Drone
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.