What do you get when you combine your cell phone, Bluetooth, and your car's rearview mirror? Hammacher Schlemmer's Rearview Mirror Wireless Bluetooth Speakerphone. The speakerphone mounts to your rearview mirror and includes a cordless earpiece, and it connects to any Bluetooth-enabled phone.
When a call comes in, it is directed to the speakerphone, and caller ID appears in special LEDs that you can put on your mirror. If you prefer the in-ear headpiece, just detach it, and your call is routed there. According to the product's site:
"The system uses full-duplex noise- and echo-cancellation for clear audio, and the built-in loudspeaker is able to produce powerful sound up to 120 db. The rechargeable battery provides three hours of talk time and one week of standby per charge. Includes a car charger, hands-free voice dialer, call status LEDs, and a built-in memory chip to record voice memos up to 60 seconds long."
Yes, Gearlog is writing about another iPod nano case. But hey, at least this one is high-tech (kind of).
Proporta'sColour Change Silicone Case responds to temperature (note: "colour" is not a typo; we have a British product here). The cases come in charcoal, blue, or pink, which are the colors you see in warmer environments. But as the mercury drops, your nano case will start losing its hue until it becomes clear.
The thin case is not only good looking, but also strong enough for good protection. And it comes with a lanyard. It's $24.90 (including shipping from the UK). The Cheap Geek will be happy to know that if you buy one case, you can buy a second (in a different color) for half off.
Looks like I'm not the only one with an adulation for LED lighting. A writer from PopGadget.com owns three lamps made by Mathmos and loves them: the Airswitch, the Tuba, and the Minilamp.
Mathmos may not be a household name, but the Lava Lamp sure is! Mathmos is said to be the inventor of the original Lava Lamp. The company aspires to design and develop new light technologies, which is evident with their new products for 2006. These new products include the Aduki ni and the Big Blimp. Both are color-changing lights and seem freakin' cool to me!
The Aduki ni (left) may look like a slab of metal when turned off, but when powered, it changes through a spectrum of three colors--from red and blue, to blue and green, to red and green. It's perfect for your living room or backyard to add a little spark to your life. It lasts for 6 to 8 hours when charged and is splash proof, so do all of the canonballs you want! It weighs 1 pound and is made from chrome. Get the Aduki ni for $77.
The Big Blimp (right) is a color-changing, donut-shaped light you can hang on the wall or rest on a table. It's a bit simpler than the Aduk ni, since all you do is push down on it to turn it on or off, or to stop on a color. It weighs 1.3 pounds and is made from mouth-blown glass. Get the Big Blimp for $80.
DETROIT—Tech features that retain high interest among prospective buyers include rear-parking assist (parking sonar) on larger vehicles, personal assistive services, and remote vehicle diagnostics. Navigation, in comparison, falls off quickly, except among high-end buyers.
Those are some of the results from a presentation given by Larry Wu, Senior Director of Automotive Emerging Technologies at J.D. Power and Associates, at the Telematics Detroit conference held last week. Sponsored by London-based Telematics Update, the conference also touched on why built-in navigation systems need to improve even as their prices go down, and on the announcement by Inrix of its Dust Network, a real-time traffic update service.
J.D. Power's Emerging Technology survey asked prospective buyers what kinds of cars they've considered, what kinds of telematics and driver assist technologies they knew about, what they might want to buy, and—after telling them how much the technology features actually cost—if they were still interested.
Across all car-buying segments, personal assistive services, such as OnStar, and navigation systems were the best-known technologies. There was more initial interest in driver-assistive technologies like parking sonar and lane-departure warning than in telematics features such as navigation, wireless connectivity, personal assistive safety services, and remote vehicle diagnostics.
Among luxury cars (in which new technologies often take hold first, because it's easier to bury $2,500 of technology in a $50,000 vehicle), Wu said the top five features in terms of interest (without buyers knowing the cost) were run-flat tires (83 percent probably or definitely interested), stability control (80 percent), night vision (78 percent), advanced keyless entry (74 percent), and heated and cooled front seats (74 percent).
When buyers knew the likely costs, though, it was a different story. The top five luxury prospects then became stability control (at $300, 79 percent), premium sound ($400, 75 percent), run-flat tires ($600, 60 percent), personal assistive safety features ($10 per month, 59 percent), and HD Radio ($150, 59 percent).
Wu said buyers know about navigation systems, but they balk when learning the cost. Among luxury buyers, initial interest (with no associated price), was 61 percent. But with prices of $900, $1,500, and $2,000, interest levels fell to 35 percent, 29 percent, and 23 percent, respectively. (Most nav systems sell between $1,500 and $2,000). Interest increased by about 15 percentage points across the board when real-time traffic information was bundled at no additional cost. In reality, this would likely be a $5 monthly charge.
In the survey, remote vehicle diagnostics drew a lot of interest. At $200 (a one-time price), interest ranged from 61 percent among full-size and luxury SUV owners down to 39 percent among midsize van owners; the average was 47 percent. This technology had the least falloff in buyer interest after they were told the price. Personal assistive services (such as OnStar) had the least change from segment to segment, ranging from 59 percent interest in luxury cars through 46 percent in midsize pickups.
Blind-spot detection, an emerging technology that warns drivers about to change lanes of nearby out-of-sight cars, has high initial interest (74 percent to 48 percent depending on the type of vehicle), exceptionally high interest among drivers 57 and older (70 percent), and about 40 percent interest at a cost of $400 to $500. (The first U.S. car with BSD, the Audi Q7, charges $500.)
The upshot: Buyers like technology, but they're more interested in $200 and $500 technologies such as remote diagnostics and blind spot detection than in $2,000 options such as navigation and active cruise control.
Pacific Writing Instruments takes ergonomics to the extreme with its PenAgain line of products. The company has added to its line of wishbone-shaped writing devices, giving you funky-looking pens, highlighters, and permanent markers. One customer said the products look like "retro rocket-ships" when upside down.
The PenAgain is designed to reduce wrist strain. Its funky ergonomic shape lets you hold the pen without gripping, giving you a smooth, tension-free writing experience. The company boasts that PenAgain may help alleviate symptoms of writer's cramp, carpal tunnel syndrome, and so on, and it was featured in Arthritis Today magazine.
I tried out samples of the pens, highlighters, and markers, and they were pretty cool. It took a minute or two to adjust to the design, and I had to tell myself that I didn't need to grip when I was writing. But pretty soon, I was writing my notes and didn't even realized I had a ridiculous-looking pen in my hand. The ink in all of the products looked darn good on my notepad, too.
The pens write in black ink but come in all different different colors like green, silver, and pink for $3.99 or $6.49. The marker ($2.99) comes only in black, but the highlighters ($2.99) come in all of the traditional neon colors. PenAgain is now developing dry-erase markers and mechanical pencils.
But some good ole, traditional ballpoint pens still offer extra advantages.
This probably would have been cool back in the late 1980s, but now I'm not so sure. Still, if you're stuck in the 80s, try on one of these Cassette Belt Buckles for size.
That's right: SveetCouture.com, operated by a twenty-something from Kansas, sells vintage clothes and accessories she finds through her travels. Among her crazy discoveries are old cassette tapes with buckles on the back to add a retro style to your clothing.
It is one thing to set up a snarky Web site, make some cool T-shirts, and declare you are going to out-cool the iPod. It is another thing to wage marketing warfare on the streets of New York City. I wrote about the beginning of the campaign last week, but even so I was a little surprised that SanDisk got billboards up all over Manhattan this weekend.
I took this shot downtown in trendy Tribeca. Check out the placement, not over the iPod billboard, but right above them. Nice. I also spotted them in the even-trendier East Village near Stuy Town.
Unfortunately, none of these ads actually show, or even mention, the Sansa e260, the company's would be iPod killer, but I guess that is what reviews are for. For a reality check, you can read PC Mag's hands-on Sansa e260 review here.
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