Sexy Gadgets, Cool Gadgets and Concept Gadgets

Instead of holding the Earth on your shoulders you can now wear the globe on your wrist. This watch from ThinkGeek incorporates a small rotating Earth that makes a full rotation once every 24 hours. It was actually designed in Japan and made by Seiko Instruments.

What kind of crazy concept might this be and how does it work? Well, it’s quite intuitive and works fine. There is a small time zone indicator for the hour on the rim of the dial and a small orange dot to indicate the minutes. The movement mechanism is made of Quartz with a custom set of 3 reducing gears in the drive train and the included Lithium battery lasts for 10 years. The bezel is 45 mm in diameter and the entire case is made of light weight Titanium.

The crystal that powers the mechanism is super tough Hardlex and is of optical quality to create the effect of the Earth floating inside the frame. You can easily tell the time by identifying your time zone on the globe which, by the way, spins counter clockwise, just like our planet. I wonder how people from the Southern hemisphere are able to use this, though. The watch is also water resistant up to 100m.

You can find this watch at ThinkGeek for $599.99.

I don’t know if you can see, but that motorcycle has two transversally placed wheels that are pretty close to each other. This design would probably be best described as a two-wheeled unicycle. The man behind it, Ben Gulak, has dubbed it UnoMoto, and he managed to take a Yamaha R1 frame, side-by-side wheels and Segway-like gyroscopic technology and wrap it in a custom made body to create a very different kind of electric vehicle.

The guys from Gizmag point out that the UnoMoto prototype reminds of the radical Bombardier EMBRIO Concept, demonstrating even simpler controls. With the UnoMoto all you have to do is turn on/off the main switch all control the vehicle through leaning in the desired direction: forward to accelerate, back to brake, and sideways to make turns. This is possible thanks to an integrated tilting suspension which allows the inside wheel to dip.

Cars have become a necessity in most cities worldwide, but these vehicles may also prove dangerous in some circumstances. Car wrecks and pedestrian accidents happen all the time, even though security measures are improved by the year. In this search for improve security measures, Dutch designers Frans Hegge and Thijs van der Zanden have come up with an interesting car design dubbed the Chessmobile.

I can’t tell if this really works, but the idea is quite simple: the cabin rests atop a platform that can move it around in the event of a crash, keeping the passengers out of the deformation zone — the area of the car the crumples on impact. Theoretically, the passengers are supposed to take a lot less impact force and fatal inertia, as the cabin slides away from the impact spot. Injuries are now less probable, still, you’d need something strong holding the cabin to the platform. If the vehicle crashes with something bigger than itself, all that force could just snap the cabin away from the platform, send the cabin flying and jeopardizing the lives of those inside.

This card design is still in concept phase and will soon be tested to determine its actual efficiency.

Apple iPhone and Samsung Instinct are up for some serious competition in a couple of months. You might have heard that Google wants to launch its own smart phone based on the Android platform and this is going to happen pretty soon. According to TmoNews, T-Mobile US was chosen by Google to be the first network to sell Android based devices and the company already announced that is going to organize a special pre-sale event sometime next month during which the handset will be available for a special price of US$150 as long as you’re a T-Mobile customer.

Although many companies offered to integrate the Android platform with their handsets, Google seems to like the HTC offer better. Thus, an HTC handset dubbed G1 is set to be launched first, although previous rumors were pointing towards the HTC Dream. As far as features go, the first Google Android handset will integrate a slide-out keyboard, a 127×76 mm wide touch screen and a 528 MHz Qualcomm processor. It should be coming standard with 128 MB of RAM and 256 MB of flash, while it is supposed to handle 3G connections through a 3.6 Mbit/s HSDPA modem.

The G1 is expected to cost US$399 with a new contract.

Hungary may not be renowned for any kind of automotive breakthroughs, but that might change if the guys who invented the Antro Solo commercialize this vehicle worldwide. The Antro Solo receives power through various methods: it can be powered by solar energy, by human motion and, in case none of the first two are at hand, a little bit of gas. With these three sources, the hybrid car can achieve a fuel efficiency factor of more than 150 miles per gallon!

For the moment, Antro Solo is still a three seat prototype vehicle made entirely out of carbon fiber. This type of material lowers the total weight of the vehicle to an outstanding 270kg . The design of the vehicle also allowed for a pretty decent top speed of 87mph.

Ihabitat reports that the team that designed the vehicle wanted to make the Antro Solo as efficient as it can get. Thus, the vehicle comes equipped with solar panels on the roof, which store energy in the car’s batteries that can be used for short 15-25km trips. However, if there happens to be a cloudy day, each passenger’s seat comes equipped with pedals that can power the vehicle’s generator. If these two methods prove inefficient, the car can automatically switch to its small combustion engine that is capable of running on petrol or ethanol.

The design team foresees that Antro Solo will enter mass production by 2012, and it is expected t cost around $20,000 dollars.

Ever played Carmageddon or Flatout? Yeah, pretty insane car crashes and pedestrian onslaught that are the core elements of some kind of futuristic sport. We can only imagine how the future car races will look like and that’s exactly what designer Iman Maghsoudi did when he conceptualized this slef-driving Ferrari Monza racer.

Car crashes and manslaughter have no place in the future envisaged by Maghsoudi. As humans tend to lack the concentration and dexterity required to handle a super fast vehicle, all the future race cars might become hyper-computerized vehicles that don’t require a human to operate it.

Yamkodesign reveals that, at slower speeds, the human pilot may sit in a cockpit similar to straddling your office chair like a motorcycle and has full control. Note that the pilot may be onboard at all times, but once a specified speed limit is exceeded, the computer takes over and the pilot can experience the adrenaline rush without having to worry about the controls. When engaging into superior speeds, the vehicle also changes shape resembling an airfoil for maximum aerodynamics. The lightweight design creates lift to reduce friction, but strong ground effects keep you from taking off.

Maghsoudi was probably inspired by manta rays, as the two frontal fins of the Ferrari Monza adjust to channel air smoothly across the vehicle while also serving to give the impression of a totally cool car of the future.

Looks like summer is the most proficient time of the year when it comes to designing cars of the future. I showed you quite a few cool concepts in the last weeks, but I was wondering when we will get to see a new Peugeot prototype. Today I finally found a cool concept that I want to share with you.

The prototype is designed by Andrei França and it seems to me that he was inspired by the Audi RSQ in the sense that his Peugeot concept has spears instead of wheels. This would allow the futuristic version of Peugeot 360 to increase agility and freedom in small spaces in the urban centers. According to Ecofriend, there are three domes, with an electric engine each, which are synchronized by a board computer that is responsible for the control of the three spheres. Each engine provides traction to a group of pulleys, disposed on two directions, and each group of pulleys guiding a sphere. The futuristic concept makes use of a special kind of suspensions which are directly connected to the pulleys that fix the spheres on the ground.

Peugeot 360 is using only 3 spheres for increased aerodynamics. In the same spirit, the car totalizes 3 seats. The two persons that can seat in the front have access to the central joystick that controls the vehicle. The driver can easily make a 360 degrees turn as the joystick moves around its axis. Additionally, the car comes with an LCD monitor instead of rear-view mirror.

There you have it, yet another impressive green design that might be on sale in the next 10 years.

I keep bumping into more and more prototype cars these days, I don’t know, maybe I’ll just make a special column with such concepts. We’ve seen some interesting concepts from NASA, but all of these were designed to be piloted on the Moon or Mars. Here’s a NASA concept car that is supposed to be more “down to Earth,” although it’s not related to the good ol’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The futuristic prototype comes with a set of intriguing features that make it stand out of the numerous concepts I’ve seen lately. Instead of awkward opening doors, the prototype comes with a sleek hood which is supposed to provide safety and comfort to the passengers inside. The most radical feature is the inclusion of dynamic wheels that’ll let you pull off hairpin turns, allow the car to move perpendicularly in a snap, and make 360 degrees spins a snap.

With this car you can easily slip through tight situations and you’ll never have to worry about car parking issues. It actually reminds me of some RC cars that allowed youto pull crazy stunts and never crash them head-on. Anyway, according to DVice, the NASA car was designed by Czech students Marek Kedzierski and Michal Vlček, studying at the Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

Don’t you just love futuristic car designs? Sure, some may look cool but not quite practical. There are many designers who’d try to come up with something fancy. The guys over at Volkswagen showed us some interesting concepts, but BMW has some more radical concepts in mind. They want their cars to look something like this before 2015.

The designs you see in these images are provided by a group of Transportation Design students at Turin-based IED (Istituto Europeo di Design). They sure have a more aggressive and aerodynamic look than those presented by VW.

Apparently, the BMW prototype doesn’t really fit the 2015 time scheme. We might see a commercial version 50 years maybe, but for 2015 it still looks ahead of its time. DVice infors that it is dubbed BMW ZX-6 Concept and it was designed by Jai Ho Yoo and Lukas Vanek. These guys though of something that would break the speed of sound, I reckon. It looks cool, but I wonder if it has any wheels. It might be using other kinds of propulsion, maybe some levitating pads. Anyway, the concept integrates some sleek curves and shiny materials, make it visually appealing and an instant girl magnet.

Many manufacturers are installing what they call car computers for the productivity and daily agenda of the vehicle, but this do it yourself car computer takes a whole different perspective to mobile computing. Unlike the automobile computers to keep an eye on the car’s performance, this project is to install an actual computer PC within the car, so you have an actual desktop, monitor, drives and performance you usually would keep at home…on the go.

Dan from Zomgee has decided to take such a car computer project and install the monitor in the dashboard, along with efficient placement for the actual drives. He continues to provide the specs for the computer diy by mentioning it is AMD 6000+ 3.0 Ghz dual core processor, 500 GB hard drive, 4 GB Ram, 2 DVD RW Drives (as if one in a vehicle is not enough), Multi card reader for the music, pictures and videos, and a 17 inch monitor to bring it all home.

This car project is completely different that the car stereo installation project to deter thieves and is a huge change to the mobile computing we usually hear or read about. No need to wait for car manufacturers to provide it in their cars with a hefty price tag, no more needing to wait for your laptop to boot up, and no more dead times while waiting in you car. The bottom line of this car computer diy – have your desktop with you at all times.

Dan would definitely be able to go on long trips and have his computer with him at all times with this car computer desktop.

As if the Japanese weren’t setting enough trends for every conceivable aspect of life, they now have a special design project dubbed KDDI AU that is meant to create all sorts of crazy devices that would, sooner or later, be commercialized and become a standard.

Their latest concept devices can e seen on display in Tokyo. An important segment is represented by cellphones coming in various forms and with various unique functions. A good example for this segment seems to be the Box To Play. According to DVice, this sleek concept device is sort of a combination between a cell phone, complete with the usual call and camera functionsn, and a peculiar music device which appears to include a tiny embedded turntable that allows you to scratch the music playing on the phone.

Even more, the phone also includes a neat feature that lets you transform the device into a box which displays a music visualizer similar to what we see in Winamp. But this is not the only interesting phone that KDDI came up with. There are a bunch of other crazy phones that can pe transformed into musical instruments. Go ahead and check them all out on the KDDI AU official site (it’s in Japanese, but you’ll find your way).

Tesla coils in action are one of the most amazing and beautiful light presentations I have ever seen; they excite with their bright lights and provide an explosive show. We have seen a spectacular example before when used to create the Mario Bros Theme in a version that you must see to believe. This next Tesla coils creation uses these wonderful loud and bright sparks to sound out your rocking guitar talents and act as an amp.

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Looks like people start to enjoy mechanical watches once again. Retro style, baby, yeah! Here’s a watch that displays the hour with the aid of a cool 3D effect.

Designed by Harry Winston, the Opus 8 is using a complicated system of mechanical pixels that rise up from the display when the user activates a mechanism on the side of the case. It also utilizes hand-wound mechanical movements to integrate a modern, digital time display. The 3D display works on the principle of pin art games, which create 3D impressions of objects pressed against them. Similarly, in Opus 8’s case the numbers in the display will only appear “upon request,” activated by a bolt on the right hand side of the case. No #d impression is created until the mechanism is wound.

It seems to be just fine, but take a closer look. You will find an interesting button at the top right corner. Yes, you’ve got it! Is the eject button.
I wonder if there is no CD/DVD inside, the eject button will still be in function? What is it real function, maybe just MacBook knows.
Anyway, it seems to be an interesting gadget.

The Samsung company, along with LaCie have announced the 1.3 portable hard drive, produced under the LaCie micro storage devices brand. The drives are available in 30GB and 40GB and have an USB 2.0 connection through a small flexible cale which shows and proves the mobility side. Equally sized as a Compact Flash II card, the 1.3-inch drive is plug-and-play, driver-free and is compatible with any computer running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, MacOS X 10.2 or higher or Linux 2.4 or 2.6. All the drives come preformatted in FAT32 for unversal compatibility.

I see more and more people using Bluetooth headsets and I might get one as well for my future smartphone (might be a Nokia or a SE Xperia). Since all of the upcoming products are supposed to integrate support for the Bluetooth 2.1 standard, I could get a BlueAnt V1, which is said to be the forst Bluetooth 2.1 headset.

According to DVice, the BlueAnt V1 headset uses an advanced voice interface that lets you ask the headset “What can I say?” and the headset will answer you with a list of possible commands (pairing, voice dialing, answering calls and others). Even more so, you won’t be needing to read boring instruction manuals, as the BlueAnt V1 comes complete with audio tutorials that walk you through its functions. Check out the Sensoryinc blog to find out more about speech recognition systems.

Noisy environments can always give you a headache when using a headset, and BlueAnt was aware of this annoying issue when they included a dual microphone featuring the Voice Isolation Technology that separates your voice from background noise. You actually get a clearer voice with echo/ambient noise/windy effects cancellation.

Other features include an upgradeable firmware, three charging options (car, phone and USB) and it can pair with eight devices at the same time. Weighing only one ounce, together with its included battery that lasts five hours of continuous use and 200 hours standby, your ears are up for some nice treat.

Nowadays, cellphones have become a pretty common tool. Sure, there are the fashion phones out there that could cost you a fortune, but again, nothing special, at least not anymore. How about combining a fashionable watch and a cellphone in one neat device?

WM2 cellphone watch really stands out with its steely finish. Like most of today’s cellphones, it packs some multimedia features, as well. You got a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 1.3-inch 260k color screen, a keypad placed on the bellowing strap, 1GB onboard storage for MP3/MP4 files, and stereo Bluetooth support. And that’s just the appetizer; here is the rest of the specs:

* Network:850/900/1800/1900（Two Antennas)
* Support incoming call Vibration and 7 colors light
* Support FM
* Support GPRS, WAP、STK
* Stand-by time: 240hours, Talk Time: up to 300mins
* USB data transmission
* Memory Phonebook Advanced, Photo call
* Recording
* PIM, including calendar
* Simlock free – works with all providers
* Language support includes:English, French, Arabic, Russian, German, Italy, Turkish, Vietnamese, Thai,  Chinese, Traditional Chinese
* Accessories: Mobile phone charger, Bluetooth headset charger, wristband, Bluetooth headset, data line, battery.
* 62 x 45.5 x 17.6 mm

If you happen to own an mp3 player that recharges its batteries from the USB only (and most of them are built this way), you might be interested to find out that the small charger in the image above will solve the problem when you are away on a trip: you will not need to take your laptop with you – the charger in the image offers the needed power straight from the wall outlet. In comparison to a “normal” USB port, this gadget offers a more stable power source and thus the batteries of the mp3 player will be charged in a much shoter time. The estimated price is $14 and can be found in various shapes and designs on Amazon or eBay.

I assume you had the chance to see a red laser-pointer used by many people when showing to the public key points in PowerPoint presentations, rendered on while boards or walls, rendered from projectors. It’s the contrast and the intensity of the laser-light that makes it distinguishable among other light sources. Have you ever though of a similar device but with a much stronger laser-beam that could actually cut through plastic, cardboard, electrical tape and ignite various objects like matches or fireworks? Here’s the Hercules 400 laser. Wanna feel like a little Jedi knight? Here’s your chance – but be carefull – this laser beam actually does cut and it can inflict serious damage if placed on skin or eyes. Obviously, this is not really something you should toy with. Among other features, the laser can be seen up high in the sky at night, and at extremely huge distances. The laser light can be seen even in plain daylight as well, and you can pop annoying baloons too. The price starts at … $2989! Yes, you read that right – almost $3000 for such a… Jedi toy! That’s the price for the Hercules 400, and there are “lower versions” as well, but those are not even worth the attention. Basic idea: a hefty price for the closest thing on Earth to a real Light-Saber.

The SideWinder X8 Gaming mouse is wireless computer mouse which provide 30 hours of continuous game play when fully charged. It also comes with a plug and Charge cable for those who opt not to drain the batteries and use the mouse wirelessly. The mouse has 4,000 dpi for laser sharp accuracy and uses 2.4GHz connection to connect and keep itself moving without the hassle of wires.

Thanks to the recently unveiled BlueTrack laser technology, Microsoft’s Sidewinder X8 Gaming mouse is capable of working on any surface.

The X8 has the following gaming features:

Scroll wheel with tilt: The mouse has better feel and response with detents for precise control.

Engineered for speed: The shape was designed for quick, balanced and precise gaming actions.
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