DesignFilter: Walking house designed to beat the floods [pics and vid] l Wearable Gadgets [pics and vids] l Backpacks l Commuting by JetPack l Blog Designs l Twitter Clapper l and for Halloween, some awesome [whoa] carved pumpkin designs.
posted by nickyskye on Oct 31, 2008 - 13 comments

Approximately two years ago, James Kim died after he and his family were stranded, snowbound, in their car on the Oregon coast (Previously, previously, and (selflink) previously). But what if he'd had a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB)? [more inside]
posted by scrump on Oct 30, 2008 - 34 comments

Best rectal thermometer ever? And yes, it does play the theme song while taking your temperature.
posted by jonson on May 14, 2008 - 74 comments

Oobject.com is a website that is "...like the Billboard Charts for Gadgets." Oobjects picks topics for lists of gadgets. People suggest items and others vote on which qualify for a given category: Giant Screens | Best Concept Cellphones | Crazy Bicycles. "The site also takes on other aspects of life, like politics and culture...:" Macy's Parade Ideas | Best Halloweenerd Costumes | Geek Hall of Fame Apple Users. [via]
posted by ericb on Nov 16, 2007 - 13 comments

Carbonated watermelon. Gelatin spheres with liquid centers. Broths and sauces whipped into foams. When the world's best chefs want something that defies the laws of physics, they come to one man: Dave Arnold, the DIY guru of high-tech cooking. Want to turn your kitchen into a science lab? Check out 25 extreme kitchen gadgets. Related, previously on Mefi: molecular gastronomy.
posted by madamjujujive on Oct 10, 2007 - 51 comments

Lazy-Ass Nation. "Somewhere along the way, we fell in love with the dream of the effort-free existence."
posted by amyms on Sep 19, 2007 - 41 comments

iPhone the Musical Written by and Starring David Pogue. And here's the lyrics.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero on Jul 6, 2007 - 8 comments

Gizmo - using news footage from the 1920s to the 1950s, Howard Smith created an amusing 1977 documentary about contraptions made by the inventors, technophiles, and eccentrics of yesteryear. The last 7 minutes is Letterman interviewing Smith. (Google video, 1 hr., 19 min. Via beans beans good for your heart)
posted by madamjujujive on Apr 24, 2007 - 10 comments

Kit Up! is a site where current and former soldiers report the one thing they absolutely could not have done without in their military life. Whether hitchhiking the galaxy or fighting the enemy, don't forget your towel. And don't even think about going door kicking without your Silly String.
posted by Turtles all the way down on Feb 15, 2007 - 12 comments

The iJoy Ride™ is a "unique and exciting way to work out." It is not to be confused with the Sybian sex toy. (Please press "Play" for the embedded video and enjoy the smiles.)
posted by mrgrimm on Feb 6, 2007 - 19 comments

Some new gadgets, things and inventions: solar bikini that charges your ipod, paper soft wall, waterproof laptop, million dollar fishing lure, Obvio hybrid micro-car, needle-free injection, hi-tech dummies that can speak, breathe, bleed, react to drugs & die, dragon bag. Interactive sight, sound and physical objects from the student artists of the NYU Interactive telecommunications biannual showcase [video], including Animalia Chordata and Botanicalls, building telecommunications between people and their plants.
posted by nickyskye on Jan 7, 2007 - 22 comments

"I feel guilty because I have friends that are working really hard to get into television or acting and I'm just sitting here having not done anything more than enjoy playing with gadgets."

Susi Weaser (24) makes little one-minute gadget reviews and posts them on YouTube . The BBC must have liked them - because they hired her.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Nov 18, 2006 - 18 comments

The Spark Museum John Jenkins' collection of vintage wireless, radio, scientific and electrical equipment, including Crookes and Geissler tubes, Barlow wheels and other early electric motors, loudspeakers and many more oddball electrical devices. [via TeamDroid]
posted by mediareport on Nov 13, 2006 - 9 comments

Tesla coil music system (YouTube alert) and five other musical gadgets you didn't know about.
posted by madamjujujive on Oct 21, 2006 - 24 comments

Is there anything USB drives can't do? PortableApps has dozens of applications from Open Office to Firefox, that will run from a USB key (and there are other applications as well), or you can run an entire Linux or Windows installation from your drive, or just steal passwords. And don't forget the weird gadgets (here is a slideshow), including cool USB rechargable batteries, missile launchers [Google Video], and, of course, the ultimate USB hub.
posted by blahblahblah on Sep 20, 2006 - 23 comments

Mat Bevel Company is a gizmotronic fanfare of spunk, funk and kinetic junk. [lots of small embedded qt movies]
posted by carsonb on May 5, 2006 - 10 comments

Top 50 gadgets of the past 50 years.
posted by bobbyelliott on Dec 24, 2005 - 41 comments

For most of human history, infants have needed to stay in close proximity to their mothers simply to survive. The result? Most cultures developed and used some kind of soft baby carrier that straps to the mother's or caretaker's body. Despite research, doctor's advice and celebrity endorsement, American and European babies spend less time in arms and more time in containers than babies in more traditional cultures. Somehow, the concept simply picking up and carrying the baby continues to elude many parents.(warning: music)
posted by Biblio on Dec 6, 2005 - 30 comments

No more Q? What would have become of James Bond without all of his wacky gadgets? (via Engadget)
posted by missmerrymack on Sep 19, 2005 - 45 comments

Spray-on Mud - So you own a big 4x4, and you feel a bit stupid that you only use it to take the children to school. You want people to think you're a bit country - that you need 6 tonnes of car to get you from A to B because you like to take it off-road every so often. You need Spray-on Mud apparently.
posted by The Ultimate Olympian on Jun 14, 2005 - 101 comments

Keitai Vyuun! - but is it really the best invention ever? I say "no".
posted by 13twelve on Feb 22, 2005 - 8 comments

Ron Popeil's Pocket Fisherman has been updated since it's intro in the 50s, but it's the original that makes Mobile PCs list of The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time. Many you'd expect to find, some I was suprised by. And the big surprise? iPod isn't the #1 gadget. Mostly, I'm distrubed by the number of these gadgets that I've owned at one point or another.
posted by FlamingBore on Feb 18, 2005 - 37 comments

Sketch-A-Move Draw a straight line on top of the car, lift the pen and the car shoots off in a straight line. Draw a circle on the car and the car starts wildly spinning around. Draw a complicated squiggle and the car spirals in and out. Quicktime Video Link#1 and Link#2
posted by Hands of Manos on Feb 9, 2005 - 35 comments

We Make Money Not Art :: art meets science and technology in the near near future and begets some cool and scary toys.
posted by anastasiav on Jan 27, 2005 - 4 comments

Do not eat MintyMP3. Cool DIY mp3 player.
posted by punilux on Jan 23, 2005 - 17 comments

Thinking of buying a PSP anytime soon? Before spending up to $400 for an imported unit, check this out: Engadget, among others, reports that the new PlayStation Portable will eject the currently-playing disc if the device is twisted a certain way. And if you don't believe it, see it for yourself (avi & mpeg, last link NSFNintendoDS).
posted by armage on Jan 13, 2005 - 30 comments

The Portable Cellphone Booth (imbedded .mov)
posted by johnj on Jan 3, 2005 - 8 comments

Has your local supplier of ninja stars dried up? Want to set your truck up with armor plating, oil slick, and caltrops but not sure where to go? Been wondering where to go to get something to eat the paint off your boss' Benz?

Well then! Brandon Enterprises has got you covered!
posted by kavasa on Oct 12, 2004 - 4 comments

Bottle Cap Tripod Travel lighter with it.
posted by thomcatspike on Jul 23, 2004 - 14 comments

"Yeah, why should blokes have all the fun?": A compendium of tech products and gadgets marketed towards women.
posted by naxosaxur on May 15, 2004 - 7 comments

Have a merry, sex and gadget filled hyper-commercialized Japanese Christmas. "Well it all started when a Spanish Jesuit missionary named St. Francis Xavier brought Christmas to Japan in 1549...." The Jesuit bid to Christianize Japan was a flop though, and now - while Jews in the West, for example, tend to go out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve, the Japanese had little connection to the Christian version - so they invented their own! Syncretistic Japan pulls in random elements of Western "Christmas" and recombines in pleasing new ways! ( shocking only to Christians ). Santa Claus on the Cross and more!

A proper Christmas in Japan - for singles - involves a hot date and visit to a "Love Hotel" where "you might be directed by scantily-clad female elves to rooms complete with Christmas trees and life-size reindeer watching the proceedings with interest." and "Grope Free Commutes", for Japanese women tired of having their asses grabbed on the subway by drunk salarymen returning from "Forget the Year" parties. This fine blog chronicles it all: " the Dolphin-and-fish-surrounded Christmas tree", Ukelele Christmas parties - "I wandered into a score of middle aged Japanese ladies wearing Hawaiian shirts and plastic lays, tuning up their ukuleles" and more. And don't forget to buy some cool new gadgets. "...a tiny robot helicopter weighing less than 9 grams... "
posted by troutfishing on Dec 25, 2003 - 19 comments

TechTV's Top 20 Gifts for this Christmas. (via sdw)
posted by Ufez Jones on Dec 8, 2003 - 21 comments

Seven hot technologies that we'll soon see on the market, according to MIT's Tech Review magazine. The spam blocker sounds like it might work. But the babelfish?
posted by iffley on Nov 30, 2003 - 14 comments

The gallery of Kidrobot is a collection of toy photos I ran into on a recent search for a U.S. retailer of a desktop toy I wanted by Cube-Works. Outside of finding what I came for, I enjoyed just browsing the photos and descriptions. In the vein of "fair and balanced", I also found the toy at Sweatyfrog, which has some other neato-torpedo things.
posted by rudyfink on Nov 4, 2003 - 7 comments

How much would you pay for a pushbutton in your car that changes red traffic lights to green? Like in that dopey Italian Job movie? The correct answer is $300.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders on Oct 27, 2003 - 29 comments

President Bush's interest in high-tech gadgets. " 'He's no Al Gore,' said one Bush aide, (...) 'but he's very serious about having all this stuff work.' " via Drudge
posted by 111 on Aug 22, 2003 - 22 comments

Where do you turn when the springy gizmo breaks off of the filter basket on your 5-year-old coffee maker? Culinary Parts Unlimited, evidently. (Via the guy at the coffee store.)
posted by staggernation on Jun 13, 2003 - 7 comments

So you decide to get Dad a toolbox for Father's day. Should it have electricity? A fuel tank? A computer? A built-in vacuum cleaner? A radio? No, he needs a manly toolbox, one he can use to cook steaks.
posted by Wet Spot on Jun 9, 2003 - 3 comments

With Tungsten C - it's most powerful handheld ever (according to themselves) Palm is making some aggressive moves to turn its business around and brings wireless 802.11b-based connectivity to the Palm family of devices. Microsoft, on the other hand, is to use FM radio waves for news, weather and traffic, etc - on your watch. Is this a race or PDA technology diversity at its best? ...and here I'm sitting around with my stone age Visor.
posted by psychomedia on Apr 25, 2003 - 25 comments

A nifty little site featuring the latest in techno-lust. In the world of fine found linkage, I'm much more of a consumer than a producer... but occasionally I come across some tasty little morsel. Let the coveting begin. [via A Beat Experience]
posted by silusGROK on Mar 13, 2003 - 15 comments

Mouse miles tracker (like a pedometer for your mouse), bandwidth generator (crank it up), H2O-powered internet (take the concept of streaming to a whole new level), or live tv delivered over the net via a vintage television set. Just a few of the experiments and projects at Coin-Operated. via b3ta - they love the web
posted by iconomy on Jan 18, 2003 - 3 comments

The 12 Days of Kitschmas. Just in time for Christmas, 12 'Gadgets for God'.
posted by Sal Amander on Dec 13, 2002 - 1 comment

Time Magazine's 2002 Best Inventions
I love my toys and gadgets, and I especially fancy the Air Surfer, @ $75 it looks like the glider for klutzes like me. However, I'm not ready just yet to take the hoots of derision that this Bluetooth Mobile Phone Headset will bring. This new chip looks set to improve digital photography... I do fancy that! But will Foveon have the muscle to bring the X3 to fruition?
This, though, is as close as we'll ever get to 'vaporware': Nasa's AeroGel... find out what earthly purpose it could serve.
Some on the list are little more than product placements (I'm looking at 'Breathe Strips' and 'Ultra-Cashmere' now), and some - Mr. Dyson's Cyclonic spin vacuum, I'm surprised to see - are hardly new. Others [Nano-Tex, Date Rape Drug Spotter & The Scramjet] I'm sure we've discussed before (but they don't figure in Mefi searches).
How many of these will change our lives - and how many will improve them? Is there something cool missing from the list? - something tells me that their gushing over their discovery of '3D Online Entertainment' ["...you can do it all and more in Second Life, a startlingly lifelike 3-D virtual world now evolving on the Internet"] gives it the Kiss O' Death. [...via blogdex]

posted by dash_slot- on Nov 19, 2002 - 11 comments

Taking the adage "be prepared" to the next level Eric, a thirty year old electrician from Lyons, France, has made the record books for having the "most practical suit of clothing". Often dubbed "The Human Penknife" Eric has no less that 1,300 useful objects, ranging from a humble toothbrush to a soldering iron, arranged in carefully designed pouches sewn into his clothing. What won't you leave home without?
posted by lucien on Nov 13, 2002 - 29 comments

Egg separator. Come on. This stuff is important.
posted by swift on Oct 9, 2002 - 17 comments

Tired of your office mate's irritatingly cute Hello Kitty USB hub? Balance the forces of cuteness with Hubzilla. (Via Macintouch)
posted by nathan_teske on Sep 18, 2002 - 26 comments

There are lots of toys modeled after automobiles, but no automobile has ever been modeled after a toy (?), until now. The insanely popular Choro-Q line of toy cars of Japan (ebay pics here) have inspired a whole new line of impossibly cute real cars, to be unveiled in November of this year. The tiny, brightly colored electric autos look like something straight out of a Roger Rabbit cartoon, seat one, go 50 miles on a battery charge, and cost around $10,000.00 - $16,000. Must...have...one...
posted by iconomy on Jul 16, 2002 - 15 comments

A handheld device that translates simple spoken phrases. "American troops in Afghanistan are using a revolutionary device that instantly translates soldiers' voices into native languages. . . . The soldier speaks into the machine, which recognizes the words and translates them into another language." Simple phrases only — and a long way from a Star Trek universal translator — but kindling for the science-fiction-addled imagination nonetheless.
posted by mcwetboy on Jun 10, 2002 - 11 comments

Tired of trying to flag down a waitron? Here's one solution. But if you want a different drink, you're probably back to yer old aerobics routine.
posted by datawrangler on May 29, 2002 - 43 comments

For The Discerning, Segway-Hating Man About Town: Hammacher-Schlemmer's fantastic Unexpected catalogue is full of classy transportation devices, among countless other fascinating products, with prices to suit all pockets. The Two-Person Submarine is a snip at $62,900 but claustrophic types are well catered for too. There's the Zem 4-person bicycle for $6,499.95; the One Person Helium Balloon for 20K, the popular All-Terrain 2-Person Hovercraft; the very European Vespa motorbike; the extremely enticing Danish Police Runabout at only $5,999.95; the sexy little Amphibious Car for $9,995.95 and many, many more outlandish and distinctive vehicles, from 7 Person tricycles(for you, 16K)to a wooden '54 wooden Mercedes 300SL. For more sedentary gentlefolk, there are Feline Drinking Fountains, Impervious Unbreakable Chip Trays and, for only 25 bucks, a Barbershop Hot Lather Machine. Fancy anything, Madam or Sir?
posted by MiguelCardoso on May 15, 2002 - 19 comments