Gadget GuruZ

I just stumbled across this while reading this month’s issue of Popsci. Have you ever worried about a crook snagging your card and ordering high end goods over the phone? Well, the Beepcard contains a prototype paper-thin speaker, microphone and voice-recognition chip. In order to use the card the user must speak into the card - yes the card - and if the recorded sample is a match, the card will send “high frequency, hard-to-fake beeps over the phone or a computer microphone, signaling the credit card company to authorize the transaction”. I am not sure if it can have multiple users, but Beepcard is market ready and they’re currently looking for partners.

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Time to do away with detergents! Now it is possible to remove strains from clothes without even using a drop of water. And this is made possible by waterless washing machine. Having won the ElectroLux Design Lab 2005 Award, the AirWash makes use of negative ions and dense air to offer spotless clothes. This technology is stimulated by the waterfall, nature’s own negative ion factory.

Blessed with a reputation of waterless washing machine designed for the comfort of the homes of 2020, this is considered by people from now only. This conventional and eco-friendly way of cleaning clothes would surely cut down the electricity and water bills. It is this multi-functionality only that is raising a big question against the potential of prevalent dry-cleaners.

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Remove the black part, the three screws, and the aluminum case. Disconnect the wire connecting the phone to the case. Also remove the metal cover over the comm. board. This is all the disassembly you have to do. If you feel like being safe, desolder the battery red lead.

The red line is covering the A17 trace. In order to trick the chip into thinking the flash is erased in the correct section, you will need to pull this high. Scrape away at the trace with something like a multimeter probe. Then solder a very thin wire to it. Be very careful. Only scrape away at that solder mask above that one trace. This is the hardest step in the whole process; the rest is cake. Also solder a wire to the 1.8v line. Connect to wire coming from the trace and the wire coming from the 1.8v to your unlock switch. Be careful, you only get one chance to do this right. Read more… »

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With yesterday’s leak, Gateway’s press conference was a bit short on surprise this morning, but the Gateway One is indeed official, and it really doesn’t look half bad. The one mystery left was the screen, which turns out to be a 1400 x 900 19-incher, which feels a bit small in this day and age, but leaves the One’s footprint at an acceptable size. Other niceities include dual easy-swap hard drive slots accessed by lifting off the back cover of the computer, and adjustable tilt through a stand in the back. The included mouse, keyboard and remote are all wireless and pre-synced with the computer, while the web-cam is a USB add-on accessory which comes in the box and can be perched up top, and the top-end One comes with a USB TV tuner as well. Otherwise the specs are as expected, with prices ranging from $1,300 to $1,800 and late October availability.

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Ross Lovegrove, designer of beautiful, yet useful, things, has teamed up with Artemide and Sharp Solar to produce these solar-powered street lamps that are to light up the Ringstrasse outside Vienna’s Museum for Angewandte Kunste (that’s the Museum for Applied Arts and Contemporary Art.) They’ll be going up on a tree-line boulevard, so expect the effect to be awesome.

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Michelin have created some self regenerating tires which can go even longer then your long life ones. These new tires named the XDA5 feature 2 layers of traction. When the first layer wares out it reveals the second layer of tire. By doing this the tire can travel 30% further then before. Not only has the extra rubber been added, but also a new pattern which allows for better wear and tear by minimising wear patterns. A mixture of all this adds to a safer, longer and more stable tire. These tires are not available for your car though as they are for Class 8 rigs only. It would be cool to see this kind of idea make it to regular cars and no doubt in the future we will see tires increase in performance.

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Nothing quite lights up a room like the Discovery’s Rainbow In My Room — it’s also one of the best leprechaun-catching tools available on the market. Using LED lights, the gadget creates a prismatic rainbow arc on your wall or on your ceiling. It uses a motion sensor that turns the rainbow on and off when you’re near, and an automatic shut-off assures that you won’t over-rainbow your room. For sale for $30 dollars and available early October, it’s the cheapest way to achieve faux happiness without moisture and white light.

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