Owner: Cool Ideas and Gadgets URL:http://ideasandgadgets.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:35:26 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A tech blog about latest gadgets, innovations, inventions, ideas, gadgets and gizmos, startup and business ideas, product reviews, geek stuff and more Site statistics:Click here
Extreme thrills - Zorbing 2007-09-20 15:15:00 New Zealand has given birth to adventurous stuuf like bungee-jumping, flying-by-wire and jet skiing. The first person to conquer Mount Everest was a Kiwi too; so its no wonder that in their craving for thrills, the 2 natives Andrew Akers and Dwane van der Sluis come out with yet another bizarre activity called "Zorbing" which is sure to send an adrenaline rush!!"Zorb" is basically a huge 3.2 meter inflatable transparent sphere made from PVC. The inside of the original zorb has 9 straps to keep the rider in place. So you are wearing a harness, and are tied to the periphery while you yourself experience as if you are floating. For the more adventurous people out there, you could also try the Hydro Zorbing, in which instead of a harness, you are cushioned by water. Once you're in, the fun really starts as the Zorb is launched down a hill and reaches speeds of up to 50km per hour, while you roll and bounce around inside. The clever bit is that there is an air cushion of two feet between y Read more:Extreme
A Software that converts your thoughts to code??!! 2007-09-07 16:08:00 21st century has seen many developments and advances in the way things are done, and the amount of gadgets and innovations flooding the markets everyday is amazing! And till now, people used to bow in respect to the software developers who created this magic, generating software programs that go into these revolutionary "objects" and make our life simpler and fascinating. But I was seriously shocked, (surprised, astonished, wide-eyed, etc etc) when I read about this product - a software that writes by itself!!The famous inventor of Microsoft Word and Excel, Charles Simonyi, has come out with his new innovation, the "Intentional Software
", slated to be released probably by this fall, is a software so smart that you can simply tell it what you want and it'll write the code for you. Hurray!! everyone does not need to be a programmer anymore!! Simonyi and his startup have been working on this for 7 years. it centers on Domain Workbench, a human-language graphically friendly representation Read more:thoughts
Do you suffer from Jet Lag?? Then FlyRight is for you!! 2007-09-07 14:38:00 As technology makes the world a smaller place and global revolution extends your business beyond the borders of your city, country or continent, we see more and more people travelling around the world for work or pleasure trips. Tourism and technology cannot function without air travel, and though planes are being converted into more luxurious ways to travel, the cross-overs from one time zone to another is always a pain. A 10-hr or longer flight induces jet Lag, no matter whether you travel in economy or business class. And if you are expected to attend 3 conferences in 3 countries within a span of a week to 10 days, imagine what that would do to your body and mind!!??But if you have tried all the over-the-counter drugs and concoctions and have still not found something to alleviate this problem, you have probably not tried "FlyRight"(patent pending). People who have used it say that one teaspoon of this tonic with half a cup of water, repeated several times a day, can act as a fool-p Read more:suffer
A wrist watch or a video player? 2007-08-22 23:14:00 Hi guys, I might be a bit late in posting this, and maybe some of you must have already read about this cool-looking watch
on other famous blogs like engadget or gizmodo. But for those of you who are not so geeky as the others (lucky for me, or you wouldn't be reading my post here), I am talking about the Brando MP4 wrist watch, which is not just a digital watch, but also an MP4 player
.Yup, it supports video
s for both MPEG and Windows Media formats. You can use it to record and listen audio, play video clips and store files. From what I have found, the quality of the MPEG4 recordings is very high, an hour takes about 60 megabytes of storage. It also boasts an FM tuner, voice recorder, photo viewer, "eBook reader," a 1.8-inch 160 x 128 resolution display, five preset equalizer modes, USB 2.0 connectivity, and yes, even a built-in speaker if you're not down with headphones. For pictures and detailed reviews, visit here. They have a nice write-up on all the feeatures alongwith user revi Read more:video player
What if your office had mid-day nap stations? 2007-08-18 12:39:00 With the increasing toll of work-related stress, more and more companies are waking up to embrace the concept of bringing home into the workplace. Google tops the list with on-site laundry, clinic and dental care, hair salon, 3 free meals a day and new T-shirts twice a week!! Please forgive me if I'm forgetting something here! But more and more office
s are moving to no-cubicle designs, resembling kitchens and living rooms. There are media lounges, entertainment and game rooms, WII stations and now enters the Nap Station!!Yes, a New-York based company called MetroNaps has invented the EnergyPod (photo courtesy of MetroNaps), a plush reclining chair that lulls users to sleep and can gently wake them up at pre-defined intervals using vibrations and lights!! Arshad Chowdhury, an investment analyst by profession, was struck by this brainwave when he saw a lot of his colleagues sneeking into the restrooms to take powernaps. And the benefits of powernaps are known to us all. 10 mins of stres
Drive your hotel with you - Hotel Movil 2007-08-17 15:38:00 Man has already soared heights by inventing private jets and charter planes that are as luxurious as one can imagine. The seas are brimming with Yachts that host spectacular parties and huge Cruise ships which can treat you like royalty. What you saw in Titanic is probably 1/10th of what is out there.And now, replacing RV's, which till today were the best in terms of comfort and luxury on the road, comes the Spanish giant called Hotel Movil(photo courtesy of hotelmovil.com). Please welcome the first of its kind, a luxurious pop-up hotel which is like a large truck trailer that can be dragged to any location and turned into a two level hotel within 30 minutes!! Yes, sounds too goo to be true, but not when you see this video. (Select fabrication, then video) A few clicks with your finger-tips, and this giant truck transforms into one of the most beautiful and lavish portable homes that you would have ever seen. After its 11 rooms are unfolded, the hotel on wheels can sleep up to forty p
The Traditional Parking Meter - Redesigned!! 2007-09-25 17:58:00 The one thing I hate about driving a car is when i have to spend hours trying to find a parking spot. And finally, when I get one, it is a paid spot with a parking meter that gobbles up my quarters, and as luck would have it, I dig into my purse to find that I'm out of quarters!! Oh, how I'd love if these meters would start accepting credit cards!! That's a thought that crosses many minds several times a day, and one such mind belonged to Fred Mitschele, who figured out how to make money out of this simple thought.In cities like New York and San Francisco, where parking is really hard to find, you see patrol cars taking rounds to find a car parked against an expired meter so they can immediately make money by issuing you a fine or a ticket. But in smaller cities, lots of such fines go unpaid, denting the pockets of such governments. On the other hand, customers are looking for an alternative form of payment for such meters, so they don't have to finish their dinner in a hurry befor Read more:Traditional
, Parking
, Meter
Inkless Printing - Your cell phone works as a Printer?? 2007-09-25 16:39:00 The world of technology comes with a breakthrough each day, and with every new day, we find a solution to one of our problems, or a new and efficient way to do something better. Have you ever pictured a world in which your cell phone
could print out the pictures that you take with the camera built into your phone? Seamless mobility might have been a dream a few years back, but is very much a reality now. Welcome to the world of inkless printing or "Zink" (Zero Ink).Zink, based in Massachusets USA, is a new startup which is a spinoff of Polaroid. It uses its patented process where all you need to print your photos or documents is to buy Zink special paper, which is embedded with three layers of dye crystals-yellow, magenta and cyan- which are designed to melt at different temperatures. No cartridges, no printheads, no bulky printers!! With the unique technology, Zink can make printers which are so small they can be easily integrated into cell phones, digicams, laptops, TV's, digital ph Read more:Printing
, Printer
Touchscreen Coffee Table and Furniture! 2007-10-13 19:38:00 With the advent of mobile devices, remote PC's, laptops and seamless mobility, humans rarely have to sit at their desks to complete their work, and people hardly find time to sit through sitcoms at home. The traditional model of advertising is hence undergoing a major transformation. Advertisers are now targetting users on the cell phones, or IPTV or Interactive TV ads, and one new player in this ever-booming market is the Touchscreen CoffeeTable
.With coffee shops providing free Wi-fi internet, you see a lot of youngsters and professional spending quite a bit of time in these cafes sipping lattes while surfing the web. But now you don't even need to have a laptop to surf the web. A San Francisco-based startup called TableTouch has come out with a coffee table with a built-in Wi-Fi-enabled touchscreen and a software that allows you to browse the internet using your fingers. Customers can now choose and select to read the news and stories on their table while they have their cup of ca Read more:Furniture
Smart Web Printing from HP 2007-10-10 18:54:00 With the growth of Web 2.0, most of the research is done online, and people turn to the web to find answers to simple questions or confounding conundrums. Gone are the days people referred to books for planning a vacation or for solving a math quiz. These are revolutionary days of Google, where you can find all your answers online. And what's the first thing you need when you've found what you are looking for? Yes, a Printer, to store the vast amount of information that the web provides you with. But don't you think you waste a lot of paper while juggling and printing material from different sites?? If you answer YES, read on to discover a new alternative.HP (Hewlett-Packard) has come out with the perfect solution that is much more convenient and so very eco-friendly. HP's Smart
Web Printing
enables simple, predictable web printing and also provides control over what you want and how you want it printed. This is the first software of its kind which allows you to select, store and o
Nutri-weight Food Scale - For all your Food and Nutrition Needs 2007-10-25 23:22:00 Gadgets and innovations have always fascinated me, as you might have guessed by the Tech Blog that I write. But as a chef who loves to cook, and yet likes to live a healthy life with a balanced diet so I don't put on all that extra weight, I keep looking for ways in which I could keep a tab on what I eat so that I never go overboard. One such cool and neat kitchen gadget that I came across on the web was this ultra-sleek, retro Nutrition Food-Scale
. Yes, just like a regular weighing scale, except that it looks like a laptop, this one is for the foods you eat, and it tells you clearly what's the nutrition content of your meal so you don't need to go by the rough estimates that you get from calorie and nutrition counters on the web!!A look at this super-functional Nutriscale and you'll know I'm not kidding. It analyses the nutritional content of your food by portion size, calculates the calories, protein, carbohydrates, total sugars, total fat, fiber, sodium, cholesterol, net carboh Read more:Needs
X-Ray Handbag - Cool or Spooky??!! 2007-11-01 13:04:00 Many a times you've seen women carrying fashionable handbags and purses that catches your eye and you crave to have something similar. A typical example of "Neighbor's Envy, Owner's Pride". But then again, how many times have you looked at a handbag and tried to imagine what's inside it? Would be a fun game to guess the stuff that lies inside an opaque bag, and I know many of us would have played such games as kids! But suddenly, something that I am about to tell you might not make this idea a fun game anymore! In fact, I felt it was downright spooky to imagine what would happen if we could really see inside a handbag!!Think Geek, the creators of stuff for geeks is out with something intriguing yet cool for some and spooky for the others, an X-Ray Bag that shows the contents inside your bag! Right in time for Halloween, huh?! These X-Ray tote and shoulder bags made of a space-age woven plastic fiber appear to have been bombarded by X-rays and magically make your eyes sensitive to t Read more:Handbag
, Spooky
Cars that Change Colors on the press of a button!! 2007-11-09 18:28:00 My old car is going busted, and it's time for us to seriously start thinking about buying a new car. So as we were browsing through some models online, we saw that the sleek-looking blacks or graphites and the metallic blues added a dent of another 1000 dollars to our pockets which are already falling apart!! And unfortunately, those are the only colors that catch your eyes, not the stark whites, right?? So I sat there wondering how much fun it would be if we could make cars that changed colors on our whim?? Pop-press a button
, and my car turns grey; come sweltering summer and I'd press the button again to turn it into a soothing white...or much better, I can have a modern double-colored car with streaks - such that I've seen and dreamt about in 2 fast 2 Furious!!!Looks like God wanted me to revel my dream, and at least be happy with the thought that something like my crazy idea could actually exist. Yup, Nissan, the renowned car-maker who's trying hard to revamp it's image and re Read more:Change
, Colors
O'Neil's H4 Campback - Integrated Video Camera in your Backpack! 2007-11-27 18:58:00 There's no dirth of adventurous people in this world, and I'm sure all of them would be truly happy if there was a small device that captured all of their wonderful moments so they could revel in the glory later when they share those memories with family and friends! Well, it seems like with O'Neil's new product, this might not be a dream anymore, nor would you have to pay extra for getting a video while you are diving from a plane or engaged in paragliding or para-sailing. An external camera for video taping extreme sports is nothing new. But this new product takes it one level further by integrating it with a backack, yes, the one thing you usually would carry on such adventures, and also adding a whole lot of new features to their earlier version!O’Neill, the sports manufacturer famous for wetsuits and clothing lines, have now upgraded it’s Campack (backpack) with a portable media player/recorder and external camera lens. Snowboarders, skier’s, and anyone who is addicted t Read more:Integrated
, Camera
, Backpack
Alight Kitchen - A Cool Concept in Eco-friendly Kitchen Designs 2008-03-10 15:03:41 With every passing day, we see more and more people tend to lean on designing their homes and interiors to be more "green and eco-friendly". Some people go to extreme lengths to hire reputed designers that can give meaning to their ideas and design something captivating yet useful. "Concept
ual Kitchen
s" that are in sync with the decor of your home, but at the same time add an element of "green" seem to be the in-thing these days. But looks like some Turkish designers have come up with a truly...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Designs
Kleiner Perkins Launches iFund To Invest in Companies Developing Applications for Apple's iPhone 2008-03-09 13:40:38 Everything related to Apple
or Steve Jobs has to be a style statement, just like the recent announcement of opening up the iPhone
SDK to 3-rd party applications. In fact, this one step seems to be so powerful and attractive that people have already started launching patents and publishings, and many have gone as far as dreaming about establishing their own startups just for this! Well, here's a piece of good news for those people. Thanks to the Apple and Steve Jobs appeal, Kleiner Perkins
is...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Companies
, Applications
Bidding War between Microsoft and Google Over Digg!! 2008-03-07 12:48:53 The name and fame of "Digg
This" is not unknown to the blogger and online-reader fraternity. This is one news aggregating service that has successfully carved an irreplaceable place for itself, and very few, if at all, could deny this fact! Rumors about potential buyers for Digg have been floating around for quite some time now, but looks like for the first time, there might be some depth to it. Current rumors about Digg's sale may not be exaggerated, as the link aggregator appears to be the...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Microsoft
, Google
"sQuba" -World's First Zero-Emission Underwater Sports Car 2008-03-05 12:58:21 The Swiss have been known for their outrageous yet creative innovations, and albeit pricey, they surely attract buzz from those who seek to own something fancy and exclusive. From watches to cars, it has been an interesting journey, and their latest offering goes well beyond one's imagination as they develop a Concept Car called "sQuba" which can instantly grant you the "Bond Appeal"!! Remember James Bond’s amphibious car, Lotus Esprit from "The Spy Who Loved Me", the all-in-one fictional...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:World
, First
, Sports
, Sports Car
Google Sites - A Nifty Addition to the Free Google App Services 2008-03-04 16:33:57 In this global environment where most businesses and corporates have teams spread world-wide, having a team portal where you can add, edit and share your ideas and information is extremely important. Lots of people have been using Sharepoint for this purpose, but Google
throws an addition to its Enterprise Management offerings by launching Google Sites
! Check out the key features with which it plans to attract an audience.
Google today introduced Google Sites, an application that makes...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Addition
, Services
Next-Generation iPhone May Soon Hit the Markets! 2008-03-03 18:02:28 Steve Jobs has a way of unfolding Apple devices from time to time, thereby satiating the needs of Apple-lovers world-wide. but when the iPhone
was unveiled and only US could avail of the benefits, people in the other parts of the world felt left-out. So hackers devised ways to make iPhone work anywhere you want! But here's some more good news for the faithful followers! The day when Apple's 3G iPhone version rolls out may not be too far. Will this give a boost to the company's stock that has...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Generation
, Markets
Yahoo Buzz - Is it Good Enough to Create a Buzz??!! 2008-03-03 17:54:12 The power of social networking needs no second mention, and almost everyone has started looking at the web to remain updated about what's new, what's cool, and what's happening in the other parts of the world! Google News, MSN News, Digg, Newsgator and many more that I couldn't even list here have services that bring you the latest and most read stories so you don't have to take the trouble of actually surfing and searching. And looks like Yahoo
, who's recently been in a lot of limelight, has...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Enough
, Good Enough
The Blue Frog Lounge (Mumbai) - Cool Restaurant Design in India by the Serie Architects 2008-02-29 14:46:32 Indian architecture for the most part has been traditional with carvings and intricate patters, and for a long time, people used to favor these traditional settings until the West came to influence the thinking and gave birth to a new design style of "cool and retro"! And now, its very common to see designers come up with chic yet comfortable and meaningful ideas in terms of house decor, furniture and designing buildings, offices, and now restaurants. Check out this latest Restaurant and Lounge...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Mumbai
, India
, Serie
, Architects
Nestle's Research Shows that Machines Can now Smell and Analyze Your Espresso! 2008-02-28 16:14:59 Anyone who's addicted to coffee and its flavor can vouch for the fact that your daily cuppa-joe needs to be brewed perfectly, if possible. Simple events like change of baristas, change of venue or change in ingredients can kill the taste of your coffee. That's why most of us stick to the same cafe for our drinks! But here's some sizzling news - Robots or Machines that can smell coffee are in the making, research by the food giant Nestlé suggests. A team led by Christian Lindinger at the...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Nestle
, Research
, Smell
, Analyze
, Espresso
A PC in your Coffee Cup?? - An Interesting Concept by Yuno PC!! 2008-02-28 16:14:59 When technology and creativity come together, you can be sure that an innovation is born! What are the two things you rely on the most to get you through your work day? I bet most of you answered "Coffee
" and "Personal Computer". So you'll be glad to know about a new personal computer concept that combines the power of both these essentials in one unique design! Its like being connected to the world, without carrying the bulk of a laptop, and sipping your caffeine that is sure to keep you on...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Concept
The Lazy Teapot - A blessing for the Disabled and Elderly 2008-02-28 16:14:59 It's true that the entire gadget craze is aimed at making us lazy, but it's better to go with the pretense that they make life more simple! At least my hubby would agree with this theory, and so would many others in this world. You have to admit that some of these design innovations are not the same for all. What might be a lame device for someone, could actually be a blessing
for someone else. And this Lazy Teapot
seems to fit the bill! It's a classic teapot that relieves you of that...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Disabled
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is Finally Here!! 2008-02-27 18:12:32 It's been spoken and contemplated about for quite some time now, and has shifted in and out of focus. But after more than 5 years in the making, Windows
Server 2008 is finally here!! It made its first public appearance on Wednesday with a glitzy Los Angeles launch event that also included sneak peaks of Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008. Microsoft
executives call it "the most significant enhancement to the server platform since its inception." Windows Server 2008 is available now to...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Finally
, Microsoft Windows
The Wave-Powered Suntory Mermaid Ship - All Set For its First Voyage 2008-02-27 13:10:19 Most of us are aware of how many times oil spills in large ships cause irreversible damage to the ocean life and pollute and destroy the marine resources. Since quite some time now, people have been exploring alternative sources of energy to make eco-friendly ships. And looks like one of them has actually succeeded. After the air-powered car, here comes a wave-powered boat! The three-ton catamaran Suntory Mermaid-II is all set for its first voyage from Hawaii to Japan in May 2008.
The primary...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:First
, Voyage
Emotiv-EPOC: A Headset that Controls your Mind! 2008-02-26 17:28:19 Are you a video-game freak, just like millions of others?? Do you like challenging yourself with hand-held video games and burn out your fingers punching the arrow keys on your tiny keyboard? well, here's presenting a mind-controlling headset that can actually "understand and translate" your thoughts into actions so you only use the grey cells, and leave the rest to the headset! If you think I'm just babbling and not making any sense, read on and you'll discover that I'm talking about something...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Headset
aShop - Design Your Online Store with this Shopping Cart Software 2008-02-26 13:14:37 Just today morning I was talking to my husband about how technology and internet has taken over our lives, most importantly, in the ecommerce world! Gone are the days when you'd have to visit a physical store to buy what you need. The new world opens new possibilities, and you can search, review, compare, explore and buy most products and services online! This also presents ample opportunity to merchants and businessmen to drive their sales without incurring high initial cost of buying a...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Store
, Shopping
, Software
Google Teams up with X-Prize for a $30 Million Prize for the Moon Race Winners! 2008-02-25 18:52:39 If you've been reading about space travel, you must know that some wealthy people" have already booked their seats for the first official flight to moon. Space Travel is something that has excited a lot of people, including the search giant Google
. And to make things even more exciting, and definitely more competitive as well as lucrative, Google and X-Prize officials have unveiled nine new privately funded teams that will compete for $30 million in the Google Lunar X Prize challenge, a race to...
Please Click the Title for the Full Story
Read more:Winners
Recommend Site To A Friend
