Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Thor Helmet Is Plastic But Shoots Fire

What you see here is a replica Thor helmet ($550). It's made of plastic but has "copper flame tubes raised above the helmet so that there is no heat transfer from the tubes to the helmet." You hook that sucker up to a little propane tank tucked away in your pants and you're good to go. Use the adjustable valve to set flame height and burst action. Awesome. You can really tell this is a quality helmet. If quality is a function of the helmet's ability to burn your house down.
Several more pictures after the hammer.

Air Purifier Cleans With The Power Of Plants


The Bel-Air indoor air filtration systems sucks in dirty air and runs it through a plant's leaves, roots, and a "humid bath" before releasing it back into your room, purified.
This patented principal has two advantages: Bel-Air is to the American and Asiatic common filter appliances what Dyson is to regular vacuum cleaners. Here, the noxious particles are captured, and transformed inside the system. No more filters to change, and no more clogs.
I really like the concept, but question how effective the device is. I mean those are pretty small plants, and the tenement I live in is pretty freaking disgusting. That plant would be a goner in a matter of hours. I mean I can actually see the air in here. It's brown.

The Future Of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots

The 12th Robo-One Grand Championship took place in Japan over the weekend, featuring the best two-legged robots duking it out in boxing-style matches. Needless to say it was awesome as hell and I wish I could have been there. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots has never looked so lame after watching these little guys go at it. I'm already gathering supplies so I can build one for next year's competition. So far I have two empty cereal boxes and a pipe cleaner. It's a good start, but I think I'm going to need some tape.
A MUST SEE VIDEO AFTER THE PUNCH!
UPDATE: ADDED A COUPLE MORE VIDEOS OF OLDER COMPETITIONS.

Christmas List: R/C Car Metal Detector


The London Science Museum added metal detecting technology to an R/C car so you can find treasure and have fun at the same time. The car beeps and lights up whenever it nears a metal object. It only costs $83, so I may actually end up getting one. Walking the beach with an old school metal detector is just far too boring for me. Sure I've found several expensive rings, but the women they're attached to usually start screaming before I can get them off.

Helicopter With Automatic 12-Gauge Shotgun


The AutoCopter Gunship is the toy I always wanted growing up. It's a helicopter with a freaking Auto Assault-12 Full-Auto Shotgun by Military Police Systems attached.
The AutoCopter uses patented "intelligent neural network-based flight control algorithms" for automated flight control, and "utilizes a system that reduces recoil by 90 percent, thus the helicopter doesn't go into an instant tailspin the second the gun is fired.
Hot dog! I need one in a bad, bad way. This thing is going to jack up my paintball matches several degrees. Yep, probably right up to the first degree. Murder. Because I forgot to replace the shotty with a paintball gun.
Cool video of the thing firing after the take-off.

Expensively Dim Lighting: The Dandelight


The Dandelight is a very cleverly named product. By combining the words 'dandelion' and 'light' you get 'dandelight', which, at no additional cost to you, contains the word 'delight'. I bet it took someone several sleepless nights to come up with that one. Anyway, each light consists of a 9v battery, some wire, a few LEDs, and a real dandelion head. They go for $99 a blow, so you may want to make this a little DIY project. While they do look neat, I just can't see having them around my apartment. Although I'm sure the girlfriend can. I'm sure she's thinking they'd go great next to the potpourri basket in the bathroom, or with the rose walls and floral bedspread in the bedroom. Oh god help me, I've grown a vagina.

Impress Your Date With A Car Of The Future


Want to impress your friends and possibly score a girlfriend? How about purchasing this sweet-ass "Fastlane" car of the future? You can "Buy It Now" on eBay for a cool $15,000. But before you push the button: It's not really a car. It's a shell designed to fit on top of a Pontiac Fiero. Which is not included in the auction. So, yeah. It was designed for Universal Pictures by concept car maker Trans FX for use in a movie or something. I know it can't actually go anywhere, but I still think I want it. I'll just use a flatbed trailer to tote it to the bar and then slide it off into a parking spot. Then I'll proceed to get some lucky lady extremely drunk and ask if she wants to see my fancy sports car from the future. Hopefully she won't notice there's not a goddamn thing inside and will still make out with me while we're sitting on the pavement inside. What, where's my sense? I'll throw a tarp down. I may even add a boombox for some makeout tunage.
Five more pictures after the jump, including one of what you'd see during a makeout session.

Touchmate's Craz M800 with fake diamonds



The Touchmate Craz M800 Gold is touted as the "world's smallest mobile with built-in-diamond & MP4," and let's be honest, you can't beat that with even the heaviest stick. While we get the MP4 bit, we couldn't for the life of us find where the diamond actually was. Sadly, with a bit more research, grim realization struck, cold, hard, and fast: it's a "Swarovski Crystal Diamond," not a real diamond at all. After we got over the shock, called friends and had it stricken from our wish lists, we were able to get to the deets. The Craz M800 packs 128 MB of built-in memory, audio and video recording via USB (we have no clue), and a 1.3 megapixel camera, all wrapped in a spiffy leather tote case. No word on what band it is, or even what technology it is using, but let's face it -- in this case, that's just as well.

Portable watermelon cooler


Just when you think you’ve seen it all in the world of gadgets, Japan churns out yet another unique device. This time it’s the Marugoto Tamachan [JP], a watermelon cooler and heater. That’s right, the machine doesn’t just cool watermelons, but for some reason it can also heat them up. And it’s portable, too.
Maker Joybond says the heating feature can be useful for keeping other stuff warm, too, for example beverages or food. The Marugoto Tamachan holds 14l and is sized at 50.2×35.4×39.2cm (weight: 6.3kg).

Xbox 360 sales jump after redesign


Apparently changing the look of the Xbox 360 was the thing to do for Microsoft; they saw a huge jump in sales or the month of June, surpassing even the Wii by about 30,000 units.
June’s sales figures were released today, and while the Xbox didn’t take the lead (that went to the Nintendo DS), the Xbox 360 certainly didn’t suffer and and in fact came in second for the month. Software sales dropped overall, but honestly there weren’t that many compelling titles released in June. Hopefully Microsoft can keep up the momentum, and we’ll probably see even more units moved as we get closer to the release of the Kinect.

The Xbox 360 Lifespan

Speaking at a briefing at CES over the weekend and originally reported by the Guardian, Microsoft senior director of Xbox product management David Hufford said that not only is Microsoft not rushing to get to the next generation of consoles, but that the Xbox 360 has a lot more time left.
“I think it’s important to say that the Xbox 360 is the console of the long future for us,” Hufford told those in attendance. “There is no need to launch a new console because we’re able to give this console new life either with software upgrades or hardware upgrades like Project Natal. The Xbox 360 was designed for a long life, and I don’t even know if we’re at the midpoint yet.”
It’s an interesting take. Prior to Hufford’s comments, it was Sony that dominated the talk over a console’s lifecycle. Sony’s team has said on numerous occasions that the PlayStation 3 is the only console that will stay relevant for 10 years. And although the PS3 is currently trailing the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, Sony contends that when it’s all said and done, the PlayStation 3, thanks to its longevity, will win out during this generation.
But Microsoft has finally made it clear that it, too, believes that its console has the ability to stick it out. Project Natal should help Microsoft increase the lifespan of the Xbox 360. But after almost five years of availability, has the Xbox 360 really not reached its midpoint yet?
SOURCE

Xbox 360 250 GB Console

The new Xbox 360®. Here today, ready for tomorrow with a brand new, leaner machine in an all new black gloss finish. Wi-Fi is built-in for easier connection to the world of entertainment on Xbox LIVE, where HD movies and TV stream in an instant. It's ready for the controller-free experiences of Kinect—you don't just play the game, you are the game. With the huge hard drive you'll have plenty of space to store your favorite games and movies. Xbox 360 is more games, entertainment. and fun.

Energy labels in Washing Machines


When environmental issues came to the centre stage and concern about the threats to the world ecology became widespread, United Nations appealed to all countries to reduce pollution in order to prevent global warming. After the 1992 Earth Summit convened in Rio de Janeiro, all countries initiated action to save earth from ecological destruction. The United Kingdom, in conformity with the United Nations policy introduced several regulations to protect environment. It became mandatory in European Union and UK that all products that use energy should carry energy labels. The labels indicate that the products are designed and manufactured in such away to conserve energy and to reduce emission of toxic gases to the minimum limit as mandated under the rules.
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The consuming public is equally conscious about the consequences of environmental pollution, thanks to the universal awareness programme initiated by the Governments as well as international agencies. Further energy has become an expensive commodity and the individual consumers are anxious to keep down the consumption charges. No wonder, the shoppers now a days want to ensure that white goods and other appliances that consume power are carrying energy labels or green labels. There are many regulations in the European Union countries stipulating strict adherence to anti-pollution and energy saving methods. All goods and service that are based on energy consumption have to indicate that they are manufactured or provided to the public, strictly adhering to the concerned rules. Labels with logo will be attached to the products

Samsung UN55B8000 55" LED TV

Description:
Samsung's 1.2 inch ultra-slim 8000 series LED TVs combine deeper picture quality, eco-friendly and blue Touch of Color designs, and advanced connectivity options (including four HDMI cables and an optical video output) that will keep you entertained 24/7. The 5,000,000:1 Mega Contrast provides an incredible range of brightness - from the pure blacks to pristine whites, resulting in stunningly true to life content, clarity, and color. Additionally, the TV's enhanced 240Hz Auto Motion Plus technology analyzes and adjusts every frame so that nothing goes by in a blur. The InternetTV feature allows you to receive content via Yahoo!, Flickr, and other online TV Widgets on screen. It is simple to watch movies, browse photos, and listen to music on your TV with the advanced Multi-Media Center. It is also easy to be green with up to 40% less power consumption than conventional LCD's. Available in both 46" and 55".