An alarm clock that’s actually aesthetically pleasing
Posted by sunny on Feb 5th, 2007
Pretty much all alarm clocks, no matter how clever they are, look cold and impersonal. There are very few models out there that don’t have the same plastic casing and harsh LED lights. I don’t need my alarm clock to fly away or slap me in the face, but if it would look a bit warmer and classier that would be just great.
Check out this fabric alarm clock. Here’s a very basic alarm clock that manages to stand out from the crowd just by looking, well, nice. The product comes with 3 different fabric swatches, but they encourage you to get creative and use any pattern or fabric you want. Finally, you have a good use for that ugly shirt your Grandma got you for Christmas.
So you’re sitting there, at the beginning of the date, on the sofa, with an awkward meter of space between you. The Light Emitting Sofa by Danielle Sobik is cool and dark, with just a few little blue patterns. Your date notices the sofa and, in peering at it, moves a bit closer. The sofa light turns purple! Date slides over, puzzled, and hip contacts your knee. Sofa is now glowing like the aurora borealis! And you take the opportunity to jump your date, and never leave the house, and by the end of it, the entire sofa (how athletic y’all are!) is covered with a bright pink glow.
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Technology, or “AIST” to its friends, is pleased to announce the “Successful Development of a Thin Film for a Switchable Mirror That Can Be Switched Between Reflective and Transparent States.” Erm, basically a mirror that can be switched to a window and back again. The mirror works by using a thin film of a magnesium-titanium alloy. The institute suggests that it could be used for windows in buildings or cars so as to reduce the energy consumed by air conditioners by more than 30%. I think it’s better to just keep using it to turn plants into children. Read all the technical bits and bobs at the AIST site
The word “kitchen” is derived from “fireplace”, where people sat chatting around a bonfire. This “fireplace”, used to be everyone’s kitchen, was a communication center and played a critical role. The tripod burner originates from the shape of firewood in a bonfire, with the logs leaning against each other. Just click one of the bar-shaped legs and the top outside edge of all three legs ignites. There is a sensor-adjuster on one side to adjust the intensity. With folding legs, you can carry this burner with you and use it anywhere.
Named one of Time Magazines Inventions of the Year, this is the only portable handheld water-purification device that uses ultraviolet light to purify 16 oz. of clear water per use in a mere 48 seconds, or 32 oz. of water per use in 90 seconds. The ultraviolet light destroys microbes such as giardia and cryptosporidium, eliminates 99.99% of viruses such as hepatitis and poliovirus, and kills 99.9999% of bacteria such as Salmonella and E. coli.
This is the aeroponic indoor garden that provides you with all the necessary light, moisture, air, and nutrients for you to grow your own gourmet herbs right at your kitchen counterall without soil, sunlight, weeds, pesticides, or prior gardening experience. The garden uses aeroponics, a form of gardening tested by NASA and used to grow crops in space where plant roots are exposed to a fine mist of nutrients.
The Induction Dynamics‘ SolidDrive‘ produces sound from solid surfaces utilizing very high-powered neodymium magnets and dual symmetrically opposed motors to convert audio signals into powerful vibrations that are transferred into solid surfaces by direct contact. High-quality, full-range sound is then radiated from the entire surface.
The Snappy/Monsoon team has just released HAVA Gold, their latest placeshifting device. It has the same basic functionality and software of their higher priced line of placeshifters. The input/output lineup is slightly different, such as an additional audio input… So you can support composite and SVideo sources simultaneously, for example. The Gold box lacks WiFi and an internal tuner. It comes in black (compared the the original’s silver plastic) and is about 50% smaller.
Despite efforts to the contrary, the Cupertino-based company will reportedly stay a plan to push the streaming media device into the hands of consumers during the first half of the month. Instead, it’s working to abate a series of quality assurance-related concerns stemming strictly from the gadget’s operating system software.
Microwaves are tricky beasts. It’s a nuisance to check, reheat, check, reheat, etc., and over-nuking isn’t the greatest outcome either. These heat-sensitive spoons respond to a tasty temperature of 120 F by changing colors. Just nuke, peek, mix, and enjoi!