Latest Posts on Coolest Gadgets

Thanks to Hasbro’s Thor merchandise, I am always hammered
Check out this the HECTOR spider robot
General Atomics makes a terrific railgun
Electric Bicycle Built For Two
Solar Pool Light
Zyclone Zing Ring Blaster
MSI releases new CX640 and CR640 notebooks
Mionix Zibal 60 gaming keyboard
Gadget Thumbnails for 18-Apr-2011
Kyocera Echo launched across Sprint’s retail channels
Roadside Assistance that Finds You, even if You Don’t Know Where You Are

Thanks to Hasbro’s Thor merchandise, I am always hammered

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 09:00 AM PDT

Hasbro was nice enough to send me a bunch of Thor toys, and I couldn’t resist trying them on for size. I am also surprised that they fit.

We’ll start with the top down. The Thor Helmet is a plastic replica of the helmet that Chris Hemsworth wears in the movie, and it has an adjustable elastic strap for all ages. It costs about $7.99.

I’m sure that what you are really interested in is the Thor Lightning Hammer. With the push of a button, you will hear authentic sounds that make you sound like the thunder god himself. As an added bonus, the top of it shoots off, which is not in the comic nor the movie. It requires three AAA batteries, which are actually included, and it costs $19.99.

As for the authentic Thor breastplate, that’s just a black shirt turned inside out with four CDs taped to them. I thought I would try to imitate those weird circles that are on Thor’s chest, at least in the comic-book version.

Some of you might think this is a pretty geeky thing for me to do, and you are absolutely right. At least my eight-year-old daughter got a kick out of the whole get-up.

I couldn’t work the 3.75″ action figures that Hasbro sent me into the photograph. (They cost $7.99, by the way.)

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[ Thanks to Hasbro’s Thor merchandise, I am always hammered copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Check out this the HECTOR spider robot

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 08:30 AM PDT

This spidery looking robot is designed by the University of Bielefeld’s Department of Biological Cybernetics, and it is the HECTOR, which is a weird quasi-acronym meaning the HExapod Cognitive auTonmously Operating Robot.

This mechanical arachnid is about a meter long, and weighs in at 12 kilograms, with 13 percent of it being the exoskeleton. I’m not certain what percentage of a real spider’s weight is its exoskeleton, but it does have joints on its legs that allow for 20 degrees, just like a real spider.

This is one of those robots that I would like to see made, if it didn’t creep me out so much. I think that there is something about spiders that tend to freak people out. Perhaps that is why there were these mechanical spiders hunting Tom Selleck in the movie Runaway. Man, going back in time for that reference!

Here’s a more recent reference, as HECTOR looks a little like the IC Hexapod that we reported on three years ago, which bore a strong resemblance to the probe droid from The Empire Strikes Back.

I wonder what is the use of this mechanical arachnid. Perhaps it could be used to take pictures, but it is too large to be covert.

Source

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[ Check out this the HECTOR spider robot copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

General Atomics makes a terrific railgun

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 08:00 AM PDT

Some of you might remember when we reported about the railgun that can shoot projectiles at Mach 7, and this one by General Atomics is pretty cool too.

You can watch a video of it below if you want to see it in action, and it looks like there is some sort of convention or something that puts this railgun on display. I can’t help but wonder what kind of convention allows a railgun to be put on display? Don’t they know that this can shoot at one mile a second? In fact, Tom Hurn of General Atomics reports “the sabot round went seven kilometers downrange after punching through a 1.8-inch thick steel plate.

It is nice to know that weapons from science fiction movies like Transformers: The Revenge of the Fallen are real, and there are different versions of it.

I believe that the plan is that General Atomics wants to put the railgun on a DDG-51 class destroyer by the end of the decade. I’m not certain I want to know what sort of wars would use a railgun. I heard that the Navy’s one can hit a target from 100 miles away.

Who knows what kind of range this has? That’s not a rhetorical question. Does anyone know?

Source

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[ General Atomics makes a terrific railgun copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Electric Bicycle Built For Two

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 07:30 AM PDT

Electric bicycles aren’t anything new, but this one that you see here definitely is – we’re talking about an electric bicycle that has been specially built to seat not one, but two people. This is touted to be the only one of its kind to date, where it can assist both riders up to 20 mph in relaxed, relative comfort. Seems perfect if you have plenty of hills around your area, don’t you think so?

A 500-watt electric motor will drive the rear wheel in order to assist riders up hills or across broad flats for easy cruising. Using a twist of the right handlebar will help you control the motor’s variable speed, while your thumb’s push will change the six gears. If you want to speed up, there’s this old fashioned method of pedaling so that you can amble along faster than 20 mph.

When running on a full charge, its detachable 48-volt lithium battery can provide enough juice for up to 25 miles – just make sure the combined weight of both you and your partner do not surpass 500 lbs. The asking price? A rather steep $3,400.

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[ Electric Bicycle Built For Two copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Solar Pool Light

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 07:00 AM PDT

There is nothing quite like the use of solar power to make sure that there is still an earth around for the next generation to live in. After all, using fossil fuels for so long has clogged up our atmosphere, not to mention having countries go to war just to get a spoil of its natural resources.

Solar power might not have an efficiency level that is agreeable to most people just yet, but it is enough for basic use such as in the case of the Solar Pool Light. This device can be set up anywhere within a pool sans wires, where it will deliver bright underwater illumination without missing a beat. A couple of solar panels are located on the top of the unit to provide adequate juice for the internal rechargeable batteries, delivering up to 10 hours of light after 10 hours of sun exposure. That’s pretty good returns – an hour of light for an hour of juice.

The four high-powered LEDs are able to generate 140 lumens to illuminate up to 1,000 square feet, and with an included remote control, you can always adjust the light output to five different levels from up to 50′ away. We do wonder whether the remote control is waterproof or not though. An LCD display on top of the unit displays the current water temperature. The light itself comes with a powerful integrated magnet which allows for easy attachment to an above ground pool or the included mounting bracket allows set up in an in-ground pool.

You can bring home the Solar Pool Light for $179.95 to brighten up your evenings spent by the poolside – pretty cheap price considering you can afford a home with a pool inside, that’s for sure. Of course, most of the rich folks should probably already use pool lights that aren’t “green” per se, but here’s an opportunity to turn things around, don’t you think so?

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[ Solar Pool Light copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Zyclone Zing Ring Blaster

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 06:30 AM PDT

If you want to spend more time outdoors instead of indoors this coming summer, you’d do your best to be prepared for the situation – and in this case, we’re talking about having some fun with the Zyclone Zing Ring Blaster right in your garden or backyard.

For £16.99 a pop, this device allows you to spin across a massive 60 meters, now that’s surely a long distance by any means, even for your dog to chase down after it if you so desire. The Zyclone Zing Ring Blaster will require you to load up the blaster, where it will send the soft zipping across the sky for more than 60 meters. Of course, there is the matter of retrieving it, but that’s the whole point to it, right? You’re supposed to sweat it out by doing so, or you can always get two people to play with you so that retrieval is made much easier.

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[ Zyclone Zing Ring Blaster copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

MSI releases new CX640 and CR640 notebooks

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 06:00 AM PDT

MSI has just announced that they will be introducing a couple of mainstream notebooks, namely the CX640 and CR640 models that will arrive at the doorsteps of online retailers in North America. These two will come in the 15.6" form factor, where you will find specifications starting from the Intel Core i3-2310M Processor with the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M with Optimus technology powering the CX640′s innards, although there is always the option to go for something of lesser power – Intel’s HD 3000 Graphics chipset instead in the CR640.

The silver colored CX640-071US is slated to retail from $679.99 upwards, while the black CR640-035US has been slapped with a $629.99 price tag for those who are interested, and regardless of which model you purchase, they’re enough for general school or work use, although gamers might want to look into the former model instead of the latter due to the presence of a dedicated video card.

In order to keep up with the times, MSI will also throw in 4GB of system memory and 500GB hard drives in both models. Not only that, the elegantly designed notebooks will ship with a bunch of other features such as worry free one-touch back-up and restore with MSI's Time Stamp technology, where a single touch of the Time Stamp button will put your mind at rest where crashes, viruses, and data loss are concerned.

Integrated extra hard drive protection is also thrown into the mix by an engineering move to change the position of the C Series’ hard drive to the middle of the chassis, while keeping it surrounded by a unique housing that will do its bit in protecting your data from the occasional drop or shock.

Apart from that, both the MSI CR640 and CX640 will also sport Fast Boot technology, letting the unit power up approximately two times faster compared to its rivals in the market. Data transfer is also a whole lot speedier now with USB 3.0 connectivity, so make sure you have a USB 3.0 hard drive or compatible data storage device if you want to take advantage of that kind of speed.

Product Page

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[ MSI releases new CX640 and CR640 notebooks copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Mionix Zibal 60 gaming keyboard

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 05:30 AM PDT

Gamers are an extremely picky lot, that’s for sure. After all, it is human nature to look around us for someone or something to blame before we finally concede our position and say, “Yes, I do have a part to play in the botched event.” Of course, in such a capitalistic society, that has played well in favor of gaming hardware manufacturers since they are able sell more and more kinds of different hardware, even coming up with “Special editions” or particular models to tie in with a game release.

The Mionix Zibal 60 gaming keyboard is one of the more recent gaming peripherals to be released, where it fuses what they tout to be the best keyboard components together alongside great gaming features which will deliver you that edge you have long been seeking for – without giving thought to whether your gaming technique is the right one or not.

The Zibal 60 has been specially engineered with non-tactile, mechanical, black cherry MX switches which will deliver the best feel to every keystroke. Multi-level backlight illumination is thrown into the mix to have it work with half a dozen keys rollover, enabling you to perform up to six simultaneous keystrokes with all keys, making the Zibal 60 a true one of a kind device from the rest of the masses. Apart from its performance features, the Zibal 60 will also deliver smart functions which comprise of a couple of USB 2.0 ports, audio/mic extensions and media control keys to have it integrate fully with your desktop setup.

The Mionix Zibal 60 is currently available for pre-order worldwide, and delivery of the gaming keyboard is scheduled for a June 2011 release for $149.99 a pop, placing it on par with many of the other gaming peripherals (especially keyboards) that we’ve seen in the past.

To recap, a list of the Mionix Zibal 60′s features include :-

Black Cherry MX Mechanical key switches
Detachable wrist rest
Green backlit key illumination
Three lighting modes On, Off and WASD
Multi-level brightness control
Mionix action key to access light/media controls
Six key rollover
Rage proof durability
Connect-through ports for audio/mic
Full speed USB 2.0 hub
Plug n Play

Product Page

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[ Mionix Zibal 60 gaming keyboard copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Gadget Thumbnails for 18-Apr-2011

Posted: 18 Apr 2011 10:01 PM PDT

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Kyocera Echo launched across Sprint’s retail channels

Posted: 19 Apr 2011 05:00 AM PDT

They say that two is better than one, although some of us in troubled marriages might beg to disagree (vehemently, I might add) with that statement. Of course, the advent of touchscreen technology has gone some ways in changing the way we use our cell phones and smartphones, so what happens when Kyocera decides to take a page out of Nintendo’s book by introducing a second screen which is just as large as the first, in its latest smartphone which is known as the Kyocera Echo? You’ll just have to find out in the extended post, that’s what.

The Kyocera Echo is touted to be the first dual-touchscreen smartphone in the US, where it is readily available across all Sprint retail channels, ranging from the Web (www.sprint.com) and Telesales (1-800-Sprint). This Android-powered device will rank on the high-end side of things, which one can tell through its $199.99 price tag (and that’s before taxes) alongside a new two-year service agreement – of course, if you’re an existing Sprint customer and fulfil certain criteria, you’re also eligible for an upgrade that’s subject to their terms and conditions.

A couple of high-resolution 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen displays are connected via a durable, patent-pending Super Copper Alloy "pivot hinge," and the Kyocera Echo doesn’t skimp on usability since it enables users to use both displays independently, side-by-side or combined – with the last option turning it into a tablet-like experience with 800 x 960 pixels in a 4.7-inch display.

When you want to use just one display, the Echo will fold up easily into a pocket-friendly single-screen configuration. It will run off the Android 2.2 Froyo operating system, although we would have liked to see Android 2.3 Gingerbread ship with it (or an update announced sometime down the road – keep your fingers crossed). Capable of hitching a ride on Sprint's nationwide 3G network and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g) networks, you can also turn the Echo into a portable Wi-Fi hotspot with support for up to 5 devices. Other hardware specifications include a 5-megapixel camera with flash, autofocus and digital zoom and HD recording capability, GPS, 1GB of internal memory and a microSD memory card slot.

Press Release

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[ Kyocera Echo launched across Sprint’s retail channels copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Roadside Assistance that Finds You, even if You Don’t Know Where You Are

Posted: 18 Apr 2011 07:28 PM PDT

Mobile location technology is playing a new role in the evolution of emergency roadside assistance, thanks to an innovative location-based solution developed by AT&T and Road America, the well known roadside assistance provider. In partnership with researchers at AT&T, Road America has developed a GPS technology solution for pinpointing breakdown locations in seconds, even if you have no idea where you are.

Previously, drivers needed to have GPS units installed in their cars to be located in the event of an accident or roadside breakdown, but a new solution offered by Road America is bringing this important safety feature to any basic cell, landline or smartphone on any network. Sure, we had telematics device's like Onstar, but it was only available on GM vehicles… so it left other stranded travelers relying on "well, there's a big brick building, it looks like a school, with a truck parked in front… I'm around the corner from that." Not exactly the pinpoint accuracy I'm looking for on a stormy night with a broken car.

Road America developed LocateMe Service® to help capture vehicle breakdown locations for customers calling from any wireless or landline communications device. This innovative, cross-carrier offering helps dramatically improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of locating a customer’s disabled vehicle.

“When developing this solution our goal was simple: find a way to quickly and accurately locate disabled vehicles by using the technology drivers often already have on them – cell phones – and we needed to be able to do it regardless of which carrier they were on,” said Dennis Fantis, president of Road America. “We teamed up with AT&T to create this revolutionary offering so we are now better equipped to respond to emergency assistance calls with greater reliability and speed, ultimately enhancing our ability to keep customers safe on the road.”

Source: www.road-america.com

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[ Roadside Assistance that Finds You, even if You Don't Know Where You Are copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Wednesday, April 20, 2011