Daily Digest Coolest Gadgets for 12/19/2012

The latest and coolest gadgets daily digest Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Dec 19, 2012 08:00 am | Alison Pedal-Powered Holiday Decor We at CG hope you enjoy the festive decorations this holiday season! I am sure that many of you do up your own house – inside or out or both – or maybe you pile the family in the car to drive by the best local houses in your town. Then there are public displays on main streets and of course shopping malls. Taking in some lights and decorations really does help get a person in the spirit. Southbank Centre, London's famous arts venue, is one of those great places to take in the decorations. And this year you can help light up the glorious trees on display! Yes, you! Southbank Centre called on Electric Pedals and Vivid Design Works to build two pedal powered Christmas trees. Over 1 kilometer of LED lights are strung among the two 7.5 meter trees which are powered by 10 sets of pedals – 5 surrounding each tree. Passers-by are welcomed to pedal away on the stationary pedals and see the results.  Take your pick of pedals too – with adult style, BMX for kids and even hand powered versions. How is it going over? On a recent weekend afternoon there was rarely a bike available. The people power over 40 days will save approximately 192kWh in electricity, enough to power 1.5m hours of laptop use. If you are in London from now until January 7th take a trip south of the Thames. The trees are on display just outside the Royal Festival Hall (between the Hungerford and Waterloo Bridges if you are not to familiar with London). Chip in this holiday season to show off the beauty of London Christmas lights. And if not in London check Electric Pedals' Facebook page for more pictures. [ Pedal-Powered Holiday Decor copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 19, 2012 07:00 am | Alison Portable Performance Plenty of cool looking Bluetooth speakers exist in this day and age. You can get them in shapes of cartoon characters or to fit with your interior or various other iterations. Some are of good enough size to fill a room. Others are meant to use on-the-go. Those of us who have used portable speakers know that the chances of getting quality audio are slim. Often times you pay for the form factor or durability. Why sacrifice though? Boombotix – makers of the Boombot1 and Boombot2 portable Bluetooth speakers – are back with the Boombot REX. Why REX? After the deep 'boom' of T-Rex footsteps. Because that is what you get with two 36mm drivers and a bass woofer. Yes, a portable speaker with true 2.1 sound enabled to reach 90dB (@2ft). A noise canceling microphone and 3 buttons means you can control your calls, music or even talk to Siri. And you can do all of it with your phone or tablet put away. The rugged body, grip-friendly design, water resistance  and built-in clip mean REX goes anywhere. Clip it to your backpack, bike, tent, belt loop, car or wherever you want to hear your tunes or take a call. Recharge REX via USB and get 6 hours of audio too. Reserve a unit on Kickstarter for $70, where they have blown away their goal. Production is slated to begin at the end of this month. If your life involves being on-the-go with access quality audio performance hop on board the Boombot REX train. [ Portable Performance copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 19, 2012 05:30 am | Edwin Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System Do you like to booze? If you have answered in the affirmative, then you would surely like to read more about the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System. The name itself does tickle the imagination somewhat – imagine a revolutionary system that fills up cups of beer in a different way, in a manner that the device's name suggests – from the bottom to the top. This is definitely thinking out of the box, and I am quite sure that folks who love to drink their beer with a decent amount of head and from a frosted glass would have objections. Reason being, GrinOn Industries' invention would fill up beer cups from the bottom, and that begs the questions, why are we drinking from plastic cups, and where's the head going to go to, if any? Well, for those who prefer to stick to the adage, "waste not, want not" would find the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System to be rather useful, where it is said to fill up a cup of beer faster and more efficiently when compared to the standard tap. It will not be able to work with any other cups, as proprietary cups are required. These proprietary cups will feature a magnet-ring seal along a hole in the bottom, where the machine will push the cup down onto the special designed dispensing tap, that can hold up to 4 beers simultaneously. The magnet will be lifted while the cup is filled, all in a hands-free manner. The moment the cup reaches capacity after taking in readings from the automatic valves which will switch off based on a volume input, the cup will then be lifted away from the machine, with the magnet pulled back in place to help seal the bottom of the cup. GrinOn claims that the Bottoms Up system works 9 times faster, and will make use of 96% of the keg, which is a far higher figure compared to the existing national average of 70%. Would you like to see the Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System in action at your local tavern? Source [ Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 19, 2012 05:00 am | Edwin Brain-controlled bionic arm edges humanity closer to android age When I first watched the Six Million Dollar Man, I was extremely amazed at how bionic enhancements introduced to the human body were able to augment one's performance to an incredible degree. Well, seeing prosthetic limbs in science fiction movies made it all the more believable, but real world medical technology continued to play catch up to the realm of fantasy. This time around, perhaps modern day technology and advancements made in the field of robotics could bridge the gap somewhat, as evident by this 58 year-old woman who had lost the use of her limbs being able to drink a steaming hot mug of coffee by herself, not with any other arm, but a robotic arm that is controlled by her thoughts, courtesy of a brain computer interface (BCI). A separate study has also seen another woman who is afflicted with longstanding quadriplegia, and yet with the help of a mind-controlled robot arm, she was able to feed herself a chocolate bar. I guess this has gotten researchers all up in a buzz, as they claim that such a level of agility and control is fast approaching that of a human limb. Which is a good thing, of course, and we do look forward to future developments where a robotic limb can be fused as a replacement appendage to the human body, something that amputees would definitely find exciting. Scenes of I, Robot start to flood the mind again after saying that. The folks over at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) were the ones behind this particular system which was specially tested by Jan Scheuermann. A mother of two, she was diagnosed with spinocerebellar degeneration 14 years ago, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down. When a couple of electrode grids with 96 tiny contact points were placed in the regions of Schneuermann's motor cortex which controlled right arm and hand movements, they picked up relevant signals from individual neurons, which were then translated to movement of the robotic limb. The road ahead is still a long one, but we're getting there. Source [ Brain-controlled bionic arm edges humanity closer to android age copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 19, 2012 04:30 am | Edwin Cryogenic Skin Treatment The search for the fountain of youth continues, and every year, billions and billions of dollars are spent by (mostly) ladies and men in their quest to look youthful at all times. Well, here is news for you just in case you forgot something – everyone grows old, and there is no exception. That body of yours will one day just break down, and you start to feel aches and pains in places that you never thought you had. However, with the right kind of money and technology, you can help slow down the ageing process, and this is where devices like the $169.95 Cryogenic Skin Treatment fit in. This patented French device is said to rely on the cooling temperatures of cryotherapy in order to eliminate eye puffiness, tighten skin, and reduce wrinkles. Taking less than one minute, the Cryogenic Skin Treatment's smooth oval disk will be able to reach temperatures of 40° F while its palm-sized holder remains comfortable to the touch. Specially developed to glide over the contours of the face, it will pamper the delicate eyelid areas as you apply it to your skin in gentle, circular motions. Just a minute of treatment is said to refresh the cold narrows of swollen blood vessels so that your skin looks more taut and younger. Being an all-natural, chemical-free therapy, it can be administered daily. [ Cryogenic Skin Treatment copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More Dec 19, 2012 04:00 am | Edwin Dancing Cat Speaker Now, I know that the Internet is a dangerous place that can suck your soul for hours on end if you are not careful, where the strategically made cat videos and photos are where the rabbit hole opens up, and when you dive headlong in, you would have realized that unlike Alice, there is no bottom to reach. Well, perhaps the example on how cute cats could spark off a phenomenon (irritating felines such as the Nyan Cat are a different story altogether) has resulted in the inspiration to deliver the £32.99 Dancing Cat Speaker. This cute and cuddly toy cat will stand upright as though it was a human, and even better is the fact that it is no ordinary speaker to begin with. As long as your musical playback device will jive with a 3.5mm audio jack, it is good to go. Apart from playing back your favorite tunes, the Dancing Cat Speaker will do as its name implies, dance. All you need to do is hook it up, play your song and watch it bop around in time to the music being played back! Of course, you can opt to have it dance while playing back tunes, or simply to let it function as a speaker without all the vigorous dancing, depending on the situation. [ Dancing Cat Speaker copyright by Coolest Gadgets ] Read More In This Issue Pedal-Powered Holiday Decor Portable Performance Bottoms Up Draft Beer Dispensing System Brain-controlled bionic arm edges humanity closer to android age Cryogenic Skin Treatment Dancing Cat Speaker Recent Stories A Bladeless Ceiling Fan Self-Portraits With Ease Lifeproof for iPhone 5 Vers 1Q Wood Cube Portable Bluetooth Sound System

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