Hasta La Gadget!

This is possibly the best novelty item ever. The Tauntaun sleeping bag started as an April Fool gag and may end up on the shelves of the ThinkGeek store — ThinkGeek is trying to get a license from Lucasfilm. With it, you can reenact Luke Skywalker’s night spent inside the guts of his trusty steed: 

Use the glowing lightsaber zipper pull on the Tauntaun sleeping bag to illustrate how Han Solo saved Luke Skywalker from certain death in the freezing climate of Hoth by slitting open the belly of a dead Tauntaun and placing Luke inside the stinking (but warm) carcass.

Yes, it has a lightsaber zipper, along with an embroidered Tauntaun head pillow. In child (or Yoda) size-only, the Tauntaun sleeping bag is projected to cost $40.

Slumber in the Belly of the Beast [ThinkGeek]

See Also:

• TIE Fighter Kite and Other Star Wars Inflatables

I so wanted to be cynical about the Baker Tweet. I wanted to put it in the box with the applications which tell you about the weather. You know, the same weather you could see by looking out the window. But the more I read, the smarter the Baker Tweet looks.

The principle is simple. The baker has a box on the bakery wall and, when a fresh batch of something comes out of the oven, he turns a dial and presses a button. A tweet is then sent out via the Twitter and anyone following can come running to grab some hot cross buns.

There is currently just one Baker Tweet in existence, built by the folks at Poke Design in London. Not coincidentally, the box sits in the Albion bakery across the road from Poke HQ and the workers there can then beat all others to the hottest, freshest bread.

The box contains an Arduino board, a Linksys Wi-Fi adapter and various gubbins to connect them together. The baker can sign in to the machine via a web interface to change the products on offer — just like configuring a router, only easier.

There are some problems, sure, but not with the hardware itself. Jumping the queue for fresh baked goods will be a lot harder if the whole neighborhood is following the same bakery, for instance. But this kind on one-to-many communication is at the heart of Twitter, and it’s fantastic.

I think the amazing chefs in the Wired kitchen should do something like this. When I was hanging out in the San Francisco office earlier in the year I kept missing lunch because my head was still on Spanish time. If the kitchen had had Baker Tweet, I wouldn’t have missed out on the caviar.

Product page [Baker Tweet. Thanks Jonny C and Andrew Z!]

City cyclists know a few things about car drivers. They know, for instance, that a car will turn right the moment you decide to cut up the inside in stopped traffic. They know that a car will desperately try to overtake you and then pull over 50 yards later, cutting you off.

And above all, they know that you never, ever ride too close to a row of parked cars. The moment you forget, a door will open in your path.

Boffins at BMW and Technical University of Munich want to fix this last one (sadly there is no cure for bike-blind drivers). They are developing a haptic feedback system for doors, which works like this: An accelerometer in the door detects when a passenger tries to open it. Sensors on the car detects the proximity of things outside — lampposts, cyclist, other cars. If there is something out there, the car door becomes stiffer to open (there is an extra metal bar inside the door with a linear motor to stop it moving).

New Scientist gives this example: “you might swing a door halfway open without problems before it gets stiffer as it nears a lamp post.”

Right now the project is using ultrasound sensors to detect oncoming cyclists and the like. V2.0 will use cameras instead, giving better coverage and adding the ability to detect cyclists from further away. Now all we need is a speed controller so cars can’t break the limits and cities will be almost perfect. In fact, should cars be banned from cities altogether?

Intelligent car door clams up when danger’s about [New Scientist via CNET]

Photo: srqpix/Flickr

Looks like LG’s about to treat the world to an upgrade of its popular Viewty handset. The Viewty II (aka, GC900) is rumored to be hitting Orange UK sometime in June. As a refresher, the VII (or juicy 900 if you must) is laden with impressive specs including LG’s 3D S-Class UI riding a 3-inch WVGA touchscreen, accelerometer, and an 8 megapixel camera with xenon flash, manual and auto focus, image stabilization, ISO 1600 support (riiiight), A-GPS geotagging, slow motion video, and even DivX and Xvid playback. Add to that 32GB of expandable storage, WiFi, and 7.2Mbps HSDPA data and you’ll understand our anticipation.

[Via Pocket-lint and Electric Pig]

Filed under: Cellphones

LG’s Viewty II rumored for June release, all 8 megapixels of it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 05:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you like nothing more than a fine cheroot after a late dinner, especially when you find yourself behind the wheel — and no, one of those new-fangled e-cigarettes will not do the trick. What you need is the 3-in-1 automatic cigarette lighter / air purifier / perfume bottle. It’ll light your light, filter your smoke, and what it doesn’t get out of the air will be masked by whichever parfume du jour you choose to supply for included the 15 ml. reservoir (we suggest Hai Karate). Retails at $54.99, car charger included.

Filed under: Transportation

3-in-1 cigarette lighter / air purifier / perfume dispenser won’t make your cigarettes any safer, your car any less rank originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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