Hasta La Gadget!

A billfold can clearly be a gadget. We’ve covered many here on Gadget Lab, from a recycled bicycle inner-tube to the ridiculous carbon-fiber pocket-safe. But for plain good looks and an almost ridiculous commitment to simple design, the *Woolrich John Rich & Bros Wallet* wins.

The wallet, hand-made in Italy, has a couple card-compartments, a section for bills, and that’s it. No see-through ID-holder, no biometric fingerprint-reading lock, not even any stitching. The $125 wallet is just folded into shape from a single piece of cowhide and secured with a couple of tongue-and-slot connections.

Above all, though, it is beautiful, with the simple utility of a yellow packing envelope, a brown paper bag or a cardboard box. And the simplicity, along with the leather, should mean this lasts forever, or at least until some light-fingered purse-snatcher dips into your pocket.

I’d buy one in an instant, if it weren’t for one thing: That stupid logo. Sure, Woolrich is a clothing company with a 180-year history, but why blight such a beautiful design with logos? It makes it look like a Mac covered in Intel stickers, or a cheap dime-store t-shirt with an Engrish slogan on the front. What’s the opposite of “lipstick on a pig”, because this is it?

Woolrich John Rich & Bros Wallet [Blackbird Ballad via Uncrate]

See Also:

• Rubber Wallets Made From Old Inner-Tubes
• Carbon Fiber Wallet Lightens Your Load
• Carbon Fiber iWallet Is a Biometric Pocket Safe

Got 50k to spend big daddy? Good, then meet Alexa from ARRI, a German company founded in 1917 that just happens to be the world’s largest motion picture equipment manufacturer. Alexa is ARRI’s answer to the RED ONE digital, so don’t be held captive by your consumer-based experience of what a camera is or what it should look like. ARRI has a trio of cams slated for release in 2010 offering a 3.5k pixel count, 800+ El equivalent sensitivity, 1 to 60fps frame rate, electronic viewfinder and on-board HD recording. The A-EV Plus model adds uncompressed on-board recording and wireless remote control to the 16:9 aspect ratio shooting A-EV. The A-OV Plus switches things up to a 4:3 aspect and adds an optical viewfinder to the mix. The rest of the details will arrive during an April 6th launch event where ARRI will reveal the complete media, format, and what’s promised to be a “super fast workflow.”

Until then, check a side-by-side test done by the cats over at Animation World Network pitting a prototype Alexa against a RED One equipped with a new MysteriumX sensor and software. AWN was so enthusiastic by the results of the two cams that it proclaimed, “2010 is the year that celluloid died.” Jim Jannard, RED CEO, graciously responded to the test by saying, “We had expected the images to be very similar and it appears that this test confirms that.” He then added the following:

“We have believed, since IBC last year, that these two platforms would be the ones standing for the future. We are very proud to be in such good company. But for the moment, we tip our hats to Arri.”

Now hit the source links for the full read because the future of film looks set to become historic.

ARRI Alexa joins RED to kill celluloid in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just in case you thought Ben Heck was being caught up by his acolytes, our favorite superhero modder has come back today with the completed Bill Paxton Pinball machine. You might remember the rough version of this glorious homage to one of the world’s most mediocre actors from that time we visited Ben at his home / lair. It has now been fully fleshed out, painted, spit-shined, tested, and slapped with a badge of completion. You want to see it in action? We’ve got video of that. You want to see how it was built? We’ve got video of that too. You’ll find the moving pictures after the break, but don’t neglect the source as it also contains photo galleries and a walkthrough of the design process.

Continue reading Ben Heck completes the Bill Paxton Pinball machine, reasserts supremacy

Ben Heck completes the Bill Paxton Pinball machine, reasserts supremacy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 05:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We recently saw a whole batch of great innovations while we were covering the RetailTech 2010 conference for a client. Over the next few days we are going to introduce a selection for you all on this blog.

These days we are weighed down by our numerous e-money IC cards, and it can be hard to keep track how much you have charged on which one. Enter the Relet, a device that quickly tells you how much money you have when you touch it to your card.

While it might not look so sophisticated (though you can mask the device with a choice of four special leather or plastic cases), the makers sensibly have made it compatible with all of the multitude of e-money IC cards in Japan (Waon, Pasmo, Suica, Nanaco, Edy etc), so whatever one you use you can always find out the charge remaining.

It is actually a little bit bulky and the idea of carrying one around might be off-putting for some consumers. However, we suspect it won’t be too long before this technology is integrated directly into your wallet or bag.

On sale from April 1, the Relet is priced a rather high 8,379 JPY ($90), plus extra for the cases, and the makers hope to shift 25,000 units in the first year.

Also known as the Galaxy Portal in the UK, Samsung’s i5700 is today officially entering the Eclair portion of its Android existence. We got a nice leak of the 2.1 ROM in February, whose small glitches will no doubt have been ironed out in this official release. You’ll need to either hook up to the Samsung neural network using their proprietary PC Studio 7 software to leech the upgrade or just buy a new handset — it all depends on the ratio between your disposable time and income. Guess this will make the Spica that little bit more seductive to Rogers customers, who only just got the option to own the handset last week. Full PR after the break.

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Spica grows up to Android 2.1

Samsung Galaxy Spica grows up to Android 2.1 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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