Hasta La Gadget!

These days it’s a little unsettling to see a firearm with a canteen attached, particularly because it’s probably safe to assume it was rarely filled with just water. But back in 1862 when this Colt Navy 4-Screw Revolver was originally manufactured, carrying a gun everywhere you went was commonplace, and a built-in flask just made sense. More »

I’m not a big fan of typing on touchscreens, as I make way more errors and type much more slowly than with an actual keyboard. Call me old-school, but I like to feel the keys under my fingers when I touch type. While these keyboard coasters won’t help solve my flatscreen typing woes, they should keep my table clear of drink sweat.

MollaSpace’s acrylic keyboard coasters remind you to “S-P-I-L-L-O-N-L-Y-I-F-Y-O-U-D-A-R-E.” Though the consequences of getting a little soda on these keys is much less dire than spilling a drink on your actual computer keyboard.

$20 bucks buys you a set of four keyboard coasters, including two in black and two in white. And if you’re looking for an actual computer keyboard you can spill drinks on, check out this one.

If you’ve ever played Cut the Rope, then you know just how fantastic it is. It’s been one of the most popular casual games of the past couple years, racking up over 250 million downloads. However, the developer behind Cut the Rope, ZeptoLab, is back with a new game called Pudding Monsters, and it’ll be releasing on December 20.

The goal of Pudding Monsters is to essentially get pieces of pudding to stick together. Unlike Cut the Rope, Pudding Monsters is more of a puzzler than a physics game, and it’s even more casual than Cut the Rope, since it doesn’t focus on physics and having to get your timing just right. Players are tasked to move pieces of pudding around a board, but unless they hit an object or another piece of pudding to stick onto, the pieces will fall off the board and the game will be over.

Pudding Monsters will be released on iOS and Android simultaneously, and just like with Cut the Rope, ZeptoLab plans to sell licensed plush toys, comic books, and other merchandise based on the new game. Obviously, we’re not sure what these will entail, but if it’s anything like Cut the Rope‘s merchandise, we’ll see a lot of the products be based on the game’s characters.

Cut the Rope currently still has around 50 million monthly active users, even after releasing over two years ago. It seems people still aren’t sick of the game, and hopefully ZeptoLab can recreate that same amount of buzz for Pudding Monsters. We certainly wouldn’t be surprised if the upcoming game stole the spotlight for a few months.

Cut the Rope developer unveils new game, Pudding Monsters is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Remember your first router? Oooohhhh, aaaaah. You were the coolest on your block because you could wire CAT-5 allover in order to hookup more than one computer to your whopping 512kbps Internet speed. And then the whole wireless thing happened (thank goodness). Now routers have become so plug and play that my 80 year old neighbor connected his with no problems. Though I’m not sure how many signal poachers he may have. So what happens next? Routers hold a ton of valuable information. D-Link wants you to access it – from anywhere.

The D-Link DIR-605L gives you everything you would expect from a leader in networking technology, plus remote access. The unit provides perfect coverage for medium to large sized homes, with up to 300Mbps and WPS. N standard means it will be backwards compatible and you still have 4 ports if needed. The unique thing about the 605L is that when setup, you get access to your own cloud control which continuously tracks the activities of your router. Add the free D-Link app for iPad, iPhone or Android to your device and you can remotely tap into the activities. View browsing history of whoever may be home while you are at work. The kids will think you have a spy in the house! Nervous about who is using the network while away?  Check which devices are connected to the network anytime or even receive email alerts when unwanted devices attempt to log on. The D-Link Wizard means setup is as easy as you would expect. Right now you can even get a unit at a $39.99 promo price on D-Link’s site (normally $59.99).  So if you ever have nerves about network usage and browsing when you are away the D-Link DIR-605L router can provide invaluable peace of mind and the router technology you need.
[ Router Keeps You in Control copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The founders behind Karma (no, not that Karma) think that there’s something fundamentally broken in the market for mobile providers. And they’re hardly alone. So, the TechStars grads set out to create a new format, one that eschews the traditional subscription model for a pay-as-you-go approach to mobile bandwidth.

In an effort to realize their vision of providing anyone and everyone with a 4G, mobile Hotspot for their pocket, the startup is today officially launching its $79 hotspot device that comes with 1GB of free bandwidth and is available for purchase on YourKarma.com.

The 4G and WiFi-capable Hotspot is about half the size of a smartphone (so it does indeed fit in your pocket), comes with a range of six to eight hours of battery life, is capable of speeds of up to 6 megabits per second (Mbps) and can facilitate up to eight open connections at once. Additional bandwidth costs $14 per gigabyte and “never expires,” according to Karma co-founder Robert Gaal.

But, what the founders believe sets their Hotspot package apart is that it introduces the concept of “Social Bandwidth,” meaning that the device and its network are social right out of the box. The more you share your connection with people, the more bandwidth you earn. Right from purchase, Karma’s open WiFi signal is individually branded to its owner — “Rip’s Karma,” for example — and allows owners to earn 100 megabytes of free data each time they share their WiFi network with a new user.

This also works both ways, as the new user is gifted 100 megabytes of free data so that they can get up and running on the network for free once they sign up for an account. Say what you will about this “Karmic loop,” but in the stodgy old world of mobile providers, it’s an innovative business model and approach to user acquisition.

So, just in case it’s not clear, here’s how it works: I buy a Karma 4G, WiFi Hotspot, which has eight hours of battery from a single charge and works just as fast as WiFi connection any in my local area. Once the device is received, I create a Karma account (sign in via Facebook) and immediately given 100MB of free bandwidth. If I go over that limit, I pay $14 for each additional GB of data I use.

Sure, it’s not unlimited, but it’s competitive with other mobile plans if you, say, end up using 5GB of data, as that comes out to $70. If you don’t use that much, you pay less, and if you happen to go over that 5GB, you don’t have to deal with overage charges, which is a breath of fresh air.

Once I’m set up, I head to my local coffee shop, where Karma’s open WiFi network is bound to find some poachers. If those thieves sign up for Karma via Facebook, they too get 100MB free (as do I) attached to their Facebook ID. Even if they don’t have their own Hotspot, they still get free access to WiFi, and since, as the admin, I see the incoming WiFi connections and their Facebook profiles, I have the opportunity to do a little social curating, disapproving if I see something I don’t like. What’s more, the poachers can buy 1GB of data if they go over the 100MB limit right through Karma.

As to who’s powering Karma’s 4G? Karma operates as a virtual provider on the Clearwire broadband network, which serves approximately 135 million people across the U.S. in 80 cities and Simplexity (an authorized MVNA for Clearwire) provides access to the the company’s 4G network.

It’s a very interesting time for Karma to be entering the space, especially as the big mobile service providers are increasingly choosing to offer shared plans and, really, becoming data brokers — that’s their core revenue stream. If it’s true that the average smartphone user consumes about 220MB of data per month, then that makes Karma a favorable alternative. Especially if one is a Karma owner, as it would only require sharing your WiFi network with a couple of other coffee shop dwellers to get a couple hundred MBs of free data.

While Karma is very much provider and platform agnostic, right now it’s only working with Clearwire. Going forward, it’s going to be key for Karma to partner with other networks to extend its national reach. However, it’s hard to imagine that the bigs like Verizon and AT&T are going to be jazzed about supporting the competition.

Nonetheless, there’s a big opportunity in the air, as GoGo Inflight Internet is sorely in need of disrupting. The company is in the early stages of a pilot with one of the largest airlines in the U.S., which will offer “free Karma hotspots to frequent fliers,” for example. Building out these partnerships could prove to be a great revenue stream and user acquisition strategy for Karma.

After graduating from TechStars NY this summer, the startup raised approximately $1 million in funding from Werner Vogels (CTO of Amazon), DFJ, BOLDstart Ventures, Chang Ng, Collaborative Fund, David Tisch, David Cohen, Eliot Loh, Jerry Neumann, Kal Vepuri, TechStars and 500 Startups, to name a few.

For more, find Karma at home here.