Hasta La Gadget!

Imagine if objects built themselves. You just dump raw material into a bucket, wait ten minutes, and BOOM: it’s a beautiful crystal. Turns out this is actually possible using a process called directed assembly.

Read more…

I love new technology, and I love wearables, and I love Google Glass, but I can’t wear it out in public. Google’s head-mounted computer is gradually proliferating, as the company … Continue reading

There’s nothing quite like sledding on a snow-laden hill. The trip down is always a fraction of the time it takes to go back up, but it’s always worth it. Of course, one very important factor is the type of vessel you choose to carry you down. However, if the conditions are right, you can use anything from the regular bowl-shaped sleds to a cardboard box.

For those of you that want more than a mere experience of sledding, there is the Snolo Stealth-X. This is about the equivalent of bringing an armored tank into bumper cars. Even though it is completely overkill, this predominantly carbon fiber sled is still pretty to look at. The mono shell, front ski, and front arm are all made of this high-grade material, which I assume means it will take the inevitable crashes rather well.

There is a foam padded seat which will allow you lean back and relax on the flip-up padded back rest. If you like to make sure you are securely in place, there are also shoulder straps in a backpack-style placement which are attached to the rear of the sled. This can fold down and be worn as a backpack as well, which will make the return trip up the hill a little less cumbersome. Of course, such a masterpiece will not come cheap. This $2,549 sled is meant for those who have too much money, and want to experience ‘fun’.

Available for purchase on Snolo, found via Uncrate
[ The Snolo Stealth-X takes sledding a bit too seriously copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

A couple of years ago we saw an unusual camera. It looked like a ball and took 360° panoramic photos, like the ones on Google Street View but completely spherical. Jonas Pfeil and his co-inventors are now gearing up to mass produce the camera, which they’re now calling the Panono.

Panono works much like the prototype we saw back then. It has 36 cameras that together can make a 72mp 360° image.  Panono can be used in three ways. The fun way is to throw the ball up in the air. The camera will sense when it reaches its highest point, and will automatically activate all of its cameras. You can also prop it up on a stick and trigger it using the Panono mobile app or just hold it in your hand and press its button to shoot.

Whichever method you choose, you’ll need a mobile device and an Internet connection in order to get the final panoramic image. That’s because the camera will wirelessly send the images it took to your mobile device. From there you need to upload the images to a free cloud service that will stitch your images together. If you don’t have an Internet connection, you’ll be able to view the images you took via the app, but they’ll be separated. The camera itself can store up to 400 panoramas (that’s 14,400 “normal” images) so you can still use it without a mobile device.

Pledge at least $500 (USD) on Indiegogo to get a Panono as a reward. You can check out the shots taken with the latest prototype on Panono’s website. Now someone needs to come up with a spherical picture frame.

A new Kickstarter project called Tooga Gear based out of LA wants to provide a versatile, durable camera mounting solution for capturing tricky shots in a modular package that can support DSLRs, GoPros and other action cams, and even smartphones, all in a package that can fit in a small sling bag.

Tooga Gear includes a dolly, suction mounts, a ballhead tripod mount, a protective guerrilla cage and a shell component that ties everything together. The pieces can be switched out depending on your needs, to make for smooth rolling pan shots, footage taken from a camera mounted to any smooth surface, including, to quote the project description, “the side of a plane.”

This is nicer than many similar rigs (of which I’ve used and own a few) because of the accessory mounts built into each leg on the dolly wheels, which can support additional accessories like external fill lights, off-camera flashes and mics. The Tooga Cage, too is designed with two cold-shoe mounts, along with threaded mounts for additional gear. That suction mount kit seems a little more specialized in usage, but you could quite easily mount it to a car window for doing your own follow shots on (hopefully not illegal) chase scene filming.

The entire Tooga kit can be had starting at pledges of $449, which sounds like a lot but is actually a pretty great deal when you compare against the price of any of the components individually (from a decent manufacturer). The team consists of mechanical engineers Shan Kim and Chris Anderson, who has built a number of camera gadgets before, and design students Kay Kim and Benson Lam. The founders have an existing supply chain in place, they say, so that should help them hit their March 2014 anticipated ship date.

The Tooga team is seeking $45,000 to turn its prototype into a shipping device, and it’s just starting out with a little over $3,000 pledged so far. As a sometime videographer, it’s something I’d definitely like to see become a reality.