Hasta La Gadget!

If you’re a gadget loving technology fan, you’ve undoubtedly been getting ready for a vacation or a day away from the home or office and had to figure out how to pack all of the gadgets you need to take with you on the road and still have them handy. That can be very challenging because if you get a camera, a smartphone, and maybe an MP3 player stuffed in your pockets you might lose your pants. ThinkGeek has a new solution that makes it easy to take all of your stuff with you on the go.

ThinkGeek has teamed up with Scottevest to create its very own geeky gadget hiding jacket called the Tropiformer Jacket. The jacket is available in four different colors including blue, red, gray, and cement. The jacket features 22 different pockets arranged all around the jacket that are designed specifically to distribute the weight of all your needed gadgets for comfortable wearing.

If you live in a warmer environment, the jacket also has magnetically attached sleeves that pull off easily and quickly to transform the jacket into a vest. The jacket even has a larger dedicated tablet pocket and a special Quick Draw pocket. The quick draw pocket has a clear material on the inside of the jacket allowing you to operate the touch screen of your smartphone without removing it from the pocket.

The jacket even has its own patented personal area network that allows you to route internal cables for headphones and chargers. One of the more interesting features of the jacket is that it can pack away into itself making it easy to store. The jackets also water resistant to keep all your electronics safe even if you get caught in the rain. The jacket is available now for $149.99.

[via ThinkGeek]

ThinkGeek and Scottevest unveil the Tropiformer Jacket is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

RockS2V is working hard to build a name for itself when it comes to emergency survival gear. The company’s Provision coat includes a built-in life-saving toolkit if you find yourself stranded somewhere remote, and its new Substratum boots feature a secret compartment inside designed to stash an emergency fire starting kit. More »

If you’ve got a pair of shoes that are so old that your feet touch the ground, you’re going to need a new pair – this will no longer have to be a scenario where you have to make that judgement if Apple’s newest patent application is realized. In the application revealed this week, Apple has shown an outline for how they might place sensors in shoes that track the wear and tear on the soles of the footwear in a variety of ways. The end result will be a pair of shoes that informs the wearer if they get worn out while walking then warns every subsequent wearer (if there are any) that they are not fit to use.

This system in one case decides how much you’ve used the shoes based on the movement of a “body bar.” This bar works with a coupling mechanism attached to a detector that senses movement of the bar when they’re active. This way you’ve got a sensor that only activates when enough weight is placed in the shoes, then only when you’re pressing down on the soles (not while you’ve got your feet dangling). Another suggestion from the patent includes notes of how you’d be able to use this system for more than just knowledge of wear.

If you’d have sensors such as this showing the pressure along the sole of your shoe, you’d also have the ability to track your movements in an advanced way. If you’re seeing how well a person is walking, how much and with how much pressure they’re moving, you’ve got an advanced physical activity system in the making. These systems are being suggested to be paired with wireless connectivity (wi-fi or Bluetooth), LED displays, speakers, and more.

While we’ve never seen Apple create a shoe on their own in the past, we’ve seen collaborations between them and Nike more than once. This patent application is likely set for a bit of footwear that could potentially exist in the future, but there’s no real sign at the moment (other than the patent itself) that any such footwear is currently in the works. What do you think, readers – is it time for Apple to create their own brand of clothing and shoes?

[via CNET]

Apple patent shows shoe sensor for information on sole death is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This wearable sleeping bag isn’t the first time someone’s designed bedding you can stay in all day long—that honor probably goes to Selk. But it is the first sleeping bag you can wear that doesn’t make you look like you’re wrapped in a ridiculous puffy spacesuit. More »

Michael Bay’s Armageddon would have ended a lot differently had the writers known that one day a company would create a pair of jeggings—by themselves a creation we should be ashamed of—with a built-in bulging pocket for smartphones. Instead of sending a mining crew into space to destroy the asteroid, they would have probably just let it run its course and wipe out the planet, preventing this fashion tragedy from occurring. More »