Hasta La Gadget!

The folks over at Japan are a pretty creative society – just take a look at the kind of quirky fashion ideals that people in the country ascribe to, and you have a better and clearer picture of how things look like. Not only that, their smartphones have long been so much more advanced than handsets in the West and the rest of the world, functioning as a portable wallet and all. This time around, we have Dentsu, a Japanese advertising company, make an announcement that they have come up with a new T-shirt technology that they call Asoberu-T.

The Asoberu-T can be said to be a form of augmented reality, as it comes in three different ways for one to “enjoy” the T-shirt, namely Play, Shot and Share. In order to begin “playing” with your T-shirt, you will first need to install the dedicated free application on your smartphone. Once that is done, hold the smartphone over the T-shirt and run the app, where your eyes will be greeted by characters as well as other designs which will pop-up on the screen as though it involved magic, and you can even manipulate those characters and designs from your phone’s touchscreen to boot. In Shot mode, you can pose with the characters while composing an entirely new photo, while Share would let you upload those photos to a special website. Definitely trendy and fashionable, don’t you think so?

Source
[ Asoberu-T augmented reality shirt copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

There are a lot of things that we take for granted in life. It’s not until they’re stripped away suddenly, that we really appreciate some of the most basic things. We’ve had some pretty bad storms over the last month where I live, and when the power goes out, you suddenly miss all of that light that was previously flooding every room. Suddenly flashlights, candles, and your cell phone are your best friends. Of course, things like flashlights are useful in more situations than just around the house when the power is out. So why not get one that is versatile, and can work in just about any situation?

The Apollo AP-1 Tactical Flashlight promises to be the the last flashlight you’ll ever need. This compact light is capable of providing nearly 1000 lumens of light, which can illuminate objects from over ¼ mile away. Check out the video below for a really cool demonstration of that feature.

The light has five different modes of illumination, which are high, medium, low, strobe and S.O.S. On the lowest setting you can get around 20 hours of light, and still an impressive hour while on the highest. The device is rugged, and can withstand most punishment that you dish out. It is tested to resist drops up to 1.5 meters, and can be submerged in water up to 20 meters deep. To get one of your own, you’ll need to pledge $99 to the Kickstarter project. It has already surpassed its goal many times over, so no need to worry about that. Expect to get yours sometime in October of this year.

[ Apollo AP1 Tactical Flashlight will light up your life copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Dogs are such lovable creatures, as each of them – regardless of size, have their very own personality and temperament, and just like humans, no two dogs are the same. Some dogs prefer to laze around all day long, while others are extremely active and would not leave you alone until you bring them out for their daily, long walks. Some dogs just look at the ball you just threw nonchalantly, and even with the incentive of their favorite treat, they would much rather remain on the floor where they were, while others start to get all excited the moment they see you wave a ball in your hand. If your four legged furkid loves to play fetch, you would more often than not realize that your throwing arm would have run out of strength long before your pooch is too tired to fetch the ball back. Perhaps it is time for technology to come into play, and this is where the iFetch comes in handy.

The iFetch happens to be the perfect toy for any small or medium sized dog, where it is considered to be an interactive, on-demand ball launcher. Whether you walk around on paws or feet, you will love it for sure, if playing fetch is your cup of tea. The iFetch works this way – it will shoot a miniature tennis ball between 10 and 30 feet (thanks to a trio of adjustable settings), and is battery powered (six C batteries) for a day out (or if you happen to own a really large piece of lawn, you can opt to plug it into a nearby power outlet).

Basically, the iFetch is a no-frills device that powers up on demand, as it is capable of turning itself on whenever it detects that a ball has been dropped in, and after launching the ball, it will shut itself down. This is definitely one way of teaching your dog to fetch and return in a new and interesting way. Of course, it would have been better if there was some sort of automatic treat dispensing system upon the successful reloading of the iFetch. We are glad to say that the iFetch has gained more than triple the amount of funds required via its Kickstarter campaign, and so it ought to arrive on your doorstep if you are an eligible backer pretty soon.

iFetch Kickstarter Page
[ iFetch toy for dog owners copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

I’m a bit of a computer nut, and I love tinkering with new hardware. It’s fun to get a new piece of equipment in, and see just how much of a difference it makes on your system. It’s also a lot of fun to see how far you can push it. If you want to maximize your performance, you can do something called overclocking, which makes the processor run faster than it was originally meant to. This is especially helpful when you want an older machine to still perform like new. Now if only we could do the same thing for our brains.

According to FOC.US LABS, you can actually push your brain to perform more quickly. They have developed a specialized headset to do this very thing. The foc.us headset is supposed to help your synapses fire faster by using a method called Transcranial Direct-Current Stimulation. This sends small amounts of current into your brain, and is used to help stroke victims.

So what is the point of “overclocking your head”, as they put it? They are marketing this as a device for gamers to use. The idea is that the faster your brain can process information, the faster you can react. While this seems like a logical conclusion, I don’t really feel like zapping myself in the brain to get a competitive edge. If you think it’s worth a potentially fried brain, then you’ll need only lay down $250 to get your own.

Source: Dvice

 
[ Foc.us headset wants to overclock your head copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Selfloops as well as ANT+ have come together to roll out what they call the Android ANT+ accessory, which so happens to be a smartphone charger which would allow Android connectivity to the ANT+ ecosystem that comprises of sport, fitness and health products. This particular Android ANT+ Accessory would end up as the gateway for millions of current Android devices (those that run on Android 2.3.4 Gingerbread and higher) to display a wide array of data including heart rate, foot speed and distance, bike speed, power and cadence from any certified ANT+ sensor, all the while linking Android applications to the millions of available ANT+ products that are manufactured by such notable brands including Garmin, Timex, and Geonaute.

Selfloops co-founder, Christian Del Rosso, said, “We’re extremely excited to now offer this innovative accessory to consumers. This is the only smartphone accessory that will enable ANT+ in Android devices with versions 2.3.4 and higher, which covers over 85% of the Android installed base. Existing solutions only cover Android 3.1 and upward (43% of the installed base) so we are thrilled to offer a device that brings ANT+ to the mass population of Android users.”

The Android ANT+ Accessory would hook up to an Android device using USB, where it also doubles up as a charger, which would extend the battery life of a connected smartphone. The accessory itself will adhere to the Android USB Accessory Protocol, hence it would also play nice with devices which so happen to miss out on USB OTG (on-the-go) capabilities. Applications that were written using the official Android ANT APIs from ANT Wireless will be 100% compatible with the Selfloops Android ANT+ Accessory. For those who are interested, Selfloops happens to have developed a couple of ANT+ Android apps (Selfloops and Selfloops Group Fitness) which can be downloaded the Google Play Store. The Selfloops Android ANT+ Accessory will burn a $115 hole in your pocket, and if you place a pre-order now, expect it to ship later this October.

Press Release
[ Selfloops announces Android ANT+ accessory copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]