Hasta La Gadget!

A little bit goes a long way, and a little bit of loose change adds up. But what if you’ve got a handful of coins in different currencies that you’ve accumulated from your travels, just sitting in a jar at home?

That’s one predicament the Add Up concept wants to try to eliminate. It’s basically a tiny exchange box with a lot that you can drop all your loose change in, whatever the currency. It then converts the amount to your domestic currency, which you can then add to your online accounts to get phone or Skype credits. Think CoinStar, but multicurrency.

Now this is an awesome way to put all that loose change to good use. The Add Up concept was thought up by Fan Cheng Kuei, Deng Pei Chih, and Hsieh Tsai Ni.

[via Yanko Design]

I don’t particularly like Justin Bieber, but I don’t have anything against him either. But I have to say that when the Overly Attached Girlfriend came up with an overly funny response to his Boyfriend music video, I was overly amused.

Turns out millions of others all over the world found her parody funny as well, since it went viral, and even resulted in a meme of its own.

There are many perks of having your video go viral. One of them is getting a couple of cents for every view from YouTube if you run ads on it. Another is the possibility of getting an endorsement deal from a big brand because of that viral video – a possibility which came true for the Overly Attached Girlfriend.

Samsung reached out and got her to endorse their new solid state drives. What better way to do the ad than to create another ‘Overly Attached’ video, right?

It seems like the concept is better on paper, though, because the whole ad gets a bit confusing and the ‘rap’ song isn’t exactly Grammy-worthy. What do you think?

[via BuzzFeed]

The minimalist look of Apple’s devices and peripherals isn’t for everyone. If you’re the type who immediately buys a colorful case for your new iDevice, check out Whooz, a set of colored stickers that will make your iPod, iPhone or iPad chargers and cables stand out.

There are two kinds of Whooz stickers: one for the iPod & iPhone and another one for the iPad. Each pack comes with four sheets; each sheet has one sticker each for an adapter, the USB end of an iOS cable and a pair for the stock earphones, if you still use those.

As you can see Whooz comes in a variety of styles, but if you’re willing to pay extra you can also order stickers customized with a drawing of your face in it. If that still doesn’t tell everyone else that your cables are yours, I don’t know what will.

Pledge at least $10 (USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser to get a pack of Whooz stickers. The custom Whooz cost $100 for a pack.

[via Bonjour Life via Materialicious]

Whoever invented pencils didn’t really think things through. Everything’s all good at the start, but what happens when the pencil gets too short and stubby that you can’t really use it to write comfortably?

That’s where the folks behind the Sprout Pencil come in.

You see, the Sprout is no ordinary pencil. Embedded on the end where the eraser is supposed to be is a seed capsule instead. So when the pencil gets too short for comfort, you can just stick the stub into a pot of soil or compost and water it to grow your own little plant.

The Sprouts come in many different varieties, including some of your favorite herbs and vegetables. You can leave the pencil in the soil to serve as a planting marker or you can throw it out if you want to.

Sprout was launched on Kickstarter last September. It exceeded the funding goal that was set and is currently in production. If you missed it then, don’t worry, because the team behind it are getting ready to offer Sprout for sale online and in stores.

I love getting mail and packages the old-fashioned way. There’s just something comforting about opening a letter to read it rather than just having to click an e-mail to display the contents.

Like most people, I have a job, so I can’t always be home to answer the door when my packages get here. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences where you got home to find a note that USPS or FedEx tried to deliver your package earlier but couldn’t because no one was home. So how would you like to have your packages delivered to your car instead?

Sounds like a strange concept, but that’s what Cardrops is trying to do in Europe. It’s a start-up from Belgium, and while they aren’t taking any deliveries yet, they’re planning to open up their service very, very soon.

Here’s how Cardrops works: when you shop online, select ‘Cardrops’ as the shipment method. When you’re at work (or out partying,) Cardrops’ delivery partners will locate your car and drop off your package in the trunk. You’ll then get an SMS that your package has already been delivered.

A service man will install the Cardrops starter kit in your car. This unit will ping the GPS coordinates of the car when it hasn’t moved for 15 minutes. Based on this data, our system can create a heat map of the exact locations where your car is mostly parked.

You’ll need to buy a starter kit priced at €99 (~$130 USD) and pay €4.95 (~$7) for every delivery with the basic Rockstar plan. If you do a lot of online shopping and expect packages every week, then you can opt to subscribe to the Royal plan that waives the starter kit fee but charges €24.95 (~$33) monthly.

Sounds pretty neat, but I’m still 50-50 on whether this will take off or not. What do you think?

[via Pop Up City]