Hasta La Gadget!

So this won’t be the first time that you’ll see an interactive shirt (remember the fully playable electric guitar t-shirt and the drum machine shirt?), but this is the first shirt of its kind to actually be able to do all that it promises to do. The tshirtOS. A t-shirt with its own operating system. The name already sounds cool, but just wait until you see the actual thing.

The tshirtOS is the result of a joint venture between Ballantine’s and CuteCircuit. The shirt is described as a wearable (obviously), sharable, and programmable piece of clothing that you can use to display random stuff like tweets, animation, and photos, and even play music and videos.

The shirt features a large multi-color, flexible LED grid, connected to a controller circuit and battery pack. It’ll also have a camera, accelerometer, microphone and speakers for truly interactive displays. It’s controlled by an app that’s to be installed on your smartphone. Because of its programmable nature, the sky’s the limit with this baby.

Make a fashion statement, share your thoughts by displaying your tweets as you go along, and make a nyan cat run around your shirt to give everyone around you a dose of geeky randomness.

Want it? Head on over to tshirtOS.com to find out more.

[via Dvice]

We saw the dark side of 3D printing with the 3D printed semi-automatic rifle. Here’s a counter-example of the technology’s vast potential: a lightweight assistive device that might not have been made if not for 3d printing.

Two-year old Emma Lavelle has arthrogryposis multiplex congenita – more commonly referred to as AMC or arthrohryposis – a condition wherein multiple joints in the body are fixed, limiting one’s movement. In Emma’s case she could barely move her arms and legs. But now she’s able to move her arms, thanks to a 3D-printed version of the Wilmingtong Robotic Exoskeleton or WREX. Emma can only wear the 3D-printed version because it’s made of ABS plastic, which makes for a device that’s significantly lighter than the default WREX that was made of metal.

My eyes just printed water. Check out Stratasys’ website for the full story. You can also read more about the WREX at Nemours’ website.

[via Buzzfeed]

I have nothing against touchpads on laptops, but they aren’t exactly the easiest things to use, especially when you’re editing or cropping images. Now portable mice do fine, but they’re not the most convenient things to use if you’re left to work without a surface. I’ve tried using my regular mouse on my leg while my laptop was propped on my lap when I was rushing to meet a deadline. Let me just say the mouse slipped a couple of times and the people around me weren’t very impressed with my random yelps, gasps, and occasional curses.

In situations like this when you have to use your laptop and your mouse on a curved surface, then the Arc Mouse would be perfect.

The mouse is curved in form, so you can use it on your leg or the padded armrest of an arm chair with ease. It doesn’t look like it would be very useful if you’re using it on a normal flat surface, so it’s probably best to use and take along when you’re working out of the office.

The Arc Mouse is a concept design by Seunghoon Shin and Chang Seok Kim, which also happens to be a 2012 IDEA Awards entry. And yes, I know that Microsoft already has a mouse with the same name, but that’s where the similarities end.

[via Yanko Design]

The federal government is really pushing electric vehicles of all sorts. The Obama administration has offered tax credits on the purchase of electric vehicles to help lure drivers to ditch fossil fuels and purchase more environmentally friendly electric cars and trucks. If you’re not the kind of person who wants a car, but electric motorcycle are of interest, you can now get your own tax credit.

The Senate has voted to approve tax credits for electric bicycles and motorcycles, like the cool RedShift electric bikes, of up to $2500 (USD). The tax credits are good for 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum of $2500. The goal of the tax credits is not only to help reduce some of our dependence on foreign oil, but to also spur the creation of jobs in the electric bicycle and motorcycle industry.

The tax credit is estimated to cost US taxpayers $15 million over the next two years. The Senate did vote to repeal a similar tax credit on electric golf carts. After all, why should we be paying tax credits to golfers?

[via InAutoNews]

With smartphones and tablets, mobile users always seem to be on the lookout for a spot for their next charge. I know that I’ve been in this situation: stuck in the middle of nowhere with no way of juicing up my phone. The POP aims to change this, thanks to its bucket-like format filled with buckets of power.

The POP, which stands for POrtable Power, is a high-capacity battery capable of recharging multiple mobile devices at the same time. It’s got a 26,000 mAh battery that can recharge an iPhone ten times. It can charge up to four iOS or microUSB devices simultaneously. Thanks to user feedback, they’ve just released a plug-in option called the POP Station which has no battery and is perfect for coffee shops and the kitchen.

The project was launched through the crowd-funding site Kickstarter and at the time of writing, it had already amassed $95,000 of a projected goal of $50,000 with 30 days of funding left. It will be made for sure. You’ll have to pledge $99 to get the AC-based POP Station and $129 for the POP Portable that has a battery. This is $20 off the $149 retail price.

[via TechCrunch]