A lot of things can bother you while you’re trying to work, but what about things that you only perceive as nagging? In Keyfleas, little lights follow your fingers around a keyboard like a swarm of fleas, and can create the sensation that something is nipping at your fingers.
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Back when the Nintendo Wii was the hot console to have, I stood in line for an hour to buy one. Once I got it home, the controls were cool for about two days and then I went back to playing my PS3. The only game I ever played on the Nintendo Wii with regularity was Wii Sports. Nintendo has announced that it’s bringing those five sports from the original Wii Sports title to the Nintendo Wii U.
The individual sports game will be part of Wii Sports Club for Nintendo Wii U owners. Oddly, Nintendo isn’t offering all five of the original sports (bowling, tennis, baseball, boxing, and golf) at the same time. Right now, the only two available are tennis and bowling. Those also happen to be two of my least favorite; I really liked the golf game. If you remember, Wii Sports bowling was one of the top culprits in people throwing their remotes into their TV screens – that and tennis – before Nintendo started including a wrist strap with the Wii-mote.
The games have been updated with HD graphics, enhanced controls, and multiplayer online capability. Nintendo Wii U owners can download Wii Sports Club from the eStore and get a free 24 hour pass to try tennis and bowling for themselves. If you need an extra day to decide if you want to purchase, you can spend $1.99 for another 24 hours. Once you decide you want by the games and play them all you want each one will cost $9.99.
Last month I talked about Bare Conductive’s Electric Paint Pen, which can be used to make simple or hidden circuits. Thanks to the company’s newest product, you can use the pen to make more complex and fun devices. Bare Conductive’s Touch Board turns anything conductive – including the Electric Paint and your body – into a trigger for its built-in mp3 player or MIDI device.
The simplest way to use the Touch Board is to load an MP3 file to a microSD card and load the card to the board. Then you just connect a conductive material and a Li-Po battery to the board. Now all you need to do is touch the conductive material and the Touch Board will play the MP3 file.
The Touch Board also has a distance sensor, which means you can set it so that you don’t even have to touch your sensor to trigger the Touch Board.
Combine it with the Electric Paint and some creativity and you can make neat stuff like a cardboard boombox, a talking wall, a cookie thief alarm and more. But that’s not all. The Touch Board is also compatible with Arduino Shields, so you can extend its functionality beyond just triggering sounds. Anything that an Arduino Shield can do, you can turn into a distance- or touch-activated action.
Pledge at least £45 (~$72 USD) on Kickstarter to get a Touch Board as a reward. Bare Conductive will even throw in a microSD card and an Electric Paint Pen with your Touch Board unit.
Some people spend like there’s no tomorrow, even though they might not have the means to pay for all of their purchases. It’s only when they’re neck-deep in debt that they realize the importance of saving.
A concept that aims to present saving in a unique way is the Living Wallet.
It’s a concept design where the wallet basically “lives” and implores its owner to save and only spend when the owner’s budget has a favorable balance.
It has three save modes: Evade, which has the wallet rolling away on it’s built-in wheels so that it’s owner can’t get to it; Asking for Help, where it basically “screams” for help so that other people can chastise the owner before he or she can take any money out of it; and Last Resort, where the wallet sends a text message to the owner’s parents. It also has a fourth mode called Consumption Mode, which encourages you to spend money when you’ve got the money to spare.
The Living Wallet was designed by Yasuharu Sasaki, Kentaro Sagara, Noriaki Onoe, Satoshi Kuno, Rei Kawai, Hideyuki Saito, Yui Gokita, and Daichi Sato.
[via Bit Rebels]
One of last year’s most successful Kickstarter-funded projects was the MaKey MaKey, a device that allowed you to input keyboard commands to a computer using everyday objects. A new USB device called the Verve is similar to the MaKey MaKey, but it’s more versatile. Using a variety of sensors, the Verve lets you trigger mouse and keyboard input using real-world actions or events.
The Verve consists of a central console and seven types of sensors that plug into the console. It also has a companion program that has both Windows and OS X versions. The program is used to map the input from a sensor to a mouse or keyboard key, as well as to set the threshold – i.e. the intensity of the input – to which the mapped key will be triggered. For instance, you can use attach the motion sensor to a sword and make your videogame character attack when you swing the sword. Or you can leave the motion sensor by your cubicle and make your computer show your desktop when someone passes by. Because you’re not hiding anything there.
Pledge at least $99 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Verve kit as a reward. The kit will come with one of each sensor along with all the cables you need. I’m a bit conflicted with the potential of the Verve. On one hand, the variety of sensors means it encourages a creative and diverse array of input options. On the other hand, the one-to-one correspondence of a sensor to a key makes it quite cumbersome to setup anything beyond a simple command.
The MaKey MaKey is so easy to use because it gave you several inputs just by plugging in one board. The Verve gives you seven sensors, but each sensor can only be mapped to one key. What modern software uses just one key? From what I understand it also does not support key combinations (e.g. ctrl+X). And what if you want to use more than one unit of a particular sensor? It’s amazing how cheap and user-friendly sensors have become, but I’m not sure if the Verve will be a legitimately useful product or a mere curio.
[via DVICE]
Over the last few weeks, a giant barge turned up in San Francisco Bay that was tipped to be owned by tech giant Google. Early on rumors indicated that it was a floating data center but a local San Francisco CBS affiliate KPIX 5 now claims that the giant barge isn’t a data center after all. The station reports that multiple sources have told it Google actually has luxury showrooms and a giant party deck on the barge.
The Google barge was reportedly in the planning stages for over a year. The sources also tipped that the project was personally directed by Sergey Brin and is Google’s attempt to upstage Apple and the company’s high-end retail stores around the country.
The barge is stacked with interchangeable 40-foot-long shipping containers to create a sort of modular building that can be rearranged as needed. The individual containers can also be placed on other barges, trucks, or railcars and taken wherever they’re needed. The high-end showrooms will reportedly be used to show Google gadgets such as Google Glass to invitation only customers. The party deck is said to have multiple bars and other amenities for entertaining clients.
[via CBS Local]
Shopping can turn into such a chore sometimes. It’s great and all if you have unlimited funds to spend, but shopping turns into an unending quest of deals, sales, and coupons if you’re working on a tight budget.
Augmented Pixels wanted to give shopping and bargain hunting a more enjoyable spin, though, so they came up with WarBot, which is an app that turns shopping into an action-packed first-person shooter.
What you’re supposed to do is fire up the app and point it towards an item that you’re interested in. Once the tablet recognizes the packaging, it launches an augmented reality first-person shooter game. If you win, then you get a discount on that item. If you lose, well, you’re free to try again.
Vitaliy Goncharuk, CEO of Augmented Pixels, explains: “It’s getting more and more challenging for brands to stand out from the competition to attract and keep customers’ attention and love. Augmented reality has proved to be one of the most effective ways to engage customers at the point of sale.”
It’s mighty clever of them to try to do this through a game. What do you think?
[via Dvice]
I feel immense guilt every morning when I say goodbye to Burrito, my hyper-energetic Pomeranian. There’s just something about his puppy dog eyes that make me want to stay home and play with him all day instead… which I unfortunately can’t do if I want to keep my job.
That’s where PetChatz comes in.
PetChatz is a pet communication system that lets you interact remotely with your pet. It features two-way video, so you and your pet can see each other when it’s on. The device connects to your WiFi network, which allows remote activation via the PetChatz website or through an app that is compatible on most tablets and smartphones.
PetChatz can play a tone to attract your pet’s attention. Once it’s in front of the screen, you can it dispense a treat or release a scent for your pet to sniff on. A “calming” scent is available, but you can also choose to mix up your own customized scent.
PetChatz is also equipped with sound and motion detectors, and you can program it to send you an alert whenever it detects the presence of your pet. PetChatz is available for pre-order for $349(USD) and will ship out next year.
[via C|NET]
This video game inspired resume beats any resume that you have offered to potential employers. It is the work of designer Robby Leonardi, who wanted his C.V. to stand out from the crowd. He certainly accomplished that.
Robby created an interactive resume with a Super Mario Bros. sort of theme and it is amazing. It has four levels of awesomeness. This interactive resume is basically a miniature version of Robby as a Mario-type superhero character that runs through the levels, telling employers about his employment history, work experience and portfolio. As an added bonus, it shows off his HTML, CSS, JavaScript and JQuery skills along the way.
You can see it here. Just push the down arrow or spin your scroll wheel and enjoy the ride. Then hire this guy!
Awesome resume. My Mario hat is off to you Robby. I would hire you in a heartbeat just to create cool stuff like this for my own personal amusement.
[via Mashable via Nerd Approved]
Marvel Entertainment and Disney Consumer Products have announced they have teamed up to launch a fun new device – the Marvel Creativity Studio Stylus and app. The app and stylus are exclusively for the iPad and gives people who are fans of Marvel superheroes a place to learn how to draw, color, and animate their favorite superheroes and villains.
You can draw and color superheroes and villains from Avengers Assemble, The Ultimate Spider-Man, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. Features of the app and stylus include professionally illustrated coloring pages allowing users to decorate their favorite characters with painting tools and an extensive color palette. The styles can be used to unlock the “Reveal” tool which lets you color images like the pros.
The app also features special touches so artists of all levels can successfully learn how to draw these characters including a side-by-side drawing canvas, trace lines, and a Drawing Scope feature. Users can also build and animate action scenes using character stickers, sound effects, speech bubbles, and backgrounds. Custom stickers can also be added to the animated scenes. The stylus is available with a limited-edition zippered case exclusively at Apple Stores for $34.99(USD). The app itself is free, and is available here.
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