Hasta La Gadget!

Minddrive is a non-profit program in Kansas City, in which students have designed an interactive car-powered by social media. This car is powered through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

The students converted a vintage Volkswagen Karmann Ghia into an electric car operated via tweets, shares, and likes. They have a tablet linked to the engine’s circuitry that controls the power flow, converting each mention of Minddrive project on the three social networks into energy or “Social Watts.” A new like on an Instagram photo adds one watt, and a comment or share on Facebook gives three watts and a new follower on Twitter translates as five watts.

They are trying to raise awareness about the non-profit so the team will use this social fuel to drive the car from Kansas City to Washington, DC. They will need 71,040 social watts to get there. Hit their website to help them out.

[via Damn Geeky]

While the Xbox One is still a number of months from being released, you can now get up close and personal with the console, viewing it from every possible angle. An interactive 3D model of the console has surfaced for you to play with.

The 3D model was built in Sketchfab and lets you move around the Xbox One, its controller and Kinect on all three axes as well as zoom in and out. For the first time, you can really see the proportions between the console and Kinect (which seems downright huge here) and check out all of the connectors on back too. There’s also a mysterious connector on the left side of the console as well. At the end of the day, it’s still just a black box, but you can now get a sense of all of the depth and texture the diagonal ridges add to the console.

You can check out the Xbox One 3D model in the embedded player below, or if you want to see it full-screen, head on over to Sketchfab.

[via Trey Sharp via Kotaku]

Back in the 1980s, I always wanted a set of those Simmons electronic drums – not because I had any idea how to play percussion, but because they just looked cool and geeky. Of course, now I look back and think they were pretty silly looking. Still, I always enjoyed the sound of electronic drums. While I suppose I could go buy a fancy drum machine, but I rather like the way this kit looks instead.

Designed by Dr. Bleep, the Bleep Drum Kit is an Arduino-based electronic circuit that generates percussive sounds. It offers four different sounds, along with pitch control for two of them. You can also record and play back sequences with the Bleep, by simply tapping them out. Its sampled sounds are decidedly lo-fi, but that’s what I love about it. Here, check it out in action:

Since the code for the Bleep Drum is provided, you can hack in your own .WAV samples, or with a little bit of work, you could probably control it via MIDI too.

You can order the Bleep either in Kit form for $60(USD), or if soldering is above your pay grade, you can go for the pre-assembled version for $85. Both are available over on Bleep Labs website.

Google Glass made the world at large aware of the existence and potential of augmented reality headsets and heads-up displays. Surely we’ll see more and more similar devices appear. In fact, one such device could launch before Glass. It’s called the Recon Jet, a nerdy accessory for jocks.

Recon Instruments, the company behind the Recon Jet, clearly designed the headset to augment sports and other outdoor-related activities. It has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and all the other sensors and connectivity technology that Glass has. But instead of projecting its monitor through a prism, the Recon Jet’s display is directly situated at the front of the device. This makes it more visible than the resulting transparent display on the Glass. Recon Instruments placed the Recon Jet’s display below the user’s right eye because according to the company’s research it was the least obtrusive location.

Here’s Mashable’s interview with a spokesman from Recon Instruments:

Without knowing the final specs of both devices, it’s hard to say if the Glass can also do everything that the Recon Jet can. It’s also equally important that Recon Instruments get the support of app developers. One thing’s clear: there’s never been a better time to make prescription contact lenses. Except for the time when there weren’t any prescription contacts.

[Recon Instruments via Mashable via Reddit]

Waking up to go to work or school sucks. We all know it, and no one likes it. Except for your mean boss, he likes getting up and going to work because he’s mean. For the rest of us normal folk, getting out of bed is a chore – and if you have kids, you know firsthand that getting your kids up is an even bigger chore. This is where a cool alarm clock that’s on Kickstarter called tim-E comes in.

tim-E is an alarm clock that’s designed to dock your iPhone or iPod Touch into a robotic body. The screen of your iPhone or iPod becomes the face of the robot and it gives you several ways that you can be woken up. The device can wake you to a normal alarm in the form of buzz or using a song from your device, all the time dancing around and bobbing its head.

You can also be awakened to the weather report or the day’s traffic report. tim-E will also give you voice reminders to do things the next day before you go to sleep and can even wake you with a brainteaser to ensure you don’t fall back asleep. Of course, this is all done with a certain amount of attitude  waking you with phrases like “Hello, lazybones! Time to get up!”

If you want your own robot alarm clock you’ll need to pledge $60(USD) or more. It’s definitely kind of annoying, which is exactly what you need from an alarm clock.