Hasta La Gadget!

The Pentagon has plans to breath new life into old drones, and they will do so by transforming these once loyal servants into Wi-Fi hotspots. Of course, using drones as a Wi-Fi hotspot is not exactly the newest idea on the block, and neither does it elicit an “Eureka!” moment, but it is interesting to see how this might change the face of battle in a war. Normally, the equipment that is required for long-range high-bandwidth Wi-Fi is more often than not unavailable to troops in the field. With some modifications made, engineers do hope that this will change, offering airborne Wi-Fi hotspots which allows isolated troops to have a decent data connection.

This does seem to be pretty much in vein with that of Facebook’s initiative to deliver their Connectivity Lab idea to the world, blanketing even remote areas with Wi-Fi connectivity, although critics of this program have (justifiable) fears that such drones could be the weak point when it comes to security.

On the flipside, if this program takes off successfully (pun not intended), then troops on the battlefield will be able to gain access to a secure, stable and fast internet connection. Dick Ridgway, Darpa programme manager shared, “We’re pleased with the technical achievements we’ve seen so far in steerable millimetre-wave antennas and millimetre-wave amplifier technology. These successes – and the novel networking approaches needed to maintain these high-capacity links – are key to providing forward deployed units with the same high-capacity connectivity we all enjoy over our 4G cell-phone networks.”

The initial phases of this particular drone transformation program would include smaller, steerable antennas; signal boosters; increased power efficiency and a light pod that will allow the device to be carried without burdening the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) itself. It is said that this network could very well hit the 1 gigabit per-second (Gb/s) capacity, making it as fast as Google Fiber’s. Tweets and Facebook updates directly from the battlefield, yo!

Source
[ Pentagon To Recycle Old Drones As Wi-Fi Hotspots copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Wow, I can’t say I’m sure about global warming, in fact, I’m fairly certain the buzzword has now become “climate change”. There’s something I can get behind. The weather has been unyielding lately, storms of epic proportions, the coldest cold, and hottest temps ever recorded. Natural disasters abound. Tsunamis and earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes. It really does feel like something is going on… we all have our opinions about what it might be.. but I’m gonna be ready!

Check out The Wolfram Locker, a fully stocked, double steel-walled, dual lock, personal-safety locker that’s made right here in the USA. Each of these emergency  cabinets contain over 70 items, that are carefully chosen to help you survive a weather emergency, unforeseen catastrophic event, or zombie apocalypse. These items include food, and water rations that have a 5 year shelf life, as well as, water equipment, power, light and rescue equipment, first aid and shelter apparatus, and the ever- important, hygiene and sanitation essentials.

If you ever felt like you should set yourself up to protect yourself and your family if the unexpected were to happen, then Wolfram Locker may be your quickest, easiest, (albeit not least expensive) solution. Wolfram really has thought of it all, everything you may need to make it through some of your worst nightmares will be yours. Available for 55 hundred bucks, at wolframgear.com. Zombie repellant not included.
[ The Wolfram Locker – In Case the End is Near copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

If you’ve ever been to the doctor and had your blood drawn you know that every now and then it’s a hit or miss proposition. Sure, most of the time it’s no big deal, but you’ll remember for weeks to come when they couldn’t find a vein and you left the office bruised and sore. Aging, and certain illnesses or accidents can cause a blood draw, or IV placement to become very difficult… and sometimes, seconds count.

Check out Evena’s Eyes On Glasses, this new, patented, wearable technology, provides the medical community with high definition, anatomically accurate real-time viewing of a patients veins using multi-spectral imaging and an easy-to-use ultrasound for identifying deeper veins. Imagine that the next time you have bloodwork done or need an IV placed, your medical team could actually be looking at a map of your veins. What a relief!

The same technology is being utilized in rugged service equipment specially designed for use by military field medics and physicians, as you can imagine these men and women are often in challenging and inhospitable environments with serious injuries that require immediate attention in the field, including proper IV access in order to be able to quickly and accurately provide life-saving therapy for injured soldiers.

This new technology not only saves lives, but improves patient comfort, and allows doctors to have full awareness of their patient, as the glasses are battery powered with a belt mounted computer, allowing complete maneuverability,  eye contact with both the patient, and the doctors areas of concern.

Eyes On Glasses can send information to other locations via WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G connectivity, have an internal memory that can store medical photos and videos for later use, and the glasses have 2 way speakers for audio conferencing and consultations. Evena’s Eyes On Glasses are available to medical professionals right now, and may be coming to an office near you. Check out evenamed.com for videos and more information.
[ Evena Medical – New “Eyes On” Glasses get Under your Skin 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 ]

When do we see lasers in action? Well, most of the time, lasers are depicted in science fiction movies sometime in the far off future, where mankind has explored the galaxies far and wide, bringing along with them their sense of adventure and warfare (it is inevitable, as the entire universe is atrophying, so resisting conflict would be futile), and in a case of self-defense (or offense for some), a quick laser shot would do the trick nicely. Star Trek has their phasers, while the X-Wings in the Star Wars universe will see lasers shot from the tips of the S-Foils. The thing is, when will such high tech warfare and weaponry arrive on planet earth? It seems that the answer is “in the right here and now”, where the US Navy has already received its very own kind of laser cannon that has made short work of drones bobbing away in a distance, and said laser cannons can be fitted to active warships.

The US Navy will obviously start to fit their own ships that sail the seven seas with lasers, touting that this represents the future of warfare. Also known as the Laser Weapon System or Laws for short, it has seen action in testing areas, shooting down drones, and considering how it relies on electricity to fire, it costs under $1 per shot – which should be as efficient in disabling a small vessel on the sea, and when you compare it to a $475,000 Sidewinder missile, it makes a whole lot more economical sense to implement Laws throughout their fleet, no?

Interestingly enough, the prototype is not expensive either, where it costs less than $40 million to make, which is a drop in the ocean that the US call their defense budget. It will be installed aboard the USS Ponce, where said vessel has been assigned to the status of a floating base in the Middle East, although this is set to happen sometime after October this year. The Navy has hope that incoming missiles will be unable to outmanoeuvre a highly accurate laser beam that is fired at the speed of light, and for the controller, this could very well be a video game of sorts, although real lives are at stake.

Source
[ US Navy gets laser cannon of their own copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]