Hasta La Gadget!

Laptops get thinner and lighter every year, but their power adapters are mostly still big and heavy. FINsix claims its Dart laptop charger is up to four times smaller and up to six times lighter compared to ordinary chargers.

Dart uses what FINsix calls Very High Frequency technology to provide up to 65W of power. You can read more about it on FINsix’ technical report (pdf), though the word “technical” isn’t there for nothing. Note that 65W won’t be enough for all laptops – for example, Retina MacBook Pros use an 85W power adapter – but that will do for hundreds of other models. You can check this compatibility list (pdf) to see if your laptop will work with Dart. Dart also has a 2.1A USB charging port, so it can also replace your mobile device power adapter.

Plug a tiny browser to Kickstarter to support Dart. Pledge at least $89 (USD) to get a Dart that works with hundreds of Windows laptops. The MacBook-compatible Dart is at a higher reward tier – $148. FINsix says that they have to buy Apple’s power adapters to get parts for the Macbook-compatible Dart, hence the significant added cost for that model.

[via Engadget]

Modern stealth action video games like the Metal Gear Solid series and the new Deus Ex often have a radar feature that lets you see enemies and cameras, among other things. New media artist Sander Veenhof made a similar app for Google Glass. He calls it Watch Your Privacy, and it uses open data to locate nearby surveillance cameras. That includes the mobile kind, i.e. other Glass users.

Watch Your Privacy uses a database of surveillance cameras called OSMcamera. Sander didn’t elaborate how his app spots other Glass users, just that it maps “the latitute/longitude coordinates of each Google Glass user.”

The app marks both cameras and users with a triangular warning sign along with a number, their distance from you and their coordinates. In addition, it marks the approximate coverage area of surveillance cameras. You can either have the area appear mark them as non-safe (red) or safe zones (green). If you want to stay hidden like Solid Snake, you’ll want to mark those areas red. If you feel more comfortable in a place with security cameras then you’ll mark their coverage areas green.

Glass users, crawl to your browser and head to Sander’s website to download his app.

[via Prosthetic Knowledge]

Portable printers are nothing new, but they’re usually as wide as A4 sheets. Because obviously they have to accommodate paper right? ZUta Labs looked at the problem differently. The most important part of a printer is the part that prints, i.e. the print head. So they took that part out of a traditional printer and made it fit on your paper instead of the other way around.

ZUta Labs’ PocketPrinter is a small robot that’s meant to go on top of the paper you want to print on.  It uses omnidirectional wheels to navigate on paper, a small ink cartridge and a battery that lasts up to one hour per charge. You can send a file to be printed from your desktop computer, but Zuta Labs is also working on mobile apps so that you can wirelessly queue files from your mobile devices.

There are significant tradeoffs to its size though. The PocketPrinter’s pace is a glacial 1.2 pages per minute. Also, the lone ink cartridge means you can only print in grayscale. ZUta Labs is planning to make a full color model in the future.

Command-P a browser window and pledge at least $180 (USD) on Kickstarter by May 10 to get a PocketPrinter as a reward.

The FretPen is a pen that doubles as a miniature guitar. Even if you can’t do much with one string and teensy frets, at least you can write and play a neat little tune with it.

The FretPen is also smartphone-connected. A small D-pad on the pen allows you to switch strings on the fly, which gives you the ability to play scale-like runs and rudimentary melodies.

The video below will show you some of what this pen can do.

A Kickstarter campaign will be launching on the 22nd, so if you are interested you can give them your email address to be notified when they’re ready to accept your pledges.

The pen is mightier than the sword, plus now it can play tunes.

[via Chip Chick via OhGizmo!]

Bacman member Bungle made this polished, compact and portable Nintendo 64 mod. As far as portable N64 mods go, this is one of the cleanest ones I’ve ever seen. It’s not that pretty – it reminds me of the Sega Genesis controller – but it looks comfortable to hold, which was Bungle’s goal with this mod.

The main reason why this handheld looks so clean is its case, which Bungle made through a process called vacuum forming. Bungle also made the buttons and the d-pad. The portable has a 3.5″ screen and internal batteries that provide up to 4 hours and 15 minutes of play time. You can skip to around 1:10 in Bungle’s demo video below to see him play a game on the portable.

Make a portable browser and head to Bungle’s thread on Bacman for more on the mod. You can also read his build log on Bacman. Bungle said he’s going to make more units of this mod to sell. If you’re interested, register on Bacman and send Bungle a private message.

[via Hack A Day]