Hasta La Gadget!

External batteries are great to keep our mobile devices juiced up, but I’ve never seen one in a car form factor before. Now we have one. Japan Trust Technology (JTT) has introduced the GT5200 Coupe with a built-in lithium-ion battery that will charge your tablets and phones that are equipped with a microUSB port.

The Minicar GT5200 Coupe looks sort of like a BMW from the front, though it’s not any specific model that I can tell. It has a 5200mAh battery inside and is available in 4 colors: white, black, crimson red and deep blue. There is a display mounted on the sunroof, which shows the battery usage and of course, built-in LEDs in the headlights and tail lights that flash during charging. It will charge your device about 300-500 times.

The GT5200 Coupe charger is only 3980 yen (~$40 USD), though there’s no word on availability outside of Japan yet.

[via Damn Geeky]

Bluetooth low energy (BLE) technology may lead to better mobile gadgets and perhaps even the rise of new kinds of devices, thanks to its low power consumption and cost. But like NFC – another technology with huge potential – as of now only a handful of consumer devices support this technology. But thanks to a small company, tinkerers can incorporate BLE to their projects. All they need is the BLEduino.

Made by Kytelabs, the tiny BLEduino board is based on the Arduino Leonardo. That means it will work with Arduino shields and code. Watch the video below to see examples of devices that can be made using BLEduino.

Imagine that. You can make your own Bluetooth controller! Pledge at least $34 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a BLEduino as a reward. In case you want to make sure that your BLEduino will work with all of your shields, the higher reward tiers also come with Shield-Shield, an attachment that was also invented by Kytelabs. Shield-Shield makes the BLEduino compatible with both the old and new pin layout of Arduino shields.

Most modern smartphones have a built-in LED camera flash. But if you think that your phone’s flash isn’t bright enough to properly document your party nights, dramatic Instagram pics or Bigfoot sightings, keep an eye out for the iblazr. It’s an external flash for mobile devices that plugs in via the 3.5mm headphone jack.

The folks behind the iblazr claim that its four LEDs provide four times more brightness than the iPhone 5′s built-in flash when taking pictures, and up to eight times brighter when shooting videos. The image below supposedly shows the difference between the iPhone 5′s flash (on the left) and the iblazr (on the right).

The iblazr will also have its own power supply so you won’t worry about it draining your mobile device’s already limited battery life. It will also come with a free camera app that will let users toggle the iblazr’s brightness and other options.

But of course the iblazr’s best feature is the fact that it plugs in via the 3.5mm headphone jack. This makes it compatible with virtually all mobile devices. Apparently you can also control multiple iblazr units at once using a headphone splitter, as shown in one of the images in the gallery. Their website is hinting at a fundraising campaign soon; keep an eye on it or on their Facebook page if you want to. I hope it comes with sensor that will prevent it from flashing when it senses that the user is shooting a video vertically.

[via DamnGeeky]

So far 3D video hasn’t taken off like high definition did, but that hasn’t stopped entrepreneurs from exploring its potential. But while most 3D-capable gadgets tout their cutting edginess, the inventors of Poppy did the opposite. The gadget, which allows you to shoot and view 3D videos and images using an iPhone or iPod Touch, is a throwback through and through.

If nothing else, I love how it looks. It’s not shiny, streamlined or made of machined aluminum – it’s a freaking plastic box. Even the way it works is low-tech. The Poppy has no moving or electronic parts. It just uses lenses and mirrors to achieve the 3D effect. The only high tech component of course is your iOS device. The Poppy only works with the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 and the 5th generation iPod Touch.

In the end though, the Poppy is up against the same problem that other 3D gadgets have. It promises a see-it-to-believe-it experience that just can’t be demonstrated or previewed. Still, that hasn’t stopped it from blowing through its Kickstarter goal with almost a month left on its fundraiser. Pledge at least $49 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Poppy as a reward.

Dolls can be creepy. Everyone knows that. But they have just upped the creep factor with this interactive smartphone controlled doll (some images at link NSFW) based on mascot character Mirai Suenaga. Just look at those eyes.

I guess Anime fans will love it, but to me it’s pretty freaky. The doll is going to be 60 cm tall and has been named simply the Smart Doll. Right now it is in the prototype phase. It has soft vinyl skin and 3D printed parts which were duplicated to generate wax clones and copper plated using electroforming. The robotics are all inside.

For movement of the hands, limbs and arms it has 24 small servo motors and hybrid servo motors. The CPU board sits in the doll’s head. It sports Bluetooth, an ultrasound sensor, a visual sensor, acoustic sensor, location sensor and a touch sensor. Somebody out there will no doubt love this doll. Me, I just want to run.

[via Damn Geeky]