Hasta La Gadget!

Summer is right around the corner, which means you’re going to be wanting to have a watermelon with you at nearly all times as it’s never a bad time to chow down on a slice of refreshing watermelon. But the trick to eating a watermelon is to keep it as cool as possible up until you slice that sucker open, which unfortunately for the human body, means we’ll have to lug around a cooler as well. That is – unless you have your own portable watermelon fridge.

The portable mini-refrigerator / heater is called “Tama-chan” and comes from Japanese manufacturer Joynbond. You can power Tama-chan simply by connecting it to your car’s cigarette lighter socket, although it’s unknown just how long the cooler will keep your watermelon nice and chilled for without needing to be recharged. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Bandai Unveils Vending Machine That Targets Elderly Women, Dispenses Handkerchiefs, Asus Cube With Google TV Launched,

Perhaps not wanting to leave a bad impression on the 2013 SXSW attendees, Google also previewed the much hyped Glass wearable computer at the festival. Videos of the talk given by Google Senior Developer Advocate Timothy Jordan about their wonder device have now made their way online.

Below is an excerpt from Jordan’s presentation, as edited by YouTuber lifechannelable. In it Jordan demonstrates the ways you can interact with Glass. Most of them are swipes made on the plastic surface of the computer as well as voice commands. Jordan also shows the appropriately minimal user interface as well as sample programs written for Glass.

Here’s the full 50-minute presentation:

I’m still not sold on the value of Glass, but if there’s anything to take away from the demo, it’s how impressive Google’s voice recognition technology has become. Seriously. That’s all I could think of while watching the videos.

[via Daily Mail]

While most portable battery packs on the market are locked in a race for more and more capacity, Devotec Industries chose to design one that’s more portable than others. The company claims that its Fuel is the world’s smallest cellphone charger. I don’t know about that, but I’m sure it’s the handsomest cellphone charger I’ve ever seen.

As you can see, the Jerry can-shaped charger is very small indeed. It measures a mere 1.3″ x 0.9″ x 0.5″, small enough to fit on your keyring or the coin pocket on your jeans. The beautiful case is made of die-cast aluminum, making it durable yet still lightweight.

Of course, its small size comes with a significant trade off. The Li-ion battery inside Fuel is only rated at 220mAh, which Devotec Industries claims is good enough to power your cellphone for an extra 20 to 30 minutes of talk time or a few hours on standby.

The Fuel has a power switch and a micro-USB plug hidden beneath its cap. You can recharge it via a female micro-USB port at the bottom of its case. It also has three LEDs that indicate if it’s charging, fully charged or switched on. Devotec Industry also claims that Fuel can hold its charge for up to a month.

There are other small portable battery packs that offer higher capacities like Mophie’s Juice Pack Reserve. But if you’re really looking for something you can stick practically anywhere, the Fuel seems like a great solution. Pledge at least $15 (USD) on Kickstarter to reserve your own unit.

[via MOCO LOCO]

We’ve featured our fair share of portable Atari 2600 mods, but I don’t think any of those can hold a candle to this one. Speaking of candles, the future owner of this one of a kind handheld should keep it away from even the tiniest of flames, because its case is made entirely out of wood.

The mod was made by eBay seller retro_mood. Inside the varnished wooden case is a 3.5″ TFT screen, a 700mAh battery that should last up to 3 hours per charge, two player controls – one of which was made out of a PlayStation analog stick – and the guts of an NTSC Atari 2600 console. Retro_mood also added digital volume and brightness controls as well as composite video and mono audio outputs. Perhaps most importantly for a handheld, this Atari 2600 has a pause button! Its weight – 600g (approx. 1.3lbs) – borders on iPad territory though, so minus points for portability there.

Ultimately though, retro_mood intends this handheld to reside not in the deep pockets of a collector. He’s selling it for a cool $1,240 (USD) on eBay. Money doesn’t grow on trees, but neither do wooden cases.

[via GameSniped]

Parking a car can be a real hassle in big cities, and there are plenty of reasons why I drive a scooter: parking is free and it’s no problem. That being said, I can already imaging people toting around this foldable, electric scooter to go where they need to, completely eliminating the need for parking.

The Antro MOVEO can be folded up and wheeled about like a suitcase. When unpacked, it can weave its way through traffic, and get you wherever you need to go on short urban hauls. It weighs only 55 pounds, and has a seat mounted on the chassis. The scooter has an enclosed body and can go up to 28mph. It’s powered by in-wheel electric motors that have a range of 22 miles, while taking only an hour to charge.

Antro anticipates a production run of about 4,000 scooters per year, and the MOVEO is expected to sell between $3,100 to $4,600(USD). I can already see people packing these in the trunks of their cars so they can make short runs around town without losing their parking spaces.

[Antro via Gizmag]