Hasta La Gadget!

A few days ago we saw an iPhone case with a built-in pepper spray. The Coyote Case isn’t as aggressive, but it was invented with the same idea in mind: to protect the owner of the phone as well as it protects the phone itself. The case tries to accomplish this by freaking out.

By pressing a button, you can activate the 100dB siren built into the case. But aside from the tried and tested scream for help trick, the Coyote Case has a more advanced and more practical feature. You can also set it to send an emergency text that contains a map of your location when you press its button. The case is also fairly customizable. You can set it to activate by just pressing one of its buttons or require both buttons to be pressed. You can also choose whether activating the case will make it emit the siren and send a text or just one of the two.

A pledge of at least $60 (USD) on Indiegogo gets you a Coyote Case for your iPhone 4, 4S or 5 if it gets funded. I think it’s easy to see that the Spraytect and this case have their pros and cons. The Spraytect is far more useful if you don’t have the time to call for help or if you have nowhere to run from the bad guys. On the other hand, I think the Coyote Case is more versatile. For example, you can use it to help people find you if you’re lost, whether or not someone’s after you.

[via PC Germs via Reddit]

Livescribe is a been around for a while and can take your handwritten notes and allow you to transfer them to computer as digital files. One limitation up until now is that you had to connect the pen to your computer using a cable to upload stored notes. Livescribe has a new product called the Sky that has integrated Wi-Fi.

The new device said to be the first digital pen to integrate Wi-Fi technology and cloud services. Using the Sky and, users can take handwritten notes and then have those notes automatically uploaded to a Evernote account. The notes can be searched based on keywords and other parameters and can be shared with others.

The Sky pen is available to purchase online and in stores right now. The 2 GB version supporting about 200 hours of audio sells for $169.95. A 4 GB version is available for $199.95 and an 8 GB version sells for $249.95.

We can always count on the geeks over at iFixit to buy the latest and greatest gadgets and then tear them up so we can see what they look like on the inside. It’s nice to see someone else open up their gadgets giving us a glimpse at how things are packaged and how repairable the device might be should we ever need to get into it on our own

iFixit used a heat gun, plastic opening tools, a spudger, and a T4 torx screwdriver, a T5 torx, and a set of iFixit Guitar Picks to open the tablet up.

Under its hood, iFixit found the following chips:

• NVIDIA 1.4 GHz Tegra 3 Processor
• Samsung KLMBG4GE4A 32 GB NAND Flash
• Micron 2RE22 D9QBJ 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM
• Texas Instruments TPS659110 power management IC
• Marvell 88W8797-BMP2 wireless MIMO SoC
• Wolfson 8962E low power audio codec
• Cypress Semiconductor CY8C20466A capacitive touchscreen controller

In fact, they found multiple touchscreen controllers – presumably to help detect inputs from the touch cover keyboard as well as the screen. One of the components that’s most likely to fail over time in any gadget is the battery. It appears that while the battery is glued in, it is removable and said to be easier to remove than the battery of the iPad. Though that certainly doesn’t mean that the Surface tablet is easy to repair. iFixit rates the Surface tablet on repairability scale as 4/10 with 10 being the easiest to repair and 1 being the hardest. This is only slightly better than the nearly impossible-to-service iPad series.

I can’t help but wonder each time I see one of these tear downs of a new gadget if they’re able to put it back together so it works again.

[via iFixit]

A couple of years back, a cool device came out called the Holocube. This unique display creates the illusion of a 3-dimensional moving image with a tremendous sense of depth. Now, an updated version of the Holocube has been released with improves brightness and a new trick up its sleeve.

The 2012 Holocube is illuminated by a bright 1600 cd/m² LED backlight, which allows the display to be used in just about any lighting conditions. It’s also been redesigned in a way that renders the bottom projection source invisible when you walk by the display, improving the holographic illusion greatly when compared to the original.

Photos and video don’t really do the illusion justice though, and you need to see the display in person to really appreciate it. Expect to see these turn up in retail and trade show exhibits in the near future. You can find more information on the 2012 Holocube over on their website.

I have a love-hate relationship with vending machines. They’re often loaded with tasty, junk food treats, but the type with those stupid turning wire racks often get stuck and you end up losing your money, or with a vending machine on top of you if you shake it too vigorously. Now, you can have a constant reminder of these machines with you, wherever you take your iPhone.

The iPhone Vending Machine case from Luckybrew Designs features a photorealistic image of a snack machine, loaded with all sorts of goodies, including potato chips, Doritos, M&Ms and Ho-Hos and even pink Sno-Balls. Why couldn’t I have ever worked in a place with a vending machine selection like this? Every office I ever worked in had a crappy selection of wintergreen Certs, Necco wafers and 5-year-old egg salad sandwiches in its machines. But I digress…

The vending machine case is available over on Etsy for $15.88(USD), and comes in black or white plastic or rubber, as well as a clear plastic, and is currently only available for the iPhone 4 and 4S. That said, I’m sure they’ll get around to an iPhone 5 version at some point. So the next time you’re tempted to shake a vending machine when it eats your quarters, just whip out your iPhone instead and jostle it around a bit.