Hasta La Gadget!

Do you find it hard to stay warm during winter even with the heater on? Well then I envy you, because it’s always hot and humid where I am. But Mark Aramli knows that feel bro, which is why he and his colleagues Scott Milligan and Shaun K. designed the Bedjet, a localized heater and fan for beds.

The Bedjet has a nozzle that’s meant to stick under your blanket or comforter. The rest of its body stays on your floor, so you don’t have to worry about getting electrocuted or having your toes sucked in its blades. Unlike conventional heaters or electric blankets, the Bedjet can supposedly raise the temperature under your bedding by 30ºF in as little as 3 minutes. If you need it to keep cool, the Bedjet can also feed air in at room temperature.

Another neat thing about the Bedjet is that it comes with a remote control, which lets you toggle the main power as well as control the timer and blower speed of the device. The Bedjet will also get a mobile app version of the remote if they hit at least $175,000 on Kickstarter.

Pledge at least $249 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Bedjet as a reward.

[via Bedjet]

There are programs and services that can store your passwords for various websites and type them in for you. But if you set a login password for your computer, you better remember that or you’re screwed. Or you can fund Jonty Lovell’s invention. Lovell came up with a small USB device that can reset the login password of Windows computers.

Lovell simply calls it the Password Reset Key. It works with computers running Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 8.1. To use the key, set your computer to boot from USB, plug the device in and restart your computer. You’ll then see a fairly understandable interface, which you can check out at 0:27 in the video below.

Lovell is well aware that his device can be used in unethical ways. Speaking with CNET, Lovell said that his invention is a testament to the “inherent insecurity of the Windows password system.” He even revealed how you can protect yourself from his invention: use disk encryption.

Lovell is currently raising funds for the Password Reset Key on Kickstarter. A pledge of £8 (~$13 USD) gets you a copy of the software, which you can install on any USB drive. Pledge at least £10 (~$16 USD) and you get a key-shaped 1GB drive with the password reset software pre-installed on it.

[via CNET]

Now I know what you’re thinking. Most personal computers available today are already modular. That’s true, but what Razer wants to do is to make swapping computer components as easy as replacing the batteries on your remote control.

Project Christine has a base station with a number of slots with proprietary connectors. To build your PC, you just plug in the components to the base. But instead of dealing with fragile chips and odd-looking doodads, Project Christine’s CPU, RAM, GPU, storage drives and other parts will each have its own container.

Each container will be labeled and it will be able to connect to any slot or slots on the base station. No cables, no fragile connectors and no need to figure out which part goes where. In other words, the modules work like USB devices. Project Christine will also have an LED touchscreen that shows the status of its modules.

This means even non-techies can assemble, maintain and customize their own rigs. If you want more storage, then fill the slots with storage drives. Project Christine can have up to five storage drives, one SSD and four HDDs, with the latter configurable to a RAID 5 setup. If you want multiple GPUs, by all means slot them in. The computer can have up to a quad-SLI setup for its graphics cards. Same goes for repairs. Busted power supply? Swap it out. No need to open a dusty case.

The tradeoff here is probably going to be the price of the components, especially if Razer monopolizes the distribution of the modules. But even though it has not released any estimates, the company has a proposal to make upgrading Project Christine easy on the wallet: a subscription service. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan mentioned this idea in his interview with Gamespot. Skip to 4:00 in the video below to him talk about it.

Subscription-based hardware? I can’t decide if that’s brilliant or stupid. Will it also cover repairs? How fast will Razer release module versions of computer parts? Do upgrades to computer parts even come at a steady pace? What if you subscribe and nothing awesome comes out in a year?

I do however love the idea of a foolproof yet infinitely upgradeable computer, and I get what Razer is doing here. It’s taking a page from Apple’s books: make beautiful and easy to use hardware, then charge a premium for it and control the upgrade path.

Upgrade your browser and head to Razer for more on Project Christine.

[via Gamespot]

Lucid dream masks work by flashing a series of light patterns when you are in REM sleep. The Remee Mask, the Aurora Mask, the REM Dreamer as well as apps like DreamZ, or Lucid Dreaming, claim they can make you aware you are dreaming, and have some control over the events that occur. Can we regain hours of our lives, in our imaginative worlds where anything is possible? Can we fight dragons in our dreams?

If “wearable” is the big buzzword of CES this year then “flexible” can’t be far behind. Cambrios Technologies isn’t a company you might associate with it – LG’s G Flex … Continue reading