Hasta La Gadget!

Were you feeling the need for new tech to replace the switches that control direction and speed on your cordless screwdriver? Us neither, but we’re not the braintrust at Black & Decker, which just launched the Gyro 4V Max, the “world’s first motion-activated screwdriver.” The company put an InvenSense MEMS gyroscope in the new model, so all you have to do to change the direction or speed is rotate your drilling hand one way or the other in varying amounts. After you’ve polished off that Ikea shelf, it should be ready the next time you haul it out of the toolbox, with a Lithium-ion battery that stays juiced for as long as 18 months. Judging by the video below the break, it actually looks pretty clever, and at $40, why not start dragging your tools out of the stone age?

Continue reading Black and Decker screwdriver senses your hand movement to adjust speed, direction (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Household

Black and Decker screwdriver senses your hand movement to adjust speed, direction (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some might say the only useful tools on a Swiss Army Knife are the bottle opener and corkscrew. And for those people there’s now a multitool designed specifically for alcoholics that incorporates ten useful bartending tools into a single pocket-friendly enabler assistant. More »

The perfect compliment to a massive hackerspace like Massachusetts’s Artisan’s Asylum? An industrial vending machine stocked with all the necessities for your average modder. Fastenal specializes in business industrial vending machines, stocking up units with things like office and first aid supplies. The company also provides cutting tools and materials for welders and metal fabricators, making it a bit of a godsend for hackerspace communities, where venturing out to a hardware store often means an annoying interruption of a project’s workflow — or, as a woman at the space told us: a lot of people order takeout because they don’t want leave when they’re working, so it sort of makes sense that the space would offer up such a solution. Members swipe their cards, applying the charges to their membership accounts. The thing stocks welding gloves, dust masks, screw drivers, tape measures, various adhesives and multi-tools, so modders never have to leave to safety of their hackerspace again.

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Visualized: industrial vending machines are a modder’s best friend originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two things you always seem to need but that always seem to grow legs and scuttle away: can openers and bottle openers. This handy well-made tool from Kuhn Rikon combines both of those into one. Problem solved! More »

In the event everyone starts turning into zombies and eating each other’s faces off (looking at you, Florida), this Tactical Tomahawk axe is the kinda tool you’d want to have. More »