Hasta La Gadget!

The PowerPot and the BioLite stove seem like great ways to harness the heat from fire and turn it into electricity. But what if you already have a pot and a stove? A company called Point Source Power might have a solution for you. The only thing that the company’s VOTO chargers need is a fire.

VOTO chargers look like one of those portable water heaters. But instead of a metal coil at the end, the chargers have a stack of replaceable fuel cells made from biomass. You stick this end into the bottom of your stove or bonfire and it will generate electricity over time. The electricity will be sent to its handle. There are a variety of handles, but the most useful one is shown in the video below. It’s a battery that can be used to charge devices via USB but it can also use its stored energy to power its built-in LEDs.

These chargers will be useful not only for campers and field workers but also for people who live in places that don’t have access to electricity. You can check out Point Source Power’s website for more info on their products, although the site seems to be down as of this writing.

[via Inhabitat]

So you need to transfer files from your portable hard drive to a USB drive, but you don’t have access to a PC or laptop. It’s a huge emergency and you need to get it done, pronto. Unfortunately, there’s not an easy way to do it but with a computer – or is there?

Designer Dongwook Kim is aware of the inconvenience of needing a computer to access and transfer files between drives, which is why he came up with Without PC. It’s a neat little gadget that lets you access and transfer files between the two drives without, as the name indicates, needing a PC to do so. It’s compact and features a cool, curved touchscreen interface so you can get the job done, pronto.

Without PC is a concept design entry to the 2013 iF design award, but there is no word on a production version at this point. With that custom curved touchscreen we might be waiting a while.

[via Yanko Design]

Bicycle-mounted generators are nothing new – many of them are used to power bicycle lights, for instance. But what makes the Siva Cycle’s Atom generator unique is its removable battery, which means you can preserve the electricity you worked for and use it at your convenience.

The Atom generator is meant to be attached to the rear axle of your bicycle. Once it’s installed, you can use it to charge pretty much any mobile device while you’re riding, as long as you have a USB cable for your device. But as I said, the Atom also has a 1300mAh removable battery pack, so you don’t have to bring your device with you for the Atom to be useful.

Pledge at least $95 (USD) on Kickstarter to get an Atom generator as a reward. I wonder if you could hook it up to a small motor to make a hybrid bike that you could recharge on the go.

[via OhGizmo!]

Pioneer is releasing 2 audio amplifier models: VSA-1123 and VSA-823. Responding to the increased demand for 4K compliant products, these new audio amplifiers are compatible with 4K.

Regarding maximum output power, VSA-1123 is 180W/ch and VSA-823 is 160W/ch. VSA-1123 has 8 input/2 output HDMI terminals and VSA-823 has 6 input/1 output.

They are compatible with high-resolution audio types such as WAV, FLAC, AIDD and Apple Lossless, and feature Airplay, MHL and USB connections.

Through a dedicated application, the amplifiers can be controlled through iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

VSA-1123
Price: 88,000 yen
Size: 435 × 168 × 362.5mm
Weight: 9.8kg

VSA-823
Price: 56,000 yen
Size: 435 × 168 × 331.5mm
Weight: 8.6kg

From Sharp comes the latest from its AQUOS line with an emphasis on compatibility and coordination with smartphones – the MX Series LC-24MX1, due to be released on May 30. It comes in 3 colors: green, orange and silver.

Sharp announced the release yesterday and the LC-24MX1 was reviewed by ASCII.jp which I would like to share with you.

Strictly in terms of viewing specs, there is nothing special here. It’s a relatively small size 23.6 inch with standard 1366×758 dot resolution. There is 1 built-in tuner and is compatible with USB HDD and can record for a long period of time.

The best characteristic of the TV seems to be the built-in 2.1ch speaker. When the TV is in standby mode, they speakers can be accessed through the user’s smartphone and automatically come alive to play music from the smartphone.

The speaker unit is 5W+5W output, with a 10W subwoofer, built by Pioneer. When connected to a smartphone, it turns to “music mode” which will make better high pitch and low pitch sound than regular TV audio play mode, which helps make the TV audio better to listen to.

Also when playing Blu-ray, surround-sound mode can be employed.

So, despite its small size and and basic resolution, the viewing experience is fairly enjoyable.

Through its Miracast functionality, images from your smartphone can be wirelessy broadcast to the TV screen, and it can be used as a custom remote control device.

Another big feature of this TV is introduction of the specialized “AQUOS Connect” application. The TV screen and your smartphone screen can simultaneously show the same content.

It will automatically compensate for the horizontal TV screen interacting with the vertical smartphone screen to properly show content on both. And interaction of sound between TV and smartphone can be adjusted by waving the smartphone.

AQUOS Connect also gives “Keyword Search” functionality. Keywords related to a TV program currently on air are automatically extracted, and you can search further information by selecting a keyword you want to know about.

AQUOS Connect can be used through both wireless Miracast and wired MHL, but when you use wired MHL you need to have a wired internet environment.

AQUOS Connect provides an Android version and iOS version, however iOS devices are not compatible with Miracast or MHL. So in that case, a wired internet connection is needed for Miracast and HDMI output adapter is needed for MHL.

The bottom line assessment by Ascii is that it is useful for (mainly younger) people who are used to accessing and viewing content through their smart device and wanting to use the TV as a larger, viewing aid, with better audio, for their content.

Estimated price: 69,800 yen
Display: 24 inch (1,366 x 768)
Size: 56.5 × 17.5 × 41.8cm
Weight: 7kg
Tuner: Digital terrestrial broadcasting, BS/CS, analog broadcasting
Audio output: Max 20W (5W＋5W＋10W)