Hasta La Gadget!

This Keypad watch represents the lopped-off numpad your laptop still feels every time it rains

It’s fairly clear these days that watches are meant for decoration, and not for traditional horological purposes. The biggest piece of evidence in favor of my hastily-invented theory is the watches themselves: They make it almost impossible to tell the time.

The Keypad watch amply demonstrates the other side of this trend: awesome-looking novelty wrist-jewelry. The Keypad watch looks like the number pad on any computer keyboard, and you press (almost) any one of those keys to ask the time. The watch then blinks lights embedded in the keys, one by one, to tell you the hour. Thus a zero, then a nine, a one and a five means 09:15. Easy enough, if a little time consuming.

The hash key has a different function: to display the date. And while you can pick between 12 and 24-hour time, it appears that you cannot set the date to display the date day-first (13/12 for December 13th) as God intended when he invented the Gregorian calendar 1776 years before the U.S became independent.

The Keypad watch comes in a variety of computer-drab colors, from cheap PC beige thru gamer black to a horrible 1980s gray (my favorite). Better still, they come at a price you could reasonably badger your spouse into paying to buy you the perfect Christmas gift: $90. Available now.

Keypad Watch product page [Watchismo. Thanks, Mitch!]

The Sportiiiis puts a HUD onto the specs of any athlete

Sportiiiis from 4iiiis (geddit?) is a small HUD (heads-up display) which can be used with almost any pair of specs. The clip-on unit fits to the arm of your glasses and seven colored LEDs sit in your peripheral vision, just below your right eye.

These LEDs can be programmed by computer or smartphone app to readout data from ANT+ devices. ANT+ is kind of the Bluetooth of fitness devices, and anything thus labelled is interoperable. Bike computers, heart-rate monitors and blood-pressure monitors can all be ANT+ devices.

The Sportiiiis readout is simple, with different LEDs blinking on to communicate information, a lot like the exposure systems found in the viewfinders of old SLRs. When more detailed information is needed, you can tap on the unit and it will read out the exact numbers through a speaker. You can use the Sportiiiis to monitor power, cadence and speed.

It’s specialized for sure, but given how the fitness crowd likes its gadgets, it could be a winner.

The Sportiiiis will go on sale in November for $200.

Sportiiiis product page [4iiiis via Andrew Liszewski]

See Also:

• Sony HUD Specs Show Subtitles to Cinemagoers
• Augmented Reality
• HUD Specs for Athletes Look Cool Enough to Wear
• Specs with Subtitles for the Deaf or the Foreign
• A Heads-Up Map Display for iPhone-Using Bicyclists

The Day Bag is made from old, popped car airbags

After you crash your car, but before you decide you’d be better off getting around by bike, you might consider ripping out the now-spent airbags and making them into a tough and light duffel bag.

Or you could skip the whole crashing business altogether (although you should still ditch the car) and just buy one of E13’s SRS Day Bags.

The bags are made from “upcycled” airbags which have popped their last. The resulting Day Bag looks like a skinny duffel, and has a detachable shoulder strap which gets its own pocket to stow it when you don’t need it. In fact, pretty much every part comes from a dead car: The outer layer is a driver-side airbag, the lining is from the passenger-side bag, and the handle and strap are recycled seat belts.

Capacity is six liters, the length 17.5 inches and the diameter 6.25 inches. There’s also an 8 x 5-inch pocket inside.

For a recycled bag, it’s pricey at $120, but then again, think about what you’re now saving on gas since you swapped your car for a bike.

Day Bag product page [E13 via Core77]

See Also:

• Rickshaw Bagworks Lightweight iPad 2 Messenger Bag
• Timbuk2 Hidden Messenger Bag
• Money for Old Rubber: Tread Gadget Bags Made from Old Tires …

The Freedom earbuds won’t fall out, no matter how hard an unnoticed car might hit you

Ever since I broke a leg during a bike polo game, I have stopped wearing headphones while riding. My podcast-listening has dropped off, but my concentration is surely up. Which is why I won’t be buying these Bluetooth sports headphones from JayBird, despite the fact that they’ll probably never distract the wearer by falling out of the ears.

The Bluetooth headphones actually have a cable joining them together, which runs behind your neck. the units themselves come with a flat, Paisley-shaped (or sperm-shaped) hook, made from a squashable, honeycomb material. These squeeze inside your ears and grab onto the nooks and crannies therein, securing them against the most violently head-shaking of sports.

The buds, which double up as a microphone headset for your phone, are also water-sealed against dripping sweat, the downfall of many a pair of earbuds in my home. They’re even reasonably priced, at $100. I’d also like to see a wired version with the same ear-grabbing tech.

Freedom Earbuds product page [JayBird via Werd]

See Also:

• Waterproof Headphones Fear No Puny Washing Machine
• Elecom's Clever 'Wireless' Headphones for iPod Shuffle

The Raincatch coat captures and purifies rainwater. Photo CIID

The Raincatch coat is pretty much perfect for the thirsty Briton. The jacket, from the Copenhagen Institute if Interaction Design, catches falling rain and then purifies it, ready for the wearer to drink.

Rain is collected in the collar, from where it runs through a network of tubes to be filtered by charcoal and chemically purified. The resulting clean drinking water is stored on the hips and can be sucked out through another tube.

The project is more symbolic than practical, I guess. There are certainly easier-to-carry ways to purify water, and it seems unlikely that you’d be getting dangerously dehydrated in a country wet enough to need a raincoat. For cyclists, though, it could be near ideal, combining a rain cape with a water filter.

Raincatch [CIID via the Giz]

See Also:

• Quirky's 'Petal Drops' Turns Soda-Bottle into Rain-Catcher
• Flash Flood: ThinkTank Rain Cover For Hydrophobic Shutterbugs …
• Ambient Umbrella Knows When it Will Rain