Hasta La Gadget!

The world needs another instructional guitar tool like it needs another hole in the ozone layer, but in all seriousness, this one is stupendous. Er, it exhibits remarkable potential, considering that it’s not yet beyond the concept stage. Designer Eugene Cheong has dreamed up the Maestro, an attachment that can supposedly be adapted to work on any guitar (of the electric variety, we presume) and teach you what frets to mash in order to actually become a halfway decent player. Put simply, the device accepts MP3 files via SD card, and then it breaks down the tunes into tablature which can be displayed via lasers. Once you see the beams lighting up your fretboard, you mash / strum in order to keep up and “learn” the songs. We can only hope this thing adds a slowdown mode should it ever hit store shelves, ’cause even the amateur probably doesn’t want to tackle select Dream Theater tracks at full speed.

[Via DVICE]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Maestro guitar attachment shows you how to shred with lasers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, it’s just a concept for now, but the Aptera design team (Eleven) has unveiled this solar-powered boat, and it’s looking pretty decent, so we thought we’d bring a few of the details over here for you. The Loon, as it’s called, was designed for the Tamarack Lake Electric Boat Company, and it’s got a pontoon shape to it, and is relatively lightweight for its size, with a 1000W solar panel roofing which is collapsible for compact storing of the boat when not in the water. It’s 22 feet long, and is made of recycled materials, bamboo and natural fibers, with an estimated top speed of 7 knots (it should be able to travel about 35 miles a day). We don’t know when to expect these bad boys on the waterways, nor do we know how much they’re going to cost, but we’re hoping they’re not thousands of dollars.

[Via Autoblog Green]

Read – Eleven
Read – Motive Industries

Filed under: Transportation

Aptera designers unveil solar-powered pontoon, the Loon originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Feb 2009 20:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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From what we can gather, even Apple purist Jeremy Mehrle doesn’t own one of these ultra-rare set-top-boxes, and if you think you’re the only Apple fanboy out there eying this one seriously, we fear you’ll be sorely mistaken. This prototype Interactive Television Box was crafted in or around 1994 and was designed to deliver content to one’s TV by connecting to a central server and downloading content. Thus, the unit itself doesn’t boot into anything nor does it feature an internal hard drive. Still, DIYers and collectors alike will have a hard time passing up the opportunity of snagging this piece and turning it into a makeshift iTunes server, but given the remarkably low $249.99 buy-it-now price, we’d say that window of opportunity may not be open for long. Oh, and Apple TV — you ain’t got nothin’ on this in terms of desirability. Sorry, bub.

[Thanks, Marc]

Filed under: Home Entertainment

Prototype Apple Interactive Television Box up for auction: there goes your savings originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Maverick industrial designer Gowoon Jeong understands intuitively that people don’t want fancy PMPs with displays — they want tiny, oddly shaped devices that force the user to project track information onto a wall or body part, in a hard to read spiral shape. As the man points out, this gives users “unexpected pleasure.” And who are we to argue? The Music Drop player is still just a concept, but if — and we’re hoping when — the thing gets real, you’ll know as soon as we do. Promise. Close-up after the break.

[Via About Projectors]

Continue reading Music Drop MP3 projector doesn’t actually project MP3s

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Music Drop MP3 projector doesn’t actually project MP3s originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s pretty clear by watching the demonstration video (which is lurking in the read link, just so you know) that this stuff is still pretty preliminary, but we could definitely see it going places with the right people behind it. The Interface Database Concept was dreamed up by Alan Sien Wei Hshieh, and by utilizing a relatively simple set of Javascripts, he was able to overcome traditional platform incompatibilities that can so often hamstring medical hardware / software in day-to-day usage. The creation aims to enable “seamless and intuitive data transfer” and to “define a set of gesture and multitouch commands that will override controls and input devices that may be difficult to use on medical devices.” The aforementioned vid shows off gesture-based transfers and even an accelerometer-based cross-platform transfer, both of which make you forget that we’re just talking about X-rays and blood tests.

[Thanks, Kara]

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Conceptual interface brings gesture-based data transfers to medical realm originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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