Sound Egg Chair: A Cocoon for Your Crib

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If you have any kind of imagination, you will have taken a look at the classic 1960s Ovalia egg-chair, perhaps during its starring role in Men in Black, and wondered why somebody didn’t make an uglier version, filled with sound-dampening material and speakers, and take a photo of it with full-frontal flash, rendering it even nastier-looking.

Well, good news! Somebody saw inside your twisted mind and actually went and did it. The result is the Sound Egg Chair, incorporating 5.1 surround sound. The $1,500 seat has six pairs of jack sockets on the back so you can trail cables from it like fluid pipes from a Matrix-style person-pod, and it will of course accept sound input of any kind — video games and movies being the main selling points.

It’s actually kind of cool, and we’re sure that when you aren’t illuminating the interior with a camera’s flash bulb it looks as good as Henrik Thor-Larsen’s original. You can even choose the color of the foam inside, as well as the plastic outside. Weirdly, all the foam color options will cost an extra $25, except burgundy, which the makers seem to agree was possibly the worst color ever invented.

Product page [Sound Egg. Thanks, Joel!]


Smart Switch Design Incorporates Power-Breaker

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In the past, I have laughed rather snidely at the paranoia my fellow countrymen exhibit regarding electricity. From grounded plugs on everything, to wall sockets with breaker switches, to public service commercials telling you to unplug everything at night in case you burn down the house, the Brits are an easy target.

But as my bedroom becomes home to more and more blinkenlight-equipped gadgets, the ability to just switch it all off is a tempting one. Yong-jin Kim’s solution is a Europlug-friendly design with the cute twist of looking like the universal power symbol. As you push in the plug, you depress the central line of the symbol. When this switch is all the way in, you can then twist the plug 45-degrees to the right, letting the sweet life-giving electrical juice flow into your gadget’s circuits. And of course, twisting back to the right cuts the power.

It’s a lot more compact and efficient than the UK’s standard socket, with its rectangular switch at the side of each outlet, and deserves to become a real product and not remain the CGI concept it is right now.

Product page [Yanko]

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Self-Winding Christmas Light Holder is ‘Amazing’

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Unless you’re one of those nutjobs who pretends that it is Christmas every single day, you will need to disentangle your fairy-lights precisely once a year. For me, it’s a Christmas tradition, as much a part of the festivities as drinking heavily, arguing with my parents and returning my gifts to the store.

But now you will never have to deal with knots of green cable and plastic flowers again. For the paltry sum of $20 you can buy the Store’em, a motorized spool which will wind and dispense your holiday lights in a tangle-free and effortless manner. Think it’s pointless? Think again. Here’s a testimonial on the product page from happy owner Adam:

I’m amazed at how much time I have saved from having the Stor’em driver and spool set.

Amazed! To be fair, Adam was using the spindle to wind other cables in a care-free, devil-may-care fashion, so he may have saved more time than would a once-a-year user. Still not convinced? Here’s what another customer, Colin, has to say: “it was the best $20 I ever spent!” So impressed was Colin that he then went on and “bought more spools.”

It would seem that the Stor’em is the most amazing gadget since the iPhone, which you will remember was also called the “Jesus Phone”, a Christmas-related coincidence. And there is more! For those of you who still have the use of your hands, there is a motor-free version, for the low, low price of $11.50.

So, if you value your time at all (and you should, as you only get one run on this earth) then you should go out and buy one of these right now. Used annually, you should make back the time spent driving to the store in as little as ten or twenty years. Four AA batteries required.

Product page [No Light Mess. Thanks, Eric and Joe!]


Folding Digital Kitchen Scale is Easily Hidden

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Like thermometers, kitchen scales are an essential cooking tool. You have a choice between the more accurate digital models, or analog scales which don’t run out of batteries just when you need them. I have a glass-slab Salter scale, and it has sat in a cupboard for at least five years, awaiting a new pair of CR2032s to power it.

So I’m interested in this folding scale, which not only runs on AAA batteries which can easily be swiped from the remote control, it also folds up into a tiny cylinder which could be stowed in the back of a kitchen drawer for decades without getting in the way.

The cross (or cylinder) shaped scale is made from stainless steel with a strategic plastic rubber coating, and comes with its own cage and hanger. It’ll only weigh up to 3kg or 6.6 lbs, and the readout is on a tiny LCD screen, but that doesn’t matter — it’s not like you’ll use it more than once anyway. £34 ($55).

Product page [Pro Idee via Oh Gizmo]


Dyson DC25 Blueprint impressions: is the ‘Ball’ worth it?

Dyson’s DC25 Blueprint just started shipping en masse this month, and with an MSRP of $529.99, it’s significantly more pricey that the “bargain-minded” DC23 Turbinehead that we had a peek at last month. The company’s range of ‘Ball’ vacuum cleaners have been around for years now, but this is the first chance we’ve had to roll one over our own carpet. With a striking white finish, impeccable build quality and a design to make any gadget nerd blush, there’s quite a bit here that you won’t find on your average vac, but is the sphere really enough to warrant the lofty sticker? Read on for our two pennies.

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Dyson DC25 Blueprint impressions: is the ‘Ball’ worth it? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Slotless Toaster Is Rather One-Sided

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This is the “Slotless Toaster”, a $90 innovation which promises to toast “thick bagels or croissants, Texas toast, or baguettes” as well as the pop-tarts and skinny slices of bread handled by the toaster you have already. Has anyone spotted the problem, yet?

Yes. To get even browning, you’ll need two of them, the second suspended at an appropriate distance above the first. Either that or you’ll have to return after your bagel’s base is browned to flip it a toast the other side. It has a crumb tray, a 10.25 x 7-inch surface and a 700-watt element inside, making it much like your existing toaster, only less useful.

In fact, there is one way a regular two or four-slotter can be made to perform the same trick: just put the oversized target food on top of the slots and press down the lever. It’s not pretty, but I do it all the time and it works just fine. It also saves you almost $100: Feel free to write in with your thanks.

Product page [Hammacher Schlemmer via Coolest Gadgets]


Alien Abduction Lamp Beams Into Reality

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I was sure we’d covered the prototype of the Alien Abduction Lamp already here on Gadget Lab, but Google tells me otherwise. So here it is for (possibly) the first time in all its ready-to-buy, steel’n’perspex glory.

The $100 lamp comes with glow-in-the-dark aliens in the cockpit, a “Removable Bovine Abductee” and three options for the energy-saving LED light: On, off and – most appropriate – pulse.

The lamp is currently sold as part of a limited edition of 2000 units, complete with an engraved signature from the designer Lasse Klein, although soon it should be making it into an otherwise annoying novelty gift store near you, destined to become the next Big Mouth Billy Bass. Until then, visit the web site and, if you have some colored spex, view it in 3D (for those lacking the 1950s cellophane glasses, there is also an “Earthling Mode”).

Product page [Abduction Lamp via Oh Gizmo!]


Pointless Gadget of the Day: Touch-Sensitive Faucet

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Oh, where to start with the list of things wrong with the “Pilar Touch-Activated Single Handle Pull-Down Kitchen Faucet”? Perhaps the outrageous $500 price tag? Or the forcing of touch-control tech where is doesn’t belong? Or the “technical” description which drops phrases like “Touch2O Technology” and “inspired by a fusion of technology and nature”?

Now, a mixer tap in the kitchen is great. I have one, and it also has a “touch-sensitive” handle. The difference is that mine cost almost nothing and that instead of an electronically operated detecting surface it has a paddle you can tap. Both require actual touching, whether with oily fingers or the back of a hand, and both can easily be switched on or off. My faucet, though, will work as I expect it to and when it breaks, I know how to fix it.

Product page [Delta via Noquedanblogs]


Rock’n’Read: Human-Powered Lamp Chair Mashup

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We love this human-powered reading chair by Rochus Jacob, which powers an OLED lamp with the rocking motion of the reader beneath, keeping your pages illuminated by night and storing excess jiggle-energy in batteries by day.

How does the Murakami Chair work? “Advanced nano-dynamo technology which is built in to the skids of the chair.” Quite. This is probably the reason that the chair is just a concept design rather than a real, working product. Still, when Jacob manages to find a hardware store that will sell him a few pounds of stick-on nano-dynamos, expect to see this in stores. Until that time, suck it up learn to deal with a few cables already.

Project page [Design Boom]


Panasonic serves up latest prototype robots, dish washing servant included (video)

Keeping those dreams alive by scrubbing dishes at your least favorite eatery? Best put those aspirations on the front burner, as Panasonic‘s got a mighty fine robot swooping in to take your place — and for a whole lot less cash, to boot. At Panny’s robotics laboratory in Osaka, the company recently showcased its latest gaggle of prototype robots designed to help humans take it easy more often. Among the usual suspects were a porter robot designed to help with heavy lifting, while the star of the show was undoubtedly the dish washing bot that wasn’t afraid to get its metallic digits wet and soapy. As expected, an array of integrated sensors kept it from grabbing a wine glass too tightly, and its four fingers enabled it to do most everything a human washer could (sans the kvetching). Have a peek at these guys in action just past the break.

[Via Impress]

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Panasonic serves up latest prototype robots, dish washing servant included (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 18 Oct 2009 11:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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