This is Tech

Don a set of video goggles, and drive this RC car from the perspective of the driver. The camera embedded in the car tracks your head movements, so when you look right the camera looks right. There was a video circulating of something similar to this with a RC plane, but this is the first commercial implementation of the concept I have seen.

VTS Camera Car:

Amazingly, the goggles can also track your head’s motion, where the camera on the buggy will respond accordingly, letting you look left, right, up and down. … Such a toy won’t come cheap though, as it retails for a whopping $1,172.

(Via Ubergizmo.)

I used to do a bit of skateboarding when I was in college. Back then, we didn’t have anything like this electric skateboard from Altered Skateboards. With a top speed of 20 mph, and a wireless rc car style controller, these things look like a blast. If you are looking for some eco-friendly personal transportation, this might be a less pretentious alternative to a segway.

My advice to Altered, send one of these to Kevin Rose in San Francisco to ride back and forth to the Digg headquarters. Kevin’s got a huge following, and this kind of thing is right up his alley.

Read on for some more pics and a link to an impressive video of the company’s founder hanging ten on one of these. (more…)

The wireless SD Card product, Eye-Fi, just released two new versions of its wireless card for cameras.

The original Eye-Fi seemed exciting when it launched last year, but upon inspection was somewhat limited. The Eye-Fi device is a 2 gigabyte memory card for digital cameras that includes a wi-fi chip that allows photos to be moved automatically, and wirelessly to the user’s computers. The product includes integration with a variety of photo sharing services, so users can have their photos automatically uploaded to Flickr anytime their camera is within range of your home wi-fi network. The Eye-Fi card is very affordable at around $100, but was originally more limited than one would expect. The biggest drawback was that the card would only connect to your own network. (more…)

I have been looking into wearable cameras that include a loop feature. The idea is that the camera records video and sound and caches 5 or 10 minutes in storage. If anything you see is worth recording, you hit a button and start capturing audio and video including the 5 or 10 minutes you cached.

I found the POV.1 from VIO. They specialize in helmet cams, but their product includes the loop function and comes with a wireless remote to tag recorded items for later viewing.

Pretty slick. I haven’t used the product, but am temped to buy one and post a review. If it sucks, I would resell it on eBay (at $700 it’s not cheap). Let me know if you you would be interested in reading a review or if you have experience with the camera and can give some feedback.

V.I.O. — Products — Digital Products: “”

Good and Bad Experiences in Sound:

Earphone manufacturer Shure makes top of the line in-ear headphones for musicians and their listeners. I have used their E2 and E3 models and they sound so good it is like the music is in your brain. My E3’s broke a couple weeks ago, and Shure’s customer service was fantastic. I called the number on the Shure website and was connected to a real person in Shure’s Chicago location. I explained that the earbuds had broken and how, and they told me to send them back and they would take a look. I mailed the broken headphones to Chicago and a week and a half later a new pair arrived. Shure’s customer service is outstanding.

Sensaphonics makes custom sleeves for Shure earbuds and in-ear monitors for musicians. These supposedly take the Shures to a new level by exactly fitting to the inside of your ear. My understanding is that they are more comfortable and block outside noise even better than the standard sleeves that come with the E3’s. In January I visited an audiologist to have molds made of my ears and placed an order with Sensaphonics. I wish I could give you a sense of how good they are, but after close to two months they still haven’t arrived. The customer service reps at Sensaphonics are very nice, and are easy to reach, but the company as a whole doesn’t seem to have its act together. If the Sensaphonics ever arrive, I will post here to let you know if they were worth the wait, but for now I wouldn’t recommend them unless you are prepared to wait.

A friend told me about www.manybooks.net today. This site is a terrific source of public domain and creative commons eBooks in a variety of formats, including the Sony Reader and Kindle. Once you have searched for the book of your choice, simply select “kindle” from the pull down format menu and save it to your hard drive.

(more…)

50 Great Gadgets That No Geek or Nerd Should Live Without: ”
50 Great Gadgets That No Geek or Nerd Should Live Without

by Nelson Doyle, Feb 7, 2008
Real geeks and nerds know how to have fun and this list proves that. Prepare yourself to be utterly amazed when you see these incredibly innovative geek gadgets that makes life exciting again.

This is not a top 50 list and is not is any specific order, but the gadgets in this article are the coolest and sometimes most useful gadgets that are on the market presently. These great gadgets are innovative ideas that are interestingly entertaining and useful. No geek should live without the fifty gadgets that dared to be different and won.”

(Via .)