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     Volume 5 Issue 120 | November 17, 2006 |


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Sci-tech

TV-remote wristwatch
As long as you don't mind wearing a fairly bulky digital wristwatch, you'll never lose your TV remote control again when you've got the Brando Workshop TV001 Touch Screen TV Remote Watch. In addition to doing all the normal things you'd expect from a digital watch, it has the benefit of being a touchscreen, keeping the relatively enormous face clean until you need to do some channel surfing. Your wrist can take command of the TV, impressing your friends while annoying your family members, for just $18.

Question Mark speaker understands gestures
So now that you've got your motion-sensing remote control by your side, why not pair it with a motion-sensing speaker. This all-in-one speaker/radio combo has no buttons or knobs, but instead relies on motion sensors that let you raise/lower volume levels and change stations with the wave of your hand. It's also got an ambient lighting system. I can be pretty lazy when it comes to certain things (showering, taking out the trash, shaving), but I'm hoping I never reach the point where I'm too lazy to hit the volume up/down button. But if you're so inclined, the USB-powered speaker is yours for $100.


Optical Mouse to Keep your palms warm
Even with winter just a few weeks away, I can't imagine ever needing a mouse with built-in heating (cooling, perhaps, but not heating). But if you're reading this from the coldest corner in Siberia, the Thanko USB optical mouse can keep your palms warm on those cold, windy nights. It has an 800dpi resolution (a gaming mouse it's not) and even lets you control the mouse's temperature. This little heater costs about $25.

Sync Your iPod Anywhere in the House
Silex's new WiDock connects to your wireless network to sync up your iPod sans cables. Why this hasn't been built into Apple's iPod dock already I can only guess, but thank God somebody is on the ball. It even supports security standards like WEP and WPA. The dock, which can also be connected via Ethernet, has all the traditional features of an iPod dock like the ability to plug into a stereo/TV and charge your iPod while its docked. The WiDock works with all iPods with a dock connector and will be available in December.

Coffin with panic button
Ever since I saw movies where they bury people alive by mistake, I had this unnatural fear of being buried alive. Well, a Russian inventor by the name of Vitaly Malyukov must have watched similar movies because he's designed a casket with a built-in panic button that lets you contact the living in case your quack of a doctor accidentally pronounced you dead. Pushing the panic button (which glows in the dark) alerts the cemetery caretaker who can then dig you back up. No word on pricing or availability.

The Diamond Notebook
Sure, it looks like an old school iBook, but even if we had the $350,000 dollars to buy it (which I don't), I'd still take a pass. Made by Dutch company, Ego, the Tulip Ego Diamond has 470 flawless diamonds shaped in tulip form on the notebook's lid. Spec-wise, your $350k gets you a 12.1-inch notebook powered by a single-core AMD Turion processor. Yep, that's pretty much all the horsepower you get. Ego also has a "more affordable" Tulip laptop ($5,000), which has the same features sans diamonds.

Compiled by IMRAN H. KHAN

Source: Sci-fi and Gizmodo Online.


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