seiko slimstick tracks your every move

This modern twist on the classic pedometer doesn’t just track your steps, it lets you keep tabs on the quality of the exercise you get during your day-to-day life.

Unlike meters that just count your steps, the Seiko SlimStick uses modern dual-axis accelerometers to track the magnitude of your movements, giving greater value to more intensive exercise. Just clip the compact SlimStick onto your clothes or stick it in a pocket, and it’ll track your activity level.

The SlimStick can count calories burned over the course of the day, amount of time you were active, the number of steps you walked as well as an overall exercise quality score. It’ll store up to twelve weeks of summary data, so you can check your progress over time.

All those smarts fit into a sleek brushed aluminum case that’s just about the size of a pack of chewing gum. They’re available in silver, pink or gold metal finishes, and retail between ¥5,775 and ¥6,984 (appx. $55 to $67 USD). Seiko is currently selling these only in Japan, where you can find them at AssistOn.

Super Mario Singing Glow Star

This little desktop gadget companion flashes on and off and plays the Super Mario Brothers music with a simple push of a button on the back and the star.

Features

* Push a button on the back and the star pulses on-and-off and plays the invincibility song from Super Mario
* Included stand
* Mounting hole on back for wall mounting
* Imported from Japan
* Officially Licensed Nintendo Product
* Requires 2 AAA Batteries. Not Included
* Stands 5.75 inches high

The Super Mario Singing Glow Star ($17.99) is available from ThinkGeek.

Optimus Maximus Keyboard Has Arrived

The day that some began to doubt it would ever come is finally here - the Optimus Maximus OLED keyboard from Art. Lebedev Studio has arrived.

As you should know by now this amazing keyboard features a tiny screen on each key… that’s 113 screens in all. What can you do with these tiny screens you ask? Well each key can change it’s image dynamically depending on what you doing.

Hold down SHIFT and all keys go uppercase. Run Photoshop and you can set it so each hotkey has an image representing it’s function. Set a key to monitor your CPU
usage or display what iTunes track you are currently playing. You can make a key into a tiny clock with moving hands and play animated gif files or even quicktime movies.

Here’s a video showing the Optimus Maximus keyboard in action:

Product Features

* Revolutionary Keyboard Features a tiny OLED screen on each key. 113 screens total
* Each key can be individually programmed to perform a series of functions, open an application or run an Applescript (Mac only)
* Various System Monitor functions can dynamically display on a key including CPU usage, CPU temperature, Network Speed, and Memory Usage
* Play a GIF animation or Quicktime movie on a Key
* Paint images across all keys at once in your image editor of choice
* Key sets can be linked to an application, so whenever you open that app the appropriate keys come up
* Powerful layer function allows you to combine existing key sets in different ways
* Use any language with the appropriate key images including Cyrillic, Ancient Greek, Georgian, Arabic, Quenya, and Hiragana
* Display notes, numerals, special symbols, HTML codes, math functions or any other special symbol
* Any key (or to be exact, a unit consisting of a cap, a microchip and a display) can be easily removed by hands to be cleaned or replaced
* Built in USB hub
* SD Card Slot for Storing keyboard Settings

System Requirements

* PC with installed OS Windows XP or Vista, with a USB 1.1 (or better 2.0) port; Mac OS X 10.5.1 or higher
* At least 20 MB of free space on hard drive
* At least 256 MB of RAM

Product Specifications

* Keyboard Dimensions: Length 537 mm, Width 173 mm, Height 38 mm
* Key Dimensions: 20.220.2 mm
* Display Dimensions: 10.110.1 mm viewable area on each key
* Display Resolution: 48 x 48 pixels per key
* Frame Rate: 10 FPS
* Color Depth: 65,536 Colors
* Viewing Angle: 160 degrees

The Optimus Maximus Keyboard is yours for $1,589.99 from ThinkGeek.

Keyboard Pants

Designer Erik De Nijs has created a pair of jeans for computer geeks.

Built into the knees are a pair of crotch rocking speakers, around the back you have the added convenience of a back pocket for your “mouse”…

Head over to Vous Pensez for more photos of the Keyboard Pants.

Stylish 8GB USB Flash Drive

This stylish USB flash drive features 8 gigabytes of storage capacity and it is protected by a metal and faux leather casing for safe and easy portability.

With its attractive design, inspired directly from pocket knives, this little USB accessory easily fits into your pocket and will carry your valuable digital files around with you.

The 8GB USB Flash Drive is yours for 26 EUR (about $41 USD) at Chinavision.

Wireless Penguin Mouse

Remember that USB Penguin Mouse from last year? The same kind of flightless bird inspired computer mouse is now available in a wireless version.

Features:

* Interface: USB
* Mouse Structure: Optical
* Resolution: 800dpi
* Radio Frequency (RF) wireless transmission technology.
* Works up to 2 meter from your notebook or desktop.
* 2-button mouse with scroll wheel.
* Optical precision on virtually any surface.
* Support Windows Vista, XP, ME, 2000, 98SE
* Dimension - Mouse 95 x 83 x 34.5 mm, Receiver 84 x 35 x 17 mm
* Weight - Mouse 56g, Receiver, 16g

You can get the USB Wireless Penguin Mouse in black or blue over at the USB Geek website for $20

Futurama Bender Webcam

When Jason Chen over at Gizmodo wrote about the Mr. Burns webcam, he added: “is nice, but it’s no Futurama”. Reader Matt saw it and came up with a cool looking Bender webcam.

This is a custom-made one of a kind Bender Webcam. I removed all the gears and mechanics from and officially licensed Matt Groening and Rocket USA tin robot toy and replaced them with a Creative Live! webcam.

The arms and legs no longer move but Bender is completely free standing and if it was not for the USB cable coming from the former key slot you’d never know that he had a camera behind his chest door. Turning his antenna rotates Bender’s mouth and cigar allowing for two facial expressions.

The Futurama Bender Webcam is now on auction over at eBay.

World’s Smallest USB Battery Charger

This device from Freeloader is the smallest and lightest battery charger in the world. It allows you to recharge all your AA, AAA NiMH and NiCd rechargeable batteries via your computer’s USB port.

Freeloader Battery ChargerPop up to two batteries into the fast battery charger at any one time and charge via the USB port on your PC – it takes three to four hours to reach 75% full charge. Clear LED indicators show the charging status of the USB battery charger, as well as your battery power levels, while tough, rubberised casing stays protected and looks good in the process.

Main Features

* Recharge batteries via any USB port
* Smallest and lightest battery charger in the world
* Recharges all NiMH and NiCd AA and AAA batteries
* LED charging and battery power indicators
* Tough, rubberised casing
* Recharges batteries in 3-4 hours via USB
* Team up with the Freeloader Solar Battery and charge batteries in 1-2 hours (cable provided)

LEGO-Style MP3 Player

This playful little LEGO-style MP3 player is offered in five different colors and supports microSD flash memory cards up to 2GB in size.

To transfer files (supported file formats: MP3 and WMA) and to charge the player, simply connect the brick to your computer’s USB port using the provided cable. A full charge gives you 6-10 hours of playback.

The Brick MP3 Player ($48.99) measures 29 x 17 x 58 mm and is available in yellow, white, blue, red or green from the GizFever.com website.

Business giants install 'power nap pods' to boost productivity of workforce

The benefits of a taking a power-nap have been preached by advocates such as Winston Churchill, Leonardo Da Vinci and Albert Einstein - but they never tried anything like this.

Looking like a cross between a science fiction prop and a dentists chair, the EnergyPod has been designed to offer office workers a relaxing spot to take a mid-day nap.

The odd looking device has been installed in UK offices and is even being used by the Lawn Tennis Association to help tennis players like Andy Murray achieve peak performance levels.

It is designed to isolate the user from their environment with lights and music and angles your body to take pressure off the heart.

Once asleep, the device continues to soothe you before waking you up with vibrations, lights and music at the optimal time, normally after about 15 to 20 minutes.

Makers MetroNaps say the length of your nap and the way in which you are woken are key to leaving you feeling rejuvenated and full of energy.

Spokesman Marcus de Guingand, said: "The benefits of napping are many and varied, NASA and Harvard studies say a nap can increase productivity by up to 34 percent.

"The EnergyPod has been designed specially as the ideal environment to take a mid-day rest.

"It was the idea of a banker who saw his colleagues taking naps in bathrooms or store cupboards and thought 'there must be a better solution.'

"After a two-year research programme they came up with the pod and it has now been installed in offices around the world.

"The fact is taking a mid-day nap will benefit everyone so there is no barrier to where they should be installed."

Companies which have installed the £300-per-month pods include, Proctor & Gamble, Google and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

De Guingand added that napping can help both your health and productivity levels.

"It has been scientifically documented that a short nap during the day boosts alertness, memory, creativity and mood," he said.

"Also sleep is the third pillar of health along with Cardiovascular Fitness and Nutrition sleep-deprived individuals succumb more frequently to illness and are more likely to experience poorer long-term health."

The Messy USB Home Pregnancy Test

Alright, this obsession with using the USB ports on your computer has just gone too far. I’m sorry, but when did plugging something that was just urinated on into your computer ever sound like a good idea?
The worst part, plugging it in to the USB port actually offers up a useful function, namely displaying more data regarding what was found in what you just leaked onto the thing. Sure you can get the standard results of any other home pregnancy test right off of the electronic surface of the stick, but if you plug it in you get charts and graphs, all sorts of useful stuff.

The name is absolutely horrid too, PTeq, really? That’s the best you’ve got for $17.99 a pop? So you pee on it, plug it in to your USB port and that starts the whole mass spectrometry process informing you of hCG, hCG-H, and LH hormone levels with a 99% accuracy, and yes, it works with Macs as well as Windows machines, and Linux kernel 2.4 or higher. For the $18 you get the unit and 20 test strips, lets hope you don’t have 20+ questionable encounters before you lose this thing, you can pick one up at ThinkGeek.

Retro Style USB 2.0 Webcam

Remember that cool looking retro style webcam from last year. Now you can get the same type of web camera, but with a brushed metal design.

Features:

* Sensor: CMOS hardware with 13MP, 1/3-inch CMOS image sensor
* USB 2.0 interface
* Resolution: 288L
* Manual external focus adjust
* Brightness: auto-detect control
* Picture format: 640×480, frame rate: 30 fps (320×240), 15fps (640×480)
* Supports CC2000, Netmeeting, VVQ, ICQ, Skype, MSN and YM etc.
* Features snapshot button
* Retractable USB cable
* Operating system: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
* Size: 1 x 1.4 x 0.6 inch

The Driverless Webcams 1.3MP retails for $11.21 a pop (minimum order: 20 units) from the Wholesale Products website.

8-LED Macro Ring Light for Digital Cameras

This LED ring from Marumi will allow you to take better close-up pictures with your compact digital camera. The ringlike form provides a smooth and shadowless illumination of your object from every side.

This ring light unit provides an illumination akin to daylight. This results in brighter colours. The ring light has two steps of light intensity. You always can choose the matching light intensity for the actual ambient light.

You can attach the ring light to any camera which has a tripod thread. By the help of the flexible bending arm you can adjust the ring light to any camera type. You just have to bend the bending arm so that it is positioned in front of the lens of the camera.

Features:

First ring light for compact digital cameras
Smooth illumination from every side
No object shadowing any more
Eight LEDs
Two steps of light intensity
Illumination akin to daylight
For any camera with tripod thread
Flexible bending arm for the LED-ring
Needs three AAA-batteries
Case included

The Marumi LED-8 LED Macro Ring Light for Compact Digital Camera is available from enjoyyourcamera.com for 79,99 EUR (about $126 USD).