73 posts tagged “ipod”

Today's gadget is the result of a letter from DGW marathon listener JR Rodriguez IV (see Episode 600), who remembers it from his childhood, and is surprised to find it's still available, on the internet.  As it happens, Dick has it in his all-encompassing Gadget Warehouse.  The Plant-A-Lamp is a touch switch for a lamp, but with a difference.  It has a lamp pole with a microchip which you insert into a planter pot in which you can grow the plant of your choice.  You screw on a light bulb on to the pole, put a lamp shade on, and connect the Plant-A-Lamp to the AC power supply.  Instead of touching the lamp, you touch a leaf, and the light bulb will come on.  Touch and hold a leaf and it becomes a dimmer, which cycles through the light intensity.



A 60W bulb is recommended, and the wattage should not in any case be less than 40W.  Those energy-saving bulbs which are not compatible with dimmers should not be used.  If the soil is too dry, when you touch a leaf, the light will flicker, indicating that more water is needed for your plant.  The light will also help give you a healthy plant.

Although the device has found its way into the Gadget Warehouse, it is still being sold.  Those who want to order it in the UK should go to PlantALamp.com, while those in the US should go to PlantALamp.net.

For some possible ideas as to how the device and its dimmer function might work, including capacitance, see the article on How Stuff Works, pointed out by Houdini 7 in the Chatroom.


Listen to Episode 720
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These are new flashlights from Energizer, with Aluminium Alloy bodies and LED bulbs, using Energizer's new e² Lithium Batteries which are supposed to have a shelf life of 15 years.  Three models to choose from.  Dick's model is the ELMCL42L, which is capable of up to 90 lumens and uses 4 AAA batteries.

The end caps are dimmers which reduce the brightness of the bulbs - the brightest of the models gives 110 lumens.  All models come with a belt/pocket clip.

Phobia
Dick has done his fair share of flashlights.  He has a fear of running out of flashlights.

Jack Benny
Josh from Denver has just started reading Good Days And Mad by Dick, in which a brief mention was made of Jack Benny whom Dick met (and in Episodes 397 and 556).  The Jack Benny Show was one of Josh's favourite old time radio shows, a lot of which Dick and Leo have talked about.

Another Phobia
Dick met Jack Benny on one of flights back from Los Angeles to New York while working on Match Game.  During their conversation, Jack told a story about George Burns's fear of flying.  Jack Benny had told Burns to look at the birds outside the plane which were also flying, just as they were.  Burns's riposte was, "It's their job!"

Chatroom Mayhem
Someone in the chatroom was misbehaving during the recording of the show, and Leo was distracted by having to deal with it and banning him from the chatroom.  At least that's his excuse for playing the Letters Jingle twice: not keeping his eyes on the ball, his 65cm diameter fitness ball.


Listen to Episode 709
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"Upgrade to Zen Class."  That's their slogan.  The Nirvana Organizer is a shoulder bag that unzips inside out for direct access to its contents.  Intended as a travel accessory, it can attach itself to an airplane seat tray and hangs in front of you, with customised pockets for the most common travel items that go with you while travelling, such as your passport, ticket, flash memory cards, pens, and even a bottle/cup holder.  But even when carried over your shoulder, it gives you easy access to the contents of the bag.



Apart from using it on a plane, you can also use it on a baby-stroller, in a car and other places.  Watch the demo video on YouTube, or right here:


Italian Heritage on Blu Ray
Leo is in an Italian mood as he just watched Godfather on Blu Ray over the weekend, which has much improved quality over the DVD version.  Dick and Leo share their memories of Italian home cooking.  Dick's parents are of Italian descent, as is Mama Laporte.

Leo's Challenge Well Met
In Episode 683 (starting at 18:30), while Dick was introducing his brand new GizWizBiz Cap, Leo said nonchalantly that he would give an iPod to the first surgeon who sends in a picture of himself in surgical gloves wearing the cap in the operating theatre.

Leo should have known, judging from the jingles and themes they receive from listeners whenever they ask for one, that the challenge would be met, and very promptly indeed.  2 emails came in immediately, with doctors and nurses wearing the caps in the operating theatre.

What Leo really meant was a picture of a surgeon actually performing an operation while wearing the cap.  Unfortunatley he did not say that clearly enough, although to be fair, Dick and Leo did say that given Halloween was just around the corner, mere costuming did not count.  Nevertheless, Leo wants to be a good sport, and since he can't tell which email came in first, he's going to send out iPod nanos to all the doctors and nurses.  Now Dick understands why his cheques from Leo bounced, and is quick to add that the offer is now officially over.

So Dr. Wayne Keeling from Reidsville, North Carolina, Dr. Mark Moran, and the nurses, will all be getting an iPod.  Plus a shout-out from Leo to Dr. Moran's sons Brennan and Ryan.

An interesting fact about Dr. Wayne Keeling.  He has, not just one, but two, Brannock Devices (from Episode 255).  See Episode 267.

GizWizSearch on Steroids
DGW fan, computer coder, magician and miracle worker (all right, let's stop there) Ludwik Trammer has added an exciting feature to GizWizSearch.  All the episodes of DGW have been tagged, and you can search via tags.  For example, search for products with LED lights, or just for Wacky Gadgets, which is quite a list.  The tagging has been done with a lot of help from Ryan Waterer (who did most of the tagging), and only a little help from yours truly.  Most of the credit should go to Ludwik and Ryan.



Listen to Episode 691
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Security Theatre
Security was tested at various airports recently, with the help of security expert Bruce Schneier.  TSA's protective measures are no more than a "security theater", according to the article "The Things He Carried" in the Atlantic Magazine.

Little Golden Hood on Audible
Join Audible - and get Little Golden Hood narrated by Leo (which is a free download anyway), or Paula Poundstone's "There's Nothing In This Book That I Meant To Say".  Dick's favourite quote from her is "I was such a lonely child that I created 2 imaginary friends, and they would play only with each other."

The Humanety
Geek celebrities including Veronica Belmont, Geoff Smith, Felicia Day, Gary Vaynerchuk and Patrick Norton are taking part in a project by humanety.com, offering a half-hour Skype video chat on auction to the successful bidder.  The money will go to the charity named by the celebrity.  Dick is taking part and his charity is going to be his own favourite, the Animal Haven, a no-kill shelter.  Dick's auction starts today, 30 October 2008.  "Humanety, we're all in this together."


Ballooning Inventory
Earl of Southfield, Michigan and proud member of the TWiT Army has among others 2 copies of Good Days and Mad (hardcover and paperback), a GizWizBiz Inka Pen, a Plantronics 650 headset, 3 Open-X's, a Flip Ultra.  No Titanium Spork yet but may soon be added to his ballooning inventory.  Purveyors of these gadgets should be begging for sponsorship of DGW.  He's even bought items mentioned on TTTT.  That should be proof enough.

Earl has been listening since Episode 1, and a long-time fan of the Screen Savers from the Kate and Leo days (not the Titanic pair, but Kate Botello and Leo Laporte).


Listen to Episode 689
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Polaroid has been trying to find its place in the new world of digital photography.  Their latest attempt is the PoGo (Polaroid to Go), a portable bluetooth printer that connects to your mobile phones via bluetooth and makes 2" x 3" borderless prints.  The cellphone needs to support Bluetooth OBEX (Object Exchange) profile.  A list of compatible phones can be found on the Polaroid website.



You can also print directly from any PictBridge-enabled digital camera, by connecting the devices using a USB cable.

The print is made using Zink Imaging's Zink technology - Zero Ink - on Zink paper.  Each 2" x 3" photo paper contains 100 billion yellow, magenta and cyan dye crystals which are activated by heat pulses to generate the colours.  Since no ink is used, the prints come out as dry-to-touch prints.  They have peel-off sticky backs which can be used as stickers.  A modern version of Polaroid prints.

The dimensions of the PoGo 4.7" x 2.8" x 0.9", with a replaceable and rechargeable Li-ion battery.  Each charge can print up to 15 prints.  the advertised print speed is 60 seconds from send to share, though in practice it's likely to take longer.  You can get the PoGo photo paper in packs of 10 or 30, costing about $5 and $13 respectively.

One From the Gadget Warehouse
While rummaging through his treasure trove that is the Gadget Warehouse, Dick stumbled upon a Polaroid Instant Slide device, probably one of the 35mm Autoprocessors from Polaroid.



Mr Hulot's Holiday - It's Playtime !
Jacques Tati was a French comedian who made a few classic films including Mr Hulot's Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) and Playtime.

Here's the original French trailer for the film Playtime, where you can see a reflection of the Eiffel Tower on the door (or click this link):


For the scene in which what the lift (elevator) operator has to go through before he can get the lift to start, watch this clip (or click this link):

And for a rather interesting window cleaning scene, watch this clip (or click this link):


TWiT Nutwork on the PSP
Alex Rearick from Ohio learned about the "TWiT Nutwork" when the PSP gained RSS capability.  He listened to the back episodes, and enjoyed thoroughly the classic episode of the Key Buoy (Episode 149).  He's even got himself a GizWizBiz Cap.  New ones, with 30 hours of burn time, are available from Dick's website.

Audio Bone is a set of wired stereo headphones that sit over the ears and round the back of the head.  The sound waves are transmitted through your bones into the inner ears.  They're waterproof and work even under water.  Audio quality is not great, and you do need to turn up the volume.  For people who don't like buds in their ears, or have to listen to sounds in the environment.

For other implementations (though at a more basic level) of the same idea, see the Hasbro Tooth Tunes (Episode 429) and the March '07 WTHII gadget Sound Bites (Episode 281).

First Fan Mail
At the age of 69, Bill Quinlan writes his first piece of fan mail, and it's to Dick and Leo.  Bill is completely hooked and listens to it on his 3-mile walk each night.  It's dark and no one can see him laughing hysterically during his walk.  His wife still uses the VCR Co-Pilot (Episode 665).  He recently revisited Episode 182 (having received his order of the Titanium Spork from Think Geek to replace the Tony the Tiger Spoon), and Episode 590, the Palm Pilot (and he's using the latest Palm device the Palm TX).




The Psion 3a Series
Mention of Palm again excites wistful memories of the Palm Lifedrive and Psion 3a which Leo loved.  If only it had calendar and address book synchronisation, which Palm did introduce.



Meanwhile, Leo is waiting for something which reminds him of the Psion andwhich he will review for us.  Before Leo can tell us what it is, he's sidetracked and forgets about it.  Probably the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1, which Leo will get from Google and has ordered.

Today's TTTT is better than usual, because Dick is supplying the gadget.  Leo has a euphemism for it - defensive programming by Dick.  From RichardSolo, the website of Richard Thalheimer (who founded Sharper Image, the geek gadgets stores - first mentioned by Dick back in Episode 15), it is an extra Lithium-ion rechargeable battery for the iPhone.  This little battery has about 80% of the iPhone's battery capacity, and you can recharge it via USB, or using the wall unit (with the USB cable connected).  You can have the battery connected to the iPhone and charge both the phone and battery at the same time.

Because the battery has a standard iPod connector, it works with all iPods as well, in addition to the iPhone.  By the way, in Richard Thalheimer's video demo, he calls himself TAL-high-mer.

A Website A Day ...
... keeps the theme withdrawal symptoms away.  Daniel Rodrigues Parreira has set up a website for each day of the week, which plays the DGW theme of the day - although Show Free Saturday has 2 themes, as there were 2 submissions.  So the websites are MondayTheme, TuesdayTheme, WednesdayTheme, ThursdayTheme, FridayTheme, SaturdayTheme, and SundayTheme (just add .com).  What a great idea!


Listen to Episode 672
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Following Episode 627, Leo put the creator of the PED3, Mike Talmadge of thoughtout.biz, in touch with Dick, and Dick has another gadget from Talmadge.  The NAJA King (pronounced na-ha) is another stand for the iPod Touch/iPhone (Dick calls it the NAJA Max by mistake).  It has the same rotating holder as the PED3, but the stand itself is made of flexible coil (which can flatten into a compact coil ideal for travelling).  If you already have the PED3 and don't need the holder, you can get the NAJA King Coil separately.  Dick chooses to wear it round his neck.



There is a similar model for the Nano, simply called the NAJA.

On the Road to New Media Expo
Colleen and Tony drove for 10 hours with all the camera gear to Vegas for New Media Expo, and had the camera on the way.

Inside the GE Genesis Diesel Locomotive
A Screensaver fan Bob, an engineer from Metro North (where Dick once lost, and found, a shoulder bag, see Episode 291), has taken Dick on an inside tour of a new diesel locomotive.

Skytel
Dick in Episode 635 thought that Skytel, the paging service, was no longer in operation.  It turns out that it is alive and kicking, and a number of listeners still use its service, including DoctorMom (Twitter handle), Jeremiah from Detroit, and George Brickner.

DGW Commercials
A couple of DGW listeners are upset that the podcast is now "50% commercials" and will stop listening.  There are always people who resist them, and those who support them, such as listener Trey, back in Episode 168, who wrote a nice letter to Dick about missing the first round of Visa commercials.


Listen to Episode 641
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The Motorola Cellphone MP3 Player received an innovation award at CES 2002, before cellphones had built-in MP3 players.  It was an add-on or accessory for selected models of Motorola phones, with an SD card slot and it came with a 32MB SD card.  The music would stop if a call came in for the cellphone, and the headset had a built-in microphone for voice calls.  Complete with belt clip.

This gadget was actually covered on a previous Warehouse Friday (Episode 380).  The only other gadget featured twice on the show so far was the HydraBrush (Episodes 226 and 480).

A Death and A Resurrection
The New York Times reported on the "funeral" party at Hachette, a publisher which finally decided to stop making audio books on cassette tapes.  At the same time, however, vinyl record sales have jumped (see this report on the Washington Times).



A Mixer for Podcasting
Jacob writes to Dick for Leo's recommendation for a 3-mic mixer for amateur podcasting.  Leo uses the Mackie Onyx-1620, but suggests the Behringer Podcastudio Firewire, a reasonably priced podcast kit, even though it has only 2-mic input.  Available from ZZounds.

Podcasting Pioneers and Distant Cousins
Podcasting started in September 2004, by applying RSS feeds to downloadable content.  Leo started to offer his radio show as podcasts in October 2004 and was among the first podcasters, such as Podfather Adam Curry, Dave Slusher of Evil Genius Chronicles and Doug Kaye of IT Conversations.  Dick, as we all know, started in February 2006 with the Daily Giz Wiz, a podcasting cousin twice removed.


Listen to Episode 630
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Dick saw this gadget at the Marine Aftermarket Trade Show at Las Vegas.  The CoolHut is the equivalent of the Swiss Army Knife for a backpack.  Ideal for the beach or camping.  It has a cooler with a 24-can capacity, a tray for sandwiches, ....



... , a waterproof awning big enough to shade the "ground lounge" of 50 sq. ft . area with UV protection, complete with 2 lounge chairs, and an amplifier and speakers for the iPod.  A higher model, called the CoolerHut, includes Inflatable cushions.



Following the Party Line

Floss Weekly co-host, DGW fan and regular correspondent Randal Schwartz has a story to tell about a "party line" (Episode 614).  Alex, a friend of his, lived in a house in the late 70's with a party line.  Alex loved playing online games on his 300-baud modem connection, and had to wait until the line was free.  One day, Randal and Alex wanted to play a game and picked up the phone to check the line.  They overheard a neighbour say, when asked if they could be overheard on a party line, that all you could hear when the line was engaged, was a series of clicks - the classic noise of Alex's modem.


Listen to Episode 623
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