The Gadgets Page

I always thought little stairs like the Deluxe Doggie Stairs were for spoiled and pampered dogs who had been bred too small for life in a normal household, but after using these stairs for the last few months, my entire outlook has changed. Back in March, Mike and I learned that our beloved cat, Maggie, is dying of kidney failure. We have tried to make her life more comfortable and have done our best to keep her healthy despite this death sentence. We have a set of these stairs next to our bed, so she can climb up, even in her weakened state.

It has been a godsend to us because she is slowly dying, but she still loves to cuddle at night, kneading on my shoulders and back with loud purrs. As long as she is able to do that, Mike and I are going to keep dosing her with medicine and fluids to keep her alive.

Maggie has given us such joy that now that it finally has come to the end of her life, we feel that we should do everything that we can do to make her comfortable. She is nearing the end and soon we will have to make a decision, but until then, these stairs have made the difference between a nightly snuggle and a kitty hiding under the bed.

Maggie may not be able to cuddle me like this for very much longer, but as long as she can get up the doggie stairs, I will do my best to keep her alive.

I was interested in these Electric Lift Tables from Anthro. The video for them makes them look like the perfect table for a person who wants to work while standing or sitting. For those of us who get stir crazy sitting all day, a desk that can change like this would be a godsend.

Unfortunately, when I looked at the prices in their catalog, the least expensive of the desks is $2395. That’s WAY more than I’d like to spend on a desk, even if it adjusts at the touch of a button. For that price, I can buy the best laptop money can buy and move it to two different desks with different heights.

I love the idea of an adjustable desk, but I’m not willing to shell out that kind of money for one.

This TED video is a great magic show from Marco Tempest. He used three iPhones and a fair bit of close-up magic to discuss honesty, deception, lies and truth.

I love it when people use technology in ways that are entirely new and innovative, especially when they entertain us. I remember as a kid that people said that computers might help in calculations, but they would never be a tool for artists. It’s so refreshing to know that humans can use ANYTHING for a tool for creativity, even a simple iPhone.

Via Marco Tempest: The magic of truth and lies (and iPods) | Video on TED.com

I just had to laugh when I read this comic:

• Basic Instructions – How to Care for Your Smartphone

After years of hiding my beautiful iPhone in bulky cases, I finally decided that I was just going to let it be naked.

Of course, then I dropped it..

Now, my iPhone looks like hell and I’m desperate for the iPhone 5 to become a reality. Part of me hates that I damaged my iPhone, but another part of me feels happy that I’ve gotten the absolute full use out of my beloved gadget.

When I get the iPhone 5, will I swath it in bouncy cases and screen protectors? Heck ya! Apple does an amazing job designing their phones for beauty and I feel guilty for covering it up, but I can’t risk another cracked screen. I’ll just have to let the beauty hide beneath.

Mike and I were lucky enough to attend the Clark County Domestic Technology: Making Housework Easier exhibit in Henderson, Nevada last November. Since my grandmother was an antiques collector, many of the items were things that I had actually used as a child, so it brought back many fond memories for me, even though most of these gadgets were far ahead of my time.

The exhibit started out with vacuums and their salesmen.

This Electrolux looks exactly like the vacuum that my grandmother used on the stairs. She kept it in the basement. Seeing it makes me think of the green shag carpet and how many times I vacuumed up the stairs with that aqua colored vacuum.

I loved how the museum posted replicas of the advertisements for the gadgets alongside the real thing.

My grandmother also had this iron. I remember ironing my grandpa’s handkerchiefs with it while watching Phil Donahue on the television. I can still smell the spray starch.

This Rival crockpot, however, is exactly like the one from my mom’s house. Carol made homemade chicken noodle soup in that crockpot so many times that my mouth waters just seeing that avocado colored appliance.

I was most surprised by the antique toasters. I had no idea how old that technology was.

I loved how the museum included technology from present day. In this “Keeping Food Fresh” section, they included antique Mason jars, Tupperware from the 1970’s and even Ziploc containers from 2010. A century of awesome on one shelf.

The blender on the right is exactly like the one my mom had. We made so many cakes and cookies with that blender. She told me that she received that blender as a wedding present and it always amazed me that something older than me was still helping us in the kitchen.

Some of the gadgets brought back a strange nostalgia like the box for the hot plate in the background here. Then again, they included a George Foreman grill, which is a similar appliance, but it took the world by storm when it hit the market.

Seeing this exhibit was a strange mixture of nostalgia for the past and coveting in the present. The starburst clock on the wall made me jealous with desire.

It was a great exhibit and I truly enjoyed myself. Here is a video from the Clark County Museum talking about it:

I noticed that the 3DS cartridges are the same size and the normal DS cartridges and would fit just fine if it weren’t for the plastic nubbin on the side.

What would happen if I shaved off that nubbin? Would it work in my DS?

Many thanks to Joystiq for answering this question for me. Sadly, the answer is no.

When you shave off the nubbin and put it in the DSi, you get this result.

It says, “There is nothing inserted into the Game Card slot.”

They go on to say that shaving off the nubbin doesn’t make the game unplayable in the 3DS, so fortunately they didn’t lose a game researching that for us.

Considering all the extra programming required to create a 3D game, I’m not surprised that the 3DS games don’t work in the old machines, but I AM disappointed that we’ll have to buy an entire new DS machine in order to play the new MarioKart game.

This video of twin three-year-old boys playing Just Dance 2 on the Wii is so adorable! Watch the boy on the left at the 1:58 minute mark. He’s just the CUTEST!! If you play on Xbox 360, there is Just Dance 3 for Kinect. I have played a bunch of these dancing games ever since DDR was a flash in the pan years ago and I still love them. They make me want to MOVE!

Via: Littlest, Yellowest, Differentest

When I heard about The Callet, I read about it in a magazine (see the photo on the right). I thought it was a stroke of genius. Instead of carrying around a phone AND a wallet, I could slip my credit cards into my phone case. Life would be just a tad simpler.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way for me. Firstly, it wasn’t able to hold more than two cards and I have a total of five if you count my driver’s license and health insurance card in the mix. So, I thought I might be able to pare things down. Maybe I needed to be more streamlined, so I chose my favorite two and used them with The Callet.

That’s when things got really awkward. There are few things more embarrassing than struggling to get your card out of your wallet when it’s time to pay and The Callet made me feel that way EVERY time I used it. The case is made out of silicone, so it REALLY sticks to your card as you’re trying to remove it. I had such a hard time getting my cards out that I only used The Callet case for ONE DAY. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Slimming down to only two cards was hard enough, but when it came time to pay, I just couldn’t bear to fight with the damn thing just to get my card out.

If you are tempted by The Callet, don’t waste your money. It really isn’t worth it.

I found this old booklet for the Sunbeam Shavemaster from 1947 and I thought I would share it. Click on it to see full-size.

It looks like Sunbeam doesn’t make shavers anymore. I always find it fascinating when companies stop making products after DECADES in the industry. The Shavemaster was introduced in 1936 and Sunbeam continued making shavers until the 1970’s. After forty years of making a product, they stopped.

Here is an old ad from the 1970’s for the Shavemaster:

If you’ve got a DSLR or a point-n-shoot camera that does not do geotagging automatically, and you have an iPhone, then you need to know about two apps in the iTunes store that will turn your iPhone into a Geotagging gadget for your photos.

Geotagging is a simple concept: Photos are stored with the location where they were taken. It gives you the ability to map out your trips after the fact, remember where you were, and upload your photos to Google Earth and other cloud services so that other people can see what you saw everywhere around the world. Of course you want to be careful not to Geotag photos around your house and then upload them to online services like facebook because it will reveal where you live. This is why I don’t necessarily like cameras that automatically Geotag all photos.

I’ve used two Geottagging apps for the iPhone:

• gps4cam ($2.99)
• GeotagPhoto ($3.99)

Both are good and differ only in the method they use to transfer geotagging information from the phone to your computer. With both, you go through these simple steps:

• Sync your camera’s time to your phone time
• Create a “trip” (shooting session)
• Let the app run in the background while you take pictures all day
• Export your GPS logging data
• Run the app’s desktop Geotagging application
• Import your photos into iPhoto, Picassa, or whatever tool you use to manage photos.

The only difference between the two is the way they export data from the iPhone app:

With GeotagPhoto, you export your trips up to their website, and their Java-based desktop app downloads that info to tag your photos. This requires an active network connection when you import, but it’s simple and it works well. You have to go through a one-time “pairing” of your iPhone app to your computer via an emailed link. Of course there will come a day with this service stops working, and then the app won’t work. GeotagPhoto is $3.99.

With gps4cam, when you export it generates a QR (2D) barcode containing all your GPS data on your phone screen, and you take a photo of the screen on the same memory card. When you run the import app, it scans all your photos and finds the QR codes from amongst them, extracts the GPS log data, and then updates the photos that aren’t QR codes. Extremely clever, equally easy, and no network connection required. The only issue I found with it is my zoom telephoto has to be about 5′ away from my phone to achieve focus on the QR code (so I change the lens first).

These two apps are amazing examples of how smartphones and apps are replacing various gadgets that you would either go without or spend hundreds of dollars on.