The Gadgets Page

A couple of weeks ago, Sheldon had this comic about a washing machine that could clean your clothes with sound waves instead of water.

• Sheldonâ„¢ Comic Strip: 05-31-09

The idea of a washing machine that could clean clothes with the power of sound waves is an OLD one. The June 1951 article in Mechanix Illustrated talks about just that:

• Sound Waves get your wash clean

It reads:

Sound Waves get your wash clean, claims Robert Bosch of Stuttgart, Germany. This seven-pound machine works on principle of auto horn. Hooter must sound for five minutes. Cost is $32.

There have been many people and companies that claim to be able to clean clothing or dishes with sound waves. One of them is Bosch. According to U.S. patent application number 20070131250:

“A dishwasher machine (1), in particular a domestic dishwasher machine, is described, comprising a washing container (2) and devices for washing items to be washed by means of washing solution, as well as a sound wave generator (5), wherein the sound wave generator (5) is used to generate a sound wave which at least assists the drying process of the items to be washed. In order to achieve the highest possible efficiency of the drying process, the sound wave generator (5) is designed to deliver sound waves of different frequency and/or amplitude.”

In this case, the sound waves are being used to dry the dishes, not remove stains and odors. This patent was filed over two years ago and we still haven’t seen the amazing ultrasonic dishwasher yet.

I’ve been promised it so many times that I don’t believe it will ever be invented.

As great as looking at photos on the computer can be, sometimes, I just want to look at pictures in a book. I can sit on the couch with family members and we can turn the pages together instead of crowding around my computer desk and trying to look at the photos together on the screen.

Unibind offers a way for you to make your own books with their MyBook kits:

• Photobook Creator Bundle

Here is a video showing how it works:

It costs $99 for the Photobook Creator and then $19 to $25 dollars for the MyBook kits. After looking at the cost for comparable Blurb and Qoop books, the Unibind system seems like a pretty good deal if you like to make books often (i.e. for each vacation or family event).

The Photobook Creator reminds me of the UniBind Binding Machine that I used when I worked at the engineering firm. It heat up the glue in the UniBind Steelback Spine and make a great book that stayed together. It was a great gadget and we made MANY reports with it, but it cost them a bunch of money just to buy the machine.

Those steelback spines came in a WIDE variety of sizes and we could make reports that held over 350 sheets of paper, but we had to add our own plastic sheets and covers to the reports, whereas the MyBook kits come with what looks like a hard cover book instead. I suspect I could use the smaller spines with the Photobook Creator gadget and that would make it affordable for normal human beings (instead of engineering firms).

I enjoy having a book that I can pull off the shelf and show friends, so I think this would be a good thing for me. It looks like Digital Scrapbooking 101 likes the Unibind system and even has tips on how to get the printing exactly right using the Photobook Creator software.

One thing she didn’t mention is that if you put more sheets of paper than are supposed to go in the book, the papers won’t be bound correctly and the middle sheets will fall out. You MUST follow their guidelines about how many sheets of paper that they can hold, otherwise, you’ll be sorry.

If you notice, she holds the book right on the heating element instead of letting it sit like they show in the official Unibind video. That’s because she has learned, just like we did, that the books MUST be fully on that heating element in order to melt the glue correctly. Otherwise, it just won’t work. At the engineering firm, we were making 10 or 15 books at a time, so we would just put them all in the Unibinder and they would be held upright by the plastic holders on the side. Based on this video, it looks like the Photobook Creator is big enough for the larger steelback spines from UniBind, so I would feel confident in using it for them as well.

Whether you’re creating photo books, reports, or even journals for writing with beautiful pictures, the Unibind system is a great way to make books that stand up to many viewings.

Home & Garden Television have a list of gardening gadgets that might make yardwork a little easier this year.

• Enabling Garden Tools and Other Cool Gadgets : Home Improvement : Home & Garden Television

Here are a few of their recommendations here:

• Pot Lifter: Make moving your potted plants easier with the pot lifter.

• Ergonomic hand tools: A set of tools that work with your body better than the old style of hand tools.

• Ratchet-driving pruning tools: Prune your bushes and trees with three times the strength.

• Garden knife: Cut, weed and dig with this tool.

• Grip tape: Replace the grip on your worn out tools. Wrap your gardening tool handles with this tape to prevent blisters on your hands.

• Gardener’s pouch: Carry all of your tools with you while you garden.

• Multi-purpose nozzle: Better water nozzle for your hose.

• Faux wasp nest: Fake out wasps and yellow jackets to build a nest somewhere else.

There are so many garden gadgets on the market today to help make keeping your property looking good with less strain on yourself. Get out and enjoy your yard today!

I LOVE toothbrush technology and I love to talk about the changes and advances that they have made with just a simple brush to clean teeth. It looks like Dave Kellett feels the same way.

• Sheldonâ„¢ Comic Strip: Daily Webcomic by Dave Kellett

My favorite is this one with the tilted head:

The Tilted Head: Doing what apparently your wrist couldn’t do before? Bend 10°?

I guess Dave hasn’t seen the commercial. You CAN’T get to those back teeth unless you have a Reach toothbrush or a flip-top head!

• Gadgets Page » 1946 Squibb Angle Pre-dates the Reach Toothbrush By 40 Years

I have enjoyed watching the Toothbrush Wars over the years. I find them far more entertaining than anything you could find on reality television. It’s nice to know Dave Kellett is right there watching with me!

I’ve seen lots of these kind of food cutting devices, like the Slap Chop, on television. I’ve even seen the original Slap Chop commercial, which was a typical infomercial with little to show for it. This remix of the commercial, however, is freakin’ AWESOME!!

I have watched this video at least five times now. I love the line, “Stop having boring tuna.” I know it’s a line straight from the commercial, but it sounds SO much better in the song. THIS is what should be on television, not the original commercial.

Wouldn’t you be more likely to buy the Slap Chop with a cool commercial like that?!

The original commercial is here:

This advertisement for the Squibb Angle toothbrush pre-dates the Reach toothbrush by forty years.

It reads:

“I can actually get at my back teeth now” is the surprised comment of many users. “I would never go back to my old-style brush.” A practicing dentist designed this brush with its patented “mouth-mirror” angle and the small head to reach “forgotten” places. The angle helps you clean every surface, every crevice. By the way, children can use this brush with ease, and do a good job too. Six colors. Your choice of hard or medium bristles.

Squibb A name you can trust

This angled toothbrush looked just like the Reach toothbrush that Johnson & Johnson promoted in the early 1980’s. Here’s a commercial for it:

I wonder what happened between 1946 and 1986. When the Reach toothbrush came out, we all thought that it was an innovation. I remember being so impressed by the “new” shape for a toothbrush and wanted one immediately. Why didn’t the Squibb brush catch on and stick around?

Squibb is still a huge biopharmaceutical company, so it’s not like they don’t own the patents anymore. Considering the patent-troll-crazed society that we live in today, it’s shocking to me that Squibb didn’t sue Johnson & Johnson into oblivion back in 1986.

Ad via: Found in Mom’s Basement: 1946 ad for angled toothbrush from Squibb

Remember all the fuss about this patent filed by Apple?

• United States Patent Application: 0080204426

People saw this patent and immediately assumed that Apple was ready to release an iTablet computer. It didn’t help that these drawings from the patent LOOKED like a tablet PC.

There were rumors that they were making a big iPod Touch. Some people called it the iBook. Others called it an iTablet. I don’t care what they call it. I’m ready for it now.

When I saw all of the posts about this patent from Apple, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, “Huh? Who’d want a huge iPod Touch?!”

Umm… That would be ME.

Now that I am doing ALL of my reading on my iPhone, the idea of having a huge iPod Touch is quite appealing now. It’s part of the reason I’m attracted to the Amazon Kindle. Except if Apple made a reader, it would be awesome!

Hey, Barnes & Noble? Remember when I said that you couldn’t tempt me to buy an eBook reader from you? Yeah, I was wrong. If your unnamed device manufacturer is Apple, I’m SO there!

More patent information: Apple iTablet Confirmed Expected In Early 2009 – Smarthouse

This week, I focused on the new fitness gadgets that were showcased at the IHRSA (International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association) 2009 Conference in San Francisco. I covered them on Starling Fitness, so you can hop over there to see what we found.

• Starling Fitness » SpeedFit Speedboard Treadmill

• Starling Fitness » TreadWall

• Starling Fitness » Alter G-Trainer Anti-Gravity Treadmill

• Starling Fitness » Jacobs Ladder

• Starling Fitness » Xrkade

• Starling Fitness » TRX Suspension Trainer

Of them all, I found the Treadwall to be the most interesting. Most of these gadgets are marketed to commercial gyms, so the only way we’ll ever see them is if our local gym shells out the money for them. It sure is fun to see what the fitness world is doing, though.

Felicia Day is the very excellent actress from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long blog, The Guild and many other great performances. She’s also a self-professed geek girl and gadget lover. Her father bought her an Amazon Kindle a couple of weeks ago and she did a review of it on her blog:

• Felicia Day » Blog Archive » Kindle Oh, Kindle

She loves it, but she can also recognize the silly aspects of it. Here is her list of things that she loves and hates about the kindle.

Positive Aspects:

• Easy to read screen.
• Free wireless to download books.
• Great sync between the Kindle and the iPhone app.
• Light and great for travelers.
• Newspaper subscriptions that are inexpensive and paper-free.
• No embarrassing cover art when you read trashy novels. Feel free to indulge that cheap romance novel habit to your heart’s content.
• People want to ogle and touch your new toy.

Negative Aspects:

• No touch screen.
• It’s slow considering what it is doing.
• Disorganized home page.
• The web looks awful in black and white.
• No PDF support.
• You have to pay to put your own documents on the Kindle.

When Amazon released a FREE Kindle iPhone application, I immediately downloaded it and bought several books from Amazon. I have really enjoyed reading books on my iPhone and I have no desire now to buy a Kindle (again). I don’t think they ever wanted to sell me a Kindle. I think they just wanted to sell me books all along.

You can download the iPhone application here:

• Amazon Kindle application for the iPhone: iTunes Link

Being able to read a novel whenever a moment of boredom arrives is a luxury that only those willing to carry big purses used to be able to enjoy. Now, I can pull out my phone and read a book no matter where I am. I still carry the big purse, though…

Since there were so few crowds at CES, it was shocking to see one. The biggest crowds EVERY day at the Sands Expo Center were surrounding the Mattel booth.

It was all because of a game called Mind Flex.

You wear a band around your head and you try to guide a small ball through an obstacle course using the power of your mind.

We never saw anyone master the technique of moving the ball through the course, but EVERYONE was interested in seeing people try.

Here is a video from The Guardian showing how the game works:

Here’s another video from CBS that shows it in MUCH more detail:

At a convention that was as empty and quiet as CES was this year, it was surprising to see so many people interested in one thing. Mike and I were never able to get close enough to it to try to play because it was so popular. Mike supposed that it was a form of biofeedback used as a controller for the game, but we weren’t able to test that theory.

Kudos to Mattel for being able to draw a crowd of people during a CES that was void of crowds!