Latest Posts on Coolest Gadgets

Toshiba’s new ad breaks Guinness World Record
Noah Disaster Shelter
Boston Dynamics AlphaDog is great robotic mule
45,000 Station Car Radio should last you a lifetime
NERF brand dresses up tech gear from Sakar
iPod nano gets revamped
Apple iPhone 4S launched

Toshiba’s new ad breaks Guinness World Record

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 11:44 AM PDT

I remember seeing all sorts of examples of “bullet time” a year before The Matrix came out, and then I ended up seeing years of knock-offs. This commercial by Toshiba called “Time Sculpture” is “bullet time” with a machine gun.

Go ahead and watch the video after the jump, and you will see how impressive simple moves are when put together, and viewed in 360 degrees. I hope that you appreciate the work that went into it.

It took 200 cameras on a rig to get this shot, and the circular rig that surrounded the actors had to be taken out with a computer. It took about 110 hours worth of film with 20 terabytes of data, and it has broken the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest number of moving image cameras in a composite shot.

Now all that is needed is to write a film about this shot. Perhaps if Christopher Nolan is working on an Inception 2, he can use a scene like this. Then again, there really shouldn’t be an Inception 2.

You know what would really be cool? If I could view something like this in 3D. I would imagine that you would have to program that from the get-go, or you could do the post-production 3D fixes that are happening a lot in movies these days.

What I don’t want to see is this technique played ad nauseum. By the way, this is a commercial meant to spotlight a Toshiba product.

Source

Check out the Coolest Gadgets 2008 Gift Guides, Christmas shopping made easy.
[ Toshiba’s new ad breaks Guinness World Record copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Noah Disaster Shelter

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 11:18 AM PDT

For those that need some protection from natural disasters, you might want to consider the Noah Disaster Shelter.

I think the product is well-named, but it isn’t an ark capable of holding two of every animal on Earth. It can hold about four people. Apparently, there is a pole in the middle to hold onto, and there are pillows to keep one safe. I don’t have any word if there are any seat belts, but there should be.

The idea is that you and three others get inside this thing, and it bobs to the top after the tsunami, earthquake, or flood goes over. I am assuming that once the big yellow ball bobs to the top, you can call for a helicopter to come pick you up.

It is created by New CosmoPower, and it will cost about $3,900. If you live in a house of five people, then you will have to decide who has to stay behind. Oh, you don’t want to have to play that game. You had better get two.

Also, you might want to bring a deck of cards, because you might be in for a long wait until the disaster passes. Of course, if this ball is in the heart of a natural disaster, then you might end up feeling like you are in a pinball.

Source

Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Noah Disaster Shelter copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Boston Dynamics AlphaDog is great robotic mule

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 10:35 AM PDT

The people at Boston Dynamics have created the AlphaDog, a robotic mule that is capable of carrying 400 pounds. Not surprisingly, this project has been developed by DARPA.

I’m guessing that the purpose of the Alpha Dog is to be a robotic beast of burden when the troops are deployed. Now you won’t have to have the soldiers who carry the heavy equipment, as this robo-mule will do it for them.

You should definitely hit the jump to see this Alpha Dog in action, as it is able to manage some pretty rough terrain. Granted, it is being held up by something, but it is enough to show that it could work. DARPA hopes to get a working one of these by 2012.

This Alpha Dog kind of scares me. I guess it is all the years of watching science fiction movies where the big, bad robots were trying to hunt the humans down. You will notice that in the video there are shots of people ramming it on the side. You will see that the Alpha dog recovers very well. I’m not looking forward to the day when it rams back.

You will also see footage of how it gets to its feet. I get the feeling that being knocked over will not affect this guy.

So will the future wars be full of these guys? Who knows. Just remember the lessons of the Cylons.

Source

Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Boston Dynamics AlphaDog is great robotic mule copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

45,000 Station Car Radio should last you a lifetime

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:30 AM PDT

If you love heading out on long road trips, then surely keeping yourself entertained behind the wheel involves far more than just playing games with your kids in counting the number of select makes of cars or guessing the state where the car is from, as some of us prefer something more passive like soothing music in order to drown out the banter from the kids at the back. It is also nice when you can enjoy your favorite ballad with your loved one sitting right next to you, so why not depart from the safety and familiarity of a playlist on your iPod and take your chances with the $99.95 45,000 Station Car Radio?

This in-car device will play nice with an iPhone in order to access more than 45,000 AM/FM and Internet radio stations. All you need to do is make sure it is powered by the vehicle’s 12-volt power socket, where it will “talk” to the iPhone via Bluetooth. A radio station of your choice will be streamed through an iPhone, where it is then played through a car’s radio over an unused FM frequency.

The free iPhone app can stream 45,000 stations live, and these will also comprise nationwide NPR stations as well as Pandora and Grooveshark stations. It seems to be quite the entertainment device to own, especially when there are still 10 hours to go to your holiday destination.

Conference Calendar – The global conference and expo finder.
[ 45,000 Station Car Radio should last you a lifetime copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

NERF brand dresses up tech gear from Sakar

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 05:00 AM PDT

Do you have a penchant for NERF blasters and shooters? Well, if that brand is one of your favorites when it comes to outdoor toys for your kids, then you will be pleased to hear that there is now a partnership with NERF and Sakar International, resulting in Hasbro licensed products that will include NERF-branded night vision goggles, helmet cams and other audio, visual and technology merchandise. Guess playing the spy is going to get more fun than ever, where the new range of toys will boast the look and feel of the iconic NERF brand.

Ready to hit the mass market in time for the mad holiday season (November, actually), you will be able to pick up the new range of NERF-branded gear at prices starting from $19.99, going all the way to $59.99. Here’s a quick preview of what you can expect – a pair of night vision goggles to pummel your target with NERF darts even when it is pitch black, a digital helmet cam that can be mounted on either a helmet or bike as you ride down the street with your NERF rifle in hand, a pocket DVR to record those victorious moments after your opponents are subdued, as well as 2.1-megapixel and 5.1-megapixel digital cameras which come packaged with social networking software.

Do you think that this kind of diversification bodes well for NERF?

Press Release

Conference Calendar – The global conference and expo finder.
[ NERF brand dresses up tech gear from Sakar copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

iPod nano gets revamped

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 04:30 AM PDT

Out of the entire iPod range, the iPod classic and iPod shuffle seem to be the most likely candidates to be discontinued, but there was no such announcement made when the iPhone 4S was announced earlier yesterday morning. Well, at least one member of the iPod family received an upgrade, which is the iPod nano. Of course, the iPod touch has gotten more affordable, but we will get to that at the end of the article.

The iPod nano will now feature larger icons that makes it even easier to use, thanks to the intuitive Multi-Touch user interface. Frankly, with a screen size that small, I don’t think there really is a need to have so many fingers dance all over the screen at once, but if it were to make life easier, why not? There is also a choice of 16 new digital clock faces to choose from to keep even the most fussy person happy, ranging from the classic analog all the way to Disney characters such as Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Fitness buffs who have long used the iPod nano to track their progress will be pleased to know that said device will be able to track your runs and walks the moment it is unboxed without the need for any more accessories, letting it keep a record of your time, pace and distance of your run, in addition to counting how many Big Macs you’ve earned as well as doubling up as a pedometer. There is even motivational real-time voice feedback when you run in 7 languages, but I think a group of girls with pom-poms might do better for some.

As for the iPod touch, it will now play nice with Apple's new iOS 5 that will come with more than 200 new features such as iMessage, Game Center, Notifications and Wi-Fi Syncing to iTunes. With iMessage, you can send text messages, photos, videos and contact information to an individual or group as long as they too, run on other iOS 5-powered devices like the iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

Last but not least, pricing is a concern to us all. The new iPod nano with Multi-Touch will start from $129 for the 8GB model and $20 more will net you double the memory, while the iPod touch will start from $199 onwards.

Press Release

Introducing Foolish Gadgets because not all gadgets are cool

[ iPod nano gets revamped copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Apple iPhone 4S launched

Posted: 05 Oct 2011 04:00 AM PDT

October 4th came and went – and with that, the world will have another iPhone to play around with, this time being the iPhone 4S which frankly, is quite a disappointment compared to all the hype that was present before. Many people were wondering whether it would be the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 that would be announced, or is it both? I guess all that let-down was reflected in a drop in Apple’s stock price after the iPhone 4S announcement yesterday.

Touted to be the “most amazing iPhone yet” (they say that all the time), it is safe to say that all the improvements made to the iPhone 4S are internal and not external – it will, after all, run on Apple’s dual-core A5 processor that is also found in the iPad 2, where it is said to be able to offer double the processing power of its predecessor, not to mention delivering up to 7 times faster graphics compared to the iPhone 4. Seems like portable gaming has gotten even better, and we could soon see games that will run only on the iPhone 4S as the other handsets are way too slow to handle such graphical performance. Head on after the jump to read about the rest of the iPhone 4S.

The 8-megapixel shooter in the iPhone 4S deserves mention, since it now enables you to record in full 1080p HD resolution, sporting a new video image stabilization feature alongside increased sensitivity that makes your low light images look far better than ever before. It is also a world phone, supporting both CDMA and GSM networks, making us wonder whether this means Sprint and T-Mobile will be picking up the phone soon as well.

iOS 5 is also thrown into the mix, boasting more than 200 new features such as Notification Center, which is an innovative method to easily view and manage notifications in one place without interruption and iMessage, a new kind of messaging service that enables you to send text messages, photos and videos between all iOS 5 users. Owners of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS will be able to download iOS 5 as a free software update so that they are not left behind.

As usual, black or white are the color choices for the iPhone 4S, where the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB models will retail for $199, $299 and $399, respectively. Are you part of the disappointed crowd?

Press Release

Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Apple iPhone 4S launched copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]