Phobia-Watch: Self-Sanitizing Keyboard
If Howard Hughes hadn’t shuffled off this Earth in a pair of tissue-box shoes 33 years ago, this is doubtless the keyboard the notorious OCD sufferer would be using.
It is, according to the maker Vioguard, the world’s first self-sanitizing keyboard. Rather than wait for you filthy shaved monkeys to get around to cleaning it, the keyboard automatically retracts into its own motorized home and is therein bathed in glorious, cleansing UV light, which will kill a satisfying 99% of germs (although it will do nothing for the cookie-crumbs languishing inside).
How much is this wonderful, sanitary machine? A mere $900, which will pay itself back in un-bought hand-sanitizer in just a few thousand years.
Product page [Vioguard via SlipperyBrick]
Rush-Hour: Booq Bag Is an Office in Your Lap
Viper Rush is not the name for hallucinations experienced after a snake-bite. Instead, it is a bag that could truly be called a mobile office.
The shoulder bag, from Booq, offers a plain but good-looking, semi-rigid foam face to the world: an exterior that should cope with bumps and splashes well enough. Open it up and it is something like the TARDIS, incorporating enough nooks and crannies for all the electronic gubbins that is essential to daily life.
However, when you open it up still further, it becomes a desk. The laptop section turns into a lap-top workspace, with “bumpers” to raise the computer’s hot bottom into the air and a pair of restraining straps to keep the lid from opening all the way.
It might be a little bulky for those used to just tossing their notebook, unprotected, into a rucksack, but for serious business travelers, or for anyone who wants to grab a few minutes of work/Twitter when they’re out on the road, this looks to be a very nice bag. Better, it costs a very reasonable $130, in both medium (15-inch computer) and large (17-inch) sizes.
Product page [Booq. Thanks, Brad!]
TwitterPeek, A Twitter-Only Handset
Take a peek at the new TwitterPeek, an always-on, always connected Twitter machine. It comes from the folks that make the Peek and Peek Pronto, two bare-bones email-only handsets that can be bought and used without monthly contracts.
The TwitterPeek stays with the simple approach, and does nothing but send, receive and search Twitter posts. It doesn’t do SMS, and it doesn’t even do email. At first we thought this was a joke, but the Amazon listing looks real enough and a quick visit to the Peek discussion forums shows this request from the company: “As usual we have a couple things cooking in the Peek oven. We’re looking for Peeksters that use Twitter a lot.”
The package will cost $200, and that includes a lifetime of Tweeting — you’ll never pay for your connectivity. We expect that we’ll start to see more and more devices with “free” internet connections over cell networks, where the seller does a deal with the telcos to provide low-bandwidth hook-ups. It has worked for the Kindle, so maybe we’ll get the long promised internet-connected Toaster after all. One which burns a Tweet into your breakfast slice.
The picture, by the way, is from Peter Hu’s (of Time and CrunchGear) Twitter feed. We’re running this instead of the regular product shot because a) it is ironically appropriate and b) there’s a huge WIRED logo on the front of the box.
Product page [Amazon via Peter Hu’s Twitter]
See Also:
- Peek Now Available in Cheap Packs of Five
- Peek Leak: Pronto Email Device is Twice as Fast
- Official: Peek Pushes Pronto with Unlimited Texting
- Peek Could Kill Subscription Fees For Its Email Device
- Review: Peek Device Delivers Peak Email Performance And Not Much …
Breaking: Non-Ugly USB Card Readers
Elecom’s new everything-in-one memory card reader is exactly the same as every other cheap memory card reader you can buy, with on exception: it is good-looking enough that you won’t want to hide it away in a drawer when you’re done transferring files.
To this end, the Japanese company has put a magnet inside it so you can stow the reader proudly anywhere there is metal in your home. Like, for instance, erm… the refrigerator?
It might sound frivolous, but it’s a fair complaint about many computer accessories: they’re just too ugly. Elecom’s new widgets might not last much longer than the usual junk card-readers we all buy, but at least we won’t be ashamed to use them during their short lives. Available now in black and white, along with what my mother would call “hot pink” and “lime green”. ¥2,520 or $27.
Product page [Elecom via Akihabara News]
Posted: October 27th, 2009
at 8:42am by Charlie Sorrel
Topics: Accessories and Peripherals, hey good-lookin'
InPulse Blackberry Wristwatch Makes Crackberry Even More Addictive
The much-rumored inPulse – a wristwatch accessory for the Blackberry – has materialized. Now, instead of rudely checking your Blackberry every few minutes during meetings, you can instead glance at your watch, an age-old gesture of boredom guaranteed to offend everyone, young and old.
The quite lovely-looking inPulse connects to a Blackberry via Bluetooth and can either alert you to the full barrage of your very important email or can be set to filter it. These alerts are then displayed on the 1.3-inch OLED screen, and you are notified of their presence by the vibrator inside, and the whole watch, when fully charged (via microUSB), should last for around four days.
Pretty much anything that can be pushed to the Blackberry can be pushed those few inches further to your wrist. This includes RSS feeds, weather reports, SMS messages and the Twitter, guaranteeing that you can remain blissfully distracted during your next trial-by-PowerPoint. You’ll still have to pull out your crackberry to reply, but at least now you’ll know which messages to respond to.
The inPulse will be available in a limited first run “very soon” for a reasonable $150.
Product page [Allerta. Thanks, Eric!]
Posted: October 26th, 2009
at 9:33am by Charlie Sorrel
Topics: Accessories and Peripherals, blackberry
