Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 6:00 pm
We all know that if you wore a red shirt on Star Trek (the original series) that your days (or minutes) were likely numbered. Maybe it’s just that working for the Security or Engineering departments on a Federation starship is more dangerous than most other jobs. But even if you’re worried about...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 5:00 pm
All assassins worth their salt know that jumping into a cart full of hay is the quickest way to descend from a great height.  That gimmick won’t fly (or land safely) in the world of the Witcher though, as revealed by this Easter Egg in The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings: Here’s a video of the E...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 4:00 pm
I’ll admit that generally I’m not a big fan of most green vehicles such as hybrids or EVs. I don’t have anything against the technology or saving the environment, I just think most of the green vehicles out there are butt-ugly. I will say that Tesla has a history of making some of the few nice...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 3:00 pm
Have you ever wanted to share audio from your mobile device, but found that the internal speakers were too weak? Here’s a way to improve your sound without lugging around something that’s too heavy. The Zooka portable speaker was created by the design studio New and it might be the perfect solut...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 2:00 pm
Jaimie Mantzel is excited about the new toy that he invented. With good reason. He even has a toy company on board to help produce his walking robot toy. He’s calling this prototype robot the “greatest toy in the universe.” Watch the video and you might even agree. This 6-legged robot is remo...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 1:00 pm
Alicia Scantlin spread the Skyrim mania to her pets, crocheting Dragonborn and stegosaurus dragon costumes for her dogs. Internet, I am disappoint. Where are the Atlas and P-body dog costumes? The dragon costume is a one-piece suit, but the Dragonborn armor is made of several pieces, including a sw...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 12:42 pm
There are seemingly thousands of different multitools on the market, but I can never decide which one I should buy. Now, my decision might have just gotten easier, thanks to Gerber’s Steady Tool, which adds a handy tripod to their latest pocket-sized tool. The compact and versatile Steady tool ha...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 12:00 pm
I’ve been hit with the boredom bug. Every once in a while, I look at the stuff I have and realize that I must be a pretty boring person with all the boring stuff I have lying around. The latest one was my iPad. It’s encased in a Smart Cover, which I put inside a generic sleeve. Boring, I know. A...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 11:00 am
With all the emphasis on going green or all-natural these days, I think it’s just appropriate for toys to follow suit. The first one being LEGOs – or should I say, Earth Blocks. There are two reasons why they’re named that way: first of all, they’re all in earth tones or colors. Second of a...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 10, 2012, 10:00 am
Get ready to assemble your Avengers motorcycle gang with this awesome Captain America Motorcycle Suit from UD Replicas. It’s officially-licensed and is a nicely detailed replica of the suit worn in Captain America: The First Avenger. All of the pieces are leather. The gloves, boots, belt, pants, ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 9:00 pm
Statement shirts, statement earrings, statement necklackes, statement doormats – all sorts of stuff that make a statement are everywhere these days. Statement shoes have long been in fashion as well, but I think I just saw the pair that make the loudest statement ever. These ornate “Steampunk�...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 8:00 pm
You’ve got to hand it to the cheap Chinese gadget makers. Not only are they amazingly ballsy to release products which clearly bear the branding of products they haven’t licensed, but in this case, they’ve produced something that doesn’t even bear a slight resemblance to the product in quest...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 7:00 pm
My sister is due in a couple of months, and the whole family is excited. She’s going to have a baby girl, and my parents are probably the most giddy set of soon-to-be-grandparents ever. She got a 4D ultrasound done just last week, so we all got a good look at her baby. But before the 4D one was a...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 6:00 pm
Batteries suck. You have to have the right kind for your device, they have to be charged and they are prone to failure way too often. Forget batteries. What we need is a robot that can generate power by eating leaves and dirt, maybe even urine and feces, since humanity has those in spades. The Ecob...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 5:00 pm
The last time we talked about a replica gun from Portal, the thing was made by the bad-ass video game weapon replica maker Harrison Krix from Volpin Props. I don’t even want to think about how expensive that handmade piece of awesome would cost. Another full-size 1:1 scale replica of that portal o...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 4:19 pm
The hardcore LEGO geeks over at The Brothers Brick have said that the new LEGO Friends play sets aimed at girls kill the imagination, but I don’t agree. My daughter is seven and her name is Emma. One of the little LEGO Friends characters is named Emma as well. That means we’re now in possession ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 3:00 pm
Have you ever been stuck in the wilderness and your devices are about to fail because there is just no way to charge them back up? Check out BioLite’s CampStove, which will allow you to cook or heat your food while charging up your gadgets at the same time. The CampStove features a thermoelectric...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 2:00 pm
While I can understand the convenience of sat navs, using an existing device like an iPhone or iPad to navigate also makes a lot of sense. The only trouble that I see is that you’ll might end up using your gadget for texting or tweeting, and your car will end up in a ditch. For those of you who do...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 1:00 pm
You know what they say about wine: the older it is, the better it gets. But what about wine that was literally fermented with the usual stuff and with something that’s extremely old? Like roughly around 4.5 billion years old? Apparently, not so bad. But you might have to try it out yourself by gr...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 9, 2012, 12:00 pm
Everyone loves a good puzzle. But if you’re strapped for time and haven’t figured out how to read the time off the Decypher watch, then I don’t think you’ll be very fond of it at all. The watch face displays four figures, each with a lot of random-looking lines and triangles stuck on them a...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 6:00 pm
Hand-powered generators are pretty common nowadays, but this is the first foot-powered model that I’ve seen. Developed by K-TOR, the Power Box has a two-bladed socket, so you can charge or power almost any device while working up a sweat. Lance Armstrong can probably charge his phone in 5 seconds ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 5:00 pm
The appeal of poop is in the eye of the beholder – after considering, of course, where it came from. For example, you wouldn’t willingly drink something that had something to do with human poop, but you might drink some tea that’s been fertilized with panda poop, right? Or not. If you’re op...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 4:00 pm
Pot holders are used to protect your counters and tables from burn marks when setting a hot pot of food down, plus they help you grab hot stuff in the oven. But they are always plain and boring. Why not geek things up with a crocheted Spock holder? Burn marks on your stuff are highly illogical and ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 3:00 pm
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen pixelated superheroes around here, but these ones created by Pablo Cialoni, better known by his handle Pahito, look slightly more minimal than the others that I’ve come across, while still conveying the essence of each character. Pahito designed pixel...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 2:00 pm
I never thought about reusing a spent airbag for much of anything, but it does make sense to upcycle this kind of durable material if you can. Toronto-based Mariclaro makes them all into backpacks and carryalls that are quite different from others that I’ve seen. Mariclaro also salvages truck tar...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 1:00 pm
You might have noticed that there have been an increasing number of attacks on company servers and databases in recent times. Some groups hack for the fun of it all, although I don’t really see where the fun in causing such damage is, though. However, others hackers have more malicious and dangero...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 12:00 pm
The art director of Tor Books, Irene Gallo, posted a collection of sci-fi/fantasy illustrations that reference famous paintings. Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase? I think not. Have a look at C-3PO Descending a Staircase from John Mattos. I hear what you nose-up-in-the-air art snobs are sayin...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 11:00 am
There’s just something so warm and dreamy about walking into the living room and seeing a fire crackling in the fireplace. However, they can be a hassle to clean, and starting up the fire can become quite the chore. And if you think about it, fireplaces look out of place in many more modern houses...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 10:00 am
Made famous by its deadliness, the Ebola virus was first described in 1976. It was made famous by The Hot Zone by Richard Preston and some small epidemics that thankfully didn’t kill off most of the planet. While it never reached the epidemic levels feared, it’s still interesting to check out th...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 6, 2012, 9:00 am
I’ve never bought a mouse pad. Not only are most of them kitschy, I barely even need one because even my cheap optical mice works on different surfaces. That said, I would still like to get a Mouserug for my trusty Logitech. It’s the least I can do for its years of service. Mouserugs look a lot...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 5:00 pm
I know that the Pokémon slogan is “Gotta catch ‘em all”, but I didn’t think that included women. Check out how one clever geek proposed to his girlfriend. Apparently they both enjoy the Pokémon card game, so he made a special card and attached a ring, though I’m not sure how he fit it...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 4:00 pm
I can’t decide whether these Koss headphones are just simply retro or retro-futuristically cool. It’s probably up to your personal taste, but the Koss Porta Pro Headphones definitely aren’t your dad’s headphones. Nope, they’ve got all of the latest tech to make your music from your mobile...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 3:00 pm
Last year, Nintendo and Japanese developer Tecmo Koei threw Pokémon fans a curveball when they announced that the popular series will have a crossover tactical RPG for the Nintendo DS. It’s not such a bad or radical idea if you think about it, but if Pokémon is going to evolve into another type ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 2:00 pm
People are always trying to figure out ways to make the internet more tangible, and one of the more common ways to do this is to build devices that interact with Twitter or Facebook in some way. In this case, we have a pair of devices which let you smell or taste your tweets (and other online messag...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 1:00 pm
In my area, one of the only places to rent physical movie discs is at Redbox kiosks, so I’ve been a big fan for a while. I never liked the fact that you couldn’t get some new releases for weeks and weeks after they were available to purchase. I don’t watch movies enough to purchase anything, s...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 12:00 pm
Sometimes I wonder why people use the phrase “when pigs fly” when they try to convey that something is impossible. Shouldn’t they say something like “when humans fly,” since scientists could one day genetically modify pigs to give them wings? You know, since it’s less likely for these sc...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 11:00 am
Engineers from weapons and defense research outfit Sandia National Laboratories are working on a bullet that can steer itself after it is fired, homing in on laser-designated targets with the help of embedded electronics. The other geniuses working on invisibility need to go on overdrive. The 4 inc...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 10:00 am
Cathedrals, in themselves, are magnificent sights to behold. Each tile, window, or pillar speaks volumes about its history and how the structure itself came to be. Aside from serving as places of worship for some religions, they’re also where special occasions like baptisms, weddings, and other ce...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 9:00 am
There’s a lot of anticipation and preparation needed when there’s a baby on the way, not just for the expecting couple, but for the entire family. When my sister was expecting her first baby (the first in our family of five), my parents wanted to do something extra special. So off they went and ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Feb 1, 2012, 8:00 am
People have always had a fascination with the extraordinary: unicorns, fairy tales, dwarves, princesses, and magic mirrors. And somehow, the latter is slowly becoming a reality, although they’re not really magical in that sense. We’ve already seen what augmented reality mirrors can do to our fa...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 8:00 pm
You never know what a geek is going to get up to with some old hardware on their hands and a little bit of time. Rodrigo Alonso had some donated, chopped up computer parts that were left over from obsolete machine, along with some whole computer mice and keyboards. He combined the parts with some cl...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 7:00 pm
Learning to play the guitar can be very challenging. It may have just six strings, but there are hundreds of positions and fingering combinations as well as different strumming patterns that you have to remember. That’s probably why I don’t play guitar. The PocketStrings device can help those l...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 6:00 pm
If you own a smart phone and have any game apps on the device at all, odds are one of those game apps is Angry Birds. That is the single most popular game of just about any mobile platform ever, and rightly so since the game is so fun. Developer Rovio has announced that the game is coming to Faceboo...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 5:00 pm
Whenever I’m cooking, I find myself with at least one pot, pan or plate which is too hot to handle, and needs to go on top of a trivet to keep it from burning the place down. But trivets are usually pretty boring things, so it’s nice to see something with a bit more style and humor like this “...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 4:00 pm
Dogs are pretty good at rescue operations. They can be trained to sniff out survivors in a disaster area and they can traverse some terrain that humans can’t in half the time. However even dogs have problems in some situations. What dogs need are little robot buddies that they can deploy. Like rob...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 3:00 pm
Thanks to Kickstarter, we’ve become accustomed to constantly seeing fundraisers for new technology and promising gadgets. But a fundraiser at gaming forum Assembler is for an old, unfinished and possibly horrible piece of software: two copies of the Game Boy Color version of Resident Evil. The ori...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 2:00 pm
Aside from the usual functions of an alarm clock – telling the time, making you irritated first thing in the morning – the Napper has a one-press nap alarm mode. Just press any of the three nap buttons to set an alarm – the number on top indicates the duration of the countdown in minutes. Alar...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 1:00 pm
As more and more people ditch their point-and-shoot cameras in favor of their iPhones, it becomes necessary to find a way to lug around all those add-on lenses that you’ve got. Check out Photojojo’s iPhone Lens Wallet, which lets you carry them around easily enough, without cramping your style. ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 12:00 pm
I love math – I mean, I had to, given I went through at least two math subjects every semester when I was still in college. That said, I enjoy solving the occasional Sudoku puzzle or two when I have the time to spare. It takes me a while to work each puzzle out. So the thought of solving a puzzle ...
Comment - Like

Paul S. posted an article on TechnaBob - Jan 30, 2012, 11:00 am
You got to hand it to Sony, they do occasionally release some really cool products, like this new Sony Cybershot DSC-TX200V which was just announced. It’s a compact camera that sports the highest resolution for a point-and-shoot camera yet. It’s also sandwiched between glass plates, so it does l...
Comment - Like