Now you can charge up all your USB-powered devices by simply breathing. Here's a guy who figured out a way to make his own charging device out of a few spare parts from a CD-ROM drive and some rubber bands. Strapping this odd-looking thingamajig around his chest, it derives its power from the expansion of his chest when he breathes.
This might be a great idea for high-altitude hikers, who must breathe a lot more than usual while ascending steep slopes into thinner air. From the looks of it, this contraption is not easy to make, but check out Instructables for the full step-by-step instructions. Goes to show, you never know where you might be able to tap into some energy that's already there, literally right under your nose. – Charlie White
Breath powered USB charger [Instructables, via Oh Gizmo]
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Samsung says it has developed the world's largest microSD memory card. At 8GB, the fingernail-sized card can store 2,000 MP3 files, 4,000 digital photos or around five DVD-quality movies. With a read speed of 16 MB/s and a write speed of 6MB/s, the 8GB memory card is one-and-a-half times faster than the Speed Class 4 SDHC standard. Jump for more.
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When the esteemed leader of the states visits the terrorist nation of Australia in September to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, a helicopter that jams mobile signals within the span of a football field will tail his motorcade. The measure is intended to counter cellphone-detonated bomb attacks, but I mean, now don't the turrists know they have a few months to work around the whole dead mobile deal?
Plus, if they want to find him, won't the massive rolling mobile outage give a pretty good indication of his position? That said, I'd like to borrow the gear next time I hit the airport. – Matt Buchanan
Banned: Mobile calls while Bush in Sydney [ZDNet Australia via Slashdot]
Image via ASM
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If you've been dying to use Windows Vista's stacktastic Expose killer (or not) Flip 3D but stretching your fingers from the Windows key to tab is too much effort for your slackass, then the Traveler 515 Laser mouse might be your ticket to supreme Vista bliss (or not). It sports a dedicated Flip 3D button, as well as one for smart IE search, running whatever's highlighted through your default IE search engine.
Everything else is pretty standard: "hyper-speed turbo scroll," 1600/800 dpi, and ambidexterity for lefties and righties. No price, but since I use Alt+Tab and Firefox, and "hyper-speed turbo scroll" actually sounds a little scary, I'll stick with my MX 500. – Matt Buchanan
Product Page [Genius via Computerworld]
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Skinny phone fanatics, pay attention! Motorola has just released details of the new RAZR 2 mobile phone.
No doubt hoping for the same measure of fervour that greeted the first one, the RAZR 2 is slimmer and stronger and will come with up to 2GB of internal memory. For instance, the old hinge, which presented a few, er, reliability issues for owners, has been replaced with a new hinge that has undergone 100,000 flips under lab conditions.
The phone is 2mm thinner than the original RAZR, has a hardened steel frame and dual screens (2in and 2.2in). Powered by the ARM II processor, it’s 10 times faster than the original and the inclusion of USB 2.0 means transferring songs takes a few seconds. The 2GB of storage is good for around 1,000 songs.
There are three models in the new family: the V9 (3G HSDPA), V9m (EVDO CDMA) and V8 (GSM), while some will run the Linux/Java operating system. Due to land in July.-Martin Lynch
[More]
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I have covered some of the innovative designs from Chris Dimino in the past, most recently his cool take on the Waffle maker. However, we are a long way from cozy family breakfasts with his latest creation, the Gasmask Showerhead.
Short of having a cow’s anus protruding from the wall in my shower I can picture few things more terrifying than this one. Still, I like the way the head has been made to morph out of the wall, a la Terminator 2.
The hollow eye sockets for holding your shampoo and scrubber just serve to crank up the Creep Factor that extra notch.-Martin Lynch
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The Optimus Maximus keyboard has acquired the reputation of a technological Bigfoot in recent years, thanks to it being largely invisible. You can see what I mean, here and here.
However, according to its Russian designer, Art Lebedev, all of this cloak and dagger nonsense will end in just over three days when the keyboard, complete with OLED keys, will be available to pre-order for the princely sum of $1,564 (£790).
For those of you still upright and not lying on your backs howling with laughter, the keyboard sports a little OLED display behind the keys. These can be programmed using special software to change the picture on each. Only 200 are being made this year.
Despite being too expensive, this will sell faster than a pair of pre-bald/detox Britney's hotpants, so if you have cash to burn…go here. -Martin Lynch
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
