Home Gadgets

Check out this for a funky sweater. It’s designed to look like a scene from Mario Bros on the Nintendo.

The designer of the sweater said that stitches are just like pixels, which I guess is the inspiration behind this thing. It is designed to look like the first stage from the Mario Bros Nintendo game and is actually taken from level 1-1.

It was knitted by the Happy Seamstress who is currently putting a pattern together for those who want to download it. [click to continue…]

Space saving designs and ideas are always welcomed when you don’t have a lot of space to play with – at home, work or any multifunction space! Ivy Design have designed a table that doubles up as a photo frame…confused? The table is mounted onto a side wall and can be rotated and fixed onto the wall to disguise itself as a photo frame. The size of the table when erected is 130×85x78cm and it is made out of wood, with plexi glass for frame part. You can also purchase the table with a mirror option instead of a photo frame. [click to continue…]

We first mentioned the Neato XV-11 robot vacuum about a month ago and were impressed with what we saw in the press details. What makes the XV-11 stand out from other robot vacuums is that it uses lasers to track obstacles and walls within the room it is cleaning allowing to to more precisely work around the room without bouncing off furniture. Also the cleaner uses a more accurate cleaning pattern that allows it to cover the floor just once rather than several times. This speeds up the cleaning cycle allowing batteries to be kept for cleaning other rooms.

OhGizmo were able to get a demo of the XV-11 at CES with a quick demonstration of how it works around a room. I have to say it looks a little slower than the Roomba, but if it only needs to cover the floor once then perhaps the overall time will be a lot quicker. [click to continue…]

If you can’t live without your iPod Touch being in arms reach 24/7 then these bed sheets are just for you. The set costs $49 and is designed to look like the screen of an iPod Touch in that it has all the icons and shortcuts across the top of the duvet.

The pillow is also designed with the drawing of an iPod on it to make the full set complete. [click to continue…]

A few robotic vacuums have shown up this last week with LG creating the RoboKing, Neato creating the Neato XV11 both of which are set to tackle the Roomba. ASUS have also revealed a new robot vacuum called the ECleaner which also is aimed at tackling the automatic home cleaning section of the market.

The ECleaner ads another feature to automated vacuuming by adding a 6000 hour UV light that is used to disinfect the floor and emit fragrances. [click to continue…]

Neato have built the XV11 robotic vacuum cleaner perhaps in attempt to knock Roomba off the top spot. The Neato XV11 appears to be a serious challenger to the Roomba range of robots and has a number of significant improvements that could see it do very well.

The Neato XV11 works slightly different when cleaning a room by using what appears to be a more methodical approach. When compared to the Roomba that uses a spiralling pattern along with a system which allows the Roomba to bounce of objects and appears to randomly cover the carpet, the XV11 maps along the walls of the room to know how big the room is. Rooms are typically broken down in to 15′ x 15′ and if power gets low mid clean, the XV11 goes back to it’s base to recharge and then carries on where it left off. Another difference between the two vacuums is that the Roomba uses virtual walls and the XV11 uses laser to detect doorways and wont leave a room unless it is told to do so. The system used on the XV11 is called SLAM which means simultaneous localization and mapping. SLAM has lasers on the top that detect objects 360 degrees around it. With that data pathfinding can be done as well as obstacle avoidance. [click to continue…]

This digital photo frame not only displays photos but also has a scanner built in allowing you to scan old prints and display them on the screen.

The scanning part of the photo frame is capable of capturing images at 300 dpi. The display part of the digital photo frame measures 8 inches and can display images at an 800 x 600 pixel resolution.

For storage the photo frame has 1GB of internal memory that is capable of storing around 3,000 scanned or transferred images. [click to continue…]

TruePower is a regular power outlet for a wall that also embeds a couple of USB ports. By having USB ports on the wall you can easily power your gadgets without the need of using a separate PSU.

It is expected that TruePower will start shipping early next year assuming it gets official approval for launch. The power outlet is capable of charging any USB device such as a mobile phone, iPod, iPhone, PDA, MP3, PSP, MP4 as well as USB chargeable digital cameras. [click to continue…]

Olive Media Inc have announced the launch of a HD Hi-Fi Music server that is designed and built for use with home stereo systems.

The system is capable of matching a standard of 24-bit sound with a 192KHz sample rate that provides music at 250 times the resolution of a standard CD. By using a HD standard it allows music to be played back as it was recorded. For some people this might not mean much, but for those who love audio and have expensive setup’s it’s a nice addition. [click to continue…]

I came across this interesting power outlet today which has three spinning plug sockets which each contain several types of socket allowing various plugs from around the world to be connected to it.

It’s really not that exciting except for that if used in hotels around the world it could come in handy for those who travel with a number of gadgets with the wrong type of power lead. [click to continue…]

This bat cave home cinema was built by Frankston HiFi and was built from the ground up starting right at the carpet. Walls we then created carefully to make them look as realistic as possible. The room measures 26ft x 18ft making it fairly large.

On the technical side of things the bat cave cinema has a 10ft curved screen along with a communications room that holds all the audio and video equipment needed to run the room. A remote controlled pneumatic sliding door allows access to the room when needed although there are no poles to slide down for access. [click to continue…]

This USB hub doubles up as an alarm clock. It has 4 USB 2.0 ports that can be rotated 90 degrees. A transfer rate of up to 480Mbps can be achieved with the hub.

The alarm clock features a calendar, built in clock and an alarm function which plays 5 tunes. [click to continue…]

This pen holder is designed to somewhat look like a Nintendo Gamebody. It is made from Perler beads and is ironed and fused together with some sturdy contact cement to make it rigid.

It measures 3″ x 3″ and is 4″ tall. Each side of the pen holder is a different Gameboy colour – gray, purple, green and blue. [click to continue…]

The Animation Station is a gadget which lets you build your own homemade stop motion video animations.

A cell camera is included on an adjustable arm which lets you capture drawings from above. Up to 42 frames can be captured in a single shooting sequence. [click to continue…]