The Gadgets Page

When I heard about The Callet, I read about it in a magazine (see the photo on the right). I thought it was a stroke of genius. Instead of carrying around a phone AND a wallet, I could slip my credit cards into my phone case. Life would be just a tad simpler.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work that way for me. Firstly, it wasn’t able to hold more than two cards and I have a total of five if you count my driver’s license and health insurance card in the mix. So, I thought I might be able to pare things down. Maybe I needed to be more streamlined, so I chose my favorite two and used them with The Callet.

That’s when things got really awkward. There are few things more embarrassing than struggling to get your card out of your wallet when it’s time to pay and The Callet made me feel that way EVERY time I used it. The case is made out of silicone, so it REALLY sticks to your card as you’re trying to remove it. I had such a hard time getting my cards out that I only used The Callet case for ONE DAY. I couldn’t take it anymore.

Slimming down to only two cards was hard enough, but when it came time to pay, I just couldn’t bear to fight with the damn thing just to get my card out.

If you are tempted by The Callet, don’t waste your money. It really isn’t worth it.

I found this old booklet for the Sunbeam Shavemaster from 1947 and I thought I would share it. Click on it to see full-size.

It looks like Sunbeam doesn’t make shavers anymore. I always find it fascinating when companies stop making products after DECADES in the industry. The Shavemaster was introduced in 1936 and Sunbeam continued making shavers until the 1970’s. After forty years of making a product, they stopped.

Here is an old ad from the 1970’s for the Shavemaster:

If you’ve got a DSLR or a point-n-shoot camera that does not do geotagging automatically, and you have an iPhone, then you need to know about two apps in the iTunes store that will turn your iPhone into a Geotagging gadget for your photos.

Geotagging is a simple concept: Photos are stored with the location where they were taken. It gives you the ability to map out your trips after the fact, remember where you were, and upload your photos to Google Earth and other cloud services so that other people can see what you saw everywhere around the world. Of course you want to be careful not to Geotag photos around your house and then upload them to online services like facebook because it will reveal where you live. This is why I don’t necessarily like cameras that automatically Geotag all photos.

I’ve used two Geottagging apps for the iPhone:

• gps4cam ($2.99)
• GeotagPhoto ($3.99)

Both are good and differ only in the method they use to transfer geotagging information from the phone to your computer. With both, you go through these simple steps:

• Sync your camera’s time to your phone time
• Create a “trip” (shooting session)
• Let the app run in the background while you take pictures all day
• Export your GPS logging data
• Run the app’s desktop Geotagging application
• Import your photos into iPhoto, Picassa, or whatever tool you use to manage photos.

The only difference between the two is the way they export data from the iPhone app:

With GeotagPhoto, you export your trips up to their website, and their Java-based desktop app downloads that info to tag your photos. This requires an active network connection when you import, but it’s simple and it works well. You have to go through a one-time “pairing” of your iPhone app to your computer via an emailed link. Of course there will come a day with this service stops working, and then the app won’t work. GeotagPhoto is $3.99.

With gps4cam, when you export it generates a QR (2D) barcode containing all your GPS data on your phone screen, and you take a photo of the screen on the same memory card. When you run the import app, it scans all your photos and finds the QR codes from amongst them, extracts the GPS log data, and then updates the photos that aren’t QR codes. Extremely clever, equally easy, and no network connection required. The only issue I found with it is my zoom telephoto has to be about 5′ away from my phone to achieve focus on the QR code (so I change the lens first).

These two apps are amazing examples of how smartphones and apps are replacing various gadgets that you would either go without or spend hundreds of dollars on.

I can hardly believe that I never wrote a review for Ambiance [iTunes link]. It’s one of my favorite iOS apps and I literally use it every day for both meditation and going to sleep.

There are a ton of sounds to download for free to use, which makes it incredibly versatile. For example, I have downloaded several nature sounds like the one shown here, Scottish Springtime. I’ve set my timer for fifteen minutes and the shuffle to change every minute, so I can meditate to various sounds of nature no matter where I am. When the timer runs out, I’m finished meditating.

My sister Stacey and her husband Dan, however, use Ambiance to distract the dogs. They have downloaded a white noise sample and use it to drown out the sound of children playing and neighbors walking past the house so that their dogs won’t erupt into a fit of barking when the two of them are not home.

I love that there are new sounds available quite often. When I first downloaded Ambiance several months ago, I only had a few sounds, so it felt like I was meditating to the same sounds every day. Now, I have so many different sounds to choose from that it’s rare that I hear a repeat in a week. I adore that the app will push me a notice when they have new sounds available. I usually drop everything just to see what is available.

I honestly haven’t used all the features available to me in Ambiance. There is a way to record your own sounds to use with Ambiance, so you can populate your meditation with your favorite comforting sounds. There is also a rating and favorites system. I’ve never rated a sound because I’m pretty much happy with all the sounds I’ve downloaded and deleted the sounds that turned out to be jarring or inconducive to meditation.

A favorite for me is the alarm feature so that Ambiance can wake me up. It will bring up a clock to sit next to my bed and it will play sounds to lull me to sleep and slowly fade out after a preset time. In the morning, it will fade in, gradually waking me up to my favorite soothing sounds. It’s a fully functional alarm with “normal” alarm noises and a snooze option as well.

I have enjoyed Ambiance so much over the last few months that I can hardly believe it only cost me three bucks. I remember looking at clocks at Sharper Image and Brookstone that would play relaxing sounds for me that cost easily ten times that amount and they didn’t have as much functionality as Ambiance has, much less the ability to add more sounds. It has been a great app for me and I literally use it every day.

You can download Ambiance here:

• Ambiance [iTunes link]

Nintendo has finally gave me a reason to buy a Nintendo 3DS! Mariokart 3DS!

Watch the video from E3 here:

I really like the way the karts change depending on the terrain. When you’re flying through the air, you expand some hand gliding wings and when you go underwater, your kart uses a propeller to move. Plus, I can choose big wheels on those courses where there is mud!

They gave us a release date of the fourth quarter of 2011, so I’m hoping they have it ready for Christmas!

Via: Super Mario E3 Trailer

Taptic Toys, Inc. has been showing off its virtual presence device at E3. If you aren’t familiar with this sort of device, it will probably help you to watch this clip from Big Bang Theory.

Sheldon decided that he would be safer if he used a computer to experience the world, but this device can be used for employees who live in different cities from their offices. Instead of merely telecommuting and video conferencing, they can wander your office. Here is Taptic Toys describing their product, which uses an iPad to control the device.

This device isn’t available yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see things like this in the near future. In fact, Mozilla uses something similar for their employees. Check out this video from Mike Verdi:

• Robot Driving Lessons | Michael Verdi: Wow. I just walked into the office and found robot @beltzner teaching robot @madhava how to drive.

Via: Taptic Toys iPad telepresence robot roams the WWDC keynote line