By Charlie White For MASABLE
1. Playboy Club in Space
Playboy's dreaming up a way to team up with Virgin Galactic for the ultimate in space tourism: a Playboy Club in Earth's orbit.
The magazine consulted with scientists and futurists to dream up the wild concept that includes a zero-gravity dance club, weightless human roulette, and of course, an opportunity to join the space version of the mile-high club (which might not be as easy as it seems).
You won't be able to book your tickets to this "intergalactic entertainment destination" just yet. Playboy vows to offer "a party that's out of this world" as soon as space tourism becomes a reality.
[via Space.com]
Become the star of your own reality show with Pivothead video recording glasses, eyewear that can capture 1080p video of everything you do.
The specs keep your shot still with gyroscopic image stabilization tech, and your images will stay sharp with autofocus. Get ready to record your life and everyone around you, coming in April for $349.
[via Gizmag]
This is not just any iPhone case — it's an enclosure that gives your iPhone 4 or iPhone 4s a shutter release, a tripod mount, an actual rangefinder viewfinder and protection for your precious smartphone.
Along for the ride are fisheye, wide-angle/macro and 2X telephoto lenses. There's even a mirror, situated in the middle of the camera's "lens," for lining your face to take self-portraits (the iPhone's lens peeks through the bottom left). The case with those lenses is $99 — without the lenses, it's $65.
[Photojojo, via Geeky Gadgets]
This little magic box from TiVo lets you send live TV or recorded programs from a TiVo Premiere DVR to a second screen, letting you watch your TiVo content on a smartphone or tablet.
You can watch that content wherever you're connected to your home network. If you want to take programs with you, you can download those onto your smartphone or tablet as well, as long as they're not copy-protected shows.
Pricing is not quite certain yet, but rumor has it around $169. Look for it this summer.
[via Zatz Not Funny]
Continuing my crusade against annoying USB connectors you can't ever plug in correctly the first time, Buffalo has solved that problem with its new USB hub.
The company hasn't specifically named it anything yet, so I decided to call this the "Buffalo Anyway USB Hub," because it lets you plug in the USB connector any way you damn well please. Finally.
It'll sell for $23 but will be worth its weight in gold. Let's just hope every other manufacturer follows suit.
[via RocketNews]
Nike's figured out a way to make running and training shoes even lighter, using a special knitting process that makes these kicks form-fitting and extraordinarily light. The Racer weighs a featherweight 5.6 ounces and the running shoe variant, called Trainer+, weighs 7.7 ounces, 19% lighter than Nike's most popular pro-running shoes.
And just look at them! Gorgeous. Just announced this week, they'll be available in a variety of colors and styles. Check out all the Flyknit models here.
This graphic by Josh Helfferich (@Digeratii) makes you think about smartphone design and the origin of cellphones, whence they came, and where they're going. It raises the question, "where's the smartphone innovation?"
Rather than a Cambrian explosion, after the iPhone was introduced, it looks like there was a copycat revolution. This is by no means a scientific illustration, but it raises the question — are smartphone designers playing it safe by following Apple's iconic iPhone design? Or is a minimalist black slab the most efficient way to create a touchscreen smartphone?
What do I think? The field of smartphone design is wide open for someone to innovate, taking smartphones in an entirely new direction and offering serious competition to Apple and its acolytes.
[via TechCrunch]
Image courtesy Josh Helfferich @Digeratii
What the heck is this? Let's be blunt: It's a heated toilet seat that functions like a car wash for your nether regions, complete with blow dryer. It's by no means the first bidet toilet seat, but the Brondell Swash 1000 is the most full-featured example I've seen for $600.
I'd recommend taking a look at Gizmodo's review of this toilet seat, a piece of writing that's magnificently entertaining in itself. And then consider the value of such a seat. We've enjoyed a similar model by Kohler here at the Midwest Test Facility for a few years now, and can't imagine living without it. As you probably heard, such equipment is all the rage in Japan.
As one plumbing salesman so graphically explained: "After you've use one of these bidet toilet seats, going back to the old way makes you feel like you're spreading peanut butter on a shag carpet." Ew.
[via Gizmodo]
Japan is making progress with its ambitious idea of creating a space elevator. The plan is to extend an extremely strong cable from a spaceport on the ground up to a space station in geosynchronous orbit 22,000 miles above terra firma.
The 30-passenger elevator car will travel from the ground to that space station at 125mph, delivering its human cargo to the space station eight days later. Getting there'll be half the fun, because there will be living quarters and other tourist niceties on board this sophisticated elevator car.
The Japanese plan to use carbon nanotubes for this futuristic elevator cable, which is the most challenging aspect of this design. And now they're saying they'll be able to build this technological marvel by 2050.
[via DVICE]
The Bertone Nuccio will roll out of the 2012 Geneva Auto Show, and this beautifully-designed supercar is still shrouded in secrecy. However, we do have a trio of tantalizing pics of this exotic mid-engined vehicle, looking like it's going fast even when it's standing still.
The Nuccio is named after the late Nuccio Bertoni, who is the son of Italian company's founder. There's no word from the company on when we might see such exotica prowling the streets of Europe or the U.S., nor is there any info available about specs, power, or price. One thing's for sure: The associated numbers will be as astonishing as this car's design.
[via Inside Line]
With feet planted firmly on the ground (wearing a new kind of ultralight Nike shoe), we reach into space once again in this edition of Top 10 Tech This Week.
In our picture gallery, you’ll see accessories, technical marvels, conveniences and innovations you’ve never dreamed of come to life. And yes, there is one unusual innovation that some Americans might consider unnecessary — even shocking.
Along the way, we’ll get a close-up look at a spectacular new concept car, accompanied by two bonus pics we’re sure you’ll enjoy. So figuratively strap yourself into our fast-moving bullet train, as we take you from inner space to outer space and beyond.
Here’s last week’s Top 10 Tech.
