Gadget Sleuth » Portable Gizmos

Multi-Use Personified: The Weather Station Key Ring

Derek — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:16:42 +0000

If you’re an avid outdoors person, knowing what the weather is like and will be like later can be quite vital and important. This gadget, The Weather Station Key Ring does just that, giving you access to the weather forecast wherever you are in easy to carry, convenient form. We have found other useful key rings before, but this one takes the cake.

This cool survival device gives you the time, temp, weather forecast, humidity and even what phase the moon will be that day on its digital display, and how about an alarm clock, calendar, compass and LED flashlight in the bargain too; multi-use gadget if we ever saw one. It even includes batteries, and is a great gift for any campers, hikers or whatever outdoor proclivity your loved one enjoys.

Solar power would make this even better, but hey, batteries are pretty light to carry as well. This $24.95 gadget is a wonder for any outdoor lover.

Getting In On The Action: The Asus DR-950 E-Reader

Derek — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 17:15:59 +0000

It seems a lot of companies see gold in the e-reader market right now, with the success of the Amazon’s Kindle. We happen to think these may be replaced by more advanced devices in the near future and they’re a tad bit overpriced, but we digress. We’e covered these e-book readers before, if you’ll recall.

Asus has jumped into the market with their own e-book reader, according to company reports. It’s thin, supports many formats, and will beat the Kindle in terms of price, if rumors are to be believed.

Asus UK has announced the launch a series of photos of the company’s DR-950 e-book reader device with a 9-inch e-Ink display built-in. Measuring a wire-thin 0.35-inch thick (one of the thinnest we’ve seen), the Asus DR-950 includes a 1024 x 768 pixel display and supports ePub, HTML, and PDF formats, so you can read pretty much anything on here.

In a nice bit of feature inclusion, it will have text-to-speech functionality and an SD card slot so you can store plenty of material to read anywhere.

Showtime, Portable Style: The Philips 9″ Portable TV

Derek — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:56:02 +0000

Portable TV seems like very latest trend you see on many shopping channels and companies are jumping on the bandwagon, just as we sometimes think there’s too many gadgets and conveniences for peoples’ own good nowadays. Does someone need a 9″ TV to take with them everywhere? Philips thinks so, and is offering a nice deal for those who think its too essential to leave behind. Ever. You can’t listen to records on this, but hey, technology marches on.

Philips latest portable digital TV for the mass market has been announced and released as the PVD900/37. The device has a big 9-inch 600 x 220 TFT widescreen LCD screen, a built-in HDTV tuner, decent 250mW speakers and a detachable antenna that is useful for over-air digital TV channels to be received.

It has a rechargeable battery that provides up to 3 hours of viewing time. You can grab this at Amazon for just $113.53, which is a bargain for the TV addicted.

See The Light: The Solar-Powered Torch

Derek — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:21:34 +0000

Brando is one of those companies you appreciate, having followed small gadget companies for awhile writing this blog. They always come up with cool gadgets for reasonable prices, and they always recharge using solar or USB power, so Mother Nature appreciates this company just as much, we’re sure. This is one example of a great Brando gadget we’ve covered previously.

Brando has returned with their latest cool gadget with the Solar-powered Torch, a strong LED flashlight with a small size and infinite rechargeability via the sun.

Measuring 13.0cm x 3.5cm x 3.5cm, the kit comes with 3 400mAh AAA rechargeable batteries, a bright 0.5W LED light, and a solar docking station of sorts to keep the light and recharge it in. It’ll run you $42 to own this light.

Joe On the Go: The Stelton Simply Espresso Machine

Derek — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:04:44 +0000

Some of us enjoy coffee, and some of us simply can’t function without their morning coffee, and sometimes it may need to be on the run. Stelton has you covered: they announced the availability of their battery-powered coffee machine, the Stelton Simply Espresso Machine, which is the smallest espresso machine ever created.

It includes a rechargeable battery so you can have a fine cup of joe any time, anywhere, which is quite valauable to a good segment of the population.

It’s simple to use too: fill the boiler with water, throw in a coffee pod, invert it and that’s it. It isn’t cheap, it should be noted: it’ll run you £179 ($291 USD), the Stelton Simply Espresso is a godsend for those of us who depend on the brew to get our brains started in the morning.

Wind It Up: The Mitaki-Japan Wind Up FM Radio with Flashlight

Derek — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:59:04 +0000

Some of us have been there: driving at night, middle of nowhere, and a weather system is coming or some urgent news update is on the radio. Any emergency kit should have a radio handy, and the Mitaki Wind-Up Radio is the perfect addition to that kit, due to the fact it doesn’t require batteries.

This handy gadget comes with a LED flashlight built in as well, and a recharge jack for your mobile gizmos to recharge, so its super flexible in usage if you’re stick in the middle of nowhere.

A single minute of winding gives you abundant benefits, including 30 minutes of light, 10 minutes of radio time and 3 minutes of weather reports, so you can get the info you need easily with no batteries required. And it isn’t too expensive either; it sells for $19.95 through Amazon.

Mini-Play: The Palm Sized DVD Player

Derek — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 20:45:02 +0000

Ever wanted to watch a movie on the go, but need something that doesn’t take up much space? Well, the Palm Sized DVD Player from Hammacher may be the solution you’re looking for…it’s about the smallest DVD/screen combo on the planet.

It includes a small 3.5-inch display screen, is only 6 inches in diameter, and includes a USB port and an SD card slot to plug in your data. It also comes with a convenient built-in battery that lasts for up to 2 hours (the length of an average movie).

It also comes with a remote and AV cables to connect it to a larger screen, if desired. The Palm-sized DVD Player will run you $149.95, and should suit the needs of any on-the-go movie fan.

Under Pressure: The Talking Tire Gauge

Derek — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:45:40 +0000

Anyone who has driven has experienced the fun of under-inflated tires, and traditional tire pressure gauges can be a little difficult to read under some circumstances. This gadget solves that issue: with both a digital read-out and a “voice” that tells you your tire pressure out loud: The Talking Tire Gauge.

The device is basically a key chain of sorts with an included LED light that shows the current tire pressure reading in the readout (meaning you can use it in low light conditions, such as on the side of a road at night, easily) while stating out loud the pressure so even if you can’t read it for some reason, you’ll still be informed if your tires needs some air. Good safety type gadget.

The Talking Tire Gauge will run you $14.99 a pop, which isn’t too bad.

How Well Are You?: The Wellness Monitor

Derek — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 22:07:14 +0000

Everyone wants to get healthy these days, and we sometimes need technology to help us achieve that goal. Enter The Wellness Monitor, a cool little gadget that tracks all sorts of things about the general you, including how long you slept, how many calories you burned, and other very cool facts to help you get into shape.

This device evens helps to track the intensity and length of times you continued moving, how many steps taken, and distance traveled too. In a unique automatic feature, if you wander within 15 feet of the charging station, it uploads all of your info to your website supplied by the company, where it breaks down the data into easy to read charts and graphs.

You can start on your path to self-enlightenment for only $99.95 by going to Hammacher and Schlemmer.

Two In One: The LED Spy Light

Derek — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:20:32 +0000

We sometimes like to report on the latest spy gadget from the various sites out there, and this is another example of this philosophy: The LED Spy Light. It fills two different functions: a LED flashlight and a camera conveniently hidden inside, and does it in a way that Bond would be quite proud of.

The module has been placed in the middle of the flashlight that allows you to record VGA videos at a pretty smooth 30fps and pics too at up to 1600×1200 pixels resolution. The LED Light Spy Camera includes 2GB of memory built in and a microSDHC card slot that supports up to 8GB.

You can massage the inner spy inside all of us for 8,400 Yen (around $94 USD).