GadgetReport.TV/5
I don’t have many cuff-link wearing occasions, but I would love to know more about whoever had this idea. It’s a set of cuff-links that do oh so much more than hold your fancy french cuffs together. Each link opens to reveal a USB plug. On one side, you get 2GBs of storage. On the other you get a Wi-Fi hotspot. This would almost be awesome … like something from a spy movie … except that you have to take time to first install software on an Internet connected computer before the wireless functionality kicks in. If you’re still interested, the place to get a pair is Brookstone and the price is $250.
http://www.brookstone.com/polished-silver-oval-wifi-and-2gb-usb-cufflinks
Ever wonder if film still has life after digital? Not for most of us, but for creating new kinds of art … it probably always will. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the camera, Eye of America is an ambitious art project that involves the construction of a large, large, LARGE format camera. The camera is 35-feet-long and creates 6X4-feet negatives.
This world’s largest film camera will roll in and out of the back of a simitruck as it travels 20,000 miles around the United States to capture images culturally significant people. I’d love for them to photograph my grandmother who grew up as a sharecropper in northern Louisiana in the 1930s.
Photos created for exhibition will be 24-feet high. Detail in a human eye captured by this camera will be 1000 times greater than what’s possible with existing film or digital technology. The photographer behind the project is Dennis Manarchy. You can learn more what he’s doing at
theamericanportraitproject.com.
What would it take for you to buy a dumbphone as an emergency backup? SpareOne has a unique selling proposition that got my attention. It’s powered by a single AA battery. The SpareOne peeps say it will hold a charge for 15-years and is good for up to 10-hours of talk time. The idea is … buy one or several of these at $50 a pop. Keep them in the glove box of your car or your flashlight drawer. If you’re smartphone is dead, pull out your Sim card, put it in the SpareOne and you’ve got access to phone a friend.
Some progress is bittersweet. Kodak filed for bankruptcy, but it doesn’t mean they’re giving up. After Flip cameras became a smashing brief hit a while back, Kodak starting making small, affordable camcorders in that style, but Kodak’s always done something smart. They incorporate some feature that you can’t get with other comparably priced cameras. The Kodak zi8 offered a mic input making it immensely more desirable than a Flip HD at the time.
The Kodak zi12 PlayFull Dual is a perfect example of what I’m talking about. It shoots 1080p video and 12 megapixal stills. Nothing unique there. The feature that makes the zi12 uniquely desirable is that it’s capable of capturing 240 frames per second slow motion. Last year, I shot a dance show for a friend and captured this amazing flip that’s even more amazing in slow motion. If you’ve got a kid in sports or dance, the zi12 gives you a tool to help your kid analyze a technique for under $200. It’d be useful for golfers too, I bet. Pretty cool, but it’s not available until the end of March.
Thanks to those of you who have gone to itunes.gadgetreport.tv to subscribe and write reviews or to youtube.gadgetreport.tv to give a thumbs up! If you need a domain name go to name.gadgetreport.tv where I can get you a .tv domain name for $11. Thanks for watching and helping spread the word. I’m @nealcampbell on Twitter.
As my current phone doesn’t even have a camera, let alone being entitled to be called a smart phone, yes I might consider buying one of those SpareOne phones. To be able to bring it back to life by being able to insert a new ubiquitous AA when you realise the phone’s dead, would be so useful!
But the reason I won’t be buying one, it doesn’t seem to do SMS texts – I may have a simple phone, but I’m not from the dark ages!
Yeah, it does nothing but calls. Otherwise it would have to have a screen.