Tag: Products

Hey, Father’s Day is not that far away, if you need ideas for me…

john

Unfortunately I have more ideas than offspring…

* “pivoting power cord”:http://www.quirky.com/products/44-Pivot-Power-Flexible-Power-Strip. I’ve often wondered why powerstrips are so ugly. We all have them and they all suck.
* “quirky”:http://www.quirky.com/. Recommended by Blake, lots of cool stuff here.
* “Fireball Crosswords”:http://www.fireballcrossword.com/. Recommended by Bruce.
* “Snapguide”:http://snapguide.com/. Also recommended by Blake.
* I’m a sucker for “nice laptop skins”:http://society6.com/laptop-skins
* I would love to get into astrophotography with the new “Canon 60Da”:http://www.petapixel.com/2012/04/04/canon-60da-sample-star-photographs/
* I love the idea behind “Lost Crates”:https://lostcrates.com/?a=dm
* Prototyping bundles for Keynote and PPT from “Keynotopia”:http://keynotopia.com/themes/
* “Press to open Keyrings”:http://design-milk.com/freekey-press-to-open-key-ring/ — I’d buy today if available

Lava is an awesome product name, I want one now.

john

Seriously, who would not want a “Lava heater”:http://www.coolhunting.com/design/lava-heaters.php? I am ready to order one today.

Contrast with the “Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch”, Samsung’s latest phone. How stupid a name is this? Do they seriously think this will have lasting impact in the market? What will they call an upgraded version some day? Will they increment the S or the II or the Epic or the 4G or will they just abandon this?

I’m no product naming expert, I used to excuse myself from all naming discussions while at Microsoft since it always felt like a discussion of how many angels on the head of a pin. Ultimately good products can overcome bad names, and bad products aren’t helped by clever names. But I admire cleanliness and simplicity in names, and the Lava name is simple, evocative, and to the point. The Samsung name is ridiculous.

UPDATE: a smart guy informs me that the Samsung name of the phone is the Galaxy S II. A little long but not egregious. It is Sprint that has slapped on the “Epic 4G Touch” modifier and Sprint deserves the blame. Pro tip: if you include “epic” in the name, pretty much guarantees the offering is not epic.

It’s not too early to start thinking about Father’s Day

john

I don’t need or want any of this stuff actually but am drawn to all of it…

* “Car map light”:http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20100526/flexible-map-light/. Ok who looks at maps anymore, but this is nicely designed!
* “Multimeter Clock”:http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2010/06/24/multimeter-clock-styled-after-the-simpson-260-multimeter/. Love the reuse of old tech here. Wish I had the skill/vision to create things like this.
* “Carol Kipling Plates”:https://www.carolkipling.com/product/Gogi%20Seeds%20Glass%20Platter. Love the platter but $2800 is steep…
* “14 wheel skateboard”:http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/07/26/the-flowlab-14-wheel-skateboard-can-it-possibly-work/ so I can suck at skateboarding 3.5 times as much.
* “Tourbillon vase”:http://www.coolhunting.com/tech/tourbillon.php — awesome organic-looking glass.
* “Urban Balance Wave Hammock”:http://www.allmodern.com/Outback-Chair-Company-UBC6XX-OCC1014.html?SSAID=276135&refid=SS276135 — can this possibly be stable? But cool.
* “Designer Scrabble”:http://design-milk.com/designer-scrabble-by-andrew-clifford-capener/ I love board games and I love nicely crafted items. I have a great cribbage board, would love to buy great boards for other games — Catan, TIcket to Ride, etc.
* “LaserPegs”:http://www.laserpegs.com/. Lasers make everything better, including construction blocks.
* “Freesia Book Stands”:http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/004652.php — these look awesome, seems like a great item to have.
* “Chemically Accurate Crayons”:http://www.etsy.com/shop/QueInteresante?ref=seller_info. OK these are just labels you stick on crayons you buy, so kind of dorky, but I love the idea. “Could you please pass me the Yttrium Oxide crayon”?

More stuff I don't need but want

john

* No-staple stapler is better for the environment (and looks cool) — I hate freaking staples. This looks useful and cheap
* B&W Zeppelin iPod speaker system. I would probably never actually buy this but it looks wicked.
* Powerkayak. Take a nice ecofriendly sport like kayaking, and jam some gas-consuming horsepower onto it! Wonderful!
* Tancher wrist beacon. I think this is just a concept but looks cool and is lifesaving
* Credit Card multitool. This would be super useful. TSA approved?
* Another HD hard disk videocam. Decent reviews.
* Digium asterisk appliance. Now if it would just use my cell service as the outbound line…
* A bunch of awesome watches all with a black theme.
* Emergency food supply
* Edge Brownie Pan. OK I actually got one of these. It works great — the fins really help with heat distribution.

More Stuff I Want But Don't Need

john

* Bell & Ross BR 01 Phantom — beautiful sparse design. Not sure I could ever justify 4-5K for such sparseness tho.
* The Teslaphonic Organ — I pretty much love anything involving a Tesla coil.
* Burning Rocks. They just look cool.
* Ultralight Pack. If/when I ever get serious about hiking I will have to go ultralight
* Electronic guitar tuner. Not sure that adding a bunch of electronics and a battery to the process really helps in guitar tuning…

Stuff I Want But Don't Need

john

* Have to lead today’s list with the iphone. My lizard brain wants one. The rest of me has no idea why. I’m going to attempt to hold off until V2.
* Toolmonger ? Blog Archive ? Magnogrip Magnetic Wrist Band — wow this actually seems super useful.
* Nike floor hockey cleaning concept
* PuchiPuchi bubble wrap toy. Can you imagine having one of these on an airplane?
* Rich and Bob’s advice for lens cleaning tools.
* Phoneflasher. Not sure I can pull this off.
* Magnatag whiteboards. These appeal deeply to me tho I have no specific need. Maybe I can use one to manage my halloween efforts?

More stuff I don't need but want

john

* The Kwikset Smartscan. Ok I am not sure I really want this. What I’d really like is a lock that could be programmed to respond to my car’s fob. I have to carry the car thing around anyway, why can’t it open my house too? I don’t want my thumb to be the identifying device, I don’t want to encourage anyone to chop off my thumb.
* Crystal Weather Station. Looks cool. Why not available in US?
* Another doohickey to let you use your dremel — this time as a plunge router
* A Drobo storage robot. Sounds way cooler than “hard drive enclosure”
* Ceramic Jellyfish — awesome looking

More stuff I don't need but want — June 1st

john

* Unclutterer: Under stairs storage: brilliant — simple but brilliant
* Scuttling spider robot — who wouldn’t want one of these? freaking awesome. the scourge of pets everywhere.
* Hydrodynamic building set — it was a sad day when they took real chemistry sets away from the kids but this looks pretty awesome.
* Capacitive touch everywhere — sure microsoft can give you a table that is a computer, but with this technology you can turn every surface in your house into an active surface.
* The perfect charging station?
* brad likes his reader. OK i actually have one of these. actually broke my first one, it is off getting refurbed now.

Stuff I want but don't need

john

* From Toolmonger, a magnetic alternative to pegboard. Pretty awesome.
* USB Fairy Lights — so happy!
* Steam powered RC Vehicles
* Wind Turbines — when I was a kid we had a wind power generator at our cabin, mounted on the roof — the whole cabin rocked on a windy night
* Animated power consumption monitor — why shouldn’t thermostats be fun like this?
* Swing analyzing watch — all that separates me from Tiger.
* Yet another awesome watch
* Damascus pocket knife — I love Damascus steel

Stuff I Want But Don't Need

john

* Grizzly Drill-Powered Hobby Lathe — another clever way to reuse a power drill. Not sure how large a part you could really fabricate on this but still. Oh and here is a hand’s-on review
* Alpine’s latest car deck — i love the crazy looks of high end car decks tho I have never purchased one…
* The LED Jellyfish Aquarium
* Universal Key Fob — just a concept but man do I want this
* TEAC Bone Conduction phones — because they look cool
* Generally I find USB hubs to be disasters but this one is awesome looking

More Stuff I Want But Don't Need

john

* Toolmonger ? Blog Archive ? Mark On Wet And Oily Surfaces With Stanley’s New Marker — ok this might actually be useful at halloween time when I am working outdoors a lot. I wonder how it works on slimy mossy surfaces.
* Laser-guided scissors. Lasers AND sharp blades, awesome.
* Noise cancelling windows. So like, if you try to have a conversation in a room with these, does the sound just disappear?
* Programmable hose timer. Another thing I could actually use at Halloween to control flow of water to my fog system.
* leatherman for the garden. Because I am such a horticulturist.
* Quick prototyping material — seems like another useful Halloween product. Not cheap though.
* Ruggedized flash drive. Flash drives are moving from the utility to the fashion accessory category.
* Mobile basketball hoop. I am sure there is a whole post to write about “what to do with your trailer hitch that you never use”
* Brushed aluminum keyboard. Awesome
* Umbrellas for windy weather.
* Programmable hair. Strange.

Products I Want But Do Not Need

john

* Cymat: Home — metallic foams. Because they just look cool. The resin coated version would be a cool desktop.
* Intensity vacuum. The folding-up-ness is nice.
* Kraft paper sofas. Because no one else will have one. Oh and their felt rocks look cool.
* Floating Jellyfish pool lights
* Highgear adventureplus — all the cool campers will snicker at you
* A finger skateboard game. just strange.
* Wallet optimized for cards. Why more of these don’t exist puzzles me.
* Non contact infrared thermometer. Seems like a totally useless gadget to me. Will go in the drawer with my stud finders.
* Rich on HD camcorders. OK I really need one of these. Really.
* Clamp multimeter. nothing unique here, I just like these.

Products I Want But Do Not Need — April 19 Edition

john

* Clear airport pass — OK actually I would be stupid not to get this.
* A $209 hammer. I drive like 3 nails a year so clearly I need this
* USB chess game. I have no patience for chess but clearly this would improve my game dramatically
* The Cabestan watch. Gorgeous.
* 1/9 scale V-8.
* Obelisk chairs. I think the rest of the family would barf but these are awesome
* Skycaddie GPS golf accessory. It is very important to my game that I know the exact position of my ball and the pin to the meter. I am pretty sure that my lack of this knowledge is why I have a 36+ handicap.
* Marble machine. Anything like pachinko is cool.
* A watch with built in slot machine. Where does it store all the coins?
* Pipe lamp. Steam engine chic.