The electronics industry has turned a corner, my friends. No longer must you traverse the planet with shoes that don't drop the occasional funky beat. Dada footwear has announced their MP3 playing shoes at the extravagant and popular World Shoe and Accessories Show. Although the press release is a little unclear, these shoes supposedly use USB to store 100 songs safely away in the tongue of the shoe. The wearer has the choice of playing the music directly from the shoe's speakers or through a pair of wireless headphones. The press release even notes that you can stray 30 feet from the shoes without losing reception from the headphones. Why you would walk 30 feet from shoes this nice is beyond me.
Chopper Computers is releasing a computer that will appeal to everyone with a 1997 Girls of Harley Davidson calendar currently on their wall next to their Budweiser mirror. The Chopper One demonstrates "EXTREME" styling with authentic motorcycle frames, tanks, and seats. It also features "open-air design," which means of its computer parts are hanging out all over the place. The computer is water-cooled from a reservoir located in the gas tank, eliminating noise, and allowing you to make your own engine noises uninhibited. The "poll of the day" currently asks what addition you would like to see to the Chopper Computer. Unfortunately, "the dignity you lose after spending your Saturday nights sitting on your computer's motorcycle seat" is not an option.
TomTom has announced that they will offer software updates for their GO GPS line. One of these updates is TomTom Buddies, which will let you text message your TomTom-using comrades, browse their points of interest, and, most importantly, keep track of where your friends are. TomTom has also announced support for audiobooks and traffic announcements, but let's be serious, tracking the exact locations of your friends and loved ones is what is really needed. Thanks to TomTom, you'll be relieved to find that your girlfriend only spends some of her time at those bars down by the airport. Why she spends the rest of her time at your buddy Steve's apartment is another question in itself.
Chalking up another product that will never make it into your hands, Samsung has announced a 10 Megapixel camera phone at the annual festival of technological overindulgence, CeBit. The SCH-B600 has the usual array of features for a digital camera: 3x optical zoom, auto-focus, self-timer, flash, 2.2" TFT display, as well the usual features for a high-end cell phone: music playback, image browsing capabilities, Bluetooth, voice recognition, microMMC memory card storage, and DMB satellite TV reception. Considering that consumer cameras barely reach this mark, we can expect the price of this phone to be exorbitant. I'm sure it would be much cheaper to hire a caricaturist to come to your house and draw pictures of your friends unconscious, without pants, vomiting, unconcious and vomiting without pants, or in any one of other embarrassing situations that you usually catch with your cameraphone. (Photo courtesy of Reuters)
It seems that the conventional hand dryers that have dutifully served our gas stations and McDonald's for years could soon be forced into retirement. Mitsubishi has started releasing its Jet Towel hand dryer stateside. The Jet Towel, which has been in widespread use in Japan for over ten years, thoroughly dries your wet hands in around 5 to 6 seconds. You simply place your hands in the unforgiving white plastic jaws of the dryer, and both gravity and the machine work in unison to remove every bit of moisture. Although it speeds up hand drying, it doesn't appear to be any quieter, so you can still use your keen ear to keep that comprehensive list of people who don't wash their hands after they spend an hour in the restroom.
Gelbing is a company that specializes in clothing with hidden warming pads. They offer a wide array of heated clothing styles, including liners, jackets, gloves, and socks that can all be powered by a battery hidden somewhere in the clothing. If the battery is drained, they also sell adapters and cables that will let you plug yourself into a various outlets and car batteries. The different articles of clothing can also be interconnected so they draw power from a single energy source. In my eyes, this heated clothing is a lot like an electric blanket, except instead of covering yourself with a potential fire hazard, you are completely draping yourself in one. Fires are warm, though.