Where are all the cool gadgets?

General Chatter
1

Having given up on the idea of a DSLR for my birthday, I’m trying to think of something else to buy myself! I’m a sucker for gadgets so they’re usually a good place to start. However, having looked around for something cool/new this year, I’m having difficulty finding anything that really grabs me and forces my credit card out of my pocket!

I’d be interested in other people’s thoughts about the coolest things around today (electronic/computer gadgets or weather related) Who knows, your suggestion might prove to be my coolest ever gadget! I’m thinking of useful things here…well as useful as a gadget ever can be. $15 joke gadgets don’t do much for me and whilst very expensive gadgets might well be very cool, I don’t think the birthday budget will stretch to a new A380 or Dreamliner!

2

Jeez, what gadget can you suggest for someone who already has them all :lol: That’s a tough one…

3

I have a blast with my GPS but you probably already have one of those.

4

I do have a few gadgets :wink: but there always seem to be new things appearing. This year seems quite boring with nothing new appearing, but I’m hoping someone can point me at something new that I’ve missed!

GPS…I’ve got three of those…one on loan and two for me to use.

5

Why three gps? Do you get lost easily and then want a second opinion? I know they can take you down some very dangerous roads #-o

I think you’d have trouble with the A380 unless you have very good contacts with the French government :wink:

Maybe you should widen your horizons and think of the more unusual, or perhaps Mrs Admin might not approve :roll:

Stuart

6

I was going to suggest one of those Japanese androids, but…

7

I don’t think anybody has a ceilometer yet… :slight_smile:

8

Try www.coolest-gadgets.com. You can get things like traffic emoticons, carbon fiber toilets, and all kinds of other wacky stuff.

Or how about a catapult kit from www.catapultkits.com? Not computer/electronic though, but you could throw Macintoshes with one. :smiley:

9

These guys have some nice stuff http://www.russell-scientific.co.uk/meteorology/campbell_stokes_sunshine_recorder.html

10

ok i got it… the $5000 comode.
http://www.totoneorest.com/features.html

11

Do you Pogo?

“Good Vurtego jumpers leap over parked cars and other urban artifacts.” 8O

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/06/21/tech/digitaldan/main1740304.shtml

Steve

12

Do you have a Galileo Thermometer? (typically about $100 or so)

Don’t know if you have a pool… how about a Wireless Pool Tester (Tells you what your pool needs). $299

I kinda like my new toy, but I don’t think they have those where you are… Treo 700W.

13

What about your own virtual radar for airline traffic? Sounds like a cool gadget to me: http://www.kinetic-avionics.co.uk/

Tom

14

Thanks for the suggestions…

3 GPSs - New (for the car with all UK roads), older (portable with partial UK maps that have to be loaded by serial port but still useful for geo-caching), oldest (well it’s old!).

Japanese androids - maybe in the future, but I think they’re a tad expensive just now! Mrs Admin would be happy if it could clean up, do the washing, weed the garden, mow the grass, etc :wink:

Ceilometer - I’d love one, but have you seen how much they cost 8O

Catapult kit - sounds like fun, but perhaps not entirely appropriate in a house containing 7 and 9 year boys who will demand to use it on a regular basis!

Pogo stick - cool idea, but those who have seen my gazelle like body will perhaps vouch that I might get locked up for being a danger to mankind if I used one (assuming I didn’t kill myself and a dozen others in the process!)

Pool tester - I’ve got a pond with 6 goldfish in it. Not many people have pools over here…the weather isn’t really suitable.

Treo700w - I already have an iMate JasJar which I think does all that the 700w can and more besides (built in WiFi, bigger screen, bigger keyboard, bigger weight)

Virtual radar - Hmmm…not seen that before and it definitely warrants a longer look.

I’ll also take a look into the Gallileo thermometer and Campbell-Stokes suggestions.

I’ve not looked at some of the web sites that have been suggested yet, so some interesting things may show up there as well.

15

I agree…so much so that my birthday has come early :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: This is definitely a very cool gadget.

I can now track aircraft landing and taking off at the local airport in real time and also track flights 200 miles away over London (admittedly when they’re 25-35,000 ft up!). I’ve found out that when the planes are landing towards the West I can see the aircraft until it’s just 25 feet off the ground. Not bad considering I’m about 2 miles from the end of the runway with houses all the way between me and the runway.

It’s useful for weather watching as well. I’ve just watched one flight land and one take off and whilst I knew it was overcast I now know that the clouds are at around 1500ft (based on the altitudes that the planes appeared and disappeared). WD is saying the cloudbase is at 1368ft so the numbers agree very well.

Tom_OH…thank you very much for telling me about this. I hadn’t consciously seen the SBS-1 advertised so I didn’t even know I needed one :wink:

16

Wow, that is unique, good choice :slight_smile:

17

Not quite unique…going off the serial number there must be at least 1909 other units out there!

18

:lol:

19

All you need is a top of the range flight simulator, some radionavcharts and you could be heading for your instrument rating.
I think you’d have to take the multicoloured headgear off first. CAA medics are a bit fussy about passing escapees from local psychiatric units :wink:

20

I’ve never been any good with flight sims…even with lunar lander (anyone remember that?) I tend to crash the planes far too often. I think I’d probably be OK in a real plane because you get physical feedback about which direction you’re heading in. You have to get the up/down/left/right feeling from the flight sim by trying to work out what’s happened through the limited view window (monitor).

Having said that it’s years since I tried using any flight sim software. It always seemed rather expensive and extravagant to get horribly bored with 3 minute long flights ending in sudden impact!