Oh! Gizmo

By Jonathan Kimak

The Asahi Robot Bartender was unveiled at Selfridges Department store in London, England a couple days ago. “Mr Asahi” as the creators like to call him can serve beer in draught pints, half-pints and can take the cap off a bottle. He can serve a person in 2 minutes and even has a few programmed replies to customer questions.

He was “trained” for six months before being revealed to the public on July 2. It took 200 hours and eight engineers to assemble this robotic beer baron. He is also lifesize and weighs over 250 pounds so if he had working legs he could probably throw you out of the bar if you were drunk enough to pick a fight with an inanimate object.

For a bar this could be a great addition. An employee that never needs to get paid, doesn’t need to keep it’s own tips, never takes a break and never steals drinks. And maybe after a few hundred years he’ll turn into Wall-E but with a built-in keg.

[ Selfridges ] VIA [ Trusted Reviews ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Solar powered lighting for your deck or backyard is pretty popular these days, but here’s another eco-friendly solution to illuminate your next BBQ. While the Firewinder looks like the kind of kitschy outdoor wind chime you’d find at an arts & crafts sale, the spinning motion of its upward spiraling helix is actually used to power a generator which in turn illuminates a set of 14 ultra bright LEDs. The helix design allows the Firewinder to harness the wind no matter what direction it’s blowing, and it features an ultra-light design so even the lightest breeze will keep it going. The LEDs are also located along the edge of the helix which produces a unique lighting effect as it spins.

From what I can tell the Firewinder doesn’t feature a rechargeable battery to store up a charge, so if the wind isn’t blowing, the LEDs won’t light up. It does come with a set of brackets though, for mounting it to a wall, or you can just take the lazy route and hang it from a rope. It’s available from Firewinder.com for about $200.

[ Firewinder ] VIA [ The Red Ferret Journal ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve never read Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, but I can only assume the original book is a lot better than the I, Robot movie starring Will Smith from a few years ago. As I recall, it wasn’t exactly a hit, whether you’re going by critical acclaim or box office take, so I’m kind of surprised that someone actually thinks there’s a demand for a replica bust of the movie’s ‘protagonist’ robot known as Sonny. The bust features the same opaque outer housing as the NS-5 robots did in the film, which allows you to kind of see their inner-workings. But for a better look at what makes him tick you can remove the back of Sonny’s head where you’ll find his brain that actually glows thanks to a set of blue LEDs. The bust is powered by a single 9-volt battery hidden in the base, and is available from the Funshop for about $130.

[ NS-5 Sonny ] VIA [ DVICE ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you’re a fan of classic portable gaming then check out this handheld NES that’s been built into an actual NES cartridge. The NESp was created by the BenHeck.com forum member ‘darkeru’ and features all of the standard NES controller buttons (including start and select hidden on the sides) as well as a decent sized color LCD screen. It’s powered by 3 n-cell batteries which are located on the bottom of the cartridge where the game pins originally were, and since having an NES cartridge slot for loading games would reduce its portability, the NESp uses a 99-games-in-1 NES ROM instead.

[ BenHeck.com Forums - darkeru’s NESp ] VIA [ Joystiq ]

By Luke Anderson

If you’ve ever been to any kind of trade show in the last few years, you’ve no doubt gotten a USB flash drive from one of the vendors. They hand them out like candy these days (I think I had close to a dozen by the end of my last show), but unfortunately they don’t help the company stand out. This Push Button USB Webkey may very well start replacing promotional thumb drives.

Rather than giving you a 512MB flash drive (or a 16MB one, which is almost completely useless these days) a company may hand you this strange-looking USB hub. There’s actually more than meets the eye with this two port hub. If you press the top of the hub, it will automatically open up your default browser and navigate to a specific address. Seems interesting enough, though I’d rather take a flash drive any day. Then again, free stuff is free stuff.

[ Alibaba ] VIA [ Redferret ]

By Luke Anderson

I rarely find myself wearing a watch these days. This is mostly because I have at least two other devices on my person that can tell me the time. I’ve considered buying a new watch, but I haven’t found one that I really feel like wearing. However, this Icon Watch may be exactly what I’ve been looking for.

Granted, this watch doesn’t do anything out of the ordinary, it just simply tells you the hour and minute. It does have that retro 8-bit look to it, which I’m totally digging. It actually reminds me a lot of the little watch from MacOS. $75 will get you one geeky watch that I can bet your friends will envy.

[ MoMA ] VIA [ Technabob ]

By Luke Anderson

I have three different backpacks sitting in my closet. One is especially for trade shows (it has special compartments for my laptop, cameras and lenses), one I use for hiking, and another for other use. I like having all of them, as they each have their uses, however, they do take up a bit more room than I like. What I need is to get is one of these Go Anywhere Backpacks.

This might not have the most compartments or anything, but the Go Anywhere Backpack has the keen ability to fold up into a tiny ball when not in use. Seriously, this thing could fit in your pocket if you wanted it to. Now if I could just find a price.

[ Urban Trend ] VIA [ CoolestGadgets ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Citizen has a line of watches known as the Eco-Drive series that are constantly recharged by light which means you never have to wind them or replace the battery. The XKD Solar Powered Watch pictured here does pretty much the same thing, except that while the Eco-Drive watches manage to cleverly hide the solar cell as part of the watch face, the XKD looks like someone has salvaged the cells from an old solar powered calculator and simply slapped them onto a basic digital watch. So if you’re sick and tired of having to replace the battery on your watch every 7 or 8 years, and don’t care what it looks like, then you’ll be happy to hear that the XKD model can be picked up from Gadget4all.com for just $17.

[ Solar Powered Watch ] VIA [ GeekAlerts ]

By Luke Anderson

Anyone that knows me very well can tell you that I’m a horribly picky eater. I’m the kind of guy that hates going to fancy restaurants because I have to stare at the menu for ten minutes trying to find something that sounds halfway appetizing. I’m sure other picky eaters will be just as intrigued by these Miracle Berry Tablets.

Bear in mind that I’m skeptical of any serious product with the words “miracle” “magical” or “incredible” in their names. However, I’d be willing to try these tablets, as they promise to turn your tastebuds upside down for around 2 hours. They’ll generally make sweet things sour, and sour things sweet, but it will likely alter the flavor of just about anything.

For around $20 you can get yourself a pack of 10. I’m seriously tempted to try a pack, just for those times I have to eat with my in-laws.

[ Firebox ] VIA [ RGS ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ve never been much of a drinker, but I tend to find drinking gadgets to be interesting. Take, for example this Super SideBar, which will dispense up to five different liquids at the touch of a button.

The device looks like a simple faucet, minus the sink. It has six buttons (one for on/off) that corrospond with various drinks that would be stored nearby. Each drink has its own separate pump, and can be set to dispense predefined amounts of liquid, or will simply pump on demand.

You’ll need to be throwing a lot of parties (or just drinking a lot in general) to justify something this fancy. It will set you back $499, which makes pouring drinks straight from the bottle sound like a better idea.

[ Super SideBar ] VIA [ Dvice ]