These unique chargers offer a clean-energy boost and look cool doing it. The Window Solar Charger sticks to the inside of a glass window to harness the sun’s rays using photovoltaic panels. The captured energy is out-putted via a mini-USB cable.
The charger contains a 1300 mAh Li-ion battery which takes thirteen hours of direct sunlight to reach a full charge. Some imagination went into the design of the Solar Sun Flower which collects energy via a panel “flower”. Its cheerful design might bring smile to your face while it diligently goes about charging your personal devices.
The 22 centimetre tall Solar Tree could replace the plant on your desk. It uses nine leaves covered with a surface to gather energy. Both tree and flower come with USB and mini USB cables to connect to your portable devices. koolio.ca Window charger: $69.99 Tree charger: $149.99 Sunflower charger: $99.99
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Silverback has added something for which cycling technophiles have yearned: a USB port. This Starke city bike has a dynamo powered USB port up on top of the head tube, ready to charge cell phones, MP3 players and GPS units while you pedal. When not engaged in recharging your cell phone, the front dynamo hub runs the lighting system. It’s incredibly practical, and bike commuters will soon be able to enjoy many of the same comforts as their car-bound “frenemies”,
like cup warmers, USB-powered speakers or even USB-powered heated gloves. The Starke is smart-looking, weighs-in at fourteen kilos (31 lbs), and has a flow formed nickel alloy frame. Rigid forks and hydraulic disc brakes allow for responsive city navigating, easy acceleration and quick stops. Silverbacklab.com Price TBA
Apple’s New iPad, comes in three storage sizes: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. Retina Display makes everything look superbly crisp – there are a million more pixels in the third generation iPad than in a 1920 x 1080 HDTV. This little 9.5-inch slate has more dots than the 50-inch flat screens we ooh and aah over. It has an updated A5X processor (the “X” is there to signify that the graphics processor has been beefed up to quad-core.)
There is a new 5MP camera on the rear which Apple calls its iSight camera. This is a huge improvement over the iPad 2’s 0.7-megapixel shooter. Touch-events are instantaneous and everything loads with a dual-core spring in its step. Ultrafast 4G LTE cellular network means faster web browsing, and extra RAM keeps even the most complicated web pages at the ready during multi-tab browsing. store.apple.com/ca $519
At last the search for the most precise time for travellers, anywhere on the planet, is over. Using a patented, low energy-consumption GPS receiver, Seiko has produced a watch that receives GPS signals to identify time zones and current time and date data using the global network of GPS satellites. Recognizing all thirty-nine time zones on earth, this could be the most intelligent watch ever built. Once a day, the Seiko Astron receives the time signal automatically, and on demand connects to four or more of the GPS satellites that orbit the earth, thus pinpointing its position and identifying your location’s time zone and exact time. The Seiko Astron is solar powered, so it never needs a battery change, and it also has a perpetual calendar, so the date will always be as accurate as the time. seikocan.com Price TBA (available Fall 2012)
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Who wants to be stuck inside watching movies on a starry autumn’s night? Instead, grab some blankets and bring the TV outside by using any wall on or around your house. The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema is a full HD 3D projector with easy-to-use features, including full HD wireless connectivity, ensuring film enthusiasts, gamers or sports fan will be able to enjoy a powerful 3D experience anywhere there’s a Smart TV nearby.
This Epson model offers the ultimate three-dimensional experience, with equally high White and Colour Light Output of up to 2,400 lumens and high contrast ratios of up to 200,000:1, complete with high-end technical features. Additionally, it is the first wireless-enabled Full HD 3D projector to market that allows users to set-up their projector without unsightly cables lying around. epson.ca $3,299.00
Stay hands free as you dive! This is the world’s only dive mask with an integrated waterproof digital video camera. Operating to a depth of twenty metres (65 feet), the Video Mask by Liquid Image eliminates the need to carry an underwater camera. It’s ideal for scuba diving, capturing a shark cage encounter (yikes), snorkeling, or exploring sea life in the shallows. The lenses are
made of tempered glass and have integrated crosshairs to assist in lining up shots. Simply turn the camera on, and select photo or video mode. Just press the shutter button to record pictures or videos. An LED inside the mask indicates if you are recording images or videos. Downloading images is as easy as plugging in the mask to your PC or Mac USB port (USB cable included) and pressing the power button. The included software (PC only) allows you to edit your content, while a microSD/SDHC card slot allows for expanded memory up to 16GB for additional pictures or videos. Requires two AAA batteries. liquidimageco.com $119.99
The Samsung Galaxy S3 comes fully loaded with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, 4G LTE/HSPA+ 42 capability, a zippy dual-core processor, and a strong 8- megapixel camera. The Galaxy S III also uses Gorilla Glass (an alkali-aluminosilicate sheet glass engineered for a combination of thinness, lightness and damage-resistance) which is almost a prerequisite for any phone these days. The most interesting feature is Smart Stay, a function that recognizes if you’re actively looking at your screen or not. If you activate this feature, the front camera monitors if you’re looking at the screen to keep the screen active. For anyone who likes to read on their phone, this is a cool feature. telusmobility.com $649.99 (may vary with contract)
Here are the relevant digits: 15-inch screen, 15- mm thickness, and 1.68 kilos (3.7 lbs). The last figure is the showstopper. This isn’t just the lightest laptop in its size-class, it is lighter than every 14-inch laptop on the market (and even lighter than some 13.3-inch laptops.) If ultrabooks had a 15- inch category, the Samsung Series 9 would be the leader of the pack. It has a 1.7GHz 3rd generation Core i5, 128GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and integrated graphics. The screen (an odd 15.0 inches) packs in 1600 ? 900 pixels
and is extremely bright. Altogether, it’s one of the most dazzling displays. For its tiny size it boasts two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0, an SD card reader, plus micro connectors for HDMI, VGA, and wired Ethernet (dongle included). You can work and play even more efficiently with “instant on”. Fast Start wakes your notebook from its slumber in 1.4 seconds. This innovative hybrid sleep mode combines the fast start-up from sleep with the stability of hibernation. A Solid State Drive (SSD) provides significantly faster start-up and data access times compared to a HDD. With no moving parts, it’s less prone to errors and damage. bestbuy.ca $1499
