It's a shame I didn't have these unusual sandals with me at the beach over the weekend. I might have found some spare change!
Hammacher Schlemmer today added to its catalog The Metal Detecting Sandals ($59.95), wearable metal detectors that let you find buried treasure with your feet. The Metal Detecting Sandals, according to a press release, have a "copper coil built into the right sandal--powered by a battery pack that straps to your calf by an elastic band." The sandals use what's called "beat frequency oscillation technology" in order to create a magnetic field. The 9V battery pack then alerts the wearer of metal up to 2 feet underfoot via flashing red LED lights and either a vibration or an audible buzz.
Providing up to 6 hours of use on a single charge, the sandals have PVC uppers, non-skid soles, and polyurethane foam footbeds; they are available in two unisex sizes.
As any iPod owner can attest, earbud-style headphones are compact, discreet, and notoriously tangle-prone. Which is why this clever concept makes perfect sense.
By attaching a run-of-the-mill zipper to a pair of equally run-of-the-mill earbuds, designer Ji Woong has created genius Zipper Headphones that can be zipped up when not in use, thereby preventing the dreaded headphone tangle.
Here's hoping this zippy little prototype makes it to production.
Twitter Tees by Threadless, launched earlier this week, is exactly what it sounds like: a new line of T-shirts based on Twitter. Threadless explains:
Twitter Tees will feature notable Tweets submitted and voted on by Twitter users, with art direction and design of each t-shirt by the
in-house creative team at Threadless. Anyone can submit a Tweet for inclusion. Twitter users will vote on submitted Tweets, with two new Twitter Tees selected and printed each
week. They are likely to be as diverse and varied as the conversations happening all day on Twitter.
But wait, that's not all! There are prizes to be had!
Twitter users whose Tweets are selected for printing will receive $500
($360 in cash and a $140 Threadless gift certificate). In addition, the
first nominator of a printed Tweet will receive $140 ($100 cash and a
$40 Threadless gift certificate).
To kick things off, Threadless has already selected and designed four, well, let's call them tweet-shirts, shall we? The following designs are available immediately for $18 each:
What better gift for the new grad in your life than a T-shirt that credits Wikipedia for helping with that "hard-won" degree? Fusilly's cheeky Thanks Wikipedia tee pays homage to "the world's leading source of unqualified information" by revealing the "brains" behind many a college student's (community-edited) term papers and essays.
The red-and-yellow ringspun cotton tee costs $20 at Fusilly and is sure to complement that cap and gown.
The vision- and hearing-impaired gain a new level of freedom with the release of the Silent Touch Watch, which works with the Silent Call line of alerting products. The watch can notify the wearer about a ringing doorbell or telephone, or even an activated smoke detector, fire alarm, or burglar alarm. It has a 300-foot range and uses both vibrational and visual alerts.
The Silent Touch works with Sidekick II Signature devices, which include a range of monitors and alarms. It offers a wake-up alarm, and can even be used with a mattress vibrator which shakes the mattress at the correct time.
Order the watch and you'll also get a travel case and a docking station that connects it to a mattress vibrator. The mattress vibrator, by the way, sends a different vibration for each alarm received.
The Silent Touch watch will be available on June 1 from silentcall.com. I couldn't find the watch on the Web site at this time, but here's a link to a Silent Call PDF catalog that lists it. According to the catalog, the watch sells for $150 and the charger for $117.65. A kit that includes the watch, charger, and bed vibrator costs $289.
It's a problem sports and outdoor enthusiasts (and maybe some of the rest of us) know all too well: You desperately want to shoot high-quality video of something, but you don't always have the free hands available to hold your hardware. (Bikes, oars, and skis don't keep themselves moving, you know.) The Seattle-based VholdR has come up with a way to change all that: ContourHD, the first wearable HD camcorder.
The water-resistant, 4-ounce ContourHD can attach to your goggles or helmet (or, if absolutely necessary, your bicycle or car) and can shoot videos in either 30-frames-per-second (fps) 720p HD or 60-fps High Action SD format. It can record up to 8 hours of HD video on its internal microSD card, and is powered by a removable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery. Two lasesrs and a 192-degree rotating lens help you line up your shots.
The $299.99 ContourHD will be available in May from Abt Electronics, Amazon.com, B&H Photo, and HelmetCameraCentral.com.
Happy Earth Day, gearheads! Here's one way to celebrate: Purchase a geeky green T-shirt from Zazzle between now and Arbor Day (this Friday, April 24) and the site will donate $1--enough to plant one tree--to American Forests, an environmental nonprofit, as part of Zazzle's Tree-Shirt Releaf program.
Want to swim like a shark? Or a Phelps? Finis, a swimming-tech company, has unveiled the AquaPulse, a compact device that you wear behind your ear to get heart rate data while swimming.
The AquaPulse uses an infrared sensor that clips to your earlobe and measures the light pulses due to capillary blood flow. It then delivers audible readings so there's nothing to glance at. If you don't think you'd be able to hear it while swimming, know that it uses bone-conduction technology to transfer sound vibrations through the temple bone to your inner ear.
You'll need to wear goggles while you swim, because the AquaPulse clips to your goggles' strap and rests against your temple. You can set it to give readings as often as every 20 seconds or as seldom as every 5 minutes. You can also press a button to get your heart rate whenever you'd like.
The AquaPulse will go on sale in May from FinisInc.com or major sports retailers.
If you've been thinking about adding some excitement to your sock drawer (and who hasn't?), the time is now, my friend. All you need are some Super Mario-themed socks.
Ahem:
Now you can jump into some warp zones like your favorite 8-bit Italian
hero. These puppies are thick and warm kind of like hiking socks. They
won't make you jump higher or shoot fireballs but they'll be sure to
put some spring in your step.
I suggest wearing them under a fine Italian business suit for that elusive "secret superhero" look.
Ready to pretend you can punch brick walls and find money? Warp Zone socks are available for $12 per pair at ashidashi.com.
Garmin, the first name in sports watches, updated two of its premium products with models that deliver even stronger training data.
The top-of-the-line Garmin Forerunner 405 running watch has been improved with the 405CX, just in time for runners training for the Paris and Boston marathons. The 405CX monitors micro changes in the user's heart rate and uses that info to better calculate the number of calories burned.
Buyers also have their choice of two new form-fitting bands for extra comfort. The GPS-enabled 405CX isn't just for outdoor workouts, as it can work with an optional footpad (which fits on laces or under certain insoles) for indoor use. Once you're done, it sends workout data to your Windows of Macintosh computer wirelessly using ANT+ technology. It weighs 60 grams (2.1 ounces) and sells for $369.99.
For hard-core triathletes, Garmin is offering the updated Forerunner 310XT, a continuation of the Forerunner 305. This model offers improved battery life (up to 20 hours) and a more comfortable design. It will also work with a waterproof soft-strap heart rate monitor which will be introduced this summer. The 310XT is the choice for triathlons since it's waterproof to up to 50 meters, and has a quick-release feature that lets you use it with a bike mount. It weighs 72 grams (2.5 ounces) and sells for $349.99.
Spring's nearly here, and with it the promise of outdoors--biking, skateboarding, motorcycling, rollerdisco, or whatever your sport of choice. Consumers have turned in droves to portable, easy-to-use video cameras like the Flip, and they'll no doubt like the forthcoming Kodak ZX1 and the Cobra DVC950. But if you like sports, you're gonna love the VholdR.
Designed to by Twenty20 for hands-free recording of your favorite activity, the VholdR ($280 street) is a tiny black camcorder that mounts to your helmet, recording whatever you point your eyeballs at. A pair of laser beams help you target the camera correctly (they're ideal for Predator impersonations, too), and one-button operation makes it easy to use with gloves on. Plus Twenty20 hosts a web community where you can post the day's best clips and share tips with other users, all linked through Google Earth.
To test the VHoldR's quality and ease of use, I set my friend Jesse up with the VHoldR for a week of intense motorcycling. After the jump, a full review, including a side-by-side comparison of video from the Pure Digital Flip.
If Jada Toys' Air Guitar Rocker taught us one thing, it's that Guitar Hero is all about class. With that in mind, why not spiff out your finest three-piece suit with a pair of these shiny new "Guitar Hero-inspired" cufflinks?
Of course, "inspired" is just a nice way of saying that they're not officially endorsed by the fine people at Activision (also, note the "Guitar Video Game Cufflinks" title). But hey, at $50 a pair, overpaying beggars can't be choosers, right?
The cufflinks are designed to look like Guitar Hero controllers. According to the company, they're "Strat replicas." I'm no guitar expert, but these things look a bit more like Gibson SGs to me. I repeat: beggars, choosers, etc.
Like robots? Like T-shirts? Have I got a deal for you!
Chop Shop's Nerd Bot tee just went on sale for $1 plus postage and is currently available at Supermarket in small, medium, and large. When it comes to wearing your geek on your sleeve, this may be as cheap as it gets.
Hello, cheap geeks: I'm your new teacher. Everyone got their credit cards out? Okay, good, let's begin with today's deals.
1. Buy.com is offering a reconditioned Philips 1GB MP3 player for only $12.99, and there's no shipping charge. At that price you should order several, just so you can hand them out as tips to valets and bathroom attendants.
2. Dell's 10 Days of Deals promotion brings you a $479 Inspiron 15 laptop. It's got a 15-inch screen, 320GB of storage, and a pretty red color (for $30 extra). It also comes loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium.
3. We heart Threadless, maker of fine, funny t-shirts geeks love, and we double-heart its Spring Cleaning Sale! Click on over and if you're extra-cheap (like us) click the tab for $5 shirts. Sizes are limited, but you can click the size options on the lower left to only see shirts in your size.
Nadva Vessey surely isn't the first person to dream of becoming a mermaid, but thanks to the folks at Weta Workshop, she may be the first person to truly have realized that dream. Vessey, a New Zealand resident who lost her legs as a youth, approached the company, which has designed effects and costumes for movies such as Lord of the Rings, if they might be able to help her swim like a mermaid.
The company complied, creating a prosthetic tail out of plastic molds and wetsuit materials. Vessey has been taking the tail for test drives around her local pool. Weta for its part, said it's not likely to construct another tail, but was more than happy to accept the challenge.
It's a shame I didn't have these unusual sandals with me at the beach over the weekend. I might have found some spare change!
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If you've been thinking about adding some excitement to your sock drawer (and who hasn't?), the time is now, my friend. All you need are some 
If Jada Toys' 
