B5 Network - Tech, Gadgets and Weird Things

Do you remember the old good swear box? You know, that nuisance that’s supposed to cure your habit of swearing by eating up your finances? You know, the model where you put a coin in it each time you swear?

Well, stand back oldie. Time for a real swear box - literally. You see, when you curse and put in a coin in it, it strenghtens the effect by cursing you to death (As they say - fight fire with fire).

The swear box has a loud inbuilt speaker, so it will be expressing it’s opinion about you quite loudly, and for nearly 12 minutes too.

By the way, the box also has a button to activate the box without throwing coins in (cheapskates :)). I suggest hinting annoying kids of your houseguests to go and try pressing that button.

Also, the box has a removable stopper on the back, so you can remove your money without using a hammer or gravity (for those who are not thinking too well at the moment, that meant “without smashing it to pieces or dropping it off a skyscraper”).

Lastly, it has a really good price - £7.95 at IWantOneOfThose.

Imagine a situation - you’re camping out, or you’re on a beach (regardless of where you are and if you’re there on your free will). The thing they have in common is no electricity. And then you see that the battery on your phone is runing low. What do you do? Most likely you think (hope) that it will last until you find a place with electricity and recharge it.

Umm…yeah. That has worked when? It’s a well known fact of the universe that in these cases cellphones eat energy faster and they are drained in 15 minutes. So you have the options to find an outlet and recharge your phone (hope you remembered the charger) or recharge it in a mall or somewhere where they offer recharging (but do think that you’re not the only one with a phone like that, and you’re not the only one unprepared, so get ready for a long line).

However, you do have the option of being prepared. A slim little black box, that fits easily in your pocket (8cm long), flips open and reveals two solar panels.You know what’s coming next, right? - it’s a solar powered mobile phone charger. Comes with adapters for Nokia, Siemens, Motorola, Samsung and Sony Ericsson mobiles.

Found at paramountzone at price of £19.95.

It’s time to write about guns for those of us haven’t matured yet (again). Well, if the Replica Colt can look the part as a collectible item, showing this around will definitely prove that you’re immature (you want that, don’t you?). A crossbow that shoots…sucker darts (they are really called this?).

The crossbow isn’t just a plastic toy…well, not entirely anyway. Parts of it are metal - sturdiness and power. The product page claims that this crossbow can shoot accurately up to a few meters - not a big distance, but even if it would be longer…with such ammo…

What I really don’t like about this is that you only get three darts with it. They will last…for a day probably. You think idiots with no sense of humor AKA your coworkers, neighbours, etc. will give you back the darts after you get a bullseye? Think again…Well, atleast you can purchase additional packs of twelve darts.

The Size: length 55.5cm, height 15cm, width 45cm. Rather realistic, don’t you think (apart from the part where it’s bright yellow and plastic).

The crossbow with three included darts is £12.99 (now this is actually rather cheap) at boysstuff.

What kind of kid didn’t play cowboys when he was little (well, girls probably didn’t, but they usually don’t read gadget blogs)? They would run around with toy weapons, “shooting” at each other.

Well, after some time we decide we are not children anymore, and such games seem unfit for you (but try to persuade someone that you’re really not a child after you tell them how much you spent on that new gadget of yours - as the old saying goes, “men don’t grow up - only their toys get bigger”). You just can’t run around with a plastic toy.

Well, some people start playing with the real stuff - handguns, riffles, you know the deal. But some people have interferences that simply don’t allow them this - literally (cough*wives*cough).

Well, the least you could do is change that plastic toy into a metal toy. How about a Colt 45 replica?

A perfect replica. You can cock back the trigger, lad it up with dummy bullets (included) or just keep it in a display box (also included). Well, shooting may be far above it’s abilities, but if you’re desperate…

The colt will pull $79.49 out of your pocket. Found at bcool.

Who’s afraid of the big bad…spider. In truth, most people. Especially when it’s a big bad tarantula that keeps chasing them. Yep, the perfect toy for those who liked the R\C Shark, an R\C tarantula.

The tarantula is 16cm wide and 16.5cm long, at a height of 5 cm. It’s body is covered in fur-like strands. It’s remote tells it to move forward/backwards/rotate. And by the way, the tarantula has independently moving legs - just to make the impression stronger.

Just imagine - you have a boring party in your house, the guests are boring, what they are doing is boring. Time for some bad-natured fun. You just throw something small (to attract attention - people can be blind sometimes), and then you bring your tarantula right in front of them. Reactions will vary - women will scream, and men will vary in reactions from screaming to stiffening up to trying to whack it with a newspaper (well, those are most commons reactions for both sexes). However, regardless of the sex, there might be some who will just plainly stomp on it.

If you want to scare people, the R\C spider is £19.99 from toysgamesgifts.

Do you always look with jealousy at cars that have tons of electronics built in? A DVD player, for example?

Well, the Sun Visor Theater DVD Player let’s you have one without remodeling your car completely. You just need to replace your regular sun visor with it.

Now onto the specifications:
7 inch LCD touchscreen;
Plays DVD, VCD, CD, MP3, CD-R, CD-RW discs;
SD card reader;
USB plug for your laptop;
in-built TV tuner;
remote control.

Yep, it’s more like a small entertainment system. Of course, if you’re driving the car, you won’t be able to enjoy it to much. However, the passengers will surely have a great time.

Yes, this is surely interesting, but there’s a problem with the price. It’s $249.95. However, if you search for “portable DVD player” on amazon, for example (which I did, here you go), you’ll find that you can get one for less that 100$. So, it’s not really worth the money. However, if you like novelties, you can get one here.

Yay, LED gadgets again. My favourite. Don’t you just love them?

Okay, now let’s get to the gadget. It would really make a nice pair to the lite-up horseshoe game. But this time, it’s a light-up frisbee. Yep, the Glow Frisbee is the perfect toy for those of us who think playing in the dark is fun and tossing horseshoes is stupid/immature.

The frisbee has a blue and a red LED, at different sides of it. Beautiful to look, but if you can add some spin to your throw…well, you get the idea. The battery holds for 30 hours, so you shouldn’t need to change it more often than once a month or so. The frisbee itself is 27cm in diameter and weighs 180 grammes.

Also, what’s nice about it is that it floats and it’s waterproof. It should make a great toy in the water - seeing a glowing frisbee is fun, but coupled with the reflections from water…And after that you just need to swim and get it - shouldn’t be too hard considering it floats around emitting red and blue light.

The Glow Frisbee costs £9.99 (20$) at theglowcompany.

Well, after a few stupid clocks, I’m back to my favourite type of gadgets - that is everything that shines, glows, sparkles, etc. So today, we have Bath Pearls.

Well, the Bath Pearls are a nifty little gadget to enhance your bathing experience - that is, if you are someone who can spare some time for a bath, instead of taking a shower.

The Bath Pearls are water activated. Once in contact with water, they start glowing. While they are in the water, their glow goes through the spectrum of red, blue, green, purple and yellow.

The pearls (about 5cm in diameter) are just barely lighter than water, so that means they sink easily, but they always float back up. Because of that, you can stir them up and down.

These pearls are one of those gadgets that you want to have just because they are nice (like The Aurora Rocket Retro LED Alarm Clock). And they would always make a nice present. Anyhow, a pack of three pearls will only take £7.95 (16$) from your wallet. Found at crazyaboutgadgets.