The Bytelove Gadget Blog

Can you guess what’s in the picture. Well, it looks like a hip flask. The non-breakable version of a bottle of liquor, hidden in your pockets for all those difficult times (I am not suggesting that you are carrying one) (this is a really bad idea for dealing with “those difficult times”) (so yeah, don’t do this).

Well, times change. People too. And it appears that a certain subspecies of homo sapiens, one that calls itself “geeks”, no longer thinks that alcohol is something that they need in a hard situation. Instead they choose additional memory. About 250GB of it (well, that’s still better than drinking.).

This hard drive, wrapped in genuine leather, could easily pass a quick inspection for a liquor flask. Of course, a closer, hands-on inspections will lead to a discovery of a missing opening for the liquids that should be inside – that, and the CE mark stuck on one end, which is quite visible.

Original form and leather binding aside, this external HDD also features some of the more common features – such as the speedy USB 2.0 connection, as well as a Drop Guard protection – keeping the hard drive safe from the devastating effects of the Earth’s gravitational force is, of course, the sensible thing to do, but you never know.

So, if you want to look like an alcoholic, and still remain as geeky as ever (it is questionable whether this is a good thing though :)) head over to ThinkGeek and be ready to spend $149.99 for this gadget (a reasonable price, as most external HDDs of such capacity cost about the same – at least where I live)

Chess – a game of strategy and wits, with it’s roots reaching the 6th century. The reasons for it’s popularity? Well, truthfully, no one knows. Maybe humans, a naturally aggressive and militaristic species just find it alluring to send two armies to battle against each other – be they depicted as abstract wooden figures or the skeletons of the underworld.

Apparently, brutally killing the opposing army’s soldiers isn’t a good enough way to express animosity, and black and white are not enough mortal enemies. Someone just had to make the opposing forces belong to different species too – ones that don’t like each other too much at that!

Fine, fine, it’s not that bad. Quite the opposite actually. Hilarious, great, cool, or even maybe cute (these would make a nice present) – all these descriptions apply to these pieces. Nothing like an offer to decide upon a winner in the eternal cat vs. dog fight to get people interested (at least temporarily) in a game of chess

The set is available in two sizes (and two prices).
The small set for $69.00.
The large set for $99.00.

Once again, I am writing about an alarm clock. Strange, because privately I think alarm clocks are evil. Yet, there are alarm clock gadgets that are simply too cool to ignore. And the Time Bomb Alarm Clock is definitely an original concept.

A lot of us are suffering from the (sort of necessary) need for those contraptions from hell, commonly called alarm clock. But nothing shows your determination to wake up early than placing an explosive near your bed (what’s even greater, this explosive won’t decorate the nearest wall with your brain matter).

The time is shown in large, bright red numbers, projected from inside the clock. The controls are positioned near the base of the “fuse” (the controls are fairly standard by the way).

But of course, no one cares about the clock part. It’s the alarm everyone wants to know about – right? Right? Well, maybe, maybe not. For those that do, as soon as the set time clocks, the inbuilt light source starts flashing, and the alarm clock starts making noise (driving us to insanity in the process). Looks pretty good actually. And if you want another 5 minutes (which will most likely turn into an hour), you just need to pull on the cord.

Compared to some of the other clocks on the market, this one is nothing spectacular. But it is original, you have to give it that. And it would be fun to have something like that, at least to show off. Could make a nice gift too.

Found at DrinkStuff for £19.99.

What you see in the picture are lanterns, styled like paper lanterns (a candle with paper covering it) associated with Japan and China. The old light sources had a variety of uses, from attracting attention, to expressing love to scaring off evil spirits (scratch that, I think all of these uses for a paper lantern still exist even now).

As eye-pleasing as these are, they are not immensely popular nowadays. Partly because most people can’t light a candle without setting a house on fire. Partly because some have trouble resisting to light the house on fire while lighting a candle. Those that do not have these problems grow irritated at needing to constantly purchase new candles.

Of course, electric lanterns are a possible alternative. That, however, means that you will have a long cord providing power to the lanterns lying around (and possibly tripping people) (Well, that or trying to hide the cord somehow). And batteries aren’t much of an alternative – how long do you think they can last while powering a strong light bulb?

Well, how about these then? The power is supplied by a solar battery, that charges during the day, and directs it’s power to the LEDs contained inside the lanterns when it gets dark to give the lanterns that mystic glow. But wait – there’s more (does that sound like something from a cheesy commercial?). In the pack of 6 lanterns, there are 3 red, that give off a constant red glow, and 3 white, that change colors. Nothing like some variation to keep you entertained.

The pack consisting of six lanterns costs £29.95 at FireBox.

Have you ever dreamed of sampling boiled cockroaches? Fried slugs? Snake cooked in butter (hey, this actually sounds tasty)?

Well, whether or not you have a desire to try any of those delicacies (or maybe you have already?), all of them are perfectly normal in some countries. Freaky, maybe, weird, yeah, but normal. And why not – that stuff tastes good for most people (most of those who are brave/stupid enough to try). There are some things however, that, most agree, have an unpleasant taste – ranging from the slightly sour lemons (or grapefruits, if you’re like me) to something like vinegar and beyond.

So, just imagine the shocked expressions on your friends’ faces when you get the aforementioned lemons, dip them slightly in vinegar, and then put them in your mouth and start chewing with a happy, satisfied expression – as if you were eating something sweet and sugary. Well, that’s possible thanks to Miracle Fruit/Miracle Berry tablets.

The tablets are made from berries of Synsepalum dulcificum (which, if you do a search on say Wikipedia, is indeed called Miracle Fruit/Berry). The component which is responsible for all the magic of these berries is called miraculin (if you think that sounds like it was made from the word ‘miracle’, you are very right (the person who discovered it lacked imagination)), a glycoprotein (a material with sugar-like constructs, for those who want it nice and really simple). Put simply (those who want more, this post has more than enough to give you a lead on what to search for), miraculin makes food taste sweet and sugary (not to be confused with effects of sugar and other such sweeteners – they just mix in some of their own sweet taste, whereas miraculin modifies the taste into a sweeter version). The effect lasts on average somewhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours.

Just so you wouldn’t be caught unaware, the effects of these tablets won’t be anything like “Mmmm….sugared lemons”. Think more along the lines of “Holy shit! I died and went to Heaven. And boy, does this place remind me of a candy store!”. Okay, granted, I can’t think of any good exclamations (and I will be grateful to anyone who could suggest me a good one), but yeah, these things are strong.

Each packet, containing 10 tablets, costs £9.95 at FireBox.

In the age of small electronics, today’s gadget fits very nicely. Small, functional, fairly powerful – what else to wish for?(…well, for it to be even smaller, more functional and powerful, but that’s a bit much).

This is just the thing for those situations when you want to share the music from your mp3 player with everyone around, and yet you’re stuck with a single pair of headphones and a large (not to mention, impatient) crowd. Unless you have a cable to split the headphone socket, and you or your friends have some spare headphones, the task of pleasing everyone can be daunting.

And this is where the Speaker Cube comes in. While scoring pretty low in terms of power (0.8W), the cube was never meant for a live concert. (Note: Most USB powered speakers that I have seen up to date are approximately 1W in power, and usually sold in packs of two). What the mini cube will allow you however is to listen to your music at roughly the volume that of a music-orientated cell phone.

Let’s take things slowly, shall we? From outside, it looks just like a small cube ( 26 x 26 x 25mm) with a hole for a keychain? But of course, there is more than meets the eye. Out of the cube, a 3.5mm jack (male connector) folds out (a 3.5mm jack is one of the most commonest of examples – simply put, it’s a standard connector). There is even a small ON/OFF button to help you conserve power (the cube is chargeable via the included USB cable).

This little guy couldn’t beat a sound system that has a power level that requires three digits to describe it, but in an unexpected situations, it’s wonderful.

The Speaker Cube is US$9.99 at USBFever.

Today, the post will be about a printer for digital pictures! (For some reason, I can’t hear any shouts of awe…)
The printer doesn’t need a computer – only needs a USB or a Bluetooth connection! (Alright, alright, I know that’s nothing new).
The printer measures 7.2cm(Width) x 12cm(Length) x 2.4cm(Height) and is portable, runs on batteries! (Impressed now?)

Produced by Polaroid, the company that introduced the concept of instant pictures to the world, this little printer actually fits in your pocket (assuming that the pockets are somewhat average-sized). Powered by a rechargeable battery (about enough for 15 prints on a full charge), the PoGo Instant Printer prints your pictures on sheets (you can store 10 sheets of it inside the printer ready to be used) of Zink Paper (heat-activated, similar to laser printing) - smudge-proof, water-resistant, fade-resistant and tear-proof, meaning your pictures will last for a very long time. Just connect it to your camera via an USB bridge, or link it to your phone using Bluetooth, and you can be holding your picture in your hands in less than a minute. Lastly, the back of the picture peels off to reveal a sticky layer – you can stick your freshly made picture on most surfaces instantly. The possibility (and temptation) of using this feature for something….ahem…not nice…is incredible.

The PoGo Instant Photo Printer is £99.95, and a pack of 30 Zink paper sheets is £6.95. Found at FireBox.

Today’s gadget is for all of you who are paranoid, megalomaniacs or voyeurs (for the sake of our sanity and the pure hearts of the younger readers, let’s delude ourselves into thinking that none of you fall into the third category. Younger readers, if you don’t know what the name of that category meant, don’t try to find out!). Even more, this has a practical use (this is rare :)).

The four camera (each measuring 56 x 60 x 45mm – tiny enough to hide them anywhere) CCTV system is easy to set up (along the lines of ‘put everything where you want them to be and switch everything on’), and has some impressive features. All of the cameras send a real-time color-picture-with-sound feed to the receiver – while being up to 100 meters away from it (of course, obstacles such as walls will affect the range, as well as the materials the obstacles are made of – however, under normal, average conditions, the signal strength will still be enough to use these cameras to secure your home, should you wish to use them for such a purpose). The distance the cameras can ’see’ is 50-100m in daylight, or 8-20m using infrared lightning (yes, night vision – cool, huh?). And if you do decide to use the cameras for home protection, you will appreciate the waterproof quality of the cameras (raindrops on the lenses will make it impossible to see anything though, so you will need to take that into account when placing them).

As great as the cameras are, the receiver also bears mentioning. You can plug it into your TV (to watch the live feed) or DVD device (to record said live feed). The included remote control is used to switch between cameras. The nicest part is the USB connector (making this an USB gadget :)) - for you to view (and record) the video stream.

And now for the best part – the price (sounds weird, huh?). It’s £104.95 at ParamountZone. From what I have seen, you would have to spend a lot more usually for such a system, plus the costs of installing it and the various adapters needed to make it work with your home electronics – that or buying specialized (and expensive) monitors. For that, I think this is an excellent deal. Makes me want to get this, even though I have no use for this.

All who like to read about annoying alarm clocks that force you to become and stay awake, rejoice! Others, who are sick of reading about clocks…you don’t know where I live, and I always carry weapons on me, so threats are useless.

The brother of the famous (and annoying) Flying Alarm Clock, the Hanging Alarm Clock is promising to be even more effective in getting you out of bed (not to mention, even more annoying).

As the name implies, the clock needs to be hanged from the ceiling (the cable is included). After it starts trying to raise the dead with the noise, and barely succeeds in even raising the sleeping (namely: you), it gets temporarily disabled with the ‘Snooze’ button (what? Don’t tell me you don’t do this…). Such a cycle could repeat countless times with a normal clock – but that’s why we are interested in this clock. When the ‘Snooze” button is pressed, the clock shuts up for a while, and takes a minute to reel itself 30cm up the cable. See how it works now? - at some point, it’ll be too high for you to reach, and you will have to get out of bed and stand up to end the infernal screeching - unless you can hit it with something heavy thrown at it, which would be rather hard with your eyes closed and you yourself half asleep.

The Hanging Alarm Clock is £19.99 at CrazyAboutGadgets.

A few weeks ago, I wrote that the best way to chill a drink quickly is to pop in an ice cube – I even suggested some very cool molds for the ice. However, while ice does feel pleasantly in the drink, it can’t achieve the low temperatures of prematurely chilled drinks. Now, that’s easy to do – just keep the drinks in the fridge for an hour.

Yet, the fridge is not the best place to display the refreshing drinks during the party. For that reason we have metal buckets filled to the brim with ice. Classical, tasteful, sleek and above all, effective. In other words, perfect as it is. Now after hearing that, some people (majority of the readers I suppose) immediately become dissatisfied with the existing cooling solution and want something superior.

I don’t know if this really is a superior solution, but I do admit it looks nice. A clear bucket, once filled with ice cubes, starts glowing blue due to it’s 9 LEDs. The diodes gradually light up and fade out separately, so coupled with the ice cubes (while terrible in quality, an ice cube is a prism) they create an effect of the ice glistening in blue.

A note about the material the body of the bucket is made of. IIIIIIII are clearer and more shock-resistant than most other plastics. However, they don’t work well with alkali – in fact, they release relatively large amounts of a hazardous chemical. So, no cleaning with soap (alcohol is fine though). Anyway, if you will be using it for it’s given purpose, that is, storing ice cubes and bottles, I don’t see a reason for anything more than water to be needed for cleaning.

Lastly, this ice bucket, while looking like a geeky gadget to a trained eye, will fit just as well in a tea party or in a dark, cigarette smoke filled biker bar.

The LED Ice Bucket is £14.99 at CrazyAboutGadgets.