Got messy roommates? Get a Flatshare

Got messy roommates? Get a Flatshare

Author ColGlobe | 29.11.2008 | Category Innovation

The perfect solution for roommates

Check out the Flatshare: a refrigerator designed to give roommates their space. Electrolux Design Lab 2008 Competition’s winner, Stephan Buchberger of the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, came up with an interesting winning piece that might turn the heads of all people who are living with roommates that are a bit too messy for comfort.

This neat but not-so-little gadget has a simple touch to it: it separates the fridge space among roommates for whatever purposes it might serve them. This kind of organization obviously solves the problem of roommates who risk smelling spoiled food placed and left by their other roommates. This lets them have their personal space to suit their taste – something that every college student bunking up in dorms or other people with similar lifestyles would want, even if it’s just fridge space.

The Flatrate also comes with other features like custom skin colors, bottle openers, a white board and other tools necessary for a cool fridge like this.

Sling.com to go live

Author ColGlobe | 12.11.2008 | Category Innovation, World Wide Web

Watch your favorite TV shows online!

November 24 marks another milestone for online media streaming as Sling.com – a paid online video streaming website – finally goes live for all its users to enjoy. After quite a while with the beta tests (and even delaying the originally planned Nov. 10 debut), Sling.com is ready to go out with a whole bunch of features including all those television shows you can choose from as well as the web based accessibility of their services.

Sling.com is pretty much like Hulu.com – it offers and incredibly large bunch of streamed movies, videos and television shows, all of which are ensured to be of great quality and entertainment value as the media pools are supported and backed up by the deals Sling has made with companies like Sony, MGM and Warner.

The website, however, comes with its own perks as word runs around claiming that Sling might have services that will allow its users to access their television shows and stream them into their own favorite mobile devices such as mobile phones. Although they still remain to be rumors, some people think they are more likely to be possible and true.

Blizzard: Diablo III

Author JoeDigital | 11.11.2008 | Category Innovation, Video Games

Taste the adventure for yourself

At the Diablo home page, we are greeted with this opening:

Two decades have passed since the demonic lords, Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal, set out across the world of Sanctuary on a vicious rampage, twisting humanity to their unholy will. Yet for those who battled the Prime Evils, the memory fades slowly.

For fans of the game, this alone is enough to get the blood flowing, and their interest engaged. Blizzard Entertainment has done it again, bringing back another of their 3 famed success stories with the long-awaited sequel to Diablo and Diablo II. 

Venture forth yourself, and explore the realms of Sanctuary. According to the website, great care has been taken to rtain the ease of play, and the stunning artwork that made its predecessor a hit, with new enemies to be battled, and a long list of adventures to be realized.

There are five distinct character classes available, and the player may choose to be either male or female. Armed with an array of exciting new spells and weapons, the game promises to keep even the most jaded gamers coming back for more.

Automated Sick Calls?

Author JoeDigital | 08.11.2008 | Category Innovation, Telecommunications

Ever needed to call your boss that you can’t come to work today or tomorrow because you’re sick, but wished to do away with the endless question and answer portion that helps explain why you have to skip work today? Maybe Group2Call’s new phone feature can help.

“Call-in-sick” is a phone service that let’s you pre-design your own sick call to record your message telling your boss that you can’t come to work today because you’re sick. There are lots of perks to this service, which includes you being able to schedule when your phone will automatically call your boss’ phone and deliver that pre-recorded message. That way, all is said and done and, more often than not, your boss can’t argue against you not coming to work anymore.

But then again, this kind of technology gives that precedence that people will desire to design their pre-recorded sick calls even when they are not sick. So who would mostly need to “plan” their sick leaves? That’s right: fakers.

microsoft surface

Author ColGlobe | 31.10.2008 | Category Computers, Innovation, Technology

By Laying a digital device on the Surface, you can exchange information

Most people don’t know it, but Microsoft actually has a computer on the market.  But don’t get excited, unless you have a lot of extra money laying around, because these aren’t the economic models we’ve gotten used to seeing.

Play games using touch, without mice or keyboards

The Microsoft Surface combines hardware and software to create a unique user experience. Aimed at commercial applications, the Surface is a “table” style computer, much like the table video games of days gone by, which looked something like an end table. But the Surface differs from those old game machines in that it is both mouse and keyboard free, but packed with cutting edge technology that allows multiple users to interact with the unit at once.

Mircosoft Surface Touch Table

One neat feature of the Surface is its ability to recognize certain digital devices by simply placing them on the tabletop, and promises such retail uses as drag and drop ringtones, and cell phone applications. AT&T provded the first test of the Surface, with future applications intended for hotels and other commercial applications.

A Visit to the iApple Store

Author JoeDigital | 30.09.2008 | Category Gadgets, Innovation

The iPod nano silver

There has been a lot of speculation and concentration on the iPhone, but have you taken a look at the iPod lately?  The iPod nano is super thin, and is available in 8 and 16 GB models, and 9 vibrant colors.  It is available by visiting the Apple Store, and prices start at $149.  It allows both normal and widescreeen projects, by rotating the alignment of the unit, and will shuffle to a different song by simply shaking the Nano.  With a capacity of 2000 songs on the 8GB model, I foresee a whole lot of shakin’ going on!

3M Introduces the Pocket Projector

Author JoeDigital | 18.09.2008 | Category Gadgets, Innovation

3M presents the first palm sized projector

With a VGA jack to fit your computer, and a video in jack to support input from other devices, the MPro110, from 3M is an amazing projector.  While the beta version, pictured here, doesn’t have the best resolution possible, it is most assuredly a step in the right direction.  It can project images, graphs, and even video onto any light-colored surface.  This version loses a lot in the translation of moving images, but for video geeks the world over, the guy sitting in front of you just became your living theater screen.  you’ll have to supply your own earpiece or amplifying system, but who cares?  Let’s just watch the movie already!

TokyoFlash Japan - Futuristic Time

Author ColGlobe | 18.09.2008 | Category Innovation, Japanese Gadgets

If you’re in the mood for something completely different, maybe you should consider getting a watch.  TokyoFlash Japan offers a wide assortment of timekeepers like nothing you’ve ever seen before, from an inverse LED display to some designs I haven’t even been able to figure out how to read.  These are not the old-fashioned dials or over-hyped digitals of our time, or the any of our ancestors.  Here are a couple of the many selections available:

Infection is a watch like none other

I haven’t figured this one out yet, but deep down inside, I recognize that it is a watch.  What I like the most about it is the very fact that it is so out of the ordinary.  But I have a feeling that it is so diabolically simple that a child who hadn’t yet learned that all time is displayed as a number would understand it completely. Twelve red LEDs indicate hours, eleven yellow LEDs represent the progression of time in groups of five minutes and four green LEDs show single minutes.

Time displayed in bits of light

This watch, called the Rogue, is certain to get you noticed anywhere you go.  It is also one of the more “normal” offerings available at TokyoFlash.  And if this is a look at the “simple” ones, imagine how complex they can be!

It looks like a game, but it is a timepiece

The Futara, at first, looks like a very complicated way to tell time, but here’s the secret:

Around the outer edges are 60 segments, indicating 1 minute each. They are grouped in 10’s so it’s easy to tell the time at a glance. The inner spiral of blocks represent 1 hour each.