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04.30.2006

Toilet Duck Fresh Brush

Posted by saresha    Category: home
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04.28.2006

Woody Cool Tunes Cooler Bag

You won't want to miss a picnic with the Woody Cool Tunes Cooler Bag. The bag can accommodate up to eight cans of your favorite cold beverage and comes with an embedded AM/FM radio. In addition you can also connect just about any portable music player (iPod, MP3 player, CD or MiniDisc) to listen to your own tracks. With warmer weather on its way, be prepared!

Posted by Katherine    Category: accessories
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04.28.2006

Luggage with built-in scales

I've long accepted that I'll never be one of those people who travel light. Add that to my shopaholic tendencies, and you have somebody for whom the baggage check-in counter holds a particular kind of terror. Bathroom scales are not very precise with suitcases, and while some hotel staff will oblige using more suitable scales, chances are that you would have exceeded the limit by then - a little late to change your mind about those last few purchases.

The Solutions range by Ricardo Beverly Hills includes 2 large suitcases (25 inch and 28 inch) which are perfect for people like me. Each comes with built-in digital scales. After packing, push the "on" button, lift the carry handle, and the LCD displays the combined weight of suitcase and contents in either pounds or kilograms.

I think this idea is ingenious, and I can only hope that it catches on with other luggage manufacturers.

Via OhGizmo!

Posted by saresha    Category: accessories
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04.28.2006

The humanist side of wearables

Whisper[s] is an acronym for "wearable, handheld, intimate, sensory, personal, expectant response system." The whisper[s] research group out of Simon Frasar University's School of Interactive Art & Technology combines wearable computing, dance, music, and fashion to explore how we exist in an environment of pervasive technology. Thecla Schiphorst, Susan Kozel, Sang Mah, and Robb Lovell led the creative team to produce work that equally balances art and technology.

The wireless technology embedded in the garments trigger responses of light and sound with other garments as well as the surrounding environment. Therefore, wearers (re)learn how to engage with each other and their surroundings through play and exploration. The use of natural fabrics is a welcome change from the tendency to overdo the futuristic feel of many wearable technology examples. This collaborative project presents a refreshing, beautiful and thought-provoking look at the age when everything is becoming a networked object, and more importantly how we relate to them as people.

Posted by Ray    Category: wearables
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04.27.2006

Avon Instant Manicure

I'm a beauty product junkie and a heavy-duty super groomer, but I have never gotten the hang of manicures. Whenever I try to do one myself it reminds me of when I was first given coloring books: I see where the colors are supposed to go, but I simply can't seem to get enough control to keep the nail polish within the confines of my nails. Years ago, when the deep purple-red-black shade by Chanel called Vamp was all the rage, I decided to give it a go and when I was finished I showed my then 3-year old niece, who thought my hands had been butchered and she cried and cried. Now when I know I will be shaking lots of hands, I go and get a pro job, but for some reason, I can't even get out of the nail salon without smudges and chips. I think I'm just not patient enough to let the enamel thoroughly dry.

Enter Avon's new Instant Manicure. These moldable strips of color are pressed onto natural nails and then spread into place. These are apparently semi-dry strips of actual nail enamel, not just press-on fake nails, and once you put it on, they bond almost instantly so there's no waiting before you can use your hands again. The color is supposed to resist chipping for 14 days, about twice as long as traditional polish, although surely I'd find a way to chip it off within hours. The strips come in various sizes to suit different-sized nails. You use regular polish remover to remove the enamel.

Avon Instant Manicure will be available in May for $8. They come in two strips of 8, in case you mess up, I guess, or have a few extra fingernails.

Posted by Mia    Category: body
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04.27.2006

Tersano home ozone-generating sanitizers

Ozone is one of those tricky things - way up in the stratoshere, it's essential for protecting us from uv rays, but closer to earth, it's a strong lung irritant and a major component of the layer of smog and pollution hanging over so much of the world. Still more confusing: the pollution caused by ozone-generating elements such as cleaning chemicals and gas fumes from cars makes it necessary to disinfect our air and water, and sanitation companies do this sometimes by generating...ozone. Oxidizing water and surfaces with ozone clears them of potentially deadly microorganisms, but although the issue is controversial, can also contribute to further depletion of the necessary ozone layer, leading to more pollution, and so on and so on.

While ozone is a scary word, many of the popular air sanitizers for the home emit possibly dangerous levels of ozone. Quite scary considering how many personal appliances these days are "ionic" although most companies insist that only "trace amounts" of ozone are created.

So I am confused, but also find it refreshing that Tersano, a Canadian sanitation appliance company, fully discloses that their Lotus home sanitizers use ozone to clean your home, foods, and water. The Lotus water treatment system is a mini treatment plant that bubbles ozone through your drinking water to clear it of toxins and chemicals. The Lotus sanitizing system sprays your fresh fruits and meats with super-oxygenated water to eliminate pesticides and bacteria, keeping them fresher longer. The sanitizer can also be used to fill a spray bottle with the ozone-rich water to clean household surfaces.

The Lotus line of products will be available later this spring from one of the ionizing superstars of the retail world, Sharper Image. I haven't seen an official price list, but all the products should start in the $200 range.

Related:
Oh-Zone! safety survey (sponsored by Tersano so it's ozone rah-rah)
Home ozone generators and health consequences from the EPA.

Posted by Mia    Category: devices | home
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04.26.2006

Panasonic W5- the ultimate laptop

Since I get to review a lot of very nice, expensive electronics, I try very hard not to get attached, since I know they'll have to be boxed up and returned within a few weeks. I have a rule, kind of like the one Julia Roberts' hooker character had in Pretty Woman where she refused to kiss any john on the lips, lest she develop any sort of emotional attachment. My rule is never to personalize or buy any accessory for any product which I know I'll have to return. As much as I've liked some of the items I've reviewed, I've never broken my rule. That went out the window when I was allowed to play with a Panasonic W5 from Dynamism, the shop that imports the newest and greatest gadgets from Japan, and adapts them to work effortlessly as English-language machines. Not only does the W5 now have a photo of my dogs as desktop wallpaper, all my bookmarks, and programs, but I even bought it a tiny little laptop bag that would only work as a hat or a tea cozy for my current behomoth Toshiba. The tiny size of the W5 is almost unreal. Take a look at it next to a standard issue of Forbes- it's not only no longer or wider, but only a tiny bit thicker. And yes, that's a gratuitous cuteness shot of my new puppy Ozzie (or Yuki, we can't decide on his name).

Continue reading "Panasonic W5- the ultimate laptop"

Posted by Mia    Category: devices
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04.26.2006

The easy way to jump start a car

I don't remember the last time I had to jump start a car (which may mean I've never done it myself), but I'm often paranoid that my car battery will konk out one day in a distant city where I'd have to inconvenience a total stranger to help me out. Old style jumper cables scare me a little (I think of battery acid, possibility of explosion, incorrect identification of negative and positive terminals). But this Charge-n-Start looks fairly unintimidating. It works through your car's DC power port/lighter socket, with the other end fitting into the other car's lighter socket. The cord is 8 feet long, and the other driver doesn't even need to get out of their car or open their hood. And you don't have to get all grimy messing around under the hood of your car.

These are available at Sahalie for $29.

Posted by Hoyun    Category: cars
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04.26.2006

Travel Iron

I always love a good travel iron. I mean, don't you hate it when you're not staying at a "better" hotel and your lovely all-natural fiber clothing looks like you smashed it in the bottom of the hamper? Well, for those times when the courtesy clothes iron is missing from the room, or if you just like to always be prepared, this essential lifestyle aid will have you looking pressed and ready to go. It even runs on dual 120/240 volts for the world traveler in you. Looking put-together knows no national boundaries.

Posted by Katherine    Category: devices
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04.26.2006

Quick Wrap Hair Art Styling Kit

Oh my goodness! Anyone remember when hair-wrapping was the biggest fad? No? Um... well it was a fad, and I think there are still a few hippies hanging out on Venice Blvd. who will wind embroidery thread around your locks, even adorning them with beads. But who needs hippies on sidewalks when you've got a hair wrapping kit? From Conair, the QWCS Quick Wrap Hair Art Styling Kit would be a smash... if I were twelve again. But, like all good things that have long past, this is something I think twelve year-olds of today might also like. Being a teen is so much fun.

Posted by Katherine    Category: body | devices
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