Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Jul 27

Fancy watching Internet films on your TV without all the technology?

Basically there is now a simple gadget that can bring all those Internet only channels to your everyday TV - controlled by your standard remote.  And all this in a standard freeview box.

My brother used to be able to connect up his laptop with a TV monitor and then drag files over from one to the other to increase the viewing size - and for greater comfort.

I mean just because you miss one episode in your favorite show - why should you have to sit alone at your desk, hooked up to your pc or laptop watching the tiniest screen ever with tinny sound coming through your earphones!

What Is It Then?
Well, this gadget is the Fetch TV SmartBox 8000 and so far works with only the BBC catch-up Internet channel - basically you can watch BBCi as though it was a normal TV channel so around 400 hours of ‘free’ television.

There are plans afoot to spread this to Channel 4 and Five’s catch-up services which would mean hours of fun watching comedy quizzes and reality shows!

There is no software to install for this so it’s easy for anyone to get started without calling your mates (or kids) for help!  And, unlike some cable packages that offer Internet programmes - there is no subscription charge - just the one off purchase cost of around £220 and you are away!

What Else Does It Do?
Well, as it has a computer memory - you can move all your photos and videos onto it yourself - allowing home viewing on the couch for your latest holiday snaps!  Or the kids sports day video at a party!

It also has an 80 hour capacity for taping the TV itself - so you can watch the Sunday lunch time movie with the family while recording the motor racing on the other channel for when every-one’s gone home!

I know you are thinking that all these individual services have been on offer for some years now - and you would be right!  But this is the first time that they are all in one machine - and all so easy to use!

So, as long as you have broadband - you can get the SmartBox!

posted by admin on Jul 23

Fancy a simple GPS gadget that can get you back to square one?

It’s not as stupid as it seems really - especially if the starting point is your car parked up in a national park. Or your tent in the middle of the woods!

It’s called the ECCO and it’s a small gadget that fits nicely on your key fob.

Basically, this small device can save the global postition of exactly where you are standing - and then get you right back there when you have finished whatever it is that you are doing.

How Does It Work?
Let’s say that you have travelled to a large woodland that you have never been to before - and you want to go for a long stroll - but there are no clear footpaths or marked walkways.

Now, you don’t want to get lost do you? So it would be great to know that where ever you walked up or down hills and over streams - you could click on your gadget and it would lead you back to your vehicle so that you could go home!

Nothing could sound more perfect to me as a walker. I could park my car anywhere, click the gadget to register the location, then go out for hours with the dog without the worry of getting back to where I started.

Ths gadget even tells you how far away you are from your car, so you can work out how long it would take to get back - that way you won’t end up walking for miles in the opposite direction. You would be able to walk roughly in a circle and knowing exactly where you are.

Does It Only Work For Cars?
No. I was using the car as an example of a popular thing that we want to get back to but it could be anything.

Basically, you set the first location wherever you want to, so from your home, from your school, from your tant or caravan - or just at the start of a woodland or mountain range. It will save any location regardless of where it is or why you saved it!

It would be great for kids to use if they are playing outdoors as they could always follow the gadget back to where you wanted them to be! Yes, it’s not foolproof and it in no way replaces good parents - but it is a back-up plan if your kids tend to wander out of eyeshot!

Great to use at great theme parks, mainly as a safety device - where you set the start point as the security desk or your hotel/cabin and if you get seperated from anyone - you can all meet back at the same place!

Great for being on holiday and not knowing your way around - or when you are staying out late in a new town after a few drinks - and you need to find your hotel room!

posted by admin on Jul 16

Hello and welcome to another great Latest Inventions Carnival.

This month we have quite a selection of everything really - with a few odd ones in amongst them.

So to start, Margaret Garcia offers some tips for space lovers with her best 100 Amazing Online Tools to Learn About Outer Space!

Then we hop to an interview with an inventor! 00FF00 takes us off for an Interview with Tom Lawton, inventor of the Firewinder! Maybe some great tips there for budding newbies.

Rod Presnell next with his take on the Best Fishing Net Born Of Frustration - another great inventor?

A light-hearted look here at some weird takes on the standard keyboard. I’ve seen a few ‘different’ versions but switch2life goes into more detail with some great images of Strange Keyboard Designs.

GrrlScientist to follow with some amazing advances in science with an interview with a scientist - TEDTalks: Robert Full Tells Us What He Learned from the Gecko’s Tail.

Ishan @ ILoveFreeSoftware makes it all sound so easy with simple directions on How to Setup Virtual Fax Machine for Free

followed by the final entry this month from Steve Faber. He tells us all about a new remote control with his article Crestron Set to Release New Remote - the TPMC-3X

Happy reading! And see you next time.

posted by admin on Jul 12

As all of us know, one of the most frustrating things about owning and using a mobile/cell phone is a weak signal. Whether it’s being in an area with poor reception or just going indoors, most of us have experienced the effects of a poor signal at one time or another. Whether it’s only catching the odd word of a conversation, running around waving our phone shouting “Can you hear me yet?!” or simply missing calls because we are out of range it can be a very annoying experience.

To try and combat this numerous suggestions have been made over the years with varying levels of success. From special stickers you can put on your phone that are meant to inprove your mobile phone signal to selecting a phone with a particularly good aerial, until now none of these suggestions has really provided the solution we were after.

Which is why I am so excited about a new invention available from Vodafone to UK customers. Known as the “Vodafone Access Gateway”, this small box acts like your own mobile phone mast. You simply plug it into your broadband line and you can then get an amazingly strong signal anywhere in your house or garden as a result.

Not only is it particularly handy for accessing the 3G network (for which the signal is typically far more sporadic than the good old-fashioned 2G network) but because your phone only needs to communicate with a box a short distance away, rather than many miles, your battery life will also normally be significantly improved.

The Access Gateway can be bought outright or added to a pay monthly plan - the choice is yours. And if you live in a reception “blackspot” or struggle to get reception in your home then this may turn out to be the perfect solution to your woes.

posted by admin on Jul 9

One size fits all  self-adjusting spectacles are helping the world to see!

Someone has invented a great way to help everyone find the right glasses by using the same pair of spectacles!  I don’t just mean they all use the same frames - I mean that they all buy the exact same style of glasses and they will all be able to see!

Basically you adjust them yourself from the standard model!

I know it sounds a bit odd, but it could revolutionise the way people live in developing countries across the globe!

More than a billion people worldwide need glasses - but there are just not enough opticians to go around.  We might have 1 on every corner, but in developing countries like sub-Saharan Africa, the ratio is more like 1 optometrist per 1 million people.

How can we expect people to work, farm or support their families if they can see past the end of their noses?  We can’t - and someone is trying their hardest to help them all!

Who Is The Inventor?
The determined scientist behind this revolution is the British inventor and (now) retired Oxford University professor Joshua Silver.

He is now the director of the Centre For Vision In The Developing World, and is trying to scale up his invention and distribution to spread his adjustable glasses to the billion or so desperate and struggling individuals across the globe.

He has great plans to achieve this by 2020 - the beautiful irony of it will make anyone smile!

So far he has distributed hundreds of thousands of pairs to some very grateful people - helping them to continue working - or to come out of forced retirement from jobs that rely on perfect vision like needlework and jewelry trades.

How Do They Work?
Basically, they are a basic pair of spectacles with a syringe and tube on each side which feeds into each lens (2 pieces of thick but pliable plastic). 

Each ‘eye’ has it’s own syringe of silicon gel that can be fed into the gap between the lens until it has distorted their shape enough to correct their vision.  So rather than cutting and shaping glass to get the right curvature - the pressure of the gel does it there and then.

If you over-correct, you just retract the gel again and start over. 

Each eye can be adjusted as many times as you want until the best focus is attained for the wearers’ purpose - either close up for threading needles or more distant for driving. 

Once the perfect ‘prescription’ has been agreed - they can be set like this permanently by screwing in the stopper and then removing the tubing and syringes to make them look ‘normal’.

The Results:
We take eye care for granted and don’t think what a devastating effect it can have on an individual or a community.  Even if we lose our sight, there is technology that we can rely on and employment isn’t usually affected.

However, in the case of a villager in India or a farmer in Africa, this could mean the end of their working life completely.  How can a weaver work if they become too long-sighted?  How can a taxi-driver stay safe if they become too short-sighted?

And the thought of the head of a farming family or a mother of 6 young children without vision doesn’t bear thinking about!

Thank goodness Professor Silver isn’t selling out his invention to a large company - otherwise there could be a price tag on these glasses that puts them out of reach for thousands of people again…..