Gadgets Inspector | Hot Gadgets and Gizmos

This mirror (£300) doesn’t only have a visual advantage over the one in your bedroom, you can have the time and date showing, and you can even type up to 4000 characters as your personalized message.

The Durabrand 1005 will be sold in stores of the British supermarket network Asda. Officials from the company already explained that the cheap price isn’t a result of any kind of poor working conditions and salaries in 3rd world countries. The player can also play music and MP3 CD’s.

Asda’s website hasn’t been updated with the new offer yet, so you may want to check out with your local supermarket, only 80,000 units will be sold.

via [ShinyShiny]

There has been a significant attempt on the part of electronics companies recently to produce products that can improve your brain functions. All of the products hope to train the brain when you are young and retain it when you are older.

One of the most popular and one that has received a great deal of attention in the press recently is Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? on the Nintendo DS. This game utilises the DS’ innovative control system to work out your brain’s age via a number of brain training puzzles. Then through practice you can try to work that brain age down.

The DS game has achieved great success in Japan where it was created with the purpose of trying to draw in an older market to the handheld console. Dr Kawashima is a leading brain expert in Japan after studying at the Tohuku University School of Medicine. Mr Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s President, sought Dr Kawashima’s involvement after a member of Nintendo’s board of directors said that he knew no one his age that played games.

Games include “Syllable Count” which gets you to count the syllables in well-known phrases, “Head Count” which gets you to count people as they enter and exit a house and “Calculation” which gets you to perform simple math problems quickly. Also included in the UK version is a whole host of Suduko puzzles which will keep you entertained for hours on end.

Nintendo are not the only ones who are producing brain improvement software and gadgets. The Brain Trainer by Flair is another product designed to give your brain a mental workout. It claims that just three minutes workout everyday is all that is needed. It is also based on the work of Dr Kawashima and unlike the DS game that requires a Nintendo DS (bought for just under £100) this gadget retails for a little under £40. Though of course if you are without a Nintendo DS you can always borrow/steal a young relatives.

There is a great deal more mind enhancing products coming out onto the market, mostly as software for various handhelds, mobile phones and the PC. Dr Kawashima’s DS game has already spawned two sequels in Japan which will probably hit the UK market in the next year.

References for this posting: http://news.bbc.co.uk

There’s a Photoshop expert, one who knows the shortcuts by heart and doesn’t need a Photoshop keyboard skin, then there’s a Photoshop beginner, one who doesn’t even use the shortcuts, neither does he need a Photoshop keyboard skin. If you’re between those two and making your progress towards being a Photoshop expert, this (Mac only) keyboard is for you.

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AC Ally II ($35) is a USB powered unit that uses frozen waters to instantly start cooling your workspace. AC Ally’s retailers claim that not only you will enjoy an air-conditioned enviorement while working, but will also enjoy lower bills.

Just freeze water in the plastic bottle, insert into the provided space, close the unit and turn on the fan. Cool air will blast you for instant gratification from those dog days of summer.

Those of you who travel for long distances or durations will surely won’t mind paying £10 to get something like this for the cold days/nights.

With the stainless steel car-powered warming travel mug your hot drinks will never get cold, making it ideal for long journeys. This travel mug plugs into your cigarette lighter keeping your beverage warm while you drive. Even when you unplug it, its insulated design continues to keep your drink hot

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We all know that the main causes of laptop heating is caused by the fact the battery gets very hot and naturally the hot air is going upside, the only problem is - the laptop body is blocking it. Unlike other cooling stands that tend to ignore this fact, Belkin’s Cooling Stand ($30) is designed accordingly.

A unique wave design creates a channel between the laptop and the stand to assist in natural airflow. Unlike other laptop fans that draw heat down to push it out, the Cooling Stand’s fan takes advantage of heat’s natural reaction to rise by pushing hot air upward through the channel and away from your laptop.

[via]

I have seen solar powered chargers before, some of them were bulky, some were expensive and some just were not efficient. Scotty Pro (£50) maybe isn’t named that well, but it serves the purpose.

Pop this little solar charging beauty in direct sunlight for a few hours and it will charge up its rechargeable AA Batteries enabling it to power up your mobile phone, games console, MP3 player, digi camera or any other USB powered device, and it will run for up to 12 hours. Of course it’s not always sunny (sadly) but that doesn’t matter, because you can stick a couple of standard AA’s into your Scotty Pro, and it’ll charge up your devices just the same.

If you never came to realize your dream of becoming a professional radio show host, this won’t help you to get there, but at least it’ll give you a partition of how it feels. This USB microphone is retro designed and when turned on it will light up a “On the Air” display.

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Which is ultimately better? According to Philip McClure the answer depends on the purposes of use. He uses Photoshop during his work days and Gimp at nights.

Is the Gimp just as good as Photoshop?

Yes, for the average home user, the Gimp is just as good as Photoshop. The gimp has layers, alpha channels, a robust plugin architecture, I could go on but they have a pretty good overview of what the Gimp is capable of at Gimp.org.

Read [Gimp vs. Photoshop]