By David Ponce

After an absence of a few weeks, here’s the optical illusion column again. That picture above? Four circles. No spiral.

Yeah.

In other news, we’re thinking of starting another column altogether to replace this one and we’re taking requests. Anyone?

By David Ponce

Perhaps fuelled by the phenomenal success of the Pebble Smartwatch (which went on to raise $10,266,845 on Kickstarter after seeking only $100,000), we have news of yet another watch that works with the iPhone and Android devices. It’s got much of the same features the Pebble did, albeit a little more low-key. It’s got Bluetooth 4.0 so will have very little impact on your phone’s battery life, and its job is simply to alert you. Whether it’s an email, a Tweet, a text, or a missed call, the watch can be setup any way you want. Aside from alerts, other uses include being a remote trigger for your phone’s camera, one button check-in device, even lost phone finder. Perhaps even more importantly, it won’t require a regular charge, like the Pebble did; the Cookoo goes over a year without needing to change the batteries.

It’s currently on Kickstarter and a pledge will set you back $80. The post funding MSRP is around $100, so there’s some savings to be made by order now.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ GearHungry ]

By David Ponce

If the success of Victorinox and their Swiss Army knives has proven anything is that multi-funtion tools can be popular. The above pizza slicer also incorporates a server so you can go straight from the cutting to the serving.

And that, dear folks, is it. It’s $6. We could go on about the tool and try to make funnies, but it seems frankly rude to make jokes about a topic as serious as pizza.

Pizza deserves respect.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By David Ponce

Well this is interesting for a change. Today’s deal is no piece of hardware; no phone, TV, laptop or desktop. Instead it’s a $10 voucher for tunes on eMusic, with a 7 day trial. Granted, you do usually get $5 with the trial, so today’s deal just doubles that. Still, you can keep the music after the trial, even if you don’t sign up.

[ $10 Of Free Tracks On eMusic ] VIA [ LogicBuy ]

By David Ponce

Things have gotten to the point where you’re able to track a multitude of quantitative points when you go out cycling: your position, speed, and elevation for example. But one metric you don’t see is power output. Yet this is very useful for athletes who can use it to set a pace and to keep track of their overall fitness levels. Well, a project currently in the funding phase at IndieGoGo called The Laser Spoke Project is able to measure just that. Every bicycle wheel exhibits a certain amount of normal torsional flex when power is applied through the pedals. This device measures the flexion by shining a laser from the center hub of the wheel onto a fixed spot on the rim; any deviation from center indicates power in proportion to the amount of deviation, the reading of which is saved onto an SD card. Of course calibration is important since not all wheels are the same, but the company is not divulging how this is done. The do say that the device should work on all bikes and not weigh more than 150g when completed. If you want to be part of the Beta-tester group, you can score one now for $550. If you prefer to wait for the final version to be released then you’ll have to pre-order it now for $750. Of course that’s assuming the project reaches its $85,000 funding goal.

[ Project Page ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By David Ponce

The top photo was taken with NASA’s Terra satellite with its Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. No points for guessing in which part of that shadow was the eclipse most complete. The second photo is taken from the International Space Station by noted shutterbug Don Pettit. This shadow is a little bit harder to discern, but it does give you a better idea of the scale of it against the globe.

Last weekend’s eclipse was the annular kind, which leaves about 6% of the sun exposed as a fiery ring around the moon. If you just look around the inter tubes a little bit, you’ll be sure to find pictures of that. But we just thought it was interesting that while most pictures involved cameras pointed up, these two above involves cameras pointed down.

VIA [ Geekosystem ]

By David Ponce

We live in a time where genuine human-to-human interaction is a dwindling activity. It still happens a lot, but just think about the amount of time you spend interacting with a digital device as opposed to an analog human. We shouldn’t complain of course, since we make a living out of documenting this particular trend. And we really want to like the Private Rocker, designed by Cranbrook Academy of Art student Kyle Fleet in collaboration with Herman Miller. It’s pretty, it’s made from wood, leather, and wool and will provide the person sitting in it with a quiet and relatively private space. And we can imagine situations where its presence could be genuinely needed in order to provide a haven to the human-interaction weary, like in a open office. But we just can’t shake the feeling that any kid of device that facilitates even more isolation isn’t really needed at the moment.

We realize we’re on the losing end of this argument. Privacy is still paramount. Our misgivings are probably just due to being your usual Internet forever alone types.

There’s no word on price or availability.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Gizmodo ]

By David Ponce

We often talk about lenses that you can add to your iPhone camera to extend its usefulness. There is the case with the polarizing lens. Then there’s the case with the dial that looks weird and unwieldy. And let’s not forget the SLR lens attachment. But what most of these have in common is their general bulk. Gizmon’s solution is a lot simpler and smaller. They’re clip-ons that fit perfectly over the camera on an iPhone 4 and 4S, and give you fisheye, circular polarizer and 3 image mirage filter. When done, just pull them right off and stuff them in your pocket. They’re $35 each and are available now.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Geeky Gadgets ]

By David Ponce

We were talking to an LG representative last winter at CES and he was going over how awesome the 55EM600 is. How thin. And then we saw it and couldn’t quite believe our eyes: the thing was razor thin and the colours just popped. But it wasn’t ready for prime time. Rumour had it that at such a thinness and expanse of viewing area, structural integrity might have been a concern. Well now news is that the tv is almost ready to ship and it now has a large base that relocates all the connections to the back, while the back cover of the screen is now made of carbon fiber. This has allowed it to shed even more width, leaving the screen at a barely-there 4mm thin (0.16 inches).

The technology is new however, and when this happens, the prices rocket sky high. Word is that when it ships later this year, you could be looking at €8,000 ($10,063) in bank account draining damage.

[ Engadget ] VIA [ UberGizmo ]

By David Ponce

Getting Ketchup out of a bottle that isn’t the plastic squeezable type is an exercise in patience. Countless ads for the product have pointed this out, and have almost romanticized the process to the point where it’s almost become part of its charm. But hey, there are those of us who just like to eat without having to hit the bottom of anything made of glass. So MIT PhD candidate Dave Smith and his crew have developed a super non-stick coating they call LiquiGlide which makes anything coated with it, well, super non-stick. Ketchup, as you can see in the video below, simply slides right off the bottle’s inside and on to a plate. It’s easy enough to apply to bottles, as you just have to spray them once while they’re being made. If adopted by manufacturers, the chemical could save billions in wasted food by ensuring everything comes out of the bottle and doesn’t just get thrown out. Each chemical component that makes up LiquiGlide is individually already approved by the FDA, so it shouldn’t take too long for the product itself to receive the seal of approval. What happens at that point remains to be see, but do hit the jump to see another video of this in action.

[ MIT Page ] VIA [ Geekosystem ]